Paul the Sabbatarian

So, the title of today's sermon is Paul the Sabatarian. Paul the Sabatarian. Bring this out because there was a question most people have, and one of those might be, as I read on some website not long ago, on Quora website. And the question was a biblical one, why do people go to church on Sunday? Why do people go to church on Sunday? And most people in the theological world say, because of Paul. So, I'd like to go through this, questions that were answers given to this website that I think you might find interesting. Our first one, Christians go to church on Sunday as it is according to the Bible. The day Jesus rose from the dead, Christians honor the memory of Christ on Sunday, and that's from Michael Turner. He's retired. So, in case you want to go on the street and ask your own questions, here are some answers that you might get. Another one, most Christians worship services are held on Sunday to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus and also to heed the fourth commandment. And this is a clinical therapist who gives that answer. Let's have another one here. Basically, for the same reason, Muslims go to the mosque on Friday and Jews go to synagogue on Saturday. It is a day chosen by Christians, chosen by Christians together for worship. There's a lot of truth there, isn't there? It was chosen because Christ rose from the dead on Sunday, and this is an educated Catholic. That's what she called herself. Let's have another one here. Sunday is called the Lord's Day. It is the day He rose from the dead. Because of this, the early church met on Sundays. This is a bookstore owner. Have another one? For the same reason, a family needs to spend time together. And God commanded human beings to do this. In Hebrew, He's not forsaking the assembly, so He quotes the Bible there. And this is a Bible teacher. Can I add just a couple more here? Because Sunday is a very convenient time to gather in fellowship. Most businesses, corporations, and organizations are closed on Sunday, and people are usually free because it's a weekend. Please leave that Sabbath matter and think about convenience. This is a Microsoft technical engineer. Next, the Third Commandment reads, so you see they're Catholic, obviously. The Third Commandment reads, when Christ rose from the dead on Sunday, it changed the Sabbath to the Lord's Day. This is from Francis Marson, 37 years a priest lived and studied six years in Rome. Another one? Sunday is just the traditional day based on a papal decree in the fifth century. It actually doesn't matter when we meet as Christians. And this is from a Christian. So there you have it. Why people worship on Sunday? I think many of us would have a different answer to it of why we worship on Saturday. I think we would all have basically the same answer. But I bring this up because there are so many times that people keep the day that they keep or do what they do because of the writings of one individual in the Bible. Paul. They use his scriptures to validate what they do. Now this is interesting to me because Paul was transformed from a Pharisee of Pharisees to a worshiping Christ-like person, supposedly. But then people will say that after he became that Christ-like person, came into the church, that he was no longer a transformer but a reformer, and that he helped reform the Church of God. That's what's said. I mean, it's out there. I just broke it down into plain statements.

But I bring this up because Paul has an incredible, incredible story. I want to give you a five-minute breakdown on Paul's story. Most of you know that. Most of you know and I don't have a slide for this, but you can go to the book of Acts in chapter 9 and you can see after Paul went to work as a Jewish policeman, you might say, that worked with the Sanhedrin and also the high priest in Jerusalem to stomp out this new church, or sect, as you might call it, that had popped up after this supposed Messiah, as they viewed it, this false Messiah came. And he lived and he died. And now the church was broke and it was a threat because it was unlike any other church or worship center that the pagans came to, but it kept the law of God. And that became a problem and an issue because people were leaving the Jewish synagogues and coming to worship.

And so they needed somebody to put this down and they found the right man. It was a man full of zeal, passion. Right, Neil? Yes. Ah, yes. Does anybody know why I called on Neil? You should. Okay. Just thankfully with us instead of like Paul out there. But, so they wanted Paul to do something about it and he was very happy to do so. In chapter 9, verse 1 of Acts, you don't have to turn there, it's just a short thing, said, then Saul, it's a name before he was converted, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus so that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. So, he was, Hades bent on finding people of the way.

And so he wanted to go, actually it wasn't good enough because when they started persecuting the church in Jerusalem, a lot of the people fled and they went to different areas so that they would not be persecuted and continue to do the work in the church. But Paul, Saul said, let me go get them. Now, have you realized that on the road to Damascus, where he was struck blind, it was 135 miles from Jerusalem. Think about that. He was willing to go to, you know, walking. Well, they were riding whatever, but walking. How long did it take to 135 miles back then? So, this wasn't something. He was serious and he wanted to take people and bring them back and put them in jail, put them in prison for this. But, as you can see on the way there, he was struck down. For three days, he went without eating, but he couldn't see.

