We Worship on Sunday - What does the Bible say?

Well this morning, it's March the 4th, 2018, and in case you don't realize it, it's a Sunday. You might say, "Pastor, that's pretty obvious." Ever since I have been here as the pastor of Nola Baptist Church, we've been gathering for worship services on Sundays. Now most of you know that I grew up Methodist. Now there are some people in my family who are still mad that I'm not Methodist anymore. But I have fond memories of my childhood church, getting in trouble when I was a kid for going out in the mud by the old church sign. It was always wet out there.

Those pancake suppers where the men would cook a big breakfast and we would enjoy that time together. The old coke machine down the hall past the pastor's office where you could buy those glass bottle drinks for a dime. I remember when they went up to a quarter. The wasps and the church services and those old men trying to kill them without disrupting the service. I remember that old men's bathroom under the steps where my dad would take me in before every worship service. Now if you were in the shepherd household, you had to be emergency room sick to get up in church. Some of us might need to pay that kind of attention today.

You know even as Methodist we always met on Sunday. Now I'm sure if you related your childhood church stories, you worshiped on Sunday as well. Now I've been on two foreign mission trips. I went to Russia one time. I went to India obviously. And I worshiped with many Christians and they always worshiped on Sunday. I think about Monsey Daniel there in the capital city of Delhi. He has a church in his home. He reaches out to the slum people, the very lowest of low, and they worship on Sunday. I think about our friend Jason Job. He's from the state of Goa. If you look on the map, it's down on the south and on the west coast.

He's been to our church twice. Remember he came once alone and then he came a second time with his wife, a very precious lady Maluma. In their church, they worship on Sunday. I remember my friend Mukesh Sorin. He is in the state of Bihar. He is living outside of the city of Pernia. And he has a church there in his orphanage and he oversees many other churches in the villages nearby and they always worship on Sunday. Another man that I met had the privilege of preaching in his church, Emmanuel Kisku. He's a pastor there in the state of Bihar.

They're connected with us because quite a while back we took up an offering to build his church a new congregation. When I was there, they didn't have room in their church. They met outdoors. And when they worship, they worship on Sunday as well. Now if we go back in time in our American history, we experienced what was called the Great Awakening. That took place during the 1730s and 1740s. They were great men of God involved in that movement. Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield were two of them. But in that great move of God, there were many churches that were affected and all of them worshiped when? On Sunday.

The old Puritans in England back in the 16th and 17th centuries, men like John Flavell and Stephen Charnock and the very famous John Owen, they worshiped on Sundays. Those Puritans who left their homeland and came to the new world in the 17th century, they worshiped in their small, fragile congregations on Sunday. We go all the way back a little further in church history to the Protestant Reformation, whether they were associated with Calvin or Luther or Zwingli or even those fragile Anabaptists who were persecuted horribly, all of those churches worshiped on Sunday.

If we go all the way back in church history to the first and second centuries, we will see that churches worshiped on Sunday, the first day of the week. Now in the beginning, there were some Jewish Christians that did continue to worship in the temple and in the synagogues. But 20 or so years after Christ's death, Sunday was seen as the primary day of meeting together for worship. Now this leads us to a couple of questions this morning. Why has the church always chosen to worship on the first day of the week, Sunday? Now more personally, why do we as a church worship on Sunday?

Now I want to answer those two questions from the Scriptures, not just church history. I enjoy history. We should know our church history. We don't want to answer this by church history or tradition. We want to answer these questions from the Word and I want to make some much needed application for us and our church. Now if you are taking notes, and I trust that you do, I will give us the title of a message. That is, we worship on Sunday, what does the Bible say? We worship on Sunday, what does the Bible say? Now this is obviously a broad topic and I'm going to cover this in three ways.

