Should I Keep the Sabbath?

[Steve Myers] Is Sabbath observance necessary today or not? And for me, that challenge would not go away. 

Should I keep the Sabbath? That was a challenging question that I had to answer. In fact, have you ever asked yourself, well what about that question? In fact, what is the Sabbath anyway? I know I was asked that as a young adult. And at that time I was pretty sure that was a Jewish thing, wasn’t it? And then somehow Christians changed it to Sunday along the way. And at first when that question was posed to me, I wasn’t all that motivated to answer it. Yet there it was, should you keep the Sabbath? I asked a number of people on the street that very question.

[Steve Myers] When you hear the word Sabbath, what comes to mind?

[Man] The Jews practice the Sabbath on Saturday, and Christians practice it on Sunday.

[Steve Myers] Do you know that Jesus kept the Sabbath?

[Man] I guess he was just illustrating that don’t matter which day you keep it as long as you keep it holy, right?

[Steve Myers] Is there a particular day that comes to mind when you hear the word Sabbath?

[Female] Usually, Sundays, Sunday I’ve always been brought up to believe for my religion as a Christian that Sunday is the day of Sabbath.

[Steve Myers] Well I was brought up that way too. I really didn’t know what exactly the Sabbath was all about. In fact when I was young, my parents went to church. We went to church on Sunday and they were very involved in church, they were active, they participated in all kinds of different activities and of course Sunday services as well. But there came a time for them; something wasn’t exactly right. Something changed and I didn’t get it at the time and they changed churches. So we started to go to a different Sunday church. They wanted something different. And then not that much later, they changed again. And they told me it was something to do with they didn’t exactly agree with what they said, it was different than what they thought the Bible said. And that time, I didn’t know it, but I was on a long road. I was placed on this long road of discovery and by the time I went to college, began to become aware that there were actually Christians out there that observed the Sabbath. The Sabbath, why would they do that? They went to church on Saturday. Boy, that seemed really odd to me. That had to be a Jewish thing, isn’t it? I mean, I figured that it must be. I mean why would a Christian keep the Saturday Sabbath? Well I asked a number of people on the street that very question.

[Steve Myers] So if you’re a Christian, do you have to keep the Sabbath?

[Woman] I think it just really depends on you know, your own faith. I believe as long as you take time out of your week to give something to God, then you’re, in a way, you participate in the Sabbath.

[Steve Myers] Do you think that if you’re a Christian you should follow that example of Christ?

[Man] No I don’t think so.

[Man] That’s a tough call. I think whatever religion decides which day is their day of Sabbath that they hold to the traditions that Jesus would want you to be able to hold that to. And of course in some cases I don’t think we’re doing that anymore.

[Steve Myers] That was a challenge for me, because I was faced with that exact same dilemma. Does observing the biblical Sabbath does it depend on what I want to believe? Does it depend on my faith? Or is there any significance to the example of Jesus Christ? Or whatever my church decides is okay, then well that’s good enough to be a Sabbath? You see when I was challenged with that, those were some of my choices. But what was I supposed to believe and what source should I go to to try to figure out the answer? I mean, me and what I think is right? Or what my church thinks is right or something else altogether?

Well I figured I’d better go to the source. So I remember back then going to a minister and asking him about it. Have you ever asked a minister about the Sabbath? Well mine told me don’t worry about that, he told me that seventh day Sabbath, it was really done away with at the crucifixion. He even said that Jesus Himself fulfilled the law. Now at that time for me, that was good enough. But that idea, Sunday as a Sabbath? That just sounded kind of funny to me. Something didn’t seem to match up. Of course I didn’t look right into it immediately, his answer was enough to get me by, even though there was a little bit of an emptiness there. So every once in a while I wondered, why did Jesus observe the Sabbath? I mean was it just the fact that he was Jewish or could there possibly be anything more to it? I mean after all, I had big plans for my life and I figured I’m doing just fine. So I kind of put it on the back burner, didn’t give it a lot of thought.

But God didn’t agree with me. He didn’t agree with my thinking because it wouldn’t go away. And it kept nagging at me, questions, this question would pop into my mind and that question would pop into my mind and I didn’t have a source to go to at that time. I wish this booklet was around at that time. It’s our booklet “Sunset to Sunset: God’s Sabbath Rest.” Which day is the Sabbath? Was the Sabbath changed? Is it obsolete? These are the kinds of questions this booklet answers. So, go to beyondtoday.tv, call the number on your screen you can download this. Get your own personal copy to begin to answer those questions. I know if I had this booklet it would have certainly been a blessing to me at that time. But I had to go a different way. You know that minister way back in my childhood? He would get up on that podium and I remember as a little kid my minister thundering out these words, and he said “whatever I command you be careful to observe it you shall not add to it or take away from it.” And of course I’m this little kid and they’re up in this pulpit and it was almost like God himself talking up there. And it kind of startled me at that time and it stuck. Well it should have. Because he was right. The Bible, the Bible with God’s commands, isn’t that the real guide? Is the real guide my own conscience? I mean is the real guide a church organization? Is the real guide my own thinking? You see that was the challenge, I came to realize the real guide, it’s the real guide. It’s the Bible. And so that’s where I needed to look to really find the answers to those questions that just kept pestering me all the time. Why do you go to church on Sunday? Well I guess I thought something like these people do.

