The Lord’s Day

Here is our statement on The Lord’s Day:

The first day of the week is the Lord's Day. It is a Christian institution for regular observance. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should include exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private. Activities on the Lord's Day should be commensurate with the Christian's conscience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

I’m going to answer three questions in regard to the lord’s Day.

1. When is it?

Sometimes people call Sunday the Sabbath. That’s not accurate. Saturday is the Sabbath. In the OT God set aside the last day of the week as a day of rest.

Regulations concerning this day were very strict. Breaking Sabbath Laws could even result in capital punishment (Num. 15:32-36).

When we come to the NT we see the Sabbath laws had become even more strict because the religious leaders had added their own traditions to the law.

You could not travel farther than 3,000 feet from your house. If your food was within 3,000 feet you could go and get it. Then your food was considered an extension of your house, so you could travel another 3,000 feet from there.

You couldn’t carry a load that weighed more than a dried fig.

You couldn’t eat anything bigger than an olive.

You couldn’t throw an object into the air with one hand and catch it with the other.

Tailors didn’t carry needles so they wouldn’t be tempted to work.

Nothing could be bought/sold, dyed/washed.

You couldn’t mail a letter.

You couldn’t light a fire or extinguish a fire but you could light a fire from an existing flame. I witnessed this firsthand when I was a chaplain. They could not light the candle themselves. They would always have to have a non-Jew light the candle for them.

You couldn’t take a bath because you might spill some water on the floor thereby “washing” it.

You couldn’t move a chair because you might drag it and create a furrow (which would be plowing).

You couldn’t tie a knot.

Women were not to look in the mirror because they might see a grey hair and be tempted to pull it out.

If someone was sick you could only give them enough help to keep them alive until the next day, couldn’t help the person improve, only stay alive.

For this reason Jesus often rebuked people concerning the Sabbath. He never fell into the legalistic trap the religious leaders set for Him.

He would heal on the Sabbath. That made the religious leaders mad enough to want to kill Him. Here’s an interesting thought, Jesus never rebuked anyone for not keeping the Sabbath. He rebuked many for keeping it in a legalistic way.

We still have people today who are legalistic over the Sabbath. Some say that those who worship on Sunday are guilty of terrible sin or even taking the mark of the beast. I have heard the argument put forth that We shouldn’t worship on Sunday because Sunday is named after the Sun god. That’s half right, but every day of the week is named after a false god.

Sunday named after the Sun god

Monday after the Moon god

Tuesday is the day of Mars named after the god of war and the sky

Wednesday is the day of Mercury named after the god of travel/thievery.

Thursday is Thor’s Day.

Friday is connected with Venus and Aphrodite.

Saturday is Saturn’s day.

With that logic we could never worship.

As Baptists we worship on Sunday for good reason.

1) Sunday is the Lord’s Day. Revelation 1:10 John says he was in the Spirit on The Lord’s Day. Early Christian’s called Sunday the Lord’s Day because it was the day of the week He rose from the dead.

2) Scripture teaches the early church gathered to worship on Sunday.

Acts 20:7

1 Corinthians 16:2

“On the first day of the week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up…”

Nowhere in the NT does it say the believers gathered for worship on Saturday. Twice it records on Sunday they did.

When Jesus appeared to the disciples after the crucifixion it was on a Sunday. In John’s gospel the next time He appeared it was on a Sunday again (John 20:19,26). This could have contributed to why the early church began meeting for worship on Sunday.

Matthew 12:8 says that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. This is an important statement. Leviticus 23:3 says that the Sabbath belongs to the Lord. It is the Lord’ s Sabbath. Jesus says He is Lord over the Sabbath. In other words, He is greater than the Sabbath and He can do whatever He wants on the Sabbath.

Jesus is the One who created the Sabbath. He is the One in Genesis who saw all that He had created and rested on the seventh day. When we worship Christ on Sunday we are not blaspheming the Lord as some false teachers would have you think. We are exalting the Lord.

We might look at the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day in this way:

The Sabbath commerates God’s completion of creation.

The Lord’s Day commemorates God’s completion of salvation.

2. What do we do on it?

We gather.

Hebrews 10:24-25

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

The NT church had a day set aside to gather and worship. That day was Sunday and people were expected to be there. We have a command from Scripture to gather together on the Lord’s Day.

We worship.

Read Scripture (1 Tim. 4:13)

Preach/teach Scripture (2 Tim. 4:2)

Sing to the Lord (Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:19)

We pray

We fellowship

Encouraging one another

Stirring up on another to good works (Heb. 10:24-25)

We affirm the resurrection of the Lord

1 Cor. 15:3-4

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

We, with our attendance, are saying “Christ is risen!”

3. What are the restrictions?

Many of you probably remember Sunday restrictions:

No fishing.

No working. Some would not even go to restaurants.

No mowing the grass.

To understand what we should not do we should first understand what we should do. On the Lord’s Day, the Lord should be our priority. That is true every day. There is to be a distinction, however, in that our priority is to gather and worship the Lord on this Day.

We give this first day to the Lord because it is symbolic of the rest of the days.

We gather with our church family to show that they are priority as well.

When we think of something important we need to do, we move it up on the list. It will be done before all the lesser things we need to do. That’s the case with the Lord’s Day.

Our devotion is to the Lord and His people. This is our priority. Personally, I think having Sunday morning and evening services guards the day. But there is no command on having two services. We have some freedom. Our conscience and the Word of God is to be our guide.

We should not look at church service as something we can get out of the way and move about our day. That is legalism. Church is to be a joy. We should be in a hurry to get here and not in a hurry to leave. If there is something on your mind you can’t wait to do on Sunday other than worship the Lord,

there is a problem.

Worship be the priority of our desires. Once we have worshipped the Lord there is freedom to do what we like in the Lord.

If we don’t have a Sunday evening service I may:

Work in the yard

Go fishing

Go somewhere with the family.

If you want to know if you shouldn’t do something on Sunday look at your heart. Is your priority that thing or worshipping the Lord with His people?

I’ve heard people say, “I can worship the Lord out on a boat better than in church.”

Do that Monday through Saturday then. But if you are worshipping the Lord better on a boat all alone, I think you’re fooling yourself. You’re worshipping your own desires. Scripture is clear that we are to gather with God’s people and worship. If something is keeping you from doing that you should stop doing it.

We are not the Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus is. He should direct us concerning it.