Is Saturday or Sunday the Sabbath?

The following is a pre-recorded version of CORE Christianity.

Is worshiping on the Sabbath biblical? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts, and you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Edwin in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Edwin, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Yes, thank you for CORE Christianity and for the program.

Thank you, Adriel. My question is regarding a previous episode when someone asked about how we're to understand Isaiah 53, 4, and 5 regarding physical health, and what I'm asking is how do we understand Matthew 8, 16, and 17 in regard to physical health, because it's a quote from Isaiah 53, 4, and 5. Edwin, thank you for that question and for bringing Matthew Chapter 8 into play here in this discussion. In a previous episode, I was having a conversation with someone about Isaiah 53 and how oftentimes in churches that passage is taken in a name-it-claim-it fashion. By his stripes, we are healed. The idea that we're declaring healing over ourselves on the basis of the atoning work of Jesus Christ, and I said, well, that's taking Isaiah 53 out of context. It's using it in a way that it was not intended to be used for because the focus of Isaiah 53 is the atoning work of Jesus Christ and the putting away of our sins, our justification. Later in Isaiah 53, it talks about him by his one offering making many righteous, and that's the beauty of Isaiah 53 as this prophecy of the sufferings of the Messiah. You've brought up a good passage of scripture for us to consider, Matthew Chapter 8, verse 16.

I'm going to read beginning in verse 14. When Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. That evening, they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. He took our illnesses and bore our diseases. I think that's probably a quote of Isaiah 53, verse 4, maybe from the Greek translation of Isaiah 53 referred to as the Septuagint. It was the version, the Bible that probably Jesus and the disciples most frequently used Isaiah 53 for. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

So I think here's what I would say, Edwin. I think that there is a way in which we can talk about the atoning work of Christ being for our full healing. I mentioned on the previous broadcast that this is the healing of our soul, but there is more to it than that because we are looking forward to the resurrection of the dead, which is the healing of our bodies as well. God cares about the body, and we ought to pray for healing, for physical healing.

There's nothing wrong with that. James at the end of his letter says, if anybody's feeling sick, let them call the elders of the church, let them anoint that individual with oil and pray for healing. So it's something we're even called to do as Christians. My concern is when we take passages like Isaiah 53, 4 and 5, and we use them to try and demand something from God like physical healing. And that's the danger that I see in how sometimes people use Isaiah 53.

I think that would be a misapplication of Isaiah 53, a way in which it wasn't intended for us to be used. So that's how I sort of parse those things out, Edwin. Does that clear things up a little bit for you? Yes, thank you very much, I do appreciate that. I appreciate you listening to the broadcast, and thank you for giving us a call with that question. God bless you, brother. Thanks so much, Edwin. Nice to have you as one of our regular listeners here at Core Christianity. Let's go to Jason in Wichita, Kansas. Jason, welcome to the program. Hi, thank you.

I listen to it quite a bit. What kind of question do I have? I thought this is actually a pretty good question for you guys. Hey, thanks, man.

So I guess I'll just kind of jump right in. Long story short, we're growing in our faith. Through COVID and everything, we've even gotten closer to God over the last year or so, and got more involved in our church, and we're growing and growing. And so we see the evidence of God working in our life, and we previously weren't able to get a house, and then in a couple of months, that just turned around. It seemed miraculously a lot of things had to line up and go a certain way, had to appraise at a certain point. We weren't sure about we were praying for the house, or for a house, and it lined up. We were able to purchase it. Things went very smooth. People said that they couldn't believe how smooth it went, and it was the best thing I've ever seen. So we were giving God the praise for it.

And, you know, my wife still is, and we've been talking back and forth about it. I feel like the longer we're in it, it's been about three or four months now, and the longer we're in it, we keep finding more and more things wrong with it. So it's like, I just, to ensure it's a lemon, some really egregious things. There's a CIA agent that was down here, and he just keeps on covering more and more things. If the seller covered a word egregious, it was like, they knew about it. And things that I know about God, it's like, okay, well, he knew about this before, he pulls us through. So we asked him to block it.

That was one of the things that my wife created. As we put in the offer on the house, like, block it if there's anything wrong with it. And there's lots of things wrong with it, but he didn't block it. Yeah, is it a blessing?

