Episode 3: What is the Sabbath Today for the Christian?
Summary
Question: What is the Sabbath today and what is the Christian’s responsibility towards it?
The Sabbath in the Old Testament points to the Creation and release from Egyptian slavery.
Ezekiel 20:12 A key point is that the Sabbath was not a universal thing, it was only between Israel and God. The Sabbath was a day of rest; six days you work, seventh day you rest.
As people come into the times of the New Covenant, there is a tendency to try to carry over some aspects of the Sabbath.
Acts 13:14-15 The first century Jew met in the synagogue on the Sabbath. The purpose of the meeting at the synagogue was for the reading of the law and the prophets.
Hebrews 9:1-9 Everything in the Old Testament was a foreshadow or a type.
Colossians 2:16-17 The new moon, the feast of tabernacles, the feast of unleavened bread, etc. are all shadows of the substance that’s in the New Covenant. Since the Sabbath was a shadow, what would it be a foreshadow of under the terms of the New Covenant?
Matthew 11:28-30 The Old Testament physical day of rest was a foreshadow of the rest for the soul. What’s better? One day of physical rest for your body, or to have peace/rest in the inner man?
Romans 5:1-2 When a person is at peace with God, that’s the rest for the soul. That’s why Jesus said learn from me. You have to learn from Jesus in order to find out what this rest for the soul is.
Acts 1:12 The Jewish rabbis had to set up a distance you were allowed to travel on the Sabbath in order to meet in the synagogue. The Jews realized during the time of Babylonian captivity that the reason they were in difficulty was because they neglected the reading of the law. So they set up the synagogues where the law would be read and preached upon. You see an example of Jesus doing this in Luke 4.
This was Old Testament, so the question now is when did the church meet? We have two records of the church meeting.
Acts 20:6-7 Paul was delayed in coming to Troas, he didn’t get there in time to meet with the brethren, so he had to wait a whole week. He didn’t meet with the brethren on the Sabbath, it was on the first day of the week they came together to break bread, another term for the Lord’s Supper.
1 Corinthians 11:20 The thrust of the passage is that they should have been meeting for the reason of the Lord’s Supper. The point is that they were assembling, now when did they assemble?
1 Corinthians 16:2 That’s when the church assembled and took a collection for the poor saints in Judea. Both from Acts and 1 Corinthians we know that the early church met on the first day of the week for the Lord’s Supper.
Sidenote: Did the church meet for worship? There is no record of the New Testament church meeting for worship, it was for the breaking of bread. The only place a Jew could worship was in the temple on the feast days. The meeting in the synagogue was not for worship, but for the reading of the law and the prophets. The only place New Testament worship is directly referenced is John 4:23-24, worship is in spirit and in truth. The inner man of the Christian has been raised up and seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). The inner man is in the presence of God and in a place of perpetual worship. That being the case, the church did not meet to worship. The Jew did not meet in the synagogue on the Sabbath to worship, the Christian does not meet on Sunday to worship.
The Sabbath in the Old Testament was a specific day of the week, but now, for the Christian under the terms of the New Testament, it’s the inner man being at peace with God. Once again the Scripture is taking us from the external/physical to the spiritual. It’s moving us from an earthly focus to a heavenly focus.
