Does God expect us to celebrate the Sabbath every week? Is there a specific day we are to set aside and not work? Do we need to go to church to honor the Sabbath day? These are questions many Christians may wonder at one time. Let’s learn more about the Sabbath and the Church.
What Is The Sabbath?
Traditionally, the Jewish people were the first people given a day to not work after receiving the commandments from God through Moses. Every seventh day when the sun sets would indicate a day of rest.
We can see that the early Christians had to finish the burial ceremony of Jesus’s body after His death that occurred on what would be Friday afternoon in preparation for the coming Sabbath.
The day of rest then transformed at the time of Emperor Constantine who wanted to make “Sun”day the day of rest in his empire. He did this in order to worship their sun god. Yet, Christians went along and adapted this day upon Constantine’s major establishment of a new organized religion: Christianity.
The Visible Church
“The believers of the first two centuries were not a part of an institution. It was only in the year 313 AD that Roman Emperor Constantine decided to stop all persecution of Christians, become a Christian himself, and then lay out the structure yesterday of what we call “church” today. So simple logic suggests that since Satan is the god of this world, then he must be the god of all institutions.”
This quote is from Church of the Endtime Zombies. As you can see, the organized, visible church is rooted in the world. What about the Sabbath and the Church? Well, the two go hand in hand.
The Sabbath and the Church
As you can see, the whole concept of going to church on the day of rest is rooted in the world. Even the bundle of people who have a congregation they go to on Saturdays and celebrate “the correct” day. They are still participating in a worldly system…
When Jesus was at the Cross, the veil in the temple tore in two. And three decades later, the temple was completely destroyed. Indicating that the days of the old covenant and it’s laws have perished. The new has come.
So what does this mean for the Sabbath and the Church?
Jesus Is Lord Of The Sabbath
In terms of the Sabbath day, it does not matter if you celebrate it:
“One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it…For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and whether we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” (See Romans 14).
What matters is that you know, JESUS IS LORD OF THE SABBATH. And, in Him is rest. Jesus often was accused of breaking Sabbath laws. Primarily for healing on the Sabbath day. What Jesus told the religious people of His time was that the Sabbath was made for man. Man was not made for the Sabbath. Because of this, Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, indicating Him as God, since only God created the Sabbath.
A Greater Sabbath
Now, there is a far greater Sabbath than the tiresome religious, man-made day of rest. Let’s look at the book of Hebrews.
“For we who have believed do enter that rest…although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works…There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.”
To understand this, we must know that in order to enter the Kingdom of God you must be born again. Not only does the writer describe the 1,000 year physical Millennium Kingdom that Christ will rule and be as a Sabbath for the people of God, but also it’s about being born again.
Spiritual Rest
I did not understand what “cease from works” meant at one time. I was busy going to church, praising, Bible reading, giving money, helping the homeless, and sacrificing all of myself to others. Though I was doing good, I was restless. I could never sleep peacefully, physically, mentally and spiritually.
This is the key, “works” for religious people are the “filthy rags” of self-righteousness. To say, that if I do, or even say certain things, I am saved, I am born again.
In an essence, this is what I was convicted of by the Holy Spirit and I was given a spirit of repentance to “cease from my works.” And, upon faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth my spirit became born-again, “entered His rest.”
The Invisible Church
There is no physical and visible church you need to go to, to celebrate the Sabbath. Once you are born-again, you are in the invisible true Church of Jesus that the gates of hell has not prevailed against for 2,000 years.
This is, indeed, all the reason to examine our salvation to see if we are in the faith. Or, to say, if we are religiously deceived like the Pharisees—that salvation is in what we do and say, and not “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Because, those who were chosen for this salvation, were selected before this foundation was even created by God…
There’s nothing we can say or do!
The visible church has corrupted the gospel, and now the basic knowledge of salvation has been made complicated and confusing. The easy burden of the Lord is now loathsome and depressing because of religion. If you are seeking spiritual rest, like Jesus said, “Come all who are weary” to PSM, and we can talk more about this spiritual rest and learn what it means to, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”
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