(All verses quoted in this study are taken from the New King James Version, if not otherwise mentioned.)
What is
Sabbath
“Shabbat” is the original Hebrew word for the
English word Sabbath. The root word is Shin-Beit-Tav which means “to cease, to
end, to rest.” It is the seventh day after six days of work. Jews and some
sects of Christians observe the Sabbath every week as a day of rest and
worship.
Two themes govern the Jewish Sabbath: to remember
and to observe. It is a commemoration of God’s six-day creation of the universe
and their freedom from Egyptian slavery.
Exodus 20:8–11
"Remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your
work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall
do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor
your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your
gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and
all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the
Sabbath day and hallowed it.
Deuteronomy
5:15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your
God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm;
therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, on which the Israelites were to rest, in remembrance that God created the universe in six days and then “rested” on the seventh day. It is a remembrance of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Sabbath is a “sign” of the covenant between Israel and God (Exodus 31:13). There were special commands given to Israel regarding a “sacred assembly” held on the Sabbath (Leviticus 23:3). Sabbath observance was very important to the Israelites. According to the Mosaic law, anyone who dishonours the Sabbath would be put to death.
Exodus 31:13
"Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: 'Surely My Sabbaths you
shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations,
that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.
Leviticus 23:3
'Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest,
a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the LORD
in all your dwellings.
Exodus 35:2
"Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh day shall be a holy day
for you, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it shall be
put to death.
Jewish law prohibits doing any form of work or deliberate activity on Saabbath, with some exceptions. Any activities that contribute to personal profit or gain are forbidden. Jewish rabbinical tradition lists 39 categories of acts forbidden on Shabbat:
1. ploughing
earth,
2. sowing,
3. reaping,
4. binding
sheaves,
5. threshing,
6. winnowing,
7. selecting,
8. grinding,
9. sifting,
10. kneading,
11. baking,
12. shearing
wool,
13. washing
wool,
14. beating
wool,
15. dyeing
wool,
16. spinning,
17. weaving,
18. making
two loops,
19. weaving
two threads,
20. separating
two threads,
21. tying,
22. untying,
23. sewing
stitches,
24. tearing,
25. trapping,
26. slaughtering,
27. flaying,
28. tanning,
29. scraping
hide,
30. marking
hide,
31. cutting
hide to shape,
32. writing
two or more letters,
33. erasing
two or more letters,
34. building,
35. demolishing,
36. extinguishing
a fire,
37. kindling
a fire,
38. putting
the finishing touch on an object,
39. transporting
an object (between private and public domains, or over four cubits within
public domain).
A sign between God and Israel
The Sabbath is a covenant sign between God and
Israel.
Exodus 31:16–17
'Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the
Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign
between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made
the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.'
In Deuteronomy 5, Moses restates the Ten
Commandments to the next generation of Israelites. He repeats the command for
Sabbath observance in verses 12–14. In verse 15, Moses gives the reason the
Sabbath was given to the nation of Israel.
Deuteronomy
5:15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your
God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm;
therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
God set the pattern for the Sabbath rest in Genesis
2:2, ceasing from His work of creation on the seventh day, which foreshadowed
the command in Exodus 20:8–11, which is the fourth of the ten commandments.
Exodus
20:8-11
8
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep
it holy.
9
Six days you shall labor and do all
your work,
10
but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the
LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your
daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor
your stranger who is within your gates.
11
For in six days the LORD made the heavens
and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.
Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
Verse 8 commands “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep
it holy." This is the only command of the ten that starts with the word
"remember." This could mean that the Sabbath command was given
earlier. In fact, God had decreed a Sabbath rest in Exodus 16:22–30 in
connection with manna in the desert.
Exodus
16:22-30
22 And so it was, on the sixth day, that they
gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the
congregation came and told Moses.
23 Then he said to them, "This is what the
LORD has said: 'Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. Bake
what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for
yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.'
29 "See! For the LORD has given you the
Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every
man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh
day."
30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
The word remember could also simply mean “keep this
command in mind” with no reference to an earlier directive. The children of
Israel were not to grow lax in their observation of this command.
