This article will lay a foundational understanding of the Sabbath that should help believers bridge the gap between an externally observed day of resting the physical body and an internal resting of our souls that releases the life of Christ into our entire being. Jesus Christ lives within a born-again believer, and the kingdom of Heaven is within us. The Lord’s main concern is that we are progressing towards and entering His inward Sabbath rest.
Jesus Expanded His Commandments to Include the Internal
”“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.“ (Matthew 5:27-28 WEBUS)
The law simply commanded not to commit the external or physical sin of adultery. It never addressed internal heart issues or sin in one’s imagination and thoughts. Jesus came pointing to the internal issues and thus expanded the commandment. Jesus’ made it clear that the Godhead’s primary concern is our inward state, not necessarily our external state. Sin originates from within and can spread and manifest in external ways when it is fully grown. Jesus was showing us that we have to address the internal issues of the heart, which are the causes of external issues.
The same holds true with the commandment to obverse the Sabbath. Many believers get caught primarily focusing on external observations when the Lord is calling us inward.
”So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him!” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”“ (I Samuel 16:6-7 NKJV)
A carnal or natural man is first drawn to serve the Lord in outward ways. Religious man (stemming from man’s false religious system and traditions) enjoys performing religious functions and activities to please God or be “right with God.” These are what the Bible refers to as dead works (Hebrews 6:1). The true work that we must do is believe in Jesus and enter into the rest that He is (inwardly speaking).
”Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”“ (John 6:28-29 NKJV)
Carnal men want to know what work they should be doing. Jesus steered carnal men away from eternal works and again pointed to the inward kingdom. The carnal mind cannot stop thinking about the outward. The mind of Christ is pointing to an inward spiritual reality.
Original Intent
”Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.“ (Genesis 2:1-3 NKJV)
Hebrews chapter 4 is directly tied into this passage regarding the Lord’s original intent, and we will address that scripture later. The Lord made the Sabbath day prior to the law and before the fall of man, showing that it has an eternal purpose and significance. God’s original intent for the Sabbath was rest, peace, and completion. God demonstrated this to His creation through the Sabbath. The Father is calling on His church to return to His original intent (inwardly) in this age. In the age to come, Christ will establish His full and complete Sabbath rest when His kingdom comes outwardly to the earth.
Once man fell into sin, God’s moral law had to come as a tutor in order to lead people to Christ. The law taught us that we could never fulfill God’s righteous standards by our own abilities. Only Jesus Christ living in us and through us, can fulfill the righteous requirements of God’s laws. That is what grace truly is. God’s empowerment to do what we cannot.
Under the Old Covenant, the Sabbath became more of a strict rule as opposed to a peaceful rest with the Lord. Man was never supposed to come under a curse from God and be forced to work hard on the earth and eat by the sweat of his face (Genesis 3:17-19). Because man chose sin, he came under God’s righteous judgment. Now that man had to work extremely hard on earth to survive, the Lord had to put in place a law so that man would not become overworked and have his body break down prematurely.
Sin had now gripped men’s bodies, and they would begin living shorter and shorter lives on earth. The Lord knew that if a man did not have a day of physical rest, his body would deteriorate more rapidly. In our fallen state, we need to rest our bodies. Out of love for us and our own well-being, the Lord placed the Sabbath in the law in order to protect us from being overworked. This is something a good parent would do for their children. It reveals the Father's loving heart towards us.
”“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.“ (Exodus 20:8-11 NKJV)
Old Covenant vs New Covenant
There are two distinct covenants. The Ten Commandments or the moral law of God have not changed, but the covenants certainly did. We are no longer under the original or Old Covenant. We who are born-again are under Christ, who is the New Covenant. Some believers still think the Sabbath is exactly the same as it was under the Old Covenant. If someone broke the Sabbath under the Old Covenant, they were put to death.
