Rest And Remember

by J.L. Ferguson, Barrhead | Category: General | Jun 1979

This was the purpose of the sabbath in Israel. Every seventh day the Israelite did no work, nor any of his servants or his animals, "that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt (Deut. 5:14,15). They were to rest and remember.

God has blessed that day and hallowed it, for in six days He Himself had made heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them; then He rested on the seventh day. Not that He required rest, who "fainteth not neither is weary". It was more probably the rest of satisfaction in a perfectly completed work. And not only did He rest, but He was "refreshed" (Exod. 31:17). So in relation to that rest He established also a principle, which all people everywhere, and in every generation would do well to follow. The One who formed the human frame knew the renewing, the refreshing that would come from a weekly physical rest and spiritual reflection. And today, some 3500 years later, the people of God still need a day in which to rest, to remember and to be refreshed.

Justin is thought to be one of the earliest, authentic writers in the years which immediately followed the period of the New Testament apostles and prophets. He gives with considerable minuteness an account of the services held by the early Christians on the first day of the week, the Lord's day. So although the original nucleus of the New Testament churches was a Jewish remnant according to the election of grace, embracing of course an ever-increasing number of Gentiles as the work expanded, the early Christians attached so unique a significance to the first day of the week that it replaced the sabbath as the day of their special spiritual exercises. It was the resurrection day, the day of the new order, the Lord's unique day.

It all began on that memorable "When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week..." (John 20:19). Again, seven weeks later, on the first day of the week, "When the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place" (Acts 2:1). Later, "Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by him in store" (1 Cor. 16:2). And subsequently, "And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread' ..." (Acts 20:7).

The transition from the observance by the Jews of the sabbath to the recognition by the early Christians of the first day of the week could not have been easy. The sabbath had been "made for man" (Mark 2:27) but it was also "unto the LORD" (Deut. 5:14). To the Jew the sabbath was the normal day of rest. To the Jewish Christian the first day of the week was for the service of the Lord. This may well have meant that for a considerable time many of the disciples would not be free till the evening of the Lord's day. Indeed the reference to the Lord's supper in 1 Cor. 11:20 and the prolonged discourse of Paul till midnight (Acts 20:7) may have a bearing on this. But in any event, they held fast to the new arrangement and in due course the first day of the week became the Christian's day for rest to them and service to God.

What a lovely arrangement, approved by the Lord for this period of grace, to have one day in the week set apart by the "Israel of God" for the refreshment which comes from rest and remembrance! A day disturbed only by the minimum of normal everyday engagements, when we can experience in a special way the joyful Christian paradox of which the Lord Jesus spoke, "Take My yoke upon you . . . and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matt. 11:29). Rest, in the activity of the service of God.

And not only rest, but remembrance. It was a marvellous forethought on God's part to call us to the breaking of the bread on the first day of the week. And if "On that day did David make it the chief work to give thanks unto the LORD" (1 Chron. 16:7 margin), is it any wonder that the Spirit has guided us to keep the Remembrance first thing on the Lord's day?

This is the service of perennial freshness. Week by week the Spirit stirs our memories with new appreciations of the Lord Jesus, drawn from the shadows of the Old Testament, from the unfoldings of the New. We meditate on Galilee, Gethsemane, Golgotha - we remember HIM, who brought us from the bondage of sin into the glory of the freedom of the service of God. Thoughts form in inward worship, in outward praise. And from the Remembrance we turn again homeward, refreshed -for rest in further service.

Further service, that is, to others. In infinite grace we have been shown the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvellous light. Ora Rowan in "Idols" caught the thought:

Hast thou heard Him, seen Him, known Him?

Is not thine a captured heart?

Chief among the thousands own Him,

Gladly choose the better part.

Others are still in darkness, blinded. To these we must go, to the young, to the mature. And there are lonely friends to call on or invite along to tea. There are sick ones to be visited, wayward feet to be tended.

Yes, there must always be something unique about the Lord's day to the Lord's people. It carries a sanctification to the things of the Spirit which reaches its ultimate in being "in the Spirit on the Lord's day" (Rev. 1:10). The impact of the spirit of the age is adverse and unrelenting. It brings in all its subtlety a strong temptation to many to take on unnecessary Sunday work, to catch up on a host of domestic chores, to concentrate on college studies, to the detriment of the King's business. We will be a stronger people for God if we make it our custom to go in for the refreshment which comes from His service on the first day of the week, and on that day also to rest and remember.

Maybe some brother or sister reading these lines is too old or too sick or for some other valid reason too tied to be able to gather with the Lord's people as once you used to and now would long to. It is Lord's day morning. How choice if you could think about the disciple whom Jesus loved, now John the aged, banished to Patmos for his Master's sake. And on that memorable Lord's day morning he would look across the Aegean Sea in the direction of the Ephesus he loved. And as he mused on earlier, happy days there among the disciples he would think of them at that moment, gathered together to break bread. He would remember the old hymns, the old faces. And gently and silently he "was in the Spirit on the Lord's day".

J.L. Ferguson, Barrhead | Jun 1979
General