Guard the Holy Sabbath Day! (Deuteronomy 5:12-15)

June 10, 2012

Dear friends in Christ.

I don’t know about you, but in the past few years, I’ve started receiving quite a few “Save the Date” postcards.  These postcards most often come to me as an announcement of a wedding to be held on a certain date six to even nine months in the future.  I don’t know if “Save the Date” postcards are just the new and popular thing to do for weddings these days, or if it’s become necessary because we are all so busy.  After all, if you are like me, then you have any number of activities going on during any given day.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you often find yourself double and triple booked when it comes to family, children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren.  So it seems that the idea of sending out a “Save the Date” postcard months before a wedding would be a great idea; especially if one couple is looking to guard against another couple snatching up their special day.  Yet, even though we often times receive those special postcards designed to guard the date of a wedding, so often we are not able to guard that date for a wedding because we are already guarding that date for another event to which we are already committed.  Or, if we have the date open, we put the card in a special place to remind us of when the event will be, but we do not necessarily enter it on our calendars until we know for certain that nothing else is going on that day and we can guard it for a wedding. 

Sadly, this is how so many people treat the idea of coming to church.  Though Sunday is the day when so many congregations gather to worship the Lord how often doesn’t it happen that people only come if they have nothing better to do?  How often doesn’t it seem that fewer and fewer people in our congregation, in congregations throughout our fair city, even congregations throughout the world are finding it of any value to Guard the Holy Sabbath Day!

Yet, what does our God have to say about this?  Well, let’s take a look at it together.  I invite you to open your Bibles to our lesson today in Deuteronomy 5:12-15.  Now, as you are turning to Deuteronomy 12, let me set the stage for you.  Israel was camped on the Eastern Side of the Jordan River.  They were most likely somewhere around Mt. Nebo with the city of Jericho basically due west of them.  It was the spring of the year, forty years and eleven months had passed since the Lord had led Israel out of the slavery of Egypt, and now Moses was giving his farewell address because the Lord would not allow him to enter the Promised Land with them.  (See Deuteronomy 1:1-5; 3:21-29; 34:1 and Joshua 3:15-17; 4:23-24; 5:10-12)  It was there, on the east side of the Jordan River that Moses began teaching the Israelites the Law of God, giving it to them a second time, which essentially what the word Deuteronomy means.  Our lesson begins with verse 12 where Moses says, “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”  (Deuteronomy 5:12a, NIV84)

Now, does anything strike you about that?  Does that wording seem right?  Or are you thinking to yourself, “I learned, ‘Remember the Sabbath Day!’  I didn’t learn, ‘Observe the Sabbath Day.’ What’s going on here?”  Why is it different in Deuteronomy 5:12 than it is in Exodus 20:8?  Well, quite simply the wording is different because the situation is different.  In Exodus 20, when the Lord spoke to the people Israel from the Mountain, they had just come out of the land of Egypt.  They were being led by the Lord, and after they left Mt. Sinai, they would continue to be led by the Lord through the wilderness.  In that time, and indeed for the past forty years of their wandering, it was the Lord who led the people and made sure that they were able to rest on the Sabbath.  It was the Lord who saw to it that the people would rest on the Sabbath so that they might be refreshed physically by taking a break from their travels, and so that they might be refreshed spiritually as they had the opportunity to worship the Lord and remember his great blessings to them. However, now, as Israel was on the eastern side of the Jordan preparing to cross and conquer the Promised Land, things would soon be different.  Soon they would be living in houses and cities that they had not built.  Soon they would be prospering in the Land the Lord had given them.  Soon their way of life would be changing and the Lord inspires Moses to tell them, “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”  (Deuteronomy 5:12a, NIV84)

