The Sign of the Sabbath (part 2 of 2)

• Posted on sdgale
• in 'CHOP Talk' Blog
• on October 23, 2012
• 1 Comment.

As a moral obligation, the command endures to remember the Sabbath and rest on it.  For Christians, the day of Sabbath observance is Sunday.  Not only are we to try to avoid secular vocation on that day, we are to join with the people of God assembled for worship. We see that illustrated in the New Testament (Acts 20:7; Rev. 1:10). Through our gathering for worship we make the Sabbath a sign in three ways.

We make it a sign to God of our faith in Him.  Sabbath observance is a vital sign of spiritual health.  It says we believe Jesus when He says that the Sabbath was made for us.  We acknowledge God’s wisdom for us in the remembering, rest and refreshment it brings as we make it a delight.  In one sense, Sabbath speaks to our worldview.

Our participation in corporate worship displays our priorities.  God tells us He sanctifies us.  That means we are set apart as holy to belong to Him. The weekly cadence to our lives and schedules responds to God that we are His and praise Him for it.  For that reason, if we are traveling, we make sure we find a church in which we can worship.  Vacations are not vacations from God.  Our attendance in worship declares our love for Him home and away.

We make it a sign to others of our allegiance to God.  When we ask our employers for Sunday off to attend church, we bear witness.  When we tell our children that they cannot miss worship for sports activities, birthday parties, recitals and whatever else the godless world would use to lure them, we bear witness to what it means to put aside our own desires to follow Jesus.  We bear witness to our church family, serving as an example to one another. Staying home to prepare for some social event, even church-related, sends the wrong message.

We bear witness to the world around us as well. A family I know went away for a weekend at the beach.  The husband and wife are devout Christians.   They had small children whom they had committed to raise in the ways of Christ.  Another family went with them on the vacation.  The husband and wife in this family were not believers.

I asked the Christian couple where they went to church on Sunday.  They told me they did not go.  Puzzled, I asked the reason.  They told me they did not want to offend the other couple or leave them stranded alone on the beach for the morning.

To my mind, here was a singular opportunity to bear witness.  By attending worship this believing couple would have shown their priorities.  Their actions would have served as a sign to that unbelieving couple that Jesus was lord of their lives.  Their week flowed from worship of Him.  Perhaps discussion would have ensued.  A lost opportunity.

Even more disturbing is that a message was sent that day.  It said that God’s commandments were arbitrary, subject to the whim of His subjects.  The families did gather together but at a different altar.  It brings to mind the taunt of Satan in Genesis when he brought our first parents to question the wisdom and goodness of God for them.

We make it a sign of our heart commitment to God.  There are those times we don’t “feel” like going to church.  Maybe we want to sleep in.  Maybe we don’t want to be with people.  Maybe our absence is a form of protest.  If we absent ourselves from the worship of God, we want to examine our heart’s commitment to Him.  Perhaps it would be helpful to think in terms of suffering for Christ if we press on despite our distress, dis-ease and discontentment for honor of our God.  Jesus holds up the cross as a metaphor for our discipleship.  We deny self to follow Christ.

I’m not suggesting a return to the ceremonial or civil law that legislated Sabbath observance. I’m not proposing a list of do’s and don’ts that are absolute and inviolable. I am saying that each of us needs to come to grips with how we and our household will endeavor to keep the Sabbath holy.  As we do, remember that it is a sign—to your God, to your Christian family, to the unbelieving world, and to your own heart.