Renewal and Worship: The Gift of the Lord’s Day

The other day, Kristy looked at me and said, “Do you realize that we’ve lived in two centuries and six decades?” As two of the younger Generation X, a generation that lasted from 1965 to 1980, we have experienced a lot that our kids have not. We are the generation of the 40’ long phone chord and the Cell phone, the 25” Color Console Television with turn nobs that if it had a remote control, we were the remote control, and the 55” flat screen tv. We are the first generation to have personal home entertainment systems, video games, and the first generation with the internet.

We are the generation between the analog and the digital generations.

A lot has changed in the past 45 years we’ve walked on this earth.

The Knowledge Doubling Curve was first mentioned by Buckminster Fuller in 1982 in his book “Critical Path”. He had noticed that until 1900, human knowledge approximately doubled every century linearly. By 1945, it was doubling every 25 years, and by 1982, it was doubling every 12-13 months. Today, human knowledge is doubling every 12 hours.

But not all this growth in information has been good.

When I was growing up, I lived in a very different world. One way this was seen was in what is known as Blue Laws. Anyone remember Blue Laws?

Blue laws were laws on the books in almost every state that limited commercial activities on Sundays and in some cases Wednesdays. In Mississippi, you could not sell alcohol on Sundays, and many town shut down all commerce except those necessary for healthcare and transportation.

Though restaurants were open on Sunday afternoons in Pearl, I remember in Pelahatchie, the closest town to my grandparents, Sunflower grocery store being closed on Sundays until the late 1980’s.

These harken back to a time where the government, and culture in general viewed Sunday as a special day, the Sabbath day and sought to protect it. We live in a much different day.

So how are we as Christians supposed to operate on the Sabbath, and is the Sabbath still applicable to the believer?

Well, the answer to this question is yes…and no.

Bottom Line: The Lord’s Day is Rest for the Body, Renewal for the Soul, and Worship of our Savior

The Sabbath Gift (Genesis 2:1-3; Exodus 20:8-11)

First we find the gift of the Sabbath.

Genesis 2:1–3 ESV

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

The Sabbath was a day instituted by God in the Garden for the rest and renewal of His people. God did not need to rest, but God is a God of example: He sets the example for his people of love, life, and sacrifice.

God created us and knew our tendency to go beyond. To do too much. And so he gave us a day for rest.

We are a busy people. Busyness is a pandemic in our culture. In America, Busyness is the new status symbol. A 2018 Pew Research survey revealed that six in 10 adults in the U.S. feel too busy to enjoy life. That number has held: In 2023, 60% of some 2,000 Americans believed there are not enough hours in the day to complete their to-do list. That means more than half of Americans never feel like they have enough time in the day.

After God created the world and all that was in it he rested. The word for Rest is Shabbat, from which we get Sabbath. It means to cease, desist, rest:—brought to an end. After God created the universe he rested.

Dallas Willard: "The command is 'Do no work,' and God specifies that this applies to everyone and even to animals. This is not just about us. It is about God's care for all creation."

Kevin DeYoung: "The one day in seven pattern of rest and worship is essential for our spiritual health and our physical well-being. God has wired us to need regular rhythms of rest and refreshment."

Paul Tripp: "In the busyness of life, Sabbath rest calls us to stop, reflect, and remember that we are dependent creatures, and our ultimate rest and satisfaction are found in Christ alone."

Life is busy. We have kids to raise, work to complete, friends to socialize with, and if we’re not careful we will fall into the trap of not resting. Of thinking busyness is the virtue God calls us to.

Busyness does not mean you’re a faithful Christian. It means you’re busy. And as Corrie Ten Boom, the famed holocaust survivor and Christian noted, Corrie ten Boom: "If the devil cannot make us bad, he will make us busy."

That is why God told Israel in Exodus 20:8-11

Exodus 20:8–11 ESV

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

and again in Exodus 31:17

Exodus 31:17 ESV

It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ”

God gave his people a day of rest. A day to worship him, and to relish in his creation. A day to lay aside our labors, and just be his children.

This is the great gift of the Sabbath Rest: It’s a time to reset our hearts and our minds, and to readjust our selves to the rhythms of who God is.

"The Sabbath is not just a day of physical rest but a profound gift from God to align our hearts with His grace and to find spiritual rejuvenation in His presence." — Adrian Rogers

So yes, the Sabbath rest is still an important part of our Christian lives. But there is a difference between the Christian Lord’s Day and the Jewish Sabbath.

The Lord’s Day: Sabbath Fulfilled

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.

We all know the story of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. But sometimes we miss the significance of what happened at Calvary. The book of Hebrews bridges this gap for believers, helping us to see the importance of the finished work of Christ.

Hebrews 4:1–3 ESV

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 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.

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.

In this text, the writer of Hebrews notes that the rest that God gave them in the Old Testament, the Sabbath was a shadow of the ultimate rest we have in our final day, when we rest in God supremely in heaven, but that we have entered into the Sabbath rest in Christ.

