By Doug Batchelor
What does the Bible mean by keeping the Sabbath? Christ had a number of conflicts that are written in the Gospels. He never said you shouldn’t keep it. He just told us how to keep it. This was a very important subject because scripture has been neglected by much of Christianity.
I had a pastor friend say to me one day, “Brother Doug, why are you making a big deal about the Sabbath day? I know you worship God on the Sabbath day. But I worship God every day!”
“But I too worship God every day also. It’s not just about worship.”
“You’re right,” he said. “You’re also supposed to rest.”
And I replied, saying, “But if you rest every day, you’re not just being holy, you’re just being lazy. What we’re talking about are different things.”
In 1924, Eric Liddell was a dedicated Christian and he was a very fast runner, so fast that he was chosen to represent his country, France, to run in the Olympics of 1924 in the 100 meter event. But after he got there, they were having final time trials and it just happened to be on Sunday, and he said, “I cannot participate in this.”
So they asked him why, and he said because the Sabbath was a holy day and as a devoted Christian, he could not run. All of a sudden the team and the country were put in a great quandary about what to do. So they brought in the church leaders to try to pressure him to run, saying, “Eric, it’s the Olympics, just do this once. God will understand.” Eric said, “It’s a holy day, and I’m not going to compromise it.”
What if Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego were just going to bow down just this once for political peace? Or what if Daniel said “I’m going to shut my window and pray because I’m not going to create a spectacle of myself.”? Daniel knew that God was looking for people that would not compromise their faith.
Someone had an idea—the 400 meter competition was not on the Sabbath, and so they asked Eric if he would run the 400 meter event that day, and he said, “Well, I’m not a long distance runner and that is not what I was trained for, but since I already had put all of it in God’s hands, I will give it a try and do my best.”
He didn’t do so well during the trials, but on the day of the race when the gun went off, he shot out like a rocket. He looked as if he was possessed by the Holy Spirit, flying around the track and running with a unique style with his head held back. He didn’t look like he could even see the track, and he finished way ahead of everybody else, breaking the world record. Later, someone said this quote about him: “He who waits upon the Lord will renew their strength with wings and not be weary and will walk and not faint.”
Because he stood up for that commandment, God found favor in Him. Even though I disagree on what day Eric thought the Sabbath was, Eric wanted to keep that day holy for the Lord regardless, because it was just as important for him to keep it just like all the other commandments. He knew it was important because God wrote it. To keep the restoration of life is important to understand that we are the descendants of Adam and Eve and that means all of us are to understand. Not just for the Jews, but for all of humanity.
Genesis 2:1-3: “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day, God had finished the work he had been doing, so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”
He made it holy, and not just for the Jews. Isaiah 66:23: “’From one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,’ says the LORD.”
Some people will say, “Oh no, but that was the Sabbath just for the Jews, and then you have the Sabbath for the Gentiles. This teaching is not found in the Bible anywhere.”
In the early Christian documents it says, “The ancient Christians were very careful in the observation of Saturday or the seventh day, ‘the Sabbath.’ It is plain to see that all the Oriental churches and the greatest part of the world, observed the Sabbath as a festival.” —Antiquities of the Christian Church Vol. II, Book XX, chap. 3, Sec. I, 66. II 37, II38.
They held religious assemblies on the Sabbath not because they were infected with Judaism but to worship Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. Athanasius says this at the same time, and this was written in the book “Antiquities of the Christian Church” and goes back a long time to the early church fathers. So the idea that the early Christians were not keeping the Sabbath is not supported historically. They all kept the same day.
So what does it mean to keep something holy? Holy means to dedicate to a righteous use, keep something sacred and deserving of reverence and to set aside. I Peter 1:15-16” “But as he who called you also is holy in all you do, for it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’”
So His whole plan is to restore it to holiness. No matter if you forget everything in this message, the most important thing is that God is calling us to holiness. People think that the supreme purpose of life is our happiness. But actually, the purpose of life is holiness. Unholiness you find in unhappiness. In surrendering to God’s will and living as you are His property is where you’re going to find the greatest fulfillment. Hebrews 12:14: “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
Meaning who is going to see the Lord without holiness? Jesus said he who is pure in heart, they will see God. So when God says you are a holy people, and then we say we got a holy day, what does that mean to God? If we are to be holy, we should not kick aside something God tells us to keep holy, and again in 2 Timothy 1:8-9: “By the power of God, He saves us and calls us to a holy life.”
Jesus does not save us in our sin. He saves us from our sin. So when we come to him with our sin, He washes us and He teaches us a new way of living, which is called sanctification.
I have a lot of friends that go to church on Sunday every week and they come to me and say, “Brother Doug, I want you to know that I agree with you on the Sabbath and I keep the Sabbath at home. I know you’re right, but I grew up in this church every Sunday and my family and friends go on Sunday and that’s why I keep the Sabbath at home.”