Really and truly I'm going to go from Genesis to Revelation here. We're going to look at the Old Testament teachings. We're going to look at the New Testament churches practice and the New Testament teachings as well. So let's look at our first major truth. Number one, the Old Testament teachings, the Old Testament teachings. Within the entirety of the Old Testament, the people of God, that would have been the Jews, they did not, I repeat, did not worship on the first day of the week which was and is Sunday. Now there are two significant Scriptures which ultimately do affect when the Jews do worship.

First, at the end of the creation in Genesis 2, this was the seventh day when God rested from His work. And then second, in Exodus 20, at the giving of the Ten Commandments through Moses. Now sometimes this is called the Law of God. Now I want to briefly examine these two. First God resting at the end of His creation. I'll read you a verse, Genesis chapter 2 verses 1, 2, and 3, "Thus the heavens and the earth were complete, and all their hosts.

And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done." Verse 3, "And God blessed the seventh day, He sanctified it, because in it He rested from work, from all His work which God had created and made." So Genesis chapter 2 gives us a record of what God did after the completion of the creation. Now interestingly, just in these three verses, there are three verbs here. The verb finished, the verb rested, and the verb blessed. God finished His work, God rested from His work, and God blessed the seventh day.

Now God did not need to rest because He was tired from His work. No, that is not the case. God was modeling a pattern and establishing the pattern of work and rest for man. So we see here that God established a pattern of work and set aside or exalted the seventh day as a day of rest. This was a day for man to reflect on God's creation, but nowhere do we see a commandment for worship. None of the Old Testament saints from Enoch to Abraham were commanded to worship on the seventh day, nor was there a record of them setting aside the seventh day for worship. On the second verse, portion of Scripture is the giving of the Ten Commandments.

Exodus chapter 20 records God giving the Ten Commandments to Moses for His people. Within these commandments, God gives one that relates to worship. That is the fourth commandment. Now I don't necessarily ask you to turn there, but they are found in Genesis, or excuse me, Exodus 20. You see the first commandment, "You shall have no other gods before me." The second, "You shall not make for yourself an idol." The third commandment, "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." And then the fourth, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work." But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it, you shall not do any work. Again, we see that the Sabbath day, or every Sabbath day, was holy, and it was set apart now for rest and worship. The word Sabbath actually means to rest from labor. So we see that God was commanding the Israelites to rest from their labor. In so doing, they would have remembered God in the creation for this commandment. It does echo Genesis 2. They would have also worshiped God that delivered them from Egyptian captivity.

In the second giving of the commandments in Deuteronomy 5, Moses does call them to remember their days of Egyptian captivity. Now I want to give us two other passages that reflect this teaching. First, the giving of the manna to the people of God in Exodus chapter 16. There they're wandering in the wilderness, and God literally feeds His people. God commanded them to gather every day their daily needs, except on the sixth day. On the sixth day, they were to gather up twice as much because God would not rain down manna on the seventh day. They were to rest from their labor on the seventh day. And then second, the Gospels.

In all four Gospels, it is plain to see that the Jews set aside the seventh day as the Sabbath day of rest and worship. And let me tell you, the Jews did more than set it aside. They had constructed hundreds of laws that if obeyed, were supposed to ensure them of keeping the Sabbath. We see this when Jesus does exactly what He pleases on the Sabbath. The Jewish leadership was enraged because He dared to break their precious, precious laws. So we see this teaching concerning the Sabbath, the seventh day in the Old Testament. Then number two, we see the New Testament Church's practice.

Now the practice of the Church in the New Testament can be difficult to see at first. We have to really pay attention because after the death and resurrection of Christ, things really begin to take off. The spiral gets broader and broader from the book of Acts into the other New Testament books. Now I want to make three observations which will help us see the New Testament Church's practice and how it develops. Just notice what day major events took place. The resurrection takes place on the first day of the week. That is Sunday. Let me read you Matthew chapter 28 starting in verse 1.

Now after the Sabbath, as it began to draw toward the first day of the week, 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 set upon it. And his appearance was like lightning and his garment was white as snow. And the guard shook for fear of him and became like dead men.

