Lesson 268 - Senior
Memory Verse
Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight" (Acts 20:7).
Cross References
I Keeping of the Sabbath Day
1. God commanded Israel to observe a Sabbath, [EXO:20:8]; [EXO:16:23-30]; [EXO:31:12-17]; [EXO:34:21]; [GEN:2:3]; [LEV:19:3]; [LEV:26:1-2]; [LEV:23:3].
2. Desecration of the Sabbath was not tolerated under the Law, [EXO:31:14]; [NUM:15:32-36]; [DEU:5:12-15]; [NEH:9:14]; [NEH:10:31]; [NEH:13:15]; [EZE:20:13]; [EZE:22:8].
3. God's blessing was promised to all the Jews who kept the Sabbath, [ISA:56:2]; [ISA:58:13-14]; [JER:17:20-27]; [EZE:20:12], [EZE:20:20].
4. The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, [MAT:12:1-8]; [MAK:2:27]; [LUK:6:1-5].
II Christian Observance of the Lord's Day
1. God has placed His approval upon the observance of the first day of the week, as holy unto Him, by many revelations of Himself to His people on that day, [MAT:28:1-2]; [JHN:20:17-27]; [LUK:24:1-45]; [ACT:2:1-4]; [ACT:20:6-7]; [1CO:16:2]; [REV:1:10].
Notes
The Sabbath Day Kept Holy
Since the time of the creation of the world man has known of the truth of a Sabbath. In Genesis we read the account of the first Sabbath. "On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made" [GEN:2:2-3]).
God's instruction to Israel regarding their walk before Him had much to say about keeping the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, holy unto Him. Israel was required to observe the Sabbath, under penalty of death. However, Israel was not coerced into the keeping of the Sabbath as something they had to submit to by reason of force. At Mount Sinai Israel had acceded to all that God would command them. (Read [EXO:19:8].) The Sabbath was then given to them as a covenant between God and them, as a sign of their promise of service to Him. (See [EXO:31:17].) In the Bible much reference is made to this covenant because of Israel's failure to keep that which they had promised.
Sabbath Blessing
While Israel was left with no alternative but to observe the Sabbath, yet great blessing was promised them for obedience. For instance: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it" [ISA:58:13-14]).
The First Day of the Week
With the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the worship of God under the dispensation and procedures of the Law was done away with. From that time forward the worship of God was in spirit and in truth, even as Jesus had told the woman at the well of Samaria it would be (See [JHN:4:23-24].) When the worship of God through the Tabernacle sacrifices ceased, so also ended the observances of the seventh day as the Sabbath.
The Apostles a few years later wrote to the various churches regarding the matter of the keeping of the old Jewish ceremonies and Sabbaths. "Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:... For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well" [ACT:15:24], [ACT:15:28-29]).
From the founding of the New Testament Church, disciples began to observe the first day of the week a holy unto the Lord. There was more authority and authenticity to this observance also than mere custom; for God, beginning with the resurrection of Christ, placed His approval upon this day in many ways.
The resurrection of Christ lent great emphasis to the change from the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian observance of the Lord's Day. Christ arose on the first day of the week. According to Biblical accounts, Jesus emphasised worship on the first day in a special way by meeting with His people as they gathered to worship Him on the first day of the week. God does bless the worship of Him on every day, but emphatically more so on the first day. God does not bless His people with His Spirit if He is not pleased with their actions. Let any and all who say otherwise prove, by the presenting of transformed lives, that God is pleased with any other form or time of worship. Where God's blessing is, sinners are saved, and their lives transformed.
Desecration of the Sabbath
Israel was found wanting many times during their history in that they did not respect the Sabbath. During the Dispensation of Grace it has been common for men to ignore their obligations to the Lord on the first day of the week. While capital punishment does not threaten all who do not observe the Lord's Day, yet observance is morally right; and he who defies it suffers moral condemnation and spiritual privation.
Regardless of what others do or fail to do, the Christian is morally obligated to observe the first day of the week as holy unto the Lord. The promises of the blessings of God, which were given to Israel if they would keep the Sabbath can be appropriated by the Christian today, if he will obey God in the keeping of the Lord's Day.
