Printable Bible Lesson Outlines

Lesson 8

 The Catholic Church and most of the Protestant Churches accept Sunday, the first day of the week as the proper day set aside for assembling for worship. Religious Jews still observe Saturday, the seventh day as the proper day for rest and for assembling for worship. The Jews still hold the day to be holy to the Lord. History is clear that the earliest Christians, Jew and Gentile alike, all observed the Sabbath. Was it because of tradition, convenience of the time or by commandment? The Catholic Church, believing they had the authority to add or remove Laws changed to Sunday observance out of convenience. Some Protestant faiths hold the belief that Jesus was resurrected on Sunday, therefore it is the day to be set apart for assembling. Some Protestant faiths do not believe that it matters to God whether the Sabbath is kept holy and observed as the day of the holy assembly, therefore they choose Sunday because of convenience. Bible Translation: NASV

DEFINITIONS

The Sabbath Day: The seventh day of the first week of creation. God rested on this day after completing the work of creation in six days. God also blessed the seventh day and declared it a memorial of creation. The weekly Sabbath is designed to remind man that there is a God who created them and everything around them. At Sinai, God commanded Israel to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, notice -“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. 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 and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-10)

    Israel was also commanded to declare the Lord’s appointed times at the proper time God has chosen. The Sabbath day was given not only as a day for rest, but also for assembly, notice, -“For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings. These are the appointed times of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them.” (Leviticus 23:3-4)

Some Christians argue that invariably time has been lost since creation week, therefore it is impossible to know which day is really the true seventh day Sabbath. The error in this reasoning is that Christians need not reach that far back in time, but only to the time of Jesus since He kept the Sabbath Himself. As you learned in Lesson 1, ”Who is Jesus?”, it was He, as God the Son, who rested on the seventh day of creation. Scripture makes it clear that Jesus and His Apostles not only knew which day the Sabbath was, but kept it themselves.

THE SABBATH DAY PRIOR TO THE EXODUS

Genesis 2:1-3 / Mark 2:27-28

❖ The first Sabbath was made for __________

Scripture__________

❖ God __________ the Seventh day and sanctified (set it apart) it

Scripture__________

❖ Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for __________

Scripture__________

❖ Jesus is the __________ of the Sabbath

Scripture__________

Commentary: The Sabbath day is a memorial of the creation week. This memorialized the seventh day as God’s original day of rest. Since the Sabbath is a memorial of a past event, no other day can replace it. For example, you cannot change your birthday from the day which you were born to one on which you were not born. Neither is it possible to change God’s rest day to a day on which He did not rest. Therefore, the seventh day will always be God’s Sabbath day. One can question whether Christians are obligated to observe the Sabbath, but one cannot make another day the Sabbath day.

THE SABBATH DAY IN ISRAEL’S HISTORY

Exodus 16:4-5 / Exodus 16:19-31 / Ezekiel 20:12-13,19-21 / Exodus 34:21 / Jeremiah 17:19-27 / Nehemiah 13:15-18 / Leviticus 23:1-3 / Isaiah 58: 13-14 / Isaiah 56 / Numbers 15:32-36 / Exodus 31:12-18 / Ezekiel 22:23-26 / 2 Chronicles 36:11-21 / Leviticus 26

❖ God rained _________ from Heaven and told Israel to gather a day’s portion every day

Scripture__________

Scripture__________

❖ God did this in order to ________ them to see if they would walk in His instruction

Scripture__________

❖ If any Manna was left over until morning, it bred _________ and became foul

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❖ Did it become foul when it was left over for the Sabbath day? ________

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❖ God rained the Manna down every day of the week but the ____________

Scripture__________

❖ Were the people forbidden to go out to gather Manna on the Sabbath? ________

Scripture__________

❖ Did some go out on the Sabbath anyway? ________

Scripture__________

❖ Was God angry because some of the people refused to keep His Commandment? _______

Scripture__________

❖ Did God provide two days worth of Manna on the sixth day? ________

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❖ Does God promise to provide for those who trust Him enough to keep this Commandment?_____

Scripture__________

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❖ In order that they may ________ that He is the ________ their God

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❖ Because Israel profaned God’s Sabbaths, He resolved to pour out His _________ on them

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❖ Did God allow the Israelites to work on the Sabbath during harvest time? ________

Scripture__________

❖ God promised that ______________ would stand forever if its citizens kept the Sabbath