Paul agrees in Colossians 2:16-17

Colossians 2:16–17 ESV

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

In these verses, Paul notes that the Sabbaths, and jewish festivals were, shadows, a symbolic preview or a type of something that will be fully realized or fulfilled later in Christ. Now that Christ has come, the rules for ceremonial cleanliness, or the dietary laws, and the laws regarding festivals and the sabbath are fulfilled in Christ. We culturally call it the Sabbath, but the Sabbath is no where mentioned in the New Testament as a regular practice of the New Testament Church. The Church instead of meeting on Saturday, the last day of the week, met on Sunday, the first day of the week because it was on Sunday that Christ rose from the dead.

J. Vernon McGee tells this story about a man who wanted to argue about the Sabbath. The man said, "I'll give you $100 if you will show me where the Sabbath day has been changed." McGee answered, "I don't think it has been changed. Saturday is Saturday, it is the seventh say of the week, and it is the Sabbath day. I realize our calendar has been adjusted, and can be off a few days, but we won't even consider that point. The seventh day is still Saturday, and it is still the Sabbath day." He got a gleam in his eye and said, "Then why don't you keep the Sabbath day if it hasn't been changed?" McGee answered, "the DAY hasn't changed, but I have been changed. I've been given a new nature now, I am joined to Christ; I am a part of the new creation. We celebrate the first day because that is the day He rose from the grave." That is what it means that the ordinances have been nailed to the cross, Colossians 2:14.

Colossians 2:14 ESV

by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

So the Early church gathered not on the Jewish Sabbath, though Paul often did his first mission work of proclaiming the gospel to Jews on the Sabbath in the cities he planted churches in, but on the Lord’s day for the breaking of bread, teaching and worship.

The Lord's Day, or Sunday, succeeds the Old Testament Sabbath as a day for Christians… It is the fulfillment of what the Sabbath was pointing to by celebrating the resurrection of Christ and reminding us of the blessed Rest we will celebrate at the Consummation. it’s not a substitute for the Sabbath but a fulfillment of it.

Steve Lawson - ”The Sabbath is fulfilled in Christ and finds its ultimate expression in the Lord’s Day. The transition from the seventh day to the first day of the week is not a mere change but a profound fulfillment of the Sabbath principle. Sunday becomes a day of rest and worship, celebrating Christ’s resurrection and the new creation He has inaugurated."

The Purpose of the Lord’s Day

In the New Testament we have the recognition of the Lord's Day, the first Day of the week, Sunday, that God has given us as the Baptist Confession of Faith 2000 notes:

"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."

So the purpose of this day is for the church.

A Celebration of Christ’s Resurrection

Whereas the Sabbath was a reminder of God’s Rest in Creation, the Lord’s Day is a celebration of the NEW Creation in Christ! It is a weekly commemoration of the victory we have over sin and death in Christ! We come to celebrate Christ and Him Crucified.

“The Sabbath was a shadow pointing to Christ, and now that Christ has come, the Lord’s Day is the fulfillment of that shadow. We observe it not merely as a day of physical rest but as a day to celebrate the resurrection and the new creation inaugurated by Christ.” — Voddie Baucham

A Gift of Renewal and Worship

Finally, as we have stated often, the Lord’s day is intended for these two things.

We need renewal. The world is constantly attacking us and trying to dull our faith and faithfulness. Trying to keep us from serving him effectively in our mission field: Our daily lives of parenting and working and shopping. We are to be those who share the gospel “As you go.”

One man challenged another to an all-day wood chopping contest. The challenger worked very hard, stopping only for a brief lunch break. The other man had a leisurely lunch and took several breaks during the day. At the end of the day, the challenger was surprised and annoyed to find that the other fellow had chopped substantially more wood than he had. "I don't get it," he said. "Every time I checked, you were taking a rest, yet you chopped more wood than I did." "But you didn't notice," said the winning woodsman, "that I was sharpening my ax when I sat down to rest."

But not only that it’s a time of worship.

"The Sabbath was designed as a day of rest and spiritual renewal. In the New Testament, this principle is fulfilled in the Lord’s Day, which is set apart for worship and reflection on the resurrection of Christ. It is a day to cease from our ordinary work and focus on the spiritual renewal that comes through worship and fellowship.” - Tom Aschol

Sunday, the Lord’s Day is made complete in us when we glorify God on that day.

We must:

Embracing the Lord's Day as a time for rest and spiritual renewal.

Engaging in corporate worship and the breaking of bread (communion) as essential practices of worship.

Establish and Equilibrium between physical rest and spiritual activities to honor God.

The Lord’s Day is not just a day off to do what we please. It’s a sacred opportunity to rest, worship and grow closer to God and our fellow believers. By observing this day, we will find rest for our bodies, Renewal for our Soul, and we will Worship of our Savior, aligning ourselves with His Sacred Rhythm for our lives.