History of the Christian Sabbath, Part 2

Today I'd like to continue my discussion on the Sabbath. Last week we reviewed the history of the Christian Sabbath in the Old Testament. It's my hope today that we'll have time to survey the history of the Sabbath from the New Testament, and then a third sermon that will not be next week, because I'd like to give something regarding an attitude of thankfulness. But a future third sermon will examine observance of the Sabbath in the 21st century. But today I would like to talk about the Sabbath from the perspective of the New Testament teachings of God's Holy Day. Before that, I think it's good to have a review, because in any given Sabbath we have new visitors. We have people that are moving in and out of various stages of consciousness. So it's always good to give a recap on what we spoke about the week before. So here are some of the main points that we covered last Sabbath. The original Sabbath was established by God. This was the very God being who later would become known on the earth as Jesus Christ. The same being who later became Jesus Christ was the one who created and established the original Sabbath day. By the way, that's why I call this the history of the Christian Sabbath, even when you study the Old Testament, because it's all about Christ. He was the one that established the original Old Testament Sabbath at creation. And the Sabbath points to the work that Christ is doing. All of the Bible points to Jesus Christ. The Scriptures all point to Him, and the fact that the Sabbath was intended to be observed by all mankind. Another thing we looked at last week was that the ancient patriarchs obviously understood and observed a seven-day week. We saw various scriptures where a week was defined very clearly. And the fact that the Scriptures do not specifically say they kept the Sabbath is not a proof that they didn't keep the Sabbath. We are just simply given a brief sketch of their lives, and frankly, we don't know what they did 99% of the time. Some of them lived hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, and the Bible might mention them in two or three verses. So we don't know very much of what they did. And besides all that, even if they didn't observe the Sabbath, that doesn't diminish what God sanctified at creation. So you cannot look at the Old Testament patriarchs as an example of whether you should keep the Sabbath or not. Later on, we saw that the descendants of Jacob were slaves in Egypt, and in time they lost the knowledge of the seventh-day Sabbath. God taught them about it in the wilderness long before they ever reached Mount Sinai, long before God established a covenant with Israel through Moses. God gave them the gift of manna, and through the miracle of the manna, also taught them about the Sabbath day, re-instituted the Sabbath day in their knowledge long before they ever came to Sinai. We saw that God spoke His Ten Commandments directly to the people on Mount Sinai, and the Sabbath is one of those Ten Commandments. Moses was instructed to put those tablets inside the ark.

We saw that the Ten Commandments are God's law, and they stand alone or apart from the Old Covenant. The action of them being put inside the ark represented permanence. It represented eternal values that cannot be broken. Then we saw that God gave a series of laws and statutes and regulations to the nation of Israel through Moses, who was a mediator.

This became what we call the Old Covenant with Israel. Moses was instructed to put this Old Covenant beside the ark, not in the ark, but beside the ark. This represented the fact that this agreement was temporary, and it was limited since it could be broken and it could be voided.

Sure enough, because of the disobedience of the people, it was broken and the Old Covenant was voided. As we went on, we saw that the Sabbath was also given as a sign between God and His people. It was a sign that He was the true creator of the universe, and they would acknowledge that. He was calling out a very special nation.

Then we saw the nations of Israel, first Israel and then Judah, broke God's law, violated the Old Covenant, and went into exile as punishment. And after a generation, some of the Jews returned to Jerusalem, but the people continued to violate the Sabbath. So that is a recap of what we covered last Sabbath. Now, I know what some of you are thinking.

Then why did you take an hour last week to say what you just said in the last seven minutes? Because I have a sales background, brethren, and I can say the same thing in seven minutes or seven hours, depending on how much time I'm given. That's why.

So the period between Ezra and Nehemiah in the time of Christ is known as the inter-testamental period. Meaning, it's a period of time between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Something dramatic happened during the inter-testamental period. The Jewish leaders attempted to enforce the law of Moses, and even by violence, as if it was necessary. Let's go to Nehemiah chapter 13 and verse 23. Now, we ended the sermon last week in Nehemiah. We're going to pick up the sermon here because I want to point out the fact that there was a zealous attempt to enforce the law of Moses.

A very zealous intent. And if it took violence to do it, the mindset was, we will commit violence. But we need to understand that what we're about to read here is not a Christian principle. We understand that people are obedient because they want to be. Because they have to love God's law. That's why it says in the world tomorrow that God says, I will put a new heart into the people and take away that stony heart of flesh. But here's what Nehemiah did. He says, In those days, I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod and Ammon and Moab.

And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod and could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke according to the language of one of the other people. So I contended with them and cursed them, struck some of them, and pulled out their hair. That's not exactly Christian behavior.

In case you were wondering, we don't do that today. That's not the kind of conduct that we want to encourage anyone to have. It says, And made them swear by God, saying, You shall not give your daughters as wives to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or yourselves. So Nehemiah meant well, but his approach was destined to fail because you cannot legislate righteousness. Obedience comes from a willing heart and a faithful attitude. Jesus himself said, Don't swear. Don't make an oath. He said, Let your yes be yes and your no be no. You see, when you get into a situation where you are asked to swear to something, it implies that normally you don't tell the truth.

