If Luke 4:16 says that Jesus observed the Sabbath weekly and I John 2:6 says that anyone claiming to be a Christian ought to do likewise, why do Christians not worship on the Sabbath?

 

    From Genesis 2:2 we learn that "on the seventh day God ended his work which he had? made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his works which he had made."

 

?    Some 2,500 years later the seventh-day Sabbath is mentioned when God gave it to Israel (Exodus 20:11).? Nehemiah tells us the Sabbath was made known to Israel while they were in the wilderness (Nehemiah 9:7-14).? It was made a part of the law (Exodus 20:8-11).? The Sabbath was given as a sign of God's covenant with His chosen people.? "Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them."? (Ezekiel 20:12).

 

    The Sabbath was given as a shadow of "things to come" (Colossians 2:17) and the body which cast the shadow is Christ.? In the fourteenth verse Paul explains that the written law of ordinances or Jewish rites and rules was removed.? It was nailed to Christ's cross.? Jesus lived and died subject to the Mosaic Law.? Even so, He never commanded His followers to keep the Sabbath.? The other nine of the Ten Commandments were restated by Christ, and in some cases reinforced.

     Paul, the inspired apostle, did not command or try to enforce Sabbath keeping.? While his epistles have much to say about the passing away of the old covenant and the ushering in of the new covenant, he does not refer to Sabbath keeping as a part of the new covenant.

 

    Actually, he seemed to be "afraid" of those who were trying to revert to the law.? "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. ?I am afraid of? you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. (Galatians 4:10,11)".

 

     The writers of early church history are agreed that Christians met on Sunday to worship.? Justin Martyr (A.D.145) said, "But Sunday is the day, because it is the first day of the week and Jesus our Savior on the same day rose from the dead."? Iraneus (A.D.160) wrote, "The mystery of the Lord's resurrection may not be celebrated on any other day than the Lord's Day and on this day alone should we observe the breaking of the Paschal feast."? These men and scores of others say that the early church worshipped on Sunday.? Since the apostles were inspired men, we are correct in following their precedent.? Clement of Alexandria (A.D.194) said that the Jewish Sabbath was "nothing more than a working day."

 

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