The word “to keep it holy” in Exodus 20:8 is one
word in Hebrew. The Hebrew word is qāḏaš (kaw-dash'), which means, to
consecrate, sanctify, prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be sanctified,
and be separate. That means the Israelites were to make a distinction between
the seventh day and the rest of the week. The Sabbath was different. It was to
be dedicated to the Lord. The priests were to double the daily sacrifices on
the Sabbath (Numbers 28:9–10), marking the day with increased sacred activity.
Numbers 28:9-10
'And on the Sabbath day two lambs in their first year, without blemish, and two-tenths
of an ephah of fine flour as a grain offering, mixed with oil, with its drink
offering - this is the burnt offering for every Sabbath, besides the regular
burnt offering with its drink offering.
Exodus 20:9–11 defines the Sabbath. Verse 10 says
that the Sabbath is the seventh day. It is the Sabbath of “the Lord your
God." The verse continues to forbid the Israelites from doing any work on
that day. Verse 11 says that the Sabbath pattern was foreshadowed by the
six-day creation and the rest on the seventh day.
As Israel set apart the Sabbath, they were
reminded that they were also being set apart. Exodus 31:13 says, “that you may
know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.”
Exodus 31:13
“Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: 'Surely My Sabbaths you shall
keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you
may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.
The keeping of the Sabbath was a sign of the
covenant between Israel and the Lord. The penalty for desecrating the Sabbath
with work was death (Exodus 31:14; Numbers 15:32–36).
Exodus 31:14 'You
shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes
it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person
shall be cut off from among his people.
Sabbath
rituals
Shabbat is a weekly, twenty-five-hour religious
observance of the Jewish community. Shabbat starts 18 minutes before sunset on
Friday and ends at sunset on Saturday, when three stars appear in the sky. All
Jewish days begin and end at sunset, following the pattern of creation, which
states, "So the evening and the morning were the first day." (Genesis
1:5). Sabbath is generally understood as a day off from labour.
Traditionally, the shabbat table is prepared with
two candles, a glass of wine, and at least two loaves of challah. Challah
loaves are plaited, white leavened bread traditionally baked to celebrate the
Jewish Sabbath. The challah loaves should be whole and should be covered with a
bread cover, towel, or napkin. The plaits represent the relationship between
God and the Jewish people. The two loaves remind Jews of the double portion of
manna God provided on the sixth day during their journey in the wilderness.
The ritual begins with the woman of the house
lighting the Sabbath candles or, in her absence, the husband, eighteen minutes
before Friday sunset. These two candles represent zakhor (“remember”) and
shamor (“observe”). Some light a candle for each member of the family.
After lighting, she waves her hands over the candles, welcoming in the sabbath. Then she covers her eyes so as not to see the candles and recites the prayer of blessings.
Exodus 20:8
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Deuteronomy
5:12 'Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded
you.
Religious services in the evening will be attended
in the synagogue or performed in the home between candle lighting and dinner on
the evening of the sabbath.
Before dinner, parents lightly place their hands on
their children’s heads and recite a prayer of blessing. There are different
prayers for sons and daughters.
The father recites the Kiddush, a prayer that
sanctifies the Sabbath. Kiddush is recited while holding a cup of wine or other
liquid. Kiddush is a Jewish blessing that is pronounced before meals on the
Sabbath and Jewish holidays. The word kiddush literally means
"sanctification" in Hebrew. The blessing is recited over wine or
grape juice at a set table, usually by the father, to sanctify the day and
welcome the Sabbath. It's a central ritual of the Sabbath.
This is followed by a ritual washing of the hands
and the breaking of bread. The loaves of bread are ripped into pieces or sliced
and passed around the table so that each person may have a piece. The family
meal may begin after that.
After dinner, the father recites a birkat ha-mazon
(“grace after meals”). The remainder of the evening is devoted to study or
relaxation.
Saturday is spent for worship, meal, and study of
the Torah. The Sabbath morning service in the synagogue includes the public
reading of the Torah, or Five Books of Moses, and a sermon, both of which aim
to educate the listeners. Following the service, the second Sabbath meal is
eaten at home, preceded by Kiddush. During meals, songs are sung by the family.
There might also be a special children's service in
the synagogue. The entire family can join it. The afternoon synagogue service
is followed by the third festive meal without Kiddush. Often, this meal is
eaten in the synagogue. The Rabbi might teach the community about Sabbath laws
or the weekly Torah portion.
