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00:00:01 [Applause] [Music] today's scripture reading is taken from matthew 12 verses 1 to 13. at that time jesus went through the grain fields on the sabbath his disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them when the pharisees saw this they said to him look your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the sabbath he answered haven't you read what david did when he and his companions were hungry he entered the house of god and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread which was not lawful for them to do but
00:00:48 only for the priests or haven't you read in the law that the priests on sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the sabbath and yet are innocent i tell you that something greater than the temple is here if you had known what these words mean i desire mercy not sacrifice you would not have condemned the innocent for the son of man is lord of the sabbath going on from that place he went into their synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand was there looking for a reason to bring charges against jesus they asked him
00:01:24 is it lawful to heal on a sabbath he said to them if any of you has a sheep and he falls into a pit on the sabbath will you not take hold of it and lift it out how much more valuable is a person than a sheep therefore it is lawful to do good on the sabbath then he said to the man stretch out your hand so he stretched it out and it was completely restored just as sound as the other but the pharisees went out and plotted how they might heal jesus this is the word of the lord welcome back to the house of the lord
00:02:04 fbc today we're gonna do a very appropriate topic we're going to do jesus the lord of the sabbath the reading was taken from matthew 12 verses 1 to 14 before we start let's together come to the lord in prayer to ask him to open up our eyes father lord we thank you so much for this morning that you have gathered us together that we may sit at your feet at your word i'm going to pray for your holy spirit to fill us to illuminate the word that it may inspire us it will empower us to glorify your name for us
00:02:42 for jesus sake amen right so today's topic is the sabbath and this is actually a very controversial topic because it has actually split and divided the church you've got the seventh-day adventist which holds their sabbath meeting on a saturday and then you put the jews on the sabbath and then the rest of christianity they are actually control of controversies over its authenticity causing church split some people focused on the fact that maybe you have to keep the sabbath because if you don't keep the sabbath it is
00:03:18 breaking the ten commandments and therefore you will lose your salvation as the sabbath is often used as a measure of spirituality the sabbath can also be used a measure of your christian pride so it is a very controversial topic for which we really have to sink to god's word this morning to really understand what is the sabbath do we practice the sabbath is the lord's day on sunday a replacement for the sabbath or is it different so let's start off looking at the verses last week which our brother john so abele preached to us
00:03:56 about first of all jesus said at that time it's not complicated because it's given to children i thank you father lord of heaven and earth that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and reveal them to little children so you just need to be a simple-minded little children in order to receive god's truth about the sabbath right all things have been handed over to me by my father and no one knows the son except the father and no one knows the father except the son and anyone who to whom the son chooses
00:04:28 to reveal him come to me all you who labor and heavy laden i will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is like this actually last week's sermon was the prologue to what we're going to be preaching about today on the sabbath day let's remind ourselves where the word sabbath comes from it comes from genesis chapter 2 the first two verses thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the hosts of
00:05:01 them and on the seventh day god finished this work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had actually done restaurant is not necessarily a very good translation of the hebrew the actual hebrew word is shabbat which is basically he ceased can't imagine an all-powerful god who got so tired of the creating universe had to rest no sabbah means cease right so there are this passage is divided into four part three parts for which i will define for you number one jesus
00:05:34 redefines the true meaning of the sabbath number two jesus is the fulfillment of the sabbath and number three jesus is the final sabbath rest so let's start off with jesus redefines the true meaning of sabbath now you've got two situations here for which jesus is embroiled with an ongoing dispute with the pharisees who are the religious leaders of the time and here you have jesus going through the grain fields on the sabbath with his disciples his five disciples are hungry no or tarpau around so therefore they began
00:06:07 to pluck heads of grain and to eat and when the pharisees saw it they got upset because it's not lawful according to the pharisees to do this because when you're actually plucking these grains you're harvesting and you're trashing and you're doing work you're not supposed to do that and they got upset and they actually complained about his disciples to jesus himself the second one is basically a man with a withered hand he went to the synagogue and this is obviously the sabbath and that was the man with a withered
