When Do We Worship?

Part 3 of 4

Text: Acts 20:7

Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.

  • The practice of worship in Sunday reflects the day that Christ rose from the dead: on the first day of the week—Sunday!
    • Matthew 28:1-10
    • Mark 16:1-8
    • Luke 24:1-12
    • John 20:1-10
  • Also Acts