Church Sermon - June 22, 2003

THE LORD HAS GIVEN US REST

Rev. Bernt P. Tweit

Epistle Lesson; 2 Corinthians 4:5-12
Gospel Lesson; Mark 2:23-28
Sermon Text; Deuteronomy 5:12-15

Tell me if this question ever arises in your household,

Is that a question that is asked in your home on a Sunday morning? Maybe that is a child speaking to a parent. Maybe that is even one spouse speaking to another spouse. "Do I have to go to church?"

It is good and right for parents to take children to church each week. It is also good and right for children to bring their parents to church each week. But what about that question: "Do I have to go to church?"

There is a simple answer to that question. But to fully address the attitude behind that question, will take a little time. So, to get us started, let me offer this simple answer: "No. No, you don’t have to go to church."

I’m glad to see that you all didn’t get up and leave, because there is more to the answer, than just that. To stop here would be dangerous. And so, today I want to address the attitude behind that question. When our sinful nature hears that we don’t have to go to church, that sinful nature does everything it can, to keep us out of church. It is our sinful nature that tries to prevent us from coming in any of the doors, here at our church, to hear God’s Word. I’m sure, like me, you have struggled against that nature and all the excuses it can come up with, for skipping church, ranging from tiredness to important family activities.

I can’t remember where I got this sheet of paper from, but six months ago, I stumbled across it and gave it to the elders of our congregation. At the very top it simply says, "Reasons people give not to go to church." There are forty reasons listed, and there are many more than this, I am sure. I wanted to share some of the reasons people give, not to go to church.

There are too many hypocrites in the church.

I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.

Sunday is my only day of rest.

The church bores me.

Maybe by now, you are asking, "But doesn’t the Third Commandment say we have to go to church?"

You just heard the Third Commandment, as recorded in Deuteronomy 5. On the surface, did it say anything about going to church? No. It didn’t, did it? When the Third Commandment was given (especially in the context of Deuteronomy chapter 5), whom was God speaking to? He was speaking to Old Testament Israel. He was reminding them of how He had led them out of Egypt, with His mighty hand. He was asking them to observe the Sabbath, the seventh day. In fact, it commanded Old Testament Israel to rest and not do any work on the Sabbath Day, which was not Sunday, but Saturday, the seventh day. In fact, the word Sabbath, in Hebrew, simply means to rest, or to stop working. God was telling the people to rest on the Rest Day, the seventh day.

So what does the Third Commandment have to do with the question, "Do I have to go to church?" Let’s dig deeper and go below the surface, and look at the attitude behind asking that question.

Let’s look at the context in which God gave this Third Commandment. Here in Deuteronomy, God was speaking to a people who had been released from slavery. He did that with His mighty arm. Listen to what the Lord wanted Old Testament Israel to think about, as they rested on the Rest day, the Sabbath.

"Remember that you were slaves in Egypt

and that the LORD your God

brought you out of there

with a mighty hand and

an outstretched arm."

Deuteronomy 5:15

I’m sure you have seen pictures and movie scenes about Israel’s slavery in Egypt. Place yourself in that slavery, for just a moment this morning. One of the requirements that the Egyptians had for the Israelites was to make bricks. For a time, the Egyptians provided the straw for making those bricks, but then they wanted the Israelites to work harder. They decided that the Israelites had to find their own straw to make the bricks. Imagine yourself walking acre after acre, in fields that have been harvested. You are looking for and picking up those stubbles of straw, which you need to make bricks. You are sweating in the heat of the day. Your back is sore and aching and you are very, very tired.

Back home, the straw is mixed with clay, under the hot Egyptian sun. Your muscles ache from digging and kneading the clay and then carrying the bricks. Your own people are driving you hard, because if you fail to meet the quota, the Egyptian slave drivers will beat them.

