Theology of the Sabbath

If someone came up to you and asked you why you keep the Sabbath, you all have, of course, reasons. And you know immediately what you would say and how, well, God created the Sabbath at creation. You would say it's part of the Ten Commandments. You would talk about how Jesus and the early church all kept the Sabbath.

And you would give those reasons, and that God wants us to rest and worship Him on the Sabbath. And, of course, those are the practical and, in some ways, the most important reasons we keep the Sabbath. Because most of what God tells us to do is actually very simple. This isn't that complicated. What God wants us to do isn't that complicated.

But I want to talk a little bit about the theology of the Sabbath. And, of course, as soon as you use the word theology, it's like, oh, no. Well, I guarantee you, you don't have to know any Hebrew, any Greek. You don't have to have read any books on theology to understand what we're going to talk about today. Theology just means the study of God. That's all it means. And, you know, I have a big library at home over the years.

In fact, we moved into another house two years ago, and I got rid of hundreds of books. And I've already replaced most of them, you know. And my wife says, we have no more room. And, you know, I have all these books on theology, and most of them I've read parts of. Because most of it is a lot of words sometimes that say very little. I mean pages and pages and pages that say very little. What does God reveal about Himself in the Sabbath? That's the theology of the Sabbath.

Now, we're going to study God. What does God say about Himself in the Sabbath? We're going to go through scriptures you've all read before. I have no new, great, hidden meaning in any of the scriptures. We're going to just look at what they say. And we're going to ask the question as we read through these verses, what is God saying about Himself? What is He telling us about Him? And in the end, you will know more about the theology of the Sabbath than a whole lot of people with PhDs in theology.

It is interesting that you will find this information that some Protestant and some Catholic theologians come to this understanding. And then they don't do anything about it. They miss the whole practical points of why we're supposed to do it and what happens when we do it.

So let's start in the Old Testament, and let's start right in the Ten Commandments. Let's go to Exodus 20. We're going to go to probably 10 to 12 scriptures and just look at them. And like I said, there's nothing very complicated we're going to do today.

If you came wanting an in-depth, hidden message in the Bible, you know, the Bible code, I don't have any Bible code to give you today. Exodus 20. And verse 8, here we have the first codified command. And obviously, the Israelites knew they were supposed to keep the Sabbath, because remember, in Exodus 16, God's upset with them for not keeping the Sabbath. So the Sabbath existed before this. But what we have now are exact instructions written by God. Now, this is what you're supposed to do, so that you have all these millions of people that receive these instructions that are written down so that they can be carried on from generation to generation.

He says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. You shall do no work. You know your son, your daughter, know your male servant, know your female servant, know your cattle, know your stranger who is within your gates. I want to stop there, because this is an important instruction. The Sabbath is to be a day of rest, but it is something you are to pass on to your children, your employees, and the strangers who come in among you.

So the Sabbath was not only an expression of love towards God, but for those who understood the Sabbath, it is loving your neighbor. This is very important. Christ said, here's the two most important commandments. The Sabbath is not only an expression of our love towards God as we understand Him more. It is an expression of love towards neighbor. We are to extend the Sabbath to others.

It's specifically our children and if you have employees, your employees. But then notice verse 11. Four in six days. In other words, here is what you are to understand as you keep the Sabbath. This is why. This is four. It's like in the New Testament when it says, therefore. This is the conclusion. This is where we are headed. The conclusion is, in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.

Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. This, by the way, shoots right in the foot the idea that the Sabbath is just an ongoing time period because He created a seventh day and rested on the seventh day. And in six days that He had recreated the earth. But what we have here, interesting enough, is a command to keep the Sabbath and then a declaration about God from Himself. About Himself. He says, now when you keep the Sabbath, remember, it is I who made everything. And it is I who rested on this day. It is I who created it.

So the Sabbath is, you know, He says, oh wow, what deep meaning are we going to get? It says it right there. The first point that we need to learn about the Sabbath is, we observe the Sabbath, or what God reveals about Himself in the Sabbath, we observe the Sabbath to commemorate God as the creator of the universe.

He says it right there. Four, this is why you do this. This is the reason. I'm leading you to a point. This is what you do. It's because you're to remember, I created everything. And when I rested, I was giving you an example how to rest. So our first point, God reveals Himself that in the Sabbath, we commemorate Him, Him as creator. So there's the first point of theology of the Sabbath. Not that hard, is it?

