The Holy Spirit and The Sabbath

May 30, 2021 by Peg

Today is Pentecost – the day we remember the fulfillment of the prophecy that John the Baptist spoke when he said: “I baptize you with water… but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matt 3:11) Pentecost is the day when that prophecy came true, and it is still true today.

Jesus also talked about this event when he said that God would send “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit…” [who] would teach us everything, and remind us of all that he had said. (John 14:26) Jesus said: “When the Advocate comes… the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.” (John 15:26) This is why, when we share the story of Jesus with others, God touches hearts and lives are changed.

Acts chapter two gives us the story of what happened that day a little over 2000 years ago. Luke writes: “When the day of Pentecost had come, [the disciples] were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” (Acts 2:1-4)

This day is the day when we thank God for these events. It’s also a day when we ask God to refresh our lives and our spirits with that same Spirit, with a knowledge of Himself, with the guidance and wisdom that comes from God’s throne. This is the day when we ask God to renew in our lives the fruits of God’s spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. It’s the day when we refresh the gifts God has given us by the Spirit: some of us as teachers or preachers, some of us with wisdom, or knowledge, or healing, or prophecy, or faith, or generosity. We are here today not only to remember, but to refresh and renew the Spirit within us.

There is one other aspect of Pentecost we hardly ever hear about, so I’m going to take us on a little detour this morning through the Old Testament.

I want to start by pointing out something that doesn’t always jump out at us right away as we read Acts. We know that Pentecost is about the coming of the Holy Spirit. Why is it then, that Acts 2:1 says, “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all gathered together…?” How would the disciples have known it was Pentecost, if the Holy Spirit hadn’t come yet?

They knew because Pentecost was a Jewish holiday. The word ‘Pentecost’ is a Greek word meaning ‘fifty days’. For Christians, we count 50 days from Easter – the day of resurrection – to Pentecost. For Jewish people, it was 50 days from the beginning of the harvest – also known as the Feast of Weeks. Their 50 days was broken up into weeks – into Sabbaths (“Sabbath” being the Hebrew word for “seven”). So in each case we have 50 days.

So today we look back to Pentecost, which looks back to the coming of the Holy Spirit, which looks back to Easter (the resurrection). And Pentecost also looks back to the harvest, and the Feast of Weeks, which looks back to the Sabbath.

In the 21^st century most people typically think of ‘Sabbath’ (if they think of it at all) as just another word for ‘Sunday’. But most of us here today know there’s more to it than that. We remember Genesis chapter two, which says when God finished creating everything, “God rested on the seventh day…” and “God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it…” (Gen 2:2-3, edited)

And we remember the Ten Commandments, where God said:

“Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work — you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth…” (Ex. 20:8-11)

FeastOfWeeks So back to Pentecost – the Jewish Pentecost. When harvest time came, the Jewish people counted off seven weeks of seven days – in other words, a sabbath of sabbaths – which came out to 49 days. And on the 50^th day they celebrated Pentecost. This was the Feast of Weeks. But this also looked forward to a holiday called Jubilee (which you may recall from the Old Testament: a holiday that came every 50 years – a year when all debts were forgiven). This Feast of Weeks was like a foretaste of the Jubilee, which itself is like a foretaste of heaven, where all sins are forgiven.

So this Feast of Weeks, this Sabbath of Sabbaths, is the reason there were so many foreigners in Jerusalem on the day the Holy Spirit arrived. All the Jewish people who were scattered all over the Roman Empire, including parts of Asia and Africa, came to Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks. Acts chapter 2 tells us:

“All of [the disciples] were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?” (Acts 2:4-8)

At this Festival of the Harvest God gives the church it’s first harvest of believers. In the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter preaches to the crowd, and he tells them about Jesus and how God raised Jesus from the dead, and three thousand people were added to the church in one day.

Two things I’d like to pull out of these Pentecost celebrations:

As on the day of Pentecost, when the early church started to grow and spread, it was in the power of the Holy Spirit. And throughout history, even today, whenever the church grows it happens in the power of the Holy Spirit. What we see here in Acts chapter two is the way God builds the church. The disciples didn’t have college educations; they didn’t have money or position; they didn’t have power. In fact they were in the upper room hiding from the authorities when all this started! They were just a small group. But they prayed, and they were open to what God wanted to do. And God filled them with the Holy Spirit and the world has never been the same. This same Spirit will touch our lives and inspire our church if we ask in faith.
The second thing I want to point out is: God doesn’t always move the way we expect God to. There’s a story in the Old Testament, in the book of Judges, when Joshua is gathering the army for battle, and God says to Joshua “you have too many men, send some of them home.” And this happens twice before Joshua takes on the battle. It seems counter-intuitive to send more than half the army home before you start a battle. And likewise, on Pentecost, the Jewish holiday reminds us to observe the Sabbath. It seems counter-intuitive, that if believers want to accomplish something, we need to begin by resting!

Sabbath is something that’s been almost forgotten in our time. And I’m not talking about just ‘going to church on Sunday’, although that’s part of it. Sabbath is primarily a day of rest.

The thing is, people don’t rest very well in our culture. Even when we have spare time we fill it with busyness. You know the old saying from the philosopher Descartes, “I think therefore I am”. For most contemporary Americans it’s more like “I do therefore I am.” We feel as if, if we’re not doing something, we’re not justifying the space we take up on the planet.

