The Fundamental Meaning behind the Sabbath and the Lord's Day (Isaiah 58:13-14)
Rev. Myung-Sin Choi
“13 If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the Lord honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words, 14 Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Introduction
There is a gaming company called Nexon and the founder is Kim Jung-Ju. Kim graduated from Seoul National University and KAIST. He started off his company with $44,000 and his company bloomed from there. Nexon was famous for making famous games and it is one of the top three gaming companies in Korea. His gaming company was so successful that he was labeled as the second most wealthy person in Korea. When you think about this in this level in America, he garnered about $13 billion. He bought many houses in America, Korea, and Hawaii. But one day, there was a news article that he committed suicide in Hawaii and he was only 54 years old. The reason why he commit suicide was because he had fallen into depression. This is so unfortunate. He made so much money and was very successful but because of the spiritual problem of depression, he gave up his entire life. This is so unfortunate. I am not sure if he attended church or not but what is absolute is that if he lived a life of victory in worship then he wouldn’t have ended up the way that he did. What is more worrisome is that when I looked in the newspaper, his daughters received his inheritance and they received a lot of money as a result. They were only in their 20s when they received that inheritance but something made me worry. If those daughters don’t have success in worship then they will face the same fate as their father. Once you become a child of God and have success in worship then we have no choice but to have victory. But if we fail in worship, then we will face the same result and fate.
1. The Meaning of the Lord's Day
1) A day to please the Lord
Verse 13 - This is very important Scripture. John Calvin interpreted this as don’t turn your foot away from Sabbath and don’t live as you desire. Don’t live your life according to your own wishes and desires. It is telling us very simply why we are failing in worship. We are not coming to Sabbath for our own fun and pleasure but it is so that we can worship God. It repeats again not to worship Sabbath for our own pleasure. This is very simple but this is the reason why we are failing in worship. Speaking our own words, this means that we go to church but after, we are busy speaking only about the world. I think our church is not like that but people are busy talking about politics, the world, and money at church and after church. If you say these words, then you will forget completely about God’s words. We need to have a forum over the Sunday pulpit message, and receive healing and direction from the pulpit message. For the sake of worship, God has given you His words so that we can receive healing and answers. On the Sabbath Day, we receive the Lord’s blessings.
2) The meaning behind the Sabbath
We need to hold onto this meaning. In France, there is a famous philosopher and he wrote, “In 50 years, I will destroy Christianity.” In order to do that, he said that he needed to enter into Sundays and destroy Sundays. In order to destroy Sundays, he got rid of Sundays and in France, they made people work 10 days and give 1 day of rest. But when they did that, the work productivity decreased 40%. That is why people went back to work for 6 days and rested on the 7th day. The Sabbath day is a day given to us by God to rest. Getting physical rest is very important.
The start of Sabbath day started in Genesis 2:3 “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” - After God created the world, He entered the Sabbath day. On the seventh day, God blessed and sanctified it. During that time, God created Adam and Eve which meant that He blessed them but Adam and Eve ended up disobeying God. Does this mean that God did not bless them? What does this mean?
In order to understand this, we must look at Deuteronomy 5:15 “And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” - We can see why God sanctified the Sabbath day. God told the Israelites to remember what He did for them. How did God free the Israelites? The main reason how they were liberated was through the blood of the young lamb. This is the reason for the Sabbath day. Through the blood of the young lamb, the Israelites became freed and sanctified. Then, this means that the Sabbath day shows the blood of Jesus Christ. Keeping Sabbath means to remember what Jesus Christ had done for us on the cross. Jesus Christ died on the cross and sanctified us through His blood. Keeping Sabbath means to hold onto Jesus Christ and the covenant of Christ. Jesus Christ died on the cross, proclaimed that it was all finished, and went inside His tomb. When I saw this, I realized that after Jesus completed His work, He entered into Sabbath. After God created the whole world and earth, He said that He was pleased and rested on the seventh day. After He completed His work, He rested. After Jesus Christ completed His work on the cross, He entered into His tomb to rest. The meaning of Sabbath means that Jesus Christ fulfilled His covenant and for us to remember this. This means that we must hold onto Christ. On the Sabbath Day, we need to remember this covenant.
