Comments on: Is the Sabbath still relevant?

By: Drey

Drey — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 11:03:17 +0000

jay kay, u may have overlooked what came before sinai. the people who were at sinai had just been freed from slavery in egypt. so yes, it can be accepted that they did work everyday.

By: Drey

Drey — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 10:59:53 +0000

this is also my understanding from my research

By: Loudmouths, Controversy, and Women in the Church | Sayable

Loudmouths, Controversy, and Women in the Church | Sayable — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 16:05:31 +0000

[...] Is the Sabbath Still Relevant? “If we did set apart one day each week for rejuvenation in God, we would immediately add to every year over seven weeks of vacation. And not for doing nothing but for worship, for friends, for mercy, for an afternoon nap, for reading and thinking, for lingering around the dinner table and sharing good jokes and tender words and personal prayers.” Love this short, convicting piece. [...]

By: Saturday Evening Post | Growing in Grace

Saturday Evening Post | Growing in Grace — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 20:47:09 +0000

[...] Is The Sabbath Still Relevant? Ray Ortlund explores ancient and contemporary connections. Let’s not dictate Sabbath observance today. The point of the Sabbath is a dress rehearsal for a future eternity of glad rest in God. So, for now, every one of us can work out the details personally. But in our frantic modern world, the Sabbath offers wisdom that has lasted since the beginning (Genesis 2:2-3). It is not written on our calendars as much as we are built into its calendar. It seems to be part of the God-created rhythm for weekly human flourishing. Read More >> [...]

By: Church Planting Links 10.30.12

Church Planting Links 10.30.12 — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:06:47 +0000

[...] Is the Sabbath still relevant? [...]

By: Passion Points | Three Passions

Passion Points | Three Passions — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 12:54:11 +0000

[...] Is the Sabbath Still Relevant – Ray Ortlund If we did set apart one day each week for rejuvenation in God, we would immediately add to every year over seven weeks of vacation. And not for doing nothing but for worship, for friends, for mercy, for an afternoon nap, for reading and thinking, for lingering around the dinner table and sharing good jokes and tender words and personal prayers. [...]

By: CCC blog | Christ Community Church

CCC blog | Christ Community Church — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 19:45:32 +0000

[...] reading: Is the Sabbath still relevant? -Ray Ortlund (The Gospel Coalition) Tags: christian culture, church, family, God, idolatry, life, peace, rest, sabbath, work Comment [...]

By: The Power of Sabbath | Makes The Future The Past

The Power of Sabbath | Makes The Future The Past — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 19:58:56 +0000

[...] reading: Is the Sabbath still relevant? -Ray Ortlund (The Gospel Coalition) Share this:FacebookTwitterPinterestTumblrRedditEmailLike this:LikeBe the first to like this. This [...]

By: Church Planting, Michael Breen; Missional Movement Fail; R.C., Piper and Keller « ChosenRebel's Blog

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 12:33:00 +0000

[...] What about the Sabbath? (Gospel Coalition—Ray Ortlund, a short but worthy article about holiness.) “Sell All that You Have?“ (R.C. Sproul—thinking about seriously about the words of Christ.) Begin Your Day with a War in Your House so You Can Have Peace Through Christ (John Piper) How Many People Does it Take to Change a Marriage in 10 Days? (Philip Wagner—a creative and helpful article and what looks to be a very good book.) Christians and Suffering (Tullian Tchividjian—new book reviewed by Aaron Armstrong at Gospel Coalition) [...]

By: Latest Links | blog of dan

Latest Links | blog of dan — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 09:20:10 +0000

[...] Is the Sabbath still relevant? [...]

By: Rick Owen

Rick Owen — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 09:56:04 +0000

“Is the Sabbath still relevant?,” the author asks. Two thoughts:

(1) Resting in Christ as our Sabbath is most relevant under the New Covenant. Of course, this does not come at the expense of sensible, periodic physical rest. There is no need to construct an either-or argument or practice here. But the NT draws attention to resting by faith in Christ, not to keeping Old Covenant Sabbaths (weekly or otherwise) per the Law of Moses (especially for Gentile believers).

There’s no evidence in the NT that the Jewish weekly Sabbath was changed to Sunday for New Covenant believers. Sunday was not a day off for first-century believers. They usually met in the evening after work. Believers are to rest at all times as they live by faith (2 Cor. 5:7), “looking unto Jesus” (Heb. 12:2) in Whom we rest by faith (Heb. 4:1ff).

(2) The first-century church did not gather for a ‘worship service,’ per se, as we usually conceive of this or suppose the first-century synagogue conducted. The church met to break bread (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 11:20, 33). This provided practical refreshment at the end of a work day, and it also provided a covenant-family setting for instruction (which included dialogue and discussion), fellowship (sharing of God-given material and spiritual gifts), praise and prayers.

