The Lord’s Day (Pt 1)

Selected Scriptures
2007.09.16
one28 Sunday worship

In December of 2003 I taught a short series of sermons under the banner “Church Life for Teens.” The initial motivation for that series was that I really wanted students to understand the importance of the biblical ordinances: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. I tagged on a short message concerning church etiquette, hoping to instruct students about customary and polite behavior at church (such bottom line basics like not sleeping in church or getting up, leaving, and returning in the middle of a service).

Perhaps some of you remember the events that followed. As I was preaching through those messages on church life I realized I had missed a fundamental thing. My assumption was that the church was a priority. I was wrong. There were some parachurch groups becoming more and more popular at that time and a number of our own students were directing a good portion of their time and energy into things I argued were inferior to, if not in direct competition with, the church. So I taught a couple messages on the Potential Problems with Parachurch.

But almost four years later I see another trend. This trend is even more of a threat than parachurch groups or misunderstanding about proper church behavior or ignorance about the ordinances. This trend is more selfish and more dangerous and more disobedient and more dishonoring to God than perhaps all those others. The trend, the threat, is NEGLECTING THE LORD’S DAY.

There is an increasing pattern of neglecting the Lord’s Day, Sunday, in our culture. That is probably to be expected. But most alarming is the growing disregard for Sunday and corporate worship I see here in this room, in our own ministry (and across the whole church).

I’ve given a lot of thinking effort in attempt to pinpoint why there is so much neglect. Maybe some of you just don’t know. Perhaps the problem is plain old Bible ignorance about the priorities and practices of the Lord’s day. The only thing you know about the Lord’s day is that your parents have made you go all your life. It’s just the pattern, not your passion. If that’s the case, I hope some instruction will help stir up eagerness and energy for first-day gathering.

But I’m afraid there are more here whose primary problem is not ignorance; it is selfishness and laziness. You know, either from past instruction or from your own conscience, that the Lord must be honored more on Sundays by you, but you refuse and neglect to dedicate and celebrate His day. Those of you need not only light, but heat; not only teaching but warning; not only truth, but loving pleading and prodding to get you back where you belong.

Now it is likely at this point that some are already defensive. Perhaps you are defensive because I couldn’t possibly know your particular sob story. You can’t make Sundays a priority. You just can’t change your schedule or you’re just doing what your parents want, etc. We’ll talk about that.

Others would say, Christians are saved individually. And I would agree, in some sense. But even if we agree that our relationship with Christ is personal, we cannot dismiss the fact that our relationship with the church is corporate. Students may be Christians by themselves, but every Christian is part of the church. Spurgeon called such disconnected Christians “good-for-nothing bricks.”

I know there are some who say, “Well, I have given myself to the Lord, but I do not intend to give myself to the church.” Now why not? “Because I can be a Christian without it.” Are you quite clear about that? You can be as good a Christian by disobedience to your Lord’s commands as by being obedient? What is a brick made for? To help build a house. It is of no use for the brick to tell you that it is just as good a brick while it is kicking about on the ground as it would be in the house. It is a good-for-nothing brick. So you rolling-stone Christians, I do not believe that you are answering your purpose. You are living contrary to the life which Christ would have you live, and you are much to blame for the injury you do.

Still others of you are defenders of faith, in other words, you love to hunt Pharisees and legalists. You fight against anything that even hints like it’s a rule or an external requirement because after all, we’re saved by faith alone. Church attendance can’t save us and we all know that God cares most about the heart. Those kind of students are afraid of formality and tradition and going through the motions and routine. Fair enough.

But what if God holds us responsible, not for missing church meetings or sleeping during sermons or being distracted from worship itself per se, but what if He holds us responsible for those things because they demonstrate that our hearts weren’t right? I agree that God is not most concerned about our attendance…He’s concerned about our heart’s attention! We don’t want to be Pharisees, but we also don’t want to be servants who are defiant to our Lord.

I pray God would use this message like a pointblank fire hose to douse our selfishness and direct us and drench us with love for the Lord’s day.

The Lord’s Day

George Orwell said,

Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.

I’m not claiming intelligence, but I do think some restatement of the obvious regarding the Lord’s day is an eternally and spiritually intelligent thing to do.

Even the phrase itself, the Lord’s day is instructive. It isn’t just Sunday or the first day of the calendar week or the last day of your weekend. In fact it’s not your day at all. It is the Lord’s day. The name is biblical, and though only found in one verse, it is an inspired designation. The apostle John wrote in Revelation 1:10,

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.

