During the Ministry of Jesus and NT Church

The Sabbath was a big issue during the ministry of Jesus. The issue was not what day is the Sabbath, but rather how to keep it. The Pharisees invented many burdensome traditions about the Sabbath which did not come from God. Jesus often rebuked them for laying these traditions on men's shoulders.” Matthew 23:4. They were continually “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matthew 15:9. Let's not be like them.

The Pharisees became very angry with Jesus because He did not keep the Sabbath their way. They made up a rule, “No healing on the Sabbath.” Jesus ignored their “rule.” One day, “the ruler of the synagogue” challenged Christ “because that Jesus healed on the sabbath day.” Luke 13:14. Jesus countered, “Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?” Luke 13:16. In His many healings on this day, (John 5:1-9; Mark 1:21-27; etc.) Jesus Christ revealed His Divinity and His power over Satan For this very reason, the Jews plotted His death. “Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because he not only broke the sabbath, but also said God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” John 5:18. Jesus never “broke the sabbath” (see John 15:10), and He is 'equal with God.”

The Pharisees accused Jesus and His disciples of doing “that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath day.” Matthew 12:1. But Jesus said they were “guiltless,” having only done that which was “lawful ... on the sabbath.” Matthew 12:7, 12. Christ declared, “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath day.” Mark 2:27-28. Here Jesus pointed back to the Creation. Man was made on the sixth day, and “the sabbath was made” on the seventh day to be a blessing to man. Genesis 1:27, 31; 2:1-3. Those Pharisees; had changed the order by putting the Sabbath first above the needs of man! (Is it right to change the order again by making the “first day of the week” a new Sabbath?) Jesus is “Lord also of the sabbath day.” He made the world. He “made” the Sabbath. It is “the Lord's Day.” Revelation 1:10. He knows how to keep it. It was not wrong for Him to meet needs on His Holy Day.

Also, the Sabbath was not an issue at all in the New Testament Church. There was no controversy over it in the book of Acts or in any of the epistles. If it had been changed or abolished, there would have been much discussion about this by the New Testament Church. But there was none. The early church kept the Sabbath. Acts 13:12, 42-44; 16:13; etc.