Overview of the Sabbath

Someone asked me recently, when are you going to get back to the Ten Commandments? We started that series six months ago. We've done one, two, three, and two on five. So we need to go back and look at number four, the Fourth Commandment. When we look at the Ten Commandments, we see that the first four are about our relationship with God. And it's interesting that the first four commandments are longer in the amount of words that it takes to explain them in the Bible, in English specifically, that it is for the last six.

As they describe how we are supposed to relate to God, it is also very interesting that, of all of the Ten Commandments, the ones that tend to get rejected the most are the first four. I mean, those people, ethical people, will argue, well, you shouldn't steal, you shouldn't kill, there maybe should be a sanctity to marriage. But the first four, even Christians argue about the first four. Number two has been thrown out by many Christians, and number four has been thrown out by many Christians, as they argue over their validity.

The Fourth Commandment is also very unique in that, in Exodus, it begins with the word remember. In other words, this would be the commandment that would be the easiest to forget. And that word remember is very important.

We're going to go through today a real overview of the Sabbath. That's very important in the rest of the week to remember the Sabbath day. Let me tell you something, we just sort of rush into the Sabbath. The Sabbath is about to begin. You're rushing through the day, you've rushed through the week, and you sort of stumble into the Sabbath. Well, the word remember is very important, and we'll talk about that.

When we talk about the Sabbath, we actually don't start with the Ten Commandments. We start in Genesis chapter 2. So let's go to Genesis 2. Today's going to be an overview of the Sabbath. We're going to cover a lot of ground. I also took out an entire page of notes I had because there's no way to cover everything that we need to cover. But I really want to do an overview. So we're going to have to cover a lot of ground here.

So look at the Sabbath in the bigger picture. So we start in Genesis chapter 2, verse 1. Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the hosts of them were finished. This is, of course, the creation account. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. And verse 3 is very important. You know, there's a belief that the days, and this is becoming more and more common even in many Christian denominations, that the seven days of creation are not seven literal days.

They're seven time periods. And so the seventh day Sabbath is not seen as a literal event. It's just a time period where God rested. And what it is is an attempt to be able to take evolution and the Genesis account and merge them together. But this next sentence is very important when we look at the Exodus commandment. Okay, so this is very important. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. He not only blessed it, he sanctified it.

This is a real important word because this is what the Sabbath really is all about. To sanctify something means that God makes it holy. Holiness is a huge concept. Holiness means that God takes something—a person, a thing, a place, time—and takes it and says, this is set apart for me. This belongs to me. In fact, if you really understand holiness, which is something that takes a whole series of sermons to actually go through, God, when he declares something holy, takes part of himself and says, this reflects me.

This reflects me. I have set it apart for me, God says, and it reflects something about me. So the seventh day was set apart by God, different than the other days, to be holy, to be different than all the other days. This didn't start with the giving of the law of Mount Sinai. This started here. I was just reading something this week, and it was an argument of why you should keep nine of the Ten Commandments, but you shouldn't keep this one.

Christians should not keep this one. And the whole argument was, it's wrong for Christians to keep this one, because we're not under the Mosaic law. But the Sabbath didn't come into being—I mean, the Ten Commandments exist today, but even using that argument, the argument this writer was using, the Sabbath didn't come into being on Mount Sinai. It already existed.

It already existed because it was created at creation. There were two things given to humanity at creation. That means they must be important—the Sabbath and marriage. So they must be important to God when He starts with, these are the two things we're going to start with. So we're going to take an overview today, because I want to look at this overview and look at the concept of the Sabbath as holy and why it is holy time and what that means. How do we observe this as holy time? What do we do during the Sabbath? So let's go to Exodus 20 now. Let's look at the Commandments.

Exodus 20. And this is one of the longest Commandments. The Commandment about carved images is very long, and the one about the Sabbath is very long—the two Commandments that are ignored by so many people. Verse 8, remember the Sabbath day to what? To keep it holy, to keep it as sanctified by God. You and I can't make things holy. The idea that human beings can make things holy is a real false concept. Only God can make something holy, because it's set apart by Him for His purposes. So we are to keep this. We're to remember to keep this day holy. Six days you shall labor, do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger who is within your gaze. Something very interesting now about this. Don't work on this day. Rest on this day. You know, the Sermonant was about love.

This Commandment has an element of love in it towards neighbor. It says, don't take the day off and then make your children work. Or don't take the day off and make your servants work. Don't take the day off and even work your cattle. You know, in all of history, I don't know of any law—I mean, the Code of Hammurabi does everything like this—any law that somebody made up that said, let your apple be holy. Let your animals rest. Don't work your animals for a whole day.

