Bright Wings

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with Ah! Bright Wings.

April 06, 2009

The Lord and His Day

[Many have asked me to post my sermon notes from this message on Luke 6:1-11 regarding the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day.]

Many of you remember the days of the ‘Blue Laws’ in America which prohibited various forms of commerce and business on Sunday.  Most stores and businesses were closed on Sunday in observance of a day of rest not only in what many would call a ‘religious’ sense – or in honor of the Lord and for the sake of worship; but also for the sake of general ‘civil’ rest throughout the community. In Bergen County, N.J. where I graduated high school there are still laws in effect which prohibit certain sorts of commerce on Sunday.  Here in Florida many of us remember back in the early 1980’s when Publix supermarkets gave in to the pressures of competition and open their doors on Sundays.  This may or may not be a wise and helpful practice in a strictly civil sense.  But it raises some good questions for us as Christians regarding the Old Testament Sabbath laws and their relationship to us today in the era of the New Covenant.

Historically, the Reformed theology has pointed to three uses of the Law. This originated in Melancthon and Luther in Germany and found concurrence in Calvin on the continent.  The first use of the law was known as the ‘civil use’ which orders society and restrains the wicked. In the Old Testament, this first use of the Law ordered the civil and legal life of the nation of Israel as a federal entity under the Mosaic covenant. 

The second use of the law was known as the ‘pedagogical use’, taken from the Apostle Paul’s words in Galatians 3:24, “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.” The word ‘tutor’ (NAS) is from the Greek word paidagogos – and is translated ‘schoolmaster’ in the King James or ‘guardian’ in the ESV. In this use of the Law we find God directing our hearts and leading us to his Son Jesus Christ through the righteous Law. In this sense the Law of course instructs us- but most of all it convicts and condemns us, leading us to cry out for the liberty brought only by the grace of Christ.

The third use is called the ‘didactic use’ of the Law. This addresses most directly the application and understanding of the Law of God for those of use who have been set free from the condemnation of the righteous Law of God. Under this use of the Law the believer is instructed by the Law of God, and lives under the holy wisdom of God which flows through the Scriptures. In this sense we indeed look to God’s Law, with freedom through Christ and power by His Spirit, for instruction and godly living.  Now of course- in this third understanding of the Law of God we find a wide variety of application and interpretation. In his understanding of the ‘didactic’ use of the Law, Luther called the Law a ‘walking stick’. Calvin had a much more strict application of this third use- and we see this in his preaching and writings (and in the corporate life of believers in Geneva). 

How do we understand the OT Law and our relationship to it? More specifically for our discussion of Luke 6:1-11, how are we to understand the Law of God regarding the Sabbath? And how we are to understand the Sabbath of the Old Testament (last or seventh day worship) and our current New Testament and historical ‘Lord’s Day’ (first day or Sunday worship) practice of corporate gathering? How is it that we understand and apply this didactic use of the Law as a local church?  In answering these questions it is important for us to look in detail at the words of Christ and the whole counsel of God’s Word regarding the realities of the New Covenant and the significance of Christ as ‘Lord of the Sabbath’.

Lord of the Sabbath

I spoke last week of the 10 main ‘Law’ or Torah passages on Sabbath and we focused in on the specific 4th command of the ‘decalogue’ or Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:8-11 and Deut. 5:12-15.

The Law was a ‘sign’ of the Covenant. O. Palmer Robertson gives us a good summary definition of a covenant: “a bond in blood sovereignly administered”. In the Old Testament the covenant was a relationship of God to his people.  It had stipulations, restrictions and laws that were to be observed and obeyed. There were blessings in obedience and curses in disobedience. There would be protection and care from the sovereign and service and obedience from the vassals, or people.  There would be signs and seals of the covenant- the seals would bind and ratify the covenant; the signs would remind and represent the deep truths and profound realities of such a sovereign relationship.

Remember that in Exodus the Sabbath was a sign of the covenant that was rooted in and pointed to the creative power of God and his rest.  In Deuteronomy the sign of the Covenant was rooted in the deliverance from Egypt and pointed to God’s redeeming love (so a sign that pointed to God’s saving grace in the past and a promise of His saving grace, His ‘sabbath rest’ in the future).  We find in the Sabbath sign a celebration of God’s creation and redemption. This is significant in our understanding of the work of Christ as one who brings a new creation through his redeeming work on the cross and triumph over the grave.
In the old economy the Law was part of a constant cycle of recognition of God’s rule and care, obedience to the Law or disobedience,  sacrifice and worship,  and looking forward to God’s grace and redemption.  Law, conviction, sacrifice and repentance, worship and renewal, and then the cycle starts again. The whole of the Law, the writings and the Prophets and this cycle of covenant application pointed to the redemption and grace that God would provide through his Messiah- his appointed, sacrificial Lamb who would bear the sins of the World.