After the evening service, the Sabbath ends with
the havdalah, or havdala (“distinction”). Havdalah is said with a cup of wine,
which is drunk at the end of the blessing. Havdalah consists of a benediction
noting the distinction between Sabbath and weekday, usually recited over a cup
of wine accompanied by a spice box and candle.
The Jewish Sabbath has a ritualistic ending.
Shabbat ends at nightfall, when three stars are visible. They light a special
braided candle and then douse it in a cup of wine. They sniff cinnamon or
cloves to carry the sweet memory of the Sabbath into the workweek. A candle is
lit, which shows that creative activities are now permitted.
Sabbath
and New Testament
No Sabbath before Mosaic law
God’s rest on the seventh day after the six days of
creation, as said in Genesis 2:3, did foreshadow a future Sabbath. But no
Sabbath was commanded prior to the Mosaic Law. Adam and Eve were not instructed
to observe the Sabbath. Sabbath-keeping was not practiced from Adam to Moses.
There is no biblical record of the Sabbath before the children of Israel left
the land of Egypt.
Genesis 2:2–3 says that God rested on the seventh
day after completing the creation. Humans were created on the sixth day. But
the scripture does say that Adam and Eve rested on the seventh day, or that God
commanded them to rest on every seventh day that followed. Before the fall,
humans lived in a blessed and holy state. They were in peace with God. The
earth was not cursed, and they did not work hard on it for their livelihood.
They need no rest for one day from their labour to start again on the next day.
They had communion with God every day. No day was set aside for worshipping
God. Genesis does not command the Sabbath and never says that someone observed
it.
During the days of Moses, God used the creation
week as a pattern for commanding the seventh-day Sabbath. But type does not
prove that the Sabbath has existed ever since creation.
In Genesis 26:5, God testified that “Abraham obeyed
My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws."
But we do not know for sure what laws were applicable to Abraham. The Jewish
Talmud (Sanhedrin 56b) mentions laws that were given to Adam, Noah, and
Abraham. But the Talmud does not mention the Sabbath among those laws. The Jews
believed that the Sabbath was given through Moses to the Israelite people.
Ten commandments and New Testament
All the Ten Commandments except the fourth one are
repeated in the New Testament in different ways, prescribing them to the
believers.
One day a lawyer among the Pharisees asked Jesus,
"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?". To him, Jesus
answered:
Matthew 22:
37-40 Jesus said to him," 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great
commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as
yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
Jesus summed up the whole ten commandments into
two, quoting the first and the last. Thus, he divided the decalogue into two
sections: towards God and towards humans.
Jesus repeats the last four of the Ten Commandments
to the young ruler in Luke 18:20. (young - Matthew 19:20, ruler - Luke 18:18)
Luke 18:20
"You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do
not steal,' 'Do not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and your
mother.'"
The Apostle Paul refers to the last five of the Ten
Commandments in Romans 13:9.
Romans 13:9 For
the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall
not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear
false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other
commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love
your neighbor as yourself."
Apostle Paul and John warned us against idol
worship.
1 Corinthians
10:20 Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to
demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.
1 John 5:21
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Jesus commanded us not to take the name of the
Lord, our God, in vain.
Matthew 5:34-35
"But I (Jesus) say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it
is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem,
for it is the city of the great King.
Apostle Paul says that to honour our father and
mother is the first commandment with promise.
Ephesians 6:1-2
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father
and mother," which is the first commandment with promise:
Apostle James warns us against adultery and murder.
James 2:11 For
He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not
murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have
become a transgressor of the law.
All these verses repeat the nine commandments from
the Decalogue in the same sense in which God gave them to the Israelites on
Mount Sinai. But the fourth commandment about Sabbath keeping is not repeated
in the same sense, and neither Jesus nor the apostles instructed the New
Testament Church to obey it. Moreover, Jesus reinterpreted the Sabbath law and
declared, "For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." (Matthew
12:8).
Sabbath in New Testament
The New Testament never explicitly or implicitly
teaches adherence to the Sabbath day but implies the opposite.
Colossians 2:16-17
So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new
moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of
Christ.
Our freedom from Sabbath-day regulations is
repeated more than once in the New Testament:
Romans 14:5-6
One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let
each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it
to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not
observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who
does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.
