The Christian and the Sabbath

Does God still expect Christians to keep the Sabbath?

Some Bible believing Christians believe that of the Ten Commandments, the only one that is not binding on Christians is the Fourth Commandment. In good conscience before the Lord, they believe this is the New Testament’s teaching. It is worth hearing their case:

All Bible believing Christians are united in believing that the Law of Moses can be divided into three parts, the Ceremonial Law, such as offering sacrifices and keeping Jewish feasts, the Judicial Law, which was intended for ancient Israel to use as their country’s legal system, and the Moral Law which is found in both the Old and New Testaments. Hebrews 7:18–19 says, “The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.” From this we understand that the Ceremonial and Judicial laws of the Old Testament are no longer binding on Christians as their main function was to point to Christ’s life, death and resurrection.

The question is, is setting one day out of seven aside  to rest and worship God together with His people merely a part of the Ceremonial and Judicial laws of ancient Israel, or is it a Moral Law for Christians too?

In Colossians 2:16-17, Paul warns the Christians, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” In Galatians 4:10–11 he rebukes them by saying,  “You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.” This makes it sound like the Sabbath principle of rest and worship one day out of every seven is part of the Jewish ceremonial law and is now more binding on Christians than keeping the Feast of Tabernacles.

However, those of us that do believe that the Sabbath principle is still as much a part of the Moral Law as not committing adultery is, also believe that we are no longer to keep the Sabbath itself. We agree with Paul and do not keep “a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.” That is because we keep the Lord’s Day instead. Rather than resting and meeting for worship on a Saturday as the Jews did (and still do), we do so on the Sunday instead.

Why do we rest and meet for worship on Sunday instead of Saturday?

Seventh Day Adventists and some other small sects have argued that Christians should keep the Jewish Sabbath of Saturday and not Sunday. So why do we rest and worship on the first day of the week (Sunday) rather than the seventh day (Saturday)? Like every thing else, it is because we want to follow the pattern laid down by the Lord Jesus and His disciples.

On the very day that Jesus conquered death and rose from the dead, John 20:19–23 says, “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” “After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.  Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”” What are we trying to do and what are we longing for when we meet for worship at Parkside on the first day of each week? We gather to remember and celebrate Christ’s resurrection on that day and we long for Jesus to stand among us, for Him to give us His peace, for us to be overjoyed and filled with the Holy Spirit, and to be reassured that our sins have been forgiven, just as the disciples first did.

The Book of Acts tells how the Jews repeatedly kicked the Christians out of their synagogues on the Sabbaths. Then we read in Acts 20:7  “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.” What did they do? They celebrated the Lord’s Supper and they listened to the preaching of the gospel, and they did it on the first day of the week, not the seventh.

Notice also what Paul says in 1Cor. 16:2,  “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.” Paul took it for granted that the Church is meeting on the first day of the week and not the seventh, so that is the day that he encourages them to take up a collection.

So, when we read John say in Rev. 1:10 “On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,” we assume that this happened on the Sunday, not on the Jewish Sabbath of Saturday. As a result Christians have often called the Christian Sabbath, the ‘Lord’s Day.’

Five reasons to keep for Christians to keep the Lord’s Day

1. God’s own example in creation. Before the fall, before sin even entered the world, God blessed Adam and Eve with marriage. He is the one that brought them together and blessed their union. As a result, marriage is not just something for Jews only, it is something that God expects of all humanity, which is why almost every single human society in history has practiced marriage in one form or another (apart from the last 50 years or so in the West).  If we regard marriage as sacred, then we ought also to remember that God laboured for six days in making the heavens and the earth (Gen 1). Then, Gen. 2:2-3 says, “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.  And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” So it was God Himself that declared the seventh day is holy. It was God who rested, and if He rested, how much more should all of humanity, who are all made in His image, follow His example and keep that day holy and set apart.

2. Jesus’ own example on earth. Luke 4:16 says “[Jesus] went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom…” In other words, Jesus’ custom in the town He grew up in was to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. As a child and as an adult, He did not sin because He always kept the Sabbath holy, just as He kept the rest of the Law. As we seek to become more like Christ, we should seek to make His custom of meeting with the people of God week by week a habit of our own.

3. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. Every Christian must confess that Jesus is Lord over their lives (1Cor. 12:3, Rom 10:9, Phil 2:10-11). That means we are acknowledging that Jesus has the right to tell us what we can and cannot do, what we must do and what we must not do. Not only that, it also means that we are to demonstrate our love and gratitude for salvation by seeking His strength to become more and more obedient to Him (Jn 15:10, 1Jn 5:2-3). Speaking of Himself, Jesus said in Mark 2:28 “the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” This is the same language that the LORD uses in the fourth commandment: Ex. 20:10 “..but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God.” In other words, the Sabbath is one day that God claims for Himself, both in the Old Testament as the LORD God, and in the New Testament as the Lord Jesus Christ. If Jesus is your Lord, He is Lord over your Sabbaths as well.

4. The Sabbath is the Gospel illustrated. In summary Hebrews 4:1–11 says, “..For we also have had the gospel preached to us… Now we who have believed enter that rest…There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.” In other words, the Sabbath rest is a weekly illustration of the Gospel itself. We could never work long enough or hard enough to earn our salvation. When we come to fully acknowledge that, we can only rest in the promises of God, who has already done all the work required to save us. Meeting and worshiping each Sunday constantly reminds us of the gospel itself.

5. Watering down this truth has helped to empty the Church. The idea that God no longer expects Christians to set aside one day in seven for rest and worship was virtually unknown for over 1800 years of Church history. Since it first became popular in the late 19^th and early 20^th Century increasing numbers of Christians treated going to church as an optional extra and used Sundays as a day for sports, shopping, sleeping in or to earn a bit of extra cash. Since then Christianity was turned from a faith that boldly proclaimed that “Jesus is Lord!” into one where God is so nice that He isn’t particularly worried about how we live our lives or spend our time. The fact is that a faith that demands nothing of people will mean nothing to them either.

Conclusion

Isaiah 58:13–14 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’S holy day honourable, and if you honour it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” The mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Hebrews 10:25 “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”