Shabbat Shalom.

Our topic for today is the Sabbath. When is it, what is it, and who is it for?

To approach this topic properly, we really are stepping into a single city block of a much larger neighborhood. What I mean by that is, the topic underlying this discussion really boils down to this question: Is “the law” done away with? If so, what law was done away with? And how are we to approach holy living… with or without the so-called “law?”

This brings up any issues and questions, so for some grounding, let’s begin with the words of our common Messiah, Yeshua, in:

Matthew 5:17-20 (TNIV)
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now, the TNIV states that Yeshua came not to abolish, but to “fulfill” the Torah and the Prophets. A clearer version is found in David Stern’s Jewish New Testement, where the word fulfill is exchanged with the phrase “to fill them up with meaning.” In the gospels, Yeshua declares Himself Lord of the Sabbath. If he was coming to put an end to Sabbath observance, that would make Him Lord of nothing. Does that make sense? Of course not.

You see, the term “fulfill” is not the best rendering, because it suggest an end; this is not reflective of the Hebrew and Aramaic original language. The original manuscripts use wording that suggest a present and ongoing process… filling the practice up with meaning. Certainly, apart from God, keeping the Sabbath is a rather empty practice. Whether held on Saturday or some other day, a Sabbath absent the presence of God is not something that lends meaning, depth and closeness to our creator; with the Messiah filling these practices up with meaning and significance, we can see why God ordained the Sabbath – to set aside a special time that is exclusively and uniquely to spend time together with those who worship him.

Now, let us look at the origin of the Shabbat:

Genesis 2:2-3
On the seventh day God was finished with his work which he had made, so he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. God blessed the seventh day and separated it as holy; because on that day God rested from all his work which he had created, so that it itself could produce.

The Shabbat, therefore, is the seventh day of the week. The seventh day of the week, according to Jewish practice that Yeshua Himself observed, begins at sundown on Friday and is complete at sundown on Saturday. This is the Shabbat as God created by His own actions.

This fact is underlined when ADONAI gave Moshe the Ten Commands. Now, the Ten Commands are unique among the Mosaic Laws, because they were spoken directly by God Himself. The rest of Torah law was a mediation by Moshe, as he stood in the gap between God and the children of Israel. Therefore, whatever one may feel about the rest of the Mosaic Law, the Ten Commands stand apart from such mediation between God and man – they are the direct words of Adonai, and therefore are non-negotiable. If one is searching for “the will of God,” it is with the Ten Commands they must begin their search; nothing less.

It is paradoxical that even the most well-intentioned Christians will fight for the display of the Ten Commands in public places, and yet if it is pointed out that these commands include an expectation for seventh-day Sabbath observance, they immediately begin to mis-quote Paul on the Law being done away with. This can only be due to at least 1,700 years of bad and false teaching on the Sabbath… leading to the false impression that it falls on Sunday.

But what does God say about when the Sabbath falls? It is made clear in:

Exodus 20:8-11 (CJB)
“Remember the day, Shabbat, to set it apart for God. You have six days to labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Shabbat for ADONAI your God. On it, you are not to do any kind of work; not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not your livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property. For in six days, ADONAI made heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. This is why ADONAI blessed the day, Shabbat, and separated it for himself.

Seventh-day Sabbath observance is one of the 10 Commands. This is simply fact. The question then becomes, when did believers in Yeshua start worshiping on the first day of the week (Sunday) instead of the day God Himself declared the Sabbath? Well, some claim that the practice dates back to the first century itself. This is simply not so, and comes originates from a misreading of Paul’s writings.

Colossians 2:16-17
So don’t let anyone pass judgment on you in connection with eating and drinking, or in regard to a Jewish festival or Rosh–Hodesh or Shabbat. These are a shadow of things that are coming, but the body is of the Messiah.

While many folks interpret this passage to mean that Shabbat observance has been done away with, that is not the case here. Specifically, Paul is addressing conflict within the kehilat as Colossi, where factionalism had APPARENTLY broken out (not unlike on these boards) between those who said all these things must be done, and those who said none of them needed to be done.

Paul, playing the diplomat, isn’t clarifying who’s right. what is he saying is, stop the fighting about it. That’s where the words “don’t let anyone pass judgment on you” about all these practices comes from. But let’s stop for a moment and think about this: was Paul mediating between Sunday worshippers and Saturday worshippers? No. He couldn’t have been, because Sunday worship was not part of the first-century church.

