Let’s talk about Sunday.....Why is Sunday the day Believers meet? Of course there’s the obvious answer... That’s just the way it is!!
(I wouldn’t be much of a pastor if I left you with that answer) That might be satisfactory as a religious answer, but not as a bible answer! Scripture says that pastors are to equip the church to give an account of what they believe....
All around the world, there are believers who are meeting together on Sunday. In the former Soviet Union – In Russia, and in the Ukraine - believers meet on Sunday. They meet on Sunday in India. They meet on Sunday in China. They meet on Sunday in the Philippines. They meet on Sunday in New Zealand, Australia. They meet on Sunday in the mountains of Ecuador, and among the Incas of Peru. They meet on Sunday in Brazil, in the jungles and in the cities. They meet on Sunday all throughout South America. Believers meet on Sunday even in Israel. How did this happen? Why don’t they all meet on different days?
Why don’t some of them meet on Thursday, and some of them on Tuesday, and some on Wednesday, and others on Saturday? It’s always been this way, across the length and breadth of the Christian church historically. Has anyone else been getting bombarded with the issue of Saturday or Sunday as the day when the church should meet together?
Well, everyday should be holy, but on Sunday our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the grave and brought us out from under the law, which condemned us and brought us into the grace which redeemed us. But the truth is that we should praise Him on Sunday and on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, all week long, because every day is holy through our new life in Christ! This is Sunday.... and we always meet here on Sunday, and it didn’t happen by accident.
It’s not only true here at Eagle’s Rest, but it’s pretty much a pattern in churches everywhere in the United States. It’s been the time-honored practice as I said before, around the world, and it goes all the way back to the New Testament time, when the people of God, the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, have worshiped on Sunday. We now celebrate the day that made it all possible, the day He rose from the dead, and conquered death for all who would follow.
I remember as I was growing up, none of the businesses in my area were ever open on Sunday. Stores were all closed, even if you were a non-believer, you didn’t open on Sunday because of the “Blue Laws” which were put in place by the early Christian settlers, who required that Sunday be a day of rest. (They called it “blue laws”, because it was posted everywhere on blue paper). There were no businesses open, no alcohol could be sold, no organized events, no sports events, and no planned activities in the community on Sunday. It was recognized that way, by our forefathers in England and in Europe, going all the way back to the time of the Reformation and even back before that. As a kid, Sunday was the most boring day of the week for me!
Folks have minimized Sunday down to a “tickle your religious spirit hour”, so folks can get on with their day and push God back into the background until Sunday rolls around again.. In the last 25 years or so, they have reduced Sunday to a one-hour non-intrusive experience you can have on your way to the beach. You can wear your bathing suit if you want so you don’t have to waste time putting it on. And now, many churches provide a Saturday night service, so you can have the whole day Saturday and Sunday at the beach, or whatever you want to do, and still fit in a religious break, for conscience sake.
Whatever happened to Matthew 6:33 “Seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will be added unto you.”
The danger is that regardless of what day of the week or night of the week, we choose to honor, we begin to make it more and more about us, and not about the one we are supposed to be honoring in all of this!
It’s like Christmas, we give presents and give attention to everyone but the one who was born on Christmas. It’s like going to a birthday party and giving gifts to everyone but the one who is having the birthday!
We need to stop making the day of worship about everyone and everything except the one we are to be worshiping and honoring!!!
Colossians 2:13 “When you were dead in your sins, God made you alive in Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge which sin placed against us, which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them through the cross”.
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
17 These are a shadow of the things that are to come, the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and worship that is not Christ centered, condemn you. Such a person places their experience above the word of God, they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have lost connection with Christ the head, from whom the whole body, is held together and develops as God causes it to grow”
In other words where is Jesus in it all.... Is He at the center, is Jesus the reason we do what we do?
Saturday, the seventh day or the Sabbath, was the day that God rested from creation. God blessed that day as a day of rest. Every Saturday that comes along is a good day for us to remember, that God is Creator, a day when you should enjoy His creation, and when you can have recreation. Have a picnic, or play ball, go fishing, go swimming, enjoy the outside, enjoy the creation of God. That was part and parcel of remembering God as Creator.......
