Dr. Zella Berry Case Ministries, Inc.
Doctor of the
Five-Fold Ministry Restoration
TEACHING ABOUT,
TRAINING FOR,
REACHING OUT,
BELIEVING IN,
AND
TRUSTING THROUGH
THE WAYS AND WORDS OF
JESUS CHRIST
MORE - On reason # One
SecondLY, God packed a spiritual blessing into the seventh day that He didn’t put into the other six. Lastly, God drew a boundary around these 24 hours and designated it as a day to be wholly dedicated to pursuing a relationship with Him.
If we examine every verse in the Bible on the Sabbath, we discover some amazing things. All the Old Testament people of God enjoyed their blessings, and we must remember that until Abraham, no one was Jewish (Genesis 11:26).
Jesus honored the Sabbath by keeping it every week (Luke 4:16). The disciples kept it (Acts 18:4, 11; 16:13). It will be kept in heaven and the new earth (Isaiah 66:22-23).
The Bible presents an unbroken cycle of Sabbath observance from man’s creation to the earth made new.
So why do most Christian churches worship on Sunday? The answer—tradition.
The Bible never records God changing the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first. The only change of God’s law mentioned in Scripture is attempted by a clever inside attack on the church (See Daniel 7:25).
This change came in long after the disciples died. By the third and fourth centuries, history records some Christians kept the pagan worship day (Sunday) in Rome and other places where the church was compromising to escape persecution. As the church at Rome grew in political power and developed into the Roman Catholic Church, it officially sanctioned Sunday keeping instead of the Sabbath. Today, it points to this fact of history as proof that its authority and tradition is superior to the plain teaching of Scripture.
REASON NUMBER TWO
For
The Church of PROMISE
WORSHIPPING ON Saturday
Reason Two—Love
Sabbath keeping is not legalism. “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). The fourth commandment has never been changed by God—only by man.
There are many reasons why WE love and obey Jesus. Two primary ones are that He is OUR Creator and Redeemer (John 1:1-3; Titus 2:14). Jesus created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh. The Sabbath is God’s official memorial or “sign” between Him and His people that He is our Creator (Exodus 31:17). And just before Jesus’ return, a message from God calls everyone to “worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water” (Revelation 14:6-7). Every time WE “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” WE honor OUR Creator as the one who holds OUR life in His hand (Exodus 20:8-11).
Not only did Jesus create humans, but He also redeems us from sin. The Sabbath is a special sign of this salvation—“a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them” (Ezekiel 20:12). Refraining once a week from secular employment to support ourselves reminds us that we can’t work to earn our eternal salvation—it is a gift of God. We are wholly dependent upon Him (Hebrews 4:4-10). If WE can’t trust God to care for OUR earthly livelihood one day a week, how can WE truly trust Him for OUR eternal life?
Every Sabbath reminds us of the love Jesus has given us through creation and redemption. Just as anniversaries are memorials designed to refresh our love for those closest to us, the seventh-day Sabbath reminds us of God’s love and our utter dependence on Him for life in this world and the next.
Unless otherwise noted,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Reason Three—Experience
The third reason WE keep the Sabbath is because WE HAVE responded to Jesus’ invitation to try it and see if His Word is true. God often invites us to test Him. One such occasion is in Malachi 3 where He challenges us to give Him one-tenth of our income. To those who accept, He promises to pour out a blessing.
The Sabbath also contains a challenge. God invites us to give Him one-seventh of our time. If we do, He promises to bless us. “If you . . . call the Sabbath a delight . . . then shall you delight yourself in the Lord” (Isaiah 58:13-14). WE experience this Sabbath blessing every week.
Resting on the Sabbath restores US physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually. It de-stresses US from the burdens of life. WE enjoy uninterrupted time with family and friends, which keeps our relationships alive. Worshipping with fellow believers energizes US. WE gain insight and inspiration from Bible study and sermons on the Sabbath.
The Sabbath gives US a reason to stop all earthly pursuits every week. Since it is God’s command, it leaves no room to compromise for a pressing project at work, or any other thing that might come up. This protects the Sabbath rest from simply becoming a good intention that WE will get to one day. It is God’s command—no questions asked—so WE happily do it and leave everything else to the other six days as God says.
WE found Jesus’ words to be true—He made the Sabbath for man (Mark 2:28). That is, the Sabbath is not something God does to us but something extraordinary He does for us. In this busy age, WE treasure all of the positive blessings WE experience because God has kindly given us the Sabbath.