The Third Commandment – Feel the Spirit of Christian Living at Epiphany on June 24, 2007

Grace, mercy, and peace are yours through God our Father who promises to show love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. Amen.

Exodus 20:8-11 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ 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 manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. ¹¹ 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.

“I don’t wanna! Do I hafta?”

It was Sunday morning. A mother knocked on her son's bedroom door and told him that it was time to get up and go to church. "I'm not going to church this morning," the son said. "You have to get up and go to church", said mother. "No, I'm not going," said the son. "Yes you are," said the mother. "No, I'm not. They don't like me and I don't like them," said the son. "Give me two good reasons why I have to go." The mother replied, "Number one, you're 55 years old and number two, you're the pastor!"

Originally nobody had to tell people they had to worship God. After the Lord had made humankind and placed our original ancestors in the Garden of Eden, God talked to them and he walked with them. He gave instructions and they thought it perfectly normal to do what he asked. There wasn't any reason not to. But then sin came and everything, especially us, changed. No longer was it natural and normal for people to worship the Lord. Just about the very first thing Adam and Eve did was try to hide themselves from God (Genesis 3:8). It was a silly thing to do, but they tried, and thereby set the precedent by which most of humanity lives and dies.

Like I said, with sin everything changed. The worship of God, which had once been joyful, now became a job. The opportunity became an obligation; the closeness had become a chasm. Soon humanity got on its high horse and said, "I don't wanna worship God. Do I hafta?" Well, God had heard that for centuries. So, finally, he said, "Yes, you gotta. Yes, you hafta." Now this was God, so he said it much nicer than that. He said, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy." It became a commandment.

God didn't say people had to worship him 24/7. He was simply saying, "Six days of the week I want you to work. I want you to enjoy life. I want you to fall in love and have a spouse and a family. I want you to listen to a baby's laugh and watch her first steps. I want you to smell fresh-baked bread and talk to a good friend for hours. I want you to stand in awe of my sunrises and sunsets. When it rains, glance upward at that rainbow I put in the heavens. And then, on the seventh day, I want you to think about how everything you have, everything you are, everything you will be in this world and the next comes from my loving hand. And then, say a "thank you." On the seventh day of the week, rest and worship me." The Lord asked his people to think about his gifts everyday, to thank him everyday, to worship him everyday, from morning until night, no matter what they were doing or where they were. (Deuteronomy 6:7ff) That's what God wanted, but he demanded that they rest by worshiping him on the seventh day of the week.

Some children at a Christian grade school were asked to complete the following sentence: "I like to worship God because he is..." Martha said she liked to worship God, "because he is loving. He loved people in the Bible and he loved me when I don't love my little brother for making me mad when he repeats everything I say." Jonathan liked to worship God because, "God is caring. He cares for the little birds and he cared enough to give daddy a job."

Sometimes people did remember the Lord's handiwork in their lives. At such times they worshipped God and did so gladly. There was worship when he delivered his people out of slavery in Egypt. (Exodus 15:1) There was worship when they entered the Promised Land. (Judges 4:1) There was worship when a temple was built to help them remember who God was and what he was doing. (1 Kings 8:63) There was worship when God conquered their enemies. (1 Samuel 7:12) Yes, sometimes there was worship. But most of the time there wasn't. Most of the time people said, "I don't wanna! Do I hafta?”

Then Jesus rocked the world by giving it something it could neither ignore nor forget. We might forget to give thanks for sunrises and the loving touch of a friend, but nobody could forget to give thanks for Jesus. Why? Jesus gave salvation to sinful souls. Since the fall into sin, things hadn't been right. All of humanity had been born sinful and sin condemned. But Jesus, the suffering Savior, set about to make things right. As the sinless Son of God, he did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Leaving his holy home in heaven, he was born as one of us, yet unlike us. All the laws that we naturally break, he kept – perfectly, purely, completely. All of the temptations we fall for, he avoided without a stumble or misstep. When we would have listened to the devil, Jesus turned a deaf ear. For 33 years of his life there was not an “oops” or a “goof.” He was perfect in our place. And that’s just the beginning.

Jesus carried your sins. How long did he carry them? Long enough to get rid of them. Long enough for him to be nailed to a cross. Hold that picture in your mind's eye. See God's Son suffering, dying for you. The whip marks on his back. You can't see them so clearly as he hangs upon the cross. They were received for you. The crown of thorns for you and me, too. Jesus died for you. And when Jesus died, so did your sins. Jesus did for you what nobody else could. He lived for you. He died for you. He rose for you. Now he has given you eternal life.

If what I have said is true, and it is the truest thing that ever was said, what is your reaction? What is your response to this unmerited love of God? Martin Luther responded by saying, "For all of this it is my duty to thank and praise, to serve and obey him." But modern men and women seldom stop to give thanks for God's gracious gifts. We have so much. We assume we deserve it. We don't want to admit we need a Savior or a Supplier. Even among those who have seen Jesus, whose names are listed as members of this Christian church, on almost any given Sunday morning, more than half of them forget to worship the Savior who did so very much for them.