All of this activity, without taking a break, is unhealthy, counterproductive, and spiritually harmful. Imagine for a moment what would happen if we didn’t sleep. Scientists tell us if we don’t sleep we will die in about 11 days – and we will have hallucinations in just three days. In our culture we may sleep but we don’t get enough sleep, and we never stop working. This is not good.

And God knows that. God gave us the Sabbath to remind us of who we are and Whose we are. God gives us one day, every seven days, to stop work and rest.

Of course the religious leaders of Israel made this really complicated. The way they taught it, the Sabbath was so much work you almost had to break the Sabbath in order to keep the Sabbath! That’s why Jesus said to the Pharisees, “the Sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)

So what exactly is the Sabbath, and how can we observe it today?

Put simply, the Sabbath is one day out of every seven when we do no work. Traditionally Sabbath is observed from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, but if you happen to work on Saturdays it can be observed on Tuesday. There are lots of possible variations.

But there’s more to it than just a day off.

Observing the Sabbath has actually become sort of an ‘in thing’ in some churches these days, so there’s a lot of chatter about it on the internet. Google brought me to a number of quotations from people taking about their experiences of the Sabbath.

One person says: “my own Sabbath… [includes] taking my watch off at sunset Friday and not looking at it again until sunset Saturday.”
Another person says: “Sabbath means to… break out of daily routine… a day of enjoying the world rather than doing battle with it …”
Another person says: “God created us. He knows our souls need the rest, refreshment, and fulfillment, which only comes from spending time in His presence. Therefore, the Sabbath is a gift from God.”
Another person says: “Sabbath provides freedom from the tyranny of things and the need to achieve. It restores value to time. […] Sabbath enables us to find our worth in being God’s children…”
Another person says the Sabbath focuses on feasting (which is true in the Scriptures) – so they “feast on music… [or] on beauty, [on] God’s creation…”
And one university psychology professor wrote: “We are a stressed out, time-strapped people, living in a world that is filled with suffering and injustice. Perhaps unexpectedly, one aid to improving the psychological health of individuals and the social, economic, and spiritual health of our communities… may be the commandment least [observed]…: keeping the Sabbath.”

So how does one observe the Sabbath? First off, the Sabbath was intended to be inclusive: that is, it’s a day of rest not just for ourselves but for family members, any friends who visit, employees (if we have them), strangers who live near us, and even animals. The traditional way is to begin Sabbath is by lighting candles and saying a short prayer at sundown on Friday, immediately followed by the best meal of the week served on the best china (it is about feasting!); and then having 24 hours of rest. It takes some planning!

Why should we do this? First off, because God tells us to. But more than that, Sabbath is a gift from God. And we don’t want to leave this gift unopened.

Sabbath is like hitting the ‘reset’ button on our lives. It clears our minds and hearts of all the junk the world puts in us. I have never met anyone who observes the Sabbath who has said, “oh I got tired of it and quit.” Never.

It is difficult at first to rest for 24 hours. Some people need to work up to it: starting with eight hours and then ten and then twelve, and so on. Some other people experiment a little:

Some people go on a 24-hour fast from screens (as in, TV, computers, cell phones, iPods, tablets.) – all turned off for 24 hours
Some people fast from spending money for 24 hours: no paying bills, no online shopping, no going out to eat, nothing involving money.
Some people try avoiding advertising for 24 hours. (this BTW is extremely difficult – if you succeed please let me know how!)
Some people fast from the news for 24 hours.

But Sabbath isn’t really about fasting. Sabbath is meant to be a foretaste of eternity with God. The prophet Isaiah wrote that in God’s kingdom “…the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples: a feast of rich food and wine on the lees…” (Is 25:6) Because of this, it’s traditional to begin the Sabbath with the richest meal of the week. It’s a foretaste of God’s kingdom.

One last quotation on the Sabbath, this one from a Christian theologian:

“Take anything you delight in here on earth: Your children. Your craftwork. Your hot tub. The dewy green of a fairway on a July morning. The sweet corn from your garden, drenched in butter. Enjoy them all. Find rest in them. And imagine how much more awaits you…” in God’s kingdom.

That’s the Sabbath. It directs our hearts and minds to a foretaste of heaven. And until then, the Holy Spirit, given at Pentecost, guides our daily lives.

Whenever we observe the Sabbath, and whenever we observe Pentecost, we proclaim Jesus’ kingdom until He comes.

And so we pray: Oh Lord, renew in us your Holy Spirit. Equip us for ministry. And because You know we need it, lead us into holy rest. AMEN.

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Preached at Carnegie United Methodist Church and Hill Top United Methodist Church, 5/23/21

(A variation of this sermon was also preached at Fairhaven United Methodist Church and Spencer United Methodist Church on 5/30/21)

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Source Material:

https://equippingblog.wordpress.com/2019/06/07/ascension-sabbath-shavuot-pentecost-june-7-10-2019/

Day of Pentecost HD Gise Ríos Published on Sep 27, 2015 From The Bible Series

https://www.faithgateway.com/feast-pentecost/#.YKLd8aEpCUk

https://ssnet.org/blog/sabbath-pentecost/

https://bibleproject.com/blog/keeping-the-sabbath-is-it-still-relevant-to-christians-today/