Posted on 03/03/2024 3:31:37 PM PST by 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.
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.
I now offer two more pieces of evidence. One comes from the mouth of our LORD Jesus Himself, when the rich young ruler asked, "what must i do to have eternal life?" Jesus replied to him;
You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and your mother and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
(Matthew 19:18-19)
The second one comes from Paul's letter to the Jewish Christians in Rome, we learn, not from what he wrote, but rather what he did not write when he listed the commandments we should obey. Mind you, Paul was once a Pharisee of Pharisees, a man who persecuted Jewish converts to Christianity for violating the commandments. So, let us look at what Paul left out when he wrote about the commandments we are to obey in his letter to the Romans.
Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY," "YOU SHALL NOT MURDER," "YOU SHALL NOT STEAL," "YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS," "YOU SHALL NOT COVET," and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
(Romans 13:8-11)
It should be enough to read what Jesus said on this matter, but we also see Paul then teach that which our LORD HIMSELF said. So I ask you, what is NOT included in this list of commandments from Jesus and then Paul about which commandments we should obey to have eternal life? It is the Sabbath. If Paul himself is not obeying the Sabbath, than why would any born again Christian want to follow a regulation from a law that is obsolete? Obsolete, because Jesus fulfilled the letter of the law and became our Sabbath rest.
So many fail to understand that as a Jew, Jesus had to fulfill both the legal laws and ceremonial laws in order to abolish them, because all the high priests and all the blood they spilled never satisfied the law completely so it was never fulfilled. Yet the nano second he died, the curtain separating the inner and outer room was torn by GOD from top to bottom. Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the Law. Thus the new dispensation began that set us free from the law written on stone and the ceremonial regulations. Today we are justified, "Just As If We Have Not Sinned." We are cleansed by HIS blood and freed by the atoning work on the Cross.
Thank GOD we are free, free at last. Free from observing anything the old law said we had to do. Thus our Sabbath in now in Jesus, Who allows us to come straight through HIM as our mediator to GOD. Jesus is our traveling Tabernacle who resides in us, and thus our Sabbath it eternal. Eternal in that everyday is a Sabbath for us, and at any moment we can worship HIM, because we now worship HIM in Spirit and in Truth.
Yet there is more, because when we read what the author of Hebrews wrote, which most scholars agree was an epistle specifically written to the Jewish believers who were still struggling with the confines of the Mosaic law.
In that He say, "A NEW COVENANT, He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
(Hebrews 8:13)
There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
(Hebrews 4:9-11)
Finally, I share with you what was in the letter from the first council ever held by the elders of the church when the question arose about whether or not Gentile believers should be circumcised. In the letter they pointed out what they should follow, and keeping the Sabbath was NOT among the things they were instructed to follow. Anyone who claims the Sabbath must be kept by Christians, I would suggest you take it up with Peter and James who oversaw the council meeting on what rules the Gentile believers should follow.
Then it pleased the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas who was also named Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren. They wrote this letter by them: The apostles, the elders, and the brethren, To the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: Greetings. Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, "You must be circumcised and keep the law"—to whom we gave no such commandment— it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.
(Acts 15:27-29)
Praise God we are free from the bondage of a system that not only whitewashed our sin until a new animal was slain for it's blood to be spilled and sprinkled upon the mercy seat inside the inner room behind a curtain, but also held us hostage to worshipping together only on the sabbath. Once that curtain in the inner room was torn from top to bottom by GOD HIMSELF, we were set free to now enter into the presence of our LORD through our LORD, and commune with our LORD at any time on any day. Thank you JESUS!
Not sure what you mean.
Heck, the women and the men still did not believe Jesus was who He said He was.
Wow, your Bible reading comprehension is bad.
OK, let us go farther into Luke. They soon learned it was different.
Take the men on the On the Road to Emmaus. Jesus had to open their eyes to understand. They admitted they thought they were wrong on who he was.
I answered the question. You don't like the answer. God demands and deserves worship. He's an awesome God. Beyond our imagination. Adam and Eve, Enoch, Methuseleh, etc . . . all worshiped God. And on the Sabbath. It's implied. Down through the ages Gods faithful did this at great cost no doubt. Abraham wouldn't have pleased God if he did not worship Him as God wanted and instructed.
Yuppers!
💯
God had laws and commandments before he made a covenant with Israel. One of these was the Sabbath, which was made at creation. It's part of the fabric of God's creation.