Galatians
4:9–10 But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it
that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire
again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years.
Jesus and Sabbath
Whenever the day is mentioned on which the
resurrected Jesus Christ appeared, it is always the first day of the week
(Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:9; Luke 24:1; John 20:19).
Jesus never commanded anyone to keep the Sabbath.
Although we are told various things that he did on the Sabbath, we are never
told that he rested on Sabbath. According to the Gospels, what he did and
taught on the Sabbath was consistently liberal.
One day, Jesus and his disciples were going through
a grainfield on Sabbath. His disciples were hungry (Matthew 12:1), and they
plucked the grain, rubbed it in their hands (Luke 6:1), and ate it. This was
considered work by the Pharisees. They suddenly accused them of dishonouring
the Sabbath.
Jesus took responsibility for the acts of his
disciples. He replied to the Pharisees by citing an incident from the Old
Testament.
The tabernacle was the only place of worship for
the Jews. It had three compartments: the outer court, the holy place, and the
most holy place (or holy of holies). Sacrifices were offered in the outer
court. The holy and most holy place were set apart where only the priests could
enter.
There were three articles in the Holy Place: the
golden lampstand, the table of showbread, and the altar of incense. The lamp
burned continually, day and night. On the altar of incense, special incense was
burned each morning and evening as an offering to the Lord. The table of
showbread is a golden table where priests would keep 12 loaves of specially
baked fresh bread on Sabbath. It was continually replaced on every Sabbath with
fresh loaves. As new bread replaced the week-old bread, only the priests were
allowed to eat the old one. The entire congregation was involved in providing
oil for the lamp and flour for the loaves.
It was lawful for the priests only to eat the
week-old showbread. But King David and his companions came to the priest
starving. No other bread was available there at that time. Therefore, he and
his companions ate it without sin.
Citing this incident from the Old Testament, Jesus
justified the acts of his disciples.
Mark 2:25-26
But He (Jesus)
said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and
hungry, he and those with him: "how he went into the house of God in the
days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to
eat, except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with
him?"
David and his men had not acted sinfully in eating
the showbread, and neither were Jesus’ disciples sinful in picking grain on the
Sabbath.
Jesus conveys a similar message in Mark 3:1–6 when
He heals a man on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:9–14; Luke 6:6–11). It happened in a
synagogue on a Sabbath. There was a man with a withered hand. Jesus asked the
people around, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to
save lives or to kill?" (3:4). All of them kept silent. And Jesus healed
the man.
On another Sabbath, Jesus healed a man who had been
an invalid for 38 years. And he told the man, "Rise, take up your bed, and
walk." (John 5:8). The Jews accused the man of breaking the Sabbath
because he was carrying his mat. And Jesus said to the Jews who “sought to kill
Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.” (John 5:16):
John 5:17 But
Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have
been working.
Jesus did not excuse his work of healing the
invalid person. He did not excuse the man’s work in carrying his bed. Instead,
Jesus boldly described his activity on the Sabbath as “work.” But Jesus was not
a lawbreaker, he was a fulfiller of laws as God intended them.
Again, in John 9, Jesus healed a man who was blind
from birth. Jesus “spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He
anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.” (John 9:6). The Jews
objected to it being done on the Sabbath. Making clay was against their law,
and so was healing.
Jesus’ response to the accusing Pharisees contains
two important teachings. The Sabbath was intended to help people, not burden
them. The original intent of the Sabbath is rest the people.
Jesus also declared to the Pharisees that He is the
Lord of Sabbath.
Mark 2:27–28
And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the
Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath."
Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. He created the
Sabbath, and he ordered the Israelites to observe it as a holy day. Now the
creator and the lawgiver reinterpret it as a day of rest that He provides.
Jesus has secured for us spiritual rest from sickness and sin. Jesus was
repeatedly doing things that could have waited until sundown. He always boldly
claimed that he had authority to work on the Sabbath.
Apostle Paul and Sabbath
From Acts to Revelation, Sabbath is always
mentioned with the evangelisation of the Jewish community, and the setting is
usually a synagogue. Paul went to synagogues neither to worship nor to edify
Christians, but to convict and save the lost Jews.
Apostle Paul preferred to preach to the gentiles,
and he publicly declared his preference twice during his missionary journeys.