Did it give him a chance to look at himself? Obviously, it did.

Did it also give him a chance to say, now I know what it's like to be in a prison, a prison of blindness that I went and threw all these people in.

And that changed Paul as God began to work with him. God even talked to him.

As a matter of fact, he spent three years in the Arabian desert being taught by Jesus Christ himself. And then what happens after that? He gets stoned as he's preaching. He gets stoned to where people thought he was dead, which I brought out before, means what? It means he had to be unconscious and brain matter shown from his head. Then they considered you dead, but he got up! Now, some theologians actually thought that he was dead, and God raised him back up. I don't know, scriptures don't say, could have been. Whatever it was, but he got up and moved on to another city.

You think he learned anything from stoning? This is a man who stood while the deacon par excellence, the deacon of Deacon Stephen was stoned with his approval and actually held the coats of the people who were stoned so they could get that arm working a little bit better. This is him, gave him a chance to see what it was like to be Stephen, as he no doubt smiled, as Stephen was put to death.

And from there, he was stranded as see, said shipwrecked three times into the deep, hanging onto a piece of wood from the Mediterranean Sea.

I don't want to be out here. I'm here.

Beaten five times, 195 stripes in his tongue, serving God. His back must have just been scar tissue after scar tissue after scar tissue. And this was Paul.

And finally, he goes to his death in his 60s by a sword as they cut off his head.

This was Paul. And so today, what time I have left, I want to give you a better short history of Paul by someone who worked with him, stayed with him, and actually was, might say, a biographer of him. Because Paul's been maligned many times. Even Peter said some of his writings are hard to understand.

Well, he was a very educated man. Paul spoke, they thought, at least four to five different languages. He's an educated man. You ever read a legal brief written by a lawyer?

It's not easy.

Paul wrote in such a way as writings varied to the various churches, but he was a compassionate man. But he was also a man of zeal and passion, like no other. Peter was one. Matter of fact, it was Peter and him who had a clash before. It was him and Barnabas who had a clash. Because that's Paul. Paul was bent on preaching this gospel and teaching the way.

But it's also Peter who said that men twist Paul's writings the way they want. And that's what's happened. That's why I bring this up. Is that we will all have to work with people and deal with people in this life or the next. With an understanding of the zeal of Paul and how things were changed for him. Like you go with me, if you will, to Luke 4. Luke 4. Let's go back to Christ's teachings. Let Luke 4 be Luke the position. Luke the biographer. Luke the writer of Luke and Acts writes this decades after Christ was dead. And in Luke 4, verse 16, said, So he Christ came to Nazareth as he had been brought up. As his custom was, he went to the synagogue on Sunday.

No. Matter of fact, in the early 1800s in this country, they actually said that Sunday was the Sabbath day. And you'll find that in many writings. As the writers, theologians would reference, Oh, we kept the Sabbath day. And we're talking about Sunday.

But here it shows that Christ kept the Sabbath. And he did all the way to his death. Did from when he was born all the way to his death. Now, let's go over to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 1, the teaching to Gentiles from Paul the Sabbateat. He said, where's 1? Imitate me. Who? Paul. Who? Paul. Imitate me as I also imitate Christ. Can you make it any more clear? He was teaching, imitate me as I imitate Christ. Because you could tell the church then had Gentiles, had Jews. So if there was a problem here of him not, you don't think he would have been called out? What are you doing changing to the first day in a week?

And you say, imitate the Christ. Imitate me as I imitate Christ? Paul, shut up and sit down because you're not imitating Christ.

Because they definitely didn't have any problem calling him out about other things.

There are a set of scriptures, and I'm going to do this because that sermon is coming up in the next week or two. I told you one time I was going to give it, and I've just put it off and put it off, but I'm no longer going to put it off on the seven or eight scriptures that the world uses to show that we're all wrong. And how we worship God.