[Steve Myers] Why do you keep Sunday as the Sabbath?

[Man] Well that’s what the mainstream society does and usually when people do something you should technically follow along.

[Man] With Christians, you know, Sunday’s always been the holy day. And it seems like now you know the malls used to all to be closed at one time now they’re open and it’s more about the profits than it is about being able to spend time with your family and go to your churches and thank the person that is responsible for it all

[Steve Myers] Is it that important that we remember the Sabbath?

[Man] Yeah and if some people or a person could point out actually when the Sabbath is you know, that would set boundaries.

[Steve Myers] Yeah, when exactly is the Sabbath anyways? That was one of my questions, I wanted to know actually when it was. And would that affect my boundaries? I mean is Sabbath observance necessary today or not? And for me that challenge would not go away. And then I came to see it wasn’t just a challenge for me, it was a challenge from Jesus Christ Himself because he said follow Me. Follow Me. Now I claimed that I believed in Jesus. He was supposed to be my Savior. Well wasn’t he supposed to be my supreme example? I mean did worshiping on the same day that He did, did that mean anything? I mean what does the Bible really have to say about it? Should a Christian observe the Sabbath day from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset? I mean I began to hear all the arguments against doing that very thing. “I mean, the Sabbath, it has nothing to do with salvation. The gospel is freedom. I’m not restricted to just a particular day of the week, in fact, it was changed to Sunday.” So, you probably heard those arguments.

Well how do you answer those arguments? Well if you get our Bible study aid, “Sunset to Sunset: God’s Sabbath Rest” it will help you to answer those very same questions that I had. In fact, at the beginning of the study aid, it starts like this, “Why is there such controversy and confusion over this one commandment? You don’t have to look too far to discover the answers to these questions. They can be found in the pages of your Bible and in history and we address these basic questions in this booklet. So order your booklet, call the number on your screen, go to beyondtoday.tv and download your personal copy.

Because as I thought about this, Jesus Christ honored God by worshiping on the Sabbath. And I had to consider that what did He observe? And so as I got out my Bible I noticed that Jesus’ very own practice at the very start of his ministry, was to keep the Sabbath day. And in Luke 4:16, as an adult here’s Jesus Christ, and it says He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. And it says that was His custom. That was His practice. That was His time to worship. And I had to step back a little bit and go whoa, can I minimize that? Can I just kind of look the other way and not really pay attention to that passage? I mean, that was His regular practice to worship on the Sabbath. And what day of the week was that anyway? Well here’s Jesus, not only remembering the Sabbath day but he kept it holy from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. And he set the example and worshiped on that day.

I began to think about that.

Well isn’t the commandment something like that? I knew there was one of those commandments, was it the last one? It must have been the last one because it couldn’t have been that important. But I started to look into it and I realized no actually, it’s commandment number four. Commandment number four, all the way back in the book of Exodus it says, “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. It says six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day, the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.” And going on, it also says, “for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that’s in them and He rested on the seventh day, the Sabbath day, and He hallowed it.” So as I read that, I was like yeah that’s pretty familiar, but at that time when I read that it was like I was reading it for the very first time. God set the example. He rested. He made that day holy. Of course, that didn’t answer every question for me, I mean did Jesus set the example of Sabbath worship so I didn’t have to? Maybe I was kinda hoping that in some level of my thinking. Or maybe I just need to look the other way and I can just disregard the fact that Jesus worked that way and that He worshiped that way. I mean it was really starting to bother me. What should I think? What should I think? And sometimes we’re posed with that very question. So I asked people about that. What would you think?

[Steve Myers] When you hear the word Sabbath, what comes to mind?

[Man] Just that it says in the Bible that you’re supposed to rest. And I have heard about the sunset on Friday to sundown Saturday.

[Steve Myers] Jesus kept the Sabbath. Why do you think Jesus kept the Sabbath?

[Man] You know, God established the Sabbath so in essence, it makes sense for Him to keep it.

[Man] Because He was doing what the Father told Him to do, I would think.