00:06:37 hand we probably from a stroke or some nerve palsy or leprosy and they asked him is it lawful for you to heal on the sabbath day and here they're not asking out of the goodness of the heart actually asking to accuse jesus christ because they knew that jesus would heal this guy and he'd be breaking the sabbath and said oh therefore they create opportunity to condemn jesus christ okay now you gotta have to understand the background sabbath has in the life of the israeli jew at that time on a sabbath you're not allowed to go
00:07:11 past a certain distance about a thousand to two thousand yards you're not even allowed to take a bath because in case the water from your bus spills out onto the floor and it cleans the floor that you're cleaning the floor you can't even defend yourself and the history has actually is replete with plenty of episodes where the jews were attacked often on the sabbath day because they cannot defend themselves on the sabbath day here is a mishna and it gives you 39 categories of prohibited work you
00:07:42 couldn't build you couldn't carry you could it was a fire you could extinguish it you couldn't write you couldn't erase you couldn't cook you couldn't wash you couldn't do many many of these things and in the book of jubilees the pharisees says no sex even on a sabbath day and what is a burden you can't carry burdens the burden's equal to a weight of a dried fig or a burden is equal to enough wine for mixing in a goblet or enough milk for one swallow they define everything very very closely and even today we look
00:08:16 at a modern israeli elevator you'll find that these elevators stop at every single floor because if you don't stop every single flaw then the person inside left would be tempted to press the button and pressing the button closes the circuit and that constitutes work and these laws have proliferated beyond israel even to the rest of the world like christian nation like america they've got blue laws which are sunday laws where they believe sabbath equals a sunday rather than a saturday and in florida it is actually
00:08:50 illegal on a sunday for unmarried women to go skydiving if you're unmarried men is okay it's in georgia on a sunday it's illegal to eat with a fork and knife but it's legal to eat with your hands in massachusetts on a sunday it's illegal to take a bath so all the people massachusetts would be very stinky on that particular day and so therefore it is no wonder then jesus said to the people at a time come to me all who labor and are heavy labor know why they're labored and a heavy burden it's because of the jewish distortions of
00:09:31 putting fences around the law and then these fences became the law themselves and so jesus contradicts the pharisees you know so in the case of eating grain he excites the example of david and his men who ate the show bread matthew 12 verses 3 to 4 and he said to them have you not read what david did when he was hungry this is king david and those who were with him how he entered the house of god ate the bread of presence which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who are with him but only for the priest so what
00:10:05 david did was go inside the uh the the temple and ate of the bread that was there now that's why jesus quoted this it's because of the parallel here they're criticizing jesus because disciples were harvesting grain to eat on the sabbath day here we have got david and his disciples at that time going into the temple and getting bread which is the special ceremonial bread which you could see here the show bread okay of which was only uh reserved for the priests so here you actually have a situation where
00:10:44 there are both parallels and this is a situation where jesus disciples were hungry they had to eat and jesus said it's okay for them indeed the same thing as david they didn't criticize david even though david's disciples took the show bread and jesus tried to show them that this place which is set apart for god the temple is fundamentally a place not of burden but a place of justice and compassion and that justice and compassion for people of hungary trumps the burden of just following dead laws
00:11:15 as it were then what about the man with the withered hand and then jesus said to them which one of you who has a sheep if it falls into a pit on the sabbath will not take hold of it and lift it out now he's questioning them if you've got a sheep that falls into a pit are you going to leave until monday they pick it up otherwise they'll die and they won't verse 12 how much more valuable is a man than a sheep so it's lawful to do good on the sabbath so what jesus is doing is exposing double standards because they
00:11:48 value their sheep more than violating sabbath they would violate the sabbath to pick up the sheep but they wouldn't let jesus heal a man who needed healing on that day mark chapter 2 actually has the same episode recorded and this as an extra verse there which i'm going to use to read and interpret this passage was that he said to them the sabbath was made for man not man for the sabbath the son of man is lord even of the sabbath so the sabbath was originally designed for the good of man it was not supposed
00:12:23 to be a burden to him and verse seven if you had known what this means i desire mercy not sacrifice you would not have condemned the guiltless and this mercy and not sacrifice is actually taken from a prophecy in hosea where he says when god says i desire mercy which is steadfast love not sacrifice the knowledge of god rather than burnt offerings so here jesus is trying to separate two things there's a precept and then the principle the precept back in the sermon amount matthew chapter five is that you're not supposed