Therefore, we must make you swear to make sure that you might be telling the truth this time. Where Jesus said, A Christian is what you see is what you get. They should live a life of integrity. They should live a life of honesty. And when they say yes, it means yes. When they say no, it means no. There should be no need or requirement to ask a Christian to swear to God that something is true or that something is valid. But what happened here during this time is because of this zealousness, Judaism established as a religion.

Ezra, as a matter of fact, is considered the father of Judaism. Now, please don't confuse Judaism with the original teachings that God gave to ancient Israel because they are not the same. Judaism morphed into an official religious concept. And it was filtered by people who, through their over-zealousness, were attempting to legislate righteousness among the people. After the exile, many religious Jews were rightly afraid of the people bringing the wrath of God upon the nation again because of sin.

So to prevent this, they created a very interesting contradiction. Some of God's commandments, like the Sabbath, they took and they created layers and layers of rules and regulations upon it that were never intended by God. And they made the Sabbath a literal burden, something that people despised. Instead of looking forward to the Sabbath, there were so many rules that were created that people were avoiding the observance of the Sabbath.

But on the other hand, they created a lot of loopholes with other commandments so they could officially avoid the law. By the time Jesus came and he enters the scene and begins his ministry, this Judaism was fragmented and was broken apart. There basically were two major groups. There were the Sadducees, a ministerial aristocratic group who controlled the temple services.

And then there were the Pharisees. Now the Pharisees sought converts among the people. And then there were Essenes and there were zealots. And there were all kinds of various sects that had fragmented from the original Jewish belief in God by the time Jesus Christ comes on the scene. He really doesn't care about any of their beliefs. Since he was at the original creation, since he spoke the Sabbath into existence, his intent is on restoring the balance and restoring the proper view of the Sabbath day. And his goal is to strip away all of these laws and burdens and rules that were created by the Jews, that he referred to as doctrines of men, so that the law could be appreciated in its original spiritual intent.

Now let's go to Luke 4, verse 16. Luke 4, verse 16. There are individuals who just do not want to keep the Sabbath day, and they take potshots at virtually every Scripture that might be perceived as something positive regarding observance of the Sabbath day. And this is one of them, just a simple statement. Luke 4, verse 16. It says, So he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.

Now, brethren, the over 40 Scriptures mentioning Jesus and the Sabbath are too numerous for you to mention in this sermon. Virtually everyone agrees that Jesus observed the seventh day Sabbath. But some look at this phrase, as his custom was, and they say, well, that's a weak affirmation. He only did it because that was his custom.

It was like a habit. He did it because it was like a ritual, not because it really meant anything to him. And, brethren, the term, as his custom was, should not be taken as a negative term or a weak affirmation of the Sabbath. It simply means that Jesus observed the Sabbath as a regular part of his lifestyle. As a matter of fact, the New Century translation translates, verse 16, this way.

As Jesus traveled to Nazareth, where he grew up, on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as he always did, and stood up to read.

So you see that Jesus Christ observed the Sabbath faithfully. But as we will see, he did it as it was originally intended. He was not concerned about what the Jewish leaders, and I use that small case, the so-called Jewish leaders, thought about his interpretation of the Sabbath. And this put him in constant conflict with the Pharisees. Let's see some examples of that. Mark 2 and verse 23. Mark 2 and verse 23. Again, another scripture that many of the critics of the Sabbath point to and say that Jesus was doing away with the Sabbath. He was showing them how the Sabbath was no longer valid, how it was no longer important. And that's not what Jesus is teaching at all. What he is doing is he's trying to teach the Pharisees that there is a humanitarian approach to the Sabbath that was always intended by God. Mark 2 and verse 23. It says, Now it happened that he went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and as he went his disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. So they're walking through the grain fields. The disciples are hungry. There's ripe grain. So they pluck them, and on the spot they start nibbling on some of the grain that were on top of the heads of the grain. And the Pharisees said to him, Look, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath? But he said to them, Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry? And those who were with him, how he went into the house of God in the days of Abathar, the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priest, and also gave some to those who were with him. So the critics of the Sabbath say, Here's an example of Jesus saying that the Sabbath has been done away. Jesus is saying, No, the Sabbath isn't important. And here's an example of David violating the Sabbath. It is not important to keep the Sabbath day. But is that what Jesus is teaching here? Well, the great teacher came to restore the meaning of God's laws and obviously to teach their spiritual application to our lives. The Jews were accusing the disciples of reaping a harvest on the Sabbath day. Now, were they reaping a harvest on the Sabbath day? No, they didn't have sacks on their backs. They weren't working hours trying to gather grain for tomorrow. Something to store for six months from now. They were walking through the fields. They were hungry and they were taking something to eat on the spot. That's what they were doing. This so-called law of theirs that was violating the Sabbath was their own exaggerated restriction of the Sabbath day.

