Sabbath Day

"“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates." (Exodus 20:8-10, NKJV)

On Sunday evenings at LABC we have been going through the Gospel of John verse by verse. This week we are in chapter 5. This chapter in John marks a new tone in the book of John. From now on the intense conflict Jesus has with the Jews begins to simmer till it boils over at Calvary.

Chapter 5 begins with the healing of a paralytic man. Instead of rejoicing the Jewish elite were furious because Jesus broke their traditional understanding of the Sabbath. They had a misunderstanding of the Sabbath that caused them not only to miss the joy of the healing of this man but more importantly the joy of salvation. We may have expected them to rejoice, but their wickedness cause them to reject Jesus and persecute him even more.

In our day the Sabbath is still misunderstood by many. During the next couple of weeks we will be discussing the Sabbath with particular reference to this occasion in the Gospel of John. Some of the questions we hope to answer this Sunday are as follows:

1. What is the Sabbath?

2. When was the Sabbath Instituted?

3. Should Christians Worship on the Sabbath?

By the way do you know the penalty for breaking the Sabbath? See Numbers 15:32-35