00:12:58 to murder but even you get angry at somebody is called someone that's equivalent to murder why the principle is that you are to love your neighbor if you're not supposed to have adultery but on top of that even if you had lust you've already broken the law because there's a principle behind it it's basically love your neighbor same thing in covet you're supposed to have testing you're supposed to have a vaccination you're supposed to be locked down yourself also socially distance these are precepts why do we all do all
00:13:32 these things we do all these things not in and of themselves of any good but they are actually principle underlying principle because it saves lives vaccine saves life locking down saves lives social distinction saves lives but what if you had somebody suddenly collapse of a heart attack are you going to say oh social distancing i didn't bring my mask i can't do cpr why because it's not socially distanced you say i mean the principle which is overriding is always love your neighbor and in that particular case you can wipe away the
00:14:07 precepts and go with the particular principles jesus said for i tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of god the whole idea is to uphold the principles and not the precepts now let's go back to the principle of the sabbath it is taken from genesis chapter 2 verses 1 3 thus the heavens and the earth were finished all the hosts of them and on the seventh day god finished this work that he had done and he rested or ceased on the sabbath day from all
00:14:37 his work that he had done so god blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it god rested from all his work that he had done in creation so therefore we have the whole six days of creation and on the seventh day is actually the climax of creation because at this time when he has completed the work and he sits and he enjoys the entire universe which he has created and he basically ceased from work to enjoy what he had done and created right now exodus chapter 20 this is when the sabbath is
00:15:11 actually explained to the people who have been saved from the exodus from departing the red sea from slavery in egypt remember in genesis chapter 3 sin came into the lives of adam and eve and work which was supposed to be joyful and in the power and spirit of god becomes a drudgery a curse difficulty the land would yield tissues and thorns against you in that situation the gift of the sabbath then was then announced on exodus 20 verses 8 11 to mitigate the effects of the fall remember the sabbath day
00:15:50 keep it holy which is set apart for god six days you will labor and do all your work on the seventh day is a sabbath to the lord your god on it you shall not do any work not only you your sons your daughters your male servants your female servants your livestock or your sojourner who is within your gates for in the six days god made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that's in them and rested on the seventh day therefore god blessed the sabbath day and made it holy by making holy he's actually setting it
00:16:23 aside to making it special because we're designed to rest we can't work every single day we live in a society that if you're given given the temptation that we would actually work every single day productivity is actually the chief value in life more work more productive maybe i won't rest maybe i'll rest after i finish two years of work as it were to get make as much as i can this is liaong eastern weekly in china and this actually reports one million chinese people actually die from overwork every
00:16:58 single year this is how rampant it is if you look at the structure of the ten commandments the first four commandments is about worship no graven images not to take god's name in vain and keeping the sabbath these are four commandments for how to worship and love god and the other few commandments about how to love your fellow man so it falls within this worship of god on that day the famous jewish scholar abraham joshua herschel actually said the sabbath is a cathedral in time it's like a big structure or
00:17:32 memorial built but it's not built on the ground it's actually built in time because you set apart a special time the meaning of sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space six days we wrestle with the world ringing profit from the earth on the sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in the soul the world has our hands but our soul belongs to someone else and this distinguishes us from animals because six days a week we do we basically ring profit from the earth but on the seventh we care for the seed of
00:18:11 eternity our soul so god is planted within our hearts it belongs to someone else we're supposed to celebrate it with joy isaiah says if you turn back your foot from the sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy days call and call the sabbath a delight a holy day of the lord honorable so basically it is supposed to be said but supposed to be celebrated with joy not doing stuff that will just bring you pleasure all right it's if you turn your foot from sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day you you
00:18:39 basically it is a day where you call it's a delight and a holy day to god all right if you honor it and not go on your own ways or seeking your own pleasure or talking idly then you shall take delight in the lord so the whole focus of the sabbath is taking delight in the lord right so if you look sabbath is made for the good of man and if you look at many bible passages in the old testament it's made for us to remember his salvation from egypt it's to remind us that we are dependent on him and he was also safeguard from