It's really unique. Even take your animals and have them rest on this day. Bring rest. This idea of rest is so amazing because if Israel would have done this, the entire nation would have had this rest come upon it at the same time. And you and I can't experience that.

Driving home after services, you have to fight the traffic, right? And you drive by all the stores and people are shopping and all this is going on. You and I live—nobody stops on the seventh day, except a handful of people. Can you imagine an entire society where everything stops? Even the animals rest on this day. But it's very fascinating that God didn't say, okay, all you people who own property, you get to rest. Everybody else keeps working. No, everybody was supposed to rest. Verse 11, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth to see all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day in Hellen. Here we have direct connection to Genesis chapter 2. So we just read. A direct connection. The reason for this day is because the Creator stopped and rested on this day. So they're connected together. You can't separate Exodus 20 from Genesis 2. There's always this attempt to do that. It's separated in the Christian world. This is given to Israel. This is given to Jews. This is a Jewish day. But that's not what the commandment says. It connects it directly back to this day honors God as Creator. So not only are we not to work, but we are to show love to our children, to our servants, and to our animals by not having them labor on this day. But we're also to commemorate God as Creator on this day. Now that's real important. As we're going through this, I want you to understand the concepts of this. These concepts tell us how to keep this day. We're not going to create a Talmud with page after page after page of explanation of what you can and can't do on this Adam. What we need to look at is what is the reason for this? It is rest. And it is to commemorate God as Creator. That's the first two things we learn. So that begins to determine how we keep this day. Everything we do this day should commemorate God as Creator. These are questions we have to ask ourselves in our activities on this day. Is this day a reflection of God as Creator? Which would mean there were some things you may not do on this day if this day is to commemorate God as Creator. Now what's interesting is we'll be going to Deuteronomy. Because in Deuteronomy you have a second listing of the Ten Commandments. And because they're about to go into the Promised Land, there's a few things worded a little differently in Deuteronomy. But part of the reason why is they now have to apply it to not just one round in the desert, but how does this apply now to going into the land. And I'm going to look at something in Deuteronomy 5 about the Sabbath. Remember, this is just an overview. So we're just looking at these scriptures and we're going to be pulling out very specific points. Deuteronomy 5, the second giving of the law. And verse 15. This is the end. This starts with observe the Sabbath. It doesn't say remember, it's observe. It's very interesting in Hebrew. It's a stronger word than remember. Look, don't forget to do this. Do this. It's a very active word. But look at verse 15. Remember, in Exodus they're reminded God is the Creator. That's where the Sabbath came from. But in Deuteronomy, as they're about to go into the Promised Land, they're told this, and remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. So here we have something sort of added to the Sabbath Commandments. And that is, you're about to go into this land. Remember where you came from. Every Sabbath, for generation after generation, was to be a reminder. Remember where you came from, and that God redeemed you. This day has a lot to do with redemption.

That God buys us from sin. That God buys us from slavery. And we talked about that in the last day of Unloving Bread. About how we're all slaves, and we have to come out of that slavery. Well, the Sabbath is actually not only a reminder about God as Creator. It is supposed to be a weekly reminder that you were slaves. Now ancient Israel, it was their actual physical slavery. With us, it's our spiritual slavery. And that we are being redeemed, and that God is also liberating us. This day has to do with liberation. It has to do with freedom. God is the liberator and Redeemer. So they were to remember that. And in the Jewish world today, they remember that on the Sabbath. There are certain hymns that are sung to God as their liberator, as their Redeemer.

Now let's go to Exodus 31. Once again, I know I'm jumping around, but I want to bring out these specific points. Exodus 31, verses 14 through 17, what we have is that God made a very specific covenant with Israel concerning the Sabbath. And He said that they were to keep this forever as part of the covenant He made with them. But I want to just zero in on one point here made in this passage. So this whole passage is verse 14 through 17, but I want to pick it up in verse 12.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Surely my Sabbath you shall keep. It is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who, that's very important. Why were they to keep the Sabbath? So that they would go, it is God who makes them holy. I am the God who what sanctifies you? I am the Lord who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath therefore, for it is holy to you.

The Sabbath was to be observed by ancient Israel as a reminder that God had made them holy. How much more today, since we have God's Holy Spirit in us, should we be reminded through the observance of this day that we are sanctified? This day is sanctified to do something for us. And one of the things that this day is supposed to do is remind us that we're sanctified. God called you and said, I want you to be something that represents me. I want you to be special for me, set apart by him for his will and his service.

It's interesting how personal this is to ancient Israel.

How personal it is. I was reading through a Jewish commentary this week on the Sabbath, and they made a very interesting point. They said, if the Jews give up the Sabbath, they will no longer exist as a religion or as a people. They would just simply cease to exist, because they will forget why. They will forget this idea that they were sanctified.