And how am I to look at this situation now? Well, we certainly believe, Jason, that God is absolutely in control providentially. And I think those were great prayers to be praying, Lord, if you don't want us here, block it. I mean, the challenge here is, when we're thinking about decision making and the will of God, sometimes we want a clear sign from the Lord. God, give me the sort of neon lights to know, do I buy the house or do I not buy the house?

Do I take this job or do I not take this job? And really what we have, we don't have that. We do have sometimes, I think providentially, the guidance of the Holy Spirit in unique ways through the body of Christ and that kind of thing. But a lot of times what we're doing, Jason, is we're just using wisdom and prayer and the word of God to try to make these decisions. And the questions we're asking are, is this honoring to the Lord? Can I honor the Lord with something like this purchase, this house purchase? My intention is to honor the Lord.

My intention is to take care of my family, maybe to have... I love that you were saying you guys are getting plugged into your church and maybe host a home group or that kind of a thing, be hospitable. Those are all good things. And I think if you went into it with that mindset, wanting to honor the Lord and prayerfully trusting in Him, I think that that's good.

That's the right approach. We're not gonna have the sort of answer from heaven ordinarily where the Lord just says, yeah, pull the trigger on the house, buy it, that kind of a thing. No, we're using... And it sounds like you guys were using wisdom and prayer. But then what happens when we do that, we use all the wisdom that we have and we're praying and something happens, like in this situation, you guys get the house, and we're praying and something happens, like in this situation, you guys get the house, but it turns out to be different than what you were expecting, more difficult. Well, I would say, Jason, continue to give thanks to the Lord for what you do have and trust that somehow He is gonna use this for you and for your family as good.

Now, I don't know long-term what's gonna come of the house, that kind of a thing, or what maybe the next decision is for you and your family, but you guys are gonna wanna be talking about. Just because something is difficult doesn't mean that it's not in God's will. Sometimes we think that God's will, whatever it is, it just means everything's gonna be really easy and smooth failing, that kind of a thing. I think of what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16, in verse 9, he says, a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. It's like, hey, there's been this great big open door that the Lord has provided for me to preach the gospel and to do effective ministry, but guess what? That comes with challenges, with difficulties. And so just because there are difficulties, just because this house isn't exactly what you hoped it would be, and it's kind of providing some challenges, that doesn't mean that this was the wrong decision necessarily. Now, you're gonna have to think about what the two of you wanna do next, but I can say to you in this time, continue to give thanks to the Lord, continue to get plugged in more and more in your local church to serve there, and to ask God for his continued guidance as you think about what to do as a family in this situation. But you can't go wrong continuing to praise God for everything that you have in your life, even the things that pose challenges.

So I wanna encourage you to do that, brother, and thank you for listening, and I pray that you continue to grow in your faith and that the Lord blesses your day. Adriel, let me ask you this. When it comes to Jason and his wife, what about the feelings of betrayal, especially if the sellers of this home were believers and they covered things up, they weren't honest in their business dealings? That's gotta be really difficult. Yeah, that's gotta be really, really difficult, and of course there's a bitterness that can begin to creep into our hearts, and so we have to know how to deal with that, what's a godly way to handle some of those emotions. It's okay to be angry. If you've been betrayed, if somebody has done something to take advantage of you, have sinned against you in some way, it's okay to be angry. Anger in and of itself is not a sin. Jesus was angry when people were taking the worship of God in the temple and turning it into a business.

Remember, he's flipping tables over in the temple during the time of his triumphal entry, and so I think anger is not necessarily a bad thing, it's just not letting that grow into bitterness and causing us to act out in ways that we know we shouldn't act out as Christians. We take those things, all of those things, to the Lord, and if we have been taken advantage of, I think it's okay to pursue, we ought to pursue reconciliation. We want things to be made right, and so I think it's important to make those things known and to have those difficult conversations. Good counsel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Here's our phone number if you have a question. By the way, you can call us 24 hours a day and leave a voicemail at 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also record your question on our website at corechristianity.com.

Just look for the microphone icon, click on that, and you can leave your message there. Here's a voicemail we received from one of our younger listeners. Hi, I'm Avela Grace, and my question is, has God made everything good? Where did evil come from? Thank you. Hi, Avela.