2. The Meaning of the Lord's Day
1) The meaning of Sunday for us
John 5:17 “But Jesus answered them, 'My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.' ” - After God created the world, He wasn’t just resting and not doing anything but God was continuing His work. What kind of work was God doing? He was fulfilling the work of salvation.
Matthew 11:13 “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.” - All of the prophets in the Old Testament prophesied until John the Baptist. This means that after Jesus, there was a new start. Then, all of the prophecies before Jesus, they were all completed when Jesus came and a new start started after Jesus.
Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” - This means through the cross of Jesus Christ, a new start and covenant will start. Jesus Christ died and resurrected.
John 20:1, 19 “Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 19 Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, 'Peace be with you.' ” - Jesus Christ rested and rose from the dead. When He resurrected, the triune God was at work. This was a new start. After His resurrection, there was a new start. This was the new start of Sunday.
John 20:19 - After Jesus resurrected, the day where Jesus appeared before His disciples for the first time was a Sunday. This was a new start.
Acts 2:1, 20:7 “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 20:7 Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.” - The Pentecost was on the day of a Sunday. On this day, the Holy Spirit came upon this day and a new start started.
Acts 20:7 - The day of the communion of the Early Church was a Sunday. This day was a day of a new start and this day celebrated the new start, a Sunday.
Revelation 1:10 “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet.” - God spoke to His people on a Sunday.
Colossians 2:16 “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths.” - In the Old Testament, it kept telling what days you need to keep and what you should do or not do. But the new Sabbath, a Sunday, was a new start. A Sunday is a day where we remember what Jesus did for us and enjoying the resurrected Christ. We are having a day of a new start and enjoying blessings of a new beginning.
2) The blessing of worship
Verse 14 - On a Sunday, we need to have delight in the Lord. We are enjoying the blessings of the heavenly throne. The Israelites had a misunderstanding that God will restore Jerusalem but this was wrong.
We need to look at the spiritual meaning behind this in Hebrews 12:22 “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels.” - We possess great authority and status. We possess a status and authority that is unimaginable to the world. We possess the heritage of Jacob, which means that in this world, we can enjoy the blessing of a priest. The words of God will absolutely be fulfilled. The words of God are law and wisdom of truth. This is all fulfilled through worship.
Hold onto verse 13. This is God’s word for us. This is God’s warning for us. This is what is happening right now in this world. The reason why churches in America are closing is because of weekdays. In Europe stopped going to church when they introduced the idea of having fun on the weekends. This is the same thing for Korea. People are vacationing and are resting on the weekends. This culture is all over the world. This is causing a huge decrease in participation in churches. The huge problem that is approaching us is the 3-day weekend. This will cause destruction of churches. From here, God is telling us to open up the 3-day weekend within the church. We need to direct our direction towards the life saving movement and we must open up the 3-day weekend within the churches. I don’t think this is a random suggestion but this is God’s voice. From here, we need to receive God’s greatest blessings.
3. Three Missions
1) The spiritual mission (Acts 1:1 “The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.”)
Check your spiritual state first. Are you in the midst of worries? Find an answer quickly. If you keep having worries, then it will destroy your spiritual state. I heard someone talking about meditation. After someone watches a movie, they become capsized by that movie. We need to have only Christ. This is the only way to live. Since we can’t find answers to our problems, we fall into spiritual problems like depression like Kim Jung-Ju. We need to receive answers now.
2) The practical mission (Acts 1:3 “To whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”)
3) The future mission (Acts 2:1-4 “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”)
We need to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to have the work of recreation and go inside 24 hour prayer. Then, we will have God’s masterpiece and a new start.
Conclusion
Hebrews 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” - As the end days approach us, no one will want to gather anymore. But as the end days approach us, we need to gather more and more. It is God’s voice regarding the 3 courtyards (Children, Gentiles, and prayer). We need to open the 3-day weekend within our church. We should not lose hold of this blessing. I think this is God’s desire. Hold onto this covenant and have victory, and may we live a life where we can give God the greatest glory.
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