What About The Sabbath?

The reason For My Faith ^ | 11/7/21 | Chuck Ness

[OneVike]

Throughout His ministry, Jesus never once broke the fourth commandment which required that all Jews observe the Sabbath. He was after all Jew. However, He did give us a clue that a change to the Sabbath was coming. To make my point, you must first understand that the original manuscripts of the Scriptures were not divided into verses and chapters.

The Old Testament manuscripts were written by scribes for the religious leaders to study. The New Testament manuscripts were letters originally written to be dispersed amongst the believers to read. They were like the letters you receive today. Just a document written in sentences and paragraphs with no verse or chapter numbers.

So you really had to know the transcripts well in order find any information you needed. Finally in the mid 16th century a Frenchman named, Robert Estienne (better known as Robertus Stephanus), would divide the Scriptures into chapters and verses. So today we can find passages by memorizing chapters and verses. If you are interested in learning more about Stephanus, below is a five minute audio clip that offers more information.

Now I must say, that while I do believe every Word of the Bible is the inspired Word of God, I do not believe that Stephanus's choices of where he decided to split some sentences up into different verses or chapters were inspired. I say so, because there are many instances in the Scriptures where a reader can be distracted or even misled as to what the passage is conveying.

Case in point is chapters 11 and 12 of Matthew's Gospel. I personally believe that he made a mistake by ending Matthew chapter 11 at verse 30. It's my belief that chapter 11 should have had 8 more verses for a total of 38. Thus it would end after the following statement by Jesus,

“For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
(Matthew 12:8)

The following information is quite valuable in the apologetical debate on why so many are mistaken in their belief that Christians should observe Saturday as the Sabbath. Continuing on Jesus' statement in Matthew 12:8, I take you back to the end of Matthew chapter 11. Jesus had just finished telling the crowd that no one born of a woman is greater than John the Baptist, when He started telling everyone to come to Him for rest.

“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 in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
(Matthew 11:28-30)

By speaking about the concept of rest, the audience He is speaking to would automatically think of the Sabbath rest which God gave them. They were first told about this gift when Moses presented the Ten Commandments God handed to Him for the people to follow. As Moses read the tablets, he said,

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."
(Exodus 20:8-11)

By the time Jesus started His ministry, the Israelites had been observing the Sabbath for almost 1480 years. They understood that it was a day of rest, even for the animals. A day they were to be free from the labors of life that kept them from communing with God. So, when Jesus starts talking about rest at the end of chapter 11, he continues his thought process on through to verse 8 of chapter 12. So when He calls them to come to Him for rest, and then claims He is the Lord of the Sabbath, it goes without saying that this is all one thought process and thus chapter 11 should have ended at verse 38, with chapter 12 actually beginning at verse 9 where Matthew wrote,

Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue.
(Matthew 12:9)

The next 20 verses do continue the matter of a rest, but not until Jesus moved to another site. Thus it then makes sense to split the chapter after Jesus made His statement about Him being the Lord of the Sabbath, and after he had arrived at a different location.

This is important, because when Jesus died on the cross, He fulfilled all the requirements of the Law, including the one that calls for us to obey the Sabbath, since as He stated, He is our Sabbath. Just as we are not bound by going through a High Priest by offering a sacrifice, we too do not need to follow the Jewish Law. We can reach God through Christ, on any day at anytime we so desire. Without going through the commandments of the law which Christ abolished.

After 1480 years, the Jews showed they could not follow the Law, and with Christ fulfilling it and the ceremonial ones, we are free from it. So with Jesus, being the Lord of the Sabbath, we are free to chose any day, and anytime to gather for communion and celebration of Him with no more legalistic requirements to follow the old obsolete law.

Any Christian following any portion of the Law, is doing what Paul preached against when he chastised the Judaizers who tried to put the Christians back into bondage to the Law. This is one of the things he wrote to the Colossians about when he said,

Let no one judge you in food or in drink,
or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths

(Colossians 2:16)

Paul also wrote that, if you observe any part of the Old Law, then you must follow it all. Does anyone truly want to be bound by the full weight of a law that God's own people could never follow? The answer is a resounding NO. Praise God, because we are free to worship HIM anywhere, on any day, at anytime by going through the One who fulfilled and abolished the law. Thus setting us free from a Law we could never dream of keeping.

The flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
(Galatians 5:17:18)

Thus if you are not under the law, you are not under any obligations to any of the ceremonial requirements either. Nor are you bound by the Jewish Sabbath as I pointed out above from Paul's letter to the Colossians. Anyone who feels obligated to an abolished symbolism of the Old Law is keeping themselves from truly enjoying all the freedom God offers us through His Son's death and Resurrection, which is the true rest we have been given.

I pray those who have ears to hear will hear His voice and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who paid the price for all our sins. Amen

[Jim W N]

The guy was right. Your moniker fits you pretty well.

Bye. Don’t call me and I doubt I’ll call you.

[Glad2bnuts]

Sacrificial laws were not part of the Commandments. The 10 laws actually SET IN STONE are a commandment FOREVER.

The food laws, the washing of hands, the Priests movements and requirements were “Nailed to the Cross”. Since Christ is our Sabbath, and he was the Sabbath sacrifice for all time, are we not required to honor that still today like the Disciples did?

That is all I have to say.

[Glad2bnuts]

May I then murder, blaspheme, take the Lords name in Vain, steal and bearing false witness? Is it OK if I worship other gods? The 10 Commandments are not laws, they are sacrosanct, they are eternal.

[BipolarBob]

Don’t expect a reply, at least not an informative one. These drive by posters, post and run (off to church to get “holy”). Perhaps you might get a name calling (the lowest debate trick), when they can’t refute what your points are.

[Glad2bnuts]

I would welcome new information. Instead what one gets is, refutation out of hand with Biblical verses that can be interpreted different ways. I am no SDA, although it is one of the Churches I would join if I were of a mind to join an organization, which I am not. The thing is, the 10 Commandments are eternal. I can read in Scripture how they will be followed Eternally. If you are not TRYING to follow them, you are not trying to follow Christ. Since it is a settled point with Christians that Jesus is God, the Alpha and the Omega, did he not give the stones to the people on Earth? The people he gave them to were Hebrews. Since Christ followers are grafted onto the “People of the Book”, are we not the Chosen people, grafted onto the tree.

[BipolarBob]

It is impossible to have a high level conversation on here. These drive by posters post the same old drivel they've been told, post some things someone else wrote and ignore the Bible. Paul, in Romans I believe, breaks down the relationship of how grace, faith and works coexist and their roles. It's pretty simple when one reads for context but it goes against modern day church narrative, so it's ignored. The Bible speaks of a delusion sweeping the people. I believe it is addressing people who profess to believe in Christ but follow their mainstream church in a direction not based on the Bible.
I no longer wish to waste my time on the subject as we have had many spirited discussions in the past and it was all time wasted in my opinion.