You know, it is one thing to claim you believe the Sabbath is still in play, but you go so far as to twist Scripture to allow yourself to still be under the law.
As I stated, Abraham never practiced the Sabbath, and neither did Moses and the Israelites Until God instituted it.
I am, NOT A JEW!!!!
I am a Christ follower, and like Abraham, I am saved by grace through faith.
Like Abraham Jacob and Issac, I can worship God on any day of the week.
You claim to be a Christian, but desire to hold onto institutions that are not doing you any good. You expect to be saved any your works, I got faith. I am saved by the blood of the Lamb, and thus free of obligations that the Jews were under,
Yes, the Sabbath was for the Jews.
Every day is not the Sabbath to God. The seventh day is His holy day worship. The other six are to be spend in labor or constructive manner. So when you put forth every day is the Sabbath and I honor God every day. No, you do not honor God because He declares when and how He is to be worshiped. If every day is "special", no day is special.
Then I wonder what this was all about? (note text in red)
Genesis 26: 1And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. 2And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: 3Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; 4And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; 5Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Chapter and verse?
Show us where Abraham was commanded in regard to Sabbath keeping.
What does anything you wrote have to do with the Sabbath commandment?
(Nothing)
Wrong, the Sabbath was for the Jews and stated as an example of God who took a day of rest, but our rest is in Christ Jesus. What Mark wrote pointed to Jesus pointing to himself as being the Sabbath rest
As Matthew wrote in Matt 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
The rest He speaks of is in HIM, not in a stupid day.
Not until Exodus do we read GOD telling them to rest as He did, but before that He never did.
As I stated, Abraham never practiced the Sabbath, and neither did Moses and the Israelites Until God instituted it.
Gen_26:5 because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws."
God certainly had laws and whatever they were Abraham obeyed them.
Exo 20:11 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.
Of course God told Abraham about the Sabbath he created in the beginning. Of course Abraham obeyed it.
I am, NOT A JEW!!!!
I don't care. The Jewish people don't observe the new covenant Sabbath. They observe a Sabbath of their own making, a Sabbath that Jesus condemned in many ways. It's just like today so called experts on God practice their own Sabbath and reject God's Sabbath. You claim to be a Christian, but desire to hold onto institutions that are not doing you any good. You expect to be saved any your works, I got faith. I am saved by the blood of the Lamb, and thus free of obligations that the Jews were under,
You've been convinced that disobeying God and his word makes you holy. This is a Satanic teaching and designed to make people worship a false Christ.
You brought up the women visiting the tomb, not me.
I responded to your stupid defense that it proved the Sabbath was still in effect for us.
I saw Black Oak Arkansas open for Sabbath back in 1972 in Asbury Park
——>Wrong, the Sabbath was for the Jews
Nope. The Sabbath was made for man, not the Jew. Did the Jews keep it because God commanded them to as His chosen people at the time? Absolutely.
There were NO JEWS when the Sabbath was created. There were NO JEWS when the old covenant was struck. Jews, those descended from the tribe of Judah, did not come into existence until hundreds of years later. If we don't have to physically or spiirtually or mentally keep the Sabbath then we don't have to physicaly or spirutally or mentally keep any other commandment of God under the new coveannt. That's why the world is falling apart...becuase this teaching has watered down and perverted the word of God.
Show me the scripture where God told all this to Abraham.
You act as if God told Abraham everything He was going to tell Moses.
Talk about creating Scripture out of thin air.
Show me in Genesis where God told Abraham about any laws.
Abraham believed His promise, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, not because he followed laws not yet spoken to anyone.
Bipolar,
Today was His 22nd Day of His 12th month.
His 7th Day Sabbath,if one tells time like He taught Israel.
All those Pope followers who believes yesterday was His Sabbath missed it.
All those Pope followers who believe today was His Sabbath remembered it.
And has for the last 3 weeks.
One more Pope week to go before His Sabbath moves to the Pope’s MoonDay or false God tiwsday for 4 weeks, depending on the sighting of His moon..
And all the Pope followers who believe in the Pope’s Saturday or Sunday will miss it.
And probably for a good 3-4 months..
But they won’t know it because Satan does deceive the world.
Satan deceives the whole world isn’t a future thing.
It’s a daily thing
——>I responded to your stupid defense that it proved the Sabbath was still in effect for us.
Unfortunately, your response was gibberish and had nothing to do with the Sabbath commandment or anything from the text I posted from Luke.
——>Show me in Genesis where God told Abraham about any laws.
Genesis 26:5because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.
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