Well, I’m glad you are keeping Sabbath, but part of keeping the Sabbath is convocations. So now the question is: Is it necessary to go to church on the Sabbath? If you read in Leviticus 23:3, it says, “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation.”
Convocation means an assembly coming together. If you ever went to a concert, that’s a convocation, meaning assembly. I heard the pastor say one day, pointing out a verse about the Sabbath where it said “let everyone abide by staying in your tent,” and he said “you’re supposed to stay in your tent.” That’s not what it meant. Moses said that because someone was going out gathering firewood on the Sabbath. What he was saying was make preparation for the Sabbath ahead of time so you don’t have to go out looking for firewood on a holy Sabbath of convocation. That’s all he was talking about.
Another example of Jesus is in Mark 1:21: “Then they went into Capernaum, on the Sabbath and immediately He entered the synagogue and taught.”
So, on the Sabbath they would read the word and study the scriptures and that was a good thing to do on the Sabbath. For the Sabbath is a blessing. Jesus said it’s good to worship God and fellowship with others in his name. Deuteronomy 6:6-7: “Moses said, ‘These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.’”
So we should plan ahead. When the sun goes down on Friday and the sun comes up on Saturday, this is the Sabbath day, and all should rest and have convocation to the Lord. In Luke 4:16 it says, “Read good spiritual books.”
Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read, and on that day it tells us what he was reading—Isaiah 61. Another thing to do is rest so your body can rejuvenate itself. Jesus said in Mark 6:31: “Come aside by you to a deserted place and rest a while.”
Here some good ways you can spend the Sabbath: Listen to or play inspirational music or sing. Visit the sick or elderly. Take time with the homeless, letting them know Jesus loves them. Invite someone home for a meal. Share literature with neighbors. Give a Bible study. Memorize Scripture. Take a nap to rest, but try not to sleep the day away. So if you have a Christian program on, that’s a good thing. It would be like reading the Bible and keeping your eyes on the Sabbath.
The point is not to get into an extreme about the Sabbath but try to stay in the middle of the road. The Bible talks about a boy that was brought to Jesus by his father, and the boy was demon-possessed. The father said that the devil was trying to destroy his son by sending him into the fire and water, two of the opposite sides. The devil doesn’t care if you fall off the left side of the road or the right side.
When it comes to the Sabbath truth, you have people who are legalistic, and you had them in the Jesus’ days also. A group you would call the extreme left or extreme right. Some people disregard the Sabbath, and others make it a burden, and Jesus had to deal with a lot of this. Jesus had a number of conflicts dealing with the Sabbath that are written in the Gospels. But He never said they should never keep it. He said how to keep it. They put a lot of demands and rules on the Sabbath.
For instance, the Bible talks about a Sabbath day’s journey, how long can you hike before it turns from a pleasant walk into work. So the Pharisees went through all the calculations and came up with what they thought would be the distance that wouldn’t be a burden and began to turn into a legalistic lunacy. But if you don’t have some rules or some guidelines, you end up falling on the other side of the road and nothing matters anymore because as soon as you bring up how to keep it holy, you will be accused of legalism. Keep it simple, such as unnecessary cooking.
When God would rain down manna for six days, He said, “Don’t try to keep the manna overnight, it’s going to spoil and have worms and start to smell. Except for Friday, you gather twice as much and I will work a miracle so it will be fresh for the Sabbath day so you will not have to go out to gather it.”
Exodus 16:23-26: “He said to them, ‘This is what the LORD commanded: Tomorrow is to be a day of Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.’ So they saved it until morning as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. ‘Eat it today,’ Moses said, “because today is a Sabbath to the LORD. You will not find any of it on the ground today. Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.’”
The same is true for shopping. Going to the mall looking at all those specials is not thinking about Jesus. Nehemiah 10:31: “When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day. Every seventh year, we will forgo working the land and will cancel all debts.”
And it’s not a day to have your servant wait on you. In my hotel room, I put my do not disturb sign up so that the maid has one less room to do.
Look at it this way: plan and get all you need to get done before you take your wife or girlfriend out on that special dinner date. If you’re on the phone doing Facebook and doing all these other tasks, it’s really not special anymore, because you’re not giving her all your attention. You should plan ahead.
Isaiah 58:13-14: “’If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.’ For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
Some people say, “Doug, I’m not so sure about the Sabbath because my spirit is telling me it’s just another day.” Well all I can say my friend is, the spirit of God is not going to tell you something different than the Word of God. So you may want to question what spirit is talking to you. You can tell if it’s the Word of God because the spirit of God and the Word of God go together. He wants you to enjoy it and keep it holy and to honor it so that you too will receive his blessing.
To learn more, watch this video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAaMkAWLf7U.
Formulated by Dunndeal Publications.
Happy Jubilee!