Thank you so much for giving us a call. You know, I'm so excited. You know, I've just been preaching on the creation account in Genesis 1 and 2, and you said it. You know, when you read that story, one of the things you take away from that passage of scripture in Genesis 1 in particular is that everything that God made, he made good after each day of creation. You know, God sees what he makes, and it's good. And then on the sixth day, you know, he's sort of looking over everything that he's made, and he says it's very good. God made everything good.

He's like this skilled master craftsman who is just creating the universe, and it's good and beautiful and wonderful. And yet, we know that when we look around at the world today, there's a lot of pain and hurt and sin. Now, where did sin come from? Well, Avela, the apostle Paul in the book of Romans, chapter 5, he says sin entered the world through Adam. When Adam chose to rebel against God, sin entered the world, and death entered the world through sin. And God allowed Adam, Adam and Eve, to have free will, free choice, to follow him or not to follow him, to obey his word, his command, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or to disobey it. And they chose to disobey. And ever since then, you know, we've also oftentimes been choosing to disobey God, but that doesn't mean that God is evil or bad or that he's the one who created or authored sin and evil.

No, not at all. God is good and true and beautiful and wonderful. He made all things good. It's our own choice, essentially, Adam's choice that led to sin and evil in the world. And so that's where we say that evil came from, not from God, but from us. And Jesus himself said, Avela, it's from the heart that evil precedes. You know, evil thoughts, ideas, those kinds of things from our own hearts. We oftentimes, you know, we think of the evil in the world, and we point the finger at others. We say, well, it's that person's fault.

We can all do this. But Jesus says we need to look into our own hearts, and that's why each of us need the grace of God, the forgiveness of our sins. We need the new heart that Jesus gives to us through his gospel. And so, Avela, I love that you listen to the program, and may the Lord Jesus bless you. Thank you so much for your question.

Give us a call again sometime with another question. God bless. I just love hearing from the kids who listen to our program, but their parents do.

Just, it's beautiful. They're learning about God's word, his truth, every day, which is just so exciting. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and one of the things we know is that there is a lot of depression and anxiety going on in our country right now, and if if you or someone you know is struggling with depression, we actually have a free resource that we would love to offer you today. It's over at our website, corechristianity.com, and it's called Nine Things Everyone Needs to Know About Depression. It's free for you when you sign up for our weekly newsletter. This is a resource that we put together really to give you a foundational understanding of what depression is, and how you as a believer can encourage someone, help someone who suffers from depression. So head over to corechristianity.com forward slash offers to download Nine Things Everyone Needs to Know About Depression.

And you can also call us for that resource or any one of our resources at 833-843-2673. Again, that's 833-the-core. Well, let's go to a voicemail we received here yesterday. Someone told me that a survivor was in, I think, Genesis, said that the seventh day was the Sabbath. I've been a Baptist for years, and we were struggling, but they said that the fourth commandment says that Sabbath was the seventh day, and that even though Jesus was resurrected on a Sunday, that the commandment didn't change.

It's still the same. The Bible says yesterday that they have forever. So I'd like to know, what is the truth about the Sabbath?

Thank you for that question. There are groups that will say this, that will say that unless you're worshiping God on Saturday, the true Sabbath, well, then you're not really worshiping God. And so all you churches that are worshiping on Sunday, like it sounds like your church sister and certainly the church that I pastor, we worship the Lord on Sunday, that we're not doing it the right way. And in fact, there are some groups that even go as far as to say that that's completely apostate, that if you worship on Sunday, that's equivalent to receiving the mark of the beast, that kind of a thing.

And so this is a real serious question. It's important for us to get this right. You mentioned the creation story, the seventh day where God rested, Genesis 2, verses one through three. I just preached on this last Sunday.

And so it really is important for us to understand what's going on there. God rested. And what's interesting there is He blessed the seventh day, the day that He rested, because He didn't do any work on that day. And He called it holy. He set it apart. And He didn't just set it apart for Himself.

