Advice for Christians Who Work Sundays
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - It's Friday.
00:00:05.180 | For a lot of us, our work week is coming to an end
00:00:07.460 | and the free weekend is ahead of us.
00:00:09.740 | For others, the weekend means more work,
00:00:11.860 | like for Christine, a nurse in Louisville.
00:00:14.100 | Dear Pastor John, thank you for your wisdom over the years.
00:00:16.420 | By God's grace, I've grown up in a solid Christian home
00:00:19.220 | and I have known your name
00:00:20.720 | as long as I have known my own name.
00:00:22.940 | Incredible.
00:00:24.180 | I recently graduated as a registered nurse
00:00:26.340 | and now work in an ICU that requires all nurses
00:00:29.360 | to work every third weekend on Saturdays and Sundays.
00:00:32.860 | Since I work day shift,
00:00:33.960 | this means that I miss being with the body of Christ
00:00:35.860 | every third Sunday for both the morning and evening.
00:00:39.180 | This is hard on me.
00:00:40.300 | I believe the Sabbath is a precious day of rest
00:00:42.200 | and refreshment in the Lord
00:00:43.740 | and in the company of his people.
00:00:45.060 | And yet I am thankful to have the opportunity
00:00:46.860 | to help bring physical healing on the Lord's day
00:00:49.580 | as our sweet Lord Jesus healed on the Sabbath.
00:00:52.380 | What wisdom could you give to us
00:00:53.780 | with jobs that require weekend work?
00:00:57.700 | - Well, the way Christine asked this question
00:01:01.400 | shows remarkable discernment, it seems,
00:01:05.520 | already into some of the New Testament teachings
00:01:08.680 | about the Lord's day.
00:01:10.200 | She calls it a precious day of rest and refreshment
00:01:14.640 | in the Lord and in the company of his people.
00:01:18.080 | That's a beautiful description.
00:01:20.120 | And she draws the connection between work
00:01:23.480 | that blesses people on the Lord's day,
00:01:26.960 | the way Jesus got himself in big trouble
00:01:29.400 | precisely because of healing people on the Jewish Sabbath.
00:01:34.400 | And remember, I mean, Jesus rebuked the leaders
00:01:37.460 | by asking them this really amazing question.
00:01:40.000 | Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good
00:01:43.820 | or to do harm, to save life or to kill?
00:01:48.820 | I mean, what a question.
00:01:50.880 | Is it lawful to kill?
00:01:52.160 | What in the world?
00:01:54.000 | So here's what I think he's saying.
00:01:56.180 | I think he's implying, if I don't do this good,
00:02:01.180 | it's like doing evil.
00:02:05.440 | It's like killing.
00:02:07.080 | That's amazing.
00:02:08.280 | You guys pull your beast out of the ditch on the Sabbath,
00:02:13.280 | how much more should a human being
00:02:15.960 | be pulled out of his disease?
00:02:17.720 | So let me build on what Christine has already clearly seen
00:02:22.720 | with just a few thoughts, maybe three.
00:02:25.800 | One, ponder for a moment the term the Lord's day,
00:02:29.900 | the Lord's day and its implications.
00:02:32.260 | In the Old Testament, the Sabbath was marked on Saturday,
00:02:37.260 | the end of the week because God finished
00:02:41.600 | the work of creation and rested on that day.
00:02:46.600 | When Jesus rose from the dead,
00:02:50.480 | he rose from the dead on the first day of the week,
00:02:54.680 | on Sunday, he was the first fruits of our resurrection.
00:02:59.600 | He was a kind of inauguration of a new creation
00:03:04.060 | that's starting now and coming fully later.
00:03:07.120 | So Christians already in the New Testament
00:03:10.480 | began to mark one day in seven,
00:03:14.240 | which they called the Lord's day,
00:03:16.440 | and they marked it on the first day of the week.
00:03:19.960 | And that term, the Lord's day, Revelation 110,
00:03:24.000 | was never used in the Old Testament for the Sabbath.
00:03:28.320 | They could have called it Jesus day or Christ day
00:03:32.060 | or the Christian day,
00:03:33.820 | but they chose to call it the Lord's day, kurios.
00:03:38.160 | Kurios, the Greek word for Lord,
00:03:41.720 | also referred to the emperor, the king, the Caesar.
