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10250 North Freeway @ West
Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
What
We Believe and Why - Vol. II
Written by Dr.
Lester Hutson
Copyright
- Lester Hutson - 1982
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced
without the express written permission of Dr. Lester Hutson.
Chapter Twenty
Why We Meet on Sunday
(Part 1)
INTRODUCTION: TEXT: Acts 20:7
Though their number is small in proportion to the whole of professing Christianity, there are those who insist that Christians should meet on Saturday and not on Sunday. These vehemently insist that the Saturday Sabbath must be kept. These, particularly the Seventh Day Adventists, meet on Saturday and conduct a service similar to the customary Christian worship service in a Baptist church. The inconsistency of this is that the seventh, or Sabbath day, is being observed, but the required performances of the Sabbath are being substituted in favor of a customary Christian worship service.
There are some true believers who are confused by the Saturday Sabbath versus Sunday worship conflict. They worship on Sunday, but honestly do not know scripturally why. Their Sunday worship is custom with them and not a practice of conviction, as it should be. Such ones are ripe candidates for the false doctrine of the Seventh Day Adventists and other such groups who insist on keeping the Saturday Sabbath.
This discussion is designed to show that it is scriptural for believers to meet for worship on Sunday, and that they are not required to keep the Saturday Sabbath.
I. FIRST, CONSIDER THE SATURDAY SABBATH AND WHAT IT IS.
A. The Saturday Sabbath was a weekly day of rest for the Jewish people.
1. Every Saturday, or seventh day, was a Sabbath day. Sabbath is from the Hebrew root word "SHABETH," meaning "to repose: to desist from exertion." It speaks of an intermission between work periods. The Jews were to work six days and rest every seventh day.
2. Genesis 1 records that God created the heaven and the earth and all that is therein in six days. Genesis 2:1-3 thus reads, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." God Himself thus established the principle of rest after work, and He is the one who sanctified or set apart the seventh day as a day of rest.
3. Then when God gave the Law of Moses on Mount Sinai, He incorporated the keeping of Saturday as a day of rest to be the fourth commandment. Exodus 20:8-11 records it. "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all they work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, Oh thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."
4. Now it is noteworthy that this weekly Saturday Sabbath was not the only Sabbath of the Jews. The seven days of the feast of unleavened bread were all Sabbath days. See Leviticus 23:6, 15-16. Leviticus 23 mentions others. Notice the plural of verse 38. Every fiftieth year was a sabbatical year called the year of Jubilee. There was to be no sowing and reaping during that whole year. Most normal functions of livelihood were to cease. Leviticus 25:8-17 discusses this Sabbath year. Leviticus sheds further light on Sabbaths. So, each Saturday was definitely a Sabbath, or time of rest. But, at times other days were Sabbaths also.
B. Now, let us look more carefully at some of the particulars of the weekly Saturday Sabbath.
1. It occurred on the seventh day of each week which is Saturday. Leviticus 25:3 and Exodus 20:10 clearly say, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God."
2. On the Sabbath no work was to be done. Exodus 20:10 plainly says, "in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates." So the Sabbath was clearly a day of rest.
3. Though the Saturday Sabbath is a reminder of God's rest after creation, it was not set up until God gave the Law to Moses. God clearly gave the commandment to keep it on Mount Sinai. (Exodus 20:8-11) It's first mention in the Bible is Exodus 16:23. It is clearly a part of the Law of Moses, and not once does the New Testament command that it be kept. All nine of the remaining ten commandments are recommended in the New Testament.
4. Violation of the Sabbath was a capital offense. Numbers 15:32-36 gives a specific case of a man who violated the Sabbath by gathering sticks. Verse 35 of that chapter says, "And the Lord said unto Moses, the man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp." This they did. Notice well that it was because the Lord commanded it.
5. Furthermore, the Sabbath, like the rest of the law, was given to Moses and the nation of Israel. In Exodus 16:28-30, "The Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the LORD hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day." Paul left no doubt that the law was given specifically to the Jews when he said, "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God." (Romans 3:1-2) In his book on this subject, Marion Riddle pointed out the predicament the frost belts and polar zones would have keeping the Sabbath, especially in winter. They could not build, nor kindle a fire, on the Sabbath. (Exodus 35:3) D. M. Canright said in his book Seventh-Day Adventism Renounced, that if two Saturday Sabbath keepers started out at Chicago, one traveling west and the other east, and each kept the Sabbath to the letter as he traveled, they would not be keeping the Sabbath at the same time. This is true because going west from the International dateline in the Pacific, a day must be added and going east from the dateline, a day must be dropped. Thus, when the two met again in Chicago, they would be two days apart in their observance of the Sabbath. One would be keeping the Sabbath on Sunday, while the other would be keeping it on Friday. Neither would be keeping it on Saturday as commanded in Exodus 20:10. The more the matter is pondered the more obvious the difficulties become. The difficulties arise out of the attempt to make universally binding on all a law designed only for the Jews in a specific locality. The keeping of the Sabbath is as limited to the Nation of Israel as is the keeping of the Passover, the offering of a continual burnt offering, or the erection of a tabernacle or temple. Some aspects of the law involve moral codes, disease prevention and control and other universal standards. And many of these were given before the Law of Moses and reaffirmed after. These are not limited to the Jews. Although, many aspects of it were exclusively ceremonial, designed to point the Jews to their coming Messiah. These were all fulfilled in Christ and are in no way binding upon any one today, Jew or Gentile. That is true of the Sabbath. It was given to the Jews, and it was fulfilled in Christ, for He is our rest (Sabbath). (Hebrews 4:8-11 and Matthew 11:28-29)
