Welcome my friend, to our Bible study program “In Search of the Lord’s Way” to become a Christian and to live like a Christian ought to live. We’re sincerely honored that you’ve invited us into your home. And I hope you’ll stay tuned for a message that I’ve prepared in response to your many requests; like the one that says, “When was the Sabbath changed to Sunday?” or “Why do Christians worship on Sunday instead of the Sabbath?” Don’t go away now.
My friend, we’re honored and we’re grateful, too, that you have invited us into your home to study the word of God. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! My prayer is that we’ll both be blessed. We’re seen and heard on television and radio stations all across America and all around the world by satellite and internet. We’re sponsored by some churches of Christ and some of the members of the churches of Christ individually, in the viewing area of this television or radio station and others like them. They’re the reason you never hear us asking you to send us money in our programs. These churches and people would like very much to have you visit one of their Bible classes, too, and worship assemblies. I hope you will do that! Why don’t you just do that today? If you need help locating one of these churches in this area, let us help you.
Some, but not all of the studies we do in these programs are about questions that you have asked us; such as the one that says: “I have been looking at the Ten Commandments and I am wondering why some say they are abolished or done away with?” Another one asks, “Why do we worship on Sunday and others on Saturday?” And still another says, “Why do we worship on Sundays, when it was the common practice of Jesus to worship on the Sabbath?” We’ll be back after the hymn to help these viewers, and other people.
If you think you would like a free printed copy, a CD or an audio cassette tape of this program, simply mail your request to “In Search of the Lord’s Way,” P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or by e-mail to searchtv@searchtv.org. You may use our toll-free telephone number, if you prefer to call; and that number is 1-800-321-8633. The program is streamed on our website as well; and that is at searchtv.org. After Ken Helterbrand leads us in a hymn, I’m going to be back and we’ll read Deuteronomy chapter 5, verses 1 to 3 and we’ll pray together.
Our Bible text today is from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 5, the first three verses. “And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those of us who are here today, all of us who are alive.” That is the reading through verse 3. Now let’s go to God in prayer. Holy God, our Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that You are God and that You are all powerful. And we submit to Your will in all things and when and how and where we should worship You; and we pray Your blessings on our meditations today so that we may gleam Thou truths from them. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!
We’ll begin our study today with the questions that are most frequently asked about the Sabbath day: (1) “Why do some people say the Ten Commandments are abolished or done away with?” (2) Did God give the Sabbath command to the Jews only? Why wouldn’t He want everyone to keep the Ten Commandments?” (3) “What did Christ mean when He said He did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it?” (4) “What difference does it make?” Well, with people who are diligently and sincerely seeking to do the will of God in their lives, it makes a big difference, wouldn‘t you agree?
First then, in His Sermon on the Mount Jesus did say, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” That’s Matthew chapter 5, verse 17. The word “destroy” simply means to destroy utterly, to overthrow completely. Jesus did not come to do that to the Law or the Prophets; Jesus came to “fulfill,” which means to complete, or to accomplish, to finish all that was written of Him in the Law and the prophets. After His death, burial and resurrection He said that He had done that. In Luke 24:47, 24: 44 through 47 I believe it is; He said, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me. And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. When He said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
According to Acts chapter 13, verses 26 to 30 in Antioch of Pisidia the apostle Paul preached, “Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the Word of God, the word of this salvation has been sent. For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and the rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled (or meaning completed, accomplished, finished) them in condemning Him. And though they found no cause of death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death. Now when they had fulfilled (that is they had completed, accomplished, finished) all that was written of Him (in the law and the prophets), they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him up.”
Perhaps it’s more easily understood if we use the word “abolish” instead of “fulfilled,” as the Holy Spirit does in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 14 to 16. There He said, “For He Himself (that is a reference to Christ, of course) He is our peace, who has made both (meaning Jew and Gentile) one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition (or separation), having abolished in His death the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, that He might reconcile both (Jew and Gentile, of course) to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” What was the enmity between the Jews and the Gentiles? Well, according to the verse, it was the verse we just read, it was “the law of the commandments contained in ordinances.” Then Jesus did abolish, or put to death the law of commandments, didn’t He? That verse said that He did. In His death Jesus Christ our Lord abolished the law contained in ordinances-- fulfilling it.
Now, to whom did God give the Ten Commandments? Well, let’s see what the Bible says about that, too; what do you say? They were delivered by, the Ten Commandments were delivered by, Moses and recorded for our learning in Exodus chapter 20 and repeated in Deuteronomy chapter five; a part of which we read awhile ago. With respect to our limited time, suppose we just study this Deuteronomy passage, what do you say about that? Deuteronomy consists of a series of farewell messages to the generation of survivors of the 40-year wilderness wanderings from bondage in Egypt over to the Promise Land, to Canaan’s land. Moses, their 120-year-old-leader, would not be going with them into the Promise Land because of his dependence, or his disobedience I should say, and Deuteronomy is his farewell.
Chapter five, verse one says, “And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: (To whom? To Israel.) Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ear today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those of us who are here today, all of us who are alive.” In verse six, Moses begins his enumeration of the Ten Commandments. “You shall have no other gods before Me (or besides Me).” Remember now, Moses is giving a “farewell speech” to Israel! In verse 12 he said, “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Well, that answers the question, “To whom was the Sabbath command given,” doesn’t it? The Bible is clear on that. It was part of the covenant that God made with Israel, and no other!
