Exodus 20:8
God gave the fourth of the Ten Commandments, and
God said in Exodus 20:8-11, Remember the sabbath
day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the
seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any
work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant,
nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the
LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the
seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
This sermon is a continuation of the last sermon in which we started looking at
what the Bible has to say about the Sabbath Day.
Let us look at the Sabbath Day in the life of
Christ. Of course, we know that Jesus was born under the law. Jesus kept the
law perfectly His entire life. No one else has done this. Jesus is our Savior.
He did what we could not do. Jesus died for our sins, and before dying for our
sins, He kept the law perfectly. That means that He also kept the Sabbath Day
perfectly. Jesus lived under the law, but He lived at a time when others
misunderstood and misinterpreted the law. Religious leaders such as the
scribes, and the Pharisees, and the priests tried to use the law to control and
to condemn and to criticize people. And then these unspiritual religious
leaders tried to use their own misapplication of the Sabbath Day in order to
condemn Jesus. Basically, the scribes and Pharisees were much too strict in the
way that they said the Sabbath Day should be observed.
The Bible says in Matthew 12:1-8, At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the
corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn,
and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy
disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. But he said
unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they
that were with him; How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the
shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were
with him, but only for the priests? Or have ye not read in the law, how that on
the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are
blameless? But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the
temple. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not
sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is
Lord even of the sabbath day. The Pharisees did not emphasize the
spiritual meaning to the keeping of the Sabbath. Instead the Pharisees tried to
emphasize the practical observance of the Sabbath Day. They took the words, thou shalt not do any work, and they tried to
define exactly what that meant in every detail of life. If you think about it,
that is not only hard to do, that is impossible to do.
From a technical definition of the word work,
every movement of the human body is work. One definition of the word work is
as follows: Physical or mental effort or activity
directed toward the production or accomplishment of something. Here is the definition
of work from physics: mechanical work is the amount
of energy
transferred by a force acting through a distance. Therefore, from a
physical standpoint any amount of effort that results in any object being moved
any distance is work. Technically speaking, if you move your foot one inch, you
just performed some work. In order to handle this problem the religious leaders
decided to define for everyone else just exactly what would be considered work,
and what would not be considered work. That is where the phrase, a Sabbath
Days journey, came from. The religious leaders defined exactly how far a
person could walk on Saturday and not be guilty of sinning by breaking the
fourth of the Ten Commandments. The problem with this is that these rules set
up by the religious leaders did not come from God. These were mans rules. You
had better be very careful when you teach the Word of God that you do not add
your own ideas. The goal must always be to teach Gods Word, and Gods Word
only. It is very easy for human beings to think they are teaching Gods Word,
when in fact they are teaching an interpretation, or a tradition of man. Here
is the warning from Revelation 22:18-19, For I
testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If
any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues
that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words
of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of
life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this
book.
Notice what Jesus did on the Sabbath Day in
Matthew 12:1, Jesus went on the sabbath day
through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the
ears of corn, and to eat. As far as the religious leaders were
concerned and the definitions that they came up with for work, Jesus was
clearly breaking the fourth commandment. But the religious leaders were wrong.
There is no commandment that says, On the Sabbath Day thou shalt not go
through the ears of corn and pluck the ears of corn. Jesus used the scriptures
to show that what He was doing was not wrong. King David went into the house of
God and took the showbread when David and his men were hungry. According to the
law, was the showbread reserved only for the priests? Yes. The law prescribes
that the bread was to be placed along with many other items before the Lord
as a part of the Sabbath ceremonies. No allowance is given for a non-priest to
come into the tabernacle, and take that bread and eat it because they were
hungry. But that is exactly what King David did. David thought it was the right
thing to do, and Jesus said that it was the right thing to do. The law did
not allow it explicitly, but there was nothing wrong with doing it. King David
made a decision about the showbread. And now Jesus made a decision about the
ears of corn in the field. One way that I interpret this is that from the
standpoint of the day of the week it is never wrong to
do the work that you must do to feed
yourself or your family. The main point that Jesus made from this incident was:
the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.
