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SEEING JESUS IN THE FEASTS OF ISRAEL – LESSON 2 Conclusion

Christian Life, ,

CONCLUSION

Although the Sabbath is not strictly part of the seven annual feasts, it sets the tone for our relationship with our bridegroom. It teaches us about the spiritual rest into which we enter through His completed work on the cross so that there is nothing for us to do to achieve acceptance with Him. He had done it all and all He requires is that we believe in Him and accept what He has done as a finished work.

The Sabbath as a creation ordinance of six days of work to one day of rest still stands and we must obey it for our own health and wellbeing. The Sabbath as part of the Law has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ and there is no longer any obligation to observe the Sabbath as a specific day of rest.

There is a stream of Christianity that insists that we observe the Jewish Sabbath as our day of rest. The Emperor Constantine in the 4th century AD, changed the day on which Christians were to rest from the Jewish Sabbath to the pagan Sunday and they regard this as the mark of the beast!

Those who still make Sabbath observance obligatory are part of a group of believers whom the Apostle Paul regards as immature and have weak consciences. He said to the Galatians who were listening to false teachers who taught that they needed to be circumcised, “You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.” Galatians 4:10, 11.

“Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” Colossians 2:16, 17.

“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work just as God did from His. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.” Hebrews 4:9-11.

Sabbath is to be a daily experience of resting in Christ’s finished work on the cross. We have been forgiven, cleansed, filled with God’s Spirit and accepted in Christ. We are no longer slaves but sons. We have the witness of the Holy Spirit in our spirits that we are children of God so that we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ Jesus, our Messiah, is the perfect fulfilment of the Sabbath.

SUMMARY AND PRACTICAL APPLICATION

  1. The weekly Sabbath is a compulsory day of rest to celebrate His finished work of creation on the seventh day. We need to rest for one day in seven.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work…for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” Exodus 20:8-11.

  1. The spiritual Sabbath into which we have entered celebrates His finished work of salvation and the new creation which He accomplished on the cross.

“Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it…For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His.” Hebrews 4:1; 8-10.