II. NOW, LET'S TURN OUR ATTENTION TO THE LORD'S DAY AND WHAT IT IS.
A. By referring to the Lord's Day we are referring to Sunday, the first day of the week.
1. The early Christians did not refer to the first day of the week as Sunday, but as "the Lord's Day." The name "Sunday" has pagan connotations. It is "sun" and "day" combined, and the first day of the week actually was named as the day of the Sun. Pagan sun worshippers had set this day aside to honor the sun god. Thus, early Christians, when referring to the first day of the week, their day of worship, called it "The Lord's Day," not Sunday. It was several centuries after Christ before the Christians began to loosely and commonly refer to the first day of the week as Sunday.
2. The scriptures refer to the first day of the week as "The Lord's Day." In Revelation 1:10 John said, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day." The phrase, "The Lord's Day" in Greek is "KURIAKE HEMERA." The literal translation is "the day pertaining to the Lord." "KURIAKE" is from "KURIAKOS," meaning "pertaining to the Lord" or "the Lord's." Of course, "HEMERA" is day. Thus, we speak of "the Lord's Day." Virtually every well known Greek scholar testifies that from the Greek construction, there is no question that "The Lord's Day " is Sunday, or the first day of the week. In his book, Seventh Day Adventism Renounced, D. M. Canright starts on page 186 and traces the historical fact that from the nineteenth century back to Paul in Troas, "the Lord's Day" has been documented to be Sunday. He continues through page 192 documenting the history of the Lord's Day and showing Greek scholar and authority upon scholar and authority who attest that Revelation 1:10 can refer to no other day than Sunday. We can safely say, without fear of documented contradiction, that for five centuries, no writer referred to "the Lord's Day" to be any other day than Sunday.
B. The reason the first day of the week came to be called "the Lord's Day" is because the Lord arose upon the first day of the week.
1. That glorious capstone aspect of the gospel (the resurrection of Jesus Christ) is the most glorious of all days for believers, and historically when believers began to talk of the Lord's Day, all other believers (and often unbelievers) knew they were referring to Sunday or the first day of the week.
3. As believers began to come together upon the first day of the week, they came together then, as now, to worship the risen Savior, not to rest from work. Where the Bible speaks on the subject, that is exactly what you will see. In Troas of Acts 20:7, the disciples were come together "to break bread" which was to observe the Lord's Supper. This we know for the only breaking of bread which disciples are to jointly observe in a preaching service (which this was) is "the Lord's Supper." (I Corinthians 11:33-34) As I Corinthians 16:2 speaks of first day assembly, giving, which is an act of worship, is mentioned.
4. So, the very purpose of assembly by believers on the first day of the week is worship and celebration of the risen Savior, who rose on the first day. Each Sunday assembly is a testimonial of the risen Christ.
5. In his Commentary on Acts, H. Frank Fort establishes the fact that it was Christ's resurrection on the first day of the week of which David prophetically spoke in Psalm 118:24. David said, "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." That this prophecy refers to Christ is seen in Psalm 118:17 which says, "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord" and in Psalm 118:22, which says, "The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner." Jesus is the cornerstone. (Matthew 21:42, I Corinthians 3:11, Mark 12:10, and Luke 20:17) These scriptures were fulfilled the day Jesus arose from the dead, for it was that day that it could be said He was dead, but became "alive forever more." (Revelation 1:18) In view of His eternal resurrection, prior to corruption, (Acts 2:24-27), He "shall not die, but live," (Psalm 118:17), and He is the cornerstone. (Psalm 118:22) In reference to the day of fulfillment, we can say, "This is the day the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24) That was the first day of the week, (Matthew 28:1), and we are still rejoicing and glad in it. In fact, on this day of the week, every week, we come together for public praise, worship and rejoicing because of what the Lord hath done in the risen Christ.
C. Now, note carefully some of these particulars of THE LORD'S DAY.
1. It is the first day of the week, not the seventh. (Acts 20:7)
2. It originated with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, not as part of Moses' law. (Luke 24:1-6)
3. It is a day of worship, not a day of rest. (I Corinthians 16:2 and Acts 20:7)
4. It is a day for believers, not Jews or unbelievers of any race. (Acts 20:7)
5. It is a universal day for all believers, not a local custom for Jews.
6. It is a day when Christians are to voluntarily assemble, (Hebrews 10:25), not a day where failure will result in capital punishment.
"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"