Thread: How sabbath continues, meditations (Sinclair Ferguson)

It is helpful to understand how the sabbath continues, and what it is toward.

This will help us better keep it, and enjoy it.

Tabletalk, March issue, Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson


[speaking of what sabbath meant from the beginning, Old Testament]

....Externally, that meant ceasing from his ordinary tasks in order to meet with God. Internally, it involved ceasing from all self-sufficiency in order to rest in God's grace.

....And whatever was temporary about the Mosic Sabath must be left behind as the reality of the intimate communion of the Adamic Sabbath is again experienced in our worship of the risen Savior on the first day of the week -- the Lord's Day.
But we have not reached the goal. We still struggle to rest from our labors; we still must "strive to enter that rest" (Heb. 4:11). Consequently the weekly nature of the Sabbath continues as a reminder that we are not yet home with the Father.



[speaking of when our focus is on what we can and cannot do on the Lord's Day]

...."Is it ok to do....on Sunday?-- because I don't have any time to do it in the rest of the week?" If this is our question, the problem is not how we use Sunday, it is how we are misusing the rest of the week. This view of the Lord's Day helps us see the day as a foretaste of heaven.



[speaking of the end effect of trying to keep the sabbath/fourth commandment/Lord's Day]

....Hebrews teaches us that eternal glory is a Sabbath rest. Every day, all day, will be "Father's Day"! Thus here and now we learn the pleasures of a God given weekly rhythm, it will no longer seem strange to us that the eternal glory can be described as a prolonged Sabbath!