Exodus 20: 8
"Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep It Holy." 

I. BUT LET US CONSIDER FIRST THE SUBJECT OF ITS LEGALITY IN THEPRESENT AGE. 

1. Remember that it is part of this unique code of conduct. It is not hidden in the midst of numerous disciplinary laws about food and clothing and the procedures of animal sacrifice. It is a part of these 10 commandments which govern all civilized life. It would be implausible to say that the other 9 are still in force over our lives but that this one commandment is not. These commandments were handed down by God, said to be dictated by God himself. Later they were carved in stone (probably in their short, outline form of a few words each) and put in the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred box upon which the Mercy Seat was placed and which was the symbolic throne of God. That makes them different from all the other religious laws about ceremony and all the Old Testament offerings and all the dietary laws. These two tables had special importance. And in the N.T., too, these ten commandments are seen as foundations for all the commandments of God and they are certainly seen as incumbent upon the Christian. (e.g.. Matthew19: 18; James 2: 11) 

2. Now it is clear from the N.T. historical records that the Christians observed the first day and not the 7th as the Sabbath, Seventh Day Adventists notwithstanding. This is seen in Acts where every time the Christians are seen gathering it is on the first day. And in the Fathers of the Church, as far back as we have records it was on the first day. In fact, Seventh Day Sabbathism is rather silly because the 7th day depends on where you count from and it is very unlikely that we have an unbroken succession of units of 7 days going back to the creation with all the disruptions there were in history, of wars, famines, migrations and general dying out of civilization from time to time. The day of the week is relative to the culture in which it is observed. Especially so in ancient times. But why did the Apostles change the Sabbath Day relative to the prevailing culture? 

Justin Martyr said that it was to honor the resurrection of Christ, and that is often treated as the final answer. I wonder if it was not to show that Christianity was now free of O.T. Judaism and that Judaism was not the mature form of the revealed religion but was fulfilled in the atonement and resurrection of the Lord. As Paul said about love, so too about the forms of religion: "When the perfect is come, the imperfect will pass away." (I Corinthians 13: 10b) However we have no inspired record of the reason for the change from Saturday to Sunday.. To make the division more dramatic, Muhammed in the 700's, dreaming up a synthesis of Judaism and Christianity and Arab paganism and calling it a revelation from God, chose the 5th day for his day of rest to dramatize its purported distinctiveness as a religion.. I well remember from the time I lived in Jerusalem the dramatization of the distinctive claims of the three Near Eastern religions as they became a three day spectacle every week . It dramatized their differences. 

1. It is not optional - as I have said. But it seems to me that there is little direct guidance in the N.T. as to exactly how we should keep the Sabbath. 

2. We know that the N.T. Christians worshipped on the first day, as I have already mentioned. Curiously, when we find them meeting, they are meeting at night. The night of the Sabbath would not be Sunday night, as we might suppose, but what we call Saturday night. The days always started at sunset in the ancient world and not at our strange starting time of the middle of the night. It appears that the Jews of the N.T. times met in the daylight hours of their Sabbath and not at night. Why would this change be made to have Christians meeting at night --- a very inconvenient meeting time in ancient cultures? The reason is clear. These people were in a society that did not recognize their holy day, whether or not they were in Palestine or out in the Roman cities. In fact, the non- Jewish people did not even have weeks but divided up the month into thirds, counting the days till the beginning of the next third (e.g. the 5th day before the Ides of November). Because of this, the Christians -- laborers, workers, soldiers, slaves, whatever -- couldn't have taken off to go to church on Sunday morning and would have sensibly worshipped on the evening of the Sabbath (i.e. our Sat night). With the rare exception of a few rich people or merchants all of them were committed to a job. Some even were slaves, owned by another who certainly would not let them take what was considered an ordinary work day off to worship what the owners would see as a strange god. 

3. Now, that situation sets a precedent for us, perhaps, that allows us -- or perhaps allows the local church -- some discretion in the observance of the Sabbath. 

1. We know that worship is. The idea is dead center in the meaning of the commandment. "Remember -- to keep it HOLY." It is about God and his holiness; It is not about our doing our own pleasure but our doing God's pleasure. It is a holy day. And when the early Christians worshipped on the eve of the Sabbath they probably spent a good portion of the night in a long worship service with long (we would say very long) prayers, exhortations, sermons and with even, perhaps, an hour-or-two-long reading of the O.T. Scrolls and whatever scrolls of the growing N.T. canon the particular church would have possessed. (Remember, that virtually no one in that day had his own scrolls). And there would have been exhortations and prayers by members of the congregation. Then there would be teaching and at some part of the meeting there would be the serving of the communion when each one of these Christian people confessed their trust in the atonement and imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus.. 