Then, your life changes. Something changes. The Lord God stretches out His arm and turns water into blood. He sends plagues of frogs, gnats, flies, disease, locust, hail, and darkness against your enslavers. Then the greatest of all plagues comes upon the Egyptians. His mighty hand strikes down the firstborn of all the Egyptians, from the son of Pharaoh himself on the throne, to the prisoner in the dungeon, and to the livestock in the stall.

Now, you are free to go! Pharaoh has released you. But as soon as you are leaving town, Pharaoh changes his mind and tries to pin you between his army and the Red Sea. Again, we see the mighty hand of God delivering you. Look at what God does. The LORD again stretches out His arm and His mighty hand pushes back the waters of the Red Sea. You cross safely on dry ground, to freedom on the other side. As the Egyptian army is fast on your heals, God covers them with the waters. Pharaoh’s army is destroyed, as God brings the waters down on them. The horse and its rider, He has thrown into the sea.

You are free!

You are safe!

You have been released from the captivity of slavery!

gave you rest from slavery,

by rescuing you!

In our life today, we too are released from slavery. That same LORD God has rescued you and me from our slavery!

We were born, as slaves to sin. We walked around, acre after acre, looking for that stubble of hope that could save us. Sin drove us hard to search for the stubble of hope that we thought would make us happy. Our souls were spiritually aching, because Satan had led us astray. Sin worked us hard, in Satan’s ways, leaving our souls sore and aching. Sin made us sweat, under the heat of our guilt. We were searching for that freedom, trying to find it by ourselves. Satan laughs at us because that is the direction he wants us to go. He wants us to think that we will find freedom in him. What a lie that is! And sin fooled us into thinking that we would be free, as long as we did what our natural self wanted. What a lie!

But the Lord stretched out His mighty hand of deliverance to rescue us. As a matter of a fact, the LORD, our God, stretched out both of His arms, over the beam of the cross. He opened His mighty hands, and willing had those nails pierce Him, so that we could receive freedom from the slavery of our sin. There, it is through the LORD, our God, through His very own precious blood, that we have the forgiveness of our sins. There, we are released from that slavery that has captivated us. It was not the Egyptian firstborn son, but the only-begotten Son of the Father, who died for you.

His cross shades us from our guilt that beats down on us. For on the cross, He covered His innocent self with our guilt and endured the heat of God’s anger that we justly deserve. His blood soothes our aching souls that long for forgiveness. For His holy blood paid the full price for all our sins, which afflict us. And His death gives us hope because, after He died, He rose from the dead. This hope is not a stubble of straw that fails. This hope is more solid than a mountain. Just as surely as Jesus, our Savior, lives, so surely we, who believe in Him, will live in joy with Him. Jesus has parted the waters of that sea that has enslaved us and brought us over from death to life, from slavery to freedom! He has rescued you and gives you rest for your soul. He gives you rest in the peace of forgiveness, purchased for you, by His cross and guaranteed to you, by His resurrection.

Already this morning you have heard those very comforting words of rest in the forgiveness of sins or the Absolution. Jesus was speaking to your very heart when He invites you, saying in Matthew 11:28,

"Come to me,

all you who are weary and burdened, and

I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and

learn from me,

for I am gentle and humble in heart, and

you will find rest for your souls."

That is the rest that comes from being rescued from sin’s slavery.

Today, as we view our freedom from the cross of Jesus and His empty tomb, our original question doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it? "Do I have to go to church?" Or rephrasing it, "Do I have to go and hear about how Jesus gave Himself to rescue me? Do I have to go and listen to His gracious invitation to give me rest? Can’t I simply just go back and be a slave to sin and live in that pain that leads to Hell?" Well, that’s a rather foolish question, isn’t it? And, we would probably all answer that question much differently. When we believe in Jesus, as our Savior, we want to regularly remember our Rest-giver, who rescued us from our slavery to sin.

observed by our dedicated worship.

