Making the Most of Your Sabbath Day
Mercy and Necessity and the Spiritual Blessing of Getting Ready to Meet With Jesus
Good Morning,
For our last look at the section titled On the Sanctification of the Lord’s Day in the Directory of Public Worship we are going to talk a little bit more about getting ready for worship and also what keeping the Fourth Commandment looks like on the Sabbath outside of the morning and evening worship services. We are all pretty good at being there at 11am, but as we have noted elsewhere the Lord’s Day consists of more time than that hour. A lot of what is at stake here is how the whole of the Sunday is a preparatory mercy to ensure that our worship is well-attended and well-strengthened for the benefit of our soul and body. Christians consistently underrate what worship is for and why God has called us to praise and prayer and to the preaching. The more we comprehend its purpose the more we will gladly take on the whole of the Sabbath as our Savior has intended, for as we have repeated, the Sabbath is for us. Another way of thinking about it in a sort of slogan way is: A Whole Sabbath Makes a Whole Christian.
Here's this morning’s section:
That all the people meet so timely for publick worship, that the whole congregation may be present at the beginning, and with one heart solemnly join together in all parts of the publick worship, and not depart till after the blessing.
That what time is vacant, between or after the solemn meetings of the congregation in publick, be spent in reading, meditation, repetition of sermons; especially by calling their families to an account of what they have heard, and catechising of them, holy conferences, prayer for a blessing upon the publick ordinances, singing of psalms, visiting the sick, relieving the poor, and such like duties of piety, charity, and mercy, accounting the sabbath a delight.
One of the bugaboos every preacher has said to himself on a somewhat regular basis is how men and women of faith are able and willing to get to work on time for their earthly boss, but think nothing of rushing in late for a meeting with their Heavenly Father. A lot of that comes from how we’ve allowed ourselves as Christians to be formed and molded by culture to consider Sunday morning just like Saturday. Another day to sleep in, just without all the activities we planned. So what often happens is that we mean to get to Sabbath School this week, but we didn’t get moving until 9am so with showers, getting the right clothes on, and breakfast 10am comes and goes and next thing we know we are arriving at church at 10:59am. Or we do get to the house of God at 9:59am, but feel like we don’t want to disturb what’s already started so we sit in our cars in the parking lot until the bell rings. Put your own situation here and apply it.
What the DPW wants to gently encourage you to do is consider for a moment how the worship of God’s people is, as it says, a time where the whole congregation joins together with one heart in order to join together in all parts of the publick worship, and not depart till after the blessing. When we don’t properly consider the clock on the Lord’s Day it is not just us we are doing a disservice to, it’s the body of Christ whom we are blessed to serve in the corporate worship of the Lord. We should be making proper preparation for meeting with the King of Kings in His house. This is especially something we should be modeling for the children as they get raised up.
Just as an aside, but not really, notice the last part of the sentence I highlighted. When we leave before the worship service is done it’s like getting up and excusing ourselves from a football game when there is five minutes left in the fourth quarter with the championship on the line. We would never do that. Everything that took place before is in expectation of a satisfactory conclusion. On Sunday evening in a couple weeks we are going to talk some more about the benediction and what it means for the believer, and part of that explanation is going to include why we look up and receive it, and what the Holy Spirit is doing at that moment. Another way to think about it is why would you stand in line for an hour to get a signature from your favorite pop star only to hop out when only ten people are between you and your goal? Each of these illustrations in their own way should helpfully encourage us to wait until after the benediction and plan accordingly when people ask us to be somewhere, for whatever reason, after worship.
The second paragraph also speaks in its own way to the day God has graciously provided for us. It is often lamented by folks in 2025 that we do not have time to do everything we want to do. It is of course part of the Lord’s goodness to us that the Sabbath Day exists. Go back up for a second and take a look at the type of things we can do on Sunday since it is a day of rest. How many of those things do you do? Why not? In an ever increasing encroachment by the world on the Christian life the Sabbath becomes even more important to protect so that we can go out and do works of mercy and love to and for our neighbors and brothers and sisters in Christ. Duties of piety and charity like visiting with shut-ins, the sick, taking time to educate our children in the things of God, laughing and playing together in the joy of the Lord as we meditate on His love for us are all good ways to be renewed in His power. That’s why the Sabbath matters.
In closing, if we think that these things are a “new law” or legalism then we miss what our Savior was doing in being with His disciples and healing people on the Lord’s Day. They were out enjoying one another’s company, learning the things of God, and seeing where ministry could take place on the day of spiritual rest. When the Fourth Commandment witnesses to us that we are to not engage in worldly labors and recreations on the Sabbath it is so that we might drink deeply at the well of grace and receive the true spiritual support that we need to face this fallen world. There is so much available to us that if we would just consider it, we’d be better off for it.
Last word:
https://gentlereformation.com/2011/09/29/lords-day-deeds-of-mercy/
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church