​​​​​THE MYSTERY REVEALED

REMEMBER TO KEEP THE SABBATH DAY HOLY

Scripture speaks of how God wanted man to keep the Sabbath Day holy because He had worked for six days to create the heavens and the earth “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” (Genesis 2:3)

That commandment was so important to God that He included it as one of the Ten Commandments of Israel’s old covenant Law.

The Law of the sabbath says that for “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.” (Exodus 20:9-10)

Moses says that “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.”

They had come out of Egyptian slavery and through the sea and after traveling along for several weeks they came to Mount Sinai and that is when Moses went upon the mountain to receive God’s instructions for His people and that included the Ten Commandments, written on tablets of stone.

After God gave him the Ten Commandments, in the weeks that followed He will add more laws for His people to keep. He will also give Moses detailed instructions with regard to how they were to build His tabernacle and how His priests were to offer their worship to Him at that place.

He will also tell them why they were to keep the Sabbath Day. He said that they were to keep His sabbaths “- -for this 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) 

God told them “Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.” 

God repeated how it was a sign; “So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’ It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.”

If the sabbath was a sign between God and His people, was it meant to foretell of a sabbath to come to God’s spiritual Israel of the new covenant? If it applies to us, why are most church members not keeping the Sabbath day holy?

Remember, it was a holy day because God rested on that day. Is God speaking of a different day of rest for us? Is it Sunday? Many churches believe that Sunday, the first day of the week is our Sabbath Day.

Most churches gather together to worship on that first day of the week, but the seventh day sabbath was never meant to be a set day for God’s people to worship. God told them that it was a day for complete rest.

Many Jews went to the synagogue for scripture reading and study on the Sabbath Day, but others would not go because it was too far for them to travel. Under their old covenant Law, they were not allowed to go to the synagogue on that day if they lived beyond the permitted travel distance and that was less than a mile from their city. They were required to stay home and rest.

If Sunday is meant to be our Sabbath Day, then we may be able to see that in the first century church. They were all Jews and they continued to observe the Law of Moses in addition to offering their new covenant worship on the first day of the week. 

They would, therefore, have observed the seventh day as their seventh day sabbath rest and then gather together for church worship on the next day, meaning on the first day of the week. 

God was slowly allowing them to adjust to the fact that the Law of Moses had been made void, and that included the requirement to keep the seventh day as their day of rest.  

Common sense tells us that many of those first Jewish Christians would have had no choice but to work on Sunday because that was the first day of the Jew’s six-day work week and all Jewish servants would have been required to work on that day unless their masters were also Christians.

We know that some three thousand Jews obeyed the gospel and were added to their church number on the Day of Pentecost and multitudes were being added in the days and weeks that followed (Acts 2:41 and Acts 5:14). 

If so, then some of them would have been servants of Jewish masters that would not have been converted. Their masters would have allowed their servants to rest on Saturday, but they would have been required to work on Sunday.

Speaking of those servants, they could only gather together for church worship on the first day of the week if it was being held before or after work hours.  

Remember, for the Jews, their Sabbath Day ended at sundown on Saturday evening (the Sabbath Day) and the first day of the week began at that time. They would have been released from any seventh day travel limits and could travel to their place of worship after sundown.

If their old Law command to keep the Sabbath Day holy by resting on it was just a shadow of what God requires of us, then it was never meant to be God’s true sabbath. God’s true sabbath has been given to Christians if we hold faithful until the end of life on this earth.

Paul says that we “having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:12-14) 

He later says of the sabbath, “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”

When Paul and his companions came to Troas, “We sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them at Troas within five days; and there we stayed seven days. On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.” (Acts 20:7-8)

Sometime after that they broke the bread and ate, and he continued to speak to them until it was daybreak and then he left.

If they were there for seven days before they met together on the first day of the week to break bread, then it was the first day of the week when they first got there but likely too late for them to meet with them.

Sometime after they met together on the next first day they broke bread and ate, and he continued to speak to them until it was daybreak and then he left. If so, then they partook of the bread after midnight, but it was still on the first day of the week because their first day of the week would not end until the next sundown.