Scripture__________

❖ The ___________ is your weekly appointment with your Heavenly Father

Scripture__________

❖ The Sabbath is a ___________, the holy day of the Lord, honorable

Scripture__________

❖ Does God allow us to seek our own pleasure on the Sabbath? ________

Scripture__________

❖ Does God allow us to speak our own word on the Sabbath? ________

Scripture__________

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❖ To Sabbath keepers, God promises to place a ____________ of them within His walls

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❖ To them, He will bring to His holy ____________ and make them joyful in His House of Prayer

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❖ Was the man found gathering wood on the Sabbath declared guilty? _______

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❖ The Lord said -“The man shall surely be put to _________”

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❖ God so emphasized Sabbath observance that He ruled that those who broke it be put to _______

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❖ Some of Israel’s unfaithful Priests ________ their eyes from God’s Sabbaths and profaned them

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❖ Judah was captured and carried away until the land had enjoyed its ____________

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❖ God grants _________ in the land when people keep His Sabbath

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❖ God promises to make ___________ and ____________ those who keep His Sabbaths

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❖ God promises to walk among those who keep His ______________

Scripture__________

❖ Is Sabbath keeping a part of the Covenant of Promise made to father Abraham? _______

Scripture__________

THE SABBATH DAY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH

 Luke 4:14-16 / John 15:10 / Matthew 12:1-13 / Matthew 24:20-21 / Luke 23:50-56 / Acts 17:1-4 / Acts 13:42-50 / Acts 16:11-13 / Acts 24:13-14 / Hebrews 4:9-11 / Hebrews 10:23-25

Scripture__________

❖ While on the earth, did Jesus keep the Commandments? _______

Scripture__________

❖ Did Jesus abolish Sabbath observance or teach how it should be kept? ____________________

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❖ Who is the Lord of the Sabbath? ______________

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❖ Jesus says that end-time Christians living in Judea should pray their flight not be on _________

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❖ In doing this, was Jesus making a clear distinction between the Sabbath and other days? _______

Scripture__________

❖ After Jesus died, pious women still kept the Sabbath according to the ______________

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❖ Did the Apostle Paul keep the Sabbath after the death and resurrection of Jesus? __________

Scripture__________

❖ Did Paul hold services for the Gentiles on the Sabbath or Sunday? ______________

Scripture__________

❖ “The next __________ nearly the whole (Gentile) city assembled to hear the Word of the Lord.”

Scripture__________

❖ While in Philippi, Paul went outside the gate to look for a place of _______ on the Sabbath.

Scripture__________

❖ Did Paul tell Felix that he believed everything that is in accordance with the Law? ________

Scripture__________

❖ Wasn’t Paul accused by the Jews of teaching against the Law? ______________

Scripture__________

❖ Did Paul deny these charges? ______________

Scripture__________

❖ Isn’t the Sabbath the fourth Commandment and in the very heart of the Law? ______________

Scripture__________

❖ The writer of Hebrews says “There remains a ___________ rest for the people of God.”

Scripture__________

❖ When a person enters the Sabbath rest, he follows ________ example, Who also rested that day

Scripture__________

❖ Christians are to “be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will _______”

Scripture__________

❖ Christians are not to follow Israel’s example of ______________, and break the Sabbath.

Scripture__________

❖ Christians are warned to not ______________ the assembling together for Sabbath services

Scripture__________

❖ So, is it reasonable to conclude that the Apostle Paul was teaching against the Sabbath? ______

SCRIPTURES AND ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE SABBATH

Romans Chapter 14 is commonly used against Sabbath observance. The entire chapter is about toleration. Those who were eating meat were to be tolerant of those who were eating vegetables only because of conscience sake. Only verses 5 and 6 mention regarding days and Sabbath is nowhere named. The Gentiles were instructed by James to not eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols. This was sometimes a problem because much of the meat sold in the markets were from animals which had been dedicated for sacrifice. Rome was a Gentile city which worshiped many gods and had more sacrifices in some seasons and on some days than others.

 Notice this from The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, -"The context shows us that some members of the congregation there were eating meat, and others were abstaining from eating meat. The vegetarians were likely members who "feared lest they should (without knowing it) eat meat which had been offered to idols or was otherwise ceremonially unclean (which might easily happen in such a place as Rome), that they abstained from meat altogether." Why are these "days" and "avoiding meats" mentioned in connection in this passage? Probably because a member's reason for not eating meat was connected to the "special days" the Romans sacrificed to their gods.

