Part 2 · The Sabbath in the Life of Jesus and the Apostles

Part 2 of 3 · The Sabbath and God's Law

Did Jesus come to abolish the seventh-day Sabbath, or did He and His apostles keep it as God’s enduring day of rest? From Luke 4:16 and Mark 2:27–28 to Acts 13:42–44 and Hebrews 4:9 (KJV), the New Testament shows Christ and the apostolic church honoring the seventh-day Sabbath.

How Did Jesus Keep and Teach the Seventh-Day Sabbath?

What was Jesus’ lifelong custom on the seventh-day Sabbath during His earthly ministry?

Verse: “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” (Luke 4:16, KJV)

Explanation: In Part 1 of this course, The Sabbath and God’s Enduring Law, we saw that the seventh-day Sabbath was established at creation (Genesis 2:2–3) and written by God’s own finger in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8–11). When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, it was His settled habit—“as his custom was”—to worship and open the Scriptures on the seventh-day Sabbath.

For whom did Jesus say the Sabbath was made, and who is its rightful Lord?

Verse: “And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.” (Mark 2:27–28, KJV)

Explanation: Notice that Jesus did not say the Sabbath was made only for Israel at Sinai; He declared, “The sabbath was made for man”—for all humanity, going all the way back to Adam and Eve in Eden. And because the Son of God is the Creator who made the seventh day (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16), He is “Lord also of the sabbath,” making the seventh day the true Lord’s day.

Why did Jesus heal the sick on the Sabbath, and what did He rescue the day from?

Verse: “And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him. And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.” (Matthew 12:10–12, KJV)

Explanation: Jesus never broke the fourth commandment; He swept away the burdensome human traditions that had turned God’s joyful day of rest into a cold yoke of bondage. By healing the afflicted on the Sabbath, Christ revealed the true heart of the commandment: “it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.”

What did Jesus declare to those who thought His ministry would set aside the Ten Commandments?

Verse: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:17–18, KJV)

Explanation: Far from abolishing a single precept of His Father’s moral law—which stands beneath the mercy seat in the heavenly sanctuary, as we saw in The Day of Atonement and the Judgment—Jesus magnified the law and made it honorable (Isaiah 42:21) by living out its love in perfection.

Did the Cross or Resurrection Change the Sabbath Day?

How did Jesus and His closest followers keep the seventh-day Sabbath at Calvary?

Verse: “And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.” (Luke 23:54–56, KJV)

Explanation: Look at the divine harmony of redemption: on Friday (“the preparation”), Jesus cried, “It is finished” (John 19:30), completing His work of sacrifice; on the seventh-day Sabbath He rested in the tomb while His followers “rested the sabbath day according to the commandment”; and on the first day of the week He rose to minister as our High Priest.

How did Jesus show that His disciples would still be keeping the seventh-day Sabbath decades after the cross?

Verse: “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:” (Matthew 24:20, KJV)

Explanation: In His Olivet Discourse, Jesus warned His followers about the Roman siege and destruction of Jerusalem, which took place in A.D. 70—nearly forty years after His resurrection! By instructing Christians to pray forty years in advance that their flight would not fall “on the sabbath day,” Christ proved that the Sabbath remained sacred long after Calvary.

Which Day Did the Apostles and Gentile Believers Keep in the Book of Acts and Hebrews?

When the Gentiles in Antioch of Pisidia asked Paul to preach the gospel to them, on what day did the whole city gather?

Verse: “And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, 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.” (Acts 13:42, 44, KJV)

Explanation: If the apostles had replaced the seventh-day Sabbath with the first day of the week for Gentile Christians, Paul would have told the Gentiles in Antioch to return the very next morning on Sunday. Instead, the Gentile converts waited for “the next sabbath day,” when “almost the whole city” assembled to hear the Word of God.

Where did Paul and his companions gather on the Sabbath in the European city of Philippi, where there was no synagogue?

Verse: “And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.” (Acts 16:13, KJV)

Explanation: Some claim that Paul visited synagogues on the Sabbath only to reach Jewish audiences. Yet in Philippi, where there was no synagogue, Luke records that “on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made,” leading to the conversion of Lydia, a Gentile seller of purple, and the founding of the Philippian church.

What does the book of Acts say was Paul’s own custom on the Sabbath just as it had been Jesus’ custom?

Verse: “And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,” (Acts 17:2, KJV)

Explanation: Luke uses the very same expression for Paul (“as his manner was,” Acts 17:2) that he used for Jesus in Nazareth (“as his custom was,” Luke 4:16). And in Corinth, Paul worked as a tentmaker during the week and “reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks” for a year and six months (Acts 18:4, 11, KJV).

What does the Epistle to the Hebrews affirm still remains for the people of God under the New Covenant?

Verse: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” (Hebrews 4:9–10, KJV)

Explanation: In Hebrews 4:9, the Greek word translated “rest” is not the common noun *katapausis* used in the surrounding verses, but the unique word *sabbatismos*—which literally means a “keeping of a Sabbath.” Linking directly back to Genesis 2:2 (“as God did from his”), the inspired writer testifies that Sabbath-keeping remains for the people of God as the sign of resting from our own works in the finished salvation of Christ, who ministers for us in the heavenly sanctuary.

Conclusion & Personal Appeal

From the synagogue of Nazareth to the riverside of Philippi, the New Testament witness is unbroken: Jesus kept the seventh-day Sabbath, rescued it from human legalism, rested in the tomb on its sacred hours, and passed it unblemished to His apostles and the Gentile churches. When we keep the Sabbath that Jesus kept, we walk in the footsteps of the Lord of the Sabbath Himself, resting in His grace as both our Creator and our Redeemer. Will you follow Jesus’ custom and enter into His blessed Sabbath rest?

Continue the course: ← Part 1: The Sabbath and God's Enduring Law · All parts of The Sabbath and God's Law