But this does not mean that he did not visit a Jewish synagogue or never
preached the gospel to the Jews after that. His usual practice was to visit a
synagogue in a place to proclaim the gospel to the Jews and then go to the
gentiles in that area.
In his first missionary journey, he went to
Pisidian Antioch and preached the gospel to the Jews and the gentiles in a
synagogue. Act 13:43 says that “many of the Jews and devout proselytes”
believed in the message. On the next Sabbath, the whole city came together in
the synagogue to hear them. But the Jews, filled with envy, opposed the gospel.
So Paul and Barnabas said, “we turn to the Gentiles.”
Acts 13:46 Then
Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, "It was necessary that the word of
God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge
yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.
This does not mean that they did not speak the
gospel to the Jews anymore. They continued to speak in the Jewish synagogues
even after this incident.
We see in Acts 18, Apostle Paul preaching the
gospel at Corinth, a city in Greece, during his second missionary journey. Here
also he preached in a synagogue to Jews and the proselytes on Sabbath. But the
Jews opposed him strongly. Then Paul declared, “From now on I will go to the
Gentiles."
Acts 18:6 But
when they (Jews) opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to
them, "Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will
go to the Gentiles."
But he continued to minister to the Jews.
Acts 18:8 Then
Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his
household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized.
The apostle might have abandoned his usual practice
of preaching to the Jews of a locality first. But he never stopped preaching to
the Jews.
We see Apostle Paul preaching again in a synagogue
at Ephesus in Acts 19.
Acts 19:8 And
he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and
persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God.
But here also, the Jews rejected him, and Paul
continued preaching “daily in the school of Tyrannus." No information
about Tyrannus is available in the Scripture. Some scholars say that he was a
Jew, and some others say that he was a Greek teacher or philosopher. The name
Tyrannus is Greek. It might have been the name of the hall, which was named
after some well-known person.
Verse 10 says, “And this continued for two years,
so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and
Greeks.” “heard” may simply mean heard or ‘heard and believed’.
Paul preached in the gentile cities of Lystra,
Derbe, and Troas. Nothing is said about the Sabbath in the narration of his
ministry in these places. He was in Athens, where some Jews lived. But nothing
is said about the Sabbath.
In Act 20, we see Paul in Troas on his way back to
Jerusalem. There, “the disciples came together to break bread” “on the first
day of the week." (20:7). The first day of the week was the day that the
believers gathered to worship the Lord.
Paul in his epistles dealt with many problems of
Christian living, and he lists many sins that would keep people out of the
kingdom of God, but he never mentioned the Sabbath.
Paul observed Jewish customs too, such as
circumcision, making vows, and participating in temple rituals. He was free to
observe old covenant customs when he was with Jews, and he was free to ignore
them in other situations. But neither Jesus nor Paul ever commanded anyone to
rest on the Sabbath.
The Jerusalem Council
The Jerusalem Council, which was held about AD 50,
was the first meeting in early Christianity where the apostles and elders
discussed the basic doctrine of the church. The first Christians were
predominantly Jews. They considered the church to be a Jewish sect. So, they
observed all Mosaic laws. But gradually, gentiles received salvation through
faith in Jesus Christ and joined the church. Then arose the question of whether
gentile Christians should observe the Mosaic Law and Jewish traditions. The
apostles met in Jerusalem and discussed the issue in detail.
They discussed and decided on two important doctrinal matters.
1. Should
non-Jewish Christians receive circumcision?
2. Should
non-Jewish Christians keep the law of Moses?
Acts 15:5, 6
But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, "It is
necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of
Moses." Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter.
The Jews considered circumcision the
"everlasting" sign of the Abrahamic Covenant. For them, no
circumcision means no inheritance under the Abrahamic covenant. No part of the
Abrahamic covenant means no relation to Jesus, who is the promised "seed."
So the question before the council had deep implications.
It is recorded that “And when there had been much dispute” (15:7). The decision was not so easy. Then Peter stood and suggested five points for their attention:
1. God
chose to preach the gospel to the Gentiles so that they could hear and believe.
(NLT)
2. God
confirmed that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he
did to the Jewish believers.
3. God
made no distinction between Jews and gentile Christians, for He cleansed their
hearts through faith. All are saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of
the Lord Jesus.