”You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.“ (Exodus 31:14-15 NKJV)
Because of man’s waywardness after the fall of Adam, the Lord had to create the above command to lead man back into the “rest” of God. Man was drifting further and further from the Lord. Men were overworking themselves and not making time to rest in intimate communion with the Lord. Man did not yet have inward grace to find rest in God (the Holy Spirit), so an outward type and a shadow of “resting in God” had to be brought forth as a tutor. However, man would test the Lord on this:
”Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation. They put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” So, as the Lord commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died.“ (Numbers 15:32-36 NKJV)
This man was not put to death simply because he picked up sticks on the Sabbath (as we will examine other scriptures of people doing things on the Sabbath and not being killed). The Lord looks at and judges our heart motives. The man picking up sticks had rebellion in his heart. He was willfully disobeying, rejecting, and despising God’s law. The Lord had to bring swift judgment in this situation, or others in the camp would have joined in an open rebellion against God.
Moreover, the context of this passage is very important. It occurred right after God’s people refused to follow the Lord into the promised land and rejected His leadership. They actually told God it would have been better if they died in the wilderness (Numbers 14:2). So the Lord gave them what they wanted, and the man who died picking up sticks on the Sabbath was a result of a much larger sin and judgment on corporate Israel.
”Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above.“ (Numbers 14:28-29 NKJV)
New Covenant Grace
God has not changed and His moral law has not changed. However, there have been some changes that occurred after our New Covenant, Jesus Christ, came and made a better covenant with all who would believe in Him. The change is evident in the scriptures:
”At that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the grain fields. His disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, “Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” But he said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered into God’s house and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath day the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? But I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you wouldn’t have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”“ (Matthew 12:1-8 WEBUS)
Jesus’ disciples would have been committing sin and violating God’s law if they were still under the Old Covenant. They could have been stoned to death, just as the man picking up sticks was killed for violating the Sabbath. Other Israelites that had tried to go out and gather food on the Sabbath day were rebuked by the Lord for their sin and disobedience (Exodus 16:27-29). But God Himself was actually walking with the disciples and did not say they were in sin for getting food on the Sabbath. We must take note of this and see that a change has occurred.
The Pharisees were angry that Jesus was allowing the Sabbath to be broken according to God’s standards under the Old Covenant. They followed the Sabbath perfectly and even made plenty of their own rules for what they could and couldn’t do on the Sabbath. Just as modern-day Pharisees enjoy making lists of rules to obey and then put their rules on you. If you don’t obey the rules that they think you should, then they will lash out at you and condemn you.
Jesus then brings a revelation of the grace of God to the falsley judgmental Pharisees. He defends David who should have been condemned for eating the bread that was not lawful for him to eat. David knew the Lord and had a revelation of His grace and forgiveness. David actually walked with God under the New Covenant and not under the Old Covenant. He was a forerunner who was “tasting of the powers of the age to come” (Hebrews 6:5). We know David walked in New Covenant grace because his sins were forgiven by God immediately when Nathan confronted him, and he was not put to death for adultery and murder as the Old Covenant required (2 Samuel 12:1-14).
Just as David walked in the powers of the next age, we are called to taste the powers of the kingdom age (millennium). The 1,000-year reign of Christ on earth is an age of rest. The Lord is calling His people (who can hear it) to begin entering His rest now. Only those who have this revealed inwardly (like David did) can enter into it. Pharisees who want religious rules and structures will not be able to abide in the Lord and enter His rest.
The disciples picking grain were not sinning because they had the One who is “rest” with them. They were properly abiding in the Sabbath Rest Himself, even if they were walking and picking food to eat. We must see what the Lord is saying to us through this scripture. He is not as concerned about our outward physical activity as He is with our inward life. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath and is in control of it. The Lord of the Sabbath lives in us. The Sabbath was made to be a blessing for man. Man was not made to serve the Sabbath, but to serve the living God.
Religious (in the bad sense), Pharisee-like believers will condemn believers if they don’t follow their strict view of the Sabbath. These Pharisees focus on rules and sacrifice as their primary way of serving God. Jesus rebuked the religious crowd for placing sacrifice above mercy. He was revealing that they did not understand the heart, will, and intent of the Father.