And they'll lose their identity. We are reminded that we are sanctified. Now, they were sanctified as the physical people of God. The church is sanctified as the spiritual people of God.

One last Old Testament scripture here, Isaiah 58. So we look at these four scriptures, and we learn something very important about the Sabbath, Isaiah 58. Verse 13.

Here is the criteria then that the prophet Isaiah gives to Israel on how to determine whether something is something you should do or not do on the Sabbath. And just like today in the church, we're always dealing with what should we do not do on the Sabbath.

The Jews argued it. The Jews went back and forth. They had different criteria. There was a time at the time of Jesus, there was an argument that you could not send a letter because the Roman Empire had created a postal system. You could not send a letter on Wednesday, because it might get delivered on the Sabbath. And that would be wrong.

Now, I know people today who won't go get their mail on the Sabbath, because that person worked to deliver my mail. Most of us don't think about that, but others do. Just like the Jews struggled with all the time. What does make this holy? We have to look at the concepts before we break it down into a Talmud. Here's a hundred things you can do on the Sabbath and a hundred things you can't do on the Sabbath. But you know, it's interesting the Bible doesn't do that. For the most part, it gives us principles that we must apply. Let's look at what Isaiah says here in verse 13. God says, and inspired Isaiah to write this, if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, in fact, the concept is, God makes this holy as a reminder that we are holy. And call the Sabbath a delight. So we have, you have to stop doing, it's not just about not working, it's about doing your pleasure on this day. So that you see this day as holy to God, and therefore becomes holy to you. It is special. It is different.

The holy day of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor Him. Okay. So on this day, everything we should do should be concentrating on honoring God, not doing your own ways, nor fighting your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord, that will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, the mouth of the Lord is spoken. So here we have, I mean, this is a whole sermon in itself. What does that mean? Well, we would have to break it down. And all of you need to break that down. What does it mean not to seek my pleasures on this day? What does it mean to honor God on this day?

How do I honor God during the 24-hour period of the Sabbath? Well, it's interesting how even in the early part of the history of the United States, how people kept Sunday. It's just amazing how strict they were, or even in England. Strict to the point where I don't know how anybody got anything out of Sunday. It was so strict, it was oppressive. I mean, the pilgrims would literally put people in the stocks or beat them publicly on the Sabbath, or on Sunday, if they broke it in any way. Public beatings for not keeping Sunday proper.

Here we have the personal aspects of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is very personal between each one of us in God. It is a very personal experience and should be a very personal experience. This is very important in understanding how we should deal with our children in the Sabbath.

So what do we know here just from looking at these four scriptures? Okay, an overview of the four scriptures that we've looked at. The Sabbath is observed as a commemoration of God as creator. That has to be part of our Sabbath observance. The Sabbath is a time to cease from work and to love others by freeing children and employees from the burdens of everyday work. I've seen people try to run businesses on the Sabbath. Well, it's okay. I've got a partner, so I let the partner. He's not in the church. I let him run it on the Sabbath. They never work. They never work. God never blesses them. The Sabbath is observed as a commemoration of God as liberator and redeemer. That's what we learned in Deuteronomy. The Sabbath is observed in holiness to worship the one who makes you holy. Now, that is a very important concept. It is a holy day to worship the one who sanctifies you. That's what he told them. You are sanctified. Therefore, keep the Sabbath holy. And then the Sabbath is a time to refrain from our own work, desires, and activities in order to honor God. That's what we got from Isaiah. So this gives us the Old Testament viewpoint of what the Sabbath should be about.

Now, unfortunately, it's hard to separate that from the problems we have in the New Testament. By that time, the Sabbath had become shackled with all kinds of extra laws. But why were they doing that? It's so easy to criticize the Pharisees for creating all these extra Sabbath laws. They were trying to keep it holy. They were desperately trying to keep it holy. But Jesus comes along and says, wait a minute. You've actually made it unholy.

You've made it a burden. This wasn't God's intent. God's intent is rest, showing love towards your children and your employees and your animals. God's intention is that you don't do your pleasures this day.

You know, I know people that will not read a newspaper on the Sabbath.

I know people who won't have newspapers delivered to their house on the Sabbath.

