Pastor Peter Metzger
Third Commandment
First Lutheran Church
Lake Geneva, WI
July 6, 2014
Remember the Sabbath Day by Keeping it Holy
Can I get a show of hands? How many of you came to church today? That’s great! You did it!
Congratulations! Every one of you here has remembered the Sabbath Day. You came to church. You
could have stayed in bed and leisurely wiled away your time by watching TV or reading a good book.
You could have gone out to brunch with your friends instead of coming to church. You could have slept
in or scheduled some sort of family activity for today. You could have worked today and made a little bit
of extra money. But you didn’t! You’re here! You are such good Christians.
I’m not even sure that we need to talk about the 3rd Commandment, because you have it down so well.
You’re not the ones who need to hear this sermon. It’s all of those other people out there – the people
who aren’t here who should be here. Wouldn’t it kind of be like preaching to the choir if I delivered a
sermon to you about the third commandment?
It would be, if we kept this commandment perfectly. If we kept this commandment perfectly all we’d
have to do is check it off a to-do list and we’d be fine. But the fact of the matter is that we don’t keep
this commandment perfectly and the 10 Commandments are not a to-do list. Even though you’re here
today and made the right decision to get out of bed and to gather around the Word of God, next week
you’ll be faced with the same decision. It will happen someday that you make a poor decision sometime
and choose not to come to church, to value something else more than your weekly allotted time with
God. And so, if only for the fact that you will be faced with this decision to come to church or not every
week for the rest of your lives, it’s worth talking about the 3rd commandment today.
But I have to say, that if all I talk about with reference to the 3rd commandment is church attendance,
then I would be a terrible pastor, because this commandment has to do with a lot more than just what
happens for an hour once a week.
What is the 3rd Commandment? [Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.]
Notice that God doesn’t talk about going to church. He doesn’t say, “You shall not miss any worship
service at the tabernacle or synagogue.” He says, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”
What’s the Sabbath day? [The day of rest. The seventh day of the week. Saturday. The day of
worship.] It’s the day that was set apart for worship in the Old Testament. Do you know which day of
the week that was? [Saturday]
When was the first Sabbath day? In other words, when did God first give this commandment for his
people to obey? I’ll give you a hint. It wasn’t when he gave all the rest of the commandments on Mount
Sinai. Do you see the Scripture reference listed behind the commandment on the slide? It says Exodus
20:8. Read with me verses 9-11:
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the
LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter,
nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your
towns. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is
in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day
and made it holy.
What’s the pattern from which God instituted the Sabbath day? [Creation] God labored in the process
of creating the world and on the seventh day he rested. Therefore, the Sabbath is meant to be a rest for
you – a time when you remove all other distractions and remember what God has done for you. It’s
meant to be a blessing for you – a rest, not another burden or responsibility. God wants you to look
forward to the Sabbath day. The fact that inside of each of us is this reluctance to come to church or the
desire to do something other than church is evidence of the fact that we are breaking this
commandment. Poor church attendance is not the sin that the third commandment addresses. It’s only
a symptom of the sin.
What does Martin Luther say we should not do in regard to the 3rd commandment? “We should fear
and love God that we do not… [despise preaching and his Word].
What does it mean to despise? [Hate; strongly dislike] That’s a good definition, but it’s not quite
enough. Here’s what the folks at Merriam Webster list as their number 1 and 2 definitions of the word
“despise”:
1. To look down on with contempt or aversion
2. To regard as negligible, worthless, or distasteful
More than just strongly disliking something, what does it mean to despise? [It means, “to think that
something is below you,” or “to think that it’s not worthy of you or your time.”]
So I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it’s possible to break the 3rd Commandment even if
you had perfect church attendance your entire life. You could come to church every week and still
despise God’s Word. You could think that it’s below you or that you don’t need it.
I don’t need a show of hands for this question, but how many of you – when reading a Bible passage or
hearing that there will be a Bible class on a certain topic – have ever thought, “I don’t need this. I’ve
heard it before. I’m not going to waste my time on it.” I’ll admit that I’ve had that thought, and not that
long ago. As a pastor I have a particular temptation to look down on God’s Word because I’ve studied it
so much. It’s tempting for me to feel like I know it already.
I’ll give you an example. I’ve read the book of Jonah dozens of times. I’ve studied it at least three
different times in college and seminary, including an in depth word for word study in the original
Hebrew language. Here’s a picture of what my Bible looks like and all the notes that I’ve taken. I’ve
taught the story of Jonah multiple times to children and adults. I just started teaching another round of
it this week to the men on Wednesdays. It’s tempting for me to think that I know Jonah. It’s tempting
for me to rely on the work that I’ve done before and walk through that class like a mindless zombie. But
that would be despising God’s Word, thinking that it’s below me to put the time in again.
