Deo Gloria
Sermon for July 7, 2019
Pastor Martin Bentz
Living Life God’s Way
Text: Exodus 20:8-11
Theme: Take Time to Enjoy God’s Rest!
A number of years ago my wife and I had the opportunity to visit Williamsburg, Virginia. One of the interesting things we learned while we were there is that in the colony of Virginia it was the law that you had to go to church at least twice a month. You heard me right. Just as we have a law today that says you have to be sixteen years old before you can drive a car, so it was the law in the colony of Virginia that you had to go to church twice a month. If you failed to do so, you could be arrested and brought before the judge. And if you were found guilty, the judge could order that you be put in the stocks for a few hours as punishment, that you spend the night in jail or in the case of chronic offenders, that you even be expelled from the colony. Can you imagine if there were still laws like that today? Can you imagine how the American Civil Liberties Union would react? While it was rather legalistic on their part, the goal was good: to make sure that people took time to go to church and hear God’s Word.
God had a law like that for his Old Testament people, the law we know as the 3rd Commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” Obviously that law in Virginia is no longer in effect, but what about the 3rd Commandment? Does it still apply to us today? And if so, how? That’s what we want to examine this morning as we continue our series on Living Life God’s Way. The main point God wants us to remember when it comes to the 3rd Commandment is that we take time to enjoy his rest.
The word Sabbath means “rest.” In the 3rd Commandment God specifically commanded the Children of Israel to observe the 7th day, or Saturday, as a day of rest. Listen to what he said:
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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:9-11)
In other words on a typical Saturday in ancient Israel McDonalds would be closed. Wal-Mart would be closed. Coborn’s would be closed. Even the gas stations would be closed. All the businesses would be closed. Likewise people were not supposed to cut their lawn on Saturday or do the laundry or wash the car. They could do that kind of work the other days of the week, but not on Saturday. Saturday was to be a day of rest.
“Remember the Sabbath day, the day of rest, by keeping it holy.” To keep something holy means to set it aside for a special purpose, to set it aside for God. Maybe you have some dishes at home, a set of china, or some crystal perhaps, dishes you set aside for use only on very special occasions like Thanksgiving Dinner or Christmas. That’s the idea behind the expression “making” or “keeping something holy.” God’s people were to set aside Saturday as a special day, a special day for God. On that day they were to take a break from their work and all of their other activities and take some time for God. They were to go to the temple, for example, or to the local synagogue and worship the LORD, their God. They were to listen to God’s Word as it was read and explained by the priest or the rabbi. They were to read God’s Word together at home as a family and talk about what it meant. They were to take time to remember the things that God had done for them: how he had blessed them, how he had provided for them, how he had protected them from their enemies, how he had promised to send a Savior some day to rescue them from their sins. In short Saturday was to be different from the other days of the week. Saturday was to be God’s day, a day for them to spend time with God, to worship him and hear his Word.
God’s will hasn’t changed. The only difference is that the picture has been fulfilled. The Old Testament contained many pictures or symbols of the coming Savior. The Passover Lamb was a picture of the Savior who was to come. The High Priest who served at the temple was a picture of the Savior who was to come. The Sabbath was also a picture, a picture of the rest that the promised Savior would bring.
God commanded his Old Testament people to observe the Sabbath as a day of physical rest. Their resting on the Sabbath served as a picture or symbol of the true rest the Savior would bring, not rest for our bodies, but rest for our souls. Jesus spoke about that rest in those familiar words found in Matthew, ch. 11: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls”(vv. 28-29).
Yes, Jesus gives us rest.
Apart from Christ there is no rest. There is no peace. Apart from Christ there is fear, fear of God, fear of death. Apart from Christ there is guilt and depression because of the wrong we have done to others, because of the wrong we have done in the sight of God. Apart from Christ there is doubt and uncertainty because we don’t know where we stand with God, nor do we know what’s going to happen to us when we die.
Does the name Willie Aames ring a bell? Willie Aames is a television actor who appeared in shows like “Adam 12” and “Eight is Enough.” I’d like to share with you what he wrote in an article I read some time ago:
When I had an opportunity to start acting, I thought that it was a way to make people like me. And if people would like me, maybe I could like myself.
I became quite successful, appearing on TV shows such as “Gunsmoke” and “Adam 12,” and later on “Eight Is Enough” and “Charles in Charge.” But I found that being famous didn’t make me get along any better with my family or with people at school, nor did it make me feel any more accepted.
So I turned to making money. I had an “I’ll show them” attitude. By the time I was 19, I was making more than $1 million a year.
That didn’t help either. I had a rock band, and while we were touring, I started to use drugs. The drugs didn’t help me to feel accepted either, so I pursued sex and relationships. When that didn’t help, I pursued material things—houses, boats, whatever.