We have all kinds of issues that we have to deal with. The Jews are arguing with the same issues, and they all come to different conclusions, by the way. You know, an Orthodox Jew may not start his car on the Sabbath. Starts a fire. He says, you're not supposed to build a fire. What's going to happen with those pistons' fire? There's sparks, so there's a fire in there. There's explosion. So they won't start. I know people who won't turn on a stove on the Sabbath. Some of you won't. So, you know, how do we deal with all those things? Let's go through the principles, and then we'll have to sum up a little bit. How do we deal with those issues? So now we've got to look at Jesus, because Jesus was accused of being a Sabbath-breaker. Over and over again accused of being a Sabbath-breaker because of what he did on the Sabbath. Let's look at a couple of places where Jesus teaches about the Sabbath. Let's go to Luke 4. Luke 4 and verse 16.

Now, I read this on the last day of Unleavened Bread, this section. But I'm going to go and read it again. I mean, they don't use the same Scripture two weeks in a row. But it's so important in understanding here. This is how Christ launches His ministry on a Sabbath.

So He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. When He opened the book, He found the place where it is written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him, and He began to say to them, Today the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. When we look at the Sabbath, contained in the Sabbath, now think about just the things we've looked at in the Old Testament. Contained in the Sabbath, the message of the Sabbath, is the gospel.

God is Creator, and God is Redeemer and Liberator. So how does Christ launch His ministry? He gets up and says, on the Sabbath, I am the Liberator.

It's a Sabbath issue. It's how God reveals Himself through the Sabbath, as Creator and as Liberator. And so that's how Christ naturally launches His ministry on a Sabbath.

Now, He didn't declare Himself the Creator, although Paul would. Paul would later come along and say, you know, God created all things through Jesus Christ.

But Jesus Christ did declare, I am the Liberator. He uses a prophecy, a messianic prophecy from Isaiah, to make that declaration.

So what does this tell us? Once again, questions. How do we now look at the Sabbath?

How do we look at the Sabbath? From this, do I understand the gospel and the holy relationship God has offered to me? One of the reasons for the Sabbath is to remind us that we are sanctified.

Do we understand? Do you understand that you are sanctified by God?

It's what repentance and baptism is all about. It's about receiving God's Spirit. God takes His Spirit and puts it in us. What is it called? The Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is put into us. We are sanctified. We are declared holy by God.

We don't act holy sometimes, do we?

Am I responding by becoming holy in thoughts and actions? Now that's an everyday question, but how much more do we think should that be part of our remembering the Sabbath day? So remembering the Sabbath day has to do with remembering it throughout the week. It also has to do remembering it when you're keeping it.

If we keep the Sabbath by just coming to church for two hours, and the rest of the day is just like a day off, why are we keeping it any different than people keep Sunday? Is that all the Sabbath is supposed to be? Do I observe the Sabbath as a love or response to God's holiness? If the purpose, what are the purposes of the Sabbath? It's for us to be sanctified and to keep it as a sanctified day. Then what is my response to the Sabbath? If we hate the Sabbath, if we've made too many restrictions on the Sabbath, if we see the Sabbath as keeping us from what we want to do, and it's easy if we're not careful that that's what children feel. We can make children feel like the Sabbath is nothing more than restricting them from what they want to do. We have to create a culture that that is not seen that way because it's interesting in the Jewish world, you just don't find children feeling that way. But you know why? Because the Sabbath is a family celebration and they have all kinds of things. Not only do they have these community rituals. And I'm not saying we need all these community rituals, although we do, don't we? We come here, we sing three songs, we have a sermon, and that's a community ritual. But they also have family rituals created by each family. Family rituals for the Sabbath. Things they do as a family on the Sabbath. And it creates a more intense feeling that the children are involved with God.

Once again, if children only hear, God commands you to keep this day and not have fun. What are they going to think about God?

And so, are we teaching our children also to observe the Sabbath as a loving response to God's holiness? It's going to Mark 3. Look at another place where Jesus talks about the Sabbath. Mark 3.

I love this story. I use this story every once in a while in a sermon because you could use this story to bring out all kinds of teaching. But we'll just bring out one point here. Once again, we'll talk about Jesus Christ.

This is real important because He says to them, these are the people who are watching, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? But they kept silent. They had to keep silent.

The Jews had argued that point and argued that point and argued that point. And it was generally agreed upon by the Sadducees and the Pharisees that you must do good on the Sabbath.