This is the significance of Luke 5:33-39 and the parable of the new wine and old wineskins. Jesus has come with the New Wine – the fulfillment and power of the New Covenant – and the reality that there must be a regeneration, a birth ‘from above’,  a transforming power that changes our old, tired, sinful and useless wineskins and makes us NEW – new wineskins that hold new wine. It breaks the old pattern and regenerates a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. Then, the Law is written upon the heart. This New Covenant transformation affects every aspect of our life and worship- and so touches our corporate celebration every week- not merely of the creation of God in Genesis but of his new creation through Christ, and not merely the promise and foreshadowing of the old covenant, but the realities and embodiment of the promise and shadows found in Christ.
The clash of Jesus and the Pharisees over the Sabbath is a picture of the new wine, the power of the Spirit and the inbreaking of the promises and power of the New Covenant embodied in Christ. He is feeding, teaching, healing – the Spirit is powerfully at work through Him as Lord over all things – he is Lord of the Law, Lord of the Sabbath – and his transforming power will create a New Covenant people, new wineskins, full of ‘new wine’ and worshipping in a New Way of the Spirit (Rom. 7:6).

The Lord of the Sabbath is the ‘Substance’ of the Law

I want us to look at a couple of important passages that will help us to understand what Jesus is saying and doing here in this text from Luke’s gospel. A very important passage in understanding the Sabbath is Colossians 2:8-19.
A few points need to be drawn from Col. 2:8-15, and then we will bring Paul’s argument to bear upon observance of the sabbath in the New Covenant.

• Paul speaks of two enemies of the gospel in Colossae. The first was a worldly legalism through vain aestheticism and empty philosophy.  I liken this to mysticism and godless ‘spirituality’ in our postmodern context. This is ‘wholistic’ aestheticism- eat this and be happy; do this and find completeness; drink this concoction and be well; and on and on. This is deadly because it deceptively holds forth spiritual promise – yet it is powerless against the sway of sin and spiritual death.  The second enemy is the enemy of legalism brought in by Judaizers. This is ‘Christ plus the law’. Follow Christ- but you must observe the Law.  This is deadly because it marginalizes the power of Christ, and it puts people under a yoke of slavery and does not proclaim the liberty and power found only in the Spirit.
• In Colossae there were those who were calling people back to the old signs of the old covenant. Circumcision was a sign of the ‘old covenant’ put upon the people of God physically. It also pointed to the Messiah who would come from those people and so it pointed toward and foreshadowed the promised Christ.  It pointed us toward the promise of God’s power to create a ‘new people’ who are ‘circumcised in the heart – now, in Christ that is who we are! We are the ‘circumcision made without hands’! In the glorious New Covenant- it is silly and vain to return the shadows of the old!

[As an aside- in my opinion, this is the strongest argument against infant baptism as sign of the covenant.  The ‘covenant argument’ for infant baptism says, basically, that in the old dispensation there was a covenant sign put upon the children of God’s people, and so should it be in the new. So, as the argument goes, baptism is analogous to circumcision in the new covenant. The problem is- this is not the argument of Paul here in Colossians. In the new covenant, heart circumcision and the seal of the Holy Spirit are analogous to the signs of the old covenant. So, it is a grave mistake to return to the old covenant applications of the signs upon physical lineage via infant baptism.]

Paul then moves in this passage from the discussion of circumcision to the broader discussion of the Law. In the old covenant, under the Law,  we were dead in trespasses and sins; the Law gave us a ‘record of debt with its legal demands’. Through the cross, Jesus paid for our debt;  through the cutting of His body, the shedding of His blood he made a new people- a ‘new circumcision’. As a new people, under this new freedom pointed to and foreshadowed to in the old, we must celebrate and live accordingly. To return to the shadows and types is not only wrong- but it is deadly. Because- the shadows and types did not bring life, they simply pointed to it. Now that we have new life in Christ, we must not live under the Law that brings death but by the ‘new way of the Spirit’ (Romans 7:6) that brings life!
This sets the stage for the continuing argument Colossians 2:16-19:

• With verses 8-15 in mind consider what Paul says specifically about Sabbath observance: ‘let no one pass judgment on you in food or drink, festival, new moon, or Sabbath’. Remember the ‘New Covenant’ of Jeremiah 31:31?  Jeremiah told us that the Law will be written on our heart, and no one will teach/instruct his brother.  I believe Jeremiah’s prophecy meant that in the New Covenant we would enjoy a liberty brought only by the indwelling guidance and conviction of God’s Spirit. And so, while we live in corporate love and accountability with our brothers and sisters in Christ – we are fundamentally under the rule of Spirit and accountable to Christ as our master and no one else.

• Circumcision and Sabbath observance are a ‘shadow’ (skia) and Christ is the ‘substance’ or, literally, the ‘body’ (soma).

