Class 08 The Sabbath

The Study of Leviticus
Class 8
The 7 feasts of the Lord
The Sabbath

Leviticus – Chapter 23
The Sabbath
 Seven feasts were celebrated in Israel:
 The Passover
 The feast of unleavend bread
 The feast of the firstfruits
 Pentecost
 The feast of trumpets
 The day of Atonement
 The feast of tabernacles

The Sabbath
 Beyond these feasts ther was also the sabbath, the
sabbath year and the year of Jubilee.
 We will study each of these feasts emphasising three
aspects:
 The historic aspect
 The personal aspect
 The prophetic aspect

The Sabbath
1. The historical aspect
 The feasts were determined time periods that God and his chosen
people could enjoy together. The first feast that Leviticus presents is
the Sabbath. Leviticus 23:2-3.
 “The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy
convocations, these are My feasts. The Sabbath "Six days shall work
be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy
convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord
in all your dwellings.” Leviticus 23:2-3

The Sabbath
 After having created the universe, God made man on the
sixth day. On the seventh day, he was satisfied with the
work of his hands and he rested. God rested because he
had created man in his image and likeness capable of
receiving him.
 God created man as a vessel in which he could dwell and
that could contain him. Just as a glove is designed for the
hand, to contain it, God created man in his image and
likeness so that he could occupy him and live in him.

The Sabbath
 Remember however, that God never grows tired and never
sleeps. The rest of God in reality is a figure of his
satisfaction. Since his purpose was fullfilled in man he can
now enjoy his company.

The Sabbath
2. The personal aspect
 The man’s first day was the day of rest, the Sabbath. This
indicates that God wants us to rest and enjoy his provision.
 To rest in him is to recognize that without him we can do
nothing.
 To keep the Sabbath then is no longer a religious formality.

The Sabbath
 “... But now after you have known God, or rather are
known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak
and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in
bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and
years.” (Galatians 4:9,10).
 Days refer to sabbaths, and months refer to feast times
and seasons refer to the feasts like the Passover,
Pentecost and the feast of Tabernacles and years denote
sabatical years.

The Sabbath
 Some of the Galatians still kept these traditions, so the
Apostle intervened, to set them free from the things that
were merely shadows of the things to come. In the New
Testament, the reality is Christ.
 When the reality is come, we no longer need the shadow.
“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.”
Colossians 2:16-17

The Sabbath
3. The prophetic aspect
 Today the life of the church is our collective rest. In the
future, the millennium will be our complete rest, our
Sabbath rest. At that time, we will put aside all labor on the
earth and there will be no more sorrow or tears. We will
enjoy rest, reigning with the Lord.

The Sabbath
 Because of their unbelief, the people of Israel couldn’t
enter the good land of Canaan, which also tipifies the
comming millennial kingdom. But we must be diligent in
hearing the Word of God in order to attain the kingdom
durring the Millennium.
“Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone
fall according to the same example of disobedience.”
Hebrews 4:11

The Sabbath
 If we always obey God’s Word, without a doubt we will be
overcomers and the Millennial Kingdom will be our reward.
But if we disobey his Word as did the children of Israel, we
will be defeated and God will not permit us to reign in the
Millennium.
 There is yet another more complete rest, the New
Jerusalem.
 After a thousand years, all of God’s children will be
overcomers and will be able to enter into the eternal rest of
the New Jerusalem.

The Sabbath
 The controversy of the Sabbath
 A question that everyone asks us is wheter we should
keep the Sabbath or not.
 There are four oppinions in evangelical circles concerning
this subject:
1. The Sabbath should be kept literally.
2. Sunday has taken the place of the Sabbath.
3. The important part is the rest and not the day of rest.
4. The law has been completely eliminated, including the
Sabbath.

The Sabbath
1. The Sabbath should be kept literally.
a. As a whole the law has not be revoked.
 The law has three parts:
 The commands
 The judgments
 The ordenances

The Sabbath
 According to this thinking the judgments and ordenances
were fullfilled in Christ, but the commandments must be
fulfilled by us.
 According to this point of view, the Sabbath is more a
commandment than an ordanance, since it was included
in the 10 commandments.

The Sabbath
b. God instituted the Sabbath at creation before he
instituted the law
 The second point is that the Sabbath isn’t even part of the
Law, but came before the law. God instituted the Sabbath
after creating man on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2-3).

The Sabbath
c. The Sabbath was not clearly anulled in the New
Testament
 Historically many of the first Christians kept the Sabbath.
We know that in part this was because the majority of the
first Christians were Jews.

