“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy,” Exodus 20:8.

1. Please note the first word: REMEMBER. What does that tell us? Is it not that we are inclined to forget the Sabbath Day and thus fail to ‘keep it holy’.

2. Let us look at the meaning of the name of this special day. ‘Sabbath’ means ‘rest from labour’. Gen 2:2 gives us the root meaning of the word. “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made,” Genesis 2:2. The Sabbath then is a day of rest from all labour.

The Shorter Catechism asks: How is the Sabbath to be sanctified?

Answer: The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God's worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.

3. Why did the 1st day of the week become the Sabbath for Christians? The Shorter Catechism teaches: “From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath; and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath.”

That is proved by the fact that the apostle Paul observed the first day as a Sabbath in Acts 20:7. “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.”

The reason for this change is simple. In the Old Testament times, the Sabbath marked the ending of God’s great work of CREATION.

In the New Testament times, the Sabbath marked the ending of God’s great work of REDEMPTION. The first day of the week was when Christ rose from the dead, His work of redemption completed. Christian disciples have commemorated that day since. “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,” 1 Cors 16:2. This was when Christians assembled to worship. It is called here in the Greek tongue, a ‘Sabbaton’ or the equivalent of the Hebrew word, ‘Sabbath’.

The first day is also called ‘the Lord’s Day’. “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,” Rev 1:10. It was obviously observed by John, even when on his own, as a holy day.

Note, it is the day the Lord drew near to him . . . . . and taught him of things which must come to pass in a swift manner, verse 1.