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 Presentation # 13 - Rejected Grace Sabbath 23 May 2010
Title: Rejected Grace
Topic: Sabbath
Introduction:
I. God’s Gift to Man for Spiritual sustenance.
After creating Man, God knew Man needed two very important substance in which to maintain the communion with Him. These were:
1. The first- Man needed to REST, from 144 hours or constant work and cares of this world, Man needed to rest for 24 Hour.
2. The second- Man needed a Sanctuary time. A time to commune with God and His creation without distraction.
3. Therefore, God then granted man the grace of the SABBATH.
4. It was a gift for us. It was made for US. (Mark 2:27)
II. Questions about the Sabbath:
5. Why do we rejected it?
6. Why does God care if we accept it?
7. What’s the big deal can’t we celebrate any day?
8. Isn’t legalistic to celebrate it?
9. Wasn’t it for the Jews back in the Bible days and not for us today?
10. These and many more excuses are and will be made about the Sabbath.
III. Let us first look at its origin and when was it first kept.
1. The Sabbath was a part of creation. God creation lasted for six (6) days and on the final day of the week, The Sabbath, He rested from His work.
a. He Blessed the day
b. Sanctified the day
c. And Hollowed it; made it holy
(Genesis 2:1-3)
No other day in the week was set aside. Hence, in six days the work of creation was completed and on the seventh day.
2. The Children of Israel observed the Sabbath, before the 10 Commandments were given:
a. (Exodus 16: 25-27)
3. The first century Christians kept the Sabbath:
a. (Acts 17:1-4)
b. (Acts 16:9-13)
c. Luke 23:56
4. Jesus kept the Sabbath:
a. (Luke 4:16)
b. (Luke 23:54)
c. (Luke 24:1-3)
d. (Matthew. 5:17-19)
IV. When and why was the Sabbath change?
a. Personal conviction/ testimony- during an Art History Class in college. a triumphal arch—the Arch of Constantine—
b. Based on a vision from God, recorded by the Emperor Constantine in the 4 the century, of his victory over his brother, Maxentius, at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. Constantine promised God if he fought under the symbol of the cross and won, that he would convert to Christianity.” He won and did what he promised and made Christianity legal in the kingdom. However, this meant merging the pagan practices and the Christian religion. The result was to compromise severely practices of both religions. One of the compromise was to continue the celebration of “The Day of the sun, and do away with the seventh day Sabbath.”
“The Battle of the Milvian Bridge took place between the Roman Emperors Constantine I and Maxentius on 28 October 312. Constantine won the battle and started on the path that led him to end the Tetrarchy and become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. Maxentius drowned in the Tiber during the battle.
According to chroniclers such as Eusebius of Caesarea and Lactantius, the battle marked the beginning of Constantine's conversion to Christianity. Lactantius recounts that Constantine and his soldiers had a vision that God promised victory if they daubed the sign of the cross on their shields. The Arch of Constantine, erected in celebration of the victory, certainly attributes Constantine's success to divine intervention; however, the monument does not display any overtly Christian symbolism. It is commonly stated that on the evening of 27 October with the armies preparing for battle, Constantine had a vision which led him to fight under the protection of the Christian god. The details of that vision, however, differ between the sources reporting it. Lactantius states that, in the night before the battle, Constantine was commanded in a dream to "delineate the heavenly sign on the shields of his soldiers" (On the Deaths of the Persecutors 44.5). He followed the commands of his dream and marked the shields with a sign "denoting Christ". Lactantius describes that sign as a "staurogram", or a Latin cross with its upper end rounded in a P-like fashion. There is no certain evidence that Constantine ever used that sign, opposed to the better known Chi-Rho sign described by Eusebius.[citation needed]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Milvian_Bridge
Religious policy
Constantine is perhaps best known for being the first Christian Roman emperor; his reign was certainly a turning point for the Christian Church. In 313 Constantine announced toleration of Christianity in the Edict of Milan, which removed penalties for professing Christianity (under which many had been martyred in previous persecutions of Christians) and returned confiscated Church property. Though a similar edict had been issued in 311 by Galerius, then senior emperor of the Tetrarchy, Galerius' edict granted Christians the right to practice their religion but did not restore any property to them.[196]
Scholars debate whether Constantine adopted his mother St. Helena's Christianity in his youth, or whether he adopted it gradually over the course of his life.[197] Constantine would retain the title of pontifex maximus until his death, a title emperors bore as heads of the pagan priesthood, as would his Christian successors on to Gratian (r. 375–83). According to Christian writers, Constantine was over 40 when he finally declared himself a Christian, writing to Christians to make clear that he believed he owed his successes to the protection of the Christian High God alone.[198] Throughout his rule, Constantine supported the Church financially, built basilicas, granted privileges to clergy (e.g. exemption from certain taxes), promoted Christians to high office, and returned property confiscated during the Diocletianic persecution.[199] His most famous building projects include the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Old Saint Peter's Basilica.