The disciples were hungry and merely plucking enough grain to eat right on the spot. Jesus desired to teach them that the original intent of the Sabbath was humanitarian. This is the reason that Jesus also healed on the Sabbath day. When he saw someone suffering, he would heal them on the spot on the Sabbath day. In his reference regarding David, David was obviously hungry when he showed up and the priest saw him. He was under distress. He didn't even have a weapon on him, which was unusual at that time. He showed up unexpectedly. The priest can see that he's hungry. He can see that he's distressed, that David is struggling. And Abathar's understanding of the greater importance of mercy prompted him to offer showbread to David and his men. This example in no way is intended to be used as an excuse to degrade the importance of the Sabbath.

In none of these examples we'll see today, did one receive a wage, or did one receive compensation, or did one perform their usual labor that they did the other six days of the week? In these situations we see like here and in the healings, Jesus Christ is simply in a humanitarian way out of an act of love intervening to care and help someone else.

There's no money exchanged. It is just simply him understanding that the Sabbath is humanitarian. It's about love and concern for others. It's about alleviating suffering when you see it. Verse 27, he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

Now, again, the critics of the Sabbath say, see here, what this basically says is that man has authority over the Sabbath day. And if man doesn't want to keep the Sabbath day, they don't have to observe the Sabbath day because it's obsolete and it's done away. But that's not what Jesus Christ is saying at all. What did he mean by this statement? The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

Well, the Jews had put so many restrictions and burdens on the Sabbath that man ended up serving the Sabbath instead of the Sabbath serving the spiritual and emotional needs of mankind. The Pharisees had gotten to the point where they worshipped the Sabbath instead of using the time to worship the Creator.

They gave more attention to Sabbath observance than they did to God. And, brethren, I have to tell you that in some areas this is still a problem with some in God's church today. Some people idolize the 24-hour period of Sabbath time, but they disregard worshipping the God who established it, who it's supposed to be worshipping.

Others demonstrate foul judgmental attitudes and obvious personal sins, but they think they're righteous because they keep the Sabbath day. And, brethren, that frankly is not true. I knew a man a number of years ago who had a lot of personal problems. His wife left him. He had four children. All of them were disgusted with him. None of them stayed in the church for very long.

The way he would solve a problem, for example, one time his son was listening to music he didn't agree with. So he took a hammer, he walked into a son's bedroom, and he smashed his son's radio to smithereens, just pieces flying everywhere. This man was the epitome of a dysfunctional human being, but he thought he was righteous because he kept the Sabbath day. Brethren, the Sadducees kept the Sabbath day. That didn't make them righteous. The Pharisees kept the Sabbath day. That didn't make them righteous. If you have a stinking, foul attitude, it doesn't matter what day you keep because you are not pleasing Jesus Christ, the one who made the Sabbath. Is the Sabbath important? Absolutely. It's God's law. And it's a time when we should stop and worship our Creator and respect that law. But we should not idolize the Sabbath above who and what God is. Now, by what authority can Christ declare that the Sabbath was made for man? Well, first of all, he was God in the flesh who originally made the Sabbath on the seventh day of creation. Ephesians 3 and verse 9 says that God created all things by Jesus Christ. So, of course, he could say, he could declare that the Sabbath was made for man because he was there. Secondly, Jesus obviously was restoring the authentic understanding of the Sabbath that it was made for the benefit of man. It is God who should be idolized, not a 24-hour period of time. It's about Jesus Christ. The Sabbath is a blessing. It is a gift. It is a tool to worship God. In itself, it should not be idolized every second, every moment, as if it is above or beyond our worship of God.

The Jewish leaders also self-righteously taught that the Sabbath was only for the Jewish people. This made them feel special, superior, and unique. But again, the Greek word used here for man, as I mentioned last week, is anthropos, and it means a human being or one with a man's face. It is not restricted to any ethnic or racial lineage. Jesus could have said that the Sabbath was made for Jew. He could have said the Sabbath was made for the Hebrew, if that was his intent. And Mark could have recorded it that way. Mark records the word Jew and uses a different word. What Mark recalled Jesus saying was the Sabbath was made for mankind and not limited to the Jew.

Therefore, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. So what is Jesus Christ saying here? Jesus Christ is saying here that I know what the Sabbath was intended for. He says, I was there. I created it. I established it. I ordained it for all mankind. So I understand what the Sabbath is about. That is why the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus wasn't interested in hearing their interpretation of what is right and what is wrong regarding the Sabbath day. As the original creator of the Sabbath, he said, I get to decide what the rules are. Not you, not mere men, not Jewish leaders. He said, I get to decide what the rules are. Luke 13, verse 11. Let's turn there, please. Luke 13, verse 11.

Another example of Jesus showing the humanitarian spirit and love that God has for the Sabbath day.