Also, when the Mosaic law with the ten commandments, came along, God ordained a Sabbath day for the people to observe and to obey God, and He put some restraints on them to remind them of their sinfulness. So, every Saturday that comes along, has a two-fold role....it causes us to remember God as Creator, and to remember how sinful we really are, because the law condemns us and finds us guilty....
President Coolidge was the 30th president of our country and a man of few words and one Sunday, he got home from church and his wife Grace, asked, “Well what did that preacher preach about today”? Coolidge said “Sin”.... “Well, what did he say about it’ His wife asked.... “He was against it” Coolidge replied....
That’s why Paul said in Colossians 2:16 “Don’t let anybody hold you to the condemnation of the Sabbath day.”
The law of condemnation has been replaced by the new covenant, and the new covenant has been given a new day to celebrate it!
Hebrews 8:12” For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.” 13 By speaking of a new covenant, He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete will soon disappear”. We have been given a new kind of observation, not just observing God as Creator, not just observing God as law-giver, but under His new covenant,God is defining Himself as Savior, Redeemer, Our sacrifice for sin, giver of new life, and Peace maker between man and God.Because He was the fulfiller of the old covenant that was against us, He was able to usher in a new covenant that was for us!
Here we are, 2,000 years later, and the church is still meeting on Sunday. I would say that it is a good indication that the new covenant of God’s grace has triumphed over the old covenant of condemnation.
Matthew 28:28 takes place the day after Saturday - that would be Sunday... “as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, (Sunday) Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.
His appearance was like lightning, his clothing as white as snow; the guards shook for fear of Him, and became like dead men. “The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; for I know that you’re looking for Jesus whose been crucified. He’s not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.
Go quickly, tell His disciples He is risen from the dead, and behold, He’s going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him, behold, I have told you.’ Then they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples.
And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid, go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.’”
It is daybreak on Sunday morning. This is the Sunday when Jesus arose and appeared to Mary Magdalene, and to Mary the mother of James and He makes it clear...Verse 7: “Go quickly and tell My disciples I have risen from the dead.”
Before this day, Sunday had no place of importance on the Jewish calendar, but after this day, Sunday would never be the same again. If you memorialize the day when the earth was created, and the law was given on Saturday, then certainly you would memorialize and hold as special and sacred, the day when the law was replaced with grace, forgiveness, and the gift of eternal life on Sunday!
In the gospels of Luke and John, it was on Sunday that He ascended into heaven to sprinkle His sacrificial, redemptive blood on the mercy seat in heaven, where it would be an eternal unalterable covering for our sins, if we simply believe and accept it. Hallelujah!
It was on Sunday, when the women rushed to tell the disciples the good news. It was on Sunday, that He met the disciples on the road and revealed Himself to them. It was on Sunday that He came into the room where they were hiding for fear and breathed upon them and gave them the preview of the Holy Spirit. It was on Sunday, a week later, that he told Thomas, put your hand in my side, and your finger in the nail prints, it is Me and no other!!!
On Sunday, He set in motion the great commission that they were to go out and proclaim the gospel. He launched, as it were, the unlimited worldwide mission of evangelism by commissioning His disciples and apostles to take the gospel and proclaim it to the ends of the world. And on that Sunday, as I said, He pledged to them that they would have the power of the Holy Spirit as they went forth.
prior to all this, Sunday had absolutely no significance - none. But from that day on, Sunday took on a completely different meaning. Sundays would never be the same again. Sunday became the new covenant celebration of resurrection day, because God had chosen that day as a marker of redemption, grace, and new life in Christ..
It was our spiritual Forth of July, Memorial Day, and New Year’s, all rolled into one! Because He lives, we shall live also!!!
John 14:16: “I will ask the Father, He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive, because it doesn’t know Him or see Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” Literally, “I will come to you in the Holy Spirit,” who is the Spirit of Christ.” Jesus makes this promise John 14, John 15, John 16, again, and again, and again.
The Spirit’s going to come. He’s going to take up residence in you. He is literally going to fill you and give you gifts......spiritual gifts and enablements. He’s going to give you power for evangelism. And the Spirit did come as promised. And fascinating, isn’t it, that it happens on the day of Pentecost? This is when the church was born. This is when the disciples were empowered.
