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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Exodus 20:8-11
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
At the end of last month, I wrote a message titled, “A Matter of Rest", and there was some excellent feedback from the readers. One asked the following, a very good question:
Isn’t the Sabbath on Saturday and, if so, why does the majority of Christian churches worship on Sunday?
The inquiry challenged me and so I did a little digging. This is what I found out.
First of all, we need to remember that back in biblical times, the days were observed slightly different to what we observe today. For then, each day actually began at sunset and would extend 24 hours until sunset the next day, far different from our midnight to midnight days.
Second, the scriptures clearly point to the Sabbath, the seventh day designated as a day of holiness and rest by God as being on Saturday with the day starting at sunset on the sixth day, a day we know as Friday.
In support of this consider this passage from the closing verses of Luke, chapter 23, and the opening verses of chapter 24:
Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. Vv.23:50-56, 24:1-3
Preparation Day was the day before the Sabbath and we read where Joseph and the "women who had come with Jesus from Galilee" went to the tomb where Jesus was placed. In John’s Gospel, we also know that Nicodemus was in this group (19:39).
Leaving the tomb, we know that the women quickly returned home to prepare spices and perfumes to later anoint Jesus’ body.
Why the rush?
Because in accordance with God’s commandment, there was to be no work done on the Sabbath and these women were obviously obedient because the scriptures tell us they “rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment." It wasn’t until the end of the seventh day, "on the first day of the week, very early in the morning” that the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.
The first day of the week was Sunday and the women go to the tomb early in the morning only to be shocked in finding the tomb empty. Jesus had indeed risen from the grave as He said He would and this major event on the Christian calendar is celebrated by Easter sunrise services, traditionally observed annually on Easter Sunday morning. This marries up with what we know about church worship services today for they are held on Sunday for the most part but this doesn’t disprove that the Sabbath is Saturday because it can’t be disproved. It is the day the Lord calls for believers to rest and keep holy.
And so what do we do with this?
I think the important thing is to make sure we rest and keep the day holy, no matter if we choose Saturday as our day of worship as the Jews did or Sunday, in honor of the day Jesus was resurrected, a day also called “The Lord’s Day” by many Christian believers. In support of Sunday, many scholars also believe the origin came in the New Testament as Jesus’ disciples gathered regularly on the first day of the week to break bread. Thus the early Christian church saw that day as set apart for fellowship and worship thus establishing the first day of the week as the holy day of worship and rest.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a large number of Christians who don’t hold either weekend day as sacred. The pervasive attitude seems to be that anything goes on Saturday or Sunday after worship with many people allowing other events to even override attending church at all, events like kid’s sports or traveling away from home (there are always churches to attend, no matter where we might go, right?).
Friends, it’s time for us to stand up to the world’s ways where there is no consideration to keep one day holy and free from work, a day when they can just rest and recharge physically, mentally, and spiritually. God said to stop working one day every week. Let’s go back to basics and honor the commandment as they did in biblical times.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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