Luke 13, verse 11. This also exposes many of the Jews' contradictory rules regarding what was allowed in the Sabbath. It says, and behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bent over so that she could in no way raise herself up. So here's a woman 18 years struggling, bent over. Jesus sees her and he called her to him and said, Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity. And he laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. And he said to the crowd, There are six days in which men ought to work. Therefore come and be healed on them and not on the Sabbath day. The Lord then answered and said to him, Democrat, does not each one of you in the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it? So ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has bound. In other words, like that donkey, she's been tied up only for 18 years. Whose Satan has bound? Think of it. He said, Think of it. 18 years this woman has been bent over with an infirmity. Think about how long a period of time that is. For 18 years, he says, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath. Well, this is a classic example of the Jews creating contradictory burdens on Sabbath observances. First God's law never prohibited humanitarian works on the Sabbath day. It was the overzealousness of the Jews who had created these restrictions. You may recall Nehemiah chapter 13 and verse 19, for example. I read it last week where it said, in order to enforce the Sabbath, Nehemiah said, I posted my servants at the gates of Jerusalem so that no one could go in or go out and sell. Now, what do you mean, who was he to post his own servants on the Sabbath day to do this? It's because it was a humanitarian act. It was protecting the people. Sometimes you have to protect the people from themselves, don't you? In the same way, the Levites worked on the Sabbath in the Old Testament. They slaughtered animals. They did hard physical work on the Sabbath day in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, the ministry and the deacons and other people who serve us on the Sabbath day, they're working. They're oftentimes to the point of sweat, to the point of exertion. They're doing things to set up our halls and make it possible for us to worship God. Why? Because that is the humanitarian spirit that was intended to be on the Sabbath day.

So we see here that over time, the Pharisees had become so obsessed by not possibly violating God's commands that they added all these rules and regulations on the Sabbath day. And one of them was here that you could not be healed on the Sabbath. Yet, on the other hand, they rightly allowed for the care of animals and the Sabbath out of compassion. If your donkey was thirsty and was tied up, you were permitted to untie your donkey and to lead your donkey where the donkey could find some water and drink it. So they were more concerned with the care and comfort of an animal than they were for a fellow human being. That's what happens when you start creating these doctrines of men. Eventually, you contradict yourself and you contradict your entire theology by acting in that way. And Jesus is saying that this is a humanitarian act to heal at this time. Let's go now to John 5 and 6 and see another example of Jesus healing on the Sabbath.

John 5 and 6. When Jesus saw him lying there, he sees a man who's been lying on the ground for many, many years, and he'd already been in that condition for a long time. He said to him, do you want to be made well? And the sick man answered him, Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming in other steps and before me. And Jesus said to him, rise up, take up your bed and walk. And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry your bed. So again, there's no part in God's law any time that it may be unlawful to heal or to carry what literally was your mat. You have to understand, this man did not have a seedy, posturpedic, king-size mattress that he pulled up from the ground and was dragging away. He had a little mat that you rolled up and you put under your arm that he had been laying on, and he rolled up that little mat and he put that little mat under his arm and he was being judged for it because once again, it was one of the silly rules, the judgmental rules that had been created by men to enforce the observance of the Sabbath. Here's what the Holman Bible Dictionary says under the article Sabbath.

The Sabbath became the heart of the law and the prohibitions were expanded. I'm going to stop right there. How come worshipping God didn't become the heart of the law? Right? How about loving the Lord your God with all your heart and soul? How come that didn't become the heart of the law? But it didn't. It says, The Sabbath became the heart of the law and the prohibitions were expanded. Thirty-nine tasks were banned, such as tying or untying a knot. Brother, that's why I wear slip-on shoes. Now, actually, I'm too lazy to tie my shoes. That's why I wear slip-on shoes. Continuing, quote, The Sabbath day was to observe the Sabbath day as a day of worship in the synagogue, but his failure to comply with the minute restrictions brought conflict. End of quote. Again, from Holman's Bible Dictionary. So Jesus didn't come to transform or abolish the Sabbath day. He simply came to restore its original intent and the spirit in the Sabbath. And that is humanitarian. That is, when you see a person suffering or in need or hungry, you help them. Even on the Sabbath day. This restoration included an attitude of mercy and a humanitarian concern for others. There are a lot of other examples of Jesus healing others on the Sabbath, but we don't have time today to review them all.

Let's now go to John 5 and verse 16. John 5 and verse 16.

This scripture, I think, perhaps more than any other in the New Testament, is often distorted to say that Jesus was saying it was okay to work on the Sabbath day.

That Jesus was saying the Father works on the Sabbath day. I work on the Sabbath day, therefore you can work on the Sabbath day. That's what the so-called scholars want to imply. John 5 and verse 16.

It says, for this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them. My Father has been working until now, and I have been working. Ah-ha-ha! Says the critic. There you go, there's proof. God works on the Sabbath. Jesus said, I work on the Sabbath, so therefore the Sabbath is done away. That's what they say. Continuing, therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the Sabbath, according to their laws, but he also said God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

Then Jesus answered and said to them, most assuredly I say unto you, the Son of Man can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do, for whatever he does the Son also does and like man. In other words, he says, I follow my Father's example. We are in complete harmony. Verse 20, for the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself does, and will show him greater works than these that you may marvel. So what did Jesus mean by this statement? Is this the loophole that so many have been looking for? Well, brethren, Jesus uses this event to proclaim his divinity. You see, since God is outside of time and space, God does not grow tired or need a Sabbath rest like we do. I'd like to read you a comment that I thought is very brilliantly written from Barnes' notes on the Bible. Here's what it says in discussing this verse. Again, this is Barnes' notes on the Bible.