And the angel answered and said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified." Verse 6, "He is not here, for he is risen just as he said, 'Come and see the place where he was lying.'" Now Luke's account gives us basically the same thing in Luke 24 verses 1 through 3. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they went in, they did not find the body of Jesus. So the resurrection takes place on the first day of the week, which is Sunday.

And to post-resurrection appearances of Jesus to his disciples, they take place on the first day, which is Sunday. John chapter 20 verse 19, "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked, where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them and he said, 'Peace be with you.'" Now if we continue in John, John 20 verses 24 and 25, we see that Thomas, the Apostle Thomas, was not there. He was not in his place. And Jesus came and revealed himself to Thomas later. Remember Thomas was the doubter.

John 20 verse 26 reads, "Eight days later," that's after that first appearing, "Jesus disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you.'" So we have two post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, two his disciples, clearly on the first day, Sunday. And then also the giving of the promised Holy Spirit at Pentecost. It happened on the first day of the week, which is Sunday.

Verse 1 reads in Acts chapter 2, "And when the day of Pentecost came," you might say, "Pastor, I don't hear the first day of the week." If you do the work with the Jewish calendar, you will see that this was the first day of the week, this was Sunday. So it is easy to see that every major event from the resurrection to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which is the birth of the church, it occurred on the first day of the week, which is Sunday. Don't notice when the church begins to meet for worship.

The church gathered for worship there in Troas, Acts chapter 20 verse 7 reads, "On the first day of the week when they were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with him, intending to depart on the next day. And he prolonged his speech until midnight." See there is a case for an evening worship service, but I don't think we are going to go to midnight. Here we see the church eating together like we are going to do today. They are gathering for instructions in God's Word, and we see that Paul instructs them well into the night. This is the first day of the week, this is Sunday.

Then we see the church gathering for worship there in Corinth. There in Corinth, 1 Corinthians chapter 16 verses 1 and 2, "Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also." And notice what he says, "On the first day of every week, let each one of you put aside and save, as he may prosper, that no collection be made when I come." So here we see Paul is giving the church instructions on how to take up a collection.

And notice he says, "On the first day of every week, this strongly implies that the church met habitually on the first day of the week, which is Sunday." Now if we go a little deeper, if we do some language study here, we make a very interesting find. In all four Gospels, there is an unusual way of expressing the first day of the week for the resurrection of Jesus. It literally reads, "The number one of the Sabbath." And in the original language, it is very bold. It is very distinctive.

The simple words for first are seen over 150 times in the New Testament, but this unusual wording is found in the Gospels and only pertaining to the resurrection, except for two other places in the New Testament, and that is Acts chapter 20 verse 7 and 1 Corinthians chapter 2. The determination is that resurrection day and the first day of the week when the church met for worship were distinguished as unique and special days by this emphasis given from this very unusual and bold wording. So it is easy to see that the New Testament Christians, both Jew and Gentile, they were to worship on the first day, which is Sunday.

Resurrection day was seen as the completion of God's redemptive work, a day of victory, a day of celebration, a day of worship. So it was natural that the church would meet on the first day, which is Sunday. Then third, a unique name seems to have been taken hold by the time we get to the book of Revelation. John the Apostle was in exile on the island of Patmos. Remember he was the only apostle to live a long life. His God begins to unfold to him those grand visions. John says in chapter 1 verse 10, "I was in the spirit on the Lord's day." So it seems that John is given this first day a new name. Sunday has a new name. It is the Lord's day.

Now let's move on. I want us to see number three, the New Testament teaching. This New Testament teaching. As we have seen, the New Testament strongly implies that the church is to meet on the first day of the week and that is Sunday. We see the seventh day give way to the first day as the old covenant fades into obscurity and the new covenant comes through Christ. We see the church assemble on the first day so it is obviously implied that we should meet on the first day. For the most part, all of church history is testified to this reality.