4. Mosaic
laws were a yoke that neither they nor their ancestors were able to bear.
5. Burdening
the Gentile believers with the mosaic laws is challenging God.
After the discussion, Apostle James announced the final decision. This is called the Apostolic Decree. James said the following things:
1. We
should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
2. We
should write and tell them to abstain from:
i.
Eating food offered to idols (NLT)
ii.
Sexual immorality
iii.
Eating the meat of strangled animals
iv. Consuming blood.
3.
For the Jews, no letter was written
because the laws of Moses were preached in synagogues in every city on every
Sabbath for many generations.
St. Augustine found the basis for the Apostolic
Decree in the Noahide Law. Some modern scholars find the connection in
Leviticus 17–18. But it was more likely that the Apostles decided to reconfirm
the Jewish belief about the Noahide Law and the gentiles.
Rabbinic Jews believed that Moses brought the laws to the Jewish people. These laws do not apply to Gentiles, including gentile Christians. But the Noahide Laws are applicable to all human beings. There are seven laws in the Noahide Covenant, like the ten commandments in the Mosaic Law. According to the Babylonian Talmud, they are universal moral laws given by God as a covenant with Noah and with the "sons of Noah." “Sons of Noah” is interpreted as the whole of humanity. The Talmud explains that the seven laws were given first to Adam and subsequently to Noah. But we do not have any biblical evidence for this argument. The seven commandments in the Noahide laws are:
1. Not
to worship idols.
2. Not
to curse God.
3. Not
to commit murder.
4. Not
to commit adultery or sexual immorality.
5. Not
to steal.
6. Not
to eat flesh torn from a living animal.
7. To
establish courts of justice.
Acts 15:19-20
"Therefore I (James) judge that we should not trouble those from among the
Gentiles who are turning to God, "but that we write to them to abstain
from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled,
and from blood.
According to modern Jewish law, non-Jews (gentiles)
are not obligated to convert to Judaism, but they are required to observe the
Seven Laws of Noah to be assured of a place in the World to Come (Olam Ha-Ba),
the final reward of the righteous. The non-Jews that choose to follow the Seven
Laws of Noah are regarded as "righteous Gentiles" or "pious
people of the world.".
The Apostolic Decree was a major act of
differentiation for the Christian Church from its Jewish roots. The decree did
not command the Christians to observe the seventh day as Sabbath. If Sabbath
was a compulsory command from God for Christians, the apostles would have
included them in the decree.
Jesus’ death on the cross perfectly fulfilled all
requirements of the Law. After that, Christians are not commanded to observe a
Sabbath day on Saturday, Sunday, or any other day of the week.
Lord’s Day
Sunday was declared an official holiday throughout
the Roman Empire in the year 321 A.D., by Constantine. He decreed, "On the
venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities
rest, and let all workshops be closed". The law exempted farmers if
necessary. But he was not changing Sabbath to Sunday. He chose Sunday for the
official holiday, which may be because Christians used to gather for worship on
that day.
Sunday was the day that our Lord Jesus Christ rose
from the dead. This is an important characteristic of Christianity that
separates it from all other religions. No other religion claims a deity
resurrected from death. Since the resurrection, believers have gathered on the
first day of the week to celebrate His victory over sin and death.
Acts 2:46 says that the newborn church met every
day in the temple and “from house to house”
Acts 2:46 So
continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house
to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.
It is well documented in scripture and earlier
Christian history, that New Testament believers came together on Sunday as
their day of worship. They did not change the Sabbath to Sunday but worshipped
their resurrected Lord on Sunday. Acts 2:46, Acts 20:7, and 1 Corinthians 16:2
are proofs of this.
Acts 20:7 (In
Troas) Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to
break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued
his message until midnight.
1 Corinthians
16:2 On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside,
storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.
Apostle John calls the first day of the week the
Lord’s Day.
Revelation 1:10
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as
of a trumpet,
The early church chose the first day of the week to
worship the Lord because he was resurrected on that day. It was a day of
victory over death.
Spiritual
rest
As we have already said above, the observance of
Sabbath follows the creation pattern of six days of work and a day of rest
after it. God created “the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them”
within six days, and “on the seventh day, God ended His work... and He rested
on the seventh day from all His work.” (Genesis 2:1,2). Sabbath for Israelites
was also a day of rest after six days of labour. God did not begin the creation
work again after the seventh day of rest. But the Israelites must continue their
labour on the next day after every Sabbath.