Colossians 2:16-17 says to let no one act as your judge in respect to the Sabbath day. These Christians were not Jews who had forsaken Sabbath observance but Gentiles who had received it. Paul is telling them to not let anyone judge them for keeping the Sabbath or in how they kept it. There are two possibilities here, -Relatives and friends are troubling the new Christians by questioning them as to why they are practicing “Jewish” things, - or false brethren (Gnostic Christians) were judging them in how they observed the Sabbath and other teachings as well. Since the letter itself is addressing the Gnostic heresy, it is more likely that the Colossians were being judged in what foods they ate and how they observed the feasts and the Sabbath. We see in the Chapter that these men were teaching “according the tradition of men” and not “according to the Commandments of God.” They were practicing a “self-made religion” with the severe treatment of their own bodies.

    Certainly Paul could not have been referring to Jewish teachers judging the brethren for NOT KEEPING the FESTIVALS and SABBATHS of GOD. These practices were handed down to them from God, they are in no way"self-made". And they never taught "self-abasement" or "severe treatment of the body". These were probably Gnostic "Christians" that were not actually critical of the Colossians observing these commands of God, but may have been critical of the way they observed them. But what this passage does not say, is that Jews were trying to force the COMMANDMENTS OF GOD on the Church in Colossae, but that false teachers were trying to force "Philosophical" doctrines, "according to the COMMANDMENTS AND TRADITION of MEN", and "according to the elementary principles of the world", rather than Christ.

1 Corinthians 16:1-4 is also sometimes used to show that Christians were holding services on Sunday instead of the Sabbath. At the council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, James ruled that the Gentile converts were to remember the poor in Jerusalem. He was instructing them to provide financial aid to the poor Christians there. In verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 16 we see that the collection for the saints is for Jerusalem. The Christians are told to set aside on the first day of week, which is the first work day, goods that will be collected later by Paul and carried to Jerusalem. This is not referring to the weekly taking up of the tithes and offerings.

FACTS ABOUT THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK

*The very first thing recorded in the Bible is work being done on the first day of the week. (Genesis 1:1-5)

*God commanded men to work on the first day of the week. (Exodus 20:8-11)

*By the express command of God, His holy people used the first day of the week as a common working day

*God never rested on this day.

*God never sanctified nor blessed the first day as holy.

*This day has never been blessed by God, Christ or any of the Apostles.

*Its observance has no Divine authority by the Holy Scriptures.

 *The New Testament teaches against doing what is "unlawful" on the Sabbath, but nowhere forbids work on the first day of the week.

*It is never called the "Lord's Day" in the Bible. Revelation 1 is referring to the "Day of the Lord", which is the day of the Lord's return, then gives events leading up to that day. It is not referring to a week day.

*It is never called even a rest day. No sacred title is ever applied to it in Scripture.

*Jesus is never recorded as mentioning it even once in the Bible.

*Paul directed the saints to look over their secular affairs on that day. (1 Corinthians 16:2) Paul told them to set-aside goods on this day for famine relief in Jerusalem, so that when he came it could be gathered together and took to the poor brethren in Jerusalem.

*The Bible nowhere says that the first day of the week commemorates the resurrection of Christ, even though portions of it were written as long as 60 years later. Sunday observance is a TRADITION of MEN, which contradicts the LAW of GOD. (Matthew 15:1-9) According to God's Word, Baptism commemorates the burial and resurrection of Jesus. (Romans 6:3-5)

*Finally, the New Testament is totally silent with regard to any change of the Sabbath day or any sacredness for Sunday, the first day of the week.

WILL JESUS ESTABLISH SABBATH OBSERVANCE

AT HIS RETURN IN GLORY?

Isaiah 66:18-24

❖ After Jesus return in glory, will there eventually be new heavens and a new earth? _________

Scripture__________

❖ Who will come each Sabbath to worship the Lord? ____ ____________

Scripture__________

FINAL COMMENTS

  The Scriptures show that God made a special day in the very beginning. He pronounced it holy, blessed it and commanded man to keep it holy and not profane it. We see that when God chose Israel as His people, He gave them the Sabbath and called it one of His “Appointed Times.” He exhorted them to “remember” the Sabbath to keep it holy. God was very angry with those who profaned the holy day and even made it a death penalty for breaking it. Israel and Judah were conquered and carried into slavery because of idolatry and the breaking of the Sabbath. Jesus kept the Sabbath His entire life. The Apostles and the early church kept the Sabbath holy and assembled for worship on that day. It is one of the Ten Commandments written into stone by God Himself and was placed inside the Ark of the Covenant. Jesus will require that all mankind come for assembly and to worship Him each Sabbath after His return in glory.