Word of Salvation – Vol. 24 No. 21 – March 1978
Joyful Sunday Observance
Sermon by Rev. J. J. Van Wageningen, B.D. on Exodus 20:8-11
Scripture reading: Col. 2:13-19, Hebrews 10:19-25, Lord’s Day 38
Psalter Hymnal: 162:1,2; 233:8; 235:2; 324; 326:1
What does the Sunday mean to you?
An easy day nothing to do – anyhow no daily work – you can sleep in and take it easy – a pleasant day – you can do whatever you like, you can go for a walk, drive, a visit.
A boring day with some dull duties, a day hemmed in with prison bars? Or is the Sunday a feast day for you becaus e it is the day of the Lord, your Lord? Your Lord, I emphasize this, because the right celebration of the Sunday depends on this. It is possible only if you know the Lord, if there is a living relationship with Him, the bond of faith and love. Otherwise it becomes a cold, formal duty. God gave the commandments to Israel, to His people. But first God reminded them of that glorious fact that He is the God of His people. “I am the LORD, Yahweh, your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
God is their Redeemer, their Saviour, the faithful God of the Covenant. The commandments are not a set of rules fixed by some body we do not know – no, God speaks to us and He says, “I am your God, your Saviour.” He really saves us, He gave His own Son and so we listen to the commandments, they are the expression of the will of Him who is our God and Father in the Lord Jesus Christ.
God’s Will For Us in the 4th Commandment.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work.”
The Heidelberg Catechism does not speak about the O.T. Sabbath, the 7th day of the week, the day of rest. We want however to pay some attention to it, because you must know what to answer when e.g. a Seventh Day Adventist puts the question to you: Why are you disobedient to the 4th Commandment? Why don’t you keep the Sabbath on Saturday, the 7th day of the week? Who gives you the right to change this commandment?
Well, it is clear that the Lord commanded His people, Israel, to keep the Sabbath day, the 7th day, as a very special feast day, a holy day, separated, different from all the other days. It had to be a day of complete rest. The people were not even allowed to kindle a fire, or to gather sticks. If they did so, they were punished; the penalty was death. Complete rest, the Lord’s Sabbath means rest.
It is also clear in the light of the N.T. that there are ceremonial elements in this commandment which belong to the O.T. dispensation. The Seventh Day Adventist overlooks the fact that there is a difference between the O.T. time with its promises, ceremonies and shadows, and the N.T. time, the time of the fulfilment. We live in the N.T. dispensation, we must read the O.T., also the O.T. law, in the light of the N.T.
In the O.T. there were holy places, like the temple in Jerusalem, holy men, like the priests, holy days, the different feast days, the Sabbath included. They were types, symbols, shadows. In N.T. times there are no special holy men; Christ makes us a holy priesthood – all of us are priests; no special holy places, the temple is destroyed, we can worship the Lord anywhere. No special holy days – the Apostle Paul writes to the Colossians, chapter 2:16, 17: “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration, or a sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”
Here the Apostle clearly says that the Sabbath day, the day of complete rest for Israel, is a shadow of the true rest of God’s people, which we receive through Christ. The reality is in Him and because the reality has come, the ceremonial elements in this commandment – the complete symbolic rest on the 7th day – have been fulfilled. Every day is a holy day now and the Christian life is a continual Sabbath.
This is our answer to the 7th Day Adventist. He still sticks to what belongs to the time of the shadows and he judges other people by whether or not they keep the O.T. shadow Sabbath Day.
From the N.T. it is clear that our Sunday, the 1st day of the week is the resurrection day of the Lord Jesus. He arose on the 1st day and therefore this day is called the Lord’s day, the day of the risen Lord! It is a feast-day, a day of abundant joy, a spiritual joy; joy in the Lord through the Holy Spirit.
The risen Lord appeared on His resurrection day, (Thomas absent) and one week later, again, on the 1st day of the week. (Thomas present). On the first day of the week, Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out. In Acts 20:7 we read: “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread (Holy Supper). Paul preached to the people, and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.”
1Cor.16:2 – “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.”
It is clear that the early Christians held their worship services on the first day and by observing this day the young church honoured her risen Lord and did what God demands in the 4th Commandment.
God does not demand of us that we rest in that strict, ceremonial, typical way as the Israelites had to do, even on pain of death. No, the emphasis is now on the worship, the glory of God and the spiritual upbuilding of His people.
The Catechism says that this is God’s will for us in the 4th Commandment, that first of all, the gospel ministry and the schools be maintained, and that, especially on the Sabbath, on the festive day of rest, I diligently attend the assembly of God’s people to learn what God’s Word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to God publicly and to bring Christian offerings for the poor.
Ursinus, one of the authors of the Heidelberg Catechism, calls this the moral or external Sabbath, and he writes in his commentary on the Catechism, “although the ceremonial Sabbath has been abolished in the N.T., yet the moral or external Sabbath still continues, for there is now just as much necessity for a certain time to be set apart in the Christian Church for the preaching of God’s Word and for the public administration of the sacraments, as there was formerly in the Jewish Church.”