[Steve Myers] Was Jesus doing what the Father told Him to do? Certainly He was. And we’ve got this consistency that I began to notice from the beginning of creation throughout the Bible. And that minister’s words from the Bible itself, “you don’t add to it you don’t take away from it,” that’s when I really started to dig into it. And you know, I found out that Jesus never once told His disciples to disregard His example. I mean He never once told the church that it has the authority to change or alter the Sabbath to Sunday worship. I mean, can a church organization change one of the Ten Commandments? Now what was I going to do? I mean, that’s where I found a real shocker for me. When I discovered that’s exactly what Jesus taught. He taught Sabbath observance. And a passage in the book of Mark, Mark 2:28, was one that just shook me as I first ran across it. Mark 2:28 says this, “Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”

The Sabbath, really? Wait, I didn’t learn that was the Lord’s Day.  But here it was right there in my Bible. The Lord’s Day is supposed to be Sunday. But when I read that passage, I was totally wrong. It was plain as day right there in Jesus’ own words.  According to Jesus Christ, the Lord’s Day, the day over which Jesus is Lord, is the seventh day. It’s the Sabbath. So now, I recognized that fact, the Lord’s Day is not Sunday or any other day of the week. Jesus was clearly telling me, he’s telling everyone, that He is Lord of the Sabbath day. His day of worship? The Sabbath. Now I had heard the argument Jesus only kept the Sabbath because he was Jewish and Jews keep the Sabbath. So what about that? I mean I wanted even more clear precise answers to that very question. So where would I find that? I looked at my Bible and it was like, there it is, in the verse right next to that. In verse 27, notice what Christ says in Mark 2:27, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

Now I recognized that passage really was a crucial key to understand the truth about proper worship. You have to recognize what Christ is saying. I mean I thought well the Sabbath that’s Old Testament for Israelites way back then, right? Or okay, maybe more recent times for the Jews. But boy, when I read that passage and I recognized this is saying the Sabbath was made for human beings, check some other translations. It points it out very clearly. The Sabbath was made for humankind. It was made for human beings. It wasn’t just for the Jews. It wasn’t replaced or done away with by  Sunday. It was made for the benefit of all people for all time. Sabbath worship was not altered, it wasn’t changed, it wasn’t destroyed. Even the New Testament church observed the Sabbath.

So I wanted to check this out and be absolutely sure, so I went to my college library. Imagine that, that’s pre-Google times, right? You couldn’t just look it up on your phone or computer, actually had to go a library. That’s exactly how old I am. So I go to the library, and I found some interesting information, and I found that the true church did observe the Sabbath, it’s right there in history, right from the very start. I also learned it wasn’t till the 4th century that the Roman church officially confirmed the first day of the week Sunday as the day of rest rather than the seventh day as God commanded. And that was a big deal for me. I had so many questions I wanted answered. And maybe you’ve got those questions. Well, are all days of worship alike, is one just as good as another? Well didn’t Jesus change the law? Wasn’t the Sabbath bondage?

Well if you have those questions, get our “Sunset to Sunset: God’s Sabbath Rest.” You can find answers to those questions and you don’t even have to go to the library. You can get them online, beyondtoday.tv. Call the number on your screen. This study aid will help you answer those very questions that I had. Because as I dug into it, now I was convinced. The Sabbath is the day of worship that God established right at creation and it carried over long past creation right through Jesus’ time right through to me today. So did I drop everything on Friday and Saturday and then begin to observe the Sabbath and go to church and worship on the biblical Sabbath? Nope. I wasn’t really all that happy about it. I mean when I went to the library I was pretty sure I was going to prove this whole thing wrong and get on with my life and not have to worry about that.

Now I had a bigger dilemma. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? Now I knew Sunday wasn’t the proper day of worship, but instead the Sabbath was. And isn’t Sunday good enough, can’t I just pick Sunday to worship or some other day, I mean, I had plans, I had hopes, I had these dreams. Who wanted this day taken away from me? That’s the way I looked at it. I guess you could say I was kind of like ancient Israel in the Bible, I knew what I was supposed to do but didn’t really want to do it. I mean I could still think of other objections why I didn’t need to. I mean isn’t that legalism, I mean that had to be done away with at the cross, I mean that Jewish thing is totally different than what Christians must do and after all doesn’t the church know better?