Knowing the Lord
If we don’t know the Lord, then we will misinterpret and misapply scripture. We have to understand the Father’s heart and intent to know what He wants. A new believer or someone who doesn’t know God reads scriptures and easily misapplies them because they don’t actually know the Lord very well. Being born again doesn’t mean you know the Lord as a close friend. Many believers think they know God because they have read the Bible. Knowing someone is much more than just reading about them.
The Pharisees thought they knew God better than anyone else. And they did know the scriptures better than everyone else. They fasted twice a week and observed the Sabbath in a zealous and perfect fashion. The Pharisees were perfect in their outward devotion to the Lord but were the farthest away from actually knowing Him. They were so spiritually blind that when the Lord of the Sabbath was standing before them, they couldn’t even recognize Him.
”You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.“ (John 5:39-40 NKJV)
The Pharisees thought that because they knew and followed the word of God, that they knew God. They were deceived. They physically kept the Sabbath according to their strict guidelines but didn’t have any sense of what the Sabbath was inwardly pointing to. They missed the entire point of the Sabbath all together. Their pride had blinded them. They knew the scriptures better than anyone, and they couldn’t be told anything about the word of God. So it is in our day.
After a believer has spent years following the Lord, being with Him, and having the Holy Spirit reveal Him inwardly, that believer can see and understand the Lord’s motives, will, and intentions behind scripture. The carnal believer does not have the spiritual capacity to understand God’s eternal purpose through certain scriptures because Christ has not been formed in them to a great enough degree. Pharisee-like people would rather have a rule book than a relationship with the Lord. We must actually know the Lord personally to rightly divide His word. Head knowledge of scripture without an inward revelation of Christ is a recipe for disaster.
External vs. Internal
Someone could keep the Sabbath day according to the Old Covenant standard of perfection yet be completely unlike Christ in their thoughts and actions. Pharisee-like believers will focus on and preach following the Sabbath religiously while verbally attacking you, being unkind, behaving in an unloving way, being rude, disrespectful, dishonoring, and essentially allowing their tongue to spew unclean speech from the overflow of their impure heart.
These people, just like the Pharisees, are not justified before God, and their keeping of the Sabbath is useless. Jesus never commended the Pharisees for what a great job they did keeping the Sabbath. He rebuked them for their internal lives instead of honoring them for their external observance of the law. Religious people usually tend to focus on eternal observances instead of inward life. Jesus shows us that He is focused on the things in the hearts of men and not the external. Once the internal issues are fixed, there will be good fruit externally.
”He said to them, “Are you also without understanding? Don’t you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can’t defile him, because it doesn’t go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, making all foods clean?” He said, “That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man. For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile the man.”“ (Mark 7:18-23 WEBUS)
Dissensions is a work of the flesh that is noted in Galations 5:20. Dessensions are defined as "strong disagreement, a contention or quarrel, discord, and a difference in sentiment or opinion." Works of the flesh, like dissensions, will arise out of the hearts of believers and cause discord in the body of Christ. It's these inward fleshly polutants that defile the believer and thus defile the Sabbath. One cannot enter into true Sabbath rest if their heart is not at rest. A believer can observe a natural day of rest while being in a terrible state of restlessness in their heart. True Sabbath rest is having one's heart free of the self-life and the works of the flesh, so that person can actually enter into the "rest" of the Lord inwardly. If our minds are restless and full of worry, burdens, temptations, and other wordly thoughts, we are not at rest even if we are going through the natural and physical motions to honor a Sabbath day.
Jesus Departs from Old Covenant Standards
When Jesus, our New Covenant came, He made changes. One of those changes was that divorce was no longer allowed (except for adultery or fornication). Divorce was allowed under the Old Covenant because of men’s hard hearts, but a stricter standard would be implemented regarding divorce under the New Covenant because of the grace of God. We have to see that the Lord did make changes when the covenants changed, and we must understand what those changes are.
