 Now what about Paul, that great apostle of the Gentiles? He came much later, of course. He came after Jesus died and after He was resurrected and ascended back to heaven. Did he observe the same Sabbath as Jesus did and that all the other disciples did before Him? Let him bear witness to that in Acts 17:2. “And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scripture.” Now there it is. That was Paul’s manner or custom. Just as we read a moment ago that it was Jesus’ custom to go in on the Sabbath to preach and worship, so Paul went regularly to do the same thing.
Now friends, he didn’t go into the synagogue just to please the Jews or to preach to the Jews. In Acts 13:42-44 we find that he also preached to the Gentiles on that day. Let’s read it. “And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath ... And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.”
Here’s a wonderful place for Paul to put those Gentile Christians straight if he wanted them to keep any other day except the seventh day. After he had been preaching to the Jews on this Sabbath, the Gentiles came to him and said “Now we want you to preach to us.” If there had been some change in that early church as far as the day of worship was concerned, Paul would have said to those Gentile Christians, “Listen, I’ll preach to you tomorrow morning.
That will be the first day of the week and I’ll meet with you on that day for worship.” But Paul didn’t say anything of the kind. In fact, he just said to them, “I’ll meet you next Sabbath and preach to you then” and the whole city came together, the Bible says, and heard him preach the next Sabbath day. He was preaching to the Gentiles. Acts 18:4, 11 tells us of 78 Sabbaths that Paul kept in succession in one certain city. “And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.” And “he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.” So for a year and a half he made tents during the week, and went in to teach them on the Sabbath. And he taught the Gentiles as well as the Jews.
Well, somebody brings up the question, “How can I do what is right?” Now, friends, in order to keep the Sabbath—in order to keep any of the commandments of God—we’ve got to get the Lord of the Sabbath into our hearts first. If we have Him abiding within, we’ll have no trouble keeping those commandments. They’ll not be a burden. They’ll not be some hard, laborious thing to do if we love Him and He’s abiding in our hearts. We’ll be able to do it out of love. I hope that’s the way you’re doing it today. And after making this study, why don’t you make your decision right now that by the grace of God, you’re going to follow Him in keeping the Sabbath holy.
- From the Joe Crews Sermon Library (Missing Text Parts 1 & 2) |