Why Do Christians Worship on Sunday?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Exodus 20, Colossians 2, Isaiah 28, Acts 3:19, Matthew 11, Hebrews 4, Hebrews 10, 1 Corinthians 16, Acts 20

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--why-do-christians-worship-on-sunday
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
the short answer to that question is no and in my book the apostolic life i have a chapter in which i address that question in detail but let's discuss it briefly and first of all let's look at the big picture uh the ten commandments are part of the law of moses which god gave to israel so first and foremost they're a covenant with god's old testament people we're living under the new covenant and so we have new commandments that's why we don't follow all the teachings of the old testament with regard to things like sacrifices and ceremonial laws because we recognize that many of the laws of the old testament were specific to israel and they were considered as types or shadows that point to greater spiritual truth in the new testament so when we have the greater spiritual truth we're no longer obligated to follow the forms or the ceremonies and again the animal sacrifices of the old testament are good example they're fulfilled by the sacrifice of jesus christ so now that we have his sacrifice we have faith in him we no longer need to follow the commands for animal sacrifices we do look at the ten commandments as expressing god's moral law and of course god's moral nature never changes and thus god's moral teachings would be the same for his people of any age old testament or new testament but i would say to the extent that there are ceremonial applications then that is specific to the old covenant when you come to the fourth commandment remember the sabbath day to keep it holy i think there's a general moral principle there of taking a day of rest now notice the command was not primarily about worship and it wasn't specifying this is the only day you could worship or this is the day you must worship or this is the day of your weekly meeting the old testament jews didn't have the synagogue the synagogue was an inter-testamental development they had the tabernacle or the temple where the priests conducted the worship so it was really more of a day of rest not specifically a day of going to church so to speak or going to synagogue so we kind of miss that when we try to transpose the old testament culture to our contemporary church context so i think the big principle is we should set aside one day of week for physical mental spiritual rest and yes the component of worship and prayer is definitely part of that but when it comes to the application we suddenly get into ceremonial law and james says if you don't keep all the law you if you if you don't keep one part of it you're guilty of breaking the whole law and if you really go through the old testament sabbath law you weren't supposed to do any work you weren't even supposed to pick up sticks on the sabbath orthodox jews today they won't light a fire so they won't cook they since electricity is the modern application of that they won't press a button in an elevator they won't turn on the ignition in a car you know they won't turn on the electricity the electric switch in their home because in their understanding that would all be a violation so some of them just are very strict some of them ignore it or some have workarounds so if you go to israel they have sabbath elevators which on the sabbath they stop on every floor so you can still ride the elevator but you don't have to push the button um and other examples like that so we don't have to follow those things and colossians 2 is very specific it says don't let anyone judge you in food or drink or sabbath days or feast days holy days because these are a shadow of things to come but the body is christ so the new testament is very clear these specific sabbath laws are not binding upon us because they're fulfilled in christ you say well how is that well if you read in uh isaiah chapter 28 it talks about with a stammering lip and another tongue will he speak to these people this is the rest this is the refreshing pointing toward a new covenant experience in acts 3 19 speaking of the outpouring of the holy spirit it says times of refreshing shall come to the presence of the lord matthew 11 jesus said i will give you rest hebrews 4 there remains a rest to the people of god and it's talk about entering the new covenant ceasing to trust in our works for salvation but coming to jesus christ and receiving his salvation which includes the outpouring of the holy spirit and it actually uses the word sabbatismos which means literally there remains a sabbath rest to the people of god and stop talking about a literal sabbath is talking about rest and refreshing in the holy spirit so i would argue that christians today have us have a sabbath every day because we're supposed to spend every day worshiping god spending time in prayer and enjoying the rest that god gives leaving aside our old sinful works and not depending on the works of the flesh to save us but depending on the work of the holy spirit and so the fulfillment of the sabbath law is to receive the holy spirit and just as the old testament sabbath was a mar demarcation to identify the people of the nation of israel and and the bible even says i've given this to you the jews israelites so the holy spirit becomes the new covenant demarcation to identify us along with baptism in jesus name as the people of god today so i feel i believe that we do fulfill the sabbath law through the through the experience of the holy spirit which sanctifies us or separates us and gives us rest and refreshing and gives us daily fellowship with god daily worship so we're not just setting aside one week one day a week but we're worshiping god every day now having said that i do believe there's still an enduring principle of taking the day of rest and it's pacing yourself taking time off and there is a principle of worship and so hebrews 10 tells us not to forsake the assuming of ourselves together but we should meet regularly with the church so where whenever your local church has designated it could be saturday that will be okay it could be sunday that would be okay too but you should faithfully attend the meetings of your local church so i do believe that principle is still valid and if we neglect that whether it be the principle of rest from work for our bodies or the principle of weekly worship if we violate that yes there are spiritual consequences so to that extent the fourth commandment is enduring but now let's go to the subject well why did we ever move to sunday and that's because the early church did so i think they were quite intentional because the sabbath was so specifically identified with the old covenant of the jews that when they became aware they were entering the new covenant they had a new relationship with god they were not simply jews but jews and gentiles united in a new people the people of god and they had to learn not to trust the law for salvation but to trust jesus for salvation so they very deliberately said we want a new day to represent the new covenant and so they begin to worship on sunday now that wasn't coincidence jesus arose on the first day of the week and then he appeared to his disciples again when they were assembled on the eighth day which the jews would count starting and ending so that would be one week later he appeared to them they were all assembled on sunday and then the day of pentecost they were all gathered the holy spirit fell on sunday so it seems intentional that the early church started meeting on sunday to commemorate the resurrection of jesus christ and to represent the new covenant and even though it was a normal workday in the roman empire they would meet early sunday morning and late sunday night before and after work until some centuries later the romans made it a holiday and some people say well that's a roman customer pagan customer catholic custom no they were just recognizing what the early christians had already been doing from new testament times and and they did have a morning and evening service on  sunday because that's when they could in their work day and you also see uh first corinthians 16 paul said to set aside your offering on the first day of the week so apparently they all gathered on the first day and brought their offering um you also have acts 20 that they were meeting on the lord's day you also have in revelation that paul i mean that john was in the spirit on the lord's day so it seems even from new testament times they were identifying the lord's day as the day of resurrection or sunday and they were trying to meet specifically on that day to commemorate the lord's resurrection and to commemorate the new covenant so we do find that pattern from new testament times but it's not presented as a rule and so again we might have service on wednesday night we might have it on saturday we might have it on sunday or we might have it all the above all that's fine we're not under the old testament ceremonial law in that sense so let's be faithful to our local church whatever day of the week we choose to worship and let's also pace ourselves and let's make sure that we build in daily times of worship weekly times of corporate worship and a weekly day of risk from work