You all will know, you will all have a deep understanding of a certain aspect of theology when you leave today. What God has revealed about Himself. Now, let's go to Deuteronomy 5. Deuteronomy 5.

We have where the Ten Commandments are written down again. But the Sabbath command has a little different wording. Now, this isn't because there's a mistake made in Exodus, or a mistake made in Deuteronomy. It's because God is telling them to do the same thing, to observe the Sabbath, but He's revealing something else about Himself. And you're going to find these themes run not only through the Old Testament, but we're going to look at what Jesus taught about the Sabbath.

We're going to look at a handful of Scriptures in the Old Testament, and then we're going to look at a handful of Scriptures in the New Testament, all concerning what God revealed about Himself in the Sabbath and what Jesus says the Sabbath reveals about God. And we'll come to that they're the same thing. It's the same message in both here in the Old Testament and what Christ taught.

Deuteronomy 5. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Now, it's interesting here. It says to keep it holy. Remember, holiness is a very important concept in the Bible. We live in a world where everybody believes, and this is the common belief that in Protestantism that most Protestants wouldn't have believed 100 years ago.

And that is people make things holy. Of course, that comes from the Catholic idea that you can take pagan ideas and pagan customs, bring them into Christian observance, and as long as they are now declared holy, they are holy. People have the right to declare things holy.

When you go through the Bible, only God has the right to declare something holy. And when he does, he tells human beings, you observe it as holy. In other words, this is something that is called or pulled by God or ordained by God to himself, that it is important to him and it is special. So when you see holy, that means this is special to me. This is what God is saying. So he says, you keep this as a special day. Very special to him, so it should be special to us. As the Lord your God commanded you, six days you shall labor and do all your work.

But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. And he goes on and once again says, now you should. Your children should work, your employees should work. This should be a real rest that you give to others. But then notice verse 15. And remember, now here he doesn't say, remember I am the creator, but he's about to reveal something else about himself that's attached to the Sabbath, that we're supposed to commemorate every Sabbath. 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 and by an outstretched arm.

Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. He says, now remember this, therefore you keep the Sabbath day. On the Sabbath they were told to remember God is creator, and God is the one who took you out of a slavery you couldn't get out of. That's called redemption. We all understand what redemption is. You already are theologians. Right? You understand what it is to redeem. And he says, I redeemed you. I bought you out of the slavery you could not get out of yourself. So he said, every Sabbath when you come together, remember.

See, we're to remember the Sabbath day, but sometimes we forget that there's another to remember in here. Remember, he tells them. Now we understand the spiritual application of that. You and I were trapped in slavery, and we were brought out of slavery. We're trapped in spiritual Egypt. Dr. Ward talked about that. And we were brought out of spiritual Egypt. We're to remember that every Sabbath. You start to think about what God is revealing himself, how he's revealing himself in the Sabbath.

You know, we ask sometimes, what are we supposed to teach our children on the Sabbath? And we get bored, and to them it's just a day of, you know, not doing anything. Well, first of all, let's help them understand that you were made by God. And God has a purpose in your life. God is the Creator. And God has bought you back. And what if we remembered that every Sabbath?

It changes the Sabbath day, doesn't it? But see, we zero in on Exodus, where it says, remember the Sabbath day. And many times we miss this part in Deuteronomy, where he says, and on the Sabbath day, remember this. Remember you were redeemed. So we have God as Creator. Have you ever met, think about this, a Sabbath keeper?

I don't care what church to go to. Have you ever met a Sabbath keeper that was an evolutionist? I haven't. Now, there may exist out there someplace, but I have not found one yet. Because when you keep the Sabbath day, you're remembering who made the Sabbath day. You're remembering the Creator. So we have God as Creator and God as Redeemer.

Two of the most important concepts in the entire Bible. Once you accept those two concepts, once you accept God in those two ways, it changes the way you view life, and it changes the way you view the Bible.

And every Sabbath we are to remember that. We are to remember those things. Exodus 31. Exodus 31, verse 13. How many times have we read these scriptures? Over and over and over again. I'm going through probably some of the most common scriptures that all of you in this room, some of you know some of these by heart. But what is it that God says about himself? So we look at what is God telling us to do, but what is God saying that tells us we can now understand Him? And we observe the Sabbath, we approach God that way. We approach Him as Creator, we approach Him as Redeemer.