And I want to go through that because that's the arsenal. That's all I got. It's seven or eight scriptures. We'll go through those seven or eight scriptures, and then for any argument by anybody, there's none left. There's absolutely none left. So I want to do that, and I'll be giving that sermon soon. But people think that Paul came in to reform the church, and so by reforming the church, he did away with all works. That's something that he supposedly did. All he needs is faith. Faith, no works. Okay? So if you're in a boat, and you only have one oar, and it says, faith, where are you going to go? In circles. That's why we have an oar with works and faith, and we go towards the kingdom. But they also said that using Paul that you can worship on any day, preferably not Saturday, though. Worship any day. All days are alike, and they take these scriptures. And then, not only do they cover that, they also say that Paul says, well, you can eat anything you want. Anything! Buzzard!

Snakes! Anything you want to eat.

Because all is clean. Imitate me as I imitate Christ.

And the Gentiles are basically good, and Jews are bad. Bad. Bad. These are the teachings that go on in today's modern Christianity. I want you to know, because there's another one they use in Colossians 2 and verse 14 through 16. And it's about nailing the Sabbath, nailing those commandments to the cross. Because that's what Paul said. I'm going to go through that. In the next few weeks, I've got it up here. But you can go up to verse 13, and it will explain perfectly what Paul is talking about. But if you just want to take this, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Leave out verse 13, and you can make this any way you want to. This is what we'll go through the next time. Because I won't go... I'm not going to do this today. I was, but as I started working on this, I said, no, I need to spend a little more time in 13, 14, 15, and 16, and then you'll have it. It's one of those scriptures, one of those key scriptures, where you say, he nailed everything to the cross. Well, yes, that's what it says, but that's not what he's talking about. Context, context, context. And then they actually go into Acts chapter 20, as Eudecus falls out of a window and dies, listening to Paul's sermon. Because he went long, real long.

We'll look at that also, which you used, but also Romans 14, 5 and 6, which esteemed all days the same.

All days of the week are like... See, these... So here are two or three of the seven or eight, because that's all there is, that people use to base their worship on Sunday on. So I want another, but the important part for me today, was to teach the man who... know the man who teaches us.

And is that what he was really about?

If somebody comes to you in 10 years and says, you know Pastor Smith, Chuck Smith, he was a homosexual. Yes, he was a homosexual. I see.

What would you say?

Well, for one, I hope you'd ask my wife.

And then you'd ask people who knew me, are people who spent time? Well, that's what I'm doing with Luke, because Luke traveled with Paul. Matter of fact, the first half, virtually the first half of the book of Acts, is centered on Peter. The second half of the book of Acts is centered on Paul mostly.

Luke, you can see in the book of Acts, all of a sudden he's not writing as a second person or a third person. He's writing as a first person because he's there with Paul for most of the time that Paul is spent in the book.

Paul really starts when he struck down in Acts 9. And that's where his life starts, following God, the way God wants him to follow. So he thought he was following him. And God said, no, you got a lot to learn. And he did. And he did learn it. So you go from Acts 9 all the way to the end, Acts 28.

That takes in 28 years of Paul's life. And being Paul was, more than likely, had his head cut off two years after Acts 28 ends, because by that time he's free. But then he does have his head cut off in about 64. 64, 65, the dates time, they got a few months there. Could have been the end of 64, or 65. When Nero wanted to. That's where he did all of his killing that time, anyway, in 64.

But this ends, chapter 28 ends about 62 AD. AC, if you want to be technical. Okay, so this is two years before Paul is killed. So it gives us an account of Paul for 28 years. I think that should pretty well cover his life. Being they think he was in his mid-30s when God struck him down. He couldn't have been, couldn't have started before he was 30 because he wasn't recognized by the synagogue. Till you were 30, just like Christ not starting his ministry, because they were not recognized.

Till that time. So here we have 28 years of Paul's life laid out before us in these scriptures, telling us exactly from a man who was with him, who traveled with him, spoke with him, lived with him, all this stuff. So who should you believe? And he wrote this after Paul's end of 28 and before Paul was actually killed. So he pretty well covers a good part of his life.

So let's look at his friend through a historical account, chronicled by Luke the physician, also was a member of the church. And he was, whether he was paid, they think he was actually paid, all his travel was paid, all this stuff was done as he wrote the book, not only of Luke, which is a historical account, talking to the people who knew Christ, who lived at that time, but also the book of Acts. But the last part he would have lived.

And he wrote this to his friend Theophilus as a history. So we should be able to find, as we go now through multiple verses here that Luke wrote about Paul, where exactly he changed the Sabbath to Sunday. If it's anywhere possible, it's in the 28 years of his life. So if you will, go with me. We're going to make this a very fast journey because I don't need to spend a lot of time in various parts because it's already covered.

But let's start in Acts 13. Acts 13. Let's go to verse 13. Acts 13, 13. He's in the city, Paul is, city of Antioch. Okay? Now, when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga and Pamphylia, and John, departing from them, John who? John Mark. The one who wrote the book of John? I mean, the one who wrote the book of Mark. This was John Mark. He was traveling with them. Okay? Departing from them returned to Jerusalem. But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch and Paphylia and went into the synagogue on Sunday and sat down.

So it's not here because it says, the Sabbath day. They went into the synagogue and said, and after the reading of the law and the prophets, which people in the synagogue did, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them saying, men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. So here they had some guests.

They showed up. They don't normally come to synagogue, so they read from the law and the prophets because that's basically what they did. That's all they did. And they said, you have words for us, just like Floyd Lee. Today he came. Yesterday I said, hey, you got something for us? He said, yes, I do.

This is what happened here at that time. They were actually asking. Then Paul stood up and motioning with his hand, men of Israel and you who feared God. Listen.

And he gives a sermon.

Nothing in there about you people are keeping the wrong day. I was taught by Christ himself.

And this day was transformed when I hung off that piece of wood. No, he doesn't say that at all. I'll let you read the rest of what he preaches about. He's preaching about Christ. What was the center of his ministry? Christ and what he did for you and what he did for him. That was his focus. Why was he stoned? Because he was teaching that Christ was God. He was the Messiah. They're going, can't do this.

Amazing. He knew when he was about to get beaten. Five times he received 40 stripes minus one. Five different times. I think after the first one or two, I'd be sidestepping a little bit. Let's make sure my back's not healed from that last stripes I got. But not Paul. Not Paul. He's zealous. He has zeal off the charts. Oh, that's an Antioch. A Gentile city. Let's go over to Acts 16. Here he's in Philippi. You know, the city where he wrote the book, the Philippians, where he wrote a letter to them. Philippi 16 and verse 13. And on the first day of the week, no, so it's not here. On the Sabbath day, we went out of the city to the river where prayer was customarily made. And we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. And of course, that's the story of Lydia.

And then he went to her house and she had Sabbath services. From then on in her house, it didn't happen here.

So let's go to Thessalonica. Chapter 17. Verse 2. They came to Thessalonica in verse 1, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them, and for three Sabbaths, reasoned with them from the Scriptures. Read what he said later. Did he say he reasoned with them to get rid of worshiping on the Sabbath? No! He was teaching them about Christ, about what Christ did for him, and what he can do for all. And verse 4, he said, and some of them were persuaded, and a great multitude of devout Jews, and not a few of the leading men joined Paul and Silas. So he's teaching him, and Silas is teaching on the Sabbath, about Christ. There wasn't any debate. Which day? You're on the wrong day. No. And that's in Thessalonica. Let's go to Acts 18. Acts 18. Verse 4. So if it's going to be anywhere, it's going to be in Corinth.

In Corinth. Remember what he wrote to Corinth? Imitate me as I imitate Christ. So if Christ told him you need to start worshiping on the first day of the week, you think he would have done it?

If Christ had taught him to teach, preach on the first day of the week, what do you think Paul would have done? He'd have done it, and he'd have made it crystal clear. Did he? Let's go to Corinth. Let's go to Corinth. In chapter 18 and verse 4. And he reasoned in the synagogue. Right? Why did he go to the synagogue in a pagan city? Because they're the only ones keeping the Sabbath. He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Dreeks to keep the first day of the week? No.

