- 6 months ago
Is Jesus our Sabbath now? Are we supposed to treat every day alike? Or can we pick our own Sabbath day?
This video is part 3ain a series on the weekly Sabbath.
Part 1: What is the Sabbath?
Part 2: Why does the Sabbath matter?
Part 3: Who is the Sabbath for?
Part 4: When is the Sabbath?
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Send me a friend request on The Torah Network: https://jaycarper.com/ttn
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
This video is part 3ain a series on the weekly Sabbath.
Part 1: What is the Sabbath?
Part 2: Why does the Sabbath matter?
Part 3: Who is the Sabbath for?
Part 4: When is the Sabbath?
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Send me a friend request on The Torah Network: https://jaycarper.com/ttn
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
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LearningTranscript
00:00This is Jay Carper from AmericanTorah.com and CommonSenseBibleStudy.com, and I'm talking
00:09about a Sabbath to Yahweh.
00:13In the previous parts of this series, I defined the Sabbath, I talked about why the Sabbath
00:19is important, and I talked about who the Sabbath is for.
00:24In Part 4, I'm going to talk about when is the Sabbath.
00:29The following videos are going to seem a little more technical than the previous ones, and
00:34you might think this isn't even a question for you, but there is some confusion.
00:40The internet is the Wild West.
00:43If anyone has ever thought of an idea, there are people out there who are talking about
00:48it, arguing about it, and believe it, no matter how outlandish it might seem to you.
00:55It might be surprising, or even shocking, that there is a problem, a question about when
01:00is the Sabbath.
01:02Doesn't everybody know?
01:04But to be fair, everyone has inherited lies, and many people are beginning to discover some
01:11of those lies.
01:12They feel betrayed.
01:15And because they learned that one doctrine that they grew up with is a lie, they start
01:20to wonder what else is a lie.
01:23Is the Sabbath on Sunday, or is it on Saturday?
01:27What if it's not either of those days?
01:30So when is the Sabbath?
01:33One common answer to this question among Evangelical Christians is that Jesus has replaced the Sabbath,
01:40or that the Sabbath can be any day or every day alike.
01:45Another very common answer is that the Sabbath was moved from the seventh day to the first
01:50day, what we call Sunday.
01:53Another answer that you might not have heard of, but is becoming more popular on that Wild
01:57West of an internet, is the Lunar Sabbath.
02:01This is the idea that the Sabbath is tied to the phases of the moon.
02:07And finally, we have the day that most people in the world think of as the Sabbath still today,
02:12the seventh day of the week.
02:14In many languages all over the world, the name for the seventh day of the week is related
02:20to the Sabbath.
02:22In Hebrew, it's called Shabbat.
02:24In Russian, Subota.
02:27In other languages, it's Sabato, Shavat, and similar sounding words.
02:33So let's take each of these answers in turn, and see if they can be supported from Scripture
02:38and from history.
02:40The Sabbath is Jesus, or any day, or every day.
02:46Reading from Hebrews chapter 4 verses 1 through 11, and I'm only reading part of it because
02:50it's a long passage, please look this up for yourself.
02:55Verify every passage that I quote to you.
02:58Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you
03:04should seem to have failed to reach it.
03:06For we who have believed enter that rest.
03:09Whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
03:15Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of
03:20disobedience.
03:22This is the primary passage that people will go to to say that Jesus is now our Sabbath rest.
03:29And so we don't have to keep a weekly Sabbath.
03:32But is that actually what this passage is saying?
03:36Through Jesus' obedience, death, and resurrection, he restores us to a right relationship with
03:43our Heavenly Father.
03:45But what kind of relationship is this?
03:48Jesus restores us to that relationship by giving us rest from the burden of sin and condemnation.
03:58The rest he gives us is a spiritual rest.
04:02We are now free to obey God's commandments without fear of condemnation for every error.
04:10We don't have to be afraid that every mistake we make, every time we don't live up to God's
04:16standards, that he's going to cut us off.
04:19Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life.
04:23And then he took our punishment for us.
04:26He died so that we don't have to.
04:28He didn't die so that we don't have to obey God.
04:32He died so that we can obey God.
04:36And we can obey him without fear.
04:39And that's really the purpose of the rest that Jesus gives us.
04:43Obedience without fear.
04:46Jesus isn't a day of the week.
04:48He doesn't give us a day off from work.
04:52Restoring us to a right relationship with the Father doesn't give everybody the same day
04:57off every week so that we can gather and spend time with the Father.
05:03Whether his obedience and sacrifice opens a door so that we can approach the Heavenly Father
05:08in that one day a week that we set aside especially for him is effective and honors him.
05:18Reading from Matthew 15, 1-9 and again only reading part of the passage.
05:24Then the Pharisees said, Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?
05:29He answered them, And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
05:34God commanded, Honor your father and mother.
05:37But you say, If anyone tells his father or his mother what you would have gained from me
05:42is given to God, he need not honor his father.
05:45So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God, teaching as doctrines
05:50the commandments of men.
05:53Two important aspects of honoring your parents are supporting them in their old age and spending
05:59time with them.
06:01The Pharisees had a tradition that you could vow your material possessions, your money, and
06:07your time to the temple.
06:09And in doing so you no longer owed those things to your parents.
06:14But it's impossible to love God by hating your parents.
06:18God commanded you to honor your father and your mother.
06:22So you can't honor God by giving that honor to him instead of your father or mother.
06:28That's actually dishonoring God.
06:31So their tradition made the very commandment of God of no effect.
06:36And this same principle extends to every commandment of God.
06:41Every commandment expresses love for God and for your neighbor.