You must save life on the Sabbath. You know, Jesus' argument, if an ox falls into a ditch, do you save it? The Pharisees and the Sadducees said yes. It was the Essenes, which aren't mentioned in the scripture, the Essenes who said no. Only a person, only a human being could be saved if they were in trouble. So if your barn was burning down, you had to let the animals die. Yet you could only save the people. Now the Pharisees and Sadducees said no. And the reason they said that they went back to the laws of the Bible where God says you are responsible to take care of your animals. There are laws of the Old Testament specifically saying you are responsible for taking care of your animals. So the Pharisees and the Sadducees that all come to the conclusion, no, we are to take care of animals on the Sabbath. We're just not to have them work. They're to be fed, they're to be taken care of, and if they're in trouble, we're to go get them out of their trouble. You know, if a sheep falls over, sheep fall over, they can't get up. Sheep are one of the most clummiest, clumsiest animals of the nation. They can't get up. They just roll around and scream and holler until they die. Another sheep just look at them. And then they walk away like, why are you in big trouble? I mean, they just, there's no, somebody's got to go roll a sheep over. They can't get up. So they had to, hey, if sheep fell down, you went and got him up on the Sabbath. Unless you're an Essene, you're like your sheep guy.

So when he asked the question here, the reason they don't answer is he's nailed them on their own argument. You know, it was wrong to commit capital punishment on the Sabbath, but a soldier could defend Israel on the Sabbath because you were defending God's people. They see these are the questions they had to settle all the time because all the other nations would do is say, okay, let's wait around for us the Sabbath and we'll attack them because they won't fight back. And they had decided, no, God wants us to defend His people on the Sabbath. Therefore, if someone attacks us on the Sabbath, we will fight back.

We must save life. All Sabbaths, the rabbis eventually said that all Sabbath commands were null and void when it came down to saving life. The other Jew could do any work needed to save a life. See, the arguments they had to have, they had to deal with all these realities of life. But they kept silent. When He looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to them, and stretch out your hand. He stretched it out, and His hand was restored as whole as the other. He's lawful to do good on the Sabbath. He's not abrogating the Sabbath here. The argument, well, He's just doing away with the Sabbath is ridiculous. He's not doing away with the Sabbath. His question is typical Jewish argument. It was the type of question they asked all the time. It's still due today. It's what the Talmud is filled with, question after question after question. Well, what do you do in this case? What do you do in this case? What do you do in this case? If we can come up with every case and have a list, we can never make God mad. You know, sometimes I have to admit there's been times in my life I was, well, if we had a Talmud, it'd be nice. But God doesn't do that. God gives us the principles and then says, now, you have to work this out. That's sort of messy because you know why? One person's decision might be slightly different than another's. It's real messy. It's how God designed it. There's a reason for that, too. So what do we know here from this passage in Mark? Is it lawful to good and to save life? Yes. Why? It glorifies God. So the question is, does this activity help me glorify God? Taking my kids to Six Flags does not glorify God. I can argue what would help me build a relationship with my kids, but it doesn't glorify God? He said, I mean, now we actually have, through the Old Testament we went through and through this New Testament, we're just going through a handpole in the New Testament Scriptures. I mean, Jesus over and over and over again was confronted as a Sabbath breaker. And His answers are always, no, no, no, this is what you do on the Sabbath. Does this activity help my family glorify God? Oh, yeah. Is it helping my children have a relationship with God? Is this activity an example of what may help others glorify God?

Just because something's lawful to do on the Sabbath doesn't always mean it's the wise thing to do.

Because what if it offends another person? So you have to think about that, too. Does this help others glorify God?

So here we have an interesting set of concepts that come from this Scripture. Now let's go to Luke 13. Like I said, a lot of ground, but today's an overuse. It's a concept that we're supposed to do. This is part of the learning process of sanctified day and sanctified people. Luke 13 verse 10.

Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. Behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, He called to her, heard to Him and said to her, Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity. And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. 18 years, she was all bent over. Now you think everybody there would say, Wow, look what God's doing. Isn't this a great blessing? But once again, the idea is, wait a minute, this is work on the Sabbath, and it wasn't done by one of the rabbis. There's another issue that's always here too. It was done by this itinerant preacher that rumor is he was illegitimate, right?

Verse 14, But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. And he said to the crowd, There are six days which men ought to work, therefore come and be healed on them and all on the Sabbath day. So once again, he quotes part of the commandment.

The Lord then answered him and said, Hippocrates, boy, that's a strong word. We call someone a hypocrite. Does not each one of you on the Sabbath lose his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it to water? Now, unless you were in Essenes, and the Essenes wouldn't be hanging around because they wouldn't hang around with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and people like Jesus because they were way too liberal. So everybody else is hanging around, and they're like, well, yeah, we do that. Don't you take care of your animals? It's interesting, in Deuteronomy, there's actually more animals mentioned than in Exodus. Exodus mentions cattle. There's more animals mentioned. He's really expanding it out there when they're about to go into the Promised Land. So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, who Satan has bound. Think of it. That's very interesting. Just think of this. Stop. Think about this, Jesus tells. Here's a woman who is bound by Satan. The adversary of God bound her while she was all gnarled up for 18 years. He says, for 18 years, he loosed from this bond on the Sabbath. Verse 17, notice the reaction, and when he had said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the multitude rejoiced for the glorious things that were done by him.

