Month: April 2022

The Ringing of the Bell

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And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath..” Mark 2:27 ESV

This story about Jesus and the disciples walking through the fields is recorded in three of the four gospels and though you may have never heard a message preached from these verses, Matthew, Mark and Luke each considered it among the highlights of Jesus’ teaching. Our ignorance of the treasure that God intended Sabbath to be is one of the great losses of the church today. God’s Sabbath came not only before the law, but also before sin. Sabbath was built into the matrix of our world.  God’s Sabbath was His denouement: – the final act of HIs play, by which the strands of His plot were drawn together, and everything was resolved. Without understanding Sabbath, we cannot fully understand God’s story. When the Pharisees criticized the disciples’ behavior on the seventh day, Jesus made it clear that the purpose of the Sabbath was for it to be a day of blessing for man. God had not created man so the Sabbath could be observed, but He had created Sabbath as a day for man.

We once visited a village in Switzerland and on my Sunday morning walk, I passed by found a beautiful stone church.  As I paused to rest, a man drove up, unlocked the door and went in to ring the bells. How lovely they sounded as they pealed over the valley. After he had finished his duties, he locked the doors and drove away. Is that what we have become? Do we just go about our day, ring the bells but no one comes? Do we remember vaguely that it is God’s Day, but barely pause long enough to catch our breath? Till the end of time Sabbath will remain a blessing and is built into who we are as men and women. Sabbath rest, worship and prayer are the breath, life and foundation from which we go out to do everything else, and when we keep God’s Sabbath, we keep its blessing for us, our families and everyone who hears the ringing of the bell!

Photo by Luke Webb on Pexels.com

The Sabbath is For Healing

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On this Easter week you might be wondering why I am choosing to share a series on the Sabbath. That is a question I have asked myself as well, but then, what better week than this to consider rest. This week of all the year is like a spiritual Sabbath when we turn from the activities of the world and focus on Jesus and all He has done. Today let’s take a look at the Sabbath as a special day of healing.

And a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” Matthew 12:10

In our search to understand the Sabbath let’s begin by seeing how Jesus acted on the day of rest. One thing we find over and over in the gospels is that He seemed to take special delight in choosing the Sabbath day for healing the sick, which upset the Pharisees. In answer to their accusation that He was breaking the law, Jesus explained,

“It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” Matthew 12:12. 

 In other words, our day of rest is not simply a ceasing of all activity. Jesus was no less active on the Sabbath than on any other day. The Sabbath rest can be a day of miraculous restoration. At the finish of creation, God’s assessment of His work was,

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good…” Genesis 1:31 

But today when we look out around the world, even the rosiest of the rosiest views is that not all is good any longer. In fact, there is incredible pain, suffering, sin and loss. Jesus came into our dark world to give us the breath of life again. He came to the weary and heavy laden to give a new Sabbath rest for our souls. The Sabbath is there at all times and in all places as God’s special day of healing, hope and restoration. It is a day set aside not simply to get rest while we watch TV, but to switch our focus to a service that gives life and rest to others. Jesus accomplished more as He rested by the well and slept in the boat than the disciples did while buying food or pulling hard at the oars. God has given us the Sabbath day of rest as a gift, and He waits to see how we will choose to use His gift in the lives of those around us. Day one the question was, “Have you received God’s gift of the Sabbath? Day two let’s ask, “To whom have we given it away?”

The Sabbath is Unique

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For those of you who are regular readers, you know that I am a fan of “The Chosen” series. In the first season I especially loved the episode on the Sabbath and was deeply moved by the final scene of all the different families in different settings taking time to honor God. This week I will be sharing a series on the Sabbath which I wrote a few years ago but I believe with all my heart is needed now more than ever. As a young man, I belonged to a church that taught us some pretty legalistic forms of Sabbath keeping which sadly obscured the deeper truths and blessings for which God created the seventh day. The reality is that Christ is our Sabbath, and our only rest is in Him. But that being said, there does remain a uniqueness to keeping Sabbath which I hope we never lose. I will be delighted to hear not only your reactions, but how you keep Sabbath and the blessings you have found. So here is day one –

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 20:11

This Sunday as I was resting, I began to thank God for having planned for us such a special day. The world is push-push- push 24/7 and 365. No day, no hour, no minute is any different from any other. One day when I was a teen-ager I was driving home from work. I was tired and, in a hurry, so when I found myself behind a long line of slow-moving traffic, I was particularly irritated. I couldn’t remember a construction zone in that area and the speed limit was 60-70 miles per hour so immediately I began to pass as many cars at a time as I could. I thought I was making pretty good time till I pulled out and noticed that the first car in line was a hearse! Oh, how ashamed I felt! The world is a lot like I was that afternoon. There is no time to slow down until we are being driven away to be buried!

But rest is coded into the very DNA of God’s creation. The Sabbath was unique because on that day when He was no longer busy with creation, God set aside an entire day just to spend time with Adam and Eve. God wasn’t worn out or tired from His work but instead He rested by choice. Today is the first in an eight-part series on why God has made the Sabbath unique. I am sometimes afraid that in our modern world we have forgotten how to rest. In our worry and hurry, our pushing and shoving it is so easy to forget the value of Sabbath rest. God’s day is not meant simply as a ritual observance or a duty to be carried out with gritted teeth. God’s Sabbath is His gift for us. Together let’s slow down and allow the wheels of life to cease turning just long enough for us to unwrap His gift and look into God’s humble and unhurried heart.

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, 
not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2:27