Here is something I find odd with the idea that the Sabbath is no longer to be kept by New Covenant Christians...
Do we agree that the Sabbath was created on the seventh day of creation week?
Gen 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Gen 2:2 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.
Gen 2:3
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Exo 16:28 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?
Now this is prior to Mt Sinai and the "giving of the Law".
When the Sabbath command is codified...
Exo 20:8
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
How does one remember something that was not in existence? It was in existence, it existed at creation.
So in Jesus day, He kept the Sabbath...
Mar 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?
He claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath, named the Sabbath as the Lord's day...
Mat 12:8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.
Mar 2:27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
Mar 2:28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
Paul taught on the Sabbath, he even wrote a letter telling a gentile church in Colosse not to let any one judge them for keeping the Sabbath...
Col 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
Interestingly enough, the passage in Hebrews 4 says there remains a "keeping of Sabbath"...
Heb 4:9 There remaineth therefore a
rest to the people of God.
G4520
σαββατισμός
sabbatismos
sab-bat-is-mos'
From a derivative of G4521; a “sabbatismâ€, that is, (figuratively) the repose of Christianity (as a type of heaven): - rest.
The Greek word that is used in Hebrews 4:9, σαββατισμός, pronounced sabbatismos, which means “Sabbath rest, Sabbath observance†(Arndt and Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament).
One should read the entire article...
http://emmilglenn.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/sabbatismos/
OK now let's propel ourselves forward in time to the Millenium, after Christ's return...
Isa 66:22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.
Isa 66:23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.
Isa 66:24 And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
Hmmm, they shall go forth and look upon the carcases of transgressors...
1Jn 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
Eze 46:1 Thus saith the Lord GOD; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.
Eze 46:4 And the burnt offering that the prince shall offer unto the LORD in the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish.
Eze 46:12 Now when the prince shall prepare a voluntary burnt offering or peace offerings voluntarily unto the LORD, one shall then open him the gate that looketh toward the east, and he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, as he did on the sabbath day: then he shall go forth; and after his going forth one shall shut the gate.
This Temple has yet to be built and if you read Ezek 40 - 48 you find that this is the Temple that will be built in the Millenium.
Now, in the past under the Old Covenant, God had people put to death for breaking the Sabbath. In the future people will keep the Feast Days, the Sabbath is one of these...
Lev 23:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the
feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.
Lev 23:3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein:
it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
What if they do not?
Zec 14:16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem
shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Remember what we read in Isa 66:23?
Zec 14:17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
Zec 14:18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Zec 14:19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
You mean to tell me that people will get hungry and be struck with plagues if they don't keep the Feast Days? Yep.
Now we read...
Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
The Christ who would say, don't bother keeping that old Sabbath is not the one who is the same yesterday, today and forever. In fact...
2Co 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2Co 11:4
For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.