Boy, was I wrong. But as time went on in my life, God wasn’t done with me yet. And it kept bothering me, there it was right there in the back of my mind and it kept coming out more and more. The next thing that happened, I came across a Bible passage that just stunned me. I found it in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 4. Now in Hebrews 4, it begins by telling what you might call the Sabbath story starting at creation and rest then going on to the Israelites coming out of Egypt and going into the Promised Land for their rest. I was reading that quaint little story about them, then I came to vs 9. In Hebrews 4:9 it says this: “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.” Time to go back to the library! So I go back to the library. And I find out these wordbooks and get out these study guides and Greek lexicons and all kinds of things and I’m looking and I find this Greek word for rest that’s in Hebrews 4. It’s the word sabbatismos, and it’s the only time in the Bible that that word is used and I found this book called the Anchor Bible Dictionary and it describes sabbatismos. And that it means, observing the seventh day Sabbath. In fact it says specifically, “It affirms that physical Sabbath rest is the weekly outward manifestation of the inward experience of spiritual rest.” In other words, because I’ve got Jesus Christ as my Savior, we also have a sabbatismos. We also have a Sabbath rest. An observance of the Sabbath Day. So when you really look what that passage should say, there remains therefore a keeping of the Sabbath for the people of God. For real Christians today. And in fact, when you look to verse 10 because you might say, “well, when is that anyway?” The very next verse tells us when.

Notice what it says, “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.” Wow. I could hardly believe what I was reading. I mean that passage was written more than 30 years after the crucifixion of Christ. What was the New Testament church doing? They were worshiping on the Sabbath day. They kept the Sabbath Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. Now those objections that I had were answered, I couldn’t come up with any more. Now it came down to, well what am I going to do about it? I mean God was challenging me, challenging me to love Him, challenging me to obey His word. And it really came down to this. If I truly followed Jesus, if I claim to be a Christian, if I really love God, then I must keep His commands including the Sabbath observance. I mean I knew, I knew Jesus Christ kept the Sabbath. I came to understand the New Testament church kept the Sabbath and rested and worshiped on the seventh day. I recognized the fact I needed to do that too. And of course 1 John 5:3 was ringing in my ears and that’s that passage that says, “This is the love of God, that you keep His commandments and His commandment aren’t burdensome.”

And you know I was convinced before, but now I was convicted. I couldn’t reason around it anymore. I couldn’t justify my inaction. I mean it was time, no more putting it off. I mean God had been calling me and working with me for years till finally got it. I repented of my lack of humility and my self-importance. I dedicated my life to following God the Father and Jesus Christ. You should too. It was the best decision I have ever made in my enter life. That’s my Sabbath story, it all started with the question, should I keep the Sabbath? What’s your Sabbath story? I mean it’s the great story, I mean it is the best story with the absolute best possible of endings. Have you begun? God’s calling you, calling you to change, calling you to examine your life, examine the way that you worship. So how do you start? How do you start? I think you gotta go to the source, get out your Bible, start to read that Bible. And you know most of us, like me, I needed help. I needed help to understand what the Bible was saying. I had to go to the library. Well you can order our booklet, “Sunset to Sunset: God’s Sabbath Rest.” Get this booklet, it will help you understand what the Bible is talking about. And then as you do, you can pray about the things that you’re learning, you could ask God for his direction, for his guidance, for his will to be done in your life. And like me, let God’s Word guide you, let it lead you, let it direct your life to the point, but you gotta do something about it. But don’t be like me. Don’t be like me and put it off, and put it on the back burner and think somehow it’s going to go away. Because it may be bothering you, maybe at the back of your mind somewhere, what is the real truth when it comes to the Sabbath? I mean, there is absolutely no doubt of what the Bible has to say about it. Because like Mark 2:28 says, Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. And he continues to be Lord of the Sabbath. So when you ask yourself should I keep the Sabbath? The answer is a resounding yes.

Sabbath observance: It continues to be how true Christians honor and revere God. So make the best choice to live by every single word of God and choose to worship Him on His Sabbath.

Narrator: Call now to get the free booklet offered on today’s program, “Sunset to Sunset: God’s Sabbath Rest.”

Our lives today move at a frantic pace. It’s hard to stay on top of everything we need to do. Do you sometimes feel out of touch with your spouse, your children, your friends… even your Creator? God knows you need a break. He created a special weekly appointment for your benefit. He even made it one of the Ten Commandments! But how do we keep it?

This free study aid—“Sunset to Sunset: God’s Sabbath Rest”—shows you how. Order now. Call toll free 1-888-886-8632 or write to the address shown on your screen. When you order this free study aid, we’ll also send you a complimentary one-year subscription to our Beyond Today magazine. The Beyond Today magazine brings you understanding of today’s world—and hope for the future! Six times a year, you’ll read about current world events in the light of bible prophecy, as well as practical knowledge to improve your marriage and family. Call today to receive your free booklet “Sunset to Sunset: God’s Sabbath Rest” and your free one-year subscription to Beyond Today magazine. 1-888-886-8632 or go online to beyondtoday.tv.