Did the early church worship on Sabbath?

[ChristB4us]

Not only did the Jews come for Sabbath but the Gentiles, and in Acts we see almost the whole city wanted to be there on the Sabbath.

Acts 13:42-44
King James Version (KJV)
42 And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.
43 Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
44 And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.

Now we see the Gentiles keep the Sabbath in Antioch as we see Paul when he came there, meeting with them in the synagogue on the Sabbath day.

Acts 13:14
But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down.

We see much the same in the early church in Thessalonica when Paul as was his manner, entered on three Sabbath days and reasoned with them out of the scriptures.

Read this again from the beginning...

Acts 13:1Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. 3 And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. 4 So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. 5 And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John to their minister.

The church at Antioch was where the Christians had worshipped.

God called Barnabus & Saul to go out to minister to the Jews in the synagogues along with John. They were not holding a Christian service in the synagogues of the Jews. They were doing ministry outreach when reading the word of God on the sabbath day to the Jews.

Here is an order from Paul for all the churches to follow regarding collecting for the saints and that was at church service after the regular collection, to set aside a portion of that collection for the ministry of the saints ministering abroad. This was to be done on Sunday, the first day of the week.

1 Corinthians 16:1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. 2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.

So we have an order by Paul proving when Christians held worship for when and how they were to do their collection for missionaries abroad.

 

[CrowCross]

I didn't say that there is anything wrong with meeting on Sunday.

I agree.

People are free to meet on any day of the week.

...for now.

 

[Mr GLee]

Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 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. 11 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.

It's the sabbath we are to keep holy not the day he rested for all eternity. Sabbath not a time sensitive word the ceremony as a shadow pointed ahead to Hebrew 4 any time we do not harden our hearts we have entered his eternal rest

God does not use parables as shadows to give reason with moral laws. There is a different reasons one from the standpoint of the seventh day to represent eternity and the other the beginning of freedom from bondage

Cerimonial shadows do nothing to the users. . . not moral law, again a shadow of a moral law .that could never make perfect the user.

Deuteronomy 5:13-15 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.


Exodus 20:8-10 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

 

[Soyeong]

It's the sabbath we are to keep holy not the day he rested for all eternity. Sabbath not a time sensitive word the ceremony as a shadow pointed ahead to Hebrew 4 any time we do not harden our hearts we have entered his eternal rest

God does not use parables as shadows to give reason with moral laws. There is a different reasons one from the standpoint of the seventh day to represent eternity and the other the beginning of freedom from bondage

Cerimonial shadows do nothing to the users. . . not moral law, again a shadow of a moral law .that could never make perfect the user.

Deuteronomy 5:13-15 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.


Exodus 20:8-10 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

In Hebrews 3-4, they did not enter into God's rest because of their disobedience/unbelief, and in Ezekiel 20:13, it specifically mentions that they greatly profaned God's Sabbaths. In Hebrews 4:9-11, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, which should rest from our work as God rested from His, and we should strive to enter into that rest so that no one may fall away by the same sort of disobedience, so you trying to use entering into God's eternal rest to justify the same sort of disobedience is exactly the opposite of what was being said. Rather, the way for someone to harden their hearts is by refusing to keep the 7th day holy.

The Sabbath is like a fractal patten, where there is the 7th day, then there is a rest every 7th year, a rest after 7 periods of 7 years, and an eternal rest, so if we correctly understand the principle of God's eternal rest, then we will keep things that are examples of that principle in accordance with what God has commanded.

Morality is in regard to what we ought to do and we ought to obey God, so all of God's laws are inherently moral laws. God's holy days are important foreshadows that testify about what is to come, so we should testify about what is to come by continuing to observe them rather than bear false witness against what is to come by not observing them.