John was isolated on the island of Patmos; exiled as punishment for preaching the gospel. As he began to write the Revelation of the end times he tells us when he received this vision: on the Lord’s day.

This is the only verse that uses this exact phrase. And after reading it in English I had a question, because I was familiar with a similar phrase found plenty of places in the Old and New Testaments referring to “the day of the Lord.” I’ve read my Bible enough and taken enough theology classes to know that “the day of the Lord” denotes a coming, eschatological day of judgment, when the Lord comes back and pours out His wrath on those nations and peoples who rejected Him.

And if you know anything about translation you know that there are numerous ways to indicate possession. You can say “the desk of Bob” or “Bob’s desk.” Both constructions show that the desk is owned by Bob. In English we typically show possession by adding apostrophe “s” but in highly inflected languages (like Greek) possession is expressed by this genitive phrasing.

So I wondered if it was same phrase, and if so, why every other time in Scripture we read “the day of the Lord” but here in Revelation 1:10 it was translated “the Lord’s day.” There are at least a couple reasons for the difference. The first is word order.

In most of the references to the day of the Lord, “Lord” comes after “day” in the typical genitive construction.

ἡ ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου
the day of the Lord

But in Revelation 1:10, the word for “Lord” comes between the article and the noun. This is the first attributive position and is the principal way to accentuate or highlight the adjective more than the noun. The emphasis is on Lord’s.

τῇ κυριακῇ ἡμέρᾳ
the Lord’s day

But word order is not the biggest reason why Revelation 1:10 is different. The biggest reason is because it isn’t even the same word. The word in Revelation 1:10 is a form of κυριακός. While in the same family of words as the noun, κύριος, meaning Lord, this is an adjective that doesn’t refer to the person, it distinctly describes what belongs to the person.

The word κυριακός is not a Bible-only word. It was used frequently in secular Greek writings in imperial, official language: “concerning the emperor” or “belonging to the emperor,” often referring to the emperor’s accounts and what was rightfully owned and due to his position. John applies the word to a particular day as “belonging to the Lord; the Lord’s.” Like anything owned by the King, this day is set apart for, specially possessed by, and distinctive of the Lord. It is not my day or your day or even the church’s day; it is the Lord’s day.

There is only one other place that κυριακός is used to describe something else owned by the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 11:20 Paul refers to “the Lord’s supper” and totally transforms ordinary food and common meals into something that is distinct, special, and set apart. Paul admonished the Corinthians that they were treating His table with disrespect and therefore treating Him with disregard.

So κυριακός is an imperial, royal, kingly word, and His day is not something for us to treat with indifference. Matthew Henry wrote,

The name shows how this sacred day should be observed; the Lord’s day should be wholly devoted to the lord, and none of its hours employed in a sensual, worldly manner, or in amusements. … Those who would enjoy communion with God on the Lord’s day, must seek to draw their thoughts and affections from earthly things.

We are so far away from Sunday’s like this. We do not treat the day like it’s His. It’s our day, and we may share a few hours with Him if we don’t have something better to do. Instead, we should restate the obvious and remember and rehearse that it is the Lord’s day.

The First Day

The first day of the week, Sunday, was and is the Lord’s day. In the Old Testament the Jews were commanded to keep the Sabbath; to set apart the seventh day of the week (Saturday) and rest from their work just as God rested from His work of creation. But after the resurrection of Jesus on Sunday, believers have regularly gathered and worshipped on Sunday.

At least a few New Testament passages demonstrate the clear teaching and example of the apostles (Acts 20:7-12 and 1 Corinthians 16:2). And there is no doubt that when John mentioned (c. AD 100) that his vision was on the Lord’s day, he was longing for the corporate Christian fellowship and worship from which he was isolated.

There are multiple references to Sunday as the Lord’s day from the early church fathers as well, spanning from the 2nd through the 5th centuries. Just one example comes from Justin Martyr (c. AD 150):

On Sunday we hold our joint meeting; for the first day is that on which God, having removed darkness and chaos, made the world, and Jesus Christ our Saviour rose from the dead.

And really since the middle of the first century, for almost 2000 years Christians have gathered on Sunday and recognized it as the Lord’s day. This is part of our Christian heritage and should be prized as a special thing.

So what are we to do on the Lord’s day, the first day of the week? Are were simply to dress up in our Sunday best and sit around all day being bored? Well, what do we see in Scripture?

