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Tel-World Ministries |
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The Sabbath - Everything You Ever Wanted To Know |
www.DaytonaVisit.com |
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Seventh Day Baptists are Baptists who remember to keep the seventh
day Sabbath holy. We are a Baptist church
that is a little different.
God created the heavens and the earth. Though the creation of the
heavens and earth was complete on the sixth day of creation, there
was one thing yet to be created, the Sabbath.
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their vast
array. 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 in it he rested
from all the work of creating that he had done (Genesis 2:1-3).
The story of God's creation of the Sabbath
(Genesis 2:2,3) tells us three things that God did with the seventh
day, Sabbath. (Though the word "Sabbath"
does not appear in the creation story in Genesis, it is clear that
the Sabbath was established.
1. God rested on the seventh day, Sabbath.
2. God blessed the seventh day, Sabbath.
3. God sanctified or made holy the seventh day, Sabbath.
God did more than merely rest on that first Sabbath.
"God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it" (Genesis
2:3). This was God's final act in His creation week. He took the last
day (seventh day) of the creation week and set it apart as a special
day by blessing it. The Sabbath is a part of
the creation order, and it has its origins there. In the beginning,
God created the heav-ens, the earth, man, and the seventh day Sabbath.
God so desired that His people know Him that He revealed to them part
of His character, known as the Law or Ten Commandments. These ten
words of law were God's desire for the Children of Israel and for all humankind.
The fourth of these Commandments points back to creation as the
origin of the Sabbath. God commands people
to keep the Sabbath because He, Himself kept
the Sabbath at creation. God blessed the Sabbath
and made it holy by setting the ex-ample for all mankind to rest on
that day.
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it
holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh
day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it
you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor
your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien
within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the
earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh
day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath
day and made it holy" (Exodus 20:8-11).
God's prescription regarding the Sabbath is
rather specific. God said that we should rest and remember - not one
day a week - but a specific day of the week, the seventh day. God
specifically said that the "seventh day is a Sabbath
to the Lord thy God" (Exodus 20:10). The seventh day Sabbath
belongs to God. People can do what they wish on the first day of the
week (Sunday) but it is the sev-enth day Sabbath
which is the Lord's day according to Exodus 20:10.
We see from Exodus 20:11 that the foundation of the fourth
commandment is God's act of creation, "in the beginning."
The Sabbath is not based merely on God's
relation-ship to the Jews, but it is based on His relationship to all
of cre-ation. There are five things to emphasize in the Fourth Commandment.
1. God tells us that the seventh day is the Sabbath.
2. God commands us to remember the Sabbath
day. 3. God commands us to keep the Sabbath
holy. 4. God commands us to rest on the Sabbath.
5. "Sabbath to the Lord" is a day
dedicated to Him.
Why are we to keep the Sabbath holy? The
Fourth Commandment goes on to tell us why.
"For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the
sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.
Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day
and made it holy." (Exodus 20:11)
We are to keep the Sabbath holy and rest,
because God kept the Sabbath holy and rested
on that day. The Sabbath is holy because God
"made it holy" at creation. We are to rest on the Sabbath
because God set the example for Sabbath rest
at creation.
The Ten Commandments are an expression of Godís very nature
and will, which is unchangeable. Jesus Christ did not come to change
even the smallest portion of the moral law (Matthew 5:17,18). Some
say that Christ changed the Sabbath from the
seventh day of the week to the first day of the week. That would
require a change in the law. The moral law says that "the
seventh day is the Sabbath" and not the
first day of the week. In no place does the Bible tell us of this
change in the law from the seventh to the first day of the week.
The Sabbath was the commandment most
corrupted by the Pharisees. So, it is not surprising that it was over Sabbath-keeping
that Jesus would have most of his conflict with the Pharisees. The Sabbath
issue between Christ and the Pharisees is never over which day to
worship or over whether the Sabbath was
still part of God's desire for man. The issue for Christ was the way
in which the Sabbath was being kept and the
Phariseesí attitude toward the Sabbath.
The most powerful statement regarding Christ's commitment to the
Sab-bath is found in Mark 2:27 and 28. "And he was saying to
them, ëThe Sab-bath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
Therefore the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.'"
The climax of Jesus' statement comes when he says that he is Lord of
the Sabbath day. This means that Jesus has
the authority over all the circumstances regarding the Sabbath.
Christians should be taught that Jesus Christ can ar-range
circumstances in order to provide for people the opportunity to keep
the seventh day Sabbath holy. God wants our
undivided attention on the seventh day Sabbath,
and He will use the resources of His kingdom to make this possible.
The story of creation in Genesis gives the origin of the Sabbath
but it does not give the reason for God's creation of the Sabbath.
However, a clue to the purpose of the Sabbath
is given in the fact that the Sabbath was
created right after man's creation. Perhaps the Sabbath
was created by God with man in mind.
The fact that the Sabbath was made for man
is stated clearly by Jesus Christ, the Creator of the Sabbath.
"The Sabbath was made for man, not man
for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). Here
Jesus is address-ing the Pharisees who are condemning Him for
breaking the Pharisaic rules regarding the Sabbath.
There are four things which can be learned from this message from
the mouth of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
First, the Sabbath was made. This is a clear
reference back to Genesis 2 showing that the Sabbath
was a part of the perfect creation order. The Sab-bath existed from
the very beginning as the final part of God's creation. This
reference would also serve as a re-minder to the Pharisees that the Sabbath
was created by God and not by them.
Second, the Sabbath was made for man. Right
after the creation of man, God made the Sabbath.
