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Sabbath Sabbath From Sabbath to Sabbath D. THOMAS LANCASTER RETURNING THE HOLY SABBATH TO THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain … and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the LORD. — Isaiah 66:22–23 Restoration 2015.indd 2 12/2/2015 9:58:58 AM D. THOMAS LANCASTER RETURNING THE HOLY SABBATH TO THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS Copyright © 2016 D. Thomas Lancaster. All rights reserved. Publication rights First Fruits of Zion, Inc. Details: www.ffoz.org/copyright Publisher grants permission to reference short quotations (less than 400 words) in reviews, magazines, newspapers, web sites, or other publications in accordance with the citation standards at www.ffoz.org/copyright. Requests for permission to reproduce more than 400 words can be made at www.ffoz.org/contact. First Fruits of Zion is a 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit educational organization. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-941534-04-5 Unless otherwise noted, Scriptural quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Cover design and art: FFOZ Quantity discounts are available on bulk purchases of this book for educational, fundraising, or event purposes. Special versions or book excerpts to fit specific needs are available from First Fruits of Zion. For more information, contact www.ffoz.org/contact. First Fruits of Zion Israel / United States / Canada PO Box 649, Marshfield, Missouri 65706–0649 USA Phone (417) 468–2741, www.ffoz.org Comments and questions: www.ffoz.org/contact FROM SABBATH TO SABBATH.INDD; 02-23-2016; FROM SABBATH TO SABBATH_V5.PDF TO MARIA ANNE אשת חיל AND SOUL COMPANION Contents Introduction Why Christians Might Consider Keeping the Sabbath . 1 Part One: A Taste of Sabbath . 13 1 Sanctuary in Time . 15 2 An Appointed Time . 29 3 Lessons from the Manna . 39 4 Sign of the Covenant. 51 5 Sanctuary for All Nations. 65 6 Day of Delight. 81 7 Resting from Work. 99 8 The Thirty-Nine Forms of Work . 109 Part Two: Yeshua and the Sabbath Conflicts. 133 9 In the Grain Fields on the Sabbath . 135 10 The Man with the Withered Hand and Other Sabbath Stories. 153 11 The Healing at Bethesda and the Man Born Blind. 171 Part Three: Other New Testament Objections . 195 12 Shadow-Keeping . 197 13 Enter My Rest . 205 14 Enslaved by the Law . 217 15 The Weak and the Strong . 229 16 The First Day of the Week. 241 Part Four: From Sabbath to Sabbath . 249 17 How We Lost the Sabbath. 251 18 The New Sabbatarians . 271 vii INTRODUCTION Why Christians Might Consider Keeping the Sabbath hy would disciples of Jesus keep the seventh-day biblical WSabbath? The Sabbath is its own reward. The reward for keeping the Sabbath is that we get to keep the Sabbath. The bibli- cal, seventh-day Sabbath creates a weekly cycle of encounters with holiness. Once a week God beckons us to enter into a sanctuary in time where our souls can find spiritual rest and nourishment in his presence. On the Sabbath we can set aside the cares and concerns of daily life and focus on the things of the kingdom of heaven. The Sabbath allows us to slow down enough to spend quality time in God’s presence, learning the things of his Word and plugging in to extended periods of prayer, study, and worship. On the Sabbath we spend time with our families and reconnect with fellow believers, fellowshiping under a pervading sense of the holiness of the day. SPIRITUAL RECHARGE In this way the Sabbath functions as a spiritual recharge from which we can draw new energy and fresh stamina. We can use that weekly infusion of spiritual refreshment to carry us through the coming week. We use the recharge of the seventh day to sus- tain us in the mundane world of the other six days of the week. IIntroductio 1 The laws of the Sabbath force the Sabbath-keeper to submit his will to God and to rest in his provision. Ceasing from our labors reminds us that God is our provider and sustainer. He is the true Creator. If we choose to ignore the Sabbath, we do not in any way dimin- ish the holiness of that day. God himself has declared the Sabbath holy and blessed. The Sabbath is still the Sabbath whether we participate in it or not. By failing to keep the Sabbath, we only exclude ourselves from it. We forfeit the blessing and holiness that Sabbath has to offer. WHY KEEP THE SABBATH? Why would New Testament believers keep the Old Testament Sabbath? One could simply argue that the Sabbath is a commandment in the Bible. In fact, it is one of the Ten Commandments. It’s also one of the Bible’s most oft-repeated commandments. It’s God’s holy day. It seems natural that Bible-believing people will want to keep the Sabbath. This is a good reason, and it’s all the reason many believers need. But there’s an even greater significance to the Sabbath than just the keeping of a commandment. This significance is drawn from Jewish tradition, which gives us a prophetic reason for keeping the Sabbath. Jewish teaching says that the seventh-day Sabbath provides a glimpse of the future, a foretaste of the kingdom of heaven. It prefigures the Messianic Era. Moses revealed that God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and on the seventh day he rested. Yet the early rabbis did not view the story of the seven days of creation merely according to its literal reading. They viewed the story of the seven days of creation as a blueprint for the future, a broad outline for human history, as the Scripture says, “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4). The rabbis compared each of the six days of the creation week to a millennium of history. The seventh day, the day of the Sabbath, represents the seventh millennium—the Messianic Era. In the 2 FtrM SABBAnH nr SABBAnH poetic words of the rabbis, the Messianic Era will be “the day that is altogether Sabbath.” The rabbis envisioned a one-thousand-year era of Sabbath rest, so to speak. The New Testament refers to the “thousand years” of Sabbath rest as the era of the kingdom of heaven. In fact, the bibli- cal idea that history works together toward a final culmination and era of redemption is based on the weekly cycle of six days followed by the Sabbath rest. One might even say that the whole concept of an end-times redemption and kingdom era hangs upon the observance of the Sabbath. So the Sabbath is not just an Old Testament idea. The Sabbath is all about the future. It’s all about the coming kingdom. WHAT IS THE “KINGDOM OF HEAVEN”? Every disciple of Jesus is obligated to seek first the kingdom of heaven: “Seek first his kingdom” (Matthew 6:33). All other con- cerns that pertain to this material world are irrelevant when compared to that one, single, overarching goal—but what is the kingdom of heaven? Contrary to popular belief, the kingdom of heaven is not a matter of going to heaven when you die. The kingdom of heaven is the reign and rule of God through his righteous Son the Messiah. The kingdom refers to the Messianic Era when the knowledge of the LORD will fill the earth and the revelation of God will become universal. In that day there will be no agnostics or atheists. The existence of God and his presence in the world will be obvious to everyone. When the kingdom comes all nations will ascend toward the light of Messianic Jerusalem where the righteous Messiah son of David will sit upon the throne of David and administer justice to the entire world. He will teach the Torah (Law) of God to all nations, and the Torah will go forth from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. The kingdom will bring an era of universal peace. Then the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the lion and the calf together (Isaiah 11:6). The Prince of Peace will rule the government, and he will judge between nations. They will not make war against one another any IIntroductio 3 longer. Swords will be beaten into plowshares. Spears into pruning hooks. Resources once spent on creating weapons will be spent on worthy ends. The Messianic Era will blossom in an age of miraculous fertil- ity. “In that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water” (Joel 3:18). In that day there will be no poverty because everyone will sit “under his vine and under his fig tree” (Zechariah 3:10), an indication that everyone will be self-sufficient. The LORD will make the land “like Eden … like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song” (Isaiah 51:3). There will be no more hunger, starvation, or plague. Everyone will have enough. In the kingdom of heaven God will raise the righteous to eter- nal life, and man will be able to reach his true spiritual potential.
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