All of this would be a weekly agenda that was later spoken of as the "communion of the saints." I'll bet there were some mighty tired Christians the next morning. Curiously, in Acts 20 there was one of those meetings which was running at full force at midnight and Eutychus dropped off to sleep, fell out of a 3rd story window and gained permanent historical remembrance for sleeping in church. I want to tell you, those people didn't think that the service had to be confined in a one hour period and then went off to do more important things. It was their major contact with God. It was the major activity of Christian faith! And they took it with a seriousness that it is hard for most of us to understand! It was a once-a-week, all-night ritual that they gladly gave up sleep for. 

2. But in our culture, when we have the freedom to keep the Sabbath at a better time of the day and have Bibles and hymn books and a day off on which to worship, how should we keep it? One way is by giving appropriate time to worship, study, fellowship. And surely, another way is by abstention from work as much as possible. The Hebrew word shabat means "rest" in the sense, not of doing nothing but, of taking a break from usual activity. Certainly that is included. in the obligations -- and the delights -- of the day. We are to abstain from the things that clearly clash with the idea of keeping the day holy -- unique, dedicated to God. For the O.T. saints there was the direction of avoiding all ordinary labor on this day. V.10: "..in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your manservant or your maidservant or your beasts, or the sojourner who is within your gates." While it is phrased in terms of a household in the ancient culture, its application to us is quite clear. 

How thankful we should be that we live in a culture where there has been a Christian influence and so we have a day off on which we can indeed obey this commandment in a better way than the early Christians could. In the O.T. law there was provision for necessary work and for emergency work. It is said that a person may pull an ox out of the ditch on the Sabbath. Certainly Christians are allowed to do the cultural equivalent of that. But it does not seem to be a fair application to allow you to pull an ox out of the ditch that you spent the last 6 days pushing into the ditch. 

However, in our culture, we are seeing Sunday being transformed into an activity day. There has been a general descent in the American mentality about the Lord's Day. At one time it was a worship day and a large number of people attended public worship. Then in rural America, it was became a family day (with all the family getting together at the "old home place", etc.). But even that was not the central emphasis of God's commandment. Its not supposed to be primarily a family day. But that was better than what it has become. Then later it became an activity day. Now it is the most unfamily day of the week with the old man glued to a T.V., the wife off to a fashion show; the girls hanging out at the mall and the boys getting in trouble on street corners. And the latest threat to the day is that professional sports have almost colonized the day and made it their own. 

3. But it is to be a HOLY day! "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it HOLY!" A day in which God is central -- even more central than he is in the Christian's heart on the rest of the days of the week . The responsibility is upon you and upon heads of families to do this. A certain amount of recreation might be good, but it not a recreation day. It is not a family day (though it holds the potential of doing wonderful things for a family). It is not God's gracious contribution to football, his idea of a sports day. It is not a repair-your-house day, a day to buy the week's groceries. 

Certainly one can say without fear of contradiction that the things of God's community should take precedence over other things. There is warrant here for a considerable part of our day to be given over to worship, learning of the things of God, fellowship with his people, listening to his Word taught and applied. I think it is hard for you to justify a 30 minute church service held at 7 in the morning so that Christians can go speed boating on the lake or golfing on the course as consistent with "keep it holy". 

You say: "Gimme a break!" I work all week and you want me to spend a half a day sitting around thinking about God? What will this do to my golf game? When am I going to get my bills paid and my house cleaned? How am I going to keep my lake cottage in good shape? God says "Keep it holy." 

4. But there is evidently a lot of discretionary time and activities. There is a lot of "wiggle room" in this. (we're so thankful to the Clinton trials for bringing this slang into prominence) There is a lot of "wiggle room" in this. But there is also a lot of chance for you to give the day to the Lord as a gift in gratitude for his grace. You might spend some time thinking about the things of God improving your grasp of the things of God serving in his kingdom in personal spiritual development in prayer, perhaps with an exploration of the Lord's goodness to you punctuated by prayers of thanksgiving for his goodness. I could end this by 15 minutes of specific things that you could or could not do. This is what the Pharisees of the N.T. period did. 

But it seems to me to be your responsibility as an adult Christian to order your life in a way that takes this commandment into account and tries to apply it fairly. There is a lot of wiggle room but as a mature adult Christian, you ought to do better than that wiggle out of it for yourself and for the family that you lead.