In Matthew 5:17,
Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish
them, but to fulfill them.” Jesus came to bring completion to the Old
Covenant and to establish a New Covenant relationship between God and man. As we make the transition from the Old
Covenant to the New, we’ll see that Jesus brought about completion to God’s
redemptive plan. The redemption of Israel
from their slavery in Egypt is seen in light of what it previews; in light of
what it points forward to. Namely, that
Christ is our Passover Lamb and that through Him we have redemption by His
blood, freedom from our slavery to sin, and the promise of life eternal.
God promised to
redeem His people from their slavery, bring them through the wilderness, and
into a land flowing with milk and honey.
Surely we can see the typology, the symbolism and foreshadowing . . .
God, through Christ, has brought completion to His plan of redemption . . .
through His death and even more so through His resurrection.
It’s easy then
to recognize that the pattern established in the Old Testament Sabbath day
observance is picked up and applied in the New Testament. The pattern we observe in the New Testament
of the First Century Church is that, after the resurrection, the followers of
Jesus would meet on the first day of the week, rather than the seventh. We see this precedent set throughout
scripture from the book of Acts on. In
Acts 20:7, we find the Church meeting on the first day of the week. The same in indicated in I Corinthians 16:1 .
. . and in Revelation 1:10, we find John writing of being “in the Spirit on the
Lord’s day” not on the Sabbath day clearly making a distinction between the 1st
day of the week and the 7th.
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| Refreshed - Renewed - Restored |
So, here’s the
connection . . . as the redemption brought about for Israel gave sanction to
the Sabbath institution under the Old Covenant, so also the redemption brought
about through the resurrection gives sanction to the sacredness of the first
day of the week.
According to the
precedent set in the New Testament, after the resurrection, the Sabbath was
changed from the last day of the week to the first. But the change in the day did not indicate a change
in purpose. As we observe the abiding
principle of the Sabbath today, we do so with the same intent and purpose . . .
to be refreshed physically, renewed emotionally, and restored spiritually.
We violate and
dishonor the Sabbath in one of two ways . . . the first is neglect. We simply fail to recognize the importance of
stopping the busy-ness of life to spend time being refreshed, renewed, and
restored in the presence of God. The
second is through formal observance.
That is, we simply go through the motions of fulfilling the religious
requirement. Both of which we must fight
against. The Sabbath is a day to set
aside selfish indulgence; to cease the mindless servitude to the pursuit of
worldly gain and refresh and refocus our hearts and minds on the pursuit of the
things of God.
Let me conclude by going back to where I started:
We
live in a ridiculously fast paced world.
Everything seems to fly by at the speed of life. We eat fast-food, drive in the fast-lane, and
live life in fast-forward. We have
high-speed internet, instant downloads, and automatic transfers. We are inundated with technology, business,
and busy-ness. Life becomes a blur and
we struggle to get from one event to the next as we navigate from work, to
school, to sporting events, to dance lessons, gymnastics, soccer practice, and
the myriad other events vying for our time.
We struggle to squeeze in time for God by coming to worship, but really
it’s only one more thing on our list of things we have to do – one more thing
we need to get over with so we can mindlessly move on to the next . . .
whatever it is.
Maybe
now more than ever, we need to stop the fast-forward and hit the pause button .
. . and contemplate the importance and the value of remembering the Sabbath
day, to keep it holy.
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