Exodus 31.13. Here God tells Moses, speak to the children of Israel, saying, Surely my Sabbath you shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations. Now, we zero in on that statement. And I've heard many people say, you know, the Sabbath is a sign between God and His people. That's true. And you can apply that to the church, too. It was a sign between God and Israel, it was a sign between God and spiritual Israel. But there's a whole other clause to the sentence where God says something about Himself.

Notice what it says, throughout your generations, that you may know that I, so God's about to say something about Himself, that you may know that I am the Lord who what? Sanctifies you. I am the Lord who makes you holy. This is a covenant so that you will know that you were selected by God to be holy.

The day is holy, and when you come into this, it is a relationship where you are holy. Now, start to think about what we've gone through. God is creator, God is Redeemer, and God is the God who sanctified you.

Every Sabbath, you are to be reminded that you have been selected by God and made holy. This is why, when you keep the Sabbath, you know, if you've ever just run through the Sabbath day in a hurry, you ever have a Sabbath day where Friday night starts bad, and you get through the Sabbath, and by sundown Saturday night, you're almost glad it's over.

You got no meaning from it, you got no purpose, it just seemed to be mayhem and confusion. You were worried about the job, you were worried about your worldly things. You just never got into the spirit of the Sabbath. What was the rest of the week like? Because if you're not reminded that you were a holy on the holy day, how will you keep the other six days unholy? Usually what happens is, sometimes during the week, God knocks you down, and you start returning to where you're supposed to be.

It's a whole lot easier to keep the Sabbath. So God is creator, God is redeemer, and we are to observe the Sabbath to remember. See, these are all remembers. To understand God, it is He who made you holy.

You didn't make yourself holy. I didn't make myself holy. He said, well, I'm not holy. Yes, you are. You were brought before a holy God on a holy day, and there's only one way that you and I are allowed to come before a holy God on His holy day, as if He says we're holy. Because if He doesn't say we're holy, we're not allowed to come. We're not allowed to come. We really make God a wimp, you know that? God says, no, these are on my terms that we work with.

We somehow think that we approach God as an equal, and we negotiate this. Well, if you remember Him as creator, redeemer, and the one who sanctifies you, you realize this is a one-way covenant. I either agree or disagree. I don't add clauses to the covenant. I don't say, let your lawyers get with my lawyers and they just don't work out. God will do lunch sometime. How's that? It doesn't work that way. So, three scriptures you all know, and three scriptures where it's, remember?

Three scriptures that says I'm revealing something about myself so that you will know. And we begin to see God in these three very important ways. Now, if you think about that and you go to Isaiah, where He says, well, let's go ahead and go there. I was going to go there, but Isaiah 58 and verse 13. Now, think about this in terms of once a week, the creator of the universe says, I want you to come into relationship with me as creator, redeemer, and the one who has made you holy. Then all of a sudden Isaiah 58 comes very clear in his practicality.

Isaiah 58 verse 13. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day, he's revealing something about himself, and he says, I've made it holy and only I can do that. And call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him not doing your own ways nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord.

Then you shall enjoy your relationship with God. That's what that says. You shall be refreshed. You shall be restored. Now, there's restoration. There's another important theological term you all know. You will be restored in mind and body and spirit. Why? Because you came before your Creator who redeemed you, who made you holy on His holy day, and had a relationship with Him.

There's the theology. I could take everything else in the Old Testament said about the Sabbath, and that's it. That's what that is. That's the theology of the Sabbath. It's that simple, but it's that profound. Well, it must have been changed in the New Testament then, right? Well, that's not the subject today.

I don't have to prove the Sabbath to any of you in this room. But hopefully we can enrich your Sabbath observance by understanding this. If this is part of your prayer, if this is part of what you start to think about before Friday night, before sundown, then you are going to receive the holiness of this day into your life. And that will profoundly affect the other six days. Profoundly affect the other six days, because you're a holy person seven days a week.