When Jesus was commissioned into ministry by the Father at age 30, that was His full-time job. If the Father wanted to demonstrate perfect observation of the Sabbath day by ceasing from working, then He would have had Jesus resting every Sabbath without doing ministry. This would have demonstrated to everyone that working (your full-time job) was still not allowed on the Sabbath. However, Jesus preached, taught, and prayed for people on the Sabbath time and time again. Jesus (in ministry) operated as a man under the power of the Holy Spirit as an example to us. The Father could have extended Jesus' ministry another few months if more people needed to be ministered to, but He did not. He had Jesus' functioning in His full-time job on the Sabbath.
The religious people hated that Jesus was doing ministry on the Sabbath and spoke against Him for doing so. They didn’t think He could be of God since He was violating the Old Covenant’s definition of the Sabbath. Jesus actually tells a man to "bear a burden" on the Sabbath, which is a direct contradiction to God's command through Jeremiah the prophet (Jereimah 17:21-22). The Father and the Son are in perfect unity and are not going to contradict one another. A revelation of God is always found in the "seemingly" contradictory passages of scripture. Jesus is showing that God has made a change with the manifestation of the New Covenant.
”Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your mat, and walk.” Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked. Now that day was a Sabbath. So the Jews said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry the mat.” (John 5:8-10 WEBUS)
”The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. For this cause the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.” For this cause therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.“ (John 5:15-18 WEBUS)
If we examine the above passage, we see that John (the author) says that Jesus broke the Sabbath. He does not say the Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath, but that Jesus broke it. Clearly, a change to the Old Covenant Sabbath had been made if Jesus actually broke the Sabbath. If a change to the Sabbath had not been made by God, then Jesus would have been in sin, and we know that Jesus did not sin.
Jesus stated that His Father was working on the Sabbath, and we know that Jesus only did those things He saw the Father doing. Why could Jesus be doing ministry work on the Sabbath if He was supposed to be resting?
Note: Even though Jesus was fully God and empowered by the Holy Spirit, He was still fully man. He needed to sleep, eat food, and rest like we do, or His body would have broken down.
Jesus could do ministry work (His full-time job) on the Sabbath because He was living a lifestyle of resting in His Father. Every day, Jesus was partaking of an inward Sabbath rest in the presence of His Father. Inwardly, Jesus abided in Heaven:
”No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.“ (John 3:13 NKJV)
”Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.“ (John 14:10-11 NKJV)
Jesus was abiding in the "rest" of the Father, and the Father was abiding in Jesus. This demonstrates God’s will for us on a daily and continual basis. This is the true Sabbath rest of God. This is what will come forth in full measure when Jesus sets up His kingdom on earth. The Lord desires us to pursue this revelation of abiding in His eternal rest right now during our lives in these mortal bodies. Jesus demonstrated it and taught it (John 15:4-5). Jesus was resting in the Father on the Sabbath, and the Father was doing the works through Jesus. The Father’s works were completed at the foundation of the world. As Jesus rested in the Father, the works that the Father had already completed were being manifested.
Apostolic Revealing of the Lord's Changes
Christ and His mysteries are revealed to apostles and prophets to present to the people of God (Ephesians 3). Some believers struggle with believing this and also have difficulty interpreting the scriptures. A revelation was given to Paul regarding circumcision. Paul was shown that circumcision meant nothing (spiritually or inwardly speaking). It was only a type and shadow from the Old Covanent that pointed to one's heart being "cut off" from sin and the evil flesh nature of natural man. Jesus didn't release this revelation to the 12 apostles during His earthly ministry, not did He speak about it. He gave it to Paul by inward revelation.
"Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me. And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain. Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you." (Galations 2:1-5 NKJV)
Many of the Jewish born-again leaders and believers were still caught up in aspects of the religious system and were having a hard time understanding the changes that came with the New Covenant. Even James (the Lord's brother) and the rest of the elders (apostles, prophets, and teachers) in Jerusalem were still adhering religiously to the law of Moses regarding circumcision for the sake of being righteous before God (Acts 21:17-24). James and other church leaders could not discern the grace of God that had been released to be free from external works. Christ had become our righteousness, and the only way to be righteous before God is to have Christ live in us. No external work can make us righteous before God. Today, Christian legalists still want to do works to be accepted by God.