00:19:18 exploitation of workers it is also the sabbath is also a covenantal sign the noi covenant the covenant noah was actually the sign was the rainbow the abrahamic covenant the sign was circumcision and exodus deliverance from egypt the sign was the sabbath rest one day out of seven when you rest and it's specific to israel exodus 31 the lord said to moses you are to speak to the people of israel and say above all you shall keep my sabbath for this is a sign between you me and you throughout your generations
00:19:55 that you may know that i the lord sanctify you you shall keep the sabbath because it is holy everyone who profanes it shall be put to death so it is signed specific to israel and it also has a penalty because if you profaned it or make but the meaning of profane is make it instead of special you make it ordinary it shall be put to death now so therefore jesus has defined redefine the true meaning of sabbath that it is something for the good of man now the next thing is that jesus is going to move on and tells us that he's
00:20:27 the fulfillment of the sabbath you see if you look into the gospels you will always see jesus picking a fight he picks a fight specifically with the jews about the sabbath here we've got the disciples eating or harvesting grain matthew 12 and mark three healing a man withered hand also reflected matthew 12 mark 3 then you've got healing of the lame man purposely on john 5 healing the blind man also on the sabbath healing of a disabled woman in luke 13. so it would seem as if both the pharisees and jesus got stuck
00:21:03 into each other always specific topic all the time why are they always fighting on on the sabbath day jesus is trying to establish a principle now chapter 12 verse 5 or have you not read in law how the sabbath on the sabbath the priests of the temple profane the sabbath are guiltless i tell you something greater than the temple is here and if you are known what this means i desire sacrifice not mercy not sacrifice you would not have condemned the guiltless for i the son of man is lord of the sabbath so what he's
00:21:38 saying is that it's not a misunderstanding of the law it's understanding whom the law comes from you see we actually have the sabbath on the sabbath day the priests actually are not supposed to work all right but they actually work why because the ceremonies of the temple are more important on the sabbath they have to perform this work and so so therefore everybody else doesn't work but they proform this work and they're not profaning the sabbath they are actually guiltless because something is
00:22:11 greater than them right and and basically the same thing here jesus is actually greater than temple it is he who determines how you are to celebrate the sabbath jesus kept the sabbath galatians 4 4 says when the fullness of time had come god sent forth his son born of woman born under the law because he was born under the lord jesus kept the entire 12th 10 commandments jesus kept the sabbath right but jesus is greater than temple in john chapter 2 verse 19 jesus answered them destroy this temple which
00:22:43 he means himself he refers to himself as temple and in three days i will raise it up again to a greater temple as it were in john chapter 5 when they clashed with him about healing the man by the pull of betsetta he actually specifically said to them and we just caused them to try to actually break out in a rash and want to condemn him jesus said answer them my father is working until now and i am working which means jesus actually works on the sabbath day just like god and so therefore in luke 13 when one of
00:23:19 the rulers of synagogue was very upset because jesus healed on the sabbath day his argument that jesus should not have healed on the sabbath day is because he refers back to genesis there are six days in which work should be done come on those days and be healed not on the sabbath day the guy's hands you know this woman we're talking about was bent over disabled for many many years why do you have to heal on the sabbath day why can't you heal on a monday jesus deliberately healed on the sabbath
00:23:50 day why because to show that he is lord of the sabbath he is the one that gives the sabbath law he is the one who will define how it is to be fulfilled and he is the one who fulfills all the requirements of the sabbath day you see the sabbath day is basically a shadow of rest on this particular day we stop working you enjoy and you celebrate seventh year is a sabbath year people call it even today the sabbatical why once every seven years you don't plow you don't plan on that particular piece of
00:24:30 land you let it rest academics take a risk arrest every seven times seven years which is 49 years and a year after that it's called the year the jubilee all debts are forgiven all land which have been sold are given back to the original owners everything is reset for the benefit of man right all festivals of israel are times where people stop working they celebrate they enjoy jesus is a fulfillment of the sabbath luke chapter 4 verse 18 jesus went to this temple the synagogue and when he was the synagogue he said these words
00:25:12 the spirit of the lord is upon me why because he's anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor he sent me to proclaim the good news to the poor he has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the lord's savior you know what it means by the year of the lord's favor this year the lord's favor is actually the 50th jubilee year that means the rest and the joy anticipated in this wonderful jubilee is
