The Lord’s Day: Part 3

Article 21: The Lord’s Day

21-1 The first day of the week has been recognized by the Church as the Lord’s Day since apostolic times.1 We believe, therefore, that it ought to be observed by all believers, voluntarily and in love2, as a day set apart as holy to the Lord for the corporate worship of God3, remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord from the dead, and fellowship and mutual encouragement of the saints.4

Sabbath in Hebrews

Context

Psalm 95:7-11.

Psalm 95:7–11 ESV

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

A warning against hardening their hearts as did the wilderness generation

Heb. 3:12-4:13.

The author of Hebrews applies Ps. 95 to his readers.

The reason the wilderness generation did not enter the promised land was unbelief and disobedience, and the Hebrews audience are being warned against following this example. They will not enter God’s rest if they do.

Creation Rest

Hebrews 4:3–4 ESV

For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’ ” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”

The rest promised to believers goes beyond residence in the land. We are being pointed back to creation, where the rest that God supplied on the seventh day was lost in the fall. God rested on the seventh day because His work was complete.

Throughout the OT, God promises His people rest. For example:

Joshua and the people of Israel during his day.

Joshua 1:13 ESV

“Remember the word that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, ‘The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land.’

David in Psalm 95.

The promise in verse 3 is to those who have believed. The promise is the privilege of entering God’s rest. The sabbath rest that is mentioned in verse 9 is a reference to a joyous celebration (as one commentator put it).

In the OT, the rest was experienced on the Sabbath which pointed back to God’s creation rest. The rest was restored by the seed of the woman in Gen. 3, and now that rest is granted to those who believe in Christ.

Matthew 11:28–30 ESV

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

God rested because He was finished His work. God’s people will rest when their works are finished on earth. I think that is what the author of Hebrews means in v. 10

Hebrews 4:10 ESV

for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

People who believe in Christ, enter God’s rest, but there is an eschatological aspect to this rest that will be experienced by God’s people when their work is complete like God’s work was complete on the seventh day.

So, according to the author of Hebrews then, God’s creation rest points to the future rest, that is to the final rest/reward which is promised to the people of God.

In the text we considered so far, no mention of keeping a weekly Sabbath has been mentioned. That’s because, I suggest the sabbath rest (v. 9) in view is God’s promise to His people that He displayed in creation, reestablished after the fall in Gen. 3, displayed throughout the OT in His promise to His people as they entered the promised land and has fulfilled in Christ and will bring to fruition when His people enter the new creation.

Exiles and the Sabbath

An argument for keeping the Sabbath

The church is presently in the wilderness, traveling as exiles to obtain the promised rest.

Christians must continue to observe the Sabbath now because the rest promised in Hebrews is entirely future. Exiles (believers) will not and should not expect to enjoy God’s rest while in the wilderness.

Acts 14:22 captures this idea.

Acts 14:22 ESV

strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

Since the rest is entirely future the sign of end-time rest (the Sabbath) cannot cease before the end-time reality arrives.

Those who do not observe the Sabbath and have concluded that the sabbath rest in Heb. 4 is not exclusively future have fallen prey, this position argues, to and overrealized eschatology.

Against this argument

Though the emphasis in Heb. is on future rest, the are hints that an already-not-yet dimension of rest is present as well (Heb. 4:9-10).

Hebrews 4:9–10 ESV

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

One could make a case that the Sabbath rest mentioned in verse 9 is future, but entering God’s rest in verse 10 seems to be the result of believing in verse 3.

Hebrews 4:3 ESV

For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’ ” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.

But considering what the author of Hebrews says elsewhere about the heavenly city or heavenly Jerusalem and who will be there seems to argue against the rest being exclusively future.

No doubt the heavenly Jerusalem is an end-time promise, and believers wait for its coming.

Hebrews 11:10 ESV

For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

Hebrews 11:13–16 ESV

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

But that’s not all he says about this city.

Hebrews 12:22 ESV

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,

you have come (perfect tense). Believers are already citizens of this city. Yes, we are exiles and in the wilderness, but we have a real hope that we experience now. When the author says, we who believed enter, the word enter is in the present tense. It’s not a slam dunk that means that the rest is a present reality, but when we combine this with what is said about the citizenship of the heavenly Jerusalem, it seems best to conclude that believers enjoy the rest now to some extent, but will full enjoy it on the Last Day.

Observing the Sabbath is not required since believers even now enjoy God’s end-time rest.

The Lord’s Day

The Resurrection of Christ

The first day of the week

Matt 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1.

Matthew 28:1 ESV

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

Mark 16:2 ESV

And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.

Luke 24:1 ESV

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.

John 20:1 ESV

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. It seems by noting this, the gospel writers assign significance to this particular day.

Acts 20:7 ESV

On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.

1 Corinthians 16:2 ESV

On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

Revelation 1:10 ESV

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet

Such practices are most naturally linked to Sunday being the day on which the Lord rose from the dead, but no explicit link is made between the two.

It does seem likely however, that worship took place on Sunday in the earliest days of the church.

We should also note that there is no debate about worshipping on Sunday in the NT. There was significant debate about circumcision but not about which day was designated for worship.

Some of the Church Fathers noted that there was the Sabbath and there was the Lord’s Day. The Sabbath was on Saturday and the Lord’s Day was on Sunday.

Some of the churches during the time of the Church Fathers observed the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day.

Many of the Church Fathers (Ignatius) claimed that the Sabbath did not apply literally to believers.

So there was a distinction made between the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day.

The Lord’s Day was understood as a day of worship (not a day of rest… many early Christians had to work on Sundays).