August 21, 2022; Sunday School

Order of Service

• Sunday School Lesson — The Sabbath in the New Testament

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Sermon Title: The Sabbath Made for Man

Scripture: Mark 2:23-28

I. Review and Foundation: The Sabbath as a Moral Command

A. Last week established the sabbath's creational and moral foundations from Genesis 2 and Exodus 20

B. This week's goal: examine the New Testament — especially Christ's teaching — to answer whether the sabbath remains binding today

C. Central argument: the sabbath is not a burden but a good gift meant for our joy

II. The Key Question: Should the Sabbath Still Be Kept Holy Today?

A. Both sides of the debate agree on certain points

1. Christ's life, death, and resurrection bring a pivotal change to sabbath understanding
2. Christ fulfills the sabbath in some sense

B. The disagreement: what kind of change does Christ bring?

1. Does he abrogate the sabbath — ending it as a command entirely?
2. Or does he fill its contents, pruning what was wrongly added and restoring its proper meaning?

III. Understanding the Moral and Ceremonial Aspects of the Sabbath

A. The Mosaic law contains both moral law (the Ten Commandments) and ceremonial/civil laws

B. Christ abrogates the ceremonial and civil laws but not the moral law

C. The sabbath is unique: it contains both moral and ceremonial elements

1. The moral element is grounded in the creation ordinance — permanent and universally binding
2. The ceremonial element consists of the specific regulations added for Israel — these point to Christ as their substance

D. Thomas Witherow's distinctions between moral and ceremonial law

1. Grounds: moral law rests on relationship (God to man, man to man); ceremonial law rests on God's positive command
2. Reception: moral law is written on the heart and known by nature; ceremonial law is known only by special revelation
3. Authority: moral law is right in itself, antecedent to being commanded; ceremonial law is right because commanded
4. Lasting nature: moral law is permanent and universally binding; ceremonial law serves a specified purpose for a specific people

IV. Christ's Teaching in Mark 2: The Sabbath Was Made for Man

A. The scene: disciples pluck grain on the sabbath; Pharisees accuse them of breaking the law (Mark 2:23-24)

B. Jesus responds by appealing to David eating the bread of the presence (Mark 2:25-26; cf. 1 Samuel 21)

1. David broke the letter of the ceremonial law out of genuine human need
2. The disciples likewise were hungry after laboring in ministry

C. Jesus' climactic declaration: "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath" (Mark 2:27-28)

1. He overturns the Pharisees' view that man exists merely to obey their sabbath regulations
2. He points back to Genesis 2: the sabbath was given immediately after the work commission, before the fall, as a gift for humanity
3. He does not say the sabbath no longer matters — he restores its intended purpose

V. The Sabbath as Gift: Old Testament Confirmation

A. Genesis 2: the sabbath is a pre-fall creational ordinance given on the heels of the work commission — it was always meant for man's good

B. Exodus 16:22-26: even before the Ten Commandments, God gave Israel the sabbath in the wilderness by withholding manna on the seventh day

1. Israel had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years — worked without rest
2. God gave them the sabbath as an act of mercy and kindness: rest, because it is for you

C. Exodus 20: the fourth commandment grounds sabbath-keeping in the creational pattern — "remember" implies they already knew it

VI. The Sabbath in the New Testament: Not Abrogated

A. Nowhere in the New Testament is the sabbath directly abrogated

B. While many of the Ten Commandments are explicitly reaffirmed in the New Testament, the sabbath is reaffirmed implicitly through Christ's ministry and teaching

C. Hebrews 4: "There remains a sabbath rest for the people of God"

1. The sabbath points backward to creation rest in Genesis 2
2. The sabbath points forward to the final, eternal rest still to come
3. We live in the "already but not yet" — Christ has inaugurated rest but the consummation remains

D. Because the sabbath remains a moral commandment, we must think carefully about how to keep it holy — to be addressed next week