Now in the New Testament there are specific instructions concerning the day of worship but this was against keeping the Old Testament Sabbath in the church. There were those who infiltrated many of the New Testament churches teaching that you had to be saved by grace through faith but you must keep the Old Testament law as well. They were mixing salvation by grace with Judaism. These were called the Gnostics. There are three portions of scripture I want us to examine. First Romans chapter 14. This Roman situation. Now we are familiar with Romans 14 because we covered it last Sunday.

Now within this church there were mature Jewish and Gentile Christians. There were immature Jewish and Gentile Christians. Old Jewish Christians were holding on to Old Covenant dietary laws and Sabbath days, even sacrifices there in the temple. And Paul calls them weaker Christians. He does not strongly condemn them but he definitely calls them weaker brothers. So Paul calls these brothers weaker Christians. This is not an open condemnation but it is not an affirmation of their behavior. Most importantly he calls all the church to accept and love in patience.

Remember conviction and liberty must be able to walk down the center aisle of the church together. Then second the Galatian church and their situation. The Galatian church and their situation. I'll read you a portion out of chapter 4 starting in verse 9. The previous verses Paul had really given them their testimony back to them how they were saved. Verse 9, "But now that you have come to know God rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless and elemental things to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?" Verse 10, "You observe days and months and seasons and years.

I fear for you that perhaps I have labored over you in vain." Within this church there were the Gnostics who were calling those Christians back, back into keeping parts of the Mosaic law, days and months and years. And here Paul condemns this practice. He says they are going back to weak and worthless and elemental things. He says that they were going back to being slaves all over again. So Paul clearly condemns those who were seeking to go back to certain parts of the Mosaic law, days that would have included keeping the Old Testament Sabbath. And then third the Galatian situation. The Colossian situation.

I'll read you Colossians 2 starting in verse 16, just two verses. Paul says, "Therefore let not one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day, things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ." Now I really want you to remember these verses. Now within this church there was a group judging Christians because they were not keeping what? The Jewish law. Dietary regulations, festivals and the Sabbath days. Here Paul condemns this judgment.

He calls them to Christ and reminds them that all things in the law were a mere shadow of what was to come and the shadow of what was to come was Christ. So Paul clearly condemns those who expected the Colossian Christians to keep the Jewish Sabbath which was the Sabbath day. He calls them to Christ, not the shadow. Now I'll give you an overview of what we see really in the entire New Testament. These passages included. Nowhere in the New Testament are Christians commanded to keep the Sabbath or any of the Old Covenant regulations. Hebrews 8.13 states that the Old Covenant is obsolete.

In Acts chapter 15, the beginning of the New Testament church, there at the Jerusalem Council they had crisis in the life of the church, Gentiles were coming in, the church leaders met to work out theological problems there in the fragile church. And they never imposed worshipping on the Sabbath or any Old Testament regulations on the Gentile believers. Holding on to any Old Covenant regulations was condemned in Romans 14, Galatians 4 and Colossians 2. By implication and example, the fledgling church met on the first day of the week and that was Sunday.

Now I know we've covered a lot of verses, but I want us to move away from when I call the body of the message and I want us to make some application. I want to make some comments here that I think we all need to hear. First is a question. What should our position be? Pastor, you've led us through. We understood the teaching to the Jews in the Old Testament. We understood the example of the New Testament church and how it was formed and how they worshiped. We see the teaching in the New Testament. Now what should our position be? Number one, we must be gracious. Remember what we learned last week in Romans 14? What does Paul say?

Some are stronger, some are weaker. You come from different places, but you must be patient. You must be gracious. When we are learning about corporate holiness, we learn that we are a diverse group and we learn that Christian liberty and Christian conviction must walk hand in hand in the church. We must accept one another. We must not despise or reject or judge one another. And this is always, always needed in the life of the church, being gracious and kind to one another. But then second, we must be biblical. We must be biblical.

