A. The Sabbath was purposely made
Mark 2:27-28 New King James Version (NKJV)
27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
- Sabbath is made for man, not man made for the Sabbath. It is like a tuxedo. It is made for you; you were not made for the tuxedo.
- What God is saying, “I love you, I want you to be healthy, do not abuse your body, for I created you to be part of my heavenly kingdom. I commanded you to keep my two great commandments: The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20)
The Sabbath was made by God
Genesis 2:1-3 New King James Version (NKJV)
1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
Note: There was no 7th day of the week in the history of the world that was not holy, for the very first 7th day was made holy or sanctified by God. A holy being or place cannot be desecrated by anyone and be free from sin, no man or any man who honors God cannot help but keep the Sabbath day or the 7th day holy. Therefore, holy men of God from Adam down through the ages who know the 7th day was made holy cannot help but keep the 7th day of the week holy.
God’s presence made a thing, place or person holy.
Exodus 3:5 New King James Version (NKJV)
5 Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”
- This was the time when Moses went to Mount Horeb with a burning bush, where there was a special presence of God (Exodus 3:1-5). It only means, any place where there is God’s special presence – it is holy. Example Sabbath day during worship there is God’s special presence, for we rested on the day God rested and commanded us to do the same. It is our weekly meeting or communion with our God the creator, listen to His words for our spiritual guidance and direction to live a godly life. God is the role model of good earthly parents (especially the father) to meet their children regularly, at least weekly to teach and remind them of living godly life for this life on earth is only temporary.
The day of rest that God rested is made of the Sabbath day of the week, the last day of the creation week.
Exodus 20:11 New King James Version (NKJV)
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.
- Blessed and hollowed it. “Blessed” means make it holy, and “hallowed” means, make it sacred.
B. Why the Sabbath was made?
1. God made the Sabbath to continually remind us that there is God who created us.
Exodus 20:8-11 New King James Version (NKJV)
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 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. 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.
- Notice, most of the Ten Commandments, start with, “You shall not…” But why the Fourth Commandment starts with “Remember the Sabbath Day?” Because God knows that we, not only forget to worship on the 7th day of the week but also replace it with another day of the week.
2. God made the Sabbath to remind us that God is worthy to be worshipped, to be honored and glorified!
Revelation 4:11 New King James Version (NKJV)
11 “You are worthy, [a] O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things, And by Your will they [b] exist and were created.”
3. God made the Sabbath for He wants us to always remember that He is the Creator of the heavens, earth, everything therein and the giver of perfect gifts.
Psalm 100:3 New King James Version (NKJV)
3 Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and [a] not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
- When we worship God every Sabbath, we will remember our Creator that we did not come into being by accident through evolution or big bang theory. He created us.
- We are also reminded that this life is temporary, the reason Jesus died on the cross is for the forgiveness of our sins, for us to overcome the number one enemy of humanity — DEATH!
4. God made the Sabbath, and by keeping it makes us realize that there is God who makes us holy. Sabbath is the sign between God and us.
Ezekiel 20:12 New King James Version (NKJV)
12 Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know.
- God says, when we worship on the 7th day, the Sabbath Day, it is a sign we are His children for we rest from our work to worship Him our God and Creator who rested Himself on the 7th day after He completed His work (creations).
C. The Sabbath is the Lord’s Holy Day.
Isaiah 58:13-14 New King James Version (NKJV)
13 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the Lord honorable,
And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure,
Nor speaking your own words, 14 Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord;
And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
- It simply means the Sabbath Day is God’s Holy Day where we are not to work for a living, speak foul language, seek pleasures that are earthly in nature, for on Sabbath Day we are focusing on spiritual and godly things.
- When we faithfully follow what the above passage says, Sabbath is truly joyful. We literally experience that joy and delight on Sabbath. The reason my wife and I are among those who come to church early and among those who go home the last.