What he was mediating between was likely more akin to the controversy that broke out in the book of Acts, where a group of former Pharisees – now Messianic followers of Yeshua – speak up and say that “to be saved,” Gentiles had to follow things like the kashrut laws, circumcision, etc. That is found in this passage:

Acts 15:5-21
But some of those who had come to trust were from the party of the P’rushim; and they stood up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and direct them to observe the Torah of Moshe.” The emissaries and the elders met to look into this matter. After lengthy debate, Kefa got up and said to them, “Brothers, you yourselves know that a good while back, God chose me from among you to be the one by whose mouth the Goyim should hear the message of the Good News and come to trust. And God, who knows the heart, bore them witness by giving the Ruach HaKodesh to them, just as he did to us; that is, he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their heart by trust. So why are you putting God to the test now by placing a yoke on the neck of the talmidim which neither our fathers nor we have had the strength to bear? No, it is through the love and kindness of the Lord Yeshua that we trust and are delivered––and it’s the same with them.” Then the whole assembly kept still as they listened to Bar–Nabba and Sha’ul tell what signs and miracles God had done through them among the Gentiles. Ya‘akov broke the silence to reply. “Brothers, ”he said, “hear what I have to say. Shim‘on has told in detail what God did when he first began to show his concern for taking from among the Goyim a people to bear his name. And the words of the Prophets are in complete harmony with this for it is written, ‘“After this, I will return; and I will rebuild the fallen tent of David. I will rebuild its ruins, I will restore it, so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, that is, all the Goyim who have been called by my name, ” says ADONAI, who is doing these things.’ All this has been known for ages. “Therefore, my opinion is that we should not put obstacles in the way of the Goyim who are turning to God. Instead, we should write them a letter telling them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from fornication, from what is strangled and from blood. For from the earliest times, Moshe has had in every city those who proclaim him, with his words being read in the synagogues every Shabbat.”

This is a rich passage, and often vastly misunderstood.

The key to understanding this passage is the phrase of the former Pharisees: “IT IS NECESSARY…”

When the disciples respond to this challenge, Kefa/Peter and Ya’akov/James are the ones who respond and say, basically, “NO, IT’S NOT NECESSARY.” That’s what this boils down to.

But what are we talking about? We’re talking about bringing Gentiles, completely unexposed to Jewish customs, into union with Messiah. Leaving behind their likely polytheism, into monothesim toward (to them) a foreign (Jewish) God would have been quite a challenge… INITIALLY. You see, this isn’t about whether Gentile believers should NEVER obey these things… this is about whether following the Law of Moses, circumcision and the rest are necessary for salvation. Clearly, they are not necessary for salvation.

But does that mean Gentiles shouldn’t grow in obedience to ADONAI’s word, and eventually take up some, and perhaps all, of such things? I believe that was a given, and generally expected as part of the discipleship process… but NOT part of the salvation process. That’s the distinction being made here.

And as this relates to seventh-day Sabbath observance, please note that verse 21 ends with James/Ya’akov pointing out that the Law of Moshe is being proclaimed “in the synagogues every Shabbat,” a clear reference to seventh-day Shabbat observance, and also an indication that further obedience would come from further study of God’s word. So it’s clear that even this late in Acts, there is NO Sunday worship.

So, where did Sunday worship come from and how was it introduced into the church?

Glad you asked. Sunday worship was instituted by the anti-Judaic Roman Emperor Constantine, who founded the Catholic church, as a way to distance “Christianity” from its Judaic roots, and as a sign of the church’s authority. We get this from:

Converts Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, pg 50
“Saturday is the Sabbath… We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”

See? That is from the Catholic Cathecism and they admit it themselves! They transferred the day of worship, not God.

In 1891, Catholic author James Gibbons, who was a Catholic cardinal, wrote the following in his book, Faith of Our Fathers:

Gibbons, Faith of Our Fathers, pg. 89
“The Catholic Church… by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday… You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday, a day which we never sanctify. Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act… and the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power. This change is repeatedly referred to as a mark. Sunday is our mark of authority!”

Gibbons is correct; Sunday worship is not found or endorsed in the Bible. It was transferred by an act of man.

Now, does this mean that those who worship on Sunday are knowingly violating the command to honor the Shabbat? Not knowingly, no. Most do so in ignorance, because they’ve never been properly taught about the Sabbath, and many have actively been mis-taught about the Sabbath. And sadly, too many simply accept what their house of worship practices or states in their statement of faith, never bothering to study it out for themselves.

Can God be worshiped and honored on any day? Certainly. But once one learns of when the Shabbat actually falls, one has to form a response of some sort to this newfound knowledge. They can either conform their practices to fit their new convictions, or they can choose to continue worshiping God on the day their church meets, knowing it’s not the true Sabbath but also knowing God is honored on the day they do meet.

What is illogical, however, would be to continue to deny which day God placed the Sabbath on; it is, always has been, and always will be on the seventh day of the week – Saturday. That is what Yeshua Himself practiced; as the Word of the L-RD, it is what he declared to Moshe on Sinai.

Is seventh-day Sabbath worship necessary for salvation? Clearly not, and the attitude of Messianics must be tolerant, as in the book of Acts. However, as each believer grows in faith, I believe if they study out the topic of the Sabbath, they can only come to one conclusion about which day it falls on, which means the only remaining question is how to respond to that new knowledge.

And that is between each believer and Adonai; we must not judge, unless we want to be judged ourselves. Be merciful, and mercy will be shown to you.

Shabbat Shalom.

Tags: shabbat, Sunday worship, Torah, Yeshua