And what I mean by biblical is New Testament because everything in the Old, everything in the Old Covenant pointed to Christ. Remember the verse I asked you to remember? The Old Covenant was a shadow of what was to come and when Christ came, He fulfilled all that was in the Old. So in being biblical in this manner, we are New Testament. The Old Covenant is obsolete according to Hebrews. And the New Testament clearly condemned keeping any parts of the Old Covenant in the New. And then third, we must see this day, Sunday, as the Lord's Day. I think it's very important, even what we call it.

I don't think we need to use any other term but a biblical term. Now I know people use different terms and as long as what it represents is accurate, then they're biblical and good and fine. But I love just calling it what we see there in Revelation. It's the Lord's Day. It's the first day of the week. It's Sunday, the Lord's Day. Now in prayer this week and study, I thought about a list of errors and one trap that we can make here. Now you might can add to this list. Again, this is helping you flesh this out in the life of the church, applying what we've learned.

First, I want us to see there is the error of not setting aside Sunday as the Lord's Day. There are those, they want to do whatever they want. They just want another Saturday. I think you know people like that. You've seen it. Golf, tennis, sure, no big deal. It's just another Saturday. Fishing, hunting, sure, why not? It's just another Saturday. Work around the house, camping, trips, sure. It's no big deal. It's just another Saturday. That is an error to set aside Sunday as another Saturday. Number two, the error of setting aside part of the day as the Lord's Day. I'll give you a story here that will help illustrate this.

I've got a friend of mine who's pastoring a church, a larger church, and they were in the process of canceling an early service. It was a time when they needed an early service, but they saw that they did not need that, so they were canceling that. He was telling me how one of the men in the church came to him and was vehemently opposed to canceling the early service. The individual went on to say, "I want to keep the early service so I can come to church early, and then I'll have the rest of the day to do what I need to go do." What is he saying? "I just want part of the day as another Saturday." That's an error as well.

That's the individual. They want to check the box. They want to do their duty. I've gone to church and now I'm footloose and fancy free. There's a third error. It's the error of carrying a trump card for the Lord's Day. You know what a trump card is? Some people play cards. I guess back in our earlier years as Baptist, you weren't supposed to play cards, but I know when Christy and I were dating, their family always got together and ate and played cards. We had a good time. But you know what a trump card is? When you look at a deck of cards, a nine is greater than a two. The queen is greater than the ten.

Oh, but the best card of all is the ace. Isn't that right? But you know when you have a trump card, even if it's a measly two, the trump card trumps them all, isn't that right? They're those, they always seem to have a trump card on the Lord's Day. You'll hear it like this. Well, Grandma and Grandpa, they cooked and they really want us to come over and they want us to visit Grandma and Grandpa trump the Lord's Day. Sometimes people will make sure or they're not careful about their work and they have these work things that will come up and you know that extra work project always seems to trump the Lord's Day or you'll hear it like this.

You know we got an invitation for Susie's birthday. I heard somebody say it like this, "When do people start planning things like birthdays on Sunday?" Oh, you got to go to that little kid's birthday party. It's their birthday and then Susie's birthday party trumps the Lord's Day. Oh, I've heard people even be real spiritual and say they're going to have family time. Family time ends up trumping the Lord's Day. Now, I'll be honest with you, I'm good for vacations. I'll make a confession to you when I was in full-time ministry. I had a hard time sometimes when people would miss and then when I became bi-vocational, I got a little older.

I began to realize, you know, vacation is a good thing but you know too much of a good thing is a bad thing and there's some people, they have more vacations than you can imagine and that always seems to trump the commitment to the Lord's Day. You see what I'm saying? Some people always seem to have a trump card for the Lord's Day. There's another error I'll share with you, the error of the ox and the ditch. You know that passage that Jesus is dealing with the Pharisees on, Luke chapter 14 verse 5. What is he dealing with them about?