The leaders were shamed, and the average person glorified God because they saw what God was doing. On the Sabbath, once again, Jesus' actions always caused people to glorify God. It's the center of the day. The center of this day is God and Jesus Christ. God the Father, who created all things through Jesus Christ, and who has redeemed and liberated all things through Jesus Christ. That's the center of this day. We have to concentrate on making that center of this day. There's one last little point here that I will talk about how we can make this day holy. Things we can actually do. When we talk about Jesus' liberator on this day, think about the profound understanding that Jesus died on a Wednesday and was resurrected towards the end of the Sabbath. That's not by accident. The Sabbath declared God as what? What did it say in Deuteronomy? Liberator and Redeemer. So when does this liberation and this redemption literally happen? Not to age in Israel, but for humanity on the Sabbath?

Him being resurrected on the Sabbath was just part of the plan from the very beginning, because He was slain from the foundation of the earth. I mean, He was resurrected from the foundation of the earth, too. And God knew exactly what He was going to do, and it was going to be on the Sabbath. That holy day where this holy event takes place. Jesus' resurrection on the Sabbath is profound. I've had people ask me, well, you don't keep Easter. How do you celebrate Jesus' resurrection? Every Sabbath. Every Sabbath. Because that's when He was resurrected. We're brought together as liberated people, sanctified people, redeemed people. And that's when He was resurrected. That's just a little side. That's why Jesus said it's mentioned in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where He said, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. I'm in charge of this day. That's how He put it. And that's why His teaching on the Sabbath is so important. It frees us from the shackles that the Pharisees would have put on it. But it also shows us the importance of what we should be doing on this day. Do good. Glorify God. Always thinking in terms of redemption, and creation, and liberation. Now here are some ways to make our Sabbath experience more holy, to make it more profound. First thing is, participate in a holy convocation. In Leviticus 23 verse 3, the commandment doesn't say holy convocation in the same way that it does in Leviticus 23. But Leviticus 23 commands a holy convocation. A convocation means an assembly. We are to assemble on this day. This is part of what makes it holy because this is a holy assembly. This is sanctified by God. You and I can't just say, oh well, oh, Sabbath, and I've got to go to church. Do I have to go to church? I don't want to go to church. I'm tired. Nobody there likes me. My wife says, oh yes, you have to go. You're the pastor. That's an old joke.

This is by invitation. This meaning is holy.

You know, look at this in Hebrews. Let's get a, of course, a well-known New Testament passage on this. Hebrews 11. I'm sorry, Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10.

Hebrews 10 verse 24.

This is, you know, sometimes we read verse 25, but verse 24 is connected to this in a very important way. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. You know, you know, Mr. Parriment said, you can't love alone. You can't.

You can't stir up each other unless you're with each other.

It is hard to be a Christian to be alone, and people who are forced to do that have a very difficult time. We're not really given the option to do this alone. That's why there's congregations.

That's why there's congregations. Because we are to stir each other up. We are to consider one another. We're to think about each other. We are to encourage each other. What? In love and good works. Then the rest of the sentence is, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching. A holy convocation is a blessing. It's part of the blessing of the Sabbath.

Someday we may lose this blessing as we see the day approaching.

And we will look back and say, oh, it was so wonderful to have a congregation to be part of.

So we keep this day holy by keeping it as a holy convocation. And that's why we try to be here on time when we can. It's why we, you know, you wear the best clothing that you have. So I've had people call me all the time and say, what is your dress code? And I simply say, if you were appearing before the President of the United States, would you wear the best that you have? Yes. We were appearing before God. Oh, okay, that makes it simple.

This is not like, okay, you got to go buy a $500 suit to show up. I don't think anybody in here has a $500 suit, okay? So no, no, that's not the point. You wear the best you have because you're appearing before God. It's a holy convocation, a holy assembly, and would you receive an invite from God?

It's a privilege. God can take away that privilege by the time, by the way, anytime He wants. He can uninvite us to this. Oh, that makes it totally different, doesn't it? Because He makes it holy. If God isn't here today with His Spirit, this isn't a holy convocation. This is just a bunch of people getting together. God's Spirit has to be here to make it holy. And so this is one of the ways in which we keep this day holy. A second thing we can do. You know, in the New Testament, it talks about the preparation day. You don't see that command in the Bible, but it was something that became part of the whole Jewish religious experience. The day before the Sabbath, people prepared for the Sabbath. Remember the Sabbath day.

All week long, we should be remembering the Sabbath day.

