The True Sabbath

Thousands of years after my Jesus radically demonstrated what Sabbath meant (or demonstrated how to break it) church people still have funny ideas about it. They still reek of Pharisaical religiosity while they all claim thorough understanding and expertise on the subject. What’s the true Sabbath?

One born again, after discussing the matter with an Adventist, asked me why Christians decided to turn Sabbath into a Sunday affair, obviously confused. She looked convinced that Sabbath ought to be observed on Saturdays because that’s how the Jews observed it in the Old Testament. I asked her why she didn’t see how Jesus broke it in the New Testament. Why see the Jews and not Jesus? Jesus was the one who died for us.

Then sometime in the recent past, some church leaders told us that the only way to observe Sabbath was to do nothing else but to go to church on Sundays. Thus, church people spend all Sunday in their church buildings from morning till evening. That way, you fulfill the Sabbath, they say. I asked the leaders why this way and they told us the following reasons:

·         Jesus resurrected on a Sunday.

• Paul had some relief goods collected on a Sunday.
• The Acts church was said to have worshiped on a Sunday. 

“So?” I asked.

“Well, that’s why Sabbath is now on a Sunday!” they chorused.

However, both camps—born again and Adventists—say that the Sabbath law is still to be observed in our day, and this is by making sure you’re found in church on a Sabbath day—which is Saturday to one and Sunday to many others—and that we should do nothing else. Doing something else is breaking the Sabbath and therefore a sin, they aver.

I wondered to myself:  “And Christ died for that? That’s Sabbath? What a bore.”

They add that not getting serious with the Sabbath Law makes God really angry. Again I wondered: “And going to a church building on a Sabbath makes him happy? Even if you’re rotten or sinning or worldly?”

What Makes God Angry?

In Hebrews, God was angry with those whom he had rescued from Egypt but who later disobeyed. He swore that they wouldn’t enter his rest, which later the Hebrew writer connected with the true Sabbath rest. What God wanted was to continue to the end what they had embraced in the beginning—which was hearing and obeying the Word.

What I noticed when I was meditating this Scripture with the Lord was that nothing was mentioned about when exactly the Sabbath should be observed—except that word frequently used in the passage: “Today.” Today is everyday. Today, if you hear God’s voice do not rebel, do not harden your hearts—be sure to obey. Only in obeying God’s spoken word to you (you hear his voice when you get the spoken Word) can you enter God’s rest, God’s Sabbath.

Now some will say that obedience here is going to church on Sunday which is Sabbath. But you find nothing like that in the context. The context talks about God getting angry because of their disobedience, and to be specific, because of hearts always going astray and willful trashing of God's ways--which are things very alive in churches today. Having a denomination in itself is going astray and willful trashing of God's ways. You'd see this if you honestly study John 17 (complete unity of believers, as united and one as the Father and Son are one) and compare this with denominationalism.

What good would going to your church building be with such disobedience? And anyway, if you see the true spirit in God's Sabbath rest, you won't bother going to any church building on Sundays or Saturdays because you'd see that living the Jesus LIFE daily, each moment, is the true Sabbath rest in God. God's Sabbath rest should be everyday, not just Saturday or Sunday.

God’s Sabbath rest is a daily spiritual condition, NOT a particular day. If you do not continuously obey God’s voice, everyday throughout your life (everyday), you will never enter his rest. You will never fulfill God’s true Sabbath. You cannot enter the true Sabbath by entering some church building on Saturdays or Sundays. That kind of Sabbath (entering a religious building and doing nothing but religious activities) is Pharisaical religion my Jesus demolished a long time ago, but which some “Christians” are trying to resurrect  today.

God’s Sabbath rest is everyday. We should be in His rest daily, not just Saturdays or Sundays. We should make sure that we’re doing nothing else but His Word in our lives daily. Make sure, therefore, that you have given up anything not of God, especially man’s Pharisaical religions. Hebrews says anyone who enters God’s rest should also rest from his own works—man-invented works.

Lots of church people, all they get is the written Word whenever they read the bible. Paul told the Corinthians that the Letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. And my Jesus said in John, the word he speaks, they are Spirit and they are life.

Make sure you get this—the true Sabbath is getting God’s spoken Word daily and living it out daily, up to the end. That’s when you really rest in God. But if you think it's that one day a week when you have to be in your church building--you're of all people deceived, big time.