Revelation Unlocked #186.

 I run a Bible study/discussion hour at our church and currently the lessons are very relevant to what we are studying. If you are local (Warner’s Bay/ Newcastle) and would like to join us at 11:30 on Saturday you would be made most welcome. The address:19 East St, Warners Bay. 

As I was preparing the last few devotionals, I was asking myself questions like; why is the judgment such an unpopular concept among many Christians today? Judgment today is often seen as cold and harshly legal. Courts are places you want to avoid, if possible. But in the biblical sense, judgment is something for God’s people to look forward to. It is a time that all the wrongs of earth will be made right. If there is no judgment at the end, there will never be any justice in this world. Biblical justice is as much positive as it is negative. It is the basis of reward, as well as negative consequences. Jesus said that even something as small as giving a cup of cold water to a child will be remembered in the judgment (Matt. 10:42). It provides great meaning in this life to know that every good deed, every kindness shown, matters in the ultimate scheme of things.

More importantly, the Bible teaches that Jesus is my lawyer (Advocate / High Priest) in the judgment. With Christ as my lawyer, I cannot loose! Therefore, the judgment is a day that God’s children should be looking forward to.

Another question I asked is why there is so much antagonism from Christians to the fourth commandment. Sometimes I think my protestant friends and brothers in the Lord twist and squirm at the fact that they find themselves holding a tradition (Sunday) handed to them by Catholicism. They scramble to try and justify it, even though the change of the Sabbath to Sunday has no biblical support – at all! Those who want to obey are often labelled legalists. When the opposite is often the case. Jesus obeyed His Father but was not a legalist. the greatest argument for the Sabbath in the New Testament is that there is no argument. God changes not, He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Why does the Sabbath play such a central role in the final events of earth’s history? What difference could a day of the week possibly make in the ultimate scheme of things? God placed the Sabbath at the centre of all His mighty acts as a remembrance of Him. When we keep the seventh-day Sabbath, we are reminded of Creation (Exod. 20:8–11). God created us free, at great cost to Himself (we were free to rebel), so we could truly love Him back and also love one another.

Not only the Sabbath but the whole of the Decalogue was designed to promote freedom (James 1:25, James 2:12). So, the Creation side of Sabbath reminds us of the loving, freedom-giving character of God. The Sabbath also reminds us of the Exodus (Deut. 5:15), God’s great act of salvation for His people. He is a gracious God who acts mightily on behalf of His people. The Sabbath also reminds us of the Cross. Jesus rested in the tomb on the Sabbath between His death and His resurrection. The Cross is the greatest revelation of God’s character, and the Sabbath is a reminder of that. The Sabbath also looks forward to the future salvation at the end of time (Heb. 4:9–11). Those who truly trust God find in the Sabbath a down payment on the rest from sin that the whole universe will experience in eternity. I want that rest.

I would love you to join us on Saturday at our Bible study time. We are just a small group – a church plant with 20+ members.