It is extremely important to keep this commandment in its proper perspective. Its requirements for rest and worship are no longer binding on us in the same way they were binding Old Testament Israel. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul writes in Colossians 2:16-17. "Do not let anyone judge you…with regard to…a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ."

So it is true that in the New Testament, the Third Commandment is never restated, binding us Christians. Christ fulfilled the requirements of the law. Therefore, we will carefully guard against giving the impression that Sunday is the New Testament Sabbath.

Should we cross out the Third Commandment then? Of course not! Not at all! God has something to teach us in the Third Commandment. God is concerned about our spiritual rest with Him. Take for example these passages in scripture, passages that talk about rest for our souls. In spite of our sin, there still is rest for us. One of them is found in the book of Hebrews 4:9-10, where it talks about the rest that God grants to us.

"There remains a Sabbath rest

for the people of God;

for anyone who enters God’s rest from his own work,

just as God did from his."

And, this passage, from the book of Revelation 14:13,

"Blessed are the dead

who die in the Lord…

they will rest from their labor."

The rest that those two passages are talking about is eternal rest, eternal rest in Heaven, that people receive when they die in the LORD.

But, while we are still living here in this life and as God still gives us breath to breathe, is there a reason for us to still observe a day of rest? There the answer is, yes. When we come to church, we hear about that rest that He has given to us, a rest that can only be found in the sweet and comforting message of the Gospel.

God invites us to find this rest through faith in the Gospel message. And, Jesus wants us to do these four things. He wants us to gather together, around His Word. His Word refreshes us to live each day, set apart for God, in the joy of forgiveness. He also uses His Word to remind us of what He requires of us, in regard to our worship life in the New Testament.

"Let us not give up meeting together,

as some are in the habit of doing,

but let us encourage one another

and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

Hebrews 10:25

Second, Jesus wants us to hear His Word.

"Blessed are those who hear the Word of God

and obey it."

Luke 11:28

Next, He wants us to eagerly study the Scriptures, just as the Bereans did, as they gathered together and examined the scriptures every day.

"Receive the message with great eagerness

and examine the scriptures every day

to see if what I am saying is true."

Acts 17:11

And finally, He wants us to share the message of the life-giving Word with others. In Mark 16:15, Jesus, Himself tells us,

"Go into all the world and

preach the Good News to

all creation."

Luther clearly shows us that the Third Commandment directs us to God’s Word. After God said you should keep the Day of Rest holy, Luther simply said,

"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."

Luther’s Small Catechism

So, what about our original question: "Do I have to go to church?" The answer to that question is closely tied to God’s Word. Going to church will do you no good, if God’s Word is not taught in that church. Going to church will do you no good, if you do not let God’s Word focus your eyes on Jesus. Even going to our church will do you no good, if you do not listen to God’s Word, live according to it, and take it to heart.

But when we consider how God’s Word sanctifies and refreshes us, how could we not want to gather with our fellow believers around the pure Word as long as we are physically able to? Where else do we gather, to be fed the Good News of our Rest-giver, through the hymns and liturgy written and used by Christians throughout the ages? Where else do we come together, to hear God’s Word publicly proclaimed from Scripture, with a speaker who wants to keep our focus on what Jesus has done to give our souls rest? Where else do we regularly feast on the Rest-giver’s body and blood, to assure us of God’s forgiveness? Why would we want to skip even a week? Regularly, remember the Rest-Giver.

"Do I have to go to church?" A simple yes or no is no way to answer that question. Our old, sinful nature, which we inherited from our parents, will never want to go to church to hear God’s Word. We must force it and tell it, "I am going to church." Our new self, created by God in you through baptism, does not ask, "Do I have to go to church". Our new self loves to regularly remember our Rest-giver as often as possible. Our new self rejoices that He has rescued us from sin’s slavery. Our sins are forgiven. We have everlasting life in Heaven! Our new self finds His Word refreshing. Our new self says with King David in Psalm 122,

"I was

when they said unto me,

Let us go into the house of the Lord!"

Amen.

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