How we observe the Sabbath day is going to determine a lot of what happens over the next six days before the next Sabbath. Come into the Sabbath with your mind just saturated with work, saturated with the fact that Nashville's winning their hockey. Isn't that amazing? That's amazing! I don't think they've ever won anything in hockey before. And here they are. They're winning. Have they? Have they ever won? No? Or no one here cares? Oh, okay.

I only watch hockey during the playoffs, you know, which I do watch a little bit of hockey during the playoffs.

In San Antonio, all the Hispanic boys had never seen a hockey game. It's just not part of the culture. So we took them to a hockey game. And all the boys in the church there, and they're all sitting there watching all this, trying to figure it out. There was a guy in the church from Canada, he was trying to tell them what was happening. And they got bored until someone checked somebody and a fight broke out. It was like, man, we love this sport! And they were like cheering the whole rest of the time. They loved it after that. So they just loved to watch people get checked.

But if our whole mind is saturated with that, you know, I have to admit, two weeks ago, the NFL draft was going on. I had to work real hard Friday night not to get on a computer and see what was going on in the NFL draft. Who did the teams get and all that? I said, man, that's not what I should be doing on the Sabbath. You know why? If I'd have looked that up, my whole mind would have got concentrated on that. And I'd have been involved in that for an hour.

Now, a lot of you are thinking, wow, that's even worse than watching hockey. But, you know, it just... So, you know, don't do this. Just stay out of this. Prepare for the day. And sometimes I hear this all the time. Well, you know, Friday is always so busy. I really don't have time to prepare for the Sabbath. If we say that, we have a problem with our spiritual priorities. I don't want to have time prepared for the sanctified day of God made holy by God, declared holy by God. And I'm a holy person that's supposed to keep this day holy. And I don't have time for that. Think about what we're actually saying. I don't have time for that. And there's something wrong in our priorities.

We should go into the Sabbath day preparing for it.

Mentally preparing for it, spiritually preparing for it. You know, one of the greatest things you could do on the Sabbath is have a special meal for your family. One of the greatest things you can do. Everybody knows. You know, how much television should people walk and watch on the Sabbath? Or what should they watch? That's a personal choice. But I tell you this, you really want to get something interesting on the Sabbath? Shut down all entertainment on Friday and Sunday. Just shut it off. Just shut it down. And sit down with your family and have a special meal. Now, there were times when I was young, my family was pretty poor. You know what I really remember? I'm a little guy. I'm maybe nine years old. When I really remember about the Sabbath was that special Sabbath meal. And afterwards, we either had ice cream or potato chips. Now, that may not seem like much, but that was the only time we ever got anything like that. Potato chips. Wow!

But there was some kind of something. Every Friday night, there was a dessert. Somehow.

So that we... and it was special. And I can remember there were Bible games we played. You know, okay, we didn't get up to the monopoly set, but we had all kinds of Bible games. I don't know why parents get all these Bible games. We played Bible games. It was different. It was different.

What kind of music do we allow? You know, calming music.

Should the music we listen to on the Sabbath be a little different than the music we might listen to the other six days? See, once again, the Talmud would actually tell you exactly what music you should listen to. We're not going to go there. The questions have to be asked, though, in terms of what we're talking about, the principles of the day.

Now, what some of you may find in soothing music, somebody else may not find the soothing. That's why you can't have a Talmud.

You know, I have to admit, I find Bach and Beethoven a little soothing. My wife finds them mad at me.

How can you stand that? It makes her nervous!

And she's even German. I can't figure it out.

Preparation day. Going into that day.

Prepared. And this is where it's so important for children. It's hard. I mean, I was thinking last night as I was working through this, how my kids, I can remember when we lived in Houston, and I can remember carrying them out at 7 o'clock in the morning. They're still asleep and strapping them in the car. And they'd wake up about 8 o'clock and Kim would try to feed them with, you know, here's some yogurt and, you know, a banana. And you tried to feed these little kids and get them dressed. And maybe 9.30, we'd show up at this church and we'd go in and they'd sit there for services for two hours. And afterwards, we would spend an hour where I would just try to do all the counseling and anointing and all that. Then we'd jump in the car and we'd drive two and a half hours the other way. Wow, Kim gave them a sandwich and tried to clean the stuff that was all over their dresses. And, you know, I mean, just try to get them there in one piece and then we'd get to the next church and they'd sit there for two hours. And afterwards, we would stick around for an hour and a half. Well, we did all the counseling and anointing and all the stuff that went on. You know, it's 7 to 38 o'clock and we're driving home. And that's their sandwich. Two services and 300 miles.

But you know what? It didn't bother them.

Now we had to do a lot. We sang a lot of songs. We played a lot of games as we drove. Now we had to do a lot of stuff.

