Joshua Aaron – Shalom (Official Music Video) the “Shabbat Shalom Song” שבת שלום
Joshua Aaron – Published on Dec 23, 2016 – The “Shabbat Shalom” music video filmed in Jerusalem, Israel. – Joshua Aaron is an award winning, Messianic Jewish singer and Integrity – https://www.newreleasetoday.com/artistdetail.php?artist_id=6056
Honoring The Sabbath – Which Day Should We Meet For Worship?
In the opening video, Joshua Aaron has a very vivid way of describing how Jews celebrate and honor the Sabbath. The video shows smiling faces coming from happy people. Joshua is a Jew whom has accepted Yeshua as Christ. May your Shabbat be one of due honor of the seventh day, which God has sanctified. From sunset on each Friday, until sunset on each following Saturday, is a time for us to draw close to God. We don’t have to “do anything” to honor the Sabbath. The intimacy that is described in John 17:3, “of knowing God,” is key. God loves us; we love God. We show such a love of God by being intimate with Him. “Try it; you’ll like it!”
Question: “What was the Old Covenant?”
https://www.gotquestions.org/old-covenant.html
Answer: The Old Covenant was a conditional or bilateral agreement that God made with the Israelites. The Old Covenant was in effect during the dispensation of the Law. It is “old” in comparison to the New Covenant, promised by Jeremiah the prophet (Jeremiah 31:31, 33) and made effective by the death of the Lord Jesus (Luke 22:20). In the Old Covenant, the Israelites were required to obey God and keep the Law, and in return He protected and blessed them (Deuteronomy 30:15–18; 1 Samuel 12:14–15). In the New Covenant, things change and God becomes the proactive and unconditional source of salvation and blessing. In the New Covenant, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
The Old Covenant consists of much more than the Ten Commandments, of which the Sabbath is key.
Exodus 20:8 “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 of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the 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.
The following is a brief listing of the 613 commandments (mitzvot), as recorded and classified by Maimonides in the 12th century. This listing is taken from his classic compendium of Jewish law, the “Mishneh Torah,” which contains 14 primary “books” or sections.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-613-mitzvot-commandments
What is the New Covenant?
https://www.gotquestions.org/new-covenant.html
Answer: The New Covenant (or New Testament) is the promise that God makes with humanity that He will forgive sin and restore fellowship with those whose hearts are turned toward Him. Jesus Christ is the mediator of the New Covenant, and His death on the cross is the basis of the promise (Luke 22:20). The New Covenant was predicted while the Old Covenant was still in effect—the prophets Moses, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel all allude to the New Covenant.
The New Covenant is “a Better Covenant.”
https://www.gotquestions.org/old-covenant.html
In the Old Covenant, God also established that the way to atone for sin is through the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22). That is why during the Last Supper on the night of His arrest, Jesus passed the cup to the disciples and told them, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20). When Jesus was crucified, His blood provided for the forgiveness of the sins of the whole world—the basis of the New Covenant. “By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete” (Hebrews 8:13). Salvation is now a free gift for any who will believe in Christ and trust that His blood takes away their guilt before God (John 3:16–17).
Consider the New Covenant.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. 33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
As was mentioned in the discussion of the Old Covenant, Sabbath keeping was a key part of the Old Covenant. So, let’s consider the role of, or absence from, the Sabbath during the time of the New Covenant.
Let’s consider the Sabbath of the Old Covenant.
The Sabbath was a gift from God to the Jews, and only to the Jews. The Sabbath was not given to any other group of people in the world. Exodus 16:29 “See, the Lord has given you the sabbath;”
The Sabbath is a sign between God and the Jews. Exodus 31:13 “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.”
Let’s consider Christ fulfilling the Sabbath, as well as every other requirement of the Law.
Matthew 5:17-18 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Believers in Christ are not required to worship on the Sabbath, but there should be an honor and appreciation for the Sabbath. God made the Sabbath; He made the Sabbath Holy. No one can move the Sabbath to any other day of the week to meet their own desires. The Sabbath will always begin on Friday at sunset, and will always last until the following Saturday at sunset. Nothing will ever change that Godly ordained time of each week from being the seventh day of the week.
Consider the memo from Back To The Bible.
As we have seen, the Sabbath in God’s plan concerns only Israel. Note these truths: (1) the Sabbath law was given in Exodus 16, 2500 years after creation; (2) it was given as a sign to Israel (Ex. 31:12-1); (3) since Israel is scattered, the Sabbath is not now observed; the Law was finished, according to Galatians 3:19, in Christ; (4) when the Jews are reestablished as God’s earthly nation, the Sabbath will again be observed. https://www.backtothebible.org/post/what-does-god-s-word-say-about-the-christian-keeping-the-sabbath
The Apostle Paul discussed Sabbath keeping with the the church at Colossae.
Colossians 2:16-17 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. (Ryrie Study Bible: The command to observe the Sabbath is the only one of the Ten Commandments not repeated after Pentecost).
The Apostle Paul discussed the first day of the week as the day that the church met for worship at Corinth.
1 Corinthians 16:1-2 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. 2 On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.
Let’s consider the discussion that Christ had with the woman at the well.
John 4:20-24 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
20 Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” 21 Jesus *said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The message of Christ to the woman is that neither “place, nor time,” is that which God expects from His people. God demands worship to be “in spirit and truth.”
Let’s come to a conclusion of this discussion on worship. If your church meets at sunset on Friday, that’s wonderful. If you church meets at 10 AM on Saturday, that’s wonderful, too. If your church meets at 8 PM on Saturday, “go for it!” If you church meets for worship on Sunday at 11 AM, no one can speak critically about meeting at that time, or at any other time, as long as you are meeting for worship, “in spirit and truth.”
But….. I must throw this passage into the discussion.
Acts 2:46 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,
The early Jews that accepted Yeshua as Christ, continued sabbath worship as well as meeting together in their homes as believers in Christ.
As for this Sabbath/Shabbat, I will say to you, “Shabbat Shalom.”
“Shabbat shalom” is a Hebrew greeting for the Jewish Sabbath. Its literal meaning is “Sabbath of Peace.” https://coffeeshoprabbi.com/2017/08/12/what-does-shabbat-shalom-mean/
I will also add the following verse of scripture, and close with a song of worship.
Psalm 122:6 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you.
Paul Wilbur – Shalom Jerusalem
Eternity 