(See Genesis 1 and 2.) Jesus, the Creator of the Sabbath,
says that the Sabbath was created with all
mankind in mind. The Sabbath does not have
its origins in the Law. Its origins go back to creation. The Sabbath
was not a Jewish Sabbath alone, because
"the Sabbath was made for man" and
not for just the Jews. When the Sabbath was
created in the beginning there were no Jews. This is the clear
message of Jesus in this New Testament text.
Third, "the Sabbath was made for man,
not man for the Sabbath." At the time
of Jesus, the Pharisees had lost the meaning of the Sabbath.
God had cre-ated the Sabbath for man's
benefit, but the Pharisees had reversed the meaning. For the
Pharisees, the Sabbath was more important
than man, and they believed that God had created man to keep the Sabbath.
Fourth, "the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath,"
means that Jesus Christ was and is the one who is in authority over
the Sabbath. There would be no need for him
to declare his Lordship if he planned to abolish it in the near
future with his death. But because he is Lord of the Sabbath,
he can and will bring all of his resourses to bear to empower us and
to work our circumstances so that we can keep his day holy.
The Sabbath was created for our benefit.
Jesus' life, death, and ministry did not change the original meaning
and purpose of the Sabbath. But Jesus did
attack the Pharisees for the way they had changed the original
meaning and purpose of God's holy day.
In every area of life, we look to Christ as our supreme example. We
believe in baptism because of the example of Christ and the apostles
and the command of God. And so it is with the Sabbath.
We have the example of Christ and the apostles and the Ten
Commandments of God written on the tables of stone and on our hearts.
And yet, the majority of Christianity has chosen the tradition of man.
"He (Jesus) went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and
on the Sabbath day he went into the
synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read" (Luke
4:16). The word of God tells that Jesus was a Sabbathkeeper.
It was the Son of God who blessed and sanctified the Sabbath
at creation by resting. This rest was the first example that Adam and
Eve had in the Gar-den. When the Son of God became flesh, he once
again set the example for Sabbathkeeping.
Luke's gospel was written to a gentile (Theophilus) no earlier than
60 AD, which is many years after the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. In Luke 23:56, we read that the women "...prepared
spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath
in obedience to the commandment."
Some would say that the women simply had not yet been told by Jesus
that the Sabbath was abolished. But
remember, Luke is writing this several decades after the death and
resurrection of Christ. He in no way qualifies the fourth commandment
being kept by the women as something that was "done away
with" or something that is "Jewish" or "passed
away." Luke simply describes their Sabbathkeeping
as something "in obedience to the commandment." Apparently
Luke, the writer of the gospel, felt that the Sabbath
was still one of the commandments of God at the time he wrote it.
The Book of Acts, also written by Luke, is a history of the early
church right after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is no
mention of a change in the Sabbath from the
seventh day to the first day of the week. In fact, throughout the
Book of Acts the seventh day of the week is given the title of "Sabbath."
If the first day of the week was changed to the "Lord's
Day," why is the title "Lord's Day" not mentioned in
this earliest history of the church?
When the Apostle Paul was in Corinth he went to the synagogue every Sabbath.
This was in spite of the fact that he was trying to reach both Jews
and Greeks. "Every Sabbath he reasoned
in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks" (Acts
18:4). We have set be-fore us the clear example of Christ and the
example of Paul.
Seventh Day Baptists believe that the Sabbath
is important to God and to people. However, we also believe that we
are not saved by observing the Sabbath. In
fact, we are not saved by keeping any of the Ten Commandments. The
Apostle Paul says, "no one will be declared righteous in his
sight by observing the law" (Romans 3:20).
Seventh Day Baptists believe that we are saved because "God so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son" (John
3:16). Jesus Christ came to earth to die and shed His blood so that
people could be saved. Only those who surrender their lives to Jesus
Christ will be saved.
Though we are not saved by observing the Sabbath,
we keep the Sabbath because we love the
Lord. Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments"
(John 14:15). Love is the reason we keep the Sabbath
holy and obey all of the Ten Commandments. We also keep the Sabbath
holy because we believe Jesus when He tells us that "the Sabbath
was made for man." We believe that the Sabbath
was given for man's benefit. The Sabbath
truly is a gift of time for our benefit.
"It is for freedom that Christ set us free" (Galatians
5:1). The Sabbath is designed as a day of
freedom. Jesus is in the business of set-ting people free from
anything that is a barrier to intimate fellowship with Him. If God
commanded us to keep the Sabbath day holy by
resting, He would have to be in charge of all the circumstances that
could keep us from obeying His command. That is why God has set his
Son in charge of the Sab-bath as "Lord of the Sabbath."
Now we can be set free from all the labor and work of the Sabbath
and be able to give God our undivided attention on His day.
It is on the Sabbath that we are set free
from work and the guilt of spending twenty-four hours in rest and
service. Could this be possible on any other day? Perhaps, but God
has not committed Himself and all the resources of the Kingdom to
setting us free from work on any day but the seventh day Sabbath.
It is only by faith that we can accept these resources which set us
free from Sabbath work. This faith can only
be built upon a relationship with the Son of Man, who is Lord even of
the Sabbath day. God provides all of these
resources to set us free to give Him our undivided attention for
twenty-four hours a week. Of course, God wants our attention every
day of the week. But because God wants our undivided attention on the
seventh day Sabbath, He sets us free from
the work of the world. God does all this for us because He loves us
and He knows that we need it. And we keep His Sabbath
holy by spending time with Him because we love Him.
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