“Remember the Sabbath
day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but
the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you
shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant,
or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within
your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the
sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore
the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus
20:8-11)
A non-pastor friend and I
were talking last week about the Bible’s concept of Sabbath and Sunday
observance. He pointed out the following idea: If we live an average lifespan—77
years according to the National Center for Health Statistics (2020), we’ll have
lived 674,200 hours. If our time with God and his people is 1 hour a week, then
over the course of our lifetime, we’ll have spent 4,004 hours in worship. While
that might seem like a lot—it’s nearly 167 full days, it’s only 0.6% of that 77-year-long
life spent in worship to God with the people of God. That doesn’t take into
account personal devotions and prayer or midweek meetings, but it also doesn’t
account for all the times we might miss or skip Sunday worship services because
of illness or inclement weather or travel or sports or work or because we don’t
feel like going—all of which further decrease that fraction of one percent of our
lifetime spent with God’s people in worship.
What’s the big deal about
Saturdays, Sundays, Sabbaths, and Lord’s Days? The Israelite/Jewish concept of
a day is sunset-sunset. This is why you see in Genesis 1, And there was
evening and there was morning, the ______ day. When God spoke the fourth
commandment to the Israelites, he told them they were to use the first six days
of the week (sunset Saturday-sunset Friday) for work and then on the seventh
day (sunset Friday-sunset Saturday) rest. God rooted it in his own rest in
creation. Going forward in the Old Testament, there are more instructions
against working, making others work, buying things, and even how they did
things at home. God was serious about them resting and it being the best thing
for them!
Some Christian traditions
today still use Saturday as their day of worship because of that, but most have
shifted to Sunday. Why? Because it’s the day of the week on which Jesus rose
from the dead! We see this modeled in the early church: On the first day of
the week, when we gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them… (Acts
20:7). I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day… (Revelation 1:10). The
first day of the week is Sunday and because of the resurrection it began to be
called “the Lord’s day.” In Acts 15, when the apostles and elders of the early
church were meeting to discuss what was necessary for non-Jewish Christians to
do, observing Saturday as the Sabbath was not one of those things. None of the
other 10 Commandments are named either, though. Yet most Christians would agree
there’s no reason to disregard them.
Different Christian
people and traditions come down in different places regarding whether Sunday is
the new Sabbath and how much of what the Old Testament says about it should apply
to us. That word “Sabbath,” means rest. Observance started because of God’s creation
model and confirmed in his setting a day apart. Practicing it tells us the
world will continue on even if you aren’t doing what you do the other days of
the week. You and I can afford to rest, and we need to rest. The focus is not
dollars—that we’re missing out on profits we could be making. This is for our
good—to worship God, to be refreshed and give others the time to do that, to
gather and fellowship with his people. It makes a lot of sense for businesses
to be closed on Sunday!
Yet many today see this
concept of the weekend (Friday night-Monday morning) as the end of work and time
to enjoy life however we want. For some, there’s the attitude: I’ll try to fit
God in because that’s what I’m supposed to do. “There’s a Saturday service?
Great, I’ll do what I want all day Saturday, clean up, go to church, and then
I’ve got my whole Sunday free for whatever I want!” Who does church become
about? Where does your rest focus your love? It’s not on God, it’s on you, your
interests, your work, and your pleasure. Another attitude that some take full
advantage of is the assurance we have been saved by God’s grace and there’s
nothing we can do to lose it: “I’ll attend worship, if there’s
absolutely nothing else for me to do. If I can’t gain salvation by attending
worship, but I know I can have fun getting ready and spending all day at the Church
of Lambeau Field or Church of U.S. Bank Stadium with god/Saint Rodgers or god/Saint
Jefferson, then I should be there or joining the livestream of that service
from my couch.”
That 0.6% I mentioned at
the beginning continues to dwindle. In all honesty, I know this sounds harsh
and condescending and maybe it seems like I must think I’m perfect. That last
part definitely isn’t true and please know I don’t stand in the place to judge
you or your faith. I want each of us to think, though, about how we spend our
lives and what we dedicate our time to. The act of attending worship services
won’t save you—I agree with that, but services and how you spend your Sunday
should truly be for your good!
One of the reasons why
some churches have a morning service and a different evening service/Bible
study is because it brings the focus of the whole Sunday on God and resting in
him and with his people. It’s not to show off. It doesn’t earn us additional
grace with God. It does allow those who join, though, to grow in fellowship and
joy and it will over time change your attitude about the whole day. The mindset
of giving God one hour a week now becomes closer to spending 24 hours a week.
Now we’re talking 96,096 hours over the course of 77 years, over 14% of our
lives spent with God and his people in rest.
If you’re a Christian and you haven’t been to church in a while, rejoin God’s people. Remember that they are there to gather together with you to worship God, to encourage you in your walk with the Lord, to point you to Jesus especially in times of trial and temptation. Remember that Sunday wasn’t created just for you to watch football or catch up on projects that didn’t get done or go shopping. You can find time for necessary things in the other six days. God rested from his work, and he encourages us to rest in him, to trust him enough without our constant work and busyness.
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