How should we understand Sabbath? (Ex 20:8 - 11)

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church further exploring Sunday's teachings.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey, how are you doing today? Tim here, and uh we are diving deep into the 10 words of life. So I wanted to pick up on the Sabbath. Um, and uh it was funny, James alluded that hey, Tim will be talking about exactly um how to understand the Sabbath for uh followers of Jesus. So I guess I guess that's what I'm doing. I thought uh in this first episode of this week, I'd talk some about how we think about um as uh as as uh followers of Jesus on this side of the cross and resurrection, how we think about the Sabbath, because I think then in the next couple episodes it'll help lay a groundwork for what are some of the implications. Um so you know, we've uh you know, we heard about the Sabbath, Exodus 20, um, eight through eleven. Um there's also uh uh uh another version in Deuteronomy where the ten words are are repeated. But remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, six days you shall labor and do all your work. And then it goes on to say, for in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day, therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Now, the uh now this was of course a couple just details for Israelites, Hebrews, and then first century Jews, Jesus' day. A couple details. One, um, the day began at with night. Um you see this in uh Genesis uh one. Uh there was evening, there was morning, the first day. So that's how um that's how the Hebrew scriptures count time. Um so Sabbath begins with sundown, um, and then it ends with the following sundown. So not midnight to midnight, sundown to sundown. Uh secondly, um the the seventh day was considered what we would call Saturday. So um Sabbath was Friday at sundown till Saturday at sundown. Um that is what the Sabbath was, and still, even you know, James talked about being in modern-day Israel, that's still when Sabbath Shabbat is observed uh by faithful Jews uh to this day. Uh Friday, sundown, Saturday sundown. Um this shows up at Jesus' crucifixion, he's crucified on a Friday, and they need to break his legs, make sure he's dead uh before uh before Sabbath. Of course, he's already, they don't break his legs uh because he's already passed away. But that's when um Sabbath is. Now, the question that I think um uh Christians uh face is like what uh there's a couple questions. Do we as followers of Jesus still observe a 24 hour no-working uh time? And if so, what day is it on? Uh Saturday or Sunday? And there's been there's been different, you know, um Seventh-day Adventists. They they say it's Saturday, that is 24-hour prior hour period Saturdays. Um the Puritans, um, they said it was Sunday. Um, and they said you gotta be really strict. 24 hour, no working, no nothing. Um, now other Christians have said actually this is uh this is a uh it's more like one of the ceremonial laws. It's more like circumcision or worship at the temple, that it has been fulfilled as a sign in Christ, but there's still uh wisdom to be gleaned from it. So that's that's another option as well. And so I'm gonna talk about these and why the different ones um uh kind of take these different viewpoints. So um the you know, for those who say it this is still a binding 24-hour period, they would usually point back to the fact that it is grounded in creation, right? That um Genesis uh 2 um God uh for six days God created the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested. And uh when people argue, hey, this is this is a binding uh 24-hour period, they say it's it's um it's it's uh built out of creation, and so it seems like it should still be binding for all people. Wasn't just a Sinai thing, it was a creation thing, and the other things in the Ten Commandments, like uh murder, stealing, these are still binding, and therefore um this is still a binding principle. So that's um that's the argument. Uh of course, Adventists would say it's still binding on Saturday. Um, you know, other Christians like the Puritans would say no, it's binding on Sundays because after the resurrection, the day of worship and rest got transferred to Sunday. So that's that's the argument. Um now uh a lot of uh well let's okay, so um by the time of Jesus, uh this 24-hour period, Friday, Sunday, Friday sunset to Saturday Sunday, was very strictly observed by Jewish people. Jesus observed Sabbath just like he went to temple, just like he observed Jewish laws. He did heal people on the Sabbath, and that um really upset those who wanted to observe it more strictly. And then he audaciously claimed that he was Lord of the Sabbath. Um he said the Sabbath is not uh made for man, uh man for the Sabbath or man is not made for the Sabbath, Sabbath made for man, and I am the Lord of the Sabbath, which was an audacious claim. And so that's but we don't get the we don't get a clear image from the life of Jesus of how Christians are meant to interact with Sabbath. We really begin to get the hints that maybe something has changed with Sabbath when we get into the New Testament uh letters, because the Sabbath, and I've I've uh made allusions to this in some of the other ten word sermons, unlike the other commands, idolatry, murder, adultery, covetousness that get repeated in the New Testament, the Sabbath command never gets repeated. In fact, it seems to get referred to as um something more like circumcision or temple worship. There's two kind of key places where this happens. Um in Romans uh 14, uh Paul's writing to the church in Rome where there's Jew-Gentile tension, and he says, one person considers one day more sacred than another, another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own minds. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord, and then he goes on from there. But he essentially he's saying that some of you are going to consider one day more special, some of you aren't. And Paul doesn't say one's right, one's wrong. Paul's helping them learning to live together in Christian harmony. Uh in Colot that was uh Romans 14, beginning in verse 5, uh Colossians 2, beginning verse 16, he's even more direct. Paul says, Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration, or a Sabbath day. So don't let anyone judge you according to a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality, however, is found in Christ. So that a Sabbath is a shadow of something to come and the reality is found in Christ. And then we get that a similar idea to that shadow reality picked up in Hebrews 4. Uh and um, and I'm not going to read this, but essentially in Hebrews 4, that whole chapter is that there is a Sabbath rest that is only to be found spiritually by trusting in Christ, is what we get in Romans 4 or in Hebrews 4. And you can look at that for yourself. And so when people look at these sets of scriptures, um there seems to be the sense, hey, Sabbath as this kind of sign. In fact, Exodus 31, if you look at Exodus 31, talks about Sabbath as a sign. Sign in the same way that like circumcision was a sign, in the same way, like going to the temple was a sign. No, it's it seems to no longer be this sign that is meant to mark the people of God. It was real that seems like it was really meant for the Hebrew people in the in the Old Testament times as a sign, um, but it doesn't seem to be binding on New Testament Christians as like a strict moral law. There's this the the the rest that it pointed to is found in Christ, that He is our rest spiritually, um and uh and then this is no longer this binding moral law upon Christians. So um and uh and so those are kind of the so we've got these big kind of positions, you know, strict Saturday observance, strict Sunday observance, and it's a it's a uh it's a uh the sign is fulfilled in Christ. But um many of those who would say this is a sign fulfilled in Christ would go on to say that that doesn't mean there is no um uh like instruction for New Testament Christians in this. So in the same way that even though we no longer um do animal sacrifices as part of our worship, we still can learn about worship by studying animal sacrifices. Uh you know, one of the things you learn is that um worship was meant to cost you something when you read through a book like Leviticus. And I think that instructs us. Worship should still cost us something uh towards the Lord, even though we don't um observe that in the same literal way, it still has instruction for us. And so for those who say Sabbath was a sign fulfilled in Christ, they would go on to say it still instructs us, but it's gonna act more like a wisdom principle than a strict literal interpretation. And so um I would say that last camp is where I land, that it does seem when you read those those teachings of Romans, Colossians, Hebrews, that um in a strict uh 24-hour, here's exactly what work means, uh, observance, Sabbath is no longer binding on Christians in the same way. That being said, uh, like all the Hebrew scriptures, it still carries uh important instruction for us, and particularly in our um uh 24-7, always on day and age. And so um in the next couple of episodes, I want to unpack more about what that wisdom teaching is and how do we then um apply it in our lives? Because frankly, it's a it's simpler if it's just like okay, literal 24 period, this is the day, these are the things you're allowed to do, these are the things you're not allowed to do. That's simpler, right? The rules are always simpler. Um, I don't think that's where the New Testament leads us. Um, I think the New Testament says these the literal um observance was filled in Christ, and yet uh there is still a kind of embodied physical rest for us and for those that we have influence other over that uh scripture still leads us into. And so um we'll go into that over the next couple episodes and dig a little deeper. I just wanted to lay some groundwork on how do we as Christians even think about this. If this podcast episode didn't make any sense, feel free to send me some questions, I can clarify more. Um it took a little longer than normal, but it is a bit of a complex, and I, you know, I try to move through it. It is a bit of a complex discussion. How do we think about the literal 24 hour observance of Sabbath? Hopefully this is helpful, and um, we'll dig deeper into Sabbath in the next couple episodes. And may you find rest in Christ this week.