Tag: Teaching

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The Sabbath – Participation in the Coming Kingdom

On the Sabbath we are free to live in the coming Kingdom rather than being constrained by the current one. On that day we lay aside all that will stand in the way of living in the Kingdom of God. This will require knowledge of what the Kingdom of God truly is. To live in this day correctly one must contemplate God’s intention for humanity and the world. The The SabbathSabbath reminds us that creation is a good resource to look at how the coming Kingdom will look for the Bible tells us that the Sabbath memorializes that event. In addition Revelation 14 reminds us that to fight the great beasts of the end time we must worship the God who made the world. This contemplation of creation and how things “could” be different and how things “should” be different is subversive to the present world. We learn that things do not have to be as they are. We learn this because we have contemplated it, and more than this we know it because we have participated in it by living in the coming kingdom.

A Sabbath keeping church must spend some time in reflection of how the coming kingdom will look and thus be able to live in that kingdom every week. We cannot live in the new kingdom without knowing how the kingdom will look. Something is wrong when we perpetuate the worst parts of the present evil world even on the Sabbath. Something is wrong when God has given us this gift to live in the coming Kingdom and we live it just as we live every other day. We continue to make differences between people based on class. We treat the rich tithe payer as of more importance than the poor one. Something is wrong when God has given us this gift to live in the coming Kingdom and we perpetuate the worst of the present order by placing the fight for justice on the same level as the fight for injustice (I once heard a Sabbath School teacher say that the NAACP was the exact same thing as the KKK). Something is wrong when we take principles of injustice and inequality with us into the Sabbath when according to the Bible ALL rich, poor, slave, free, male and female were nothing but simply “resters” on that day.

But thanks be to God, we may not have kept the Sabbath correctly and participated in the Coming Kingdom, but another Sabbath is coming…And God calls us to “Remember the Sabbath day….”

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Genesis 2:1-3 – Blessed, Rested, and Sanctified

Genesis 2:1-3
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

The first chapter of Genesis provides a fitting backdrop for the institution of the Sabbath day. Here the scripture tells us that the containers were finished (heavens and the earth) and the inhabitants of the containers were finished (host of them). It is then that the Sabbath is created.

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made;and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made

God “finished” God’s work or “ended” God’s work on the Sabbath. Here God created something very valuable on the Sabbath, God created rest. We cannot be forever judged by what we do. We cannot forever place ourselves on the treadmill of mindless acquisition of resources. No if God can end God’s work then certainly we can end ours.

And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it

God rested, blessed, and sanctified the Sabbath on that first Sabbath. No other day in the history of mankind has been identified as being rested, blessed, and sanctified. Sanctification means to set aside for holy use. God has sanctified that day for a purpose. That purpose is to create a sanctified people. God blessed that day for a purpose, to create a blessed people. And God rested on that day for a purpose, to create a people that understand and appropriate the benefits of rest.

This is key, what God does to the Sabbath, God wants to do to humanity. God wants to bless us. God wants to sanctify us, and God wants us to rest.

In addition, God wants us to follow God’s lead and be a vehicle for the blessing of the Sabbath to come to others. Thus we should bless humanity in our Sabbathkeeping. We should be a means of the sanctification of humanity in our Sabbathkeeping, and finally, we must provide means for significant and meaningful rest to humanity.

be­cause that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”

Why was the Sabbath created? The Sabbath is God’s creation because God had created and God rested. We participate in and experience the Sabbath, but it is ultimately God’s Sabbath. The Sabbath is ours by gift, God has given it to us. The Sabbath was given to us by God who is the ultimate owner the one who created and rested.

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Another Sabbath to Keep

As we encounter another Sabbath day, I encourage you once again to keep the Sabbath as a day to set aside the things of this side of the Jordan so that you can more fully interact with family, community, and God. When we do this, we can truly begin to see the other side and more fully partake of the blessings of eternity.

The Perspective of Eternity

It is on the Sabbath day that we are to look at the world from the perspective not of one who is daily battling with the foes and constraints of today, but one whose vision includes an eternal frame that will change us as we pick up the mantle of working upon the first day of the week.

The Sabbath is truly the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God into human existence. All too often the cares of today push out this vision of eternity. The test we have to take, the paper we have to finish, the sermon we have to preach, the sick we have to visit, the meeting we have to attend, and simply the work we have to do, all push out the vision of the Sabbath. We allow all of these pressing concerns to rob us of Sabbath. It is as if we think we are going to miss something. If we are not keeping up, if we are not attending to our Instant Messager, cell phone, television, radio, and/or beeper, we will miss something that we need.

Setting aside Busyness

However, God has given us a 24 hour piece of eternity where we are taught to place our hope and trust in the eternal God. What a blessing God has given to us, and the only requirement to experience that blessing is for us to lay aside our symbols of “busyness” on the 6th day. I praise God for the day, and I pray that this week I will truly keep it.