Note: The day between the day Christ died (Friday –Mark 15:42), and the day Christ arose from the grave (Sunday – Matthew 28:1), is what the Bible calls the Sabbath, which is of course Saturday in our present calendar. Also, the dictionary confirms that Sunday is the first day of the week, and Saturday the Seventh day of the week.
Mark 15:42 New King James Version (NKJV)
42 “Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath,”
- It is established that Jesus died on a Friday. During that time they do not have calendar as we have today, where each day has a name. At that time, they named the days from 1st day, 2nd day, 3rd day, up to the 7th day, as what the Bible says, when God created the universe. After God completed His creations on the 6th day he rested on the 7th day.
Matthew 28:1 New King James Version (NKJV)
1 “Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.”
- “The first day of the week” during that time, we all know in today’s calendar as Sunday, the day Jesus was resurrected. Christians all over the world acknowledge that. Thus, we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection yearly on a Sunday during Easter time.
D. Jesus Christ and Paul’s Examples
-It was Jesus’ custom to be in the church (synagogue) on Sabbaths.
Luke 4:16 New King James Version (NKJV)
16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
- The passage clearly states that Jesus worshipped on Saturdays (Sabbath keeper) following the Ten Commandments, for it says, “as His custom was.”
-Apostle Paul’s custom is to be in church on Sabbaths.
Acts 17:2 New King James Version (NKJV)
2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
- In the above passage it says, “for three Sabbaths…” why only three Sabbaths? Because Paul was visiting only in this church, one of those he planted.
Acts 18:4 New King James Version (NKJV)
4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.
- Similarly, Paul also worshipped on Saturdays (Sabbath keeper) for the above two passages say, “as his custom was” and “in the synagogue (church) every Sabbath.”
-The Christians Followed Christ.
Luke 23:54-56 New King James Version (NKJV)
54 That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near.
55 And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. 56 Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.
- The preparation day is Friday, the day Jesus was buried. After His burial, Christians returned to their respective homes and prepared for the Sabbath (Saturday) worship according to the Commandments.
The Watering Down of the Sabbath in the First 300 Years
The Christians during the apostolic era, from about 35 to 100 A.D., kept Sabbath on the designated seventh day of the week. For the first 300 years of Christian history, when the Roman emperors regarded themselves as gods, Christianity became an “illegal religion,” and God’s people were scattered abroad (Acts 8:1). Judaism, however, was regarded at that time as “legal,” as long as they obeyed Roman laws. Thus, during the apostolic era, Christians found it convenient to let the Roman authorities think of them as Jews, which gained them legitimacy with the Roman government. However, when the Jews rebelled against Rome, the Romans put down their rebellion by destroying Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and again in A.D. 135. Obviously, the Roman government’s suppression of the Jews made it increasingly uncomfortable for Christians to be thought of as Jewish. At that time, Sunday was the rest day of the Roman Empire, whose religion was Mithraism, a form of sun worship. Since Sabbath observance is visible to others, some Christians in the early second century, sought to distance themselves from Judaism by observing a different day, thus “blending in” to the society around them. During the Empire-wide Christian persecutions under Nero, Maximin, Diocletian, and Galerius, Sabbath-keeping Christians were hunted down, tortured, for sport, often used for entertainment in the Coliseum.
Constantine Made Sunday a Civil Rest Day
When Emperor Constantine I—a pagan sun-worshipper—came to power in A.D. 313, he legalized Christianity and made the first Sunday-keeping law. His infamous Sunday enforcement law of March 7, A.D. 321, reads as follows: “On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed.” (Codex Justinianus 3.12.3, trans. Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 5th ed. (New York, 1902), 3:380, note 1.) The Sunday law was officially confirmed by the Roman Papacy. The Council of Laodicea in A.D. 364 decreed, “Christians shall not judaize and be idle on Saturday but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honor and as being Christians shall, if possible, not work on that day. If, however, they are found judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ” (Strand, op. cit., citing Charles J. Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church, 2 [Edinburgh, 1876] 316).
The next lesson—Lesson 9 “An Ideal Family Home” discusses the responsibilities of husband, wife and children to have a happy home.