00:25:46 fulfilled in jesus christ hence the resting and the feasting of a sabbath find a climax in jesus christ a new era of the jubilee era of freedom and enjoyment and rest has been proclaimed by jesus christ and this is the rest that jesus is referring to come to me all ye who love labor and are heavy laden the only rest that you're going to have the kind of jubilee rest all right which israel look forward to is given to us by jesus christ himself now if you look in the new testament this is how paul sees it
00:26:22 paul says therefore let no one pass judgement on you in questions of food and drink with regard to a festival whether you celebrate the the the passover or anything else or new moon or even celebrating a sabbath don't judge these are a shadow of the things to come but the substance belongs to christ what does paul mean by this basically what is saying that the old testament presents with you shadows and these shadows are basically anticipating of the substance of reality that comes when you look at the shadow one day you
00:27:04 will know behind the curtain there will be a person when the substance comes the new covenant the old is done away for example the passover meal why don't we celebrate as christians why don't we celebrate the passover because a passover is a shadow when the real stuff comes to the shadow of the ultimate sacrifice in the new covenant which is here symbolized by the bread and the wine when that comes we don't celebrate this anymore colossians chapter 2 the shadow of the things to come and the writer hebrews
00:27:37 actually uses the same hebrew word shkia for since the law has is but a shadow of the things to come instead of the true form of these realities it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year by year make perfect those who draw near so basically shadows are basically the sacrifices so here we've got old testament sacrifice which is the lamb or the goat which you lay your hands and have all the sins transmitted this is a shadow we don't celebrate with we don't kill lambs anymore simply because the true lamb of
00:28:08 god has actually come and so therefore under the old covenant you've got the sabbath you've got to pass over the unleavened bread the feast first fruits booth day of atonement trumpets pentagon all of these are actually shadows which will point to the sacrifice of jesus christ and what happened to the jews they missed it paul writes for i bear them witness that they have been a zeal for god they're very zealous enthusiastic they love god but not according to knowledge for being ignorant of the righteousness
00:28:41 of god and seeking to establish their own righteousness they did not submit to god's righteousness it's not enough to have sincerity and zeal it is you have to have the knowledge and what he's saying in the old testament passover unleavened bread all the feasts and all the sabbath basically basically are complied with or celebrated in order to gain righteousness same thing with the old testament new old covenant with the sabbath they seem the pharisees think that if we kept the sabbath it will give us the kind of
00:29:14 righteousness that will enable us to stand before god and be saved now paul says so therefore be let no one pass judgment on you in the questions of food drink festivals or new moon or sabbath so he's asking us to focus not on these things but focus on the substance which belongs to christ so just as we don't stick to food laws we don't celebrate all these festivals so therefore we don't celebrate the sabbath as well romans 14 verse 5. one person esteems one day as better than another another esteems all days are alike everyone
00:29:57 should be convinced in their own mind the one who observes the day observes it in the honor of the lord the one who eats it's in the honor of the lord since he gives thanks to god while the one who abstains abstains in the honor of the lord and gives thanks to god so you've got a friend who's in the catholic church and he basically on a friday you know doesn't eat meat just eats fish he does it for the glory god that's fine another day prefers another person prefers to celebrate uh worship god on a friday so go so be it
00:30:30 if you want to worship god on a saturday or sunday so be it so basically paul is allowing this to be something of a conscience paul does not believe old testament laws are still in place why because if you really follow the old testament laws if you profane if you don't keep the sabbath day you will be put to death he's very loose with it because it this doesn't apply anymore the book of jubilee said the creator of all blessed of all blessed sabbath day but he did not sanctify any peoples or nations to keep the sabbath
00:31:06 thereon the sole exception of israel he granted to them alone that they might eat and drink and keep the sabbath there on the earth so they don't believe even the jews believe the sabbath is only for them because to sign a covenant with them not for the rest of us if you look at the interaction between the rich young ruler came to jesus to ask him how what could he have done to be saved jesus pointed out to obey the law and these are the laws that jesus pointed out he said to him which ones jesus said you shall not murder you
00:31:36 shall not commit adultery you shall not steal you shall not bear false witness you shall honor your father and mother you shall love your neighbor as yourself notice everything else but he missed out the sabbath all right and i'll tell you why verse 6 i tell you something greater than temple is here if you're known what this means i desire mercy not sacrifice you would not condemn the guiltless for the son of man is the lord's episode there's no more need for sacrifice because what jesus wants is
