10/3/17 –
Eph 6:2-3, The Commandment, Pt 11, The 4th Commandments, Pt. 3. Lesson
# 17-106
Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard
Grace Fellowship Church
The Doctrine of the Ten Commandments Related to the Church Age,
Part XI.
The
4th Commandment, Ex
20:8-11; Deut 5:12-15. Cf. Ex 16:23-30; 20:8-11; 23:12; 31:13-17;
34:23; 35:2-3; Lev 23:3; 26:2; Neh 13:16-19 .
This is the 4th and last of the Ten Commandments that
directly relates to the worship and service of God. It was a mandate by God to
honor the Sabbath Day and make it holy unto the Lord. It was a day during which
the Israelites were to rest from their work, i.e., the normal activities and
labors of the other six days of the week were to be avoided.
New
Testament Usage of Sabbath:
The Greek word for Sabbath is SABBATON, σάββατον from the Hebrew
SHABBATH that means, “Sabbath or a period of 7 days.” In the NT, SABBATON is
used only by the Gospel writers and Paul. All of the occurrences in the Gospels
concern Jesus and His ministry.
In fact, the first time the word is used is in Mat 12:1f, where Jesus intentionally
gathered food for Himself along with His disciples that was seemingly in
contrast to the Law, cf. Lev 24:9.
The reasoning Jesus gave the Pharisees when accused of breaking
the Law was David’s, (a man after God’s own heart), use of the “show breads” in
the Tabernacle, which too was seemingly against the Law, Mat 12:2-7.
In vs. 8, Jesus said
that He, “the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Cf, John 1:3; Heb
1:10, as Jesus is the Creator of the heavens and earth who rested on the 7th
day. In other words, He is sovereign over the Sabbath and not controlled by it.
In vs. 5, “break” is
actually the Greek Verb BEBELOO that means, “desecrate, profane, or make
common.” So, we see a tie in to the 3rd Commandment.
In Mark 2:27-28, “Jesus
said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28So
the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath’.” Cf Luke 6:6.
This was to refute the hypocrisy of the rabbinical traditions
placed on the Sabbath Day.
This is why Paul later stated in Col 2:16, “Therefore no one is to act as your judge
in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a
Sabbath day.”
Compare, Gal 4:10-11, “You
observe days and months and seasons and years. 11I fear for you,
that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”
The other work Jesus performed on the Sabbath was to heal, Mark 3:1-5; Luke 6:6-10. Notice in vs. 5, He tells the man to “stretch out your hand.” This could
have been considered a work. Yet, this was the analogy of Christ freeing the
Israelites from captivity in Deut 5,
“with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.”
In John 5, Jesus again
healed a man and afterwards commanded him to pick up his pallet and carry it
home. John 5:11, “But he answered
them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and
walk’.”
If breaking the Sabbath is sin, Jesus would never command a man to
sin. Therefore, doing this act on the Sabbath was not sin. Therefore, when
Jesus spoke to the man in vs. 14,
telling Him to “sin no more,” He is not referring to the Sabbath breaking.
Notice how Jesus responded to the Pharisees accusations in this
episode, John 5:16-17, “For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus,
because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17But He answered
them, "My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” This
was on the 7th Day.
Compare this response to John
7:23-24, “24Do not judge
according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
Then in John 9, Jesus
healed a blind man on the Sabbath who said in vs. 25, “one thing I do know, that though I was
blind, now I see.” Legalistic Pharisees were blinded by the Law.
In Luke 13, Jesus
healed a woman on the Sabbath that the Pharisees said broke the Law. Jesus’
justification was to allow her to rest too, like the animals. Cf. Luke 14:1-6.
The other times the “Sabbath” is used in the Gospels includes:
1. Our Lord teaching regarding the coming Tribulation, which is
the last seven years of the Age of Israel when they will be under the Law once
again, Mat 24:20.
Mat 24:20, “But
pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.”
