The Sabbath Through the Ages
By Charles L. Taylor
X. The Sabbath and the Apostles
JESUS died and rose again. As He came forth from the tomb triumphant and glorified, He discovered Himself to His disciples “by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” Acts 1:3. During this time He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45),—the Scriptures from Moses’ time onward (Luke 24:27), and gave them the great commission to go and teach all nations, “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Matt. 28:19, 20. Then came the day of Pentecostal blessing, when the mantle of His power and grace and wisdom in the gift of the Holy Spirit fell upon those apostolic shoulders, “and they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the Word with signs following.” Mark 16:20. Jesus Christ had promised to be with them always, even unto the end of the world (Matt. 28:20); and we may find that without question they had accepted this promise and the responsibility of witnessing for Him. They stood in His place (2 Cor. 5:20), allowed Him to dwell in their lives (Col. 1:27); and so fully were they in harmony with Him that even their bitterest enemies took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13. In view of this relationship which certainly existed between them and their Master, we are safe in assuming that their life and teaching are of great importance to us, and that their experiences are in great measure examples for us. Question: What was the custom of the apostles with reference to the Sabbath of the Lord? What day did they keep? Naturally, one would conclude that as followers of the Lord Jesus they would carry out to the very letter all the instruction He had given them. And knowing that the life of Jesus was in perfect harmony with His own teaching, it would follow that they would live as He lived. In other words, if Jesus was with them as they claimed, then their life and their teaching would be identical with His life and teaching which had gone before. Or, to put it another way, if Jesus Christ dwelt in them, then He would do in and through them the same that He Himself had done while yet on earth. But Jesus kept the seventh day, the day commanded in His Father’s law, the day observed by His people, the day that was made for mankind and given to the race in the beginning. It was His custom to do so. Luke 4:16; Mark 2:27, 28. Moreover, He had taught His disciples and many others that the true observance of the Sabbath was “lawful”—according to the law (Matt. 12:12); and that the law in its every and least particular should continue as long as heaven and earth should stand. Matt. 5:17, 18. Throughout His ministry, by both example and precept, the Son of God taught the sacredness and the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath. Did the apostles do thus? If the reader has taken time to study the life and teaching of the great apostle to the Gentiles, he will probably have seen that that worker certainly followed the example of his Lord. Paul kept the Sabbath of Jehovah with all the enthusiasm of his surrendered life. During all his arduous labors and throughout all his long journeyings, the keeping of the holy day was one duty and privilege never neglected. See Acts 13:14; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4, and other passages. It is very evident also that the apostle led his converts to the Gospel of Christ to do the same; for one record is (Acts 13:42, 44), “When the Jews were gone out of the synagog, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. . . . And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the Word of God.” Gentiles as well as Jews, when they had accepted Christ, began the observance of the Sabbath. Turning to the teaching of the apostle, we find it in perfect accord with what he lived. Perhaps no other New Testament writer has set forth the binding claims of God’s holy law so strongly as he. He declared the commandments to be “holy,” “just,” “good,” “spiritual.” Rom. 7:12, 14. He made it plain that if there were no law there could be no sin (Rom. 5:13), and that only by the law could he know himself to be a sinner. Rom. 7:7. It was he who showed the tremendous importance of the Ten Commandments by declaring that the death of Christ was for the purpose of bringing the righteousness of the law into our lives. Rom. 8:3, 4. Yes, it was Paul who taught that faith in Jesus Christ establishes the law (Rom. 3:31), and that it will continue as the great rule of conduct until the coming of Christ at the end of the world. Gal. 3:19. No wonder, then, that the great missionary of apostolic days honored the Sabbath of the Lord. “But,” says one, “did not Paul write to the church at Colosse that Christ had blotted out ‘the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,’ and that we, therefore, should allow no one to judge us regarding ‘the Sabbath days’?” Col. 2:14, 16. Yes, it is true that he thus wrote; but it were indeed very foolish to conclude that he was arguing and writing against his own teaching and practise. Note the fact that the sabbaths of which he there writes are “a shadow of things to come” (Col. 2:17), and are associated with meats, drinks, holy days, and new moons. Col. 2:16. There were many such shadowy, typical, ceremonial feasts and days connected with the Jewish service, all of which pointed forward in some measure to the Christ who was to die. But when Calvary7was reached, all those types met their antitype and so passed away. Not so, however, with the Sabbath of the commandment, which was given before sin came, before the typical services for sin had an existence. It is a part of the immutable moral Decalogue, which is the very essence of righteousness, and which continues into eternity. It is a striking fact that the word “Sabbath” is found sixty times in the New Testament, and in every case except Col. 2:16 reference is made to the seventh day, the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, the day blessed and sanctified in the Garden of Eden. The Sabbath of the apostles was none other than that commanded of God and kept by the Lord Jesus Christ. As already seen, “the Sabbath according to the commandment,” the seventh day of the week, was the day observed by the disciples while Jesus lay in the tomb (Luke 23:54, 56); and what was done then was done ever afterward. Apostolic times furnish us no other testimony. All taught the perpetual claims of the Sinaitic law, and all certainly lived what they taught. “The Lord’s day,” the Sabbath (Rev. 1:10; Isa. 58:13), was kept by John, the beloved, on the Isle of Patmos. The writer to the Hebrews shows that “the seventh day” given at “the foundation of the world,” is still the pledge of the rest that remains to the people of God. Heb. 4:3-9. And James, who writes to the church of God, says, “If ye fulfil the royal law, . . . ye do well. . . . So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” James 2:8, 12. Shall we heed the admonition? If faith establishes the law (Rom. 3:31), and puts it in the heart as a new covenant experience (Heb. 8:10), is it not true that the Sabbath should be a delight to us, even as it was to Jesus? Ps. 40:7, 8. Has not God pronounced a special blessing upon the Gentile “stranger” who will honor the Sabbath? Isa. 56:6, 7; 58:13, 14. And to the apostle John was it not said, “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city”? Rev. 22:14. Dear reader, let us truly love Him, and in all the earnestness of our hearts gladly “remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy.”