00:03:45.480 | And so this is risky business.
00:03:47.120 | Caesar has his day, we mark our Lord's day,
00:03:51.960 | our emperor's day, once a week when he rose from the dead.
00:03:56.960 | So one implication of this was,
00:04:00.440 | and I think still should be,
00:04:02.680 | is that on that first day of the week,
00:04:06.520 | we mark worship of the kurios, worship of the Lord.
00:04:11.480 | We bow before and reverence the Lord of Lords
00:04:15.360 | and the King of Kings on the first day of the week
00:04:18.720 | when he blasted the power of death
00:04:21.780 | and he overcame sin and he inaugurated the new heavens
00:04:26.780 | and the new earth and new creation
00:04:28.920 | with the resurrection of the dead.
00:04:31.840 | We say by gathering in worship
00:04:36.120 | that he is worthy on that day, the Lord.
00:04:40.560 | Not just Jesus, not just Christ,
00:04:42.760 | not just the Christian day, but the Lord's day.
00:04:47.400 | And of course, they all began to do this
00:04:52.400 | when there were no Sunday laws.
00:04:55.860 | I mean, everybody evidently was working
00:05:00.860 | because there hadn't been centuries of cultural influence
00:05:05.040 | by the church that could in any way
00:05:08.220 | cause a whole empire to turn things around and say,
00:05:10.980 | well, yeah, everybody gets a day off here now from now on.
00:05:13.820 | That didn't happen for a long, long time.
00:05:18.160 | And so the worship had to happen early in the morning
00:05:20.560 | on that day, late in the evening,
00:05:22.160 | and it looks like in Acts 27,
00:05:24.120 | where poor Eutychus fell out of the window,
00:05:27.000 | that Paul extended his sermon until midnight.
00:05:31.440 | So evidently they were gathering
00:05:34.220 | and worshiping in the evening.
00:05:36.120 | So my first counsel would be that we all try,
00:05:39.200 | if possible, to worship with God's people
00:05:43.160 | on the Lord's day, early or late.
00:05:46.180 | And I wonder, just in passing,
00:05:49.240 | if churches that long ago gave up Sunday evening services
00:05:54.240 | might, in a day of awakening and refreshment,
00:05:59.540 | find a Sunday evening service useful and precious again,
00:06:05.440 | if they could get over the cultural compromise
00:06:09.080 | of everybody staying home
00:06:10.420 | and watching their favorite movie or TV show.
00:06:13.620 | Number two, here's my second observation.
00:06:15.600 | I would say to those who must work on Sunday,
00:06:20.040 | the principle of resting one day in seven is God's wisdom.
00:06:25.040 | When we worship on the first day of the week,
00:06:29.240 | we say that Jesus is Lord.
00:06:32.200 | When we rest one day in seven, whatever that is,
00:06:36.960 | when we rest one day in seven, we say, "I am not God."
00:06:41.960 | God is God.
00:06:44.740 | He is the creator and sustainer of all things, not me.
00:06:48.180 | I am a creature.
00:06:49.440 | I need rest.
00:06:51.260 | God does not need rest.
00:06:53.120 | When he rested, it wasn't because he was tired
00:06:56.320 | or because he had to.
00:06:57.740 | He was celebrating, marking the perfection of his work.
00:07:02.640 | We mark that celebration as well.
00:07:05.640 | And the truth that we are not God is a big part of it.
00:07:09.420 | God can handle the world without my 24/7 help.
00:07:14.040 | So whether that day is on Sunday
00:07:16.620 | or we take it some other day, for goodness sakes,
00:07:19.020 | you know, I was a pastor for 33 years
00:07:21.720 | and Sundays were certainly not my day of rest.
00:07:26.120 | So I tried to honor that principle
00:07:29.500 | by taking another day to unwind.
00:07:32.620 | So here's my third observation or exhortation.
00:07:36.220 | I would say, seek as God makes it possible
00:07:40.540 | to gain as much freedom as you can for your Sundays.
00:07:46.500 | Not because God demands, requires no work
00:07:51.940 | on Sundays of any kind,
00:07:53.700 | but so that you can have as much freedom as possible
00:07:57.740 | to make Sunday what you want it to be
00:07:59.980 | and not what others require you to make it.