The funny thing is that one could argue that the word “observe” isn’t really the best translation of the Hebrew word.  Yet, it seems to be the most popular translation as 7 of the 8 Bibles I looked began this verse with “observe”.  In fact, it was only the King James Version that was different using the word “keep” instead of “observe”.  While this could be said to be a better translation than “observe” I would argue that an even better translation would be “guard”.  Guard the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.  The reason I say this is because the Hebrew word that the NIV and 6 other Bibles translate as “observe” is actually the very same word that describes the job of the Seraphim and the flaming sword in the Garden of Eden.  They were placed there not to “observe” the entrance to the Garden, but to guard it, to keep a close watch on it, to make sure that Adam and Even nor anyone else entered the Garden and ate from the Tree of Life. (Genesis 3:24)  Thus I would argue that from the context of our lesson today, though the word “observe” does fit, and does convey God’s will for his people that they remember and observe and keep the Sabbath, the context suggests more.  Take a look at what the Lord is saying in verses 13 and following, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath [a day of rest] to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. 15 Remember [same word as exodus 20:8] that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe [same word as verse 12] the Sabbath day." (Deuteronomy 5:12–15, NIV84)

Now, did you hear the importance of what the Lord is proclaiming to his people?  They are about to enter the Land and conquer it.  Their whole lives will soon be changing from wanderers to city dwellers.  They are about to get just as busy, if not more busy than you and me.  So the Lord is calling on them to guard the Sabbath Day.  Guard the day of rest so that they will not miss it, so that they will be refreshed both physically and spiritually on a regular basis.  The Lord is calling on them to block that day off in their calendars, to set it aside as a day for the Lord, to guard it as the most important day of their week, because on that day they will have yet one more opportunity to hear the Word of the Lord proclaimed to them.  They will have yet one more opportunity to worship the Lord their God.  They will have one more opportunity to offer their sacrifices to the Lord.  They will have one more opportunity to grow in their faith in the Lord their God and find their eternal rest in the promises of the Savior who will come to free them from their sins.

So why have I taken so much time to teach you about the Sabbath Day and how the Lord was calling on his people to guard it and keep it as holy?  Because this is exactly what the Lord is calling on each and every one of us to do today!  He is calling on us to not merely remember it, not merely observe it; rather he is calling on each and every one of us to guard the Holy Sabbath Day.  He is calling on us to mark it off on our calendars and set it aside as the most important day of our week, because it is on that day that we have one more opportunity to gather with other believers.  We have one more opportunity to hear the Word of God.  We have one more opportunity to worship the Lord our God, grow our faith and our trust in Jesus as our Savior, and be strengthened and built up before we walk out those doors and go back in to the spiritual war-zone of this sin-filled world!

Now, please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying when I’m talking about the Sabbath Day.  I am in no way saying that we ought to go back to holding to Saturday as the Sabbath and keeping that particular day holy by calling it the only day that we can ever worship.  Not at all!  After all, the Bible clearly teaches that when Jesus went to the cross and freed us from our sins by his death and resurrection, he also completely fulfilled God’s Law for us.  So, by his death and resurrection, Jesus completely fulfilled the Sabbath, and its rules and regulations no longer apply to us.  In fact, even the Apostle Paul assures us that the Sabbath Laws have been fulfilled as he writes to the Colossians saying, “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. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ." (Colossians 2:16–17, NIV84)  Rather, what the Lord wants us to do is to guard the Sabbath Day and keep it holy so that we do not “despise preaching and the Word, but regard it as holy and gladly hear it and learn it.” 

But how do we do that?  We guard the holy Sabbath day, when we set aside the day of worship as the most important day of the week.  Whatever day that might be, when we set it aside and make gathering with other believer a priority for our lives, we guard that day as the day when we will grow in our faith.  We guard the Sabbath when we take time out of our busy schedules to sit down and read God’s Word for ourselves, whether that be from the Bible, from Meditations, Portals of Prayer, or other devotional books.  We guard God’s Holy Sabbath when we teach our children the precious truths of salvation; when we bring them to worship with us and teach them that worship is what we do each week.  We guard God’s Holy Sabbath when we bring our children to Sunday School and bring ourselves to Bible Study.  We guard God’s Holy Sabbath when we sacrifice our self-love and stop lazily sleeping in on Sunday mornings, or skip out on worship because of vacation plans.  We guard God’s holy Sabbath when we take the time to rest in him, grow in our salvation, and find in him the spiritual rest that he longs to give us in the assurance of the forgiveness of sins and the salvation that is ours through faith in Jesus. 

