Why Remembering The Sabbath Day Is Important

Sunday Sermon Notes

Worshipers holding their hands in the air at a Christian worship service

 

April 23, 2017

 

(NKJV) Ex 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,  10 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 your stranger who is within your gates.  11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. 

 

Remembering The Sabbath

 

  •  Setting the record straight

    • The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. 

      • The first day of the week is Sunday. 

      • That makes Saturday the seventh and officially the Sabbath day.

    • However, we are told from our readings in the New Testament, the first Christians met on the first day of the week symbolizing their complete trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

(NKJV) Ac 20:7 Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. 

 

(NKJV) 1 Co 16:1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also:  2 On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.

      • See also Paul preached to them a sermon. Preaching is right for Sabbath. The 7th day. 

      • We should honor the principal established by the first church to honor God by presenting our bodies to worship, fellowship and listen to the teachings of God's word at least one day out of the week.

 

    • On the Sabbath day, to the early Christians, Jesus was dead and in the tomb. 

      • Therefore, the first day of the week represented salvation and resurrection!

      • We are joined to a living Christ that has overcome the world, Satan and his demons!

      • Therefore, based upon the resurrection the Christians adopted Sunday as their Sabbath. Especially the Gentiles.

 

  • The Sabbath’s creation and its meaning to God.

(NKJV) Ge 1:31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. 

 

(NKJV) Ge 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.  

 

2 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.  3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. 

 

      • God blessed this day and made it special!

    • Let us note two things:

      • God rested – he did no further work. This sanctified it from other days in which he worked.

      • He blessed the seventh day.

 

    • Let us consider what God did.

      • Recognizing that God created man on the sixth day in the evening of that day, the very first thing he did on the seventh day was rest from work and fellowship with Adam!

        • Consider the first thing Adam did after being created was spend time resting and fellowshipping with God.

      • God ended his week creating man and man began his week fellowshipping with God!

GOD ENDED HIS WEEK FELLOWSHIPPING MAN

MAN BEGAN HIS WEEK FELLOWSHIPPING WITH GOD!

 

        • The Sabbath was God’s seventh day but it was man's first full day!

          • This is another reason for Sunday worship of God.

        • Adam began his week with God and rested with God to prepare for the work he would do the rest of the week.

    • Let us consider what man did

      • Man did no work on the seventh day because God had not assigned any work for him to do at this point.

      • Man's work began on Monday.

(NKJV) Ge 2:15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 

 

      • The Sabbath was the first full day that the man saw. On this day, he did no work. All he did was commune with God. 

        • This should make it clear for us God's original purpose for the Sabbath.

        • A time for him and man to fellowship together!

        • Consider how short we fall of his original desire! 

        • How many of us actually spend time on the seventh day communing with God?

    • The Sabbath was set apart for man to devote (make holy) his time for relating to God.

    • It is important to note that the concept of the Sabbath day predates the 10 Commandments. The requirement to set apart one day out of the week has nothing to do with the law.

      • Sabbath, the seventh day of rest was in the beginning before the law.

      • That man was supposed to honor God one day out of the week predates even religion!

    • It is robbery of honor to God for any person not to submit themselves to one day out of every week yield to the will of God to rest and have fellowship with him. 

 

    • What did God say in Exodus 20:8?

Ex 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  

      • We are to remember the purpose of the Sabbath. We are to make note, keep in consideration that there is a day out of every week that is to be a holy day.

      • What the word holy mean? 

        • it is from the Hebrew word Kadosh. 

          • It means to be set apart (devoted, dedicated) specifically for the Lord's use!

    • The Sabbath is to be sanctified, made different from every other day by being set apart, devoted or dedicated as a special day to honor, worship and bring adoration to the Lord.

    • It is to be a day, a complete day(24hrs) in which we focus on worship to our God. Our creator!

 

    • How sad it is that so many fail to reverence this day. The purpose of the Sabbath is not to rest from God but to rest with God!

THE PURPOSE OF THE SABBATH IS NOT TO REST FROM GOD 

BUT TO REST WITH GOD!

      • It is to be Holy by having it set apart for God's use!

    • Man is to do no work for himself but he is to show value to God by doing things working for the glory and honor of God.

    • Remember, the Sabbath day to keep it devoted to God.

 

    • Honoring the Sabbath and keeping it devoted to honoring God means blessings in one's life. If you put God first at the beginning of the week, you will be more productive throughout the rest of the week. 

 

      • Consider first if there is anything God tells us to do that doesn’t mean blessing to us?

 

The mouth the Lord has spoken:

(NIV84) Is 58:13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,  

 

14 then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” The mouth of the LORD has spoken. 

 

    • After all that God has done for us, how can a person be so ungrateful and disrespectful to ignore that God, who created us once one day, one day out of the seven that he is given us, one day for us to indicate by our lives that he is worth us giving time to him?

      • This is one of the reasons the Jewish leaders were so incensed when someone would break Sabbath! It was the height of disrespect towards the creator.

      • It is still almost unthinkable when one understands the truth of how much God has done for us for us to ignore such a simple request to remember a day for him! 

    • Look at how the Jews viewed disrespect towards the Lord's day.

(NKJV) Ex 31:12 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,  13 “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.  

 

14 You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.  

 

15 Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.  16 Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.  17 It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’ ” 

 

      • The fact that we honor a day of worship towards the Lord God says it is a sign of a covenant between us and him.

        • notice he says this twice to indicate a special relationship. Because of it he sets us apart from others.

      • Notice the reason why one day out of the week is to be devoted to your relationship with God. It is not because of the 10 Commandments, it is because that is the way God planned it.

17 It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’ ” 

 

      • Why would you disrespect this special relationship that God wants to have with you? 

      • Coming to church symbolizes God is special to you and he in turn recognizes and respects the reality that you are his child.

        • He will treat you different from all of the other people's of the world.

      • We have too much to lose by ignoring the responsibility to give God one day out of the week.

 

    • Oftentimes the Jews were upset with Christ for doing what they called work on Sabbath.

(NKJV) Mt 12:9 Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue.  10 And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him.  

 

11 Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?  12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. 13 Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.  

 

14 Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him. 

 

      • They saw the Sabbath as a day that was to be devoted to God. Anything that was done outside of reverence to God was a crime.

      • Such activity would cause the whole nation to lose the blessings of God.

      • One man's individual excuse to violate the Sabbath was no excuse to risk the blessings of God to the whole nation being jeopardized.

      • They went too far in that they made the Sabbath a rule and missed the spirit of what the Sabbath was created for.

 

    • Jesus had this wonderful response at another time that teaches us much about the Sabbath.

(NKJV) Mk 2:23 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain.  24 And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”  25 But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him:  26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?”  

 

27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 

      • Look at the last phrase. the Sabbath was made for man.

GOD CREATED THE SABBATH FOR OUR BENEFIT! 

NOT HIS!

      • By keeping the Sabbath we are blessed! 

    • Not only is the Sabbath a day of rest for us from the labors of the past week, it secures for us the blessings of God for the week to come!

      • Our Sabbath is at the first of the week but if you count from Monday it is the 7th day of the week

      • No one questions the importance of prayer before a work is done because there is the understanding that with prayer we have God's help and our work is easier.

      • Just as it is with our Sabbath. Beginning the week with worship to God secures God's help with the days and the rest of the week.

      • It may not mean anything to us, but God says, it is holy to him.

        • God values his time with us!

        • The question is, do we value our time with him?

    • In Isaiah 56:4 we see again that those who keep Sabbath, having a special day out of the week committed to the Lord, receive special blessings!

(NKJV) Is 56:4 For thus says the LORD: “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me, And hold fast My covenant,  5 Even to them I will give in My house And within My walls a place and a name Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name That shall not be cut off. 

 

    • Looking back on what Jesus did on Sabbath is an indication to us of what we should be doing on Sabbath. What did he do? He did good works!

(NKJV) Mt 12:9 Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue.  10 And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him.  11 Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?  12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”  13 Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.  

 

(NKJV) Lk 13:10 Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.  11 And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up.  12 But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.”  13 And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.  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 on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.”  15 The Lord then answered him and said, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it?  16 So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” 

 

(NKJV) Jn 5:1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.  3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.  4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.  5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.  6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”  7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”  8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”  9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. 

 

    • Jesus did the works of God on Sabbath. Therefore, Sunday is not only a day of fellowship with God, it is a day to do works that honor God and show worship of him!

SABBATH IS A DAY TO DO THE WORKS THAT HONOR GOD AND SHOW WORSHIP OF HIM!

(NKJV) Mt 12:12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 

 

    • We too should honor the Sabbath by doing acts of kindness to others on this day! 

      • It is right to work in the house of God on Sabbath doing labor not for ourselves, but for the glory of God. 

        • The labor of sowing honor and sowing worth to God assures for an individual the blessings of God in the coming week.

      • It is right not only to praise and worship God but it is also right to present our bodies to labor and serve doing the works of God! 

 

    •  Finally, the Lord reminded me this morning of the word he said regarding the Sabbath and regarding worshiping him one day out of the week.

(NKJV) Ex 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,  10 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 your stranger who is within your gates.  11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. 

 

    • The word remember reminded me of the word remember. Think about this.

Ecc 12 :1 Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come, And the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them”: 2 While the sun and the light, The moon and the stars, Are not darkened, And the clouds do not return after the rain;

      • We are learning that if we remember God while we are young, he will remember us as we get older.

      • It is important in the days of our youth to practice remembering the sabbath to make it holy so that God will remember us in our old age so that our strength equal our days.  

      • Very often we are told in scripture that God remembered. As we remember what we sow we reap, when we sow remembrance of a day for God, we will reap remembrance from God for the days of our lives.

 

    •  Are you honoring the Sabbath?

 

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