I was about as successful as anyone in television could be, but still I felt as though I didn’t belong anywhere or fit in with my family. So I decided, “I’ll start my own family,” and I got married.
Some time later I worked on a film in the jungle of Venezuela. I was using a lot of cocaine, and I was reading the book “Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi.” And I realized that not only did I know a lot of people in the book, but this was my story too—only I wasn’t dead yet.
Willie Aames had it all—money, fame, all the pleasure his heart desired—but the one thing he didn’t have was peace. Our souls are forever restless until they find their rest in God.
In Jesus we have rest, true rest and peace for our souls. In him we have forgiveness for our sins, because he himself paid the penalty for them. As our substitute he suffered in our place, suffered the terrible punishment of God’s anger toward sin. He suffered and died so that we might be acquitted, so that we might be forgiven. In him we can find rest for our guilty consciences. In Jesus there is rest and peace even in the face of death, because we know death is not the end for us, but the beginning of a new and perfect life, unending life with God. In Jesus we are at peace with God, because we know are in a right relationship with him. We know that he is our dear Father and we are his dear children. Yes, in Jesus we find rest, true rest and peace for our souls.
And God gives that rest to us through his Word and Sacraments. As we hear and read and study God’s Word and hear that precious gospel message, God gives us rest. As we come to the Lord’s table and hear God’s gracious promise: that our sins are indeed forgiven through Jesus’ body and blood given and shed for us, God gives us rest.
Do you see, then, how the 3rd Commandment applies to you and me today? In essence God’s will hasn’t changed. God still wants us to take time out from work and all our other activities and spend some time with him, to come to his house, to hear his word, to receive his sacrament, and to enjoy his rest.
The one thing that has changed is the day. We don’t have to do it on Saturday anymore as God’s people in the Old Testament did. The apostle Paul makes that clear in Colossians, ch. 2: “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ”(vv. 16+17).
You and I are free to choose the day we go to church and hear God’s Word and receive his sacrament. The reason that our church, like many other Christian churches, has worship services on Sunday is that we are simply following what the disciples and early Christians did. They met together on Sunday to worship because that’s the day Jesus rose from the dead. And yet we don’t have to worship on Sunday. We could hold service on Monday night or Thursday night or even on Saturday if we wanted. The day is not the important thing. The important thing is that we take time out each week to come to God’s house and enjoy the rest he has provided for us.
What we are not free to do is choose no day at all, the way some people do. In their minds they’re too busy, too busy with work, too busy with pleasure, too busy with baseball tournaments and soccer tournaments and golf tournaments and who knows what else—too busy to come to God’s house to hear his Word and enjoy his rest. For other people Sunday morning is their only day to sleep in, so they don’t want to have to get up and go to church. They think that physical rest is more important than the spiritual rest Jesus has to offer. Such people are sinning, violating God’s will in the 3rd Commandment.
Other people do come to God’s house but they only listen to God’s Word with half an ear and they don’t take what it says to heart. Maybe they’re too tired because they were up late the night before. Maybe they think they’ve heard it all and know it all and going to church is just a waste of time. Or maybe their body is in church, but their heart and mind are really someplace else. Such people are also breaking the 3rd Commandment.
And sometimes those people are you and me. Sometimes we don’t take time to come to God’s house to hear his Word and enjoy his rest because we think we’re too busy. Sometimes we don’t really listen to what God’s Word has to say because we have other things on our minds, or because we’re too tired, or because we have a poor attitude because we really wanted to sleep in but mom and dad made us come to church. Yes, you and I have also broken the 3rd Commandment. In God’s sight we are guilty.
But I know someone who did obey the 3rd Commandment, someone who always took time for God, who was never too busy to go to church to worship God and hear his Word. At the age of 12 he not only went to the temple with his parents, he wanted to stay there so he could spend more time listening to God’s Word and talking about it with the teachers. When he was older, he went to the synagogue every Sabbath to worship God and hear his Word. In many cases he ended up giving the sermon. In fact, the only time we know of that he ever missed going to church on the Sabbath was when he lay dead in the tomb. Yes, Jesus kept the 3rd Commandment perfectly, the way you and I should have. He did so as our Savior. And when he suffered and died on the cross, he paid the penalty for all our sins, including our sins against the 3rd Commandment.
So how should I respond? How should I express my gratitude to Jesus for what he has done for me? Should I set aside time to come to his house, to listen to his Word, to enjoy his rest? Absolutely! That’s how the 3rd Commandment guides me in living my life God’s way.
Do we need to pass a new law these days, one that requires people go to church at least twice a month? Our state legislature has trouble just passing a budget, much less a controversial law like that! Truth is, though, we don’t need a new law. We have the 3rd Commandment. What we need to do is ask God to change our hearts and then rearrange our priorities so we have the time to come to God’s house and hear his Word, so we take the time to enjoy his rest. Amen.