00:32:07 mercy or basically love this is a conversation where jesus has with one of the scribes and back and forth question mark chapter 12 verse 33 and this is what the scribe said and to love him with all the heart with all the understanding with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than the whole of the burnt offerings and sacrifices and when jesus saw that he answered wisely he said to him you are not far very rarely say says describe the pharisees from the kingdom of god the
00:32:40 whole idea is basically not keeping the sabbath as a rigid precept or a law but basically keeping the law of christ which is to love god and love your neighbor that's why paul says bear one another's burdens which is love and soul fulfill the law of christ this is a picture of our famous eric little remember him he was supposed to run the hundred meters in the 1924 olympics and he became very famous why because he believed in keeping the sunday for him the sabbath day was a sunday so therefore the olympics was on sunday he
00:33:18 had to run 100 meters and he was the favorite to win the race and because he kept the sabbath which is for him a sunday he stuck because he considered that day holy to the lord he wouldn't do any work he wouldn't run and as a result his compatriot harold abrams ran in his stead and won the 100 meters raised and he lost his goal because he stuck to his principles but the amazing thing about eric little years later on when he actually stayed back in china he spent the next 20 years as a missionary in
00:33:50 china and you can find that they actually organized in the concentration camp football games for all the young children there and they were very hesitant because there were one very good footballer there it was eric little they didn't think that eric little would compromise his sunday because the only day that the japanese allowed them to play football that he would be their coach and you know what for the man who refused to run 100 meters on a sunday for the man who gave up the gold to keep his sabbath day
00:34:25 this man taught football on a sunday because he understood the sabbath was made for man not man for the sabbath jesus has already fulfilled the sabbath lastly jesus is the final sabbath rest you know remember this shop just a couple of meters away from the church you had a very good restaurant called the thank god it's friday used to take my kids there all the time why why do they call this restaurant thank god this friday it's basically based on the sabbath principle i don't think distorted the friday because if
00:35:05 you've got one whole week of break back breaking work labor and stress it produces so much anticipation of not only rest but relief release enjoyment and celebration so we'll look forward to the weekend we look forward to friday night because it's the start of the weekend and once you get inside this restaurant you know you see another sign in here it's always friday we wish we could party all the time isn't it because it will always be friday and that is what the sabbath is supposed to mean some people think around if it's
00:35:41 just about restoration and rest why don't i make as much money as possible and then i can retire early at 35 and you can find a corporate field a lot of people would make as much money as possible so that they could retire at 35 and sit by the beach drink your pina colada and your whiskey and have a great time but that's actu it's not really about the rest because if you look at the new rural pension scheme in china started since 2009 they found that a significant mental decline in all those people who especially women who actually
00:36:12 retired under this pension scheme that's called something called mental retirement it's not just not about rest this is a michigan health uh retirement study showed that a year earlier retirement increases your death rate by 11 there's a greek epic study of 16 000 subjects when they compared people were employed versus and retirees and they actually found that if you're a retiree you get a 50 increase in death rate when you retire and if you actually retire later five years you have 10 decrease in
00:36:47 this mortality so it's not just about rest all right it's about if it's about a final rest hebrews chapter 4 verse 8 for if joshua had given them rest god would have spoken of another day later on so then there remains a sabbath rest for the people of god for whoever has entered god's rest has also rested from his works as god did from his let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience so therefore jesus is that final rest but that remains a sabbath rest here's jesus say
00:37:23 come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden i will give you rest you see jesus saying i'm going to give you rest the writer of hebrews says there remains a cyber threat are they contradicting each other right if you read in a new testament there's this idea of inaugurated eschatology where we actually live in the age of the already and not yet for example in romans were adopted as sons of god romans chapter 8 15 and yet we're waiting for the final adoption as son of god in verse 23 of chapter 8. we are already redeemed in
00:37:59 ephesians chapter 1 7 and yet we're not fully redeemed in in ephesians chapter 4 verse 30 we're already raised with christ and yet we're not raised with christ there's an already and not yet tension in what has happened at the cross so therefore we live at the intersection between two ages the age of to come which is that the eternal age and the age that is now and we live here in the already and not yet so the already is we have rest in christ and not yet we are still waiting our final rest in christ where we shall be
