It is the everlasting good news that God is the Creator. It wasn’t even given until the time of Moses and abrogated in the time of Christ. It does not imply weariness: “The Lord does not grow weary,” Isaiah 40:28. You were “buried with Him in baptism, and you were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Your email address will not be published. In Acts 15, when the Jerusalem council decided what would be required of Gentile believers in the church, they did not require them to observe the Sabbath. And I think you’ll enjoy knowing what the Lord wants us to know and how to respond to that as we consider that next time. Rest assured, I never share your information, and I only send information I think you will love. Observing Sabbath also deemphasized acquisitiveness along with the constant human drive to achieve. God likes first things, not leftovers. God appointed both a day of rest and a year of rest. This is an official website of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Turn in your Bible for a moment to Exodus chapter 20. This is just a magnificent New Testament emphasis. Well, to answer that, we need to go back to Genesis chapter 2, so let’s do that; Genesis chapter 2. The Pharisees were strict Sabbath-keepers. Or He can set it aside, totally. Turn to Colossians chapter 2. Look at Matthew 12; Matthew chapter 12 verse 1: “Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, His disciples became hungry and begin to pick the heads of grain and eat.”, By the way, there was actually no Old Testament law forbidding them to do that; in fact, it was allowed. What about the rest of the New Testament? Back then, I never fully realized that the Lord and Savior I embraced as my Messiah, had actually been born a Jew. But rabbinic tradition had formulated - I don’t know, some say nearly 40 different forbidden activities; you see them in the Mishnah - one of which was carrying your mat. When it says in verse 2 that “by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested,” and then in verse 3 again, “He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”, This is a unique day, because, the creation being completed, God stops and rests. Look at chapter 4 verse 1: “Let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any of you might seem to have come short of it.” The rest that the New Testament concerns itself with is not a day of the week, it is salvation. That’s the rest the New Testament offers. But when you enter the rest of grace and the rest of faith, works cease. Verse 17: “A sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever.” Every seventh day was a reminder that they were living in a fallen world. How did Jesus treat the Sabbath? Does it earn points with God or somehow make us appear to be spiritual? “For who provoked Him when they had heard? As Gentiles, we have struggled with misunderstandings for centuries. It was a whirlwind of incoming information—and I soaked it into my life and spirit. “The Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, and saw My works for 40 years. So here, for the first time, we come across the idea of something being separated by being elevated; that is, God designates this seventh day as an exalted day, a day lifted above all other days. And we read these words, “Then the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts” - everything that occupies them. His disciples begin to make their way while picking the heads of grain - the same account is in Matthew. In death, the spirit either is united with God or the spirit is eternally separated from God. instepwithjesus.org is an Official website of the Seventh-day Adventist world church • View Regions, Copyright © 2016, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, E. G. White Notese | Knowledge of the Law of God, A Closer Walk 1 | The Sabbath in History and Tradition, A Closer Walk 3 | The Blessings of Sabbath-Keeping, Bringing It Home | Discipleship Activities for the Family. It was instituted officially in Exodus, in the law of Moses. Let everyone be fully convinced (satisfied) in his own mind. What does the New Testament say to the church regarding the Sabbath? Don’t let anybody hold you to a Sabbath. By the stroke of a pen the new Emperor instituted a one-world religion that he knew little about. That word is essentially the word holy, and this is the first time holy is used in the Bible. For 490 years Israel failed to let the land rest to allow the earth to recover after six years of production. They have decided that as Christians, we must keep the Sabbath, but it’s not any longer the seventh day, it’s the first day. To honor the Sabbath means to “keep it holy,” and holy simply means “set apart.” Our Sabbath should look different than the other six days of our week. Jesus appears to have chosen the Sabbath day for His healing purposely, because it struck a blow at this symbol. But is it possible that hidden deep within this theological utterance is the implication that there will never be enough time to do everything we want to do, but there will always be enough time to do what God wants us to do? He completed His creation; satisfied with it, He ceased, which is constituting rest; and the third verb, in verse 3 “He blessed the seventh day.” He designed that that seventh day would be a special memorial to His creation and its original perfection. The Christianity I grew up with—that many of us grew up with—was influenced and interpreted through Greek, Roman and Western eyes. New moon and Sabbath.” The prophet Hosea pronounces a similar judgment on their hypocritical Sabbaths: “I will put an end to all her gaiety, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths.” It didn’t mean anything to observe it outwardly without a heart of love and devotion to God. What is remarkable about this is there’s no command here to do that. At first, the idea of a day of rest viewed as a “sacrifice” seems counterintuitive. For we who have believed have entered that rest.” There is never a command in the New Testament to keep the Sabbath. In verse 17, He goes even beyond that, and defends what He did by saying this: “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”. Those are all moral mandates, moral commands, with the exception of verses 8 through 11, the fourth command, regarding the Sabbath. Deut 5:14-15. It was this cataclysmic time in history that the true first century, clarified and demonstrative faith of Jesus became entangled in vines of misunderstanding and became damaged by pagan customs that Constantine refused to let go of. Predictably, they were sent into captivity for seventy years as God exacted the seventy sabbaticals they had refused to observe by faith (thus proving that everyone pays tithes, whether intentionally or unintentionally). “For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. We have entered into rest with none other than the Creator Himself. How did we stray so far away from our original roots? But there are a few definitive passages. A version of this content originally appeared in Forward. - This revelation motivated me to go back to school and pursue an intense study of Hebrew biblical education, including anthropology and a study of the New Testament from a Jewish perspective. That’s so remarkable. If this series is hitting your heart, I’d love if you shared. Understanding the Sabbath: Permission to Rest. I have heard all kinds of elaborate excuses why their voice cracked and sounded like they were asleep (dry throat, sore throat, allergies are acting up, just preached an extended revival, or fasting). And they therefore were to consider the importance of obeying the Ten Commandments. Jesus is announcing the end of the Sabbath. All rights reserved. It was only the shadow, not the substance. There’s only two possible concepts about getting to heaven. Nothing is said about this day being a day of worship. Something we value higher than God’s command to “honor the Sabbath.” Something we think is more important than slowing down, putting aside and obeying. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” You will notice in verse 3 the word sanctified. The Sabbath laws were mere shadows of hope, a weekly reminder that there was a paradise to be regained and it was through the means of righteousness.