06:46But you can't say, I love God, so I don't have to love my neighbor.
06:51Love for God cannot replace love for your neighbor.
06:54If you love God, you will love your neighbor because God told you to.
07:00Any man-made tradition that interferes with God's commandments is just another example of
07:06this Pharisaism.
07:08By your tradition you have made void the word of God.
07:12Don't allow your tradition to nullify God's commandments.
07:18This is from Romans 14 verses 4 through 6.
07:22Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?
07:25One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike.
07:31The one who observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord.
07:34The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one
07:39who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord, and gives thanks to God.
07:46The most common interpretation of this passage today is that Paul was saying, you can keep
07:51the Sabbath or not keep the Sabbath.
07:53But whatever you do, do it in honor of God.
07:58But you cannot disobey God in his honor.
08:01That doesn't make any sense.
08:03Can you worship a golden calf and say you're doing it for God?
08:07He specifically told us we can't do that.
08:11But Romans 14 isn't about the Sabbath at all.
08:15Romans 14 is about man-made rules for fasting and vegetarianism, not about God's appointed
08:22times.
08:23Let me read to you a short excerpt from the Didache, chapter 8.
08:28Let not your fast be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the second and fifth day of
08:32the week.
08:33Rather, fast on the fourth day and the preparation day, which is another name for Friday.
08:40The Didache is a first-century Christian writing full of good advice, except for this.
08:47This argument about which day is best for fasting is petty and ridiculous.
08:53And this is the exact thing that Paul was arguing against in Romans 14.
08:59If you're going to fast, whatever day you choose to fast on, do it in honor of God.
09:06If you decide to be a vegetarian or if you decide to eat meat on those days when you eat, do
09:11it in honor of God.
09:13There's no commandment that says you have to eat meat or that you have to be a vegetarian.
09:18There's no commandment that says you have to fast on one day or another day.
09:23So these are questions that are up to you in your conscience alone.
09:28Don't let anybody judge you for these man-made rules.
09:31But remember that you cannot honor God by disobeying Him.
09:36Here's another statement by Paul, from Colossians 2, verses 16 and 17.
09:41Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard
09:47to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
09:50These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
09:56This is another passage that people go to to say that the Sabbath no longer matters.
10:01Don't let anyone judge you on whether you keep the Sabbath or not, because the Sabbath
10:05is just a shadow of things to come.
10:08Whether or not the weekly Sabbath is a shadow of things to come is irrelevant, and that is
10:13not the topic of this passage.
10:16Just like Romans 14, Colossians 2 is about man-made rules, not God's appointed times, and
10:23this chapter proves it.
10:26Just read a little bit further down to verses 20 to 23.
10:31If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive
10:35in the world, do you submit to regulations?
10:38Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they
10:43are used, according to human precepts and teachings.
10:47These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and
10:52severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
11:00Paul himself said that he was talking about human precepts and teachings, not the commandments
11:05of God.
11:08He was talking about self-made religion, asceticism, severity to the body, but none of these things
11:15are talked about in the Torah.
11:17None of these things are commandments of God.
11:21What Paul was actually saying is, don't let anyone pass judgment on you in questions
11:26of man-made traditions regarding food and drink, or man-made traditions regarding a festival
11:33or a new moon or Sabbath.
11:36You should be concerned about God's commandments, not the commandments of men.
11:42Don't let man-made rules trump God's commandments.
11:46Paul wasn't saying that you shouldn't keep the Sabbath and not let people judge you for
11:50not keeping it.
11:52He was saying, don't let people judge you for not keeping Christmas and Easter and Sunday
11:58as the Sabbath.
12:01Don't let people judge you for not keeping the seventh-day Sabbath exactly the way they
12:05think it should be done.
12:08Don't let men condemn you for failing their standards.
12:13As disciples of Jesus, our universal standard should be to fear God, not men.
12:20Here's another passage from Paul.
12:23And it is a little bit longer, so I'm going to put the bullet points on the next slide.
12:28Galatians 4 verses 8-11.
12:30Formally, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
12:38But now that you have come to know God, or rather be known by God, how can you turn back
12:43again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world whose slaves you want to be once
12:49more?
12:51You observe days and months and seasons and years.
12:54I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
12:58When you did not know God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary
13:04principles of the world?
13:07Let me ask you.
13:09Are God's commandments weak and worthless elementary principles of the world?
13:15When you did not know God, when you worshipped idols, were you keeping the weekly Sabbath?
13:21Were you keeping God's appointed times?
13:22Or were you keeping the appointed times of men and of false gods?
13:28The Galatians were pagans, not Jews.
13:31They weren't keeping God's commandments before Paul visited them.
13:35They were keeping the holidays of Rome and Greece.
13:39They didn't know anything about God's weekly Sabbath.
13:43So how could they return to them and become a slave to something that they had never even
13:47known before?
13:49Like Romans 14 and Colossians 3, Galatians 4 is about man-made rules, not God's appointed
13:57times.
13:59These man-made traditions were not about the Sabbath.
14:03They were about some men trying to have control over other men.
14:07But the real Sabbath is about restoring relationship to God, being good to your neighbors.
14:14It's about relationships the way God wants them to be.
14:19Jesus is not a day of the week.
14:22And setting aside the weekly Sabbath in order to keep man-made traditions is exactly the thing
14:28that both Jesus and Paul warned us against.
14:34This is Jay Carper from americantorah.com and commonsensebiblestudy.com.
14:41In the next video, we're going to talk about whether the Sabbath might have been moved to
14:45Sunday.
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