00:38:34 with him in heaven the early christians jewish christians celebrated both the sabbath day and the lord's day the gentile christians only celebrated the lord's day if you look there are three references in the new testament about celebrations on the first day which is a sunday of every week they didn't celebrate the sabbath day the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside something store it as he started up as he may prosper so that you know when he comes again uh bring the offering this is one corinthians chapter
00:39:06 6 2 16 2 on the first day of the week when we were gathered together to break bread which means this is their worship meeting revelations 1 10 john when i was in the spirit on the lord's day not the sabbath day on the lost day i heard behind me a loud voice so what did the early believers do the early believers actually celebrated the lord's day which is sunday and if you look the sabbath is celebrated by the jews or the christian jews at a time and the roman empire gave them scattered concessions to do so
00:39:38 but for the christians they celebrated worship on the lord's day which is sunday and for the first 300 years the sunday is always a working day it is just a day where they decided to worship god it is not a restful day it is a working day only at 3 21 a.d emperor constantine proclaimed it as a holiday so therefore the people rested this concept about sabbath and the lord they basically coalesced into one early church fathers didn't practice the sabbath day they didn't see the lord's day as a replacement for the sabbath day
00:40:19 it is not because the sabbath day is fulfilled by jesus christ this is ignatius early church father 80 110 he writes if therefore those brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope no longer observing the sabbath but living in the observance of the lord's day on which our life has sprung up again by him and by his death so basically what he's saying he's not following the old order when jesus christ rose from the dead he inaugurated a new era in life the age to come has
00:40:56 already come and so therefore we celebrate the lord's day because that is basically our rest and it also indicates to us our future rest right so what do we do in the meantime well it says if joshua had given them rest god would have not spoken of another day later on so then there remains a sabbath rest for the people of god for whoever's entered god's rest is also rested from his works as god did from his so let us therefore strive to enter the rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of
00:41:30 disobedience what do we do in the meantime we strive to be obedient that's what we do because our obedience is an anticipation of the final rest that we will find in jesus christ i will give you rest and yet jesus turn around and says my yoke is easy and my burden is like why is it that you said you give me rest and yet i've got to have a yoke what is this yolk the yolk is obedience why is the fact that jesus puts a yoke on us and that joke is easy the yoke is easy simply because of one thing the
00:42:08 cross you see when you actually have christ dying for us our reciprocal love we love because he first loved us love makes the yoke easy the spirit makes the yolk light that is how the new economy the new paradigm comes in the challenge is for us today this is an example from japan and you know japan is not only a land the rising sun is a land where everybody works day and night they don't finish until 10 o'clock at night the story was told of a gentleman called yuji udon who worked as supervisor the nikon
00:42:46 factory in kumungaya when he used to work 250 hours a month at times and one day he was working 15 straight days without any time off and knew in that month he lost 13 kilograms and one day he got up and he wrote in his diary the time i spent has been wasted and he killed himself work all your life and the time i spent has been wasted i came across a interesting movie recently that had been actually entitled all my life which is actually based on a true story of this couple called solomon chao who's basically a chinese
00:43:32 chef and his canadian girlfriend and then wife called jen carter if you've got times it came out last year in december beautiful love story about the two of them who met together and fell in love and the problem was straight away solomon child was diagnosed with liver cancer and it was liver cancer at stage four and the whole movie was how he overcome overcame the situation chemotherapy and suffering and just both them and they said these things we had the choice to either give in to the fear that souls cancer prognosis had laid on
00:44:11 us or to move forward with every ounce of love and support we'd be given making the most of our time that we had left together so there are two choices you either give in to crying over the cancer every single day or you basically enjoy the love you have for each other every single day that was a great scene when with the chemotherapy solomon actually lost the sense of taste and you could see him crying out says my god they took my sense of taste away i'm a chef how can you take this my sense of
