Working For a Weekend of Gracious Rest
The Bounty and Beauty of the Sabbath Day For the Believer
Good Morning,
While technically we only have two sacraments in Protestantism it could be said that there is one other matter that is sacramentalized, and that is the Sabbath Day, the Lord’s Day, and/or Sunday. It was set apart by God from the seventh of creation at the very foundation of the world. The first day of the week (last day in the old covenant) was declared holy, transformed, from its common use to a special mercy of Jehovah not just for His sheep, but for everyone everywhere. One of the interesting details from Moses’ giving of the Fourth Commandment is that not only are you to rest on the day of the LORD, but so to are your maidservant, manservant, and any of your other neighbors who happen to be visiting in your domicile when Sunday comes around.
Let’s look at the section from the DPW for today:
THE Lord’s day ought to be so remembered before-hand, as that all worldly business of our ordinary callings may be so ordered, and so timely and seasonably laid aside, as they may not be impediments to the due sanctifying of the day when it comes.
The whole day is to be celebrated as holy to the Lord, both in publick and private, as being the Christian sabbath. To which end, it is requisite, that there be a holy cessation or resting all that day from all unnecessary labours; and an abstaining, not only from all sports and pastimes, but also from all worldly words and thoughts.
As we spend today and the two weeks that follow on the Directory of Public Worship’s section on the observance of the Sabbath I want to come at this from a slightly different direction. Too much time is spent worrying and being anxious about what we can or can’t do on the Lord’s Day. That conversation too often focuses on negative and adverse ideas about what God is doing and desires for us to do on this day of rest. Now, the section above may seem to mitigate against my hope of not centering our minds on that type of thing, however, if we come to any of the laws of the Bible with a concept of work then of course it is going to be a Debbie downer. When the Apostle Paul is battling the Judaizers in the land of Galatia he points this out. He writes, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.’”. If we think we are saved, or even built up in holiness, by the keeping perfect the law then it will always be a drudgery and a drain on our hearts. Our goal should be to see in the promises of the covenant of grace the freedom and liberty to follow God’s law with joy in our heart.
If we like the Pharisees become a servant of the law, then we will be constantly frustrated in our attempts to keep it. Jesus point this out to them when they chastise Christ for His disciples picking grain on the Sabbath. Man is not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man. It should serve us rather than the other way around. To continue in this line of thought Paul does continue his helpful explanation of the commandment’s purpose for the believer, and others as well. One of the reasons why we don’t eat out on the Lord’s Day is that it forces other folks to miss worship in order to cater to our needs. How fair is that to your neighbor to whom who are love as yourself? It is to take your liberty and impose that on another so that they themselves do not get to benefit from the blessings of God’s design of the Lord’s Day. Part of the finished work of Jesus is to change our mind and heart towards the word given to us in the Scriptures about the freedom we now have after the inward working of the Holy Spirit on our souls.
The apostle writes:
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
To apply this to the keeping of the Sabbath Day is to witness to how as we look forward to Sunday there is a joy, joy, joy, down in our hearts because of what Sunday means to us. No longer do we have to fret and fuss about the world and her sins for twenty-four hours. No longer do we need to be anxious about the petty nonsense at our earthly jobs for a season. All these things pale in comparison to the glory of a day given over to the spiritual exercises of godly religious life. The older divines would speak of Sunday as the “market day of the soul” where we get to feed on all the richest food provided by Christ from His garden of faith. Songs we sing, scripture we hear, and the same proclaimed from the pulpit are like engorging on the universe’s largest Golden Corral as we go back week-by-week.
In closing, but even more than that we read in the section of the DPW that we are to, “ . . . and an abstaining, not only from all sports and pastimes, but also from all worldly words and thoughts.”. When we hear that unfortunately our minds go towards, if we are being honest, a sad place of thinking of being force-fed castor oil or some such. However, it is a sign of something we probably don’t want to consider. Those with richness of faith want to talk about the world of the Lord and are relieved when they get to recount the goodness of God in His providence in the week that has passed to meditate afresh on the needs and mercies of the week to come. As an old song says as Christians we should be those working for the weekend, for it is then that we are blessed with the opportunity to set aside all these worldly things and be renewed in our mind and souls in the grace and glory of our Redeemer and friend. Be encouraged as we walk through the observance of the Lord’s Day not to be afraid of it, but to love it and rejoice in it as we learn to live in another world, where our true hope and home lies.
Last word:
https://rts.edu/resources/the-sabbath-attitude/
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church