"A Biblical Perspective on the Sabbath"
Sermon Transcript for February 13, 2000
4th Commandment: Sermon Series on the Ten Commandments
By Rev. Mike Beck
Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:1-11
A woman from California was wanting to learn to drive. So she asked her driving instructor the best time to practice when the highways wouldn’t be so crowded. He replied, "Try early Sunday morning. All the Protestants will still be in bed, Catholics will all be at mass and the rest of the folks will be on the golf course." Well, she did fine; but a couple of weeks later she had an accident. And her driving instructor said, "What happened?" To which she replied, "I was hit by a Seventh Day Adventist who was in a hurry to get to work!" (Sarai I thought you would appreciate that.)
The Fourth Commandment is extremely relevant to our busy, fast-paced world. But we must not approach it with any sense of "legalism". I sure hope some people are working right now at the police station, and the fire station, and the hospital. And, my gosh, this is the one day during the week that I have to work. The other six I’m off; but Sunday’s my workday.
And we also need to remember that technically talking about the Sabbath, we are talking about Saturday, not Sunday. For in the Old Testament and for Jewish people, the day of Sabbath is Saturday. The Fourth Commandment was given in a much, much simpler day. And the Israelites and the later teachers of the Law, took this Fourth Commandment very seriously. In fact, the religious leaders by the time of Jesus had taken the Fourth Command and translated it into 1,521 smaller laws determining what you could and couldn’t do on the Sabbath.
But Jesus approaches the Sabbath in a much different way. Jesus approaches the Sabbath and this Fourth Commandment and seems to place it in the same context as the rest of the Jewish ceremonial law. In other words, law that had been fulfilled in His coming. Now, no doubt, Jesus and His disciples observed the Jewish Sabbath. But we find no particular teaching of Jesus on this Fourth Command. In fact, what we discover is a number of situations in which Jesus seems to break the Jewish law concerning the Sabbath.
Do you remember the story in John 5? Jesus heals the man at the Pool of Bethesda. And what gets focused on? Not the fact that the man has been healed, but the fact that Jesus did the healing on the Sabbath day. In other words, he broke the Fourth Command by working on the Sabbath. In Matthew 12, Jesus is walking through the grainfields; and he and his disciples pick some corn to eat. And Jesus says to His disciples that "He is the Lord of the Sabbath."
This Fourth Command is a good illustration of how I believe God invites us to approach His holy word. Not in an overly legalistic manner, but approaching it in careful study to determine the principles that are being taught. Let me lift up a couple of examples. In Genesis 1 & 2 in the creation account, "On the 7th day," it says, "God rested." And then if we go over to the time in which the Israelites were in the wilderness, God gives manna for them to eat. But God says to them, "I only want you to go and collect the manna six days a week. On the sixth day, I will give you a double portion so that you can have a day for rest and for worship."
So as we think together today about the Fourth Commandment, I want us to consider two principles that I believe are clearly taught in this Fourth Command.
Number one, the need for there to be a rhythmic alteration between work and rest. Hear me carefully. I want you also to note that the Commandments are not only written in stone. But the commandments, many of them, are also written on our bodies, in our emotions, and in the fabric of our minds. This principle of Sabbath is actually one of the laws of the universe. There is a cyclical nature to the world around us. Day alternates with night. The tides rise and fall. The seasons change. The fields which now are lying fallow will in a few months produce a harvest. God in His mercy and because He drew the blueprints of our lives, gave us a day of Sabbath. A time to set apart for rest, for recuperation, and for refreshment.
And then there’s also a second principle involved. There’s not only the need for a time of rest, but there is also a need for us to take time to remember and focus on God in a very intentional way. We need a day of Sabbath, not only because our bodies need resting, but we need a day of Sabbath because our spirits need reminding. Our bodies need resting; but our spirits need reminding. In fact the command as it appears in Verse 8 begins with these words, "Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy." What are we remembering? In the context of the command, what the Israelites were called to remember was that they had been slaves in Egypt; and God wants them to remember that he delivered them. For us as Christians, we remember that once we were lost but through God’s grace in Jesus Christ we have been found.
And the Fourth Commandment reminds us to be intentional to remember what God has done for us by gathering together in worship. Now, we can know those two principles in our head. The hard part is fleshing them out in our lives. I have no formula to give you this morning. But I do want to at least try to give you some help in this critically important area about the Sabbath.
First of all, let me say this. As we order our days, times of personal and corporate worship need to be a priority. Now, notice I said both. We have come together to worship God corporately today. But, hopefully, this is not your only time of worship this week. God calls you to individual times of worship. But what often happens if we are not intentional is this--worship is the "left-over" that gets attention if there is any time left over. Let us be careful in that regard! The Bible says God is not mocked in terms of what is truly important in our lives. But that is why, here at Grace, we are trying to provide options for people in terms of worship. I’ve had any number of people say to me, "Reverend Mike, you’ve got no business trying to preach three times on Sunday morning with your voice problem. There are still empty pews at 11:00 a.m. If they want to come at 11:00 a.m., if they want to come to worship there’s room for them." But although our 8:30 a.m. service is not a large service, every Sunday we have probably 10 or 12 people come for worship and then leave to go to their jobs who would not be able to worship if we didn’t provide that early time.
Sunday is not the best day for worship for a lot of people in our society today. That’s why beginning in September we are expecting to be offering a mid-week time for worship. I think the day will come at Grace Church that we will provide an opportunity on Saturday evening for persons to gather for worship. The important thing is not when you gather, it is that you be intentional about coming together collectively and then also gathering for personal time of worship. That is what is being talked about in this Fourth Commandment.
