Mark 2:27-28, Isaiah 58:13-14
Scripture shows that long before the Law was given, God set aside one day in seven to be holy. In Genesis 2:1-3, the LORD says that He rested from His work and declared the seventh day as holy. No distinction is made here about whom this day is holy for (for God himself, for Jews, or for Jews and Gentiles); only that it is. Therefore, we may presume that there is something special about this day (one day in seven) that is still special even today. God evidently had some purpose in making one day holy, and He emphasized it by recording it here. At this point, we may begin to think, "One day is holy - so what? What implications does this have for me as to how I can have a better Christian walk?" This is where the rest of Scripture can shed some light on God's motivation for declaring a holy day - and the benefits to us if we keep it.
Luke tells us in Acts 20:7 that the apostolic church
met for worship on the first day of the week - our Sunday. They
did this to celebrate the Lord's Supper, to remind them of Jesus'
death on the cross. Since He rose from the dead on the first day
of the week, we can suppose that they chose Sunday to commemorate
His resurrection. Paul hints that the day of worship was Sunday
in
1 Cor. 16:1-4, and from Rev. 1:9-10 we understand
that it was designated as the Lord's Day.
This was a change from the Jewish observance of the Sabbath on the last day of the week - Saturday - under the leadership of the Apostles who were guided by the Lord in founding the church. From Paul's letters, we know that the worship service included preaching from the Scriptures, public prayer, and observance of the Lord's Supper.
In Exodus 20:8-11, Deut. 5:12-15, God asks His people to observe the Sabbath, honoring Him by spending a seventh of their time - one day a week, in worshipping Him. The Ten Commandments are here addressed to the Israelites, but it is incorrect to think of them as a summary of only the Jews responsibility toward God and man. For how God viewed the first violation of the Sabbath, see Num. 15:32-36, and for a godly man's reaction to the same, read Neh. 13:15-22. Other passages on the Sabbath: Ex. 16:19-22-23,24-29 31:12-15, 34:21, 35:3, Lev.19:30, Jer. 17:19-27, Ez. 20:11-13,16,17-26, 22:26, Amos 8:4,5-7, Matt.12:1-5-10-12, Mk. 3:1-6, Lk. 13:15, Jn. 7:21-23,24.
God answers this question in Isaiah 55-58. After the gospel is presented in Isa. 53, God invites the widest possible audience to trust in that message to obtain salvation. No personal merit, equated with money in the passage, is required - only a willingness to come to Him. In Isaa. 56:1-7, God invites the Gentiles to live upright lives; this includes performing our duties to God by giving ourselves to the things of God, one day a week. if we do not trample upon the Sabbath by doing our own pleasure, but delight in honoring the Lord, He promises in Isa. 58:13-14 to bless us for our obedience.
1. Our Great Physician recommends that unbroken toil us not good for us. We take physical rest from our work, while refreshing our souls in Him.
2. We get good Scriptural teaching for steady growth in our christian life. Such periodic and regular course corrections are essential for all of us. Paul spent three years at Ephesus teaching the believers there so that they would lack nothing for a victorious Christian walk. Even when the people of Judah had been so disobedient that God says "sin is etched into their hearts with a diamond" (Jer 17:1), He promises to forgive their sins, if they will repent and keep the Sabbath day holy (Jer 17:19-27). Evidently, by keeping the Sabbath, they would get good teaching from the Scriptures which would make them a people obedient to all the rest of God's law. (Jer 23:22-24). In Jer 23:29, God adds that His word is like a hammer that can break the hardest rock; even these hard-hearted men would have become a repentant nation if they had exposed themselves to teaching from God's word on the Sabbath. On the negative side, if they don't keep the Sabbath Day holy He promises ruin to their city.
3 All of us need companionship, encouragement, and comfort as we face life's problems. We can use the Lord's day to get this from brothers and sisters in Christ. . Heb 10:24-25 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 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.
4. The Lord's day is a good time to have family devotions. Many Christians recollect with gratitude how their parents influenced them as children when they studied the Bible together. It can also be used for longer and richer personal devotional time, particularly during busy weeks. Remember, this is the Lord's day, not ours, and so we should spend it on the Lord's things, and not on our own! A corollary is that deeds of mercy - pulling an ox out of a ditch - are permissible for all Christians to do, on the Lord's day.
We now want to look at three passages that are often used to show that Christians need not keep the Sabbath as a part of their ongoing sanctification.
1. Mark 2:23-28 - "the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." In Matt. 12:7, Jesus tells the Pharisees that they are condemning the innocent. The disciples did not break the Sabbath in plucking and eating a few grains, as they were walking along. The Pharisees had added to the Sabbath laws of the First Testament, and Jesus tells them they have no authority to do so - for the Sabbath was made for man by God as a loving provision because man needed the rest, and not so that God could take pleasure in making men jump through hoops. Jesus reminds them that they have no authority to change the Sabbath laws. Note that Jesus is not abrogating the Sabbath from the Ten Commandments, but teaching that all men at all times in history - including us - need it for their physical and spiritual well-being.