How many of you have similar thoughts when you hear that there is a new Bible Information Class or a
Basic Christianity course being offered here at church? It’s tempting to think, “I’m not new to
Christianity, so this class isn’t for me; I know all this already. Why should I study it again?” But that
would be despising God’s Word, thinking that the further study of God’s Word is useless to you and not
worth your time.
What does it say about our congregation that we have less than 5% of our members in regular Bible
class? It means that there’s a lot of despising of God’s Word going on, even among the people that are
here every week. Don’t think that applies to you? What if I asked you these questions:
1. Do you have a personal devotion every day?
2. Do you actively memorize Bible passages?
3. Do you know where the book of Nahum is?
4. Do you remember what the sermon was about last week?
5. Do you take every opportunity to hear the Word of God?
If the answer to any of those questions is no, then you need to look long and hard into your heart and
ask yourself if you despise God’s Word. Now I could go on and ask 100 more probing questions just like
that, but I want to be clear about something. I’m not trying to separate the good Christians from the
bad Christians. What I want you to do is recognize that all of us have despised God’s Word, in one way
or another. We have all broken the 3rd Commandment and probably will again.
Why did God give us the Sabbath day? Do you remember what that word means? [Rest] As I said
before, this command is not meant to be burden but a blessing. This rest is meant to be beneficial for us
– a time of relaxation but more importantly a time of reflection on all that God has done for us.
In the Old Testament God designated Saturday, the seventh day, to be the day of worship as a reminder
of the love that God demonstrated through creation. We don’t worship on Saturday anymore. We
worship on Sunday. Do you know why? [Sunday is the day that Jesus rose from the dead] And how did
God demonstrate his love for us by raising Jesus from the dead? [The resurrection was the sign that God
had accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for our sin]
Make no mistake about it, we are sinful creatures. Inside of our hearts is the natural inclination to
despise God’s Word and we see the evidence of that in our lives – through begrudging church
attendance or prioritizing other things above the Word of God. For that sin we deserve death, but we
don’t get it, because we have a Redeemer – one who bought us back and paid for our sin.
Jesus Christ was perfect throughout his whole life, keeping all the Commandments perfectly. Can you
give me an example of how Jesus kept this commandment for us? [The boy in the Temple] That’s not
the only one either. We hear of how Jesus worshipped publicly with other believers in the Temple and
in the synagogue. He taught and learned, by attending Bible classes. The Word was always on his mind,
in his heart and on his lips. Jesus kept this commandment perfectly, and he kept it for you, as your
substitute.
Now you don’t have to pay the penalty for your sin. Now every time you come to church and remember
the Sabbath day, you are receiving God’s blessing and the reminder of all that he’s done for you. You
hear from the Word of God the good news of your salvation and the promise of eternal life through the
life and death of Jesus Christ.
Martin Luther says that we should regard this Word as holy and for good reason. Sometimes I like to
compare God’s Word to a faberge egg – you know, the pricelessly valuable, fragile and rare decorative
eggs. Why is that a good comparison to how we should treat God’s Word? [We should value God’s
Word that highly] At the same time, why is that a bad comparison to how we should treat God’s Word?
[We shouldn’t be afraid to use it or simply have our Bibles displayed on the mantle; we should use
them!]
The Bible passages listed for you in your bulletin help us to understand how we can regard God’s Word
as holy. Read Acts 17:10-12 with me:
As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving
there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Berean Jews were of more noble
character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great
eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a
result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and
many Greek men.
What did the Bereans do to keep the 3rd Commandment? [Examined the Scripture every day; received
the message with great eagerness] And why was that such a blessing to them? [Many believed,
including many others] Remembering the Sabbath day is a blessing for both believers and unbelievers.
Some other notable believers were Mary and Martha. I’ll read the first couple verses. You read the
words of Jesus written in bold.
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman
named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the
Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations
that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister
has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,
but few things are needed – or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it
will not be taken away from her.”
How did Martha break the 3rd Commandment? [She was distracted by less important things] Is it wrong
to make preparations for visitors? Of course not. Why was this wrong? [She was valuing the
preparations more than the Word of God]
How did Mary keep the 3rd Commandment? [She valued the one thing needful]. Again, making
preparations isn’t bad. The church’s lawn needs to be mowed. The boiler needs to be replaced. But
what God values more than your services to the grounds or to the institution of the church is the health
of your soul. So feed it with God’s Word!
Let the words of the Apostle Paul from his letter to the Colossians serve as the closing to our meditation
on the 3rd commandment. As you hear these words, listen and remember why God’s gift of the Sabbath
really is a blessing to you and not a burden.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were
called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as
you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and
songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you
do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to
God the Father through him.
Amen.