2. The hypocrisy of the Pharisees in requesting to kill Jesus on the
Cross by breaking His legs. So, they take His dead body off of the Cross
because a Sabbath was approaching, Mark
15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31. This is not the 7th day Sabbath,
but the Sabbath related to the Feast of Passover.
3. His resurrection: When the women finding His empty tomb, after having
waited for the Sabbath to be over so they could anoint / prepare His body with
perfumes. But then when they arrived, they found He was risen, Mat 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 23:56.
Luke
23:56, “And they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath
they rested according to the commandment.”
In Summary, the Sabbath in relation to Jesus’ activities includes:
1. His healing and resultant opposition, Matthew 12:9-13; Luke 13:10-17; 14:1-5; John 5:1-17; 7:22-23;
9:14-16.
2. His teaching, Mark 1:21;
Luke 4:31.
3. His synagogue attendance,
Luke 4:16.
4. His burial, Mark
15:42-47 (cf. 16:1); John 19:31.
5. His resurrection,
Matthew 28:1.
Five is the number of “Grace” in the Scriptures. And He performed
7 healings, (the number of “Spiritual Perfection” in the Bible), on the
Sabbath, Mark 1:21-27; Mark 1:29-31;
John 5:1-9; Mark 3:1-6 (and Mat
12:8-14); Luke 13:10-17; Luke 14:1-6; John 9:1-14.
In these depictions, we see Christ foreshadowing the coming of the
Church Age when the Law, including the Sabbath, would not be a requirement to
be fulfilled. We see that during His time, the Sabbath was to be kept because they
were still under the Age of Israel, the Age of the Law. They were still under
the Law of Moses.
As we have noted, the observance of the Sabbath is an ordinance
given to the nation of Israel but not the Church for the Church Age. In fact,
prophecy anticipated the termination of Sabbath observance for a time, Hosea 2:11; 3:4-5.
Although the Church was not given the ordinance to observe the
Sabbath, we are commanded to enter into God’s Sabbath rest, meaning to rest in
the promises of God and our union with Christ, cf. Heb 4.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ time emphasized the prohibitive
aspect of the Sabbath and added further restrictions to it from their
rabbinical tradition, Mat 12:2-7; Mark
3:2.
In contrast, Jesus emphasized:
1. That “the Sabbath was
made for man, and not man for the Sabbath,” Mark 2:27.
2. That He was “Lord even
of the Sabbath,” Mark 2:28.
3. That the Sabbath offered opportunity “to do good” and “to save
a life,” as well as to rest, Mark 3:4.
With the judicial termination of the Mosaic legal system at the
Cross, Col 2:14, Sabbath observance
is not required of Christians, Col 2:16,
and the notion of a “Christian Sabbath” is foreign to NT directions to the
Church.
We will see more on the NT application of the Sabbath in our next
lesson.
A PERSONAL NOTE FOR YOU
If
you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I am here to tell
you that Jesus loves you. He loves you so much that He gave His life for you.
God the Father also loves you. He loves you so much that He gave His only Son
for you by sending Him to the Cross. At the Cross Jesus died in your place.
Taking upon Himself all of your sins and all of my sins. He was judged for our
sins and paid the price for our sins. Therefore, our sins will never be held
against us.
Right
where you are, you now have the opportunity to make the greatest decision in
your life. To accept the free gift of salvation and eternal life by truly
believing that Jesus Christ died for your sins and was raised on the third day
as the proof of the promise of eternal life. So right now, you can pause and
reflect on what Christ has done for you and say to the Father:
"Yes Father, I believe that Your Son, Jesus
Christ, died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins."
If you have done that, I welcome you to the eternal
Family of God!
Grace
Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher: James H. Rickard
23 Messenger Street, Unit 3
Plainville, MA 02762
Pastor/Teacher: James H. Rickard
23 Messenger Street, Unit 3
Plainville, MA 02762
Copyright
© 2001 - 2017.
Property of: James H Rickard Bible Ministries
All Rights Reserved.
Property of: James H Rickard Bible Ministries
All Rights Reserved.
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