The Sabbath
2. Sunday took the place of the Sabbath
 a. The sabbath was sanctified in the old creation and
Sunday in the New Creation
 The argument is that the Sabbath represents the rest of
the old creation or the Old Testament and Sunday,
because it was the day of ressurrection, represents the
new beggining and thus a new creation and a New
Testament. Therefore Sunday has replaced Saturday as
the Sabbath.

The Sabbath
b. The Church met on Sunday in the beggining.
 It was a custom in the Ancient Church to meet early on
Sunday to celebrate the Love feast and remember the
Lord’s ressurrection.
 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, and said to them, "Peace be with you.” John
20:19

The Sabbath
 Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came
together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke
to them and continued his message until midnight Acts 20:7
 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud
voice, as of a trumpet, Revelation 1:10
 On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something
aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections
when I come. I Corinthians 16:2

The Sabbath
3. The rest is important part and not the day of rest
 a. The Sabbath is a moral commandment, therefore the
rest is central in importance, because man is more
important than the day.
 The principle of the law is more important than the letter of
the law. We have been set free from the letter of the law,
but the principle is spiritual and eternal. We know that the
spiritual principle present in the commandment of the
Sabbath is the rest, therefore the rest is the center and not
the day.

The Sabbath
b. As an ordenance the Sabbath has been abolished. Christ is our
rest and not a holy day.
 You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid
for you, lest I have labored for you in vain. Galatians 4:10-11
 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every
day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who
observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not
observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats,
eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat,
to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. Romans 14:5-6.

The Sabbath
4. The law has completely passed
 The matter of the Sabbath doesn’t exist for us who are in
Christ. We fulfill the law through the Spirit.
 If we die with Christ then we die to the law in the form of
ordenances and today we fulfill the new law of Christ which
is the law of the Spirit written not in tablets of stone but on
our hearts.

The Sabbath
 Jesus is the Sabbath – Matthew 12:1-8
 Chapter 12 of Matthew begins with an expression “At that time”. This
means that the Lord’s call to the weary and heavyladen at the end of
chapter 11 is tied to the matter of the Sabbath.
 On the Sabbath the Lord invited the people to come to him for rest. It
was as if he was saying: “You are keeping the Sabbath but you are
so tired. Although you are keeping the Sabbath the truth is that you
have no rest. Come to me because I am the Lord of the Sabbath”.

The Sabbath
 Upon inviting the people to learn from him in 11:28, and
to find rest for their souls, the Lord though of giving them
rest from the Law of the Sabbath which was the day of
rest.
 On that day however “the Sabbath patrole”, the
Pharisees, were spying on Jesus and saw him break the
Sabbath in their oppinion.

The Sabbath
 The Sabbath was particularly important for the Jews for three
reasons:
 It was the conclusion of creation.
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. Genesis 2:2
 It was the sign of the covenant of God with them.
Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between
them and Me, that they might know that I am the Lord who
sanctifies them. Ezekiel 20:12

The Sabbath
 The Sabbath was a reminder of God’s redemption.
And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt,
and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a
mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the
Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
Deuteronomy 5:15
 After being accused by the Pharises of breaking the
Sabbath the Lord presented five arguments to show that
he is the Lord of the Sabbath. He is our rest.

The Sabbath
1. David ate the showbread - verses 3, 4
 David and his men ate the showbread which was not licit to
eat and nothing happend to him. The Lord demonstrated
that the Pharisees didn’t know what was or wasn’t
permited.
 Jesus placed himself in the position of the one who defines
what is permited or not. If David was not condemned even
less so would he be condemned, in this way he placed
himself as one greater than David.

The Sabbath
2. The priests profane the Sabbath in the temple -
verses 5, 6
 Jesus not only elevated himself above David but claimed
that he was greater than the temple of Jerusalem. Jesus
was a simple Nazarene carpenter, it was hard for a
Pharisee to accept everything Jesus claimed.
 Jesus is now the temple. If while in the temple the priests
didn’t have to keep the sabbath, neither do we who are in
Christ, our true temple.

The Sabbath
 Inside of the temple, or surrounding the temple all things
were holy. Outside of the temple everything was common.
However, once it was brought to the temple everything
became sanctified by the temple.
 The sabbath was outside the temple, but all days were
holy inside the temple.

The Sabbath
3. God prefers mercy over sacrifice - verse 7
 Here the Lord shows the heart of the Father. The things
that the Pharisees did were not acording to the heart of the
Father. The Father is more pleased with mercy than with
sacrifice.

The Sabbath
4. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath - verse 8
 Jesus clearly declared to be the Lord of the Sabbath.
 Therefore the Lord claimed to be above three Old
Testament Icons revered by the Pharisees: He claimed to
be superior to David, greater than the temple and Lord of
the Sabbath.

Class 08 The Sabbath

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