Why Worship on Sunday?

This question can be embarrassing, can’t it? Why do you worship on Sunday? Doesn’t the Bible say that the seventh day is the time God consecrated for his people? Where does the Bible say that Christians should sanctify the first day of the week, rather than the seventh day?

It’s a good question, you will have to admit. It’s also a question that needs an answer. So What can be said?

Creation and Redemption

Begin by considering the evidence of the Old Testament. The Sabbath in the Old Testament was not merely a special day that was to be recognised once a week. It had much richer significance. It pointed forward to the future ‘rest’ of redemption that God would accomplish for his people. The Sabbath was not only a reminder of the rest that came after six days of creation, it was also celebrated because God had delivered his people from slavery in Egypt.

God repeated the law for Moses after Israel had wandered in the wilderness for forty years, just before they entered the land of promise. When God repeated the law that had been given at Sinai, the Ten Commandments were the same. But another reason for observing the Sabbath was given. At Sinai, God’s people had been told to keep the Sabbath because God had rested after the six days of creation (Ex.20:11; cf. Gen 2:3). But in Transjordan, God told Israel to keep the Sabbath in view of their redemption, the people of God were to rest one day in seven.

We know that Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt by the Passover lamb was only a shadow, a prophecy, of the deliverance that would come through the sacrificial death and powerful resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament saints were looking forward to the coming rest from the burdens of sin, just as each week they looked forward to their rest from work in the Sabbath day.

The Promised Land

So when Israel entered the land of their ‘rest’ under Joshua, they marched around Jericho for seven days. Then on the seventh day they marched round the city walls seven times. When they had completed the march around Jericho the seventh time on the seventh day, the walls came tumbling down and the people of God began to enter their rest in Canaan. The taking of Jericho was a picture of God’s people entering into their Sabbath-rest.

In a similar way, the seventy years of Israel’s captivity pointed toward the ‘rest’ of the redemption that was to come to the Promised Land. For the seventy years of Israel’s captivity in Babylon, the land ‘was enjoying its sabbath rests’ (2 Chron. 36:21).

These Old Testament experiences showed that God’s people were looking forward to the rest, the redemption, that would be accomplished by God’s Messiah one day in the future. They worked six days in the week, looking forward to the rest that they would experience in he future. They looked to the land of promise as the place where they would enter into their rest from all the burdens of life.

A New Perspective

But now redemption has been accomplished. Jesus has come as the fulfilment of prophecy. By his death and resurrection, he has brought his people into their redemptive rest. We look back to the salvation that has been completed through Christ. ‘It is finished’ was his cry from the cross, and so we know that everything has been done for out deliverance from sin, death, and all other evils in this world.

So now the Christian has a new perspective on the ‘rest’ of redemption. For the resurrection of Christ is an event as significant as the creation of the world. By his resurrection, a new order of the universe came into being. A new way of life for man came into existence. The stone was rolled back from the door of Jesus’ tomb to let the disciples in, not to let Jesus out! Because of his new form of existence in his resurrection body, he could pass through stone walls and locked doors without needing to open them.

The Resurrection of Christ

So it should not be surprising to find the disciples following a new pattern of worship and work. They began their week assembling with the resurrected Christ. 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 labour, 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 labour.

2. Jesus Christ appeared to his assembled disciples on the first day of the week, as well as to Mary and 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 fo rmeeting 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 honoured these assemblies by appearing to the disciples at this time, and encouraging 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 honouring 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.

The Lord’s Day

The apostle John, now aged and perhaps the only living member of the original twelve apostles, had been banished to the island of Patmos. In this circumstance, he could not assemble for worship with the people of God. But the apostle informs us that ‘on the Lord’s Day‘ he was ‘in the Spirit’ (Rev. 1:10). The significance of his being ‘in the Spirit’ seems quite clear. He had entered into the presence of the Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was offering his adoration to him.

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 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’.

So by the end of the lifetime of the first apostles, Christians knew about one day of the week that was called ‘the Lord’s Day’. On that day, they celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That day became the time for their assembly as they rejoiced in the resurrection of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Honouring God

So it is the same today. The original commandment to honour God by worship one day in seven still holds, since this requirement was part of the Ten Words laying down the moral standards of God for men. One day in seven must be consecrated for worship and service to him. Both creation and redemption show that God must be honoured in this way.

From the creation of the world until the coming of Christ, that day was the last day of the week. People in the days of the Old Testament were looking forward to the rest that the Saviour would bring.

But now Christ has come. He has risen victoriously over all his enemies. This victory he won on the first day of the week. On this day he meets with his disciples as the assemble to commune with him.

So we are to celebrate the rest he has won for us. We are to taste and anticipate his rest by offering our worship on the first day of the week for it is the only pattern demonstrated in the Scriptures of the New covenant for the worship of God’s people today.

O. Palmer Robertson has served as a pastor and a seminary professor. Presently he teaches at African Bible College in Malawi and Knox Theological Seminary in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

This article has been reprinted from New Horizons (March 2003) with permission.