Many believers have never died to the law and the works of the law (Galations 2:16-21). Only those who have died with Christ have died to the law and its works. Those believers are the ones whom Christ is living through to fulfill God's righteous moral law. They are not under the bondage of external types and shadows of the Old Covenant. Those who have died with Christ understand New Covenant grace by a revelation of Jesus Christ and will not allow themselves to be placed back in the bondage of Pharisee-like believers who want to abide by external regulations and rules. Pharisee-like believers do not understand New Covenant grace because it is an inward revelation. They only see according to external commandments.
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.” (Galations 6:15 NKVJ).
Paul again shows that the external acts were pointing to God's internal purpose all along. Circumscion of the heart is what the Lord is really looking for. Having Christ in you (becoming the new creation) and submititing to His inward rule makes you truly circumsied. An outward action no longer makes a person circumcised. However, the legalists still want to hold on to outward forms, types, and shadows. Those outward things make the legalist feel spiritual. But Christ within us is the only true spirituality.
It’s actually mind-blowing when we consider the Lord did away with His covanent of physical circumscion by revealing it through a man, Paul an apostle. Legalist Christians have a very hard time accepting that the Lord will bring these types of revelations and changes through men (even though they will follow the letter of the law that came through a man). Paul states that love fulfills the law (Romans 13:8-10).
What if your neighbor is moving a few couches into their house on the Sabbath and they ask you for help? If love fulfills the law, then doing work on the Sabbath and helping your neighbor move the couches is fulfilling the law. Christian legalists would refrain from helping the neighbor on the Sabbath and thus violate the New Covenant law of love. By not loving their neighbor, they are actually violating the law and sinning before God. This would be similar to Jesus telling the man with the withered hand that He couldn't heal him and do good on the Sabbath.
The Farmer and the Christian Pharisee
To give an example of the inward reality of the Sabbath, we will examine the worship of two people. The Christian Pharisee has made a list of 100 rules for himself of things that he can and can’t do on the Sabbath day. Those rules include not cooking food, buying groceries, driving more than 20 minutes, and walking more than 1/4 of a mile. If the Christian Pharisee breaks any of these man-made rules, it would be considered work and sin. In this example, the Christian Pharisee sets aside an hour during the Sabbath to read scripture and recite prayers to God before sitting on the couch and reading other books.
The farmer has an intimate relationship with the Lord. He goes out on his tractor on Saturday (the Sabbath) in order to mow a field, because he rested his physical body for a day earlier in the week. While just sitting on his tractor, he prays and worships the Lord for about an hour. Then the manifested presence of God rises up internally and fills the temple of the Lord that the farmer himself is. The farmer is abiding and resting in God as he mows the field on his tractor. An hour goes by, but it feels as if it were only 15 minutes to the farmer. The farmer engages in intimate communion with the Lord and is refreshed by His beautiful presence. After six hours the field is mowed, and the farmer is refreshed by the Lord's presence and rest. His soul is filled with God's peace.
Which one of these people truly observed the Sabbath? Which one found the Lord of the Sabbath and abided in His rest? The most important question is: How does God view these two scenarios? Those who don’t know the Lord or who have not spent a lot of time resting or abiding in Him will not be able to accurately know how God views these two different scenarios. Christian legalists will accuse the farmer of breaking the Sabbath and sinning against God, just as they accused Jesus. They accuse because they judge by external standards and do not understand what is taking place internally.
Just think about what society would be like if no work could be done on Saturday. No food could be purchased at a grocery store, meaning disciples of Jesus could not pick grain on the Sabbath (as was allowed by Jesus). The police, emergency medical services, and firefighters could not work on the Sabbath. Without police and EMS working on Saturday's, crime and death would spike and chaos would take place. Does that sound like the will of God? This is exactly what certain Christians legalists are pushing for because they don't have a revelation of New Covenant grace. Law enforcement and many others have to keep the Sabbath on a different day of the week; it's just a fact and a necessity to have a safe and functioning society. The Lord does not want lawlessness to increase on the Sabbath day. Criminals don’t honor the Sabbath day. No one working on the Sabbath would actually make it a day of unrest.