• We worship no longer in shadowy ways - Hebrews 10: 1 “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near.” But now we worship in a new, fuller, and transformed way of the Spirit through the cross with Christ as our Head.

This is why Paul writes with such urgency to the church in Galatia regarding the deadly sin of their Sabbath observance: “You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.” (Galatians 4:10-11).

Jesus as ‘Lord of the Sabbath’ is the ‘substance’- the embodiment- of the Law; the fulfillment of the demands of the covenant; and the promise of the blessings and joys of the New Covenant.

The New Covenant and the New Day:

Our examination thus far of the shadows and types of the Old Covenant and their embodiment in Christ gives us the theological reasons for a ‘transformed’ view of the Sabbath. I’d like to first give you some biblical and historical reasons for why we worship on the first day of the week, Sunday, rather than the seventh or Saturday. Then I will exhort you, through the power of the Spirit of life and liberty- to consider your priorities and commitments to Christ and His people in light of all these wonderful truths.

1. In our two clearest glimpses of NT corporate gatherings we find Christians were gathered on ‘the first day of the week’ or Sunday:

Acts 20:7 And on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to depart the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.

1 Corinthians 16:1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. 2 On the first day of every week let each one of you put aside and save, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I come.

We find from these two passages a fairly clear practice of ‘first day of the week’ gathering for worship. Whether this was a Saturday evening, which would have been the start of the first day of the week and the end of the old ‘sabbath’ day, or a Sunday morning gathering we don’t know.  I think that fundamentally we can say that the believers gathered on the first day for the exercise of the pattern of ‘ekklesia’ worship found in Acts 2:42-47.

2. Why the first day?  Jesus rose from the dead on the ‘first day from sabbath’ or ‘one day from sabbath’(every gospel writer puts it that way)- which is exactly the wording of the Acts 20 and 1 Cor. 16 passages- ‘the one day from Sabbath’.  Paul and Luke’s wording, with the wording of the gospel writer’s regarding Jesus’ resurrection is a compelling argument that there was a recognized, even Apostolic, practice of Sunday, or Resurrection Day, worship in the first century. This is also the day of the week that the Spirit was given and so the church was born (Pentecost- the first day of the week from Sabbath.

3. In Rev. 1:10 the Apostle John says “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day”. While John does not explicitly say that this ‘Lord’s day’ is Sunday, I think it is a fair assumption (based on #’s 1 and 2 above) that John is referring to the first day of the week. We have here in Revelation the last living apostle giving us the terminology for the ‘new day’ of worship in the ‘new covenant’.  From Luke, Paul, and John on the earliest records of Church history (Didache, Epistle of Barnabas, writings of Justin Martyr) show that the people of God assemble for worship and set aside this first day of the week ‘for the Lord’.

So, what does this mean? I’d like to exhort you in a few ways as you consider the realities of the new wine and the new covenant that is ours through Jesus Christ, ‘Lord of the Sabbath’.

1. First, we are bound by the ‘law of the Spirit of life’ and not the Law that brings condemnation and death. Our hearts are transformed and we are given liberty and joy as we serve Christ- in whatever way and on whatever day. Our hearts and consciences are bound to Christ as our Lord and Master – not the Law.  In this sense we must be very careful against worldly philosophies that draw us away from these glorious realities. We must be ever vigilant against shadowy, and deadly legalism in our personal and corporate lives as believers. This is important to state clearly as we look to what we might call ‘practical application’ and obedience to Christ together.

2. We have strong Apostolic witness - the gospel writers, Paul, and John in Revelation - (as well as historic witness for 2000 years) to assemble on this first day of the week to worship corporately. We must be hard pressed to move away from this witness in our corporate assembling and practice of devotion to Christ. Liberty in the Spirit is never a freedom from obedience and godly stewardship but always a freedom toward sanctification and growth.

3. We should strive to set aside this day for worship of Christ, the proclamation of the gospel, and the enjoyment of fellowship.

4. We should prioritize our lives around Christ – and not allow the priorities of the world or our flesh come before Him.  We have freedom to do many things on the Lord’s Day. So the question should really not be, ‘Can I – or my kids - play soccer on Sunday?’ It should be, “Should soccer be a priority – for my family - above worship and enjoyment of Christ on Sunday?’ 

5. We should not let these priorities point to Law but to the liberty and freedom that Christ brings.  With this in mind - I try to be careful not to call Sunday ‘the Sabbath’.  Jesus is my ‘sabbath’ – the Sabbath was a sign and Jesus is the ‘thing signified’.

On the Lord’s Day we intentionally enjoy, celebrate, and proclaim all the benefits and blessings of the gospel. These blessings flow to us every minute of every hour of every day until we enter into His rest forever on that day.  Until then, come and join me on the front row every Sunday at 9 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. to worship the risen Lord of the New Covenant.

Tags: Sermon Notes

posted by Erik Braun