So again, God is beyond time and space. Sun rises and sunsets mean nothing to God. Those were created because we are finite. We are limited. Time means something to us because we're all growing old. That's why time is important to mankind. Continuing, he implies here what Christ was saying. He kind of re-words what Christ is saying. Quote, As God does good on that day, as he is not bound by the law which requires his creatures to rest on that day, so I do the same. End of quote. That is their way of re-wording what Jesus is saying. In this reply, it is implied that he was equal with God from two circumstances. Number one, because he called God his father. And number two, because he claimed the same exemption from law which God did.

Asserting that the law of the Sabbath did not bind him or his father, thus showing that he had the right to impose and repeal laws in the same manner as God. That he has a right to do this must be God. So, brethren, this concept that when Jesus says, my father has been working and I have been working until now, is the simple fact that the world continues. Did you ever notice that at Friday night at sunset, the spinning of the earth does not stop? Thank God it doesn't stop because we would all be blown apart, wouldn't we?

The sun doesn't stop shining. The next day, Sabbath morning, the sun comes out just like it does every other day. That is God continuing to work because he is beyond time and space. Now, let's go to Matthew chapter 24 and verse 15. Matthew 24 and verse 15. Jesus is discussing a prophecy here. He's going to talk about his elect.

What does he expect his elect to be doing just before his return? Matthew chapter 24. Well, let's begin by going to verse 21. So we understand that this, indeed, is a prophecy. Matthew 24 and 21. We're all familiar with this verse. For then there will be great tribulation, such as not been since the beginning of the world until this time, known or ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved.

But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. That's a prophecy talking about just before the second coming of Christ. We read it in the kingdom of God seminars. That was one of the points that we brought out. And the fact that because of the elect of God, the world will be spared. Well, let's not let's understand that.

Let's just go a couple of verses before that. Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him, who was on the housetop, not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him, who is in a field, go back to get his clothes.

But woe unto those who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days, and pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. Jesus expects his followers, his elect, to be observing the Sabbath many years into the future, even to the time of a future temple's destruction, just before his second coming on earth.

He strongly implies here that the elect are observing the Sabbath at the end of the age of man. Those are his expectations. What do we find when we look upon the earth? Do we see people respecting and observing God's Sabbath? What does his elect do? I can't answer for anyone else, but I can tell you that his faithful and his elect continue to observe this Sabbath day.

Let's now go to Acts 13, verse 42. Maybe all of this changed. I'm open-minded. Maybe when Christ was crucified, the Sabbath of Zirmas was nailed to the cross. How's that for a unique philosophy? I didn't make that up. A lot of people actually believe that. So the death of Jesus Christ changes everything. And the Sabbath no longer needs to be observed. The Sabbath no longer needs to be taught. Okay, let's accept that as a premise for a second and see if it is confirmed by Scripture. Acts 13, verse 42. It says, So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them on the next Sabbath.

Someone forgot to tell Paul. Would someone tell Paul the Sabbath is done away? Because he obviously doesn't get it. Verse 43, Now when the congregation had broken up many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God, and on the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. Well, brethren, I'm here to tell you that if the Sabbath was done away at the cross, if it was nailed at the cross, Paul didn't get that message.

Now, he's only an apostle. I don't know what his faults were, what his shortcomings were. Maybe he didn't have a 3G on his cell phone and it just kind of got lost. Obviously, I'm being sarcastic for a reason. And the reason is, is you cannot proclaim that the Sabbath was done away and show examples of the apostles keeping the Sabbath unless you're telling me they were hypocrites.

Unless you're telling me they were insincere. Unless you're telling me they knew that it was done away, but they put on a smokescreen and pretended like it was still important. I happen to believe these were men of integrity, that they were very sincere, and they reflected what their master and teacher, Jesus Christ, had done, and that's why they continued to observe the Sabbath. Acts 15 and verse 5. A thing that leads up to the famous ministerial conference in Jerusalem. It says, but some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed, so they believed in Jesus Christ, they weren't just troublemakers.

I think these people were very sincere. They were just misguided and sincerely wrong. But they were believers who had backgrounds as Pharisees. They said, it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. Now they're referring to Gentiles. It says, now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter.

So what occurs here at the ministerial conference? This is about 49 AD. A lot of people want it to refer to the Sabbath. They look for loopholes that make this decision about the Ten Commandments or the Sabbath day, and you just can't find it. Its context is what we just read. It's regarding circumcision and the law of Moses. To recap again, the Sabbath was established at creation for man and was directly given from God to ancient Israel. The Sabbath was distinct. It preceded the law of Moses. The law of Moses were the laws and judgments and statutes God gave to the people through a mediator known as Moses.

It is an error to consider the fact that the Sabbath was limited to being a part of the law of Moses. What existed before the law of Moses from creation does not become obsolete when the law of Moses becomes obsolete. So the conclusion of the conference was that there are four parts of the law of Moses that we're going to ask the Gentiles to continue to respect. And here they are. If you drop down to verse 28, The observant Jews did not like that. From blood. The Jews were sensitive about taking the blood out of an animal before they were born.