00:44:46 taste away if you take my sense of taste away i have nothing left and his wife turned down to him and said well they could have taken your sight away then you wouldn't have seen me they could have taken your ears away and you wouldn't have heard me you could taken the sense of take a touch away and you would have felt me and his demeanor changed solomon charles said these words at the end of the struggle life is great and tomorrow will be better because he focused on the joy that he had with his
00:45:19 wife for that period of time solomon chao lived 128 days after his wedding and cancer took him i don't know how he can say life is great and tomorrow will be better because solomon chao does not know that tomorrow will be better because tomorrow the laws of physics takes over and he died of liver cancer but he hung on to the hope because hope is the only thing he could hang on to but when you look at this as christians we're different you know why because every time you celebrate any day for the lord
00:45:59 the first day resurrection day becomes a glimpse of the last day we can say more than solomon chao life is great you know why because jesus died for us in our sin for our sin and we are risen with him and when we actually savor and enjoy our life we could actually say tomorrow will be better you know why because tomorrow will be the last day and that last day we will rise and we will be with christ and that is the impetus that is the strength that is the beauty of which we can live every single day
00:46:33 and when we celebrate the first day and it doesn't matter to you whether it's saturday or monday you set a part a day it honors god you see sabbath day or the lord's day is not something that's written in stone so that if you don't celebrate it then you lose your salvation no jesus christ has fulfilled the sabbath on our behalf that's why paul says they're only a shadow of the things to come every day can be a sabbath day every day can be that first day we live life with a different perspective in mind
00:47:06 this is reverend yucci iqba who basically is from the cambridge community tv program and she writes these words which i find quite useful christ rest is actually not a rest from work but in work not the rest of activity but of harmonious working of all the faculties affections of will and heart imagination conscience because each has found in god for i would reckon in christ the ideal sphere for his satisfaction and development what what this reverend is saying is that the whole idea of the sabbath is not
00:47:44 rest from work but in work because we now find meaning in our work meaning that god employs all our emotions our will imagination conscience in our work because that's the ideal sphere which it is developed john lee talked to us last week about maslow's triangle where every single human being striving physiological needs safety security love belonging self-esteem and finally self-actualization what jesus is saying to us today jesus fulfills all of this we can engage in life with the kind of quality
00:48:27 because jesus fulfills every segment of this so let me end the sermon this morning this is a picture taken from a movie called in time beautiful movie because every time justin timberlake looks at his hand it's not a watch it just tells you how much time you have left and the sabbath is about time the sabbath is about god setting aside a time where he ceases of activity he enjoys his time with his creation it's all about setting aside that time every time we look in the mirror it reminds us we have only a set amount of time
00:49:11 and we use this time and set it aside and say okay i've got x number of days i'm going to set this aside as a reflection as a celebration of my time with our lord jesus christ and to use it well i remember a couple of years ago well almost about a year ago we we did a very difficult kidney operation on one of the members from the from formerly a member from the pantai church a good friend of mine over the years it was such a difficult operation and he and he lost tons of blood and even at the last minute there was a
00:49:49 huge tear in the large vessel in his in in his uh right next to the kidney that was possibly mixed and by some miracle we actually discovered it just before we closed it and we actually saved his life i met him in starbucks this was last week i know it's been one year and he's probably not cured of the tumor but it's not come back yet he's had one year and in that one year you know what he's done every day is the sabbath because every day is a day in which he finds an opportunity to savor that day and to
00:50:21 thank the lord for that day and he uses it to share the gospel even during the mco when you cannot reach anybody when he goes to uh the the gh for his tests people are sitting next to him or interacting with him whether the nurses or doctors and he's able to share with them the gospel of jesus christ because a sabbath that miracle the miracle of of that surgery that actually saved his life has taught him time is precious and every day is set aside for the glory of god so this morning will you look at your watch
00:50:58 the first day that we celebrate sunday today is a reflection of the last day and we should embrace the rest of monday tuesday wednesday with the same kind of joy that we actually experience on a sunday because this is a day where we celebrate our resurrection so some of you who want to have a prayer just send pray to fpce and we'll be elders and pastors here available to pray with you for others if you've decided to follow jesus you'd like to attend alpha like to attend a live group or a prayer request
00:51:40 scan this qr code and we will be able to respond to you let's have the final song as we look forward because the sabbath is fulfilled in the face of our lord jesus christ let us look forward to seeing his face on the last day as we celebrate this first day
