Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Ex 20:8

We are commanded by God to remember the Sabbath. Many churches have taken this as a command to keep worshipping on Saturday and that those who worship on Sunday are lawbreakers. (“The Sabbath is the 7th day and is commonly accepted as Saturday. This makes Sunday the first day of the week.”) Is this biblical? Let us see.

The word ‘sabbath’ means ‘to cease’ or ‘take a rest from’. It does not mean Saturday nor does it mean seventh day. The word is used in other contexts throughout the Bible (Leviticus 23:24; 23:32; 23:39; 25:2; 25:4, 6; 2 Chronicles 36:21) wherein the use of the word clearly reflects the definition and not the Jewish practice.

It is first used in the story of Creation. Gen 2: 2-3 “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.”

This is a principle for life that we are to follow for our own benefit. We must rest and we must spend concentrated time focused on the Lord. Note that the word ‘sabbath’ is not used in this verse.

Simply put, the focus is on completing our work in six days and rest on the seventh. Which day is the seventh day wherein we sabbath, or rest and worship, is of secondary import.

The Sabbath or rest ‘rules’ were given a couple thousand years after Creation while the Israelites were in the wilderness. Over time, tradition and practice caused the activity of sabbath to become an institution, a specific time. Saturday. The Sabbath day took on extreme legalism and became an oppressive burden exercised against the common people by the Pharisees. In short, the Sabbath became an idol.

Why We Worship On Sunday And Not On Saturday

Remember the Sabbath was one of the commandments given to us through Moses. The ways of remembering the Sabbath were given first in the wilderness when God provided the daily manna. (See Exodus 16, 20, 31, 35 and Num 15:32-36, Deut 5, Leviticus)

Exodus 16:23 - 23And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

Exodus 16:25-26 -  25 - And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field.  26Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.

Exodus 16:29 -  29 - 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.

When Jesus was ministering on earth the Pharisees often tried to trap Him into breaking the Sabbath. Jesus showed them the true meaning of the Sabbath in many ways. Jesus healed on the Sabbath and forgave sins on the Sabbath. Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. He also said He was the Lord of the Sabbath. (Mk 2:27,28)



With all of this emphasis on the Sabbath, how is it that we worship on Sunday?

The OT points to the Messiah through prophecies and practices which were but a shadow of the things to come.
Psalm 118:22-24 prophesied the Lord’s Day as manifested in Acts 4:10-12 as inaugurated on the Resurrection Day occurring on the first day of the week.

We first see the change in worship days beginning with the Resurrection of Christ on Sunday. This was prefigured and prophesied with the OT Feast of Firstfruits and Waveloaves being observed the day after the Sabbath (Lev 23:11,15-21; 1 Cor 15:20-23, Acts 2:1) as Jesus was the first Resurrection and the firstfruits. God honored the first day of the week by recording His Son’s resurrection on that day (Mt 28:1-6, Mk 16:9, Lu 24:1-8, Jn 20:1-18).  Likewise, we can honor the Son on the first day of the week as we Sabbath.

It may be properly understood that Jesus is the Lord of the ‘day we rest from’, the day ‘we cease’ and not so much as the institutional day of the Sabbath. We concur this because Jesus spent much time showing the Pharisees how they defiled the Sabbath as well as ignoring that Jesus was to be the focus of that day.

The Church is Born

The Holy Spirit manifested on Sunday, the day of Pentecost, by coming to that first church meeting on that day of Pentecost Acts 2:1-4. Thus the Church was born.  (Acts 1 says that Jesus appeared for a period of 40 days before ascending. The Holy Spirit came on Pentecost - 50 days after the Passover.)

Thereafter, it was the custom for the Apostles and early Christians to meet on Sunday for worship, sermons, and communion. Acts 20:7 “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them..”.  We see that the custom was to come together to break bread on the first day.

After the Resurrection, no record shows the Christians meeting by themselves except on Sundays. While the purpose of the gatherings may not have been singularly to worship, Jesus did appear on that day and not on Saturday. We do not see any evidence that the NT churches met on the traditional Sabbath. If the churches were meeting on the Sabbath, they would have aroused sentiments of ‘church competition’ and incorrect Sabbath keeping. This would have been recorded. (These points are to be taken as logical speculation)

When they preached in the synagogues on Saturdays it was to convert the Jews to Christianity as well as any God-fearing Gentiles that were in attendance. They did not exhort anyone to obey the Mosaic Law and those who did were considered backsliders.

The emphasis in the NT is on the dispensation of grace brought by Jesus and the importance of His resurrection. It is important to note that the Passover brought in the event of Jesus’ conviction and bodily sacrifice, which extended past the Sabbath and culminated on the first day of the week with His Resurrection. While this isn’t in itself a specific change of Sabbath day, it begs the question as to why God raised Jesus on this day. Could it be that God was setting a new rest in motion?

One wonders what day(s) of the week Jesus was preaching to the multitudes? There are many subtle implications that arise in this course of thought. For example, did the preaching occur on the traditional Sabbath? If so, were Jews in attendance? And if so, why wouldn’t the Pharisees be upset that Jesus was preaching outside of the synagogue? Instead they were offended that He was attracting crowds and teaching and healing. If Jesus were preaching on the traditional Sabbath, He would not have been preaching to very many Jews who instead would have been at the temple or at home resting. The gospel was brought first to the Jews. If the preaching occurred on the first day of the week Jesus was thereby indicating that the ‘day of rest’, the ‘sabbath’ could be on the first day of the week; or by extension any day of the week.

In this age of grace we are told by Jesus that the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Galatians and Romans teach us that we are freed from the Mosaic Law.

It is important to devote a day to worship, commune, rest, serve and celebrate the Lord in fellowship with our spiritual brethren. I personally think that the argument over which day we do this is irrelevant. Truth be known, we should be doing this daily as much as possible. But, our bodies and minds need the rest of one day per week. God knew this and designed it into us and even modeled it Himself.

I was GLAD when they said, ‘let us go unto the House of the Lord’!