Type and Shadow
”Therefore let no one sit in judgment on you in matters of food and drink, or with regard to a feast day or a New Moon or a Sabbath. Such [things] are only the shadow of things that are to come, and they have only a symbolic value. But the reality (the substance, the solid fact of what is foreshadowed, the body of it) belongs to Christ.“ (Colossians 2:16-17 AMPC)
Christian Pharisees or immature (weak) believers will judge mature believers because of their freedom in Christ. They judge unjustly because they do not know the Lord very well and they don’t have a full understanding of the scriptures. The above scripture (inspired by the Holy Spirit) teaches us that we should not allow people to judge us regarding the Sabbath because it is a foreshadowing of what is to come. Believers are not to judge other believers regarding their convictions surrounding the Sabbath.
The Lord wants us to have a personal relationship with Him and have personal convictions from Him regarding the Sabbath. My convictions for observing the Sabbath may be different than someone else’s. I am not to put my convictions on anyone else and tell them how they should observe the Sabbath. That’s how Christian Pharisees do things. The intention of this article is to reveal truth in the scriptures and lead people to the Lord of the Sabbath. In Him, you will find life, rest, and the true purpose of the Sabbath. I am called to preach Christ, not a doctrine on the Sabbath.
The apostolic gospel presented in Colossians 2:16-17 demonstrates that a change occurred to the Sabbath as the Lord transitioned from the Old Covenant to the New. Romans 14 makes it clear that new or weak believers often have different convictions than mature believers (regarding food, drink, and special days). We must not judge others based on their personal convictions. We must allow new believers time to grow and mature. However, new or weak believers should be growing and maturing (not remaining as children in their spiritual understanding). We must live by our own personal convictions before God (which can be different for each one of us depending on spiritual maturity).
”Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.“ (Romans 14:22-23 NKJV)
Note: Please read the entire chapter of Romans 14 for better clarification.
Special Days to Worship
Some believers contend that Saturday (the Sabbath) is God’s special day for His people to worship Him. Other believers contend that Sunday is the proper day for the church to meet and worship the Lord. I do not believe either group is correct. I believe Jesus teaches that the Father desires worshipers who live lifestyles of worship and who worship the Lord in Spirit and truth (John 4:23). This means we make pursing the Lord and being in His presence our daily pursuit, not just one day a week.
The Sabbath was designed by God for rest. Keeping the Sabbath holy means that you are allowing Christ to live through you and overcome sin, the world, the devil, and your own evil self-life. Traditions of men have made Saturday or Sunday our dedicated days of worship. The Lord is fine with us holding church gatherings on Saturdays or Sundays. He is not alright with us saying that those are the only days, or His holy days on which the church should meet. Every day is to be made holy before the Lord, not just one or two days a week. When the Holy One lives in you, every day can be holy. The church started off meeting every day of the week, not just on Saturday or Sunday:
”So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.“ (Acts 2:46-47 NKJV)
It’s a shame that believers even argue over the proper holy day to meet as the church. The early church was so full of Christ’s life and the Holy Spirit that they met corporately and in homes on a daily basis. We (the church) definitely need to repent of our stupid theologies and traditions. Only a backslidden and lukewarm church argues about the proper day it’s supposed to meet. If we weren’t lukewarm and we were actually burning inwardly for Jesus Christ, we would be meeting often by the grace of the Spirit. Our relationships would be rich and honorable, and the impact of our spiritual friendship would be felt by many. Instead, the church debates and argues over the Sabbath and other holy days.
Jesus ministered to people daily and held meetings throughout the week, not just on the Sabbath day. He is our example, and the first apostles started their ministries based on the ministry of Jesus. We would be wise to look to Jesus as our Master and Leader.
