Tag Archives: Sabbath

BIBLE QUESTIONS, CHURCH

WHAT IS “THE LORD’S DAY”? — BOB PRICHARD

David reminds us that “the earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1). All that we have belongs to the Lord, including the days of the week. But in Revelation 1:10, John speaks of a special day he calls the Lord’s day. “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.” Being “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” allowed John to receive the Revelation from the Lord of those “things which must shortly come to pass” (Revelation 1:1).

The world of the early church was one in which many had to make a conscious and often life threatening decision. Would they say “Caesar is Lord,” or “Christ is Lord”?  Recognizing that there is “one Lord” (Ephesians 4:5), they knew that there was only one choice: to follow Christ and to do all in His name. “Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Colossians 3:17). Thus Christians partake of the Lord’s supper (1 Corinthians 11:20) in the name of the Lord on the Lord’s day.

While the designation, “the Lord’s day” is found only in Revelation 1:10, the concept of a day set aside for Christian worship is found from the very beginning of the church, as the early disciples met on the first day of the week. Jesus lived and died under the Old Covenant, and kept and obeyed the laws of the Sabbath, or seventh day of the week. Paul and other disciples went into the Jewish synagogues on the Sabbath day to reason with the Jews about the Christ (Acts 13; 17), but the church did not worship on the Sabbath day. Paul was usually expelled from the synagogues as opposition to his teachings grew, so we know that those Sabbath gatherings of Jews (and some Gentiles) were not meetings of the church.

The pattern of first day worship was established with the resurrection of Christ from the dead on the first day of the week (Luke 24:1). Most, if not all of the post-resurrection appearances of Christ were on the first day of the week. Christ appeared in the midst of the disciples on the first day of the week, the resurrection day (John 20:19), and then again “after eight days” (John 20:26), meaning the next first day of the week, when the previously absent Thomas became a believer in the resurrection. Even as Paul hurried to be in Jerusalem by the day of Pentecost (Acts 20:16), he stopped in Troas to meet with the Christians there, “where we abode seven days” (Acts 20:6). Even though a Sabbath day must have passed during those seven days, the next verse says, “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight” (Acts 20:7). That gathering on the first day of the week was a gathering on the Lord’s day by the Christians of Troas and Paul and the other traveling Christians. The scriptures also speak many times of “the day of the Lord”  referring to a day of judgment by the Lord, but this is an entirely different word than “the Lord’s day.”

BIBLE QUESTIONS, EXODUS

WHAT DOES THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT MEAN TO CHRISTIANS? — BOB PRICHARD

The fourth commandment says, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11). God gave the Sabbath as a “perpetual covenant” (Exodus 31:17) between the Jews and God. As long as the Jews were a nation, they were to keep the Sabbath. This was not a perpetual covenant with anyone else, however. 

The Sabbath lasted from sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday. The Jews, especially the Pharisees, treated it very legalistically. They expanded, refined, and codified it until it became an intolerable burden. Jesus fought the popular distortion of the Sabbath by healing on the Sabbath, “For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day” (Matthew 12:8). Jesus kept the Sabbath perfectly, something that no one else ever did. 

This commandment is the only one of the Ten Commandments that Jesus did not repeat for Christians. Jesus kept the Sabbath, but never commanded Christians to keep it. 

Although some try to keep the Sabbath today, none keep it as God commanded it. The Lord commanded that the Sabbath was the day for burnt offerings, and other elements which no one keeps today. Paul says that Christ abolished the law (Ephesians 2:15), and “took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross” (Colossians 2:14). The first covenant was taken away so that the better, new covenant could be established. “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second” (Hebrews 8:6-7). 

While we are not commanded to keep the Sabbath, there are, however, many eternal principles to be learned from the Sabbath. All Christians should consider their use of time, and the work ethic taught in the commandment, that there are six days in which the servant of God will work. As the wise man Solomon wrote, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise” (Proverbs 6:6). Paul tried to set a good example for the Thessalonians by working to support himself, giving an example (2 Thessalonians 3:7-12). “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). 

Jesus showed the way to use the Sabbath, not by treating it as a day for idleness, but a day for service, a time for bringing blessings to others. The Christian should do no less with every day given to him. All life should be a rest from evil, and days devoted to God. Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). Every Christian should evaluate his time to see how much is devoted to God, and how much is devoted to self.