At the True Jesus Church, we worship on Saturday because it is the Sabbath day.
In this video, we will answer two questions:
First, what is the Sabbath?
And second, what are we supposed to do on the Sabbath day?
The Sabbath day is a special day of the week,
and it was God who set the Sabbath day apart during Creation.
"So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy
because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation."
Genesis 2:3
These actions of God in blessing the seventh day and making it holy
makes it different from other days of the week.
The word Sabbath, "Shabbat" in Hebrew, means rest.
When God finished creating the world, He Himself rested.
He wanted man to have a day to put aside all work and to rest, just as He did.
God included the Sabbath in the Ten Commandments
so that we will not forget and know just how important it is to keep it.
In fact, the Fourth Commandment about keeping the Sabbath is the longest of the Ten Commandments.
God goes into detail to explain how it began
and what God asks of us to do on that day.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
On it you shall not do any work,
you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them,
and rested on the seventh day.
Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Exodus 20:8-11
First, we need to keep the day holy.
The reason is because God blessed the day and made the day holy.
How do we keep the day holy?
By not doing any work.
Just like God had six days to complete the work of creation,
we as man have six days to labor and do our work.
Then, on the seventh day, it is a Sabbath to the Lord your God,
meaning that the day belongs to God.
It is God's day, and therefore we need to think of the day as His and not ours.
On this day, we rest by putting down our work, no matter how busy we may be.
In this way, we are shifting the focus from ourselves to God.
Through not going our own ways or doing our own things,
we show honor to this blessed day.
What else does God want us to remember regarding the Sabbath?
God also gave us the Sabbath in order for us to remember His deliverance and redemption.
"You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt,
and the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
Deuteronomy 5:15
The Israelites were once slaves,
but by God's power and love,
He brought them out of bondage to a life of freedom.
For us today, it remains a day for us to remember
how God has delivered us out of the bondage of a life of sin and suffering.
We were redeemed in His love,
and only because of that, we are able to receive the special status of being His beloved children.
The Sabbath serves as a sign of that special relationship between God and His people,
as it says in Isaiah chapter 56, verses 6 through 7,
"And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
to minister to him,
to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
and holds fast my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar."
Isaiah 56:6-7
Here, keeping the Sabbath is equated to holding fast to His covenant.
To those who are in this covenant, God promises the following:
to bring them to the place where He is,
to give them joy,
and to accept their offerings.
Therefore if we value having a close relationship with God and being acceptable to Him,
we will hold tightly onto this covenant by keeping the Sabbath.
It is because of these reasons that we gather on this special and holy day to worship God
and remember how precious it is that He has called us and redeemed us.