Sabbath During Revival
The Lord gave me a personal conviction many years ago regarding taking a day of rest during revival or extended meetings when the Holy Spirit is moving in power and bringing in the harvest of souls. If leaders and believers do not take a day off to rest their bodies, then they will burn out and the revival (harvest) will be lost. It takes a lot out of all those who are involved with conducting revival meetings. The Sabbath doesn’t just apply to someone working a regular job and doing manual labor. It applies to all of us.
“You shall work for six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; [even] in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest [on the Sabbath].“ (Exodus 34:21 AMP)
Millennium Sabbath Revealed
The Millennial reign of Christ from the New Jerusalem is foreshadowing that our current Sabbath will make way to the fulfillment of the Sabbath. The saints will stand before Jesus Himself and behold His glory. We will worship the Lamb of God in person at Jerusalem. This is the true Sabbath that I desire. But we can experience the Lord inwardly during this life before we get to the coming heavenly promise.
“And it shall come to pass from month to month, and from sabbath to sabbath, that all flesh shall come to worship before me in Jerusalem, saith the Lord”. (Isaiah 66:23 Brenton LXX)
Inward Rest
The Lord’s intention with Israel was to have a people who would become His own special possession, a people who would be possessed by Him (Exodus 19:5-6). They could not keep the Lord’s covenant, and they never entered into His rest. Many kept an outward Sabbath of rest but never experienced an inward Sabbath rest. The second generation of Israelites that came out of Egypt did enter into God’s promise land in the natural. This land was a type and shadow of what was to come. It was a foreshadowing of the permanent and complete “rest” of God within us.
Israel may have entered the land of their Sabbath rest, but because it was a foreshadowing, they never experienced the inward rest and peace that can only come from Jesus Christ.
‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.” Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.“ (Hebrews 4:1-11 NKJV)
This scripture beautifully explains the Sabbath rest that the Lord desires. The context clearly discusses the Sabbath because it quotes God resting on the seventh day from His works. Then the scripture tells us that some have not entered into God’s rest at all (and it is not speaking of observing a natural day as the Sabbath, because the people of God were doing that). This scripture speaks of an eternal spiritual rest. This is the rest that the Lord is focused on for us. He is rest.
Joshua could never give the people of God true inward spiritual rest. A natural day or a natural land of promise could never give a person true inward rest. There remains a spiritual rest for the people of God. Those who are not diligent enough to enter into that inward rest of abiding in Christ will be considered disobedient to the Lord, just as those of Israel were disobedient by not entering the natural promise land. It’s a fearful thing to think that we can be believers who observe a natural Sabbath day where we are physically resting (which is good) and never enter into the true inward rest that the physical Sabbath day is foreshadowing. We are to enter into the real promise land, which is Christ.
In order to enter the Lord’s “rest” that He has for us, we must cease from our works, as God exampled for us by ceasing from His. We must rest from our dead works that we think bring us closer to God. Any religious works that we are doing in our own strength will keep us from entering rest. Any religious works we are doing with improper motives will prevent us from entering the Lord’s rest. The religious traditions of men that we are faithfully adhering to and teaching will keep us from rest. All religious activities and programs that are from man and not God will keep us from the internal rest of Christ. All of our good ideas that we are implementing for God will keep us from entering His rest. Trying to do ministry in our own way or strength will keep us from the promise of inward rest.
The church has been no different than Israel. For 2,000 years, most have failed to truly enter His rest. The Lord is extremely grieved over this, and it’s not His will. The Lord is looking for a people who will become His possession (1 Peter 2:9). He is looking for those who will allow Jesus to fill them to the full measure of His own stature. The Father wants us to be diligent regarding entering His rest. Allowing Christ to fill us with Himself will bring us into the promise of rest. We can experience and walk in the Sabbath rest of the millennium now, internally. We must allow the Lord to strip away everything hindering us from entering His rest. He will teach us individually as we come to Him regarding the entering of His rest. He will show us how to wait on Him and abide in Him until His perfect rest fills our very being.