The various elements of the Sabbath symbolised the
coming of the Messiah, who would provide a permanent rest for His people.
During the Old Testament Law, the Jews constantly laboured to make themselves
acceptable to God. Their labours included obedience to the laws concerning the
moral law, the ceremonial law, and the civil law. But they couldn’t keep all
those laws up to the mark fixed by God. So God provided many different
offerings and sacrifices for the forgiveness of violations and for restoring fellowship
with Him. All these rituals were only temporary and would not be valid until
the final sacrifice for sin was offered by God Himself.
Hebrews 10:1
For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image
of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer
continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
Since their sacrifices were insufficient to relieve
them from sin, they had to offer them again and again. Just as so, they enjoyed
rest on Sabbath only to begin their labours the next day.
The Old Testament sacrifices were offered in
anticipation of the ultimate sacrifice of Christ on the cross. And Jesus sat
down on the right of God after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever.
Hebrews 10:12
But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at
the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His
footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being
sanctified.
Hebrews 7:27
who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first
for His own sins and then for the people's, for this He did once for all when
He offered up Himself. (NKJV)
“sat down at the right hand of God” is rest from
His perfectly finished labours of atonement. There was nothing more to be done.
So, he rested by sitting down at the right of God. Those who are saved by faith
in Him also enter Christ’s rest. They cease to work to fulfil the Law and
justify themselves.
According to Hebrews 4:1–10, God’s rest on the
seventh day after creation points to a spiritual rest for us that comes through
faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to Him. If we do not rest in the finished
work of Jesus Christ on the cross, we remain spiritually dead.
The Sabbath was not an eternal rest for the
Israelites. Salvation by faith in Jesus is eternal rest for our souls. Those
who trust Jesus for their salvation, no longer labour to attain God’s favour.
Jesus is our rest now. He satisfied the requirements of the law, provided the
sacrifice to atone for our sins.
In Genesis 2:3, we read that “God blessed the
seventh day and sanctified it." The rest that New Testament believers
enjoy is blessed and sanctified.
Thus, Jesus becomes our Sabbath rest. We rest in
Christ, not just one day a week, but always. The consequence of continuing our
work when we should be resting in Christ is death. It is foreshadowed by the
death penalty for Israelites working on the Sabbath.
Exodus 31:14
'You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who
profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that
person shall be cut off from among his people.
The purpose of death punishment is to “cut off” the
profaner “from among his people”.
So once we have entered the Sabbath rest, no work
to fulfil the law to justify ourselves is permitted. Violation results in
cutting off from among God’s people. It is the fate of unbelievers who refuse
to enter God’s rest through the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
How can we enter God’s rest?
The concept of entering God’s rest comes from
Hebrews 3–4. In Hebrews 3:7, the writer discusses God’s rest with an example
from the wanderings of the Israelites in the desert. Canaan was their promised
rest. All their enemies will be defeated, and they will live securely in their
promised land. All that was required of them was to fully trust in Him and His
promises.
In Deuteronomy 12, Moses instructs the Israelites
to observe God’s commandments and duties when they obtain possession of the
promised land.
Deuteronomy
12:9-10 "for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance
which the LORD your God is giving you. "But when you cross over the Jordan
and dwell in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and He
gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety,
But the Israelites in the wilderness hardened their
hearts as in the rebellion and tried him for forty years (Hebrews 3:8-9). So
God “swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.'" (3:11).
Psalms 95:8-11
"Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in
the wilderness, When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My
work. For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, 'It is a
people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways. So I swore
in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.'"
The “rest” referred to here was that of the land of
Canaan. Into that rest, God solemnly said the Israelites who disobeyed Him
would never enter (Hebrews 3:11). They had been rebellious. But, eventually,
the next generation, under the leadership of Joshua, entered the land of
Canaan. This was a physical rest for the people.
The land of Canaan in the Old Testament was a type
of spiritual eternal rest in Christ. So the writer of the Hebrews exhorts the
believers that a promise remains of entering His rest.
Hebrews 4:1
Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any
of you seem to have come short of it.