A related question is, what did Jesus do on a typical Sabbath? In Luke 4:16 we are told that it was His custom to be at the synagogue on Sabbath days. In verses 31 and 44, we find Him teaching at the synagogues, on the Sabbaths.
2. Romans 14:5-6 - In the first eighteen verses of this chapter, Paul deals with the issue of what Christians should do about “doubtful matters” or quarreling about opinions, so as to not cause weak brothers to stumble. The question is, are God's law sin 1 Jn 3:4, doubtful matters? Note that Paul is not discussing the dietary laws which are part of these commands, but the issue of vegetarianism. Similarly, the special days he discusses should include ceremonial fasts and other holidays not commanded in the Scripture, and not the Sabbath. It is clear that the "disputable matters" do not include God's laws, else Paul would be contradicting himself in Rom 14:1 and Gal 6:1. In the latter passage we are commanded to correct gently our brothers who are sinning.
3. Colossians 2:16 - The adverb "therefore" should cause us to look at the preceding verses. When we do that (v. 8-23), we find that Paul is correcting some false teachers in the Colossian church. They have been teaching that circumcision, certain food and special day regulations (involving fasting? V. 23), worship of angels, etc., are necessary for justification (v.13-15). These were probably a mixture of Judaism and ascetic practices. These are based on human tradition (v. 4, 8, 18, 22) and not God's law. The problem was they were not pointing to Christ but to their human efforts. Again we see that Paul does not revoke the fourth commandment, but is teaching justification by faith alone. Special Sabbath day's in the Law: Lev 23:7, 8, 21, 24-25, 28-32, 35-36, 39.
1. God commanded us to keep it. There is no greater spirituality than joyful obedience to God's laws.
2. God tells us we need it for our physical, mental and spiritual health.Our bodies get the rest they need, and our immortal souls are prepared for heaven.
3. God set us an example by resting on the seventh day, inspite of the fact that he needed no rest - that He might woo us to do the same.
The Lord's day is a day of great joy for us since Jesus was raised to life for our justification on that day. It is a day of immense benefit to us, when we use it to get good Bible teaching and fellowship. If life is a journey through a desert, how kind of our father to provide us with an oasis of rest, one day a week, when we can refresh ourselves in God!
Exodus 20:8-11 -- "Remember the day of rest (or, Sabbath) to consecrate it. Six days you shall work and do all your business (or, labor). But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall do no business (or, labor) in it, neither your son or your daughter, your servant or your handmaid, or your cattle or your sojourner who is within your gates. Because six days the Lord made the sky, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and consecrated it."
[1] Cessation of work
The Hebrew word tBæv; (shabat) means "to cease, cease working, rest."
But what does "work" include? And what does "rest" include?
The word "work" is defined by the dictionary in a more specific and a more general manner. In the more specific sense, work is "the labor, task, or duty that affords one his or her accustomed means of livelihood," or "labor exerted in connection with one's occupation." In this more specific sense are included all forms of occupation which involved an exchange of labor for remuneration which can be used to purchase food, clothing, shelter, transportation, medical care, etc., as well as all activities connected with the actual provision of food, clothing, shelter, etc. Thus "work" includes the occupation of homemaker. In this sense, the children of Israel were to carry on their occupations during six days, but to cease from their occupations on the seventh. Some exceptions are necessary; for example, if a dairy farmer had ceased milking on the Sabbath, or a homemaker had ceased all of her activities on the Sabbath, some serious results would have followed. Other qualifications are necessary because of the other purposes of the Sabbath, but the general principle stands.
In the more general sense, work is defined as "activity" in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something. This meaning includes labor exerted in connection with one's occupation and labor not related to one's occupation. In this general sense any form of physical or mental or emotional or spiritual exertion not connected with one's occupation is work. This includes walking for exercise, jogging, doing calisthenics, playing golf, doing a large jigsaw puzzle, playing chess, carrying groceries or luggage, moving furniture, fixing a broken lamp, listening to someone's problems, visiting a sick person, bringing a meal to a shut-in, entertaining guests, giving a dinner party, attending the services of the church, preparing and giving a Sunday school lesson, and preaching!
Failure to recognize this important distinction between work in the more general sense and work in the more specific sense of occupational labor characterized the rabbis of Jesus' day, and led them into all kinds of burdensome and absurd legalisms.
The Mishnah (tractate Shabbath) includes many regulations that illustrate this system of legalisms, plus a number that simply attempt to apply the Fourth Commandment to various kinds of occupational work.
