The Christian Sabbath

Sung Psalm: 95

Today I would like for us to reflect on the idea of the Lord's Day as the "Christian Sabbath."

And right up front, I would like to clear up one common misunderstanding. You don't find the apostles or early Fathers using the phrase "Christian Sabbath" for a very simple reason – "shabbat" means "seventh" – and so people who were still familiar with Jewish usage would not generally refer to the Lord's Day as the Christian Seventh Day, because the whole point of the Lord's Day is that it is the Eighth Day!

You'll find lots of references to Christians gathering on the Eighth Day (or the First Day).

So some would prefer not to use the phrase "Christian Sabbath." And that's fine – so long as you recognize that the Lord's Day is a Christian feast day.

The Roman Senator Cicero – writing a generation before the birth of Christ – explained that in the Roman world, a feast day was a day when the courts were closed, ordinary work should not be done, servants were to be given the day off, and religious rituals were to be performed.

In other words, a Roman feast day looked an awful lot like a Jewish Sabbath.

So when the early Christians talked about the Lord's Day as their feast day, that means that they did not do ordinary work – they gave rest to their servants – and they engaged in religious worship...