The Divine Purpose of the Sabbath

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him (Luke 13:10-17).

The Sabbath was made for disciples. Evidence that we are born again is an increasing desire to worship and glorify God. True disciples yearn for the Sabbath because we eagerly seek and enjoy fellowshipping with each other, worshipping the Lord together, and giving God the glory He deserves from His Church. Like this disabled woman, we should expect God to deal with anything that hinders us from fully entering into the divine purpose of His Sabbath because He has commanded us to keep it… “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8) and to enter fully into the blessings of it… “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:11). When God works through the preaching, fellowship, and serving of true disciples to grant revelation, healing, deliverance, or any other miracle on His Sabbath, He is reaffirming and confirming the word of His Son… “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28). When we obey His commandment to honor His day of rest, God loves to reveal the divine purpose of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath was made for worship. We notice that Jesus was “in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath”. You’ve heard me tell you often that the life of discipleship in its simplest terms is becoming more like Christ. Our Teacher, the Holy Spirit affirms this truth through the pen of the Apostle Paul… “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Jesus forever connected the Sabbath with the Lord’s Day through His resurrection on the first day of the week and the earliest disciples made it their day of worship and rest… “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight” (Acts 20:7). Jesus shows us with His presence and teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath that we should be gathered together in the Lord’s house on the Lord’s Day to hear the Lord’s Word.

The Sabbath was made for glory. Just as everything else, the Sabbath exists for the glory of God… “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever” (Romans 11:36). There are few things that glorify God more clearly and effectively than His Church gathered together, seeking, worshipping, and serving Him on His special day… “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Peter 4:10-11). Maturing disciples have learned that the habit of resting in the Lord on the Lord’s Day encourages the habit of trusting and resting in the Lord every day… “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:9-10). The resting in Christ life of a true disciple is shaped and maintained by the spiritual discipline of careful and regular observance of a Sabbath on the Lord’s Day.

As we grow up into Christ, we become more like Him as we discover and experience…

The Divine Purpose of the Sabbath.