To keep the Sabbath holy is the act of acknowledging the spiritual authority of God.

What is the reason? When I explain to you the reason, I hope you will understand the true meaning in God's giving us the Sabbath.

Exodus 20: 8 -10

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you."

What is the reason? When I explain to you the reason, I hope you will understand the true meaning in God's giving us the Sabbath. The Jews who keep the Law of the Old Testament still keep Saturday as the Sabbath. Of course, there is a group of some Protestants who keep Saturday as the Sabbath. Some people argue about which one is right. I hope you will pay attention to this explanation and have no confusion about it.

To give you conclusion first, the reason why we keep the Sunday as the Sabbath is because our Lord resurrected on Sunday. Mark 16:9 says, "Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons." Because the Sabbath of the Old Testament is Saturday, the day after the Sabbath is Sunday. Jesus was crucified on Friday, and He resurrected in the early morning of Sunday, on the third day of the crucifixion.

Let me briefly explain why Saturday was designated as the Sabbath in the Old Testament. God created the heavens and earth for six days and rested on the seventh day. So, people in the Old Testament kept the Saturday as the Sabbath, which is the 7th day of the Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. They rested from the sunset of Friday and the sunset of Saturday. But is there anyone who wonders why Sunday is the first day of the week? Please have a look at the calendar. Most calendars that we use today have the Sunday as a holiday and the first day of the week. Of course, calendar is a product of civilization which has been developed for a long period of time. But the certain thing is that even the calendar is made within the providence of God. God is the beginning and end of human civilization, and He exercises the control over human history. The calendar also has the evidence in it. They had seven days in a week when they made the calendars, and this is based on the 7-day creation of God. Also, they divide the human history into two major parts, BC and AD, at the time of the birth of Jesus. Then, let us find the biblical basis of why we keep the Sunday as the Sabbath after the resurrection of the Lord.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Sabbath is the day of rest in the Lord. In the New Testament times, Sabbath refers to the Sunday, which is otherwise called the Lord's Day. I will explain to you in detail why Sabbath has become the Lord's Day in the New Testament at a later part of the sermon.

Now, why do we have to keep the Sabbath holy? It's because the Creator God commanded us to do so. To understand why God commanded us to keep the Sabbath, let us delve into the origin of Sabbath. As go ascend to the origin of the Sabbath, we get to the 'beginning', when God created the heavens and earth and everything in them.

Genesis 2:1-3 says, "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed 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." God created the heavens and earth for six days and rested on the seventh day. He blessed this seventh day and sanctified it. And God gave this commandment about keepting the Sabbath after the sons of Israel came out of Egypt. It was the fourth commandment among the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:8-10 is about the Sabbath. It says, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you." Then, the following, verse 11 explains about the reason of commanding us to keep the Sabbath. It says, "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy."

To keep the Sabbath has the meaning that we believe God is the Creator. Furthermore, it means we acknowledge the fact that God is the owner and master of the vast spiritual realm as well as the physical world. Namely, to keep the Sabbath holy is the act of acknowledging the spiritual authority of God. It is the same principle with that of giving the whole tithe, which is to acknowledge the sovereignty of God over every material thing. I hope you will realize how great a meaning it carries to keep the Sabbath. The people of Israel were set apart as holy people of God by keeping the Sabbath.

Exodus 31:13 says, "But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you." As long as they kept the Sabbath, God also protected the people of Israel. He protected them from tests and trials and various kinds of disasters.

This spiritual principle is applied in the same way today. We can be protected and blessed only when we belong to God as His children by keeping the Sabbath. Sometimes, some church members come to receive prayer after getting involved in some traffic accidents or with accidents in their business fields. Most of these cases are the ones in which they violated the Sabbath or did not give the tithes. Being protected and blessed is important, but the most important thing is the salvation of our spirit. At the time of the Exodus, a certain person collected some fire wood on a Sabbath, and God did not forgive him. God told them to kill him. It was to tell them that even Israelites had to fall into death because from the moment they did not keep the Sabbath they had nothing to do with God.

This spiritual justice is applied in the same way today. If we do not keep the Sunday, we have nothing to do with God, and we will have to fall into death. I am not talking about the newcomers to the church and new believers who have weak faith. I am talking about those cases in which they have faith and know the truth but do not keep the Sunday, or the cases in which they say they keep it but actually they are not keeping it properly. But if we understand the true intention of God in commanding us to keep the Sabbath, we won't feel forced to keep it in fear. It's because God commanded us to keep the Sabbath to give us true rest with His love for His children.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this love of God was shown clearly after Jesus came to this earth. After the resurrection of the Lord, the day of Sabbath was changed. Until then, the Sabbath was Saturday, but since the resurrection of the Lord, it has become the Sunday. We also call the Sabbath Lord's Day now.

Pastor Emeritus Dr Jaerock Lee

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy Sermon