What greater encouragement could the Lord our God give us today than the encouragement to guard his holy Sabbath Day.  Though there are many things in this world that seek to keep us from gathering in worship of the Lord our God, I pray that you would heed the encouragement of your Savior.  I pray that you would continue to make this day and this time of spiritual rest the most important time of your week. I pray that you would continue to guard your time with the Lord in worship and in personal Bible readings.  May the Lord continue to bless you as you worship him, grow in your faith in him, live in the forgiveness of sins with which he has blessed you, and especially as you seek to guard his holy Sabbath Day.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

Who is the Holy Spirit? (John 16:12-15)

June 3, 2012

Dear friends in Christ.

If I asked you this morning to take out a sheet of paper and write down exactly who the Holy Spirit is, what would you write?  How would you explain exactly who the Holy Spirit is?  Even though we know who the Holy Spirit is, when it comes right down to it, it seems that of the three members of the Trinity, it is the Holy Spirit about whom we know the least.  Though we have a pretty good handle on who the Father is, and we are very confident that we know who the Son is, when we seek to explain who the Holy Spirit is, many times it seems that the explanation eludes us.  Part of this may stem from the fact that there are quite a number of different explanations from different religious groups in our world today.  When it comes to the Holy Spirit, there are some who believe that he is nothing more than the wind of God—a divine, but impersonal force that does the will of the heavenly Father.  There are others who believe that the Holy Spirit is more of an idea, a phase of God, so to speak, or even Jesus in disguise.  But on top of that there are even those who believe that the Holy Spirit doesn’t really exist at all.  It is because of all of this that we want to take a closer look at the Holy Spirit today, study what Jesus has to say about him so that we will be easily able to answer the question, “Who is the Holy Spirit?”

So, “Who is the Holy Spirit?”  Quite simply, the Holy Spirit is the third person of our Triune God.  The Holy Spirit is the Counselor or the Advocate whom Jesus promised to send to his disciples after he, Jesus, had returned to his throne in heaven.  In fact, as Jesus spoke to his disciples in our lesson today, he reminded them that the Spirit of Truth who would come to them, whom Jesus would send, was indeed truly God, just as Jesus was.  Take a look at what Jesus says, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you." (John 16:12–15, NIV84)

With these simple and beautiful words, Jesus assured his disciples that the Spirit of God, about whom they had learned from the pages of the Old Testament Scriptures, was, in fact, the Holy Spirit—the third Person of the Trinity.  This Spirit of God, or Spirit of Truth, as Jesus had called him, was the Holy Spirit.  This Holy Spirit, who would be sent to the disciples by both Jesus and God the Father, was indeed true God just as Jesus and the Father are.  This Holy Spirit, who was promised to come to the disciples after Jesus had departed, was the one who would bring glory to Jesus, to the Father, and to himself as he took what belonged to Jesus and made it known to the disciples.  For in the same way that Jesus did not speak on his own accord when he was here on earth, but only spoke what his Father had commanded him, so also the Holy Spirit would not speak on his own behalf but would speak only what he had heard Jesus speaking.  In the same way that Jesus had taken what belonged to his Father and made it known to his disciples, so also the Holy Spirit would take what belonged to Jesus and make it known to his disciples. In the same way that everything that belonged to the Father also belonged to Jesus, so also everything that belonged to Jesus belonged to the Holy Spirit as well, because the Holy Spirit is, indeed, true God and one of the persons of the Trinity, which why Jesus said in verse 14 and 15 of our lesson today, “He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you." (John 16:14–15, NIV84)

How incredible it is to hear Jesus speak about the Holy Spirit in words like these!  For in these two verses, Jesus confirms that the Holy Spirit is a member of the Trinity to be worshiped and adored as the Lord and God that he is.  Though Jesus doesn’t go into dogmatic details as to just how the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity, he tells us that we can be certain that he is truly Lord and God, just as Jesus and the Father also are.  Though the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three distinct and separate persons of the Trinity, they are never-the-less, God Almighty!  They are our Triune God who has revealed himself to us as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Though the Holy Spirit may be the member of the Trinity about whom we seem to know the least, we know from what Jesus tells us in our lesson today that it is the Holy Spirit who brings us glory to the Father, the Son, and to himself, as he proclaims to us the truth of God’s Word and calls us to faith in our Triune God.