Oh, they were adamant about keeping the Sabbath but you know there, if their ox got in the ditch, they would work to get that ox out of the ditch. But you know what I've learned about certain people? They always manage to have that ox that gets in the ditch. Now that ox can be a whole lot of things. I remember I was sharing this with Brother Keith this morning. I remember when I worked construction full-time. There were certain things our boss would let us do and certain things he wouldn't. One thing is you never started a new project on Friday.

We always got off on a half a day Friday because we worked 10 hour days and he would look at us with a glare in his eye and he would say, "Do you want to work late today? Do you want to come back tomorrow if you can't get it fixed?" What was he saying? You prioritize Friday. But you know there's certain people, they always manage to get that ox in the ditch. Maybe they should have attended to that ox Friday instead of Saturday. Why? Because their ox got in the ditch on Saturday and they couldn't be faithful to the Lord's Day. I thought about it like this. Some people need to go home and shoot some oxen.

Some people just got oxen that always managed to get in the ditch. There's some oxen we need to get out of our life. But I thought about another trap. And I thought about this trap because years ago I had someone in my life that always, always got into this trap. The trap of ultra extreme rules on the Lord's Day. You ever know someone like that? Rule after rule after rule for the Lord's Day. And look, the Lord's Day wasn't relief and worship and rest. It was a burden. See we can ask the wrong question. And the wrong question is what should not do on the Lord's Day. The right question is what should I do on the Lord's Day?

I ran across something that a pastor said this week. I mean it was small but it really captures it. I was listening to John Piper talk about this subject. He was talking about Sunday as the Lord's Day. And he says this, "We want Sunday to be a swirl of God activity." Isn't that right? It should be a swirl of God activity in our lives. Now this leads us to another question. What is our position here at Nola Baptist Church? I've had this written down on my desk in my office for several months. I've been meditating over this. You could call this our purpose statement for all that we do on the Lord's Day. It's real simple.

Sunday is the Lord's Day. Have you heard me say that yet this morning? Sunday is the Lord's Day. It's the day of rest. Do we not learn that back in Genesis 2? Do we not learn that in Exodus chapter 20? It's a day of rest. It's a day of worship. It should be about corporate worship, individual worship, and family worship. Do we not see that woven all through the New Testament and in church history? And it is a day to reflect. Why did they meet on the first day? It was resurrection day. They reflected on the victory that God had won for their salvation. We reflect on our salvation. On the victory of the empty tomb.

There's so much that we have to reflect on. So you see how that really encompasses it all? It really puts its arms all the way around, all that was being taught. Sunday is the Lord's Day. It's a day of rest, a day of worship, and it is a day of reflection. And I'll tell you, if we live that, our whole life on Sunday will be wrapped up in a swirl of God activity. Now I think most of you know the message fits in the message series, Messages from the Pastor's Heart. These are subjects I've been praying over and meditating over and studying for months.

And listen, as your pastor, the one that God has appointed over you to serve you and love you and come alongside you and to give you God's Word, I call you to evaluate what you do on Sunday. Now I want to pick on a particular group, men. Men, how do we lead here? We need to lead out the way for our families. This is serious business. Do you know why we come? Primarily, we come to be instructed from God's Word. How important is the Word of God? Your sons and daughters will be led to Christ through the preaching and the teaching of the Word.

You will be made more into the image of Christ by being under the preaching and the teaching of the Word. It's the brothers and the sisters in Christ, although we are a diverse group, that we need and we need each other and we need to lead the way. This is serious business. I call on you to develop an evolving plan. I use that word evolving purposely. The plan you have for today, it might change a little later as your children get older. The plan that you have today might look a little different 10 years from now. I call you to develop an evolving plan. Now not a long, long list of do's and don'ts.

Remember that we want a swirl of God activity on Sunday, the Lord's Day, as we worship together as a church. As we worship in our homes with our wives, our husbands, our children during the whole day. Why? Because it's Sunday. It's the Lord's Day. It's the Lord's Day. May the Lord help us to honor His Day the way He desires. Let's pray.