Is the Sabbath required for New Covenant Christians - 4

Sabbath Discussion – 4
• This series of four sermons was presented to congregations that have come out of a Saturday Sabbath background
• There is also a chart which accompanies these sermons and can be obtained by sending an email to wcg3gr@wcg.org.au
What was the purpose of the Sabbath in the Mosaic Covenant
• In Ex 31 it tells us it was to be a sign.
• Exodus 31:12-13 (NKJV)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.
• A sign or sign post is not the focus of the sign – its the thing or event to which it points
• The sign outside the church building points people to what happens in the building, the focus is on what happens in the building
• So we have to look at the Sabbath Day as a sign post that points us to something
• In this section of scripture we see two things identified as the object of the sign. It was a sign in that it pointed both backwards and forwards
• 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.’ ”
• So it pointed backwards in the sense that on the Sabbath the Israelites were commanded to mimic the way Adam and Eve lived on that seventh day
• Eden - they enjoyed an intimate spiritual rest with God in Eden – there was no sin, no need to work, no disharmony
• In other works, they enjoyed physical and spiritual rest
• Sinai – At Sinai the Israelites were commanded not to go out of their place on the Sabbath in order to mimic the rest Adam and Eve enjoyed before sin entered
• Eden – Adam and Eve ate freely from the garden
• Sinai – The Israelites were commanded to prepare their food on the sixth day so they could eat freely without any preparation on the Sabbath
• Eden – Adam and Eve did not labor on that first 7th day. They rested in the finished work of God
• Sinai – The Israelites were commanded to finish their work on the sixth day so they too could rest on the 7th day.
• So it reminded the Israelites of a time when God did not have “to work” and he reinforced this by prohibiting any work on that day
• It was to remind them of “the spiritual rest” mankind enjoyed with God in Eden before “sin” entered the equation
But it also looks forward
• Ex 31:13……for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
• Who ultimately sanctifies us? Jesus Christ
• So the Sabbath Day also pointed forward to the one who would ultimately sanctify us or give us true spiritual rest through His saving Work
• That’s why Jesus said, Matthew 11:28-30 (NKJV) Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
• Can anything else but Jesus Christ give us spiritual rest?
• Can the signpost give us Spiritual Rest? No
• Yet in the past our focus was on the Day
• But we weren’t the first to make that mistake – the Pharisees in Jesus’ time did exactly the same thing
• The reality was standing right in front of them yet they continued