(upbeat music) - It's Friday. For a lot of us, our work week is coming to an end and the free weekend is ahead of us. For others, the weekend means more work, like for Christine, a nurse in Louisville. Dear Pastor John, thank you for your wisdom over the years.

By God's grace, I've grown up in a solid Christian home and I have known your name as long as I have known my own name. Incredible. I recently graduated as a registered nurse and now work in an ICU that requires all nurses to work every third weekend on Saturdays and Sundays.

Since I work day shift, this means that I miss being with the body of Christ every third Sunday for both the morning and evening. This is hard on me. I believe the Sabbath is a precious day of rest and refreshment in the Lord and in the company of his people.

And yet I am thankful to have the opportunity to help bring physical healing on the Lord's day as our sweet Lord Jesus healed on the Sabbath. What wisdom could you give to us with jobs that require weekend work? - Well, the way Christine asked this question shows remarkable discernment, it seems, already into some of the New Testament teachings about the Lord's day.

She calls it a precious day of rest and refreshment in the Lord and in the company of his people. That's a beautiful description. And she draws the connection between work that blesses people on the Lord's day, the way Jesus got himself in big trouble precisely because of healing people on the Jewish Sabbath.

And remember, I mean, Jesus rebuked the leaders by asking them this really amazing question. Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill? I mean, what a question. Is it lawful to kill? What in the world? So here's what I think he's saying.

I think he's implying, if I don't do this good, it's like doing evil. It's like killing. That's amazing. You guys pull your beast out of the ditch on the Sabbath, how much more should a human being be pulled out of his disease? So let me build on what Christine has already clearly seen with just a few thoughts, maybe three.

One, ponder for a moment the term the Lord's day, the Lord's day and its implications. In the Old Testament, the Sabbath was marked on Saturday, the end of the week because God finished the work of creation and rested on that day. When Jesus rose from the dead, he rose from the dead on the first day of the week, on Sunday, he was the first fruits of our resurrection.

He was a kind of inauguration of a new creation that's starting now and coming fully later. So Christians already in the New Testament began to mark one day in seven, which they called the Lord's day, and they marked it on the first day of the week. And that term, the Lord's day, Revelation 110, was never used in the Old Testament for the Sabbath.

They could have called it Jesus day or Christ day or the Christian day, but they chose to call it the Lord's day, kurios. Kurios, the Greek word for Lord, also referred to the emperor, the king, the Caesar. And so this is risky business. Caesar has his day, we mark our Lord's day, our emperor's day, once a week when he rose from the dead.

So one implication of this was, and I think still should be, is that on that first day of the week, we mark worship of the kurios, worship of the Lord. We bow before and reverence the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings on the first day of the week when he blasted the power of death and he overcame sin and he inaugurated the new heavens and the new earth and new creation with the resurrection of the dead.

We say by gathering in worship that he is worthy on that day, the Lord. Not just Jesus, not just Christ, not just the Christian day, but the Lord's day. And of course, they all began to do this when there were no Sunday laws. I mean, everybody evidently was working because there hadn't been centuries of cultural influence by the church that could in any way cause a whole empire to turn things around and say, well, yeah, everybody gets a day off here now from now on.

That didn't happen for a long, long time. And so the worship had to happen early in the morning on that day, late in the evening, and it looks like in Acts 27, where poor Eutychus fell out of the window, that Paul extended his sermon until midnight. So evidently they were gathering and worshiping in the evening.

So my first counsel would be that we all try, if possible, to worship with God's people on the Lord's day, early or late. And I wonder, just in passing, if churches that long ago gave up Sunday evening services might, in a day of awakening and refreshment, find a Sunday evening service useful and precious again, if they could get over the cultural compromise of everybody staying home and watching their favorite movie or TV show.

Number two, here's my second observation. I would say to those who must work on Sunday, the principle of resting one day in seven is God's wisdom. When we worship on the first day of the week, we say that Jesus is Lord. When we rest one day in seven, whatever that is, when we rest one day in seven, we say, "I am not God." God is God.

He is the creator and sustainer of all things, not me. I am a creature. I need rest. God does not need rest. When he rested, it wasn't because he was tired or because he had to. He was celebrating, marking the perfection of his work. We mark that celebration as well.

And the truth that we are not God is a big part of it. God can handle the world without my 24/7 help. So whether that day is on Sunday or we take it some other day, for goodness sakes, you know, I was a pastor for 33 years and Sundays were certainly not my day of rest.

So I tried to honor that principle by taking another day to unwind. So here's my third observation or exhortation. I would say, seek as God makes it possible to gain as much freedom as you can for your Sundays. Not because God demands, requires no work on Sundays of any kind, but so that you can have as much freedom as possible to make Sunday what you want it to be and not what others require you to make it.

It's as if Paul in 1 Corinthians, I could paraphrase him when he was speaking to slaves, he said, "Serve faithfully in your position, "but if you can gain your freedom, gain it." And that's what I would say about having to work on Sunday. If you must, you must, but I would sure pray and work towards as much freedom as possible.

So in summary, here are my three, I think there were three counsels. One, if at all possible, worship with God's people on the Lord's day, the day he rose from the dead, Sunday, first day of the week, to declare that he is risen and he's Lord of lords. Number two, if possible, use one day in seven to break your routine, unwind, not pursue vocational deadlines and acknowledge that God created the world and that you are not the creator, you're not the sustainer of this world, but are finite and you are thankful.

And third, seek to be employed in a way that gives you as much freedom as possible on the Lord's day. And let me add one more thing. Tony, let me add one more thing that comes to mind. As you interact with people at work, in the neighborhood or anybody, talk about the Lord's day as you come to understand its riches.

Probably in the world, the only picture that people have of Sunday observance, whatever that might be, is a set of rules, mainly don'ts, and they don't have any idea what it means. They don't have any idea. And you could introduce them, as you just talk about what it means to you, to a whole new way of thinking about the Lord, about the Lord's day, which they've never heard.

They may never even heard of that phrase. You could introduce them to the resurrection. You could introduce them to the new creation. You could introduce them to the Lordship of Christ over all lords. You could introduce them to the first creation and its riches and your own sense of finiteness and need and dependence.

You could talk about trust in the Lord. And my guess is that in the early church, as this habit began to form over against Jewish Sabbath worship, it was inevitable and unavoidable that this topic would come up for conversation and probably was a great opportunity for bearing witness to Jesus is Lord.

That's really good. And probably a family that gets dressed together and goes on Sunday mornings, drives off every morning, your neighbor's gonna notice that. And it'd be good to talk to 'em and so they have some clearer sense of what are you doing? - Yes, exactly, that's a good word.

Thank you, Pastor John. - Amen, but what about those of you who work seven days a week? There's another vocational question on the table that we need to address and we will next time in episode number 1390. Well, whatever the span of your work week, thank you for listening along to the podcast during your daily routine.

We really appreciate having you along. Be sure to subscribe to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app or on YouTube, if you have not. I'm your host Tony Reinke. We'll see you on Monday. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)