 

[Hobie]

It's the sabbath we are to keep holy not the day he rested for all eternity. Sabbath not a time sensitive word the ceremony as a shadow pointed ahead to Hebrew 4 any time we do not harden our hearts we have entered his eternal rest

God does not use parables as shadows to give reason with moral laws. There is a different reasons one from the standpoint of the seventh day to represent eternity and the other the beginning of freedom from bondage

Cerimonial shadows do nothing to the users. . . not moral law, again a shadow of a moral law .that could never make perfect the user.

Deuteronomy 5:13-15 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.


Exodus 20:8-10 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

It is the seventh day from Creation, and we still have what the Creator made for us, no question.

 

[Mr GLee]

It is the seventh day from Creation, and we still have what the Creator made for us, no question.

Ceremonial laws are shadows of the the unseen spiritual substance.

Without parables Christ spoke not. Hiding the spiritual understanding from the unbelieving world

Shadows of the eternal add nothing to the user . But again are cerimonial signs to the unbelieving world .

Believers have prophecy the word of God .

The eternal rest in that parable was signified on the 7th day.

Exodus and Deuteronomy both having different reasons .Moral laws require no parable as reasons . Thou shall not murder, thou shall not steal etc

Exodus 29 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Hallowed it. It's not the day that was to be hallowed but was the eternal rest. Rest a non-time sensitive word

Deuteronomy 5 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.

The word Sabbath is a is non- time sensitive word. It is any time we hear and mix faith the unseen things of God .

Yoked with Christ he makes of daily sufferings lighter with a hope of eternal rest in the new heavens and earth .

The eternal rest is applied if one does not harden their own heart when hearing the word of God's faith, God's labor of love that works in us

Again comes by hearing.walk by faith the Power of God

Hebrew 4:10-11 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

 

[jeremiah1five]

Not only did the Jews come for Sabbath but the Gentiles, and in Acts we see almost the whole city wanted to be there on the Sabbath.

The Holy Spirit arrived on the first day of the Feast of Harvest (Pentecost.) This is a week-long celebration among the Jews. On the first day it says 3000 Jews were born again and saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. Continuing the celebration, the next day it is not unreasonable to conclude that more Jews were saved, born-again and filled with the Holy Spirit. How about 3000 more? If this number is reasonable then by celebration end 21,000 Jews were born-again, saved, and filled with the Holy Spirit. Christ is building His Church. And since this Feast of Harvest is a Hebrew/Jewish Feast the Gentiles mentioned would reasonably be Gentile proselytes. Hard-core, uncircumcised Gentiles with their dumb idols would not have participated in this Jewish Feast in Jerusalem.

Acts 13:42-44
King James Version (KJV)
42 And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.
43 Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
44 And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.

It is reasonable to conclude that these Gentiles that "besought preaching of Messiah" are Gentile proselytes who were present in the synagogue and heard this preaching and wanted to hear more the next sabbath (vs. 43 makes mention of Gentile proselytes.)

Now we see the Gentiles keep the Sabbath in Antioch as we see Paul when he came there, meeting with them in the synagogue on the Sabbath day.
Acts 13:14
But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down.

Everywhere Saul visited he went into the synagogues for that is where his Jewish brethren were every sabbath (along with Gentile proselytes.) During these meetings in the synagogue, he preached Jesus Messiah to them. In time a split occurred between Jewish Christians in the synagogue and their unsaved Jewish brethren for in Saul's preaching is one central theme and that was the death of Messiah on a tree. The Jews stumbled at this stumbling stone. In time persecution of Jewish Christians occurred by the Judaizers and this was inevitable for in the Law of Moses anyone who hung on a tree was cursed and the Jews couldn't get past this truth in their Law. But Gentile proselytes wanted to hear more about Israel's Messiah.

46 Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. Acts 13:46.

Since these Gentile proselytes wanted to hear more, it can be rightly said the Gentiles mentioned in vs 46 can be no other than Gentile proselytes Saul said he was to "turn to."