God commands: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” Martin Luther explains this third commandment: “We should fear and love God that we do not despise preaching and his Word, but regard it as holy and gladly hear and learn it.” You might think, “But I don’t despise God’s Word. I don’t hate God’s Word. I’m not against God’s Word.” You may not exactly be against God’s Word, per se, but neither are you always eager to hear it. Parents try to talk to their teenagers, but the teenagers simply ignore their parents or quietly walk the other way. This is like not attending church regularly; or if you do, skipping Bible class and Sunday School. We ignore what God has to say. We don’t want to hear it, so we stay at home or we quickly leave the church before we get asked to come to Bible class.

This is the terrible sin. If you do not earnestly and reverently hear God’s Word then you profane this church, the pastor and teachers who teach here, and the time God has set aside for you, for you are despising God’s Word. When you fail to make the Sabbath an important part of your life, you are treating Jesus’ sacrifice with contempt, which puts you into the danger of losing your faith and feeling the eternal horrors of hell.

We need to come to church for rest. We take time out of our busy schedules for worship and Bible study because it prevents us from becoming slaves to our work. Do you want to work overtime on Sunday mornings so you can make that extra bit of money? Do you want to stay home from Sunday School because you are sleeping overnight at a friend’s house? Do you want to skip Bible classes because you feel it’s more important to get your house clean and your lawn cut? Regular use of God’s Word is the only way we will find true rest. It contains everything we need to comfort us in this life and to guide us to the life to come. When God is not included, our spiritual life is not energized. Our life suffers disorder. If you want your marriage to be renewed, your vacation to serve as refreshment, and your life to be re-energized, then put your hope in the LORD and he will renew your strength. He will give you true rest and relaxation.

In the Old Testament, the Sabbath day was the seventh day of the week, Saturday. That hasn’t changed. The seventh day is still Saturday. The DAY hasn’t changed. But WE have been changed. Jesus came and was victorious over death on a Sunday. The early Christians then chose to make their Sabbath, their day of rest and worship on Sunday because that was the day Christ rose from the grave.  Every Sunday in the church year is like a “little Easter.” On this day, the Lord rallies his army to unite, heal, and empower them.

God wants you to regularly, faithfully, weekly, come to him for rest in worship. Think of it this way. There are 168 hours in a week. During those hours, the devil is tempting, tricking, tantalizing. One single hour a week for God versus 167 that Satan has us for, doesn’t seem like quite enough. God says in this third commandment that you need to take more time – devote a whole day to worshiping him.

Martin Luther said, “… Even though you know the word perfectly and have already mastered everything, still you are daily under the dominion of the devil, who neither day nor night relaxes his effort to steal upon you unawares and to kindle in your heart unbelief and wicked thoughts against all these commandments.  Therefore you must continually keep God's Word in your heart, on your lips, and in your ears." Every moment of every day we are under the constant attack of sin and Satan. God promises to refresh you for battle with his Word and prayer. As the hymn writer puts it: "Have you trials and temptations? Is there trouble everywhere? You should never be discouraged take it to the Lord in prayer! Are you weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior still your refuge take it to the Lord in prayer! Do your friends despise forsake you?  Take it to the Lord in prayer!  In his arms he'll take and shield you; You will find a solace there!"

We find rest on the Sunday Sabbath as we refreshed by the fruit of the gospel, the manna from heaven, and the water of life. We are strengthened in our faith as we see another precious child adopted into God’s family through Holy Baptism and as we partake of Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.

God doesn’t force us to sit our rear ends in pews on a Sunday morning. He doesn’t coerce us into opening a Bible and reading it. He simply invites us to come and worship him. Just as he rested on the seventh day after working on creation, so also he encourages us to rest from work in his Word at church and at home. It’s not that we have to go to church. It’s that we get to go to church. This commandment is the Lord’s reminder, “My people, I love you so much, I am going to let you worship me.”  God has granted us the privilege of being able to worship him.

We've been talking about worship. The word worship is a shortened form of an older word, worthship. If something is very valuable to you, it is high on your list of priorities, then it has worthship, and that something is worthy of your worship.

I can't tell you what to do. That’s not my job. My job is to tell you that the Lord sent his Son to live, die, and rise for you. My job is to help you see the Savior, suffering, bleeding, dying for you. I won't yell at you if you aren’t in church. It wouldn't do any good. If you whine, “I don’t wanna! Do I hafta?” I would simply say, “Yes, you have to. God demands your worship. But I pray that you want to. The God who brings you from hell to heaven, the Savior who died that you might live, is worthy of your worthship. Please give it to him.” Amen.