LORD’S DAY
[Sunday is]
a privilege and a benefit, not a task and a drudgery.
Matthew
Henry
Consider carefully the following evidence that the
redemption accomplished through Christ’s resurrection determined the day for
Christian worship:
1.
Jesus Christ arose on the first day
of the week (Matt. 28:1). He entered into his rest from labor, not on
Saturday (the seventh day), but on Sunday (the first day of the week). As Jesus
entered into his rest on the first day, so he encourages us to begin the week
by resting in the confidence that He will provide for all our needs for seven
days with only six days of labor.
2.
Jesus Christ appeared to His
assembled disciples on the first day of the week,
as well as to Mary and to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (John 20:10;
Luke 24:13). By these appearances on the first day of the week, the resurrected
Lord set a pattern for meeting with His disciples. They began expecting to meet
with Him on the day of his resurrection, which is the first day of the week.
3.
Jesus appeared to the assembled
disciples one week later on the first day of the week,
with doubting Thomas present this time (John 20:26). Already a new pattern of
assembly for worship was emerging. God’s new covenant people were making it a
habit to assemble together on the first day of the week, the day of Christ’s
resurrection. Jesus honored these assemblies by appearing to the disciples at
this time, and encouraged their faith in Him as the resurrected Lord.
4.
The resurrected Christ poured out
his Spirit on the assembled disciples exactly fifty days after the
Sabbath of the Jewish Passover, which was the first day of the week
(Acts 2:1; cf. Lev. 23:15–16). The word Pentecost means
"fifty," referring to the fifty days after the Sabbath of the
Passover. Forty-nine days would span seven Jewish Sabbaths or Saturdays, and
the fiftieth day would then fall on a Sunday, the first day of the week. So it
would appear that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit came on the first day of
the week, when God’s new covenant people were assembled for worship. So the
pattern would be established more firmly. Both the resurrection of Christ and
the outpouring of the Spirit occurred on the first day of the week.
5.
As Paul spread the gospel of Christ
among Jews and Gentiles throughout the world, the first day of the week was
used as the time for Christians to assemble for worship.
In Greece, Paul and Luke assembled with the people of God to break bread and to
hear the preaching of God’s word on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7). This
was the day that the people of the new covenant assembled to hear God’s word.
6.
Paul wrote to the Christians in
Corinth to establish the pattern for their presenting of offerings for the
service of the Lord. He ordered the Christians in
Corinth to follow the pattern that had already been set with the churches in
Galatia (1 Cor. 16:1). On the first day of every week they were to
consecrate their offerings to the Lord (1 Cor. 16:2). This schedule for
honoring the Lord had become the pattern for God’s people throughout the
churches. The churches were not to present their offerings any time they
wished. Rather, on the first day of each week, all the Corinthian Christians
were to follow the pattern that had already been set among the Galatian
churches. The first day of the week was the designated time for the
presentation of offerings to the Lord.
O. Palmer Robertson
Why
on Sunday? New Horizons, March 2003. Used by Permission.
But what is the meaning of the phrase “on the Lord’s Day?”
In one sense, it may be said that every day of the week belongs to the Lord,
and so might be called the “Lord’s day.” But John [in Revelation 1:10] is
referring to something more specific. He does not speak merely of “a” day that
has been consecrated to the Lord. Instead he speaks of “the” Lord’s Day. That one day that may be called
“the Lord’s Day” was the day in which He proved to the world that He was Lord. On
one particular day, Jesus made the universe understand that He was Lord of all.
That day was the day of His resurrection. On that day, he conquered the last of
the sinner’s enemies, which is death. On the first day of the week, he showed
that his power could overcome all enemies, even death itself. That day is “the
Lord’s Day.”
O. Palmer Robertson
Why
on Sunday? New Horizons, March 2003. Used by Permission.