Of what does keeping the first day of the week holy unto God consist? Primarily it means that our day is devoted to spiritual things as much as circumstances permit. Certainly no Christian is working at secular labour if it is at all possible to do otherwise. Very seldom can a bona fide reason be given to the satisfaction of a good conscience that secular work is necessary on the Lord's Day. Other than the needs of human beings and animals for food and shelter, most commerce and business can and should cease on the first day of the week.
The Law stated: "In earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest" [EXO:34:21]). Here was the command of God for Israel to come aside from their daily labours in the busiest times of the year, and give worship to God. God is still the same, and even though we live in a more enlightened age, there is no reason to think God has taken any other attitude since. If He gave Israel the command then, we can be assured the command still stands to His people, and should be obeyed and practiced.
Holiness unto the Lord
With a little foresight, the household needs of every one can be met before the Lord's Day, and necessary duties can be held to a minimum. We do not observe this day according to our neighbour's ideas of it, but we do our best to keep in the spirit, and in a state of mind that is pleasing unto God. Much of the day is spent in the House of God in worship, or in the service of God. Many times, groups of Christians gather for early morning-prayer meetings that God will bless the day unto Himself, and unto His glory. This is an admirable way to start the first hours of the first day of the week, petitioning the Lord for His blessing for others and us through the coming days.
Modern business has become so eager for more profits that many nationwide chain stores and innumerable independent stores are open for business seven days a week. A rapidly growing practice for stores is to remain open on Sunday and close one day during the week. The general public uses Sunday for recreation and pleasure seeking to such an extent that Sunday has become the most profitable business day of the week for many concerns. The Christian should not be propagating and assisting such enterprises by his patronage on the Lord's Day. Grocery stores are the worst offenders; and people who patronise them on the Lord's Day are simply helping them desecrate the day. Ample provisions for the weekend can be bought for family needs on Saturday. A Christian would rather go without some needed item than to be a participant in desecrating the Lord's Day and a comrade of those whose motto seems to be "business first -" and most of all on Sunday."
The Christian does not do secular work on the Lord's Day, and neither does he desire to make it a day of personal pleasure seeking. He desires to do that which is pleasing unto his Lord, whether it is always pleasing to himself or not. There are those who think they have license to spend the Lord's Day at the beach, the park, on picnics, or indulging in some form of recreation without regard for the worship of God. This is a desecration of the Lord's Day! One of the indictments God brings against the generation of the last days is that they are "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God" [2TM:3:4]). Such things do not go unnoticed by the Lord. The proper desires of a child of God is to be in the House of God on the Lord's Day to enjoy and to participate in the worship of God as it is carried on. His greatest joy and his very life is in the worship of God. Those who seek recreation, so-called, on the Lord's Day, without regard for the worship of God, have either lost the joy of salvation out of their heart or have never possessed it.
Travelling on the Lord's Day should not be done except for real emergencies. To deliberately leave the worship of God and the House of God to travel, is, a serious breach of conduct. God cannot be pleased with such things. Personal discomfort may sometimes be caused from delaying a journey until after worship services of the day are finished; but such delay or discomfort should be gladly accepted as a willing service and devotion to God. Every effort should be made to be in a place on Sunday where the worship of God can be participated in and enjoyed. We should stay wherever we are on the Lord's Day and not be travelling just to satisfy our own desires to be somewhere else by nightfall or morning. God's protection is needed on highways crowded with Sunday pleasures seekers. To travel without more cause than mere personal desire would seem to be presuming on the mercies of God.
The Christian is not under the bondage of force to keep the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, sanctified to the Lord; but he does so as a token of his love for God and in recognition of his moral obligation to God. The Christian desires to be drawn closer to the Lord, through the medium of worship, and the sanctifying of the first day of the week unto God is his greatest pleasures.
Questions
1. When was the first Sabbath? And who observed it?
2. What does the word Sabbath mean?
3. Why did Israel keep the Sabbath?
4. Why was the keeping of the Sabbath originally a matter of Israel's free choice?
5. When was the Jewish Sabbath done away with?
6. How do we know that God desires men today to observe the first day of the week as holy unto Him?
7. What is the proper way to observe the Lord's Day?