During His ministry, Jesus had at least six different conflicts with the Pharisees over the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1-8, 12:9-13; Luke 13:10-17, 14:1-6; John 5:10-18, 9:1ff). Jesus’ understanding of the truth about the Sabbath was startlingly different than the erroneous beliefs His antagonists had. Our Lord identified the fundamental error of the Pharisees when He stated: "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). Its purpose was to be a blessed day of rest to every person and work animal in the nation of Israel (Exodus 20:8-11).
Misconceptions and erroneous beliefs about the Sabbath can still be found in our world today. Therefore, it is imperative we are ever knowledgeable of these truths about the Sabbath:
Truth # 1: From the first Sabbath until the end of human history, God’s created universe is governed by the First Law of Thermodynamics. Moses describes it in this way: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 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 2:1-2). After the sixth day of creation, there has not been a single particle of matter created or destroyed. On history’s first Saturday, God stopped all His creative work. This does not mean God has stopped working completely (i.e., deism); all of Jehovah’s work since the first week of time has been redemptive in focus. This is how and why Jesus could declare, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17). The first two chapters of Genesis record God’s work in creating a physical universe for humans to dwell in. Genesis three onward records God’s work in creating a redeemed universe for humans to thrive in.
Truth # 2: Remembering the Sabbath by resting on that day was commanded in the Law given by God to Israel at Mount Sinai. The "thou" who were commanded to labor and do all thy work in six days (Exodus 20:9) were the ones God brought out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage (Exodus 20:2). This body of people is identified as "Israel" (verse 1) when Moses repeats the Ten Commandments forty years later in Deuteronomy 5. Exodus 31:16-17 reiterates this significant, yet often missed, point: "Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever." Nehemiah 9:13-14 also echoes this truth: "Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: and madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant." At no time in history has the Sabbath been given to all humanity. It was commanded so that it would be a sign between Jehovah and Israel that all may know that it was Jehovah who sanctified this nation (Exodus 31:13).
Truth # 3: Observance of the Sabbath is not bound in the new covenant. For Jesus to serve lawfully as High Priest, there had to be a change of law (Hebrews 7:12-15). As prophesied by Jeremiah, Jehovah would make a new covenant which was different from the one made at Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments (Hebrews 8:7-9). The laws of this new covenant which had already been bound and loosed in heaven (Matthew 16:19) would be revealed to the apostles (Matthew 18:18) as the Holy Spirit guided them into all truth (John 16:13). This new covenant loosed several things which had been bound in the old covenant. Circumcision, for example, was no longer of any importance: "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God….For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature" (1 Corinthians 7:19; Galatians 6:15). Animal sacrifices, mechanical instruments of music in worship, the Sabbath, and a number of other things have not been bound in Jesus’ new covenant. This was intentional on God’s part; it was not a divine oversight. The gravity of the sin of binding something from the Old Testament’s covenant which has been loosed in Christ’s new covenant must not be missed. Using circumcision to make this point, the apostle Paul declared: "if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace" (Galatians 5:2-4). It is no trifling matter to bind something from the Old Testament that was purposefully loosed in the New Testament.
Truth # 4: The Christian’s Sabbath is heaven, not Sunday. The New Testament does teach that there is a Sabbath rest for Christians (Hebrews 4:9). Because it is not a weekly occurrence like the Jewish Sabbath, it is wrong to refer to the Lord’s Day (i.e., the first day of the week) as the "Christian Sabbath". The rest a Christian looks forward to is like the one God entered on the seven day of earth’s history. It will be an eternal day when he ceases from his works (Hebrews 4:10). This blessed rest from their labors belongs to all who die in the Lord (Revelation 14:13).