Explicit First Day Activities

In Acts 20:7-12 and 1 Corinthians 16:2 we see at least three explicit, that is clearly stated in detail, activities.

1. The Lord’s Supper – Acts 20:7a

Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread,…

The connection is obvious. The day is the Lord’s day, it is the weekly anniversary of the Lord’s resurrection, so commemorating His death and resurrection in the Lord’s supper makes sense.

So the believers in Troas gathered together to break bread. This was more significant than just having a meal, it was part of their communion service (as 1 Corinthians 11 points out). Remembering the Lord’s sacrifice and celebrating the salvation He provides is an appropriate part of Sunday worship.

2. Teaching and Exhortation – Acts 20:7b

Acts 20:7 …Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.

While the believers were gathered Paul instructed them from God’s Word. This was not just conversation. It says he “talked” with them later (v.11). You might remember that his message was so long that particular Sunday that one young man fell asleep and fell from the third floor.

Teaching has always been one of the primary reasons to gather. The early church was continually devoting themselves to the apostle’s teaching (Acts 2:42) and Paul exhorts Timothy and Titus to speak and teach and preach and instruct and exhort and remind and rebuke and reprove in season and out of season with all patience (1 Timothy 4:11, 13; 2 Timothy 2:14-15; 4:1-4; Titus 2:1, 15; 3:1, 8 )

I’ve said it before, God’s Word is powerful to save and sanctify. And while the two-edged sword can cut in private, there is a special place on the Lord’s day for the sword in public. On the Lord’s day we give attention to the Lord’s word. (cf. Hebrews 4:12-13, His Word is the only thing that can get to your heart!)

3. Giving – 1 Corinthians 16:2

1 Corinthians 16:2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper,…

There is something right about giving to the Lord’s work on the Lord’s day. Instead of giving whatever and whenever we feel like it, it is an important discipline to prepare and bring money (that the Lord provided in the first place) to give to the Lord. This is another way in which we acknowledge that this is His day as we give gifts.

Most student giving is pitiful and sorry.

Explicit Corporate Activities

While there are only a few things directly connected with Sunday in Scripture, there are a few more practices that are directly connected with corporate meetings of the church.

1. Baptism

Baptism is the other ordinance our Lord gave in addition to the Lord’s supper. It is the public and corporate identification of the believer to his Lord.

2. Reading of Scripture – 1 Timothy 4:13

1 Timothy 4:13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

Again, we give attention to what our Lord says when we give attention to the Bible. God promises that His Word will not return to Him void (Isaiah 55:11).

3. Prayer – 1 Timothy 2:1

Paul begins giving instructions for various groups in the body when they meet. Prayer is an acknowledgment of our dependence on the Lord.

Implicit Corporate Activities

1. Singing

Singing is never directly connected with Sunday in the NT, but based on the example of Israel’s corporate worship, the NT obligations to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Colossians 3:16), and the heavenly singing John describes (Revelation 5:9), corporate singing is valuable to recognize and praise the Lord.

2. Ministry Reports

Regularly in Acts we see believers giving report of the Lord’s work in another place, providing opportunity for prayer requests and thanksgiving.

Notice that all these things are about substance, not form. The material is there, but the particular style is not always defined.

And I don’t think that we are necessarily prohibited from doing other things on the Lord’s day, but each one of these elements of the church gathered aims us toward the Lord. That is why they are so important, that we might revere the Lord on His day.

The point is that we need an entire day every week set aside to remind us that we need God! The constant witness of the apostles and early church fathers was to observing the first day of the week as a day for Christians to gather and worship.

Next week we’ll consider the Lord’s day, the first day, as the best day, and consider some practical steps we can take to celebrate Sunday’s as His day.

Sean, In your point on giving, you quote 1 Corinthians 16:2. That verse is in the context of Paul asking for funds to help the Jerusalem church. How do we apply this passage today when the situation is obviously different? How do you see the exhortation of Paul for the Corinthian church to give every week for this collection that he was going collect when he arrived, as a mandate for the church today?

I have heard Zimmer give the same point, but, at this point, I’m not entirely convinced that verse gives us a command. I understand that there are godly benefits in giving every week, such as voluntarily surrendering of our possessions to the Lord each week as an act of worship. For that reason, I see it as a practice that can further my worship and my love for God.

Well, I have a few other questions, but that’s all for now.

Brother Intern,

A couple questions back:

First, did I say giving on the first day was/is a mandate, or that we see giving explicitly connected to the first day?