It will be a process of learning to remain in His rest. Enoch figured this process out and learned to rest in God. Enoch walked so deeply in the "rest" of God that the Lord just caught him up to Heaven. Enoch is an example to us of how a fallen man can abide in God and enter His rest. We have an advantage that Enoch didn’t. We have God in us, and we can be shown by the Spirit how to go within our hearts to the place where the great King dwells. We can come before His throne and behold Him inwardly in the holy of holies.
”Therefore, brethren, since we have full freedom and confidence to enter into the [Holy of] Holies [by the power and virtue] in the blood of Jesus, By this fresh (new) and living way which He initiated and dedicated and opened for us through the separating curtain (veil of the Holy of Holies), that is, through His flesh,“ (Hebrews 10:19-20 AMPC)
Practical Living and True Rest
I want to make it clear that I am not teaching against the Ten Commandments or the Sabbath. Christ living and loving in us and through us, fulfills His perfect moral law. This occurs when we yield to the Holy Spirit and are led by Him. Everyone should have their own conviction before the Lord regarding how to honor the Sabbath. We should not judge other believers by our own convictions, standards, or traditions. I believe it’s God's will for us to rest our bodies and minds on the Sabbath as the Lord commanded so we will not get overworked, stressed, or burned out. The Father is looking out for our health. Many pastors don’t rest enough and burn out in ministry.
Many focus on a day instead of the true Sabbath Rest Himself who dwells within. When we abide in Christ as our Sabbath rest, we can have multiple Sabbath days per week. Some people have the time and freedom to spend multiple days each week with the Lord and mostly pursue Him during those days. Others are very busy with work and children and therefore have less quiet time with the Lord. These people may have one day to come before the Lord and seek Him. Even then, they have obligations to take care of the family and children.
Only people who have never had children would think you could dedicate a whole day to doing absolutely no work. Children are a lot of work, and you have to work on the Sabbath and take care of them! You do not get much rest on any day with babies and toddlers. The Lord certainly doesn’t want children neglected, as that would violate His law of love. Doing many different kinds of jobs can be much easier and less stressful than raising children. It’s foolish for younger believers to think they understand the Sabbath and tell you how to uphold it when they haven’t had children and don’t know what they are talking about. There is grace from the Father when we have to do certain work activities on the Sabbath. The Father is not condemning us for taking care of duties that are necessary.
Many Christians believe that activities can be done on the Sabbath that are a departure from their normal work. For example, a person can go on a run to get exercise, a couple can go on a hike to be refreshed and experience God's creation, or a family could go to the beach for rest and relaxation. Our family has spent numerous Sabbath days at the beach. There is something about God's creation (the ocean, waves, and sand) that brings peace to your soul. After a stressful week at work (during our three years in south Alabama), there was nothing more calming for me than to look out over the ocean and listen to the waves hitting the shoreline. Oftentimes, I would feel the presence of God and He would bring peace to my soul in the midst of a trying and difficult season. The Lord uses His beautiful creation to bring healing and rest to our minds and bodies.
As we continue to journey with the Lord and ask for His grace to bring us into the Sabbath rest, He will teach us how to walk in His rest through our daily lives. We can learn to go inward, where the Lord of the Sabbath dwells, and abide in His rest throughout our day. This will not be easy, but the Lord can bring us into this reality. Jesus walked in this reality and He is our example. We will never make it there unless we start moving in that direction and pursuing His inward rest. We must pray and seek what Jesus prayed in John 17:21. We have to become one with the Father and Son, just as Jesus is one with the Father. That doesn’t mean we become God, but we do have God dwelling in us, so we can abide in Him with His Spirit in our spirit. The Holy Spirit can teach us these spiritual truths.
The main focus of this article was to reveal the purpose and intent of the Sabbath. The perfect will of God goes far beyond a physical day with physical rest. His will goes beyond the veil into the Holy of Holies, where Christ dwells. The Lord is calling us inward into His eternal and complete Sabbath rest. Only He can give you that rest through His Spirit. A day of physically resting cannot give you that internal rest. It will help your physical body, which is good and needed. We must have eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit is saying.
-Ty Unruh (March 2024)