Constantine did not patronize Christianity alone, however. After gaining victory in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, a triumphal arch—the Arch of Constantine—was built to celebrate; the arch is decorated with images of Victoria and sacrifices to gods like Apollo, Diana, or Hercules, but contains no Christian symbolism. In 321, Constantine instructed that Christians and non-Christians should be united in observing the "venerable day of the sun", referencing the esoteric eastern sun-worship which Aurelian had helped introduce, and his coinage still carried the symbols of the sun-cult until 324. Even after the pagan gods had disappeared from the coinage, Christian symbols appear only as Constantine's personal attributes: the chi rho between his hands or on his labarum, but never on the coin itself.[200] Even when Constantine dedicated the new capital of Constantinople, which became the seat of Byzantine Christianity for a millennium, he did so wearing the Apollonian sun-rayed Diadem.
The reign of Constantine established a precedent for the position of the emperor in the Christian Church. Constantine himself disliked the risks to societal stability, that religious disputes and controversies brought with them, preferring where possible to establish an orthodoxy.[201] The emperor saw it as his duty to ensure that God was properly worshipped in his empire, and what proper worship consisted of was for the Church to determine.[202] In 316, Constantine acted as a judge in a North African dispute concerning the validity of Donatism. After deciding against the Donatists, Constantine led an army of Christians against the Donatist Christians. After 300 years of pacifism, this was the first intra-Christian persecution. More significantly, in 325 he summoned the Council of Nicaea, effectively the first Ecumenical Council (unless the Council of Jerusalem is so classified), Nicaea was to deal mostly with the heresy of Arianism. Constantine also enforced the prohibition of the First Council of Nicaea against celebrating the Lord's Supper on the day before the Jewish Passover (14 Nisan) (see Quartodecimanism and Easter controversy).[203]
V. The current worldview of the day about the Sabbath.
a. It does not matter which day we worship, as long as we worship the LORD on a day.
b. The error in this is that, God did not set aside any other day to worship. We would not celebrate the 4th of July on August 4th. This was not the day set aside for the recognition of American independence for England. Therefore the day does matter. If we can honor Man’s set aside day then we must can honor God’s.
c. And Secondly, the worship was a 24 hour day worship day, not an hour of church and then returning to our regular routine. No business was to be done on this day. It was holy and set apart. IT was a LAW and not an OPINION.
i. Deuteronomy 9:10
ii. Exodus 20:8-11
iii. Psalm 89:34
iv. Isaiah 66:22-23
v. James 2:10
VI. Should we still celebrate the Sabbath?
a. It was not changed by God. Therefore we should. If God did not change it, Jesus honored it, then we should still follow them until further notice from God.
VII. Will we celebrate it in the future?
a. Yes. KJV Revelation 22:14
Conclusion:
VIII. Answers to the introduction questions:
1. Why have we rejected it?
a. Tradition.
b. It is too long- 24 Hours
c. Commerce (business) is Good on Sabbath
d. The Devil is present and do not want us to honor God.
2. Why does God care if we accept it?
a. It is a day of REST and Thanksgiving
i. Leviticus 23:3
ii. God even requires the Land to rest. Leviticus 25:1-5
3. What’s the big deal can’t we celebrate any day?
a. Would we celebrate the 4th of July on August 4th? No we would not. It is big deal because God ask us to remember it and the day allows us to remember, a memorial, our creator as the creator of the universe and not evolution.
4. Isn’t legalistic to celebrate it?
a. How can it be legalistic to obey God? We obey Him not out of fear but out of His love to us. Ecclesiastes 12:13
5. Wasn’t it for the Jews back in the Bible days and not for us today?
The commandment is not only for the Jews but for the gentiles, Paul spoke to the gentiles about keeping the Sabbath:
Hebrews 4:1-13
IX. Personal Testimony-Restaurant, Father and Mother.
The true reason is worship. Who should we worship?
1. Rev. 14:6-7
2. Rev. 14:9-10
If we come aside and give thanks to God for his creation and for out blessing in a 24 hour setting, we will honor and respect the true created God of the universe.
The enemy does not what this. His job is the separate us from our maker. Where we can become rejuvenated, refreshed, and reconnected to take on the new week ahead. It is for us to be happy.
It is for us to praise our creator
It is for us to know our true leader
It is a sign of Obedience and Holiness:
1. Ezekiel 20:12
2. Ezekiel 20:20
3. Amos 8:5
X. How do we keep it.
a. Form sundown Friday to sun down Saturday.
i. Isaiah 66:23
ii. Jeremiah 17:21-22
b. During which time you can:
i. Worship in church
ii. Visit sick, and unbelievers
iii. Visit the park
iv. Read spiritual books
v. Watch religious shows/ programs
vi. Give a religious lesson
However, be realistic, If there is an emergency, God allows us to take care of it.
Matthew 12:11-13
Summary: We will be constantly challenged on the topic of the Sabbath, because it is the mark of God people in this end time. Scripture
Revelation 14:11-13
The question is what is your choice?
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