They believed, as it taught, that the life was in the blood. And that meat was unclosher. If there was blood that was left in it, you shouldn't eat it. Jews were very sensitive about that. From things strangled. And again, that ties in with the law of Moses and the fact that when you strangled an animal, you didn't get all of its blood out.

You had to slit its throat and hang it upside down to allow all the blood to drain. And then something of which the Gentiles were noted for. And that was gratuitous sexual immorality, fornication, and the like. The Jews, because they had an Old Testament background, did not think that rampant fornication was a good thing.

The Gentiles did. Again, you have to understand their culture. The Gentiles actually had religious beliefs that you could go in and worship that pagan god by fornicating with a priestess. You would give your offering, you would get to have sex with the priestess, and that was part of their religion. To them, that was like us having lunch. That was so embedded in their culture.

Sexual promiscuity was so embedded in their culture that we're just now getting to the point where we're beginning to understand it. With gay marriage and other things and monogamous marriages, you know, that'll be the next thing. I can guarantee you that's going to be the next big issue. Because once you allow gay marriage and you say that marriage no longer has to be between a man and a woman, then nothing in law can stop you from having eight wives.

You already violated the principle that marriage is limited to one man and one woman. Once you do that, you open the floodgates for every type of perversity that is possible in our nation. So again, it says here, though greater burden than these necessary things, things offered to idols from blood, from things strangled from sexual immorality, if you keep yourselves from these, you will do well, farewell. So the context of the conference was that the act of physical circumcision and the law of Moses was no longer valid except for these four things because of the sensitivity of the Jewish believers.

The new covenant indeed removed the burden of all the physical rituals, the sacrifices and the regulations that I might add were still going on in the temple in Jerusalem. The temple existed until 70 AD. So all of these things are still going on in the temple and the conference, the ministerial conference said none of those things are important. You are not under a requirement for any of the rituals or any of the regulations, any of the ceremonial sacrifices. They're all fulfilled in Christ. So the context is not the Sabbath or the Ten Commandments. The context is circumcision specifically along with the law of Moses.

Now, if these were the only moral necessary things that the Gentiles were required to keep, and some scholars say that the decision of the conference was that the only thing the Gentiles had to do to be Christians was these four things.

And I say, wrong, where's my buzzer? That is simply not true. If that is true, then it's okay to steal because they don't prohibit stealing. Then it's okay to lie and bear false witness because that's not one of the four requirements. Then it's okay to use blasphemous language and use God's name in vain because that's not one of the four either. It's okay to violently torture people and kill them because that's not one of the four either. You see, brethren, my point is that this was not a discussion of God's moral law, the Ten Commandments which are permanent, which are eternal. This was a discussion only specifically on circumcision and how it related to the law of Moses. Well, let's see how good of a learner Paul is. Let's go to now chapter 16 and verse 11. Maybe Paul came away with a deeper understanding that the Sabbath has been done away. Acts 16 and verse 11. Let's see if he believed that the Sabbath was under discussion at this ministerial conference. Acts 16 and verse 11. Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis, and from there Philippi, which is the foremost city in that part of Macedonia, a colony, and we were staying in that city for some days. Verse 13, and on the Sabbath day... Boy, Paul is a slow learner, isn't he? He just doesn't get it. It says, on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made, and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now, a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshipped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. So the ministerial conference in Acts 15, Paul continued after this conference to preach on the Sabbath to the Gentiles.

Now again, some critics say, well, Paul only preached on the Sabbath because he could find a ready audience in the synagogue. Really? Well, it says here that Paul went to the riverside. Now, the last time I checked, a riverside is outside of a synagogue. Not unless you've got a lot of money, you could afford to have a river flow through the synagogue. We've never discovered one of those.

But it says here that on the Sabbath day, we went out of the city to the riverside. You see, on the Sabbath, Paul was willing to go anywhere to preach the good news of the coming kingdom of God. Can you tell me what better day pictures the millennium, the coming kingdom of God, than the seventh day Sabbath? It should be no surprise to us that Paul, on that day, went out to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Now let's go to chapter 18, verse 4.

It says, and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks and his Gentiles.

So once again, after this ministerial conference in Acts 15, Paul continued to observe and preach to both Jew and Gentiles the gospel of the kingdom of God. Take a look at verse 11. What does it say? And he continued there for a year and six months teaching the word of God among them.