In the Mishnah, Order Moed, Tractate Shabbath 7:2, thirty-nine classes of work are mentioned:
sowing, ploughing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, cleansing crops, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, washing or beating or dyeing it, spinning, weaving, making two loops, weaving two threads, separating two threads, tying a knot, loosening a knot, sewing two stitches, tearing in order to sew two stitches, hunting a gazelle, slaughtering or flaying or salting it or curing its skin, scraping it or cutting it up, writing two letters, erasing in order to write two letters, building, pulling down, putting out a fire, lighting a fire, striking with a hammer and taking out anything from one domain into another.
Many of these classes of work are occupationally related, and therefore properly come under the prohibition of the Fourth Commandment. However, the rabbis laid down a number of additional rules related to the general sense of work (any physical or mental exertion to order to accomplish some purpose) and they asserted that the things specified in these rules were also forbidden on the Sabbath!
For example, one of the most common kinds of work (in the general sense) is that of carrying. The Rabbis said that carrying anything that weighed less than one dried fig was permissible, but if it weighed more, it was a breaking of the Sabbath. If a house caught on fire on the Sabbath, the owner was not permitted to carry clothing out of the house to save it. But he was permitted to put on all the clothes that he could, up to eighteen items, because that would not be "carrying." On the one hand it was lawful to
lift and move a chair; but on the other hand it was not lawful to drag or push a chair, since this might produce a rut, and that would be considered ploughing! Women were forbidden to look in the mirror on the Sabbath, because they might discover a white hair and attempt to pull it out, and that would be work! Picking a piece of fruit, even from the ground, was forbidden on the Sabbath, because that was considered reaping. It was permitted to dip a radish into salt, but not to leave it in the salt too long, for that would be pickling! In the case of sick persons, "all actual danger to life" could be treated, but nothing short of that. It was forbidden to set broken bones, or to give emetics, or to perform any medical or surgical operation which was not essential to the preservation of life; or, in general, to use or apply any remedy to bring improvement or cure to the sick on the Sabbath. The Rabbis said that Jews were not to weed or cut off dead leaves or fruit, not to squeeze juice from fruit, not to pluck out hairs from a beard or a mustache, not to take anything out of storage, not to throw anything farther than six feet away, not to travel farther than 3,000 feet (a Sabbath day's journey), and, in case of a fire, not to try to save more food than would be sufficient for three meals.
These are only a few of the ways in which the Rabbis confused the two concepts of work and enlarged the simple Sabbath law as expressed in the Bible.
In passing, it should be pointed out that the law of the Sabbath, as God originally gave it, permitted works of necessity and works of mercy. In a predominantly agricultural society, there were always certain chores that had to be performed daily, even on the Sabbath. Animals had to be fed and watered and cows had to be milked. Women about to give birth, the sick and the infirm, and victims of accidents all had to have assistance and care. The Lord knew all this, and anticipated all of these contingencies plus a thousand others in the Sabbath law.
Because of the Rabbis' additions to the Law of God by layer after layer of tortuous accretions and legalisms, our Lord came into conflict with the professional interpreters of the Law again and again. In each case, Jesus referred his accusers and critics back to the Old Testament, and to the true meaning and intent of the Law of God.
In their anxiety to ensure the most exact observance of the Sabbath, these Rabbis changed the simple concept of cessation from occupational work into a complicated and burdensome code of external ordinances pertaining mostly to the general meaning of work; and by doing so, they lost the very first purpose of God in the Fourth Commandment, and made this aspect of the Law of God of no effect!
This then is the first purpose of the Sabbath -- cessation of occupational work, rest from the burden of making a living. The fulfillment of this first purpose is a necessary prerequisite to the achievement of the second and third purposes.
A second purpose of the Sabbath was to provide opportunity and time for convocations, assemblies, and gatherings, when God's people might assemble for worship. In Leviticus 23 two kinds of convocations are mentioned: regular weekly convocations, and special convocations held at set times during the religious year. Leviticus 23:3 states that "the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation."
Among the great works the Israelites were to commemorate were God's work of creation, God's work of redemption, and God's work of sanctification.
In Exodus 20:11 the people are called upon to remember that "six days the Lord made the sky, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in the them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and consecrated it."
In Deuteronomy 5:15 the people are called upon to remember a second great work of God. Moses says: "And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day." The Lord redeemed them from bondslavery in Egypt, as Exodus 20:2 also reminds them. Such a reminder could not help but bring to their mind the Passover sacrifice.
In Exodus 31:13 the people are called upon to remember a third great work of God. The Lord says to Moses: "But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'You shall surely observe my sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.'" God chose Israel to be a holy nation. He set Israel apart from all other nations and consecrated her. He called upon Israel to set herself apart from moral evil and to moral righteousness. And He established the Sabbath as a sign, so that Israel might always be reminded of the truth that God was her sanctifier.