I have no people who keep the Sabbath and are unholy the other six days. I mean, all of us still sin, all of us sin, but you know what I mean. They live lifestyles of unholyness the other six days. Their Sabbath-keeping is meaningless because they're missing the point. I keep going to the Ten Commandments. Well, that may be true. But you're still not relating to God.

How many of you have read the book Five Love Languages? It's a great book for marriages. If you haven't read it, read it. What we're talking about today is God's love language. You know, we talk about loving God. God actually says, let me explain to you, I'm God, you're not. So you're not going to understand me. So let me explain to you how you show love to me so you will understand. So when we keep the Sabbath with that understanding, we love God. So we all want God's love. There's a point in our Christian maturity where we start to say, you know what?

I really want to start loving Him back. I really want to give something back and God says, ahh, this is good. We can start relating. And the Sabbath is an expression of love towards God. So He tells us, He reveals Himself in it so that we now understand Him. Now let's look at what Jesus said. So we just covered the entire Old Testament in 22 minutes. I told you it's not this hard.

It's not difficult. And what have we seen? The Sabbath is observed as a commemoration of God as creative. The Sabbath is a time to extend the rest, physical and spiritual and emotional rest, all three of those things are important, to children and employees. The Sabbath is observed as a commemoration of God as Redeemer and Liberator. He brought them out and He says, do this, remembering what I did for you. The Sabbath is observed in holiness. It is observed to worship the Holy One who made you holy.

That's what it says in Exodus 31. Do this for this reason. And then the Sabbath is a time to refrain from our own desires and activities in order to honor God and participate in this holiness.

There it is, the entire Old Testament theology of the Sabbath. So what did Jesus teach? Let's start in Luke 4. Luke 4 is interesting because this is Jesus' first sermon. So it's real important. Now, the first time He gets up that at least is recorded, and we don't know if He did it before, but at least recorded, that He got up and made an important contribution in the synagogue, but He said something about Himself. And in saying this about Himself, He said it on the Sabbath day.

Jesus Christ revealed who He was on the Sabbath.

Luke 4.16. So He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up, and as His custom was, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. So He read before, but this is something different. This was His custom. But He was doing something so different that it's recorded by Luke here in His Gospel account. And He was handed the book of the prophet of Isaiah. When He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written. So in the synagogue, there's a Sabbath, there's a reading of the Scripture, there's a reading of what we call the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible. And they get up and they read it, and there's expounding, there's like a sermon where they expound the Scripture. When He gets up and He says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me. Now, this is very interesting because this is a messianic prophecy. So He's getting up and He's reading it. For 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. Now, He stops there because the rest of the prophecy has to do with the day of the Lord, in God's punishment on mankind. So He just stops there. Then He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And all the eyes of those who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him, like, well, that's it? What happens next? And He began to say to them, Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Not the part about the day of the Lord, because He does that later. But notice what He says about Himself on the Sabbath day. He says, I am the prophesied Messiah, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Son of David. I am the anointed One. But He says, look at what I'm supposed to do.

He says, I am supposed to heal the brokenhearted. I am supposed to proclaim the liberty to the captives, and a recovery of the sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Sometimes in our lives, I really do believe this. Now, there's a lot of reasons we have trials and difficulties in life.

But sometimes in life, I think the reason we are so brokenhearted, burdened with sadness, burdened with issues of depression. I'm not talking about depression that's chemically based. I'm talking about the depression that comes from our way of thinking. There are different causes for depression. But I'm talking about the burdens of life that come because of the way we think. And emotions are an expression of thoughts. It's important to understand. Psychology tells you the opposite, and it's not true. Emotions are an expression of thought, not vice versa.

The reason we're brokenhearted, the reason we're captive, the reason sometimes we still have spiritual blindness, and the reason we're oppressed is because we're not coming before God and before the Christ on the Sabbath and receiving what we're supposed to receive.

See, he told him, I have come here. I'm telling you this. You know, what's this thing all about? Creation, redemption, it's about being holy, it's about having a relationship with God, and what will God do with you? And I'm going to tell you on the Sabbath so it's all connected. He says, in your life, I want to free you from these things.

We, of all people, should be becoming free of these things because this is what God is doing in our lives. He has come... You were the captives. You know, the rest of the world is still captive. You were the oppressed. You were the brokenhearted, and we're supposed to be coming out of that. That doesn't mean we still don't suffer those things from time to time, but our lifestyle should be one of coming out of those things. Why are we coming out of those things?