Now, here’s the question you’re all asking. What about work and recreation on Sunday? Is it OK for me to mow my yard or work in the garden on Sunday? Can I go shopping on Sunday? Can I play golf on Sunday? Can I go to a Colt’s game or a Pacers game or a Reds game on Sunday? I’ve been a Reds fan all my life and I never dreamed the day would come when Ken Griffey would be in the line up. God would warn us against legalism in all of those things I just mentioned. Every single one of those things I just mentioned, I have done personally on Sunday. What God wants is for each of us to engage in prayerful reflection and self-examination as we determine and make those kinds of decisions.
That brings us back to the First Commandment. The First Commandment is "God is to be #1 in your life." That relates to the Fourth Commandment. In fact it brings to mind the words of that famous missionary, Dr. E. Stanley Jones. This is the best advice I could give you, are the words of E. Stanley Jones. He was always being asked, "Can I do this? Is this wrong? Is this right?" And E. Stanley Jones would always answer this way. He would say, "Love the Lord your God with all your mind, with all your heart, with all your soul and love your neighbor as yourself. And then go do anything you want to providing that in doing it you can love God with all your mind, soul, heart, and strength. And in doing it, that you can love your neighbor as yourself. If you can’t put it up to that litmus test don’t do it. But if it will pass that litmus test, go do anything you please."
My concern for our land today, recognizing that it’s not all that important whether you gather for worship on Wednesday, or Saturday, or Sunday, provided that you come together for worship. But at the same time I think we need to take a look at America today and realize that we probably let the pendulum swing too far. To where Sunday is no longer a holy day at all. Sunday is a holiday for most people.
I’ve been thinking in my mind to illustrate that, that with three worship services and considering a fourth worship service this fall, that there needed to be at least one time of year that everybody could come together at the same time and at the same place for worship. Well, obviously we can’t do that here at Grace. So, this week I called the high school to check on the availability of the High School Auditorium, perhaps even on Palm Sunday. The guy said, "The auditorium is available, but I don’t think you want that day. There’s an AAU basketball tournament that starts at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday morning." And those of you that have had kids who have played AAU ball know how gut wrenching it is when we live in a society where Sunday morning is just now another morning of the week.
What about the need for Sabbath rest? Many of you, like myself, need to take careful inventory here. In fact, on this message today, friends, I can preach it fully saying, "Been there, done that." Ten years ago this message that I’m bringing to you today would have hit me right between the eyes. For we have crowded so many things into our lives, most of them good things, that for a whole lot of people there is absolutely no time at all for rest and refreshment. Getting off the merry-go-round in that regard is not easy. In fact, there are some of you hearing my voice, especially if you have active children, that you have to accept the fact this is a time in your life where there are not enough hours in the day. It is just going to be a busy, hectic time. And you have to learn to enjoy busyness.
Now speaking of enjoying the busyness, I can take us today to some places right here in Franklin where people are not busy if we made a trip to the nursing homes. I do not want to change places with those folks. But, friends, many of you hearing my voice are driving yourself to exhaustion which leaves no time for family, no time for God, no time for your bodies. And your lifestyle, if you are not careful, becomes that if we try to relax, we feel guilty. We are so caught up in a whirlwind that even when we try to relax, we feel guilty and think about what we ought to be doing.
It was eight years ago that I came to the point in my own life of a total physical and emotional collapse. Because I thought I could be everything to everybody and if I just worked hard enough, I could get it all done. During that time I got a letter from my sister that said this among other things. "If indeed your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, it might make sense for you to have a regular maintenance plan." And that regular maintenance plan has to include times for rest.
The voice problems have forced me to make adjustments; and I am a more whole person today because that has occurred. I work hard. I’ll lay my work schedule up against anybody’s. But I no longer try to think that I could be everything to everybody. And I no longer feel guilty, Dave, to take my golf clubs and head for the golf course or go to my bed to take an afternoon nap. Take inventory. All of you. Do some housecleaning. But be careful! What a lot of people will do when they do that, they’ve only got a tiny little slice of time for God anyway, so they’ll take inventory and cut out some of that. Take inventory in that regard to give yourself a time of Sabbath rest. It may be on Wednesday, it may be on Saturday, it may be on Sunday afternoon. It’s not when it is, but it’s that you get it.
And if I can make this sidelight. Churches need to be on guard against that same thing. My wife will sometimes say to me, "What about this group or what about that group?" And I’ll reply, "I don’t know. I don’t go to that group." I operate with John Ed Mathison’s philosophy that if a preacher knows everything that’s going on in the church, there’s not enough going on. As the smorgasbord of activities at Grace Church gets larger and larger, and now I’m talking to the faithful, you are not obligated to be here every time the doors are open and neither is the preacher. This new ministry may be for some segment of our church family that can’t be involved right now. And I made a drastic turn in my ministry a few years ago concerning Easter Sunday. You may note we don’t have a sunrise service, we don’t have an Easter breakfast. I want you to think about this. What a lot of churches do on the most holy day of the year. They start at 6:00 a.m. in the morning with sunrise. They have all kind of people there cooking breakfast. Then do three worship services. And then come back together for Sunday night church as if all of their activity honors God. Seems to me that if it’s a holy day, might be better to do nothing but have two or three well-done worship services and enjoy the holy day that God has given to us. Why do we think that holy gets equated with the church killing people with some extreme schedule.
In closing, how is it with your life and soul today in terms of this Biblical principle of Sabbath? Are you making time for Sabbath rest? And then, are there regular times to remember God in corporate worship and in personal worship? That’s what the Fourth Commandment is all about. Our closing hymn speaks to that. It’s hymn #399. "Take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord to thee! Take my moments and my days, Let them flow in ceaseless praise!"
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