Believers are to worship at all times, which means devoting their lives in service and submission to God (Rom. 12:1-2). But Christ’s Ekklesia (i.e., His called-out, participatory ‘political assembly’) met primarily to advance His kingdom (“the fullness of Christ,” Eph. 4:13; cf. Gal. 4:19; Col. 1:27; ). They did this by encouraging and building up one another through the use of spiritual gifts given for “the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7; 14:26; Eph. 4:12). Church leaders equipped the saints to do this as they also participated in the process as fellow members of Christ’s body. In a broad, collective sense, this is also an act of worship (i.e., service and submission unto God). But such NT mutual ministry within the body of Christ is not quite the same as ‘worship services’ conducted by churches today which focus on the participation and gifts of a few (e.g., a worship team or pastor).

By: Marisme

Marisme — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 02:55:57 +0000

A great book to read is The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel.

By: jay kay

jay kay — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 01:59:41 +0000

Do you think people worked every day of the week before Sinai? I mean come on. And what’s with being against the Sabbath? All that will bring you is slavery. If all the Christians in our society don’t say “No Mr. Boss Man, I can’t work on Sunday; that’s the Lord’s Day!” then eventually your freedom to not work on Sunday will be taken away. If you don’t enforce Sabbath-keeping you lose even the voluntary possibility of Sabbath-keeping, because secular society will enslave you and you’ll be working 24-7 7 days a week and still barely surviving pay check to pay check.

By: jay kay

jay kay — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 01:55:55 +0000

“I struggle with whether Sabbath observance is a moral or a ceremonial law.”

If you don’t give your employees one day off a week, you’re going to hell. That’s the moral part of the Sabbath commandment. The ceremonial part is putting it on one particular day to commemorate a certain event.

By: jay kay

jay kay — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 01:52:17 +0000

“I wonder if the very concept of ‘the weekend’ is biblical. It seems to me that ‘the weekend’ turns Sunday into a second Saturday.”

To Jews Saturday is the Sabbath, to Christians Sunday is — as a result, in American society, we get both days off. Nothing wrong with that. The problem is its been eroded by atheists and liberals, and its getting to the point where we will not only be capable of having any days off, but we’ll be working 24 hour days like we work for Apple at Foxconn or something.

By: Rob Roy

Rob Roy — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 00:09:34 +0000

//Let’s not dictate Sabbath observance today….for now, every one of us can work out the details personally.//

Can we “work out the details personally” of the other 9 commandments, or just the 4th? One wonders….

http://messianicpublications.com/robert-roy/reasons-to-keep-the-7th-day/

By: richm612

richm612 — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 23:17:27 +0000

Surely, as Preacherman says, it’s a case of applying an unchanging principle to the present context. It’s the same as with the command about graven images, that clearly does not just refer to making statues and worshipping them. The important thing is that Christians do take time out to rest. That needs to be worked out in a way that is practical and helpful, and keeps the spirit of the command. Yes, the commands about, for example murder and lying need to be more clear cut, but Jesus had some strong words to say about them too!

By: Jen

Jen — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 23:13:39 +0000

There are greater theological minds than mine that can weight in on this, but it occurs to me that we sometimes make such a production out of church that those involved get little Sabbath rest, and little time to absorb God’s teaching on that day. Just thinking.

By: Preacherman

Preacherman — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 23:11:05 +0000

I believe that the Sabbath is more about the attitude and principle of Rest than the specific day. None of us can keep the law perfectly that is why Jesus came. But we are still to live under His Lordship and the principles and teaching of the Bible. Jesus did not “keep” the Sabbath the way the Pharisees said he should have, but Jesus teaches that the Sabbath was made for us not the other way around. Then we have later teaching from the Apostles about how we are to treat days. The hard thing is that most people either fall into a “legalistic” Sabbath keeping (either Sat or Sun) or a totally liberal “non” Sabbath keeping. I have become convicted that neither is correct for the Christian. We are to take a regular day of rest as a symbol and offering to our Lord because we need it and we rely on Him to provide for us. Yet I do not see this as the same as our day of corporate worship. Certainly in typical Western culture we could not honestly say Sunday is a day of rest for those employed by the Church or most of the “key” volunteers. Yet so often it is taught to be so, but that is just not true. So I believe we must decide our day of rest in the principles Jesus taught, and also we are to worship corporately. My Sabbath is on Mondays. My day of Corporate worship is Sunday.

By: Casey Hough

Casey Hough — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 22:49:10 +0000

For those interested in a biblical-theological essay on the sabbath and it’s relationship to the the theme of rest, the link below will take you to an essay that I wrote for seminary. I don’t bring any thing new to the table, but the bibliography would be helpful for those interested in more study in this area. By the way, I am aware of the typos and misused words, just haven’t had the time to edit the paper since it was graded.

http://www.academia.edu/1365365/A_Biblical-Theological_Study_of_the_Relationship_Between_the_Theme_of_Rest_and_the_Sabbath