Because the Creator has redeemed you and made you holy. That's why you're coming out of those things. And because of that relationship, which the Sabbath simply symbolizes, it intensifies a relationship that's supposed to be going on all the time. So keeping the Sabbath without this relationship is just, well, I hope you get some rest. I mean, it's a physical expression. It's not a spiritual experience. These things have to be part of it. So he said this is what He's come to do. And He'd set it on the Sabbath, expressed it on the Sabbath, because it's in this relationship, this Sabbath relationship with God and Christ, that we learn these things, and these things begin to work in our lives, and we carry them through the rest of the week.

Look at Mark chapter 3. Now, that's a whole sermon in itself, but we're just looking at an overview today. We could branch out in a number of whole subjects here, but I'm just trying to look at an overview. One, what did God reveal about Himself in the Sabbath in the Old Testament, and what did Jesus reveal about Him and the Father in the New Testament? That's all we're doing. Mark 3. Mark 3, verse 1. He entered into the synagogue again, and a man who was there had a withered hand.

And so they watched Him closely. Now, this is some of the religious leaders, because if you understand the first century teachings of Sabbath-keeping in Judaism, you understand how restrictive it was. The two great rabbinical schools, the school of Hillel, the school of Shami'i, argued over things like, could you pick up an olive if it fell on the floor? And these were strict arguments. Could you send a letter on Wednesday? Because probably, considering the Roman postal system, it would take a long time to get someplace, the carrier would still be carrying it on the Sabbath.

So you need to post all your letters at least before Wednesday, by Tuesday, because you don't want the carrier to be working for you on the Sabbath. And these were the kinds of arguments they had.

So they're looking at Jesus and saying, if he heals a man on the Sabbath, that's doing work. I guess the question I have to ask is, who's doing the work? Because it's God doing the healing. But that's what they never saw. So again, the man was there who had withered him.

They watched him closely whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, step forward. Then he said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? And they kept silent. Well, how do you answer that? Oh yeah, we should do evil on the Sabbath. I mean, the question, you're either going to agree with him or shut up.

Because you can't say, oh yeah, we should kill on the Sabbath. He's got them where they can't. I mean, it's a simple question. It's like, you guys have made this so complicated. It's simple. Do you do good on the Sabbath? Do you save life on the Sabbath? Who's going to say no to that? And so they kept silent. And when he had looked around them with anger, he became angry with this. He said, you don't even know what this day is all about. If you understood God as creator and redeemer and holiness, if you really understood this relationship, you would look at this man and say, God, please heal this man, because this is good.

This is what this day...what is redemption? It's restoring people back to God. Isn't healing a person redemption? This is what this day is all about. This is what this day is all about. I mean, I know people at times, just not even thinking it through, have called and I said, why can't come anoint you? And it's Friday and they say, oh, no, don't worry about it. Anoint me tomorrow on the Sabbath. And it's almost like getting anointed on the Sabbath as a special blessing. Why? We don't even realize what we're doing. It's because we're being redeemed.

This is an act of redemption. God's healing you. He's taking you back from your captivity. He'll do it anytime. But sometimes we almost unthinkingly... Of course, I know it's because it's more practical sometimes to do it on the Sabbath. But there is a feeling sometimes, a special blessing to be anointed on the Sabbath. And when he had looked around with them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, stretch out your hand, and he stretched it out and his hand was restored.

He's restored. Restoration. That's an important theological concept you all understand. He was restored as whole as the other. And the Pharisees went on and immediately plotted with him, with the Herodians, against him, that they might destroy him. The Herodians were, of course, a political party attached to the family of Herod. He simply did an act of redemption and restoration on the Sabbath.

And he was angry that they couldn't see, this is what this day is all about. This is what God created this day for. So that we would stop our busy lives, because we'd just run, run, run, run, run. And we'd come back into an understanding, a relationship with God, and so then we'd keep that relationship going for six days. It must be the human psyche only lasts about six days, and then we drift so far away. You know, so he had to set it up so that we, I mean, he could have created the universe different.

He didn't have to create the seven-day cycle, but he did. And so every seven days we come back into this relationship so that we are restored, and we can now carry on. You know what it's like? You ever watch little children? It's fun to watch a child that's just learning to walk in a crowd, and they get a little bit of independence, and they'll move away from mom a little bit, and they're not away very long, and then start looking around.

And then they come back, and sometimes all they do is touch her. Watch. Okay, I'm restored. I'm okay. I'm protected. I'm emotionally, and then what do they do? Take their hand off and water back out. That's what the Sabbath day is. It's running back to Dad and saying, I'm okay. That's really what it is. And so here in Mark, they were upset with him. His defense isn't, by the way, that somehow it's okay to work on the Sabbath now. His defense was redeeming restoration was always okay on the Sabbath. John 5. I find it interesting.

John 5, or 16 and 18, are actually used by some to prove that the Sabbath day is done away with. There's some real circular reasoning going on here to do this. John 5, 16. For this reason, the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. He was seen by religious leaders, not the average person, but he was seen as some kind of Sabbath breaker, that he had broken the law of God. And notice Jesus' defense. But Jesus answered them, My father has burned working until now, and I have been working.

Wait a minute. There's certain work that's supposed to be done on the Sabbath day. They were furious. Do you realize there is commanded work in the Old Testament to be done on the Sabbath day? For one thing, they had to have a holy convocation. Who sets up a holy convocation? Who conducts a holy convocation? There were priests who did an enormous amount of work on this day. And it wasn't considered breaking the Sabbath. They were commanded to work on the Sabbath.

But why were they making money? Were they doing their work? Were they planning fields? What were they doing? Look at Numbers, Chapter 28. And to say that this somehow, Jesus is saying, look, we're all supposed to work on the Sabbath, it's done away with, is an absurdity. I don't even know how to answer that one. I mean, there are certain logical arguments you have to deal with, and there are certain arguments that are just absurd. And this one's absurd. Numbers, Chapter 28.

And let's start in Verse 9. Numbers 28, Verse 9. Now, remember, they were to do people to bring personal sacrifices to the tabernacle, but they were also to do a morning and afternoon sacrifice. Those were commanded. And those were very important ceremonies every morning and every evening that they did. And so here we pick up in Verse 9. And on the Sabbath day, two lambs of the first year without blemish, and two tenths of an ephaph with flour, as a green offering mixed with oil, with his drink offering. This is the burnt offering for every Sabbath besides the regular burnt offering with this drink offering. In other words, the priest did double amount of work on the Sabbath.

Commanded to do twice as much work.

Now, why was that work okay? What is the purpose of a sacrifice?

Redemption.

The purpose of a sacrifice is you bring the blood sacrifice, so you're redeemed, you're bought back, and you're restored in relationship with God. Any work that has to do with God redeeming and restoring is absolutely commanded on the Sabbath. There's commanded work on the Sabbath.

And so you and I do works, or should do works, of redemption and restoration on the Sabbath.

Bringing people to God on the Sabbath is what we're supposed to do.

So the idea that Jesus, by working on the Sabbath, by restoring people, He was breaking the Sabbath, shows a totally misconception of the entire Old Testament theology of the Sabbath. And that Christ was simply saying, you people don't understand what the Sabbath is all about. You know, it is interesting, when you think about Genesis, the first day that human beings had, in relationship with their Creator, was what? The Sabbath. He made them on the sixth day and then said, get some rest, I want you to rest tonight, because, you know, I can't imagine how the emotions they were going through.

You know, it's one thing to come out as a baby. You ever look at a baby's face when they're first born? Well, some of them are different. I had a daughter that was like...

It was amazing! She recognized voices. You could tell. Even the nurses were like, look at this kid! Oh, she's looking at them, and she's like, who are you? And I mean, they were like, whoa, look at all this stuff!

She didn't even want to cry! She just wanted to look around!

I can't imagine what they were going through as grown adults.

Can you imagine eating a banana for the first time? Whoa, is it? Try that. Man, is that good! I don't know what's going through their mind. And he says, tonight, I want you to get some rest. Tomorrow, we're going to talk.

That's what the Sabbath was all about. He tells us right there.

This has been a busy day for you folks. Get some rest, and tomorrow we'll talk. There you go. There's the theology of the Sabbath.

Tomorrow we'll talk.

And that's what God wants. That's what it's all about. This isn't that complicated.