Really, it was for the people, His people. It's this picture of the fact that we are, as Christians, called into the rest that God gives. Now let me just stop right there and say, doesn't that sound wonderful? I mean, I don't know about you, but each one of us, I think, has a lot on our plates. We're wrestling with all these different things and so many things going on in society right now, challenges, difficulties. We want rest. And God says, I want to invite you into My rest, into My Sabbath rest. I want to give you that deep spiritual rest that you can't find anywhere else in this world that only I can give. And that's what the Sabbath was supposed to be, is this rest of God that is given to the people of God. Now when Jesus came to earth, He promised to give us that rest. He said in Matthew 11, towards the end of the chapter, come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. The ultimate true Sabbath rest comes in and through Jesus Christ. And in fact, this is what the author of the Hebrews says. You know, the author of the Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 4, he talks about this. He says in Hebrews chapter 4, beginning in verse 1, therefore while the promise of entering His rest still stands, His rest, God's rest, God's Sabbath rest, let us fear, he says, lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news, that's gospel, came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who heard. Now get this, for we who have believed enter that rest.

Now here's what we're being told here. How do you enter the Sabbath rest, the rest that God gives to His people, the rest of the seventh day? How do you enter that rest? You enter it by believing the gospel. The work of Jesus, Jesus Christ, who died accomplishing our redemption, rested on the seventh day, was laid in the tomb and then rose again from the dead on the eighth day, the first day of the week, Sunday we might say. And ever since then, sister, the apostles, the followers of Jesus, began worshiping on Sunday, not on Saturday.

Why? Because that was the day that Jesus rose again from the dead. So we're called to worship God, but we do that in the same way that the apostles themselves did. We worship God on Sunday. We're declaring that Jesus Christ is risen, that we have entered into the Sabbath rest in Him, that we've received it from Him.

And I think that's what we need to emphasize. A lot of times people get caught up in going back to the types and shadows of the Old Testament, you know, worshiping as the Jews did under the old covenant. That's not what we're called to. We're called to worship according to Christ's word and in imitation of the apostles, what they did in places like Acts chapter 20 and 1 Corinthians chapter 16, it says that they were gathering together on the first day of the week. Sometimes people will say Sunday worship, that was something that was instituted in the fourth century or something like that, and I just always point them back to 1 Corinthians in the book of Acts and say, no, actually it's what the apostles themselves were doing. And so if it was good enough for Paul and Peter and John, who has this vision of Jesus in the book of Revelation on the Lord's day on Sunday, well then it should be good enough for us. And so you don't have to worry that you're doing something wrong worshiping the Lord on Sunday, it's what the apostles did, and every time we gather we're declaring Jesus Christ is risen and in Him I have Sabbath rest. Thanks for your question. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Here's an email question that came in from Matt. He says, I feel as if many of today's churches give the entirety of their attention to Jesus and Jesus alone, and while I completely and fully accept Jesus' rightful and truthful claim as divine, His own words remind us of His purpose in revealing and restoring our relationship to God the Father, and later the purpose of the Holy Spirit. My question is, how are we as Christians to properly appropriate the persons of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in our daily walk, particularly with regard to worship, prayer, and when encountering the very presence of God?

Thank you. Yeah, well we come to the Father in Christ and through the Holy Spirit, so we have this personal relationship with the Holy Trinity, and I think that you're right that a lot of times we can as individuals and even as churches focus on one member of the Trinity, one person of the Holy Trinity, and so in our worship we want our worship and even our prayers to be Trinitarian. Jesus said, I mean this gets to the heart of worship, talking about what he called the church to do, go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you. This sort of Trinitarian language, the language of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is all over the place in the New Testament. You think of the benediction that the apostle Paul gives in 2 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 13, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, and so I think at least in the context of worship on a Sunday morning we should be singing and praying and worshiping the Lord in a Trinitarian fashion, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, and I think that that relates to how we pray, to the songs that we choose to sing. We want to expose the church to the God that we worship, the Holy Trinity, through worship, and in our own lives I think it's just having that recognition when we come to God, when we approach the Lord, that we can only approach the Father through Jesus the Son, that the only reason why he's our Father is because we've been adopted through the work of Jesus Christ and by the grace of the Holy Spirit. See, if you're a Christian, you don't just have a personal relationship with Jesus, you have a personal relationship with the Father and with the Holy Spirit, and that should be reflected in our prayers and in our worship. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.