The promise that remains is the promise of
salvation through Jesus Christ. He alone can provide the eternal rest of
salvation through His blood shed on the cross for the remission of our sins.
The spiritual rest is the rest of salvation. Faith is the key to entering God’s
rest.
Hebrews 4:2 For
indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which
they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard
it.
Hebrews 4:10–13 explains the nature of this faith.
The kind of faith that enables us to enter God’s rest is a faith that first
demands that we rest from relying on our own works.
Hebrews 4:10–11
For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God
did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall
according to the same example of disobedience.
We enter God’s
rest by first understanding our total inability to enter God’s rest on our own.
Next, we enter God’s rest through our total faith in the sacrifice of Christ
and complete obedience to God and His will.
Hebrews 3:18–19
And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who
did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Unlike the Israelites, whose unbelief prevented
them from entering the Promised Land, we are to enter God’s rest by faith in
Him, faith that is a gift from Him by grace.
Ephesians 2:8–9
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it
is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Christian Sabbath
The Sabbath is always the seventh day. It is
Saturday, according to our calendar. It has never been changed to any other
day.
The Sabbath was never commanded to be a day of
worship. It was a day of rest from the labours of six days.
Exodus 20:8-11
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and
do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In
it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male
servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is
within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the
sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD
blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
The Sabbath was given to Israel, not to the New
Testament church. It is part of the Mosaic Law.
Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath. Nowhere in the
New Testament do Christians set aside Sunday as a Sabbath day. The Lord’s Day
in the New Testament is not a substitute for or equivalent to the Sabbath. The
term Sabbath was still in use within the Jewish community during the New
Testament period and is referred to as such by Jesus and the apostles (Matthew
12:5; John 7:23; Colossians 2:16).
Sunday is the Christian day of worship because
Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. It was the early
Christians’ practice to meet on Sunday in remembrance of His resurrection from
the dead. (Acts 20:7). But either our Lord or the apostles never prescribed the
church to worship our Lord on any particular day of the week. There is no New
Testament command to observe Sunday as a day of rest.
Christians do not need to observe a day of rest to
have forgiveness for their sins and salvation. The Bible clearly teaches that
salvation is by grace through faith alone. God’s kindness and love, expressed
in the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ, save us, not our good works or
righteous deeds.
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it
is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Titus 3:4-5 But
when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved
us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
The Acts of the Apostles record Jews and converts
to Judaism meeting in synagogues on the Sabbath. But in the New Testament,
there is no command to worship our Lord only on Sundays. The New Testament
records of Christians worshipping on Sundays are descriptive rather than
prescriptive.
Acts 20:7 Now
on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread,
Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message
until midnight.
1 Corinthians
16:2 On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside,
storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.
No restrictions to work
Though corporate worship is necessary, the day to
worship on is not significant. The New Testament addresses this in a couple of
different passages.
Colossians
2:16-17 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or
a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance
is of Christ.
Romans 14:5-6
One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let
each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it
to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not
observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who
does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.
Christians are never commanded to cease work on
Sabbath or Sunday. Working on Sunday is not prohibited in Scripture.
Practically, these days, many Christians, such as doctors and nurses, used to
work on Sunday. We must be very grateful to them.
Matthew 12:12
"Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful
to do good on the Sabbath."
Still, it is advisable that they spend one day a
week honouring our Lord by participating in church worship. We are advised not
to neglect the regular assembly of believers. It is a day to worship the Lord
and exhort one another.
Hebrews 10:25
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some,
but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Coram
Deo
There are some Messianic Jews today who want to
continue regarding the Sabbath day as holy because of their Jewish heritage.
Some Gentile Christians also considered the seventh day a Sabbath and a day for
worshipping God. Since the day of worship is not important for New Testament
believers, worshipping God on the Sabbath is acceptable. But the motivation
must not be to justify ourselves.
Believers are free to assemble to worship our Lord
on the seventh day of the week, on the first day of the week, or on any other
day.
Apostle Paul seems to say in Romans 14:5 that if a
Christian feels led to keep the seventh day as Sabbath or as a day of rest from
his physical labours, let them do so. It is his personal conviction and
spiritual freedom. But he should not judge those who do not observe the
Sabbath. And he should not expect that Sabbath observance will justify him
before God.
No comments:
Post a Comment