So, brethren, for over 75 straight Sabbaths, 75 Sabbaths in a row. Because it said that he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath on verse 4. So for over 75 straight Sabbaths, Paul taught the Jews and Gentiles about Jesus Christ. Doesn't sound to me like Paul got a different message from Acts 15. Sounds like Paul knew exactly what Acts 15 was about. And it was not about whether we should continue to observe the Sabbath day. Now I would like to take a look at some so-called difficult scriptures in the New Testament that many people use in an attempt to show that the Sabbaths were done away. Let's go to Galatians chapter 4 and verse 8. Galatians chapter 4 and verse 8. Obviously, the church in Galatians was Gentile, predominantly. Paul writes something in his book that many people leap upon as proof that the Sabbath was done away. Galatians chapter 4 and verse 8. But then indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now, after you've 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. And the critic says, see, Paul is condemning them for keeping the Sabbath days and the feast days. But I want you to notice the context. Paul must be talking to Gentile believers since one would never say that Jewish believers served those, quote, served those which by nature are not gods. The Jews were monotheistic. They may have had their faults and flaws and problems, but they did worship one God. The true God, they worshiped him in vain, but they did worship the one God. So in context, Paul could not be talking to Jews. He is talking to people who in the past worshiped multiple gods. This was very prevalent throughout the entire Roman Empire. The Gentile believers here were turning back to bondage of pagan observances. You'll notice the Sabbath is not mentioned here. The Sabbath is not a form of bondage. Now let's go to chapter 5, verse 1 and see what the real context of this discussion was.

Chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. Stand fast therefore in the liberty with which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed, I, Paul, say that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.

So again, the discussion is always on the doctrines of men trying to tell people that the way they are is not good enough, that they must do something else to be saved. They must do something else to be favored by God. The yoke of bondage was the false belief that one had to be circumcised to be saved.

Again, some claim that observing the Ten Commandments and the Sabbath is like slavery. I got a particular laugh out of one scholar who wrote the quote, as New Testament Christians, we should cross the Red Sea to gain freedom from the law. That sounds so spiritual, brethren. The only problem is, when you read Exodus 20, it reveals that the Commandments and the Sabbath were given after Israel left slavery. They crossed the Red Sea to leave slavery, and they were given the Sabbath and the law of liberty so that they could live happy and abundant lives. These are the laws of love and liberty. God's commandments are not slavery. But I realize to the carnal, self-centered mind, who doesn't want to respect God, who doesn't want to observe anything that God asked them to do, that they are going to consider anything that God says or commands or teaches as a tremendous burden on them. They just have to do it. And again, if that's our attitude, then you cannot have a healthy relationship with your Father and with your Creator. You have to do things from a loving heart, with a right attitude and with an attitude of faith. Now, in contrast to this yoke of bondage that we read about here in chapter 5 and verse 1, Isaiah 58.13 says that the Sabbath is a delight. It's not a yoke of bondage. The Prophet said it's a delight and a holy day to the Lord, honorable. The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 5 and verse 3, he said, For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. So rather than being slavery, rather than being bondage, the law of God is a delight. It is the love of God reflected in our hearts and in our minds. Now let's go to Romans chapter 14 and verse 3, another scripture that people twerk out of context and attempt to prove that it doesn't matter what day you keep to worship God. Romans chapter 14 and verse 3.

Paul wrote here, the Roman congregation. Romans chapter 14 verse 3, Let not him who eats, hang on to that word, eats, despise him who does not eat, let not him who does not eat, hang on to that word, judge him who eats. For God has received him. Who are you to judge another servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.

One person esteems one day above another, and 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. Continuing about these days, notice again, he who eats, so he's tied together eating with whatever kind of days he's talking about. Eats to the Lord, and he gives God thanks, and he who does not eat to the Lord, he does not eat and gives God thanks.

Well, the context of Romans 14 is not about our approach to public worship, like a Sabbath day. It's about our private, personal preferences. For example, if you choose to be a vegetarian, or if you choose to eat only meat, and you despise broccoli and other vegetables, or you decide to fast and not eat at all, that's not a matter of public worship or morals, but of your private, personal preference. And some were judging the church members regarding days that they were eating and days that they chose to fast.

Now, I want you to notice this close association of eating and days, and it's suggested that Paul was addressing special days that were being set apart for feasting or fasting.

I'll give you an example. The Jews, and there were many Jewish believers, traditionally fasted two days a week. What we call Monday and Thursday. The Jews, a good Jew, a religious observant Jew, fasted. You may remember the Pharisee in Jesus' parable, who, unlike other people, he gloated in Luke chapter 18 that, I fast twice a week. Thank, thankly God, I'm not like these other drones. I fast twice a week, as he says in the parable.

Some Jewish converts may have been judging the Gentile members for not fasting when they did. And Paul is saying, look, if someone chooses to fast on Tuesday, that's their business. That's their personal preference. If someone chooses to eat on Tuesday, that's their personal preference. What you eat or what you don't eat, and what day you eat or don't eat and choose to fast, or you only eat vegetables, that is your own personal preference.

And you should not be judging one another over those things. A Christian should not judge his fellow brother on these choices of private personal preferences. To associate the Sabbath to these scriptures is taking it way out of context. The word Sabbath is never mentioned, and it is not a discussion of a day of worship. It is a discussion on your own personal preferences of when you eat or when you fast. You know, one may esteem or observe a fast day or a civil holiday or an anniversary to honor God.

And another may not see it special at all. This Thursday, in my reflections and prayers and as we sit down to eat, I will be thinking of the Great God who gave this nation its blessings. And to me, it is a day of thanksgiving to my God.