The religious leaders were not lords of the Sabbath Day, even though they
claimed that they were. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath Day because He is Lord of
all. Do not listen to one word of what any human
being tells you that you can do or cannot do on the Sabbath Day or any other
day where these human beings try to put their restrictions. Only Jesus is
Lord of the Sabbath Day.
In Matthew 12:7 Jesus gave the reason that the
religious leaders did not understand the Sabbath Day. Jesus said to them, But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy,
and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. God is a
God of mercy. Since we are all sinners, our relationship with Him is always
dependent upon His mercy towards us and not dependent upon the good works that
we do. You can sacrifice all you want: you can sacrifice your time and your
effort and your freedom. But works will never bring you closer to God. You are
a greater sinner than you think you are. Jesus accepts you through your faith
in Him because He is merciful, and for no other reasons. The religious leaders
do not understand this, and so they have put burdens and rules and regulations
upon people, including their own commands concerning the Sabbath Day and
concerning Sunday, and therefore they have
condemned the guiltless.
There were several times in the gospels that Jesus
healed someone on the Sabbath Day, and then the religious leaders condemned
Jesus for having broken the Sabbath Day. In one of these incidents that occurred
on the Sabbath Day during the life of Christ, the Bible says in Luke 6:6-11, And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he
entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was
withered. And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on
the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew
their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and
stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. Then said Jesus unto
them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or
to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? And looking round about upon
them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his
hand was restored whole as the other. And they were filled with madness; and
communed one with another what they might do to Jesus. The lesson
concerning the Sabbath Day that Jesus gave is very basic: it is never wrong to
do the right thing. There is no day of the week in which you must say, I
cannot do this good thing because of what day it is. That would be ridiculous.
In other words all days are the same when it comes to doing a good deed. All
days are the same when it comes to doing a good work.
Jesus said in Mark 2:27, The
sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. This statement
definitely has a very practical side to it. The human body needs rest
periodically. After a hard week of work, it is good to have a day of rest. In
the Old Testament the exact day that you should rest was defined for you. Now
you can choose your own times to rest, but you still need rest. Understanding
that people would need rest, the Lord established the Sabbath Day. He did not
establish the Sabbath Day in order to put restrictions on people, but so that
people would have the rest that they would so surely need. The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the
Sabbath.
There is only one place in the epistles of the New
Testament where the Sabbath Day is mentioned directly. It says in Colossians
2:9-17 concerning Jesus, For in him dwelleth all
the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the
head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also
ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath
raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the
uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having
forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that
was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing
it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew
of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in
meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of
the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of
Christ. This passage of scripture is emphasizing that Jesus has done
everything for the believer, and the believer can do nothing for Himself.
Notice what it says about all that Jesus has done for us and all that Jesus is
for us: 1. We are complete in him. 2. We are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. 3. We are Buried with him in baptism. 4. We are quickened together with him. 5. Jesus has
forgiven us all trespasses. 6. Jesus has
blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was
against us. 7. Jesus spoiled
principalities and powers.
These are just a few of the things that Jesus has
done for those who believe. Because Jesus has done all these things for us
including the keeping of the law, we are free from the law. Even so, there will always be people and ideas around
trying to put us back under the law. But
it says in Colossians 2:16, Let no man therefore
judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon,
or of the sabbath days. Because of your position in Christ and
because of all that Jesus has done for you, let no one judge concerning what
you eat or drink. You are no longer under the law or the dietary requirements
of the law. Let no one judge you concerning your keeping of a holyday or a new
moon. For example, it says in Second Chronicles 2:4, Behold,
I build an house to the name of the LORD my God, to dedicate it to him, and to
burn before him sweet incense, and for the continual shewbread, and for the
burnt offerings morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons,
and on the solemn feasts of the LORD our God. This is an ordinance for ever
to
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Copyright; 2010 by Charles
F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved