Many Christians are realizing that the origin of our faith is Jerusalem, not Athens, Rome, Geneva, Wittenberg, Aldersgate, Azuza Street, Springfield, Nashville, Tulsa, etc. As a result, Christians around the world are reaching out to the Jewish people in new and exciting ways. It is clearly God’s appointed time to reconcile Jews and Gentile believers, binding us together by His Spirit in Messiah.
Because of the prophetic season in which we are living, many Christians want to learn about their Jewish heritage. The purpose of this lesson is to learn what the Bible says about the Sabbath, particularly as it relates to the New Testament.
The word “Sabbath” is found 135 times in the Bible. It is mentioned 75 times in the Hebrew Scriptures and 60 times in the New Testament. The word refers to the seventh day of the week and basically means to rest or take an intermission. The Hebrew word for Sabbath is Shabbat.
While the Sabbath is central in Jewish life, some believe that God gave the Sabbath for all mankind and only later gave it specifically to the Jews as their special day. In addition to this understanding, when Christianity became the official religion of Rome, Sunday was declared and actually enforced as the Sabbath for Christendom.
The basic purpose of the Sabbath is to provide a day for people to rest from their labors and spend time in fellowship with God and one another. Furthermore, the Sabbath was a sign of the covenant God had with the Jewish people. Exodus reads, “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you’ ”(Exodus 31:13).
When God said He gave the Sabbath as a sign, He meant it would be a pledge or seal guaranteeing His commitment to keep His promises to the children of Israel to give them a land, to make them a great nation, and to redeem the world through them. God had made these promises to Abraham and his descendants and the Sabbath was the guarantee that He would do what He said He would do for them. When the people rested on the Sabbath they were resting in the faithfulness of God to keep His word.
In Bible times, life was hard. Work was strenuous. There were no convenient, labor-saving devices such as washing machines, dishwashers, tractors, lawnmowers, disposal diapers, etc. People were exhausted just trying to make a living.
The Sabbath was a tremendous gift from God to people whose tired, aching bodies needed a rest. It was the one day of the week when they could spend time with God and family. They could break their monotonous routine. They could “take an intermission.” They could refresh their spirits and souls. The Sabbath was a day of delight for the people.
Isaiah writes, “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath [keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath], from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself [find joy] in the LORD ... ”(Isaiah 58:13-14).
In this Scripture, God calls the Sabbath, My holy day, the holy day of the LORD. Although the people were to honor God each day of their lives, this was the one day of the week set apart especially for this purpose. The Sabbath was God’s gift of time to honor Him. The people were not to go their own ways, find their own pleasures, and speak their own words. Instead, they were to spend the day studying, meditating, praying, and fellowshipping with God and one another as a family. God would bless the people with great joy as a result of being in His presence (Psalm 16:11).
The Sabbath was such a blessing that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob expected foreigners who accepted Him as their God to keep the Sabbath. Isaiah explains, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Keep justice, and do righteousness, for My salvation is about to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man [mankind] who lays hold on it; who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing evil.
“Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the LORD, to serve Him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants¾Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant¾’ ”(Isaiah 56:1-2,6).
God links the Sabbath with the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Foreigners [Gentiles] who turned from their idols and accepted the God of the Jews as the one true God entered into the covenant and became part of the commonwealth of Israel. As part of the covenant people of God, it was natural that they keep the Sabbath. God said He would bless the son of man (mankind in general) who keeps the Sabbath.
Of course just “keeping the Sabbath” would not please God. He expected the people to keep the Sabbath with a right heart. God blesses the one who “keeps his hand from doing evil.” This is the person who honors the Sabbath both outwardly and inwardly by expressing love toward God and each other.
Jesus faithfully kept the Sabbath. (See Luke 4:16-21.) In fact, he presented Himself as the spiritual reality of the Sabbath who would give true rest to our souls. He said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). The writer of the book of Hebrews refers to the rest believers can have in Jesus. (See Hebrews 4:1-11.)
Other than His claim to be the Messiah, Jesus had more problems with some of the religious leaders regarding the Sabbath than He did with any other issue. His concern was not with the Sabbath but with the many rules and regulations that made Sabbath keeping an end in itself. What God intended to be a delight had become a burden.
While keeping the Sabbath was primary for the rabbis, not all the groups agreed on how it should be kept. Some had more rules than others and were much more strict. For these groups, keeping the Sabbath became an end in itself in spite of the hardships their restrictions caused. They lost their focus as to the true purpose for the Sabbath. If there was a conflict between their rules and regulations and the needs of the people, they would enforce their rules to the detriment of the people.
Other leading religious groups were more lenient in their interpretation of how to keep the Sabbath. While they were certainly focused on keeping the Sabbath, they understood it was to be a delight and not a burden. They had fewer restrictions and recognized that man’s higher interests and needs took precedence over their rules. Jesus identified more with this group.
If there was a conflict between legitimate human needs and legalistic rulings to control peoples behavior, Jesus would always give His priority to helping people.
Jesus’ compassion for people brought Him into conflict with the religious groups who had the more strict interpretation of the Sabbath. Jesus had problems with some of the misguided teachings regarding the Sabbath, not the Sabbath itself.
Next to Jesus Himself, the apostle Paul is probably the most misunderstood man in all of human history. This is particular true in regard to Paul’s attitude towards the Torah. As with Jesus, Paul was a Torah observant Jew. While there are some Scriptures that seem to indicate otherwise, Paul kept the Sabbath. The reason some Scriptures have been misunderstood is because they have not been interpreted in their original cultural context. That context is first century Judaism.
Since God gave the Sabbath as a sign of His covenant with the Jewish people, it would have never entered Paul’s mind that God intended to change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. It was officially changed to Sunday by Constantine in AD 321. Yet several Scriptures seem clear that the church met on Sunday rather than Saturday. However, when read with a Jewish background, we learn otherwise. Let’s consider the two examples that have been the most misunderstood. The first is the church at Troas.
We read in Acts 20, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together. ... Now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed” (Acts 20:7-8,11).
This certainly seems clear that the church in Troas was having a “Sunday morning get-together.” But this is not correct. Here’s why. The Jews kept the Saturday Sabbath for centuries. They opened the Sabbath with a special prayer, followed by the lightning of candles and a meal. This was on Friday evening around 6:00 p.m. They ended the Sabbath with a special service called the Havdalah, or closing of the Sabbath. Jews still do this today. This was also around 6:00 p.m., or until the sighting of three stars.
They would continue this “closing of the Sabbath” into the later evening hours much like Christians gather for fellowship after a Sunday evening church service and talk and eat for hours. This special service included prayer, followed by a meal and fellowship. This was on Saturday night, which in Hebrew is called, “Motza’ei-Shabbat.”
In this setting, Paul and the believers had come together for their regular Sabbath meeting. This is when the disciples came together to break bread at the close of the Sabbath. Since they were already meeting, and Paul was leaving the next day, (Sunday) he kept talking until midnight and stayed until daybreak on Sunday when he departed.
These Jewish believers could not be meeting on Sunday because that was a workday for the Jews. Paul was not in church on Sunday because he was making his way to Assos, the next stop on his journey.
The next misunderstood Scripture refers to the church at Corinth. Paul taught in Corinth on the Sabbath in a home next to the synagogue for a year and six months (Acts 18:1-11). Later, he wrote to this congregation about taking a collection.
We read in 1 Corinthians, “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: On the first day of the week let each one of you lay aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come” (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).
Once again, the phrase, “the first day of the week,” refers to Motza’ei-Shabbat. It was the close of the regular Saturday evening gathering.
The Jewish believers, along with the Gentile followers of Jesus, observed the Sabbath as a day of rest and met for worship and fellowship in the evening after it was over. Judaism prohibits handling money on the Sabbath. After the Sabbath was over, on the first day of the week, they were to take up a collection and have it ready for Paul’s visit.
The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. God gave the Sabbath as a special day of rest for our bodies and our souls. It is a day when we can stop all of our busy activities and spend time with God, family, and neighbors in worshipping the Lord and enjoying one another.
While the biblical Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, this was changed to Sunday so that it would be acceptable to the non-Jewish, anti-Semitic Roman world. While it is good to worship God any day of the week, God is awakening a remnant of the Christian world to the biblical Sabbath.
4. Questions
A. How should the church view the Sabbath?
B. How would keeping the Sabbath impact our lives?
C. How can you apply this lesson to your life?