I have brethren in Canada that day will mean nothing to them because they have their own version of thanksgiving. That doesn't make me superior to them. That's my preference. That is a day that I have chosen to acknowledge and esteem God while I eat and to think of God. And we call that day, as those of us in the United States, Thanksgiving Day.

And Paul is saying, when you do these things, do not judge each other. And it's so easy to happen, well, I fast once a week. How often do you fast? Well, I only fast on that day of atonement. We can become trying to out-righteous one another. That's what these things lead to. Someone trying to be superior and show everyone else that they're more righteous than other people.

And Paul wanted them to avoid that. Let's now go to Colossians 2 and verse 16. Final Scripture that we'll look at today. Colossians 2 and verse 16. Colossians 2 and verse 16. He's telling this congregation, so let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths.

I'm going to stop right there. What does this say so far? There are people in that congregation who are observing the feasts. There are people in that congregation who are observing the Sabbaths. Paul confirms that. He says, don't let anyone judge you. This confirms that there were people doing it. Which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and the worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.

Verse 19. And not holding fast to the head from whom all the body nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments grows with the increase that is from God. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of this world, why is the living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations? Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle. And the critic says, see, Paul is condemning these people for observing the Sabbaths and observing these holy days.

So I want you to notice, first of all, that the Gentile Christians were keeping the Sabbath and Paul was telling the Church that no one, don't let anyone judge you for doing these things except the Church. He said, you have a right to do those things. Don't let anyone judge you in how you feast or rejoice in these Sabbaths. I want you to also notice how Paul states that these are a shadow of things to come, not a shadow of things in the past.

You see, what do these days point to? Well, the Sabbath points to the future. It points to the kingdom of God on earth, what we call the Millennium. It's forward-looking. Now, if you're walking down the street and the sun is behind you and it casts a shadow in front of you, you are walking toward that shadow.

It is a shadow of things to come, not the obsolete shadow of things in the past that are done away. Christ did not come to do away with the Sabbath and the Holy Days because Paul is saying these days are a shadow of things that are yet to come. So what is he dealing with here? He's dealing with a problem of heresy within the congregation and an influence by something called Gnosticism. The Gnostics were very prominent religious people in the Roman world and one of their sects was a seticism.

They believed that everything material was evil. Your flesh is evil. Eating is evil. Touching is evil. And you have to get rid of all of these evil thoughts. Matter is evil. Anything physical is evil. Pleasure is evil. And this was the belief that again, matter and all good feelings are evil. They said to become spiritual, you have to purge yourself of this evil matter. And all pleasures, you have to punish your flesh.

You have to starve yourself. You have to do without. This explains Paul's comments about not touching or tasting or handling. That's what he's referring to when he says that. Their regulations don't touch, don't taste, don't handle because they thought that anything that is physical or pleasurable is bad and evil. The Gnostic influence in the Colossian church was troubling members by judging them because they were eating and they were drinking and they were having festivals, a feast on the Sabbath day as God originally intended.

Not surprising, another fundamental belief of Gnosticism was angel worship. The Gnostics believed that to know God, that you had to go through various, what they called emanations, kind of like the Masons today, different degrees. You had to go through various emanations. Start with the lowest level angel to work your way up, to be able to have a relationship with God.

So I want you to notice his warning in this verse against false humility. That was the asceticism, believing that anything physical is evil and bad. So he cautions them about this so-called false humility and angel worship. He makes that very clear that he condemns angel worship and that also was part of the Gnostic belief that you had to worship angels in various degrees before you could have a relationship with God.

In context, this scripture is not a proof that the Sabbath is obsolete. It actually confirms that the Gentile believers were observing the Sabbath and he tells them, let no one judge you about these observances. So I think that is very important for us to understand. Well, brethren, that's the basic conclusion of our sermon today within the next month. I hope to give part three in which we will look at the book of Hebrews. We will talk about how we can keep the Sabbath in our very complicated and complex 21st century. And we'll look at how the Sabbath will be observed a little bit into the world tomorrow and scriptures that relate to that. But I want you to understand that Christians who observe the seventh-day Sabbath don't keep it because they believe it offers salvation. Only the shed blood of Jesus Christ can save us. We don't keep the Sabbath because we think it makes us superior to others. We keep the Sabbath because we are no longer blinded. God has revealed his truth to us. And we want to respect the day that he set aside at creation every week to rest and to reflect on the fact that he is a great God. We joyfully observe the Sabbath to honor and respect all of the commandments of God, to follow the example of Jesus Christ, as we saw today, who was the messenger of the New Covenant. We want to follow the example of the disciples, like we saw with Luke and Paul, that we read about today. And we, as God's children, seek to joyfully obey our Father's command. And we want to please him in all that we do. And we know that we are blessed for our loving obedience to our Heavenly Father and to his Son Jesus Christ. We believe that observing the seventh-day Sabbath is an act of honoring God and is a loving response to the grace that he shows towards us. So we will continue to faithfully worship the Creator God on the Sabbath. We will not worship the Sabbath. We will worship our God on the Sabbath as a holy time of rest, as a time of worship, as a time of fellowship, and as a time of celebration. Let us continue to celebrate. Have a fulfilling Sabbath day.