The Sabbath was instituted by God, in paradise, for the benefit of man as a weekly day of rest for the body and worship for the spirit. It is found, in some form or other, also among pagans. The Jewish Sabbath was placed at the end of the week in commemoration of the creation. The world means rest, but the fourth commandment gives that rest a definite religious character, and subsequent legislation made the Jewish Sabbath a day of religious rites and practices. The Christian “Sabbath” takes the place of the Jewish, with the difference that it is placed at the beginning of the week, in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1, Luke 24:1, John 20:1). It is therefore called “the Lord’s day” in Revelation 1:10.
The
word ‘Sunday’ means day of the sun and is of heathen origin, but is now used to
denote the Christian Sabbath. In Acts 20:7, we read “And upon the
first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul
preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech
until midnight.”
This
passage provides the clearest evidence that the New Testament churches
assembled on the first day of the week. Though they read, meditated, prayed,
and sung psalms apart, thereby keeping their communion with the Lord, that was
not enough. They must come together to worship God in concert, to keep up their
communion with all good Christians.
When
Paul came together to be with the church, it was on Sunday, as revealed in 1
Corinthians 16:2. Sunday was the day they received offerings. Sunday was
the day they observed the Lord’s Supper (communion). The teachings of the apostles
mention the Sabbath in teaching its proper place, in Colossians 2:16. Several
other times, reference is clearly made to the Sabbath in Romans 14:5-6 and
Galatians 4:9-11. In each of these passages, Christians are urged not to
allow the Sabbath to become an issue. Normally, Christians observe Sunday
because of Christ’s resurrection on Sunday and because of the early church’s
example. Neither Saturday, nor Sunday, however is the Christian Sabbath!
We
worship a person, not a day. Every day is to be holy to the Lord. The Sabbath
was made for man, not man for the Sabbath! Many claim that it is a sin to work
on the “Sabbath” day. Is that right? Then I suppose all those ministers are
sinners, since they deliver their sermons and “work” at their trade on the
“Sabbath”. Hmmmmm—how about that?