And why am I bringing this into the discussion? Did you ever wonder what day of the week that Pentecost happened? It Just happened to be Sunday; it just happened to be Sunday. According to Leviticus 23:16, the Feast of Weeks – Pentecost - was fordedicating the firstfruits of the harvest of wheat - that would be May and June. It’s called Pentecost, (“pente” meaning five), because it occurred fifty days after the Sabbath, which was before the Feast of Firstfruits.
So, you have a Sabbath, plus 50 days - simple calculation. A Sabbath plus 7 Sabbaths = 49 days – or Saturdays, right? So, 50 would be the first day of the next week. And that makes it Sunday again.
Pentecost happened on a Sunday”. The empowering of the Church, and the commissioning of the Church all took place on a Sunday.
So we can see that God filled Sunday with the most significant events in the founding of the church, namely the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the empowering by the Spirit of God. The events of the resurrection, and the birthing of the church, the empowerment of the church, and the completion of salvation - these glorious foundational realities are at the very heart of our Identity as the children of God, the redeemed of the Lord, and secured our victory that overcame Death, Hell and the grave!
There are many who say that the new testament Christians continued to meet on Saturday as they did in the old testament, but The New Testament Christians met on Sunday, to honor all that we have been looking at. In Acts 20:6 Luke writes that along with Paul, “We sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to believers at Troas within five days and stayed there seven days.” v7 “On the first day of the week, (Sunday) we gathered together to celebrate communion” -
We are the people of the New Covenant.... Jesus took away the old and put the new in place. He put the old covenant of condemnation, under the blood of the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. We are not under the Mosaic law anymore. You’re not under the constraints, and ceremonies, and regulations, and restrictions of the Mosaic covenant.
Oh yes, you can still, honor the seventh day, Saturday, as the day that the Lord created everything in six days, and enjoy His creation to the fullest. I think that’s a wonderful thing we shoulddo. You can still be reminded that it was the law of God that exposed our sins, and let us know that in ourselves we could not change it and it’s good to remember that without Christ, we aresinners.
A very wealthy old man was dying and he summoned his doctor and his lawyer. They were flattered, thinking that he would be giving them something in his will, so the Lawyer asked him, what service they could render. The old man said... “Sirs, as I was reading the bible to prepare myself for the end, I discovered that Jesus was crucified between two thieves, so I thought I would go out the same way!!!
Well, I want to Praise God, that Sunday shouts out to everyone.... “He whom the Son sets free, is FREE INDEED! We’ve been set free from the thief who comes to kill, steal and destroy!
The early church was so excited about the new covenant they had been given in Christ, they didn’t just worship on Sunday...which they did do. Acts 2:46: “They continued daily with one mind, in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people.”
Well, eventually this first day of the week became so precious to the church that it got its own Christian name. Turn to Revelation chapter 1 -
in verse 9 – John is on the isle of Patmos for preaching the Word of God and sharing the testimony of Jesus. He has been exiled there by the enemies of the gospel. And he says in verse 10: “I was in the Spirit on - “the Lord’s Day” – So, since that time, Sunday has been known as “The Lord’s Day”..... May we all be in the Spirit on the Lord’s day and every day!!!
Paul continues to share His vision....“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, the sound of a trumpet.” He turns around and sees Christ ministering among the candlesticks, which represent His church. This is the Lord of the church serving His church, and John got the vision of the Lord moving in His church on Sunday, on the Lord’s Day. John had a lot of visions in the book of Revelation. None of them is identified with a day, none of them, except this one of Christ and the church.Thank God He’s coming for a glorious church, a New Covenant Church, redeemed, working the works of Christ, filled with the Spirit, and overcoming the forces of darkness, in His name!!!
(Prayer) Father, thank You again for Your Word, for the refreshing of it, the beauty of it, the simplicity of it, and the richness of it, the consistency of it overwhelms us. And even though we study it week after week, year after year, it comes to us with a kind of freshness that brings joy to our hearts. This is Your day. We want to fill it with all the things that focus on You, delighting in You, loving You, loving Your people, loving Your truth. Setting our hearts aside from the things of the world, setting our affections on things above - to be determined, of course, not by what we don’t do, but what we do; to be determined not by what we’re not allowed to do, but what our hearts long to do. This is Your day. May all of our lives be filled with a special, understanding of how wonderful is the weekly reminder of our eternal salvation built in to the Lord’s Day. Give us a love for it because it comes forth out of you. We thank You, in Christ’s name.