If the first day of the week (Sunday) is not our new covenant Sabbath Day of rest, what is our day of rest? It has to be the day after God’s six days of creation work have been completed. 

Christ did all of God’s creation work. Paul says that “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:15-16)

If Christ was the Firstborn of all creation and His creation work includes thrones and dominions and rulers, that was not part of God’s first creation.

Scripture says of God’s first creation that “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:27-28)

It appears that before sin came into the world that Adam and Eve were equal partners and they were assigned to rule together over all other life on earth in a creation that was very good.

Scripture says that “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” (Verse 31)

It was a very good creation until man messed it up with sin. After Adam and Eve messed up this first creation, then rulers and authorities came into being with Adam being cursed by having to fight thorns and thistles to get bread and with Eve being cursed by having Adam begin to rule over her.

When man messed up this first creation with sin, God immediately began to work on His new creation that is only found in Christ Jesus.

Paul says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10) 

In God’s new creation, we have been created in Christ Jesus for good works. We are not saved by our works but if we fail to do the works that we have been created to do in God’s new creation, then we may not have become a part of that new creation. 

Among those good works that we must do is to remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy by doing our work on the first six days.  

God told Moses, “- But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; 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)

The greatest work ever done was the work that Jesus did on the cross to sanctify us with His blood. The Hebrew writer says, “Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.” (Hebrews 13:12) 

He suffered on the cross all day long as He was working to sanctify us with His blood. When He finally came to the point of death, John tells us, “Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” (John 19:30) 

Jesus had finished all of His creation work on the cross on the sixth day and then He rested from all the work that He had done when they placed Him in the tomb that evening as the Sabbath Day began. 

Their Sabbath Day began at sundown on the Friday evening of that Passover week, and it ran until sundown on Saturday evening. Jesus was placed in the tomb on that Friday evening, the sixth day of the week and then He rested; "AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS" (Hebrews 4:4) 

Christ had finished His work on God’s new creation but there is much more work to be done. He is speaking of that work when He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” (John 14:12)

Remember, the Sabbath Day was given as a sign between God and His people. Anyone who did any work on that day would be put to death. If it was a sign, then our Sabbath Day is the reality.

Speaking of our Sabbath Day, John was told to "Write, `Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them." (Revelation 14:13) Some others will have no rest.

Scripture says of some who have worshipped the great beast, “- the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” (Revelation 14:11) 

If God’s people will rest from their labors after this life is over, is our Sabbath Day to come on that new earth? Remember, there will only be one eternal day in that heavenly land. It appears that last day may be our day of Sabbath rest. 

The Hebrew writer says of our rest, “Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.” (Hebrews 4:1) 

He says, “For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: "AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS "; and again in this passage, "THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST."

He adds, “For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.” He says, “Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest - -.”

If we are to rest from our works as Christ did from His, it will happen after this life is over. Let us be diligent to enter that rest by keeping that Sabbath Day holy. We keep it holy by doing the work that God has created us to do on this earth. 

According to Bible records, Christ began His new creation work some six thousand years ago, after Adam and Eve sinned and messed up this creation. 

How does that compare to six days of work on this first creation? Peter spoke of God’s promise of Christ’s return and why it has been delayed and said, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” (2 Peter 3:8) 

God is not limited in time or space. A thousand years is as a day with God and a day is as a thousand years. Are those six days of Christ working on this first creation like six thousand years of that new creation work? If so, the end is likely to happen within the next few years, but it could happen within the next few days. 

We must be diligent to remember to keep the Sabbath Day holy by doing the work that we have been created to do on this earth. Only then will we find rest for our souls on that everlasting last day. 

If we refuse to do our work on this earth, we may not be allowed to rest on that new earth. Will we be required to work on that eternal day? Anyone who is found working on that day will be put to death.                        

 

"Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®,
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,
1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

                                                 Johnny Rogers 7-2-05

                                                           Revised 11-4-23