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Sabbath - Q And A
 

1. What is Sabbath?

Sabbath is the time period (generally considered as a day) where God wanted people to keep it holy by not doing any work.

Exodus 20:8
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

2. Do you know when is Sabbath day?

It is on the 7th day, which is Saturday.

Exodus 16:26
Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any."

3. If we don't follow are we disobeying God?

No.

4. How can we say that?

a. According to the Bible in the New Testament period no special days are encouraged.

Colossians 2:16-17
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.


Romans 14:5-6
5 One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
6 He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.


Galatians 4:8-11
8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.
9 But now that you know God--or rather are known by God--how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
10 You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!
11 I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.


Hebrews 4:9
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;

b. Moreover according to the Bible there is not only Sabbath day but also Sabbath year.

Leviticus 25:1-7
1 The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the LORD.
3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops.
4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.
5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.
6 Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you--for yourself, your manservant and maidservant, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you,
7 as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.


Imagine what will happen if every seventh year people stop working!! Is that practical now?

c. We are not under the Law of Moses.

Galatians 3:19,24-25
19 What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator.

24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.


d. If we look Jesus' life, the Pharisees condemned him of not keeping the Sabbath.

John 9:16
Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." But others asked, "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?" So they were divided.

John 5:10-18
10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."
11 But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'"
12 So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."
15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him.
17 Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."
18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.


Luke 13:14
Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."

Mark 2:27
Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Are we better than Jesus is by saying we want to keep the Sabbath?

5. Do you know any other law for example we are not really following it?

Yes. One such example is the food, if we read through the book of exodus there are lots of food items we are not supposed to eat. But in Rom. 14:20 the Bible says all food is clean.

Romans 14:20
Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.

6. Why do we meet on Sunday and not on Saturday? Do we consider Sunday the special day for God?

Not exactly, Bible doesn't encourage any day to be a meeting day or a special day. Sunday is a holiday where people are free from their jobs so we take that day for gathering. In some countries, church meets on Fridays or Saturdays. That doesn't mean we consider the day special. We make use of the opportunity.

7. Do you know what day the first Century Christians met?

The first day of the week, on Sunday.

Acts 20:7
On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.

Also Jesus resurrected on that day!

Luke 24:1
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.