And, you know, but we had to work at it. Well, the Sabbath could have been a very burdensome thing on those little kids.

Number three is remember that the Sabbath isn't to be a day of buying and selling. It's not a day to go out and do all our business.

The Amiah 13.

The Amiah 13.

In verse 14, what happened here, of course, was that Jerusalem had become a, you know, on the Sabbath day, all the farmers would come in. Everybody would come in from outside the city and it was the great big giant farmer's market. That's what the Sabbath was for everybody. It was their farmer's market time. And the Amiah says, no, that's not what we should do on the Sabbath. Verse 14 says, Remember me, O my God, concerning this, you don't wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of God and for His services. For those days I saw people in Judah treading wine presses on the Sabbath, bringing in sheaves, loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them about the day in which they were selling provisions. Then, if tired, dwelt there also, who brought in fish and all kinds of goods, and sold them on the Sabbath to the children of Judah and in Jerusalem. He says that I contended with the nobles of Judah and said to them, What evil thing is this that you do by which you profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers do this and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? You bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath. So he said, that's it. We're going to shut the gates, and we're not going to have the big farmers market here on the Sabbath day.

So it isn't to be a day of buying and selling. Now, this brings us to our fourth point. You know, our first point is it's a holy convocation. The second is prepare. Remember this day and prepare for it. Third is this shouldn't be a day of buying and selling.

But the fourth point is sort of what I've been hinting at all along too, is that you and I can't judge each other on all the particulars of the Sabbath. We can't do that. I mean, certain people won't turn on electricity on the Sabbath.

Because not only is it work, you're paying somebody.

When you get your electric bill, you're paying somebody to work on the Sabbath. Every time you turn on the water, right? Now, those are modern problems. You have to understand the Scripture doesn't deal with that because they never had those problems.

There was no electricity at the time of Paul the Beatah. And you had to go down to the well and get your water on Friday and bring it up and put it in the house. And that's where your water came from on the Sabbath. You had it there on the Sabbath because you got it on Friday and put it in the house.

They didn't have these kinds of problems. And so people wrestle with it. Like I said, the whole Jewish question about whether you should drive a car on the Sabbath. Is it work? I know when I drive to Nashville, soon as I'm down here, it'll be work.

So we have modern issues that are not mentioned in the Scripture. I mean, even I said that I talked about the issue of television, the issue of music. There was no television they had to deal with. Music was a very special thing. Of course, on the Sabbath, in the Jewish world, they would sing on the Sabbath. Even the meals on the Sabbath had singing with it. They would sing because music was part of the Sabbath.

So don't judge each other on these individual decisions that have to do with all kinds of modern issues. Just be clear in your mind between you and God and what you do. That's what's important.

Sometimes the judging of each other on these issues is worse than whether you're doing it or not.

So just be sure your conscience is clear and understand these are modern problems. The only way the church could solve the problem is we would have to come up with a Talmud.

Nobody would be happy with that because, oh no, I could do that on this Sabbath.

Whatever list we'd come up with, it would be, wait a minute, no I can, no I can't. This is an issue that we have to submit to God's Spirit.

But we need to be thinking about it. We need to be considering it. Now let's just look at what we've learned so far. Remember that our purpose wasn't to create a Talmud. It was to look at the basic principles of Sabbath keeping.

So looking at what we've done so far and wrapping it up here. The Sabbath is to be observed to commemorate God as Creator. Oops, changed it too quick. The Sabbath is a time to free children and employees from the burdens of everyday work. The Sabbath is to be observed to commemorate God as Liberator and Redeemer. We see that in Jesus Christ. The Sabbath is to be observed in holiness, to worship the One who makes you holy. The Sabbath is a time to refrain from our own desires and activities in order to honor God. Jesus is the anointed One through whom God carries out His acts of healing, liberation, and redemption. The Sabbath commemorates God's work through Christ. That's why Jesus Christ is very much part of the Sabbath. You know, when Christ came, we don't have to keep the Sabbath. No, we're commemorating the work of Jesus Christ on this day.

So this just gives us an overview. The Sabbath is a gift from God. Keeping the Sabbath is in a way to observe it more and more strictly, and in that way, impress God. You and I will never impress God with our Sabbath.

That's not the purpose of it. The Sabbath is a gift from God. It's not only about physical rest. Even more importantly, it's about spiritual rest and emotional rest. Let it go on this day. All the problems will be there Sunday morning. Actually, they'll be there Saturday night as soon as the sun goes down. Let them go.

Be at rest with God. Be at rest with each other. Be at rest with your family. That's what this is all about. It is a gift from God. Rest with God on this day, and you will experience His presence the other sixth day.