The Sabbath command was given to Israel as part of their covenant with God, but there is no command in the New Testament for Gentile believers to observe the Sabbath as given to Israel under Moses.
In Acts 15 when the Jerusalem council concluded that the Gentiles were under no obligation to come under the requirements of the law of Moses, they gave them the following directives: abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication. ~ Acts 15:20
They made no recommendation to the Gentiles that they should keep the Sabbath, and never did anywhere in the book of Acts.
In Colossians 2 Paul says to the Gentiles, Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. ~ v. 16-17
Notice that Paul makes a distinction between the feast days (holy days as the KJV renders it above) and the weekly Sabbath in this text. The Greek word for Sabbath in this verse is the same Greek word that refers to the weekly Sabbath elsewhere in the New Testament and the Greek word used for the feast days is the same that is used throughout the New Testament for the Jewish feasts such as Passover and unleavened bread.
Notice also that Paul refers to the Sabbath as a shadow of things to come, and follows that statement sayings, but the body is of Christ. The NIV’s rendering is actually much clearer than the KJV.
These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. ~ Colossians 2:17 NIV
Let that resonate, the fulfillment of what was foreshadowed in the Sabbath is found in Christ.
Like Paul in his letter to the Colossians, the author of Hebrews also refers to such observances as shadows of things to come. Not a shadow of things to come from our vantage point, but from the vantage point of those who were under the law.
Thus the truths foreshadowed in the keeping of the weekly Sabbath by the Jews is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ is our Sabbath rest. In Hebrews 4, the author of Hebrews speaking of the meaning of Sabbath rest says, For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. ~ Hebrews 4:8-10 NIV
Israel’s entrance into the promised land, their yearly feasts (which were also Sabbaths) and their weekly Sabbath were all foreshadowings of the rest that God intends for his people in Christ Jesus.
When the instructions of the covenants transitioned from the old to the new, the Jews continued in their traditions which were part of their culture and daily lives, and meanwhile the Gentiles also came into the covenant of grace.
There were some among the Jews who attempted to persuade the Gentiles to follow Jewish customs as part of their new found faith. Paul opposed such demands, knowing that true relationship with God through Christ has to do with circumcision of the heart and not the flesh, for what Israel was given as a type and a shadow under the law was now a reality in the person of Jesus Christ.
When Jesus spoke of the future Sabbaths (example., pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day ~ Matthew 24) he was referring to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple when the Jews would be scattered. This would happen within the generation of 40 years after his crucifixion and resurrection.
The New Testament goes to great lengths to teach us that those who come to faith in Christ are under no commandment to keep a weekly Sabbath, though there are valuable truths we can learn from it not only as it pertains to our rest in Christ, but the practice of taking a day to rest is a divine pattern that anyone can benefit from, and I’d encourage you to do exactly that.
We were not designed to work without rest. Our bodies and our minds need to rest from labor. So there is a lot we can learn and apply from the weekly Sabbath that the children of Israel were commanded to keep, but we must make the distinction that we (who are Gentiles in the flesh) have been given no such commandment.
The primary reason God gave the children of Israel the weekly Sabbath was for rest, as a gift to them. They were to remember that they had been slaves to the Egyptians, but the One True God who created all things, had delivered them. They were now God’s servants, and were no longer slaves to taskmasters. They were to be the servants of the Living God who rested from all his works on the seventh day. God wanted them to follow his example and learn how to treat those who were their servants by allowing them to rest as well.
Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. ~ Deuteronomy 5:12-15 NIV
The Sabbath’s ultimate intent was to remind the people that they were serving the Living God who is the creator of Heaven and earth (thus they were to worship him and be consecrated to him alone). God rested on the Sabbath day because he had finished his work, not because he was tired. Israel on the other hand was to rest from their labors because of the toll work takes on the body and mind. Yet God had loftier things in mind as he was foreshadowing the rest for weary and burdened souls in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, in whom the work of God is complete for our souls.
The Sabbath command in the Ten Commandments is the only outward religious or ceremonial observance that is part of the Ten Commandments. All other commands have to do with the heart and how one lives. Under the law, an Israelite could actually keep the weekly Sabbath command while breaking the other Commandments. Thus Jesus addressed the hypocrisy of observing religious rites from wrong hearts when he exposed the religious bondage of the Pharisees regarding the Sabbath.
All the conduct from the heart commands (worship God only, don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery, etc.,) are still applicable and built into the very fiber of New Testament teachings and doctrine, but the outward ceremonial observance of the weekly Sabbath isn’t. However, that which was foreshadowed in the Sabbath, rest or abiding in Christ is the most essential, as it gives life to our service to God.
In Matthew 11 Jesus said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. ~ Matthew 11:27-30
Right after this Jesus walked through some fields with his disciples on the Sabbath day and technically they broke the Sabbath by eating some of the grain from the fields. This aroused condemnation from the Pharisees. In response Jesus cited two accounts from the scriptures where the breaking of the Sabbath occurred, and he did so to defend his and his disciples’ innocence.
He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” ~ Matthew 12:3-8 NIV
Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, and his disciples were with him, so they were innocent of any charges brought against them by the religious hypocrites who used the law to tie heavy and cumbersome loads on others. The Sabbath was not given to make us slaves to the bondage of religion, but to free us from the slavery of sin, and to bring us into the joyous rest of the Lord, who Himself is our Sabbath rest.
The work is finished, and we are complete in him in whom all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.
Rooted and Grounded In Christ 