The Catechism fixes our attention first on the necessity to maintain the gospel-ministry and the schools. God wants us to support the church and the work of the church with our love, our prayer and our money. And also the schools – not schools in general are meant, but the training, education for the gospel-ministry – in our situation, the R.T.C.! This is obedience to the 4th Commandment, obedience to the Lord. Each one of us should understand his calling in this respect – the Church and the training for the ministry come first! Not paid from left-overs….! And then the Catechism emphasizes that the Lord wants us to be faithful in church attendance. It is God’s will that I diligently, regularly attend the assembly of God’s people. I would like to say a few things about this ― a few practical remarks.
You go to church ― but how do you feel about it? Is it just a formal duty ― only a matter of tradition? You have been doing it for so many years ― you are used to it ― or you go to church because Mum and Dad want you to go? But is it all flat, and dull and superficial? I repeat what I said at the beginning of this sermon: the right celebration of the Sunday is possible only if there is a living relationship with the Lord, the bond of faith and love. If you know the Lord as your risen Lord and Saviour, then you realize that it is a privilege, a great blessing that we may come together on the 1st day of the week, on the day of His resurrection, as His people. Then you are conscious of the fact that church and church-going is not just a human affair. No, the Lord calls you through the Session; the Lord speaks to you through the preaching of His Word; the Lord wants you to worship Him; the Lord is present in our midst.
Do we prepare ourselves for it? Do you stay in bed as long as possible, do you start running at the last moment, a little irritated, maybe grumbling? Or do you see to it that there is time for prayer and Bible reading? Do you thank the Lord that it is Sunday and that you may go to church? Do you ask for His blessing upon the congregation and yourself and your children? Do you pray for the minister, do you pray for those who are unable or unwilling to attend?
Do your children notice that Sunday is a special feast day, that you are thankful and joyful in the Lord? And during the service are you active? Do you really participate? Do you listen to God’s Word? To listen is difficult, and it seems to become more difficult all the time. Train yourself in the art of listening. Talk with your children and with each other about the sermon. Ask them what the text was and what they have heard and understood of the sermon and explain it to them. Talk about the psalms and hymns. In this way you have to listen yourself, but you also teach your children to listen and to pay attention to what we are doing here.
The Lord calls us this is also the answer to the question: “Why should I go twice? Nowhere in the Bible two services are prescribed. One service is enough for me.”
The Lord calls us through the Session – and if you are able to come, but you stay away for all kinds of reasons, then you disobey the Lord. Are you spiritually lazy, self-willed? Do you seek to please yourself in your own way, or do you seek to honour the Lord, and do you seek the well-being of the congregation and of your family and yourself? If there is spiritual weakness, decline, back-sliding it shows up in lack of diligence, unfaithful, irregular attendance.
The letter to the Hebrews was written to these believers, Christians from among the Jews, because they were spiritually lazy, back-sliding, in danger of falling away from the living God, and we read in Hebrews 10:23-25: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful, and let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the day approaching.” This bad habit is not something new, but it is still something bad.
In our affluent society Sunday observance is diminishing in a fast tempo. So many don’t realize anymore the significance of the Lord’s Day. They want to have leisure and pleasure and consider religious duties as useless restraints, burdens, and we and our children are exposed to the influences of the world around us how often we are passive and permit the world around us to squeeze us into its own mould.
What about your Sunday celebration? Do you resist all the temptations to enjoy an excessive leisure, that interferes with the proper worship of the living God? In which manner do you spend the Lord’s Day? Are the worship services in the centre, do you concentrate upon them, do they stamp the day? Is it a festive day, also for the children? – as parents we should give time and attention to them, take an interest in their work for the catechism classes, and the clubs, walk and talk with them, play games, make music and sing together. Read what’s worthwhile and upbuilding. Sunday should not be a boring day. Boredom does not serve our spiritual well-being and is not a fruit of it either. Think it over, maybe you have to change your ways and your habits. Not only on the Sunday but on all the days of the week, for they, the Sunday and the days after, should be in harmony with each other!
The Catechism explains that this 4th Commandment has significance also for our everyday life: “that every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through His Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath.”
Ursinus calls this the spiritual Sabbath and he says that God demanded such a rigid and careful observance of the Jewish Sabbath, which was typical, to indicate thereby the greatness and necessity of the spiritual Sabbath which is signified by it, and Ursinus defines the spiritual Sabbath as “a ceasing from sin and a rest in God” all the days of our life, no matter whether it is a Sunday, or a Monday, a Friday or a Saturday.
Whatever day it may be, we have to rest from our evil works. No sinful deeds, words, thoughts, desires, etc.; we have to cease from sin, from every sin on every day, and we may and must rest in God, live in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, before God’s face, in His Holy and gracious presence, asking:
“O, Lord, work in me by Thy Holy Spirit;
Renew me, sanctify me, strengthen me,
that I may truly live as Thy child,
that I may devote my heart and life to Thee in new obedience,
that I may glorify Thy Name”.
This is the beginning of the eternal Sabbath, when all sin will be banished, when we may share in God’s rest. We shall see Him face to face; then we shall worship Him in a way we could never do it here on earth, perfectly, in all eternity.
Amen!