When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was constrained by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. That's what he taught. That's what he taught. I think those are pretty clear, but let's hear it from Paul. I only have a few minutes left. I only have three or four scriptures left, but I'd like to hear from his own mouth, according to Luke, because here Luke's giving us what took place there. So let's stay in the book of Acts and let's go to chapter 24. Chapter 24. Chapter 24 and verse 14. Paul is brought up because the Jews have had him arrested, and he's brought up before Felix. And Felix is a judge. He's a governor. And so they want to say, hey, he's been teaching all this bad stuff, contrary to our law. And so Felix had to listen to what he said, and then he brought him forward. And in verse 14. Now let's go to 13. Chapter 4 and verse 13. As they were disputing about this, he said, nor can they prove the things for which they now accuse me. So this is what they're going to accuse him of. Okay. But this I confess to you that according to the way which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets. Believing all things. So this is the time. If this wasn't right, all they had to do was prove that he didn't keep the law. They didn't do this. And guess what? He gets whacked right then and there because he would have lied to the governor. You don't do that. But it didn't happen. Didn't happen, did it? This is the unpalmed word. I've kept everything from the law and the prophets.

And to just touch on that, just I'll go down because I didn't leave you a scripture for this. He said, I have hope in God which they themselves also accept there will be a resurrection of the dead, both the just and the unjust. This is what he was talking about. This is what they had problems with. He's telling all about this. Nothing about the Sabbath because otherwise they had him. They had him right here. But Felix, Felix, I don't know. There's, I've got to do this and I've got to do that. He wasn't sure. So Paul said, I appeal to Caesar. Now let's go to chapter 25 of Acts. Chapter 25 and verse Acts.

As he's standing there, he's saying, as he's talking to Festus this time, in verse 8, while he answered for himself, neither against the law of the Jews nor against the temple nor against Caesar have I offended in anything at all.

Where were the Jews coming out and saying, he doesn't keep the Sabbath, Fourth Commandment. They can't because he was in the synagogue with them anytime they were around or if he wasn't, he was by a river preaching on the Sabbath. And teaching. Finally, I'd like to go to 28, chapter 28. Acts 28. So we get to the end. So he's about 62 years of age at this time. They believe it's 62, 63 years of age. That's my age then. So here, we have a chance because here he even starts a ministry of Malta when he's only there for a little while. When he shipwrecked on this island and he goes and heals people. He does this and teaches. So in chapter 28, verse 17, and it came to pass after three days that Paul called the leaders of the Jews together. So when they had come together, he said to them, men and brethren, though I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, what was the custom of the Father? Same custom Jesus Christ was. He met on the synagogues. This Sabbath. I was delivered as a prisoner from Rome to be held in the hands of the Romans. Verse 23. So when they had appointed him a day, many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God. That's what he was teaching about. Persuading them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets from morning till evening. This was his chance to teach what Jesus taught him. If Jesus taught him to change to Sunday worship, didn't you? You cannot find it. Scripture after Scripture. I did not cover all the scriptures here that I could have covered. There's many more. But I want us to understand before I do go into the troubling scriptures that most people use. The ones that they twist, the ones that they take out of context, because there's only seven or eight. And that's it. In fact, I'm even thinking of typing something up just so you'll have those. You put them in your Bible if anybody asks you, because anybody that wants to say you can eat anything you want, you can worship any time you want, you need no work, you don't have to do anything. This is all they got. They just got these seven or eight scriptures that they twist around. There is nothing else. And I've heard it. I've answered the phone calls. I've met people in person, done these, and they say, well, we'll have a problem with this Scripture. I said, Colossians 2 and verse 14. How did you know? It's the same thing every time.

It was a baseball pitcher. They only got a few pitches, a fastball and a slider. That's all. So I want us to know that. I want you to know that so that if anybody brings us up, hey, here it is. Yeah. When you know someone's offense better than they do, you'd make a great defensive coordinator in football. And I want you to be that with this Bible. I want you to know the only things they can play, the only moves they have are these seven. And so, I think it's my next time here. I won't be here next week, since I'll be in Tennessee. But the next week, no, that's not right. The next sermon will be given. We'll be given two weeks from today. Chasing joy, which I have written. And then we'll go into the next ones on the next time that I'm here. But it's good to see all of you. I'll miss you next week. So I hope my wife will show up to services, which I'm not here to bring her. So hopefully she will. Since she heard this Sabbath sermon, she has no choice into worship on the Sabbath. So everybody have a great week. We're going to have to leave afterwards and head to Vero Beach. But it's great to see all of you again.