Second, do you think we should meet together on the Lord’s day/first day of the week? If so, why?

Thus far I think you’d be hard pressed to show where I’ve made any commands for Sunday beside honoring the Lord. The activities mentioned are examples of what the early church did and provide material from which we must make clothes today, even if they’re in a different style.

But do answer my questions, and know there is more from me coming this next Lord’s day.

My esteemed shepherd,

To answer your questions:

1. You did not use the word “mandate” to refer to our responsibility to give. You also did not make a point that giving was connected to the first day, but you did connect it to every week.

2. I think we should meet on the first day of the week, but I understand that it is no where commanded in Scripture.

So, you are saying that just as we see the example of the NT church meeting on the first day of the week and thus we do the same, so also we see them giving on the first day of every week and thus we should being doing the same?

Back to the context of 1 Corinthians 16:2, clearly Paul was collecting funds to help the Jerusalem church. I totally agree that was at least one of the purposes of the offering.

In fact, taking collections to help those in need was a regular practice of the early church (Acts 2:44-45; 4:32-37). And when do we suppose they took those collections, especially in light of the fact that the apostles were responsible for distributing as there was need (Acts 4:35, 37)? True, there is no universally explicit command for Christians to give money to help others, and there is nothing that limits giving only to the first day of the week, but the pattern in 1 Corinthians 16:2 and the practical benefits of collecting when gathered points towards Sunday giving.

Presumably, collected money was also used to support elders who rule well (1 Timothy 5:18-19). Again there is nothing that limits this “double honor” collection to the first day of the week, but the practical benefits (and perhaps we might also add the Jewish pattern of giving when gathered to support the priests) suggests that Sunday is a good day.

Most importantly, giving is an act of worship. Even if there are no needs to be met or pastors to be paid, the Lord is worthy of our offerings. While obviously there is nothing that limits worship only to Sunday, and while giving as worship is not limited to church, as you said in your first comment the “voluntarily surrendering of our possessions to the Lord each week” is an important piece of honoring Him. The discipline of weekly giving is a minimum starting level, and pattern and practicality point toward doing that on the Lord’s day.

To bullet-point the progression:

• giving is fitting [1]
• give when gathered [2]
• we’re gathered on Sundays [3]
• so: it is fitting to give when we’re gathered on Sunday [4]

1. If not mandated, giving is fitting for at least three general reasons: aid, wages, and worship. 2. It fits the OT and NT pattern of God’s people and is practical, both for the sake of collection as well as distribution. 3. Hence the whole “first day” point I was trying to make in the message. 4. Which gets us back to the pattern in 1 Corinthians 16:2, even though a specific context.

So while I did connect giving to the weekly pattern, I did indeed connect it to first day activities if by no other way than its context in my message: located under the sub-heading of “Explicit First Day Activities” under the heading of “The First Day.” This is a universal principle that applies to, but also beyond, the particular situation in Corinth.

What do you think? Did I make the case, and still keep the context of 1 Corinthians 16:2?

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, I really appreciate it. I totally understand what you are saying and I agree.

So are you petitioning then for the church to think of giving as a weekly thing out more than a “percentage of my paycheck which I get twice a month” thing? In other words, rather than giving when we get paid, but purposely splitting up our gifts to the Lord and evenly spreading it across all the Sundays of the month?

Sure. I’m not ready to call bi-monthly (or any other recurring frequency) giving sinful. However I would never recommend participating in the Lord’s day bi-monthly or singing two of four songs or listening to parts of the message. Full participation is best, but as always the key is the heart motivation. A person could give Sunday morning and Sunday night and be a complete abomination to the Lord. But personal preparation and steady putting aside resulting in weekly giving is not only a healthy discipline it is also a source of grace abounding joy.

Wow – I love these comments! I do have to say that “My Esteemed Shepherd” made me laugh. I just wanted to throw in that skh (my esteemed head) had us switch to weekly giving awhile back, and at first my accounting brain had difficulty with it – why not twice a month when the paycheck comes? But now I LOVE it – it totally helps me refocus my money eyes onto the right things. I also love it as part of our Sunday morning liturgy…well, at least on the Sundays that I’m not having private liturgy with sick children at home. :)

[...] In reading a letter that Jonathan Edwards wrote to Rev. Dr. Benjamin Colman, Edwards writes about the new converts in his church and their affection for the Lord’s Day. [...]