One viewer asks: “Why would God not want everyone to remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy?” God answers that in verse 15: “And remember, He said, that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out through there by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” My friend, God has spoken! He commanded Israel, no one else, to keep the Sabbath day holy because He had brought them out of Egyptian bondage. So, the question would be more appropriately worded, “Why would God want everyone to keep the Sabbath,” instead of, “Why would God not want everyone to keep it?” Neither I nor any of my ancestors were in Egyptian bondage; therefore, the Sabbath is of no special significance to any of us. What the Holy Spirit had written to the Colossians is timely for me: “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” That’s Colossians chapter 2, verses 16 and 17.
When I lived in Australia in the late 1960’s I went to the Post Office one July 4th and found it open for business. Yeah! The Post Offices were open for business on, of all days, July 4th. But this was in Australia. Just for the fun of it, I jokingly made a “big issue” of it. Some of the postal employees couldn’t understand at first. But, after about a minute of foolishness like that, one of them said, “Well, we Aussies never thought that much of Ole George anyway”-- meaning George Washington, of course. He finally remembered what July 4th means to all Americans. Just as the Australians find an observance of July 4th meaningless, even so Christians find the observance of the Sabbath day meaningless.
We were never in bondage to Egypt; we were in bondage to sin and Jesus Christ, not Moses, is our deliverer! Let’s turn now to the question our viewer asked: “Why do we worship on Sunday and others worship on Saturday?” Well, we just answered the part about why some people worship on Saturday, the Sabbath. Now, why do others of us worship on the first day of the week, which is Sunday on our calendar?
Jesus had taken that covenant of God made with Israel, the law containing the Sabbath command, and nailed it to the cross (Colossians chapter 2, verse 14). He had fulfilled it. He said He did. And John 20 and 1 says, “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.” Jesus was raised from the dead on the first day of the week! Verse 19 says, “Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst.” Verse 24 says, “Thomas . . . was not with them when Jesus came.” And he just couldn’t believe what he was hearing the others saying, that He had been raised from the dead! In verse 26, just a week later on the first day of the week again, His disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. “Jesus came…and stood in the midst, and said, Peace to you!” Then Thomas believed. The point is this: after Jesus had fulfilled the law and the prophets, He met with His disciples, not on the Sabbath day, but on the first day of the week.
The Jews had three annual feasts: Passover, Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles. Pentecost was always fifty days after the Passover and was always on the first day of the week. God chose that day of Pentecost, that first day of the week, to do many things memorable. That Pentecost Day (the first day of the week) is so important in the history of Christianity that it’s quite normally called “the day of Pentecost” as if there was no other. Not to be exhaustive but to name four things that came about on that first day of the week: The apostles “were assembled in one accord.” (2) They fulfilled, God’s promise was fulfilled to send the Holy Spirit to the apostles on that first day of the week. (3) The gospel (the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ) was preached as a reality for the first time in the history, in all of history, on that first day of the week. And, (4) the church, Christianity, my friend, was born that day. Now let us pray. Thank You, Father, for all of the teachings about this first day of the week, that we should assemble and remember the sufferings of our Savior who delivered us from the power of sin, translated us into His kingdom that He will usher into glory when He comes again. Thank You, Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
When the apostle Paul entered another city on what we call his “missionary journeys” he customarily went to the Jewish synagogue on the Sabbath day. He would go there first when he arrived in a city. Not because he, as a Christian, he was keeping that as a holy day, but because he would find the Jews assembled there, and he, being Jewish, would be asked to address the group. And this would afford him an opportunity to preach Christ to the Jews. But on this journey his visit to Troas was different. The church was already established there and Luke, who wrote the book of Acts says, “We stayed or we tarried seven days. Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached, or Paul ready to depart on the morrow, spoke to them.”
Christians, never having been slaves in Egypt, do not observe the Sabbath day in remembrance of delivery from it. But having been delivered from the guilt of sin by the death of Christ, we observe the Lord’s Supper on the first day of every week in memory of our Deliverer, Jesus Christ. From Acts 20 and 7 we learn from the Holy Spirit’s use of the word “when” in that passage that it was already established and that the day for the assembly of Christians for that purpose is the first day of the week. Oh yes, the New Testament Church (the disciples) came together on other days for other purposes, of course they did, even on the Sabbath sometimes, as in Acts chapter 5, verse 42 which says, “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.” But the observance of the memorial for Christ was upon the first day of the week. And that’s why we in churches of Christ come together on the first day of the week to remember the Lord’s death till He comes. No, the Sabbath was never changed to the first day of the week, not by the Lord, not by any pope, not by any emperor, not by any church council, not by anybody. Well, there is much, much more to be said about these things, but it will have to wait until another program. We pray we’ve helped you understand why some people still worship on Saturday and we worship on the first day of the week.
If you would like a free printed copy, a CD or an audio cassette tape of this message, you may have it by mailing your request to In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or by email to searchtv@searchtv.org. Or, you’re welcome to use our toll-free telephone number, which means we will pay for your call. That number is 1-800-321-8633. The program is streamed on our website, too. That’s searchtv.org. Oh say, we would be very pleased if you would attend one of the churches of Christ who helps provide you this program. Just call us and we’ll be happy to tell you about one that’s near you. It’s been so good to be with you today and to study the word of the Lord with you. We hope you have been profited. Let’s do it again next week, what do you say? We love you.
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