What an amazing and most important office that is given to the Holy Spirit!  He is the one who proclaims the Word of Truth.  He is the one who calls us to faith in our Triune God.  He is the one who lives in our hearts and speaks to our hearts, helping us to grow in our knowledge of the Lord through the Word of Truth.  He is the one who uses the Scriptures to strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior, He is the one who comforts us in all trouble and reminds us of the Truth by calling to our memories the very passages of Scripture that we need to know in a specific moment, or even guiding us in the direction that we need to go in our lives, just as Jesus promised in verses 13 and 14 of our lesson today: “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you." (John 16:13–14, NIV84)

This is exactly what he did for the disciples on the Day of Pentecost!  For as we heard this past Sunday, when they heard the sound of the rushing wind and saw the tongues of fire separating and lighting on their heads, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to proclaim the Wonders of God in languages they had never before spoken or learned.  On that day, when Peter stood up before the crowds and gave his extemporaneous sermon to the people who were gathered there, it was the Holy Spirit who guided him in the truth and gave him the words to say.  On that day, when 3,000 people were added to the number of believers, it was the Holy Spirit who worked through the word being proclaimed and created faith in the hearts of those people who believed.  Later, when the Apostles and the Evangelists sat down to write the words of the New Testament, it was the Holy Spirit who guided them and breathed into them the Words which they wrote down for our learning.  Even when Paul, John, Peter, and others were writing about the things that would happen in the last days, the Sprit was with them telling them what was yet to come so that through their work, we might believe!

But even though the days of the Apostles are long past, that in no way means that the Holy Spirit’s work has come to a close!  Not in the least!  For he is the one who is still guiding us in the Truth of God’s Word whenever we read it, study it, or simply gather together to hear it.  He is working even now as I am proclaiming the Word to you so that through this Word that you are hearing, your faith may be strengthened and you might come to a more thorough knowledge of our God and his Word.  He is the one who is present as simple water is connected with God’s Word, forming a conduit for the Holy Spirit to enter the hearts of infants and create faith there.  He is the one who lives in our hearts uttering prayers to our heavenly Father when we haven’t the words to speak for ourselves.  He is the one who helps us to understand the Scriptures.  He is the one who moves the hearts of young people to train to serve him as Pastors, Teachers, Early Childhood Educators, and Staff Ministers.  He is the one who presides at call meetings, be they the assignment committee that met just a few weeks ago, or be they voters meeting in a church to call a new worker for the congregation.  He is the one who is at work in the hearts of those whom he calls leading them to the best decision for the Kingdom of God.  He is the one who as at work in the hearts of each and every believer, speaking to our hearts with the Word of God, encouraging us in our faith in Jesus, and even leading us through this life, directing us and our lives so that we might serve the Lord as he sees fit.  Yes, it is the Holy Spirit who is at work in every nation, among every people, speaking every language so that through the Truth of God’s Word many more might come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ their Savior, and receive the free gift of everlasting life to live with our Father, our Savior, and the Holy Spirit for all time and forever more.

How amazing the Work of the Holy Spirit is!  Though we may have been especially clear on who the Holy Spirit is and what his work is when we began today, I think it’s safe to say that all of us have been reminded of who he is and all he does.  Though there are many different ideas floating around as to who the Holy Spirit is, today we have been reminded, from the Bible, exactly who he is.  So now, when someone asks you to tell them about the Holy Spirit and who he is, you can deliver a simple answer.  You can tell them that the Holy Spirit is true God, the third Person of the Trinity, the one who works in our hearts, creating and strengthening the faith that trusts in Jesus as our Savior.    Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN