A Roman Catholic priest, a Pentecostal pastor and a Jewish rabbi were talking one day about their belief in miracles.
The Roman Catholic said that he did believe in miracles and illustrated this by telling of a recent incident when he had flown to Durban. As the aircraft began it’s final approach a tremendous storm broke, the rain was pouring down, there were great peals of thunder and the plane was being buffeted about. The priest had prayed for a miracle and "for a hundred metres around the plane there was a great stillness and the plane landed safely".
The Pentecostal too said that he believed in miracles. When on holiday in Cape Town he and his wife had taken the trip out to Robben Island, on their return to Cape Town harbour however a great wind suddenly rose and the waves were very soon metres high. They feared for their lives and the priest had prayed for a miracle - "for a hundred metres around the boat there was a great stillness and the boat arrived safely in the harbour".
The rabbi said that he had come to believe in miracles through an event that had taken place the previous Saturday. During the Sabbath service a visitor from America had arrived with a suitcase full of ten dollar notes which he gave to the synagogue. "There was a problem, how to count all this money on the Sabbath? So, I prayed for a miracle, and for a hundred metres all round the suitcase it was Wednesday!".
Disclaimer
Title: Keep the Sabbath
Propositional Statement: If we kept the Sabbath, we wouldn’t need to rest
William Barclay tells this story: The first Sunday train from Glasgow to Edinburgh ran on the 13th of March, 1842. Our contemporary journalist, wrote that it was filled with peaceful and respectable persons, gliding quietly away on its mission. The Presbytery of Glasgow, however, denounced the running of Sunday trains as "a flagrant violation of the law of God as expressed in the fourth commandment. A grievous outrage on the religious feelings of the people of Scotland. A powerful temptation to the careless and indifferent to abandon the public ordinances of grace, and most disastrous to the quiet of the rural parishes along the line of the railways by the introduction into every Sabbath of many of the profligate and dissipated to inhabit the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. In Edinburgh a threatening battery of ministers, (quite an image there, a ‘threatening battery of ministers,’ picture it in your mind) lined the platforms and informed the detraining passengers that they have just bought tickets to hell.
What does it mean to keep the Sabbath?
Ex 20:8-11 8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and 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.
1. Do we need to rest?
a. What do you think?
b. Yes, we do need to rest … but we need to work from rest, not rest from work.
c. Tim Noakes: most important part of training is rest
2. Does God need to rest?
a. Is 40:28 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
3. So then what was happening in Gen?
a. Ge 2:1-3 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
b. The word translated ‘rest’ does not mean ‘rest’ as we understand it.
Hebrew is Shabath which means ‘cease’
God created everything so he ceased from creating.
“everything was made, it was perfect … so He stopped making things”
c. Is 58:13-14 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.
i. Many Christians would define the Sabbath as a day when we stop doing what we usually do (Mon to Fri) and we take time out … because we need a rest.
ii. If you then asked them what they would do on a Sabbath: “go to church; go fishing; go shopping; go house hunting; watch a movie … just take some ‘me-time’ so I can chill.
iii. Isaiah disagrees with this definition of Sabbath
iv. So too does God
1. Adam and Eve created on day 6 … first responsibility was to keep a Sabbath.
4. Why is the Sabbath so important?
a. Is it important?
i. Most Christians may say it is important, but don’t behave as if it is
b. It is important … number 4 of the 10 commandments
i. Right up there with the big ones
1. There is only one God … and that’s me
2. Don’t worship any other Gods
3. Don’t take my name in vain
4. remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
5. honor your parents
ii. we make a big deal about murder and stealing … God makes a big deal about taking his name and vain and keeping the Sabbath.
c. Why is it so important?
i. Have a look at the issue surrounding ‘manna’
ii. In wilderness … collect manna; don’t try and keep any … except on last day of week – then collect twice as much because tomorrow is Sabbath.
iii. This is really a trust issue, isn’t it?
iv. Do we trust God to give us manna tomorrow?
Do I trust God to take care of my life, if I take a day to focus on Him
v. If I set aside an hour a day to focus on God will I still get as much done in the day??
d. The Sabbath is important because it is about God and not about man
i. But I thought Jesus said that man was not created for the Sabbath but that the Sabbath was created for man
1. yes, he did say that, but don’t misquote him … don’t take Jesus statement out of context.
a. He was talking to 1st Century Jews who were not influenced by a society dominated by humanistic philosophy
b. Our world view (philosophy) causes us to complete sentences in our heads
c. Our worldview is influenced by ‘me first’ thinking … it’s all about me … humanism (the chief end of man is his happiness)
d. 1st Century Jew’s worldview was God … it’s all about God. They would have completed the sentence “the Sabbath was created for man … to remember God”
we complete “The Sabbath was created for man … to rest”
Conc
If the Sabbath was about rest, then many of us can say “I don’t need to do that”
When we understand that the Sabbath is actually about trusting God, we all have to admit “I need to do that more”
So, keep the Sabbath
“It is said our great-grandfathers called it the holy Sabbath, our grandfathers the Sabbath, our fathers Sunday, and we call it the weekend. We have substituted the holiday for the holy day, recreation for reverence, games for godliness, and dissipation for devotion. In short, we use the gift of the Lord’s Day to destroy the (its) Giver.”
Typing ‘rest’ …. ‘reset’ … that’s what it is