The godly Israelite who ceased from occupational work on the seventh day, joined in holy convocation with other Israelites seeking to obey the Lord, and reflected upon God's great and wonderful works of creation, redemption, and sanctification could not help but view the Sabbath as a day of blessing, not only of God, but also to himself.
[1] There were negative consequences listed for Sabbath violation
Ezekiel 20:12-13 -- "Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted; then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them."
Exodus 31:12-15 -- "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you; every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord; whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death."
[2] There are also blessings and benefits associated with Sabbath observance
Isaiah 58:13-14 -- "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."
[1] Arguments for Impermanence
Three major arguments are urged against the permanence of the Sabbath:
[a] The first argument against permanence is that the Old Testament sabbath was instituted at Sinai, as part of the Mosaic Law. As such, it applied specifically and exclusively to Israel as a lasting covenant. Since Israel and the Church are totally distinct, and since national Israel has temporarily been set aside so that Christ can call His Church out of the world, therefore the sabbath has no applicability to this present dispensation, the Church Age.
In response, it should be remember that the pattern of one day in seven goes back beyond Sinai to Eden; it was established at the end of God's immediate creative activity. Thus the Sabbath as a day of rest is a creation ordinance; not merely a legal or Jewish ordinance or covenant.
In addition, the Lord Jesus stated the sabbath principle of rest in a way that shows that it is applicable not only to Israel but to mankind in general. He said, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." Rest from occupational labor is something that all human beings need, not merely those who lived in the Old Testament period, and not merely Jews. God created the sabbath for mankind's need and benefit and blessing. All human beings need it, including those of every age.
[b] The second argument against permanence is that since the Sabbath is part of the Mosaic Law, and since the Law in its entirety has been abrogated or abolished for the New Testament believer, therefore the Sabbath has no binding character on one who "is not under the Law, but under grace." In fact, if a Christian views the Lord's Day as a "Sabbath," he is confusing law and grace, and mixing diametrically-opposed principles!
In response, it should be pointed out that the Mosaic Law remains in force in terms of its enduring principles. This may be seen in such Scriptures as Galatians 5:13-14 and Romans 13:8-10. This is all a matter of prespective not to merit salvation but out of love for God we obey His commands. The legal penalities would not be applicable because we are not in a theocracy but the severity of the penality shows how important God views it.
[c] The third argument against permanence is that since the regulations governing Sabbath observance are completely foreign to the spirit of the New Testament observance of the Lord's Day, therefore there is no connection between the Sabbath and the Lord's Day.
In response, it should be stressed that there is a vast difference between the Old Testament regulations revealed by God and the Jewish legal regulations devised by men. Only the former should be mentioned in any comparison between the Sabbath and the Lord's Day.
The the Fourth Commandment includes at least two emphases:
[1] the principle that one day in seven (not necessarily a particular day, at least the resting part for Preachers and doctors etc.) was to be set apart for the Lord.
[2] the principle that the purposes for which God established the sabbath were to be fulfilled (these were basically three: cessation of man's occupational work, convocation of God's worshippers, and commemoration of God's works,{creative and redemptive}).
the moral dimension of the Fourth Commandment is permanent, and continues to be a standard of right and wrong conduct.
[2] Arguments for retention of that which is moral and permanent, and exclusion of that which is ceremonial and temporary
[a] It would seem strange if this Commandment, set in the midst of the summary statement of the moral aspect of the Mosaic Law, should be purely ceremonial and temporary
[b] The principle of one day in seven is retained in the New Testament (the change from the seventh to the first day is a purely a redemptive change pointing to Christ as our redemption and rest commerating His resurrection )
I Corinthians 16:2 -- "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come."
Revelation 1:10 -- "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet."
Acts 20:7 -- "And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight."
[c] The Lord Jesus states the principle of rest in a way that indicates that it continues to have force as long as man continues to need it.
Mark 2:27 -- "And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath."
[d] The concept of a holy convocation is retained
Acts 20:7 -- "upon the first day of the week, . . . the disciples came together to break bread."
Hebrews 10:25 -- Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."
[e] The concept of commemoration is also retained
A spiritual resting from one's own works and resting in Christ's completed redemptive work is stressed.
Hebrews 4:3-4, 9-10 -- "For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. . . . There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God, for he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his."
[f] Works of necessity and mercy are permitted and commended, as they were in the Old Testament period
Mark 3:1-4 -- "And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand. And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him. And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth. And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil, to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace."
Luke 13:10-17 -- "And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed; and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him."
Luke 14:1-6 -- "And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him. And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go; and answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? And they could not answer him again to these things."
1. Memory verses.
2. Give 2 reasons why you should keep the Sabbath?
3. Why do we keep the Sabbath on Sunday?
4. How can you keep from being legalistic when keeping the Sabbath?