00:08:02.980 | It's as if Paul in 1 Corinthians,
00:08:05.740 | I could paraphrase him when he was speaking to slaves,
00:08:09.020 | he said, "Serve faithfully in your position,
00:08:12.780 | "but if you can gain your freedom, gain it."
00:08:16.020 | And that's what I would say about having to work on Sunday.
00:08:20.060 | If you must, you must, but I would sure pray
00:08:24.460 | and work towards as much freedom as possible.
00:08:26.780 | So in summary, here are my three,
00:08:30.340 | I think there were three counsels.
00:08:32.140 | One, if at all possible, worship with God's people
00:08:36.580 | on the Lord's day, the day he rose from the dead, Sunday,
00:08:40.480 | first day of the week, to declare that he is risen
00:08:44.300 | and he's Lord of lords.
00:08:45.940 | Number two, if possible, use one day in seven
00:08:50.180 | to break your routine, unwind,
00:08:52.540 | not pursue vocational deadlines
00:08:55.180 | and acknowledge that God created the world
00:08:57.460 | and that you are not the creator,
00:08:58.780 | you're not the sustainer of this world,
00:09:01.140 | but are finite and you are thankful.
00:09:04.140 | And third, seek to be employed in a way
00:09:08.500 | that gives you as much freedom as possible
00:09:11.620 | on the Lord's day.
00:09:13.260 | And let me add one more thing.
00:09:14.540 | Tony, let me add one more thing that comes to mind.
00:09:17.540 | As you interact with people at work,
00:09:22.140 | in the neighborhood or anybody,
00:09:24.080 | talk about the Lord's day
00:09:26.200 | as you come to understand its riches.
00:09:28.520 | Probably in the world, the only picture that people have
00:09:32.900 | of Sunday observance, whatever that might be,
00:09:35.660 | is a set of rules, mainly don'ts,
00:09:38.620 | and they don't have any idea what it means.
00:09:40.260 | They don't have any idea.
00:09:41.340 | And you could introduce them,
00:09:43.280 | as you just talk about what it means to you,
00:09:46.120 | to a whole new way of thinking about the Lord,
00:09:48.620 | about the Lord's day, which they've never heard.
00:09:51.180 | They may never even heard of that phrase.
00:09:53.660 | You could introduce them to the resurrection.
00:09:56.060 | You could introduce them to the new creation.
00:09:58.540 | You could introduce them to the Lordship of Christ
00:10:00.740 | over all lords.
00:10:01.980 | You could introduce them to the first creation
00:10:04.440 | and its riches and your own sense of finiteness
00:10:08.660 | and need and dependence.
00:10:10.740 | You could talk about trust in the Lord.
00:10:12.820 | And my guess is that in the early church,
00:10:16.580 | as this habit began to form over against
00:10:20.860 | Jewish Sabbath worship,
00:10:23.740 | it was inevitable and unavoidable
00:10:28.060 | that this topic would come up for conversation
00:10:30.460 | and probably was a great opportunity
00:10:34.060 | for bearing witness to Jesus is Lord.
00:10:37.020 | That's really good.
00:10:37.940 | And probably a family that gets dressed together
00:10:40.900 | and goes on Sunday mornings, drives off every morning,
00:10:43.500 | your neighbor's gonna notice that.
00:10:44.980 | And it'd be good to talk to 'em
00:10:46.500 | and so they have some clearer sense of what are you doing?
00:10:49.580 | - Yes, exactly, that's a good word.
00:10:51.020 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:10:52.460 | - Amen, but what about those of you
00:10:53.940 | who work seven days a week?
00:10:55.820 | There's another vocational question on the table
00:10:58.300 | that we need to address and we will next time
00:10:59.980 | in episode number 1390.
00:11:02.380 | Well, whatever the span of your work week,
00:11:03.880 | thank you for listening along to the podcast
00:11:05.780 | during your daily routine.
00:11:06.980 | We really appreciate having you along.
00:11:09.060 | Be sure to subscribe to Ask Pastor John
00:11:10.780 | in your favorite podcast app or on YouTube,
00:11:13.060 | if you have not.
00:11:14.820 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.
00:11:15.660 | We'll see you on Monday.
00:11:16.780 | (upbeat music)
00:11:19.360 | (upbeat music)
00:11:21.940 | [BLANK_AUDIO]