And so you have this commanded work on the Sabbath.

Let's look at John 7. I don't want to go through all the places where Jesus teaches on the Sabbath, because it would take too long. But just a couple, maybe one or two more here. And then I want to bring out one other point.

John 7, verse 20.

And it just keeps reinforcing everything we've said all along.

The people answered and said, You have a demon who is seeking to kill you. Because he had just said that they were seeking to kill him.

You must be demon-possessed. No one's trying to kill you. And Jesus answered and said to them, I did one work and you all marvel. Now the work he did, if you read before this, was on the Sabbath. He says, I just heal a person on the Sabbath. And there are people actually plotting to kill me. And we already read in Luke that they were plotting to kill me. Moses, therefore... Now this is an interesting argument. All these arguments are very important. Moses, therefore, gave you circumcision. Not that it was from Moses, but from the fathers. Now that's very important, too.

You ever have someone say, The sign that everything in the Old Covenant was done away with. Now we all agree we're not under the Old Covenant. But we don't believe everything in the Old Covenant was done away with. And I just love when someone comes up with this argument. Because I've heard it before. Well, I'm not under the Old Covenant because when circumcision, which was the sign of the covenant, was done away with, the entire covenant was done away with, I'm under the covenant of Abraham. And I just love it when they say that. Because then they say, Oh, what was the sign of the covenant with Abraham? And there's always silence.

Circumcision. So that covenant's been done away with. So let me explain to you the difference between you and me. I'm under the New Covenant, and you're under no covenant at all.

I live for those moments. I just live for those moments.

Now I'm lost.

Okay.

Not that it's from Moses, but from the fathers. And you circumcise the man on the Sabbath. Why is it okay to circumcise a child on the eighth day on the Sabbath?

They're being redeemed.

They're being brought into the covenant. That'd be like saying, is it okay to baptize someone on the Sabbath?

Don't we all love it when someone gets baptized on the Sabbath because we all get to go watch? Why? We're watching someone be redeemed. Is there work being involved? Well, yeah.

And he says, wait, wait, wait, wait. You know it's okay for redemption to take place. We sacrifice babies in this... or sacrifice. We circumcise babies.

I should have had a second cup of coffee this morning. We circumcise babies on the eighth day all the time, and everybody rejoices. Why? That child is now gods. And when that child goes up as a male, all the females that join him are gods. His wife is children because he now is redeemed. And the wife that marries him, the children that come along, they're all redeemed, too. They're gods. He's now holy. Because remember, that's the sign of the covenant. They are now holy. So to make somebody holy on the Sabbath was a wonderful thing.

He says, so why don't you get this? And verse 23, if a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angereth me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. He says, so if I make somebody where they're not sick anymore, and they run to that temple... because what did they do every time he healed somebody? They ran to the temple and praised God. He said, you tell me what's wrong with that. And they never could. They never could. And we know because they were jealous. Because the people looked to him more than they did them.

That's why.

He says, why can't you see how simple this is? Now, there's other places. There's one interesting place, and John and I will go there, where a man was blind. Was he blind or lame? I think he was blind. And they asked why. He said, so I could be here on this Sabbath day in healing. That's why. He didn't commit a sin. God wanted you all to see some redemptive work on this day. So he was made this way and brought here this day so I could show you God's redemptive work. And they still didn't get it. He said, I'm going to give you spirit. I'm going to open your eyes so you have... you receive spiritual sight. So I'll make this guy physically give him sight so you can understand, I'm going to give you spiritual sight. They didn't get it.

He kept doing this on the Sabbath.

Because it was the work we're supposed to do. It's the work we're supposed to do on the Sabbath. That's why it is a holy convocation and a commanded convocation. The idea that we can just stay at home and keep the Sabbath all the time. Now, I mean, sometimes you're shut in for health, or, you know, people have miles. They just have no way to get the service. But I'm talking about our lifestyle for those who can. To not go to services regularly is to misunderstand what the Sabbath is.

It is a holy convocation by the one who can call a holy convocation. You know, I can't call the holy convocation. Neither can you. Only God can do that.

And to be invited isn't remarkable.

To be invited to that is remarkable.

Now, there's a whole other subject here I won't go into, but just something to think about.

What is the most ultimate act of redemption God has ever done?

Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And when was Jesus Christ resurrected on the Sabbath?

You know, we miss that sometimes. We don't think about that.

You know, people observe Easter and they say, We are observing the greatest redemptive act of God in history. And really all they've done is made up a day, totally made it up, so that it wouldn't be on the Passover, and declared it holy. Every week, you and I, we don't just go, as it says in Deuteronomy, so that you remember He brought you out of Egypt.

We go to remember we've been brought out of sin, and to really drive home that point, He resurrected Jesus Christ on the Sabbath.

We commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ every single week.

No one's a year. Every single week. We go together on the Passover to celebrate His death.

We commemorate His resurrection once a week.

The greatest redemptive act in the history of mankind.

How much more profound is that than a made-up day with bunnies and eggs?

All of a sudden it seems sort of silly, doesn't it?

One last point.

Isaiah 66.

So that's sort of a side point.

When you think about, whoa, the greatest redemptive act of all time.

I can talk about it, see, that's a whole hour right there.

So I just mention that. But think about that.

Go reread those scriptures of when He was resurrected.

And you realize you commemorate that every single week.

Isaiah 66, last scripture.

And see, you didn't have to know Greek, Hebrew. You didn't have to...

We just read scriptures and said this is what it says.

I didn't even have to expound much, right? I didn't.

Oh, there it is. I mean, I could have probably done this in 15 minutes.

I could have just got up, read these scriptures, and then we have it.

Isaiah 66, verse 15. I want to read here, start in verse 15, so we can see when this happens.

This is talking about, this is a prophecy about a future event.

For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with His chariots, like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury and His rebuke with flames of fire.

And by fire and His sword, the Lord will judge all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many. Now, this is important because He's judging all flesh.

This is a future event. This isn't just a judgment He brought about on Israel or Judah, you know, in the lifetime of Isaiah.

So this is the time of the, of the, what we call the Second Coming, what we're commemorating here. He says, And those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens after an idol in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination of the mouse, shall be consumed together, says the Lord. He says, I'm just, He's going to take and wipe off idolatry from the face of the earth. For I know their works and their thoughts. That's why what we think on the Sabbath is very important. What we think all the time is important. We learn to think wholly on the Sabbath and we'll think wholly the rest of the time. I know their works and their thoughts. It shall be that I will gather all nations in tongues, and they shall come and see my glory. So there's no doubt the time bird He's talking about. And I will set a sign among them, and those among them who escape I will send to the nations to Tarshish and Pull and Lud, who draw the bow and to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands of Far Off, who have not heard my name.

nor seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. The whole earth is going to come under the rule of the Messiah. And they shall bring all their brethren for an offering to the Lord out of all nations, on horses and in chariots, and on litters, on mules, and on camels, to my holy mountains, Jerusalem, says the Lord. As the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. And I will take some of them. Who's he talking about here? Gentiles! I will take some of them for priests and Levites, says the Lord. He says, we're going to teach everybody. And there's going to be ordained priests to God among all people.

And as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, says the Lord. Shall your descendants and your name remain? And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord.

While we keep the Sabbath, we're also commemorating the future when all humanity will keep the Sabbath.

So you now, let's just go through the points very quickly.

And by the way, that's basically what it says in the book of Hebrews, too. It talks about the Sabbath in terms of the millennium.

What do we have here? Well, let's see.

The Sabbath is to be observed to commemorate God as creator. The Sabbath is a time to offer and to free children and employees from the burdens of everyday life, to actually give the Sabbath to others. The Sabbath is to be observed to commemorate God as liberator and redeemer.

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 to honor God.

Jesus, the Messiah, through whom God carries out His acts of healing, liberation, and redemption.

And so the Sabbath commemorates God's work through Jesus Christ.

Jesus repeatedly healed people in the Sabbath and taught that the Sabbath was a time to celebrate God's work in the lives of human beings. He never once taught that the Sabbath was no longer to be honored by humanity.

Jesus was resurrected on the Sabbath evening, and so the Sabbath is a weekly celebration of His resurrection and present work in our lives right now.

And when Jesus sets up His kingdom on the earth, all people will be converted to the worship of the true God, and they will observe the Sabbath. So present Sabbath day observance commemorates the future millennium.

All of you now have doctorates in the theology of the Sabbath.