Sacred Time

What this episode covers

Old Testament Reading Our Old Testament reading in our sermon text is Exodus chapter 31, verses 12 through 18, and this is God’s inspired, his infallible, and inerrant word. And the Lord said to Moses, you are to speak to the people of Israel and say, above all, you shall keep my Sabbaths. For this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore, the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. And he gave to Moses when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone written with the finger of God. New Testament Reading Let’s turn now to Mark chapter two, verses 23 through 28. And this is our New Testament reading. Mark two, 23 through 28. This is the Lord’s teaching, part of his teaching on the Sabbath. One Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grain fields. And as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? And he said to them, have you never read what David did when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him. And he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. The grass weathers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. You can turn back to Exodus chapter 31. The Story of Eric Liddell In 1924, at the Olympic Games in Paris, France, there was an athlete there who did something that caused an international controversy. No, it had nothing to do with his gender. It had nothing to do with performance enhancing drugs. In fact, this athlete was a man of tremendous integrity. He was a serious and faithful Christian. And he was so committed to his faith in Christ that after the Olympics were over, he turned away from the fame and the glory that he could have enjoyed for a long time after the Olympics. And instead, he spent the rest of his life as a missionary serving in far away China. You probably know who I’m talking about, most of you will. His name was Eric Liddell, and he was from Scotland. He was a sprinter from that nation. And what he did that was so controversial at those Olympic Games was that he withdrew from the 100-meter race, even though that was his best event. And that was almost a sure thing for Great Britain to get a medal in that event. And so you can imagine that his withdrawing from that race caused a lot of people to be very unhappy. And why did he withdraw from the 100 meters race? It was because one of the qualifying heats for that race took place on a Sunday. And for Eric Liddell, Sunday was not just another day, but it was the Lord’s Day. It was a day in which he could not, with a good conscience, engage in anything that basically amounted to work, and his racing that day would have basically been work for him. And so, out of conscience, he withdrew from the race altogether. Of course, if you’ve seen the movie Chariots of Fire, you know the really dramatic parts of Liddell’s story at the Olympics that year. He would go on to shock the world by winning the 400-meter race, a race

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