We see much the same in the early church in Thessalonica when Paul as was his manner, entered on three Sabbath days and reasoned with them out of the scriptures.
Acts 17:2
And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
And we see more of the same in the early church in Corinth were Paul went every Sabbath and we clearly see it says "persuaded the Jews and the Greeks."
Acts 18:4
And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.

As Scripture reveals, this phenomenon taking place in Israel among the Jews was that the early Church received these events as mainly affecting their Judaism and Jews in time would have to search the Scriptures to understand what God was doing. The New Covenant they came to realize was fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy in 31:31-34 and it was clearly a Jewish phenomenon and was first dealt with within their Judaic religion and traditions. Everything that was happening (preaching Jesus, Jews becoming saved, the Holy Spirit, tongue-talking, tec.) was taking place in their synagogues and Gentile proselytes would be present in these synagogues witnessing these events and occurrences. The Greeks here mentioned can only be Gentile proselytes for no Gentiles were allowed in the synagogues nor did they want to even be there.

And we see it was the same thing that Christ had done when He was in His ministry before Paul.
Mark 6:2
And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?
Luke 4:16
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
Luke 4:31
And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.

Of course Jesus would attend the synagogues or be in the Temple teaching. He was, after all, "not sent but to the lost sheep of the House of Israel."

As had Christ, the Paul worshiped in the early church on the seventh-day Sabbath. We clearly see that in his travels Paul attended the synagogue on the Sabbath with Gentiles and Jews, and preached Christ. Even in places where there was no synagogue, he searched for where the early church met for Sabbath worship.

The early Church was populated by Jewish Christians and Gentile proselytes who became born-again and after the split with their Judaic brethren began to gather for sabbath worship in their homes.

We find much in history that shows the early church observing the seventh day Sabbath which nearly all Protestant, Orthodox, or Roman Catholic theologians agree was true, and showed that the Sabbath was clearly spread throughout the world in the early church.
Josephus
"There is not any city of the Grecians, nor any of the Barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day hath not come!" M'Clatchie, "Notes and Queries on China and Japan" (edited by Dennys), Vol 4, Nos 7, 8, p.100.
Philo
Declares the seventh day to be a festival, not of this or of that city, but of the universe. M'Clatchie, "Notes and Queries," Vol. 4, 99
Early Christians
"The primitive Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath, and spent the day in devotion and sermons. And it is not to be doubted but they derived this practice from the Apostles themselves, as appears by several scriptures to the purpose." "Dialogues on the Lord's Day," p. 189. London: 1701, By Dr. T.H. Morer (A Church of England divine).
Early Christians
"...The Sabbath was a strong tie which united them with the life of the whole people, and in keeping the Sabbath holy they followed not only the example but also the command of Jesus." "Geschichte des Sonntags," pp.13, 14
2nd Century Christians
"The Gentile Christians observed also the Sabbath," Gieseler's "Church History," Vol.1, ch. 2, par. 30, 93.
Early Christians
"The primitive Christians did keep the Sabbath of the Jews;...therefore the Christians, for a long time together, did keep their conventions upon the Sabbath, in which some portions of the law were read: and this continued till the time of the Laodicean council." "The Whole Works" of Jeremy Taylor, Vol. IX,p. 416 (R. Heber's Edition, Vol XII, p. 416).
You can find even more in this study..
at https://www.sabbath.org/index.cfm/l...ath-first-day-during-first-five-centuries.htm

Where "Gentiles" are mentioned, they would have to be Gentile proselytes as they heard about Messiah at the synagogue first and later in their homes. But with the destruction of the Temple and the "ism" of Judaism dying out, so too would Gentile proselytes' numbers dwindle to nothingness. Then hard-core, uncircumcised Gentiles/Greeks who became saved carried on with Jesus and through the centuries we arrive at today when the Times of the Gentiles" is coming to an end and God turns His full attention back to Israel and continues the work He began on the Day of Pentecost and the building of His Church, the blindness removed, the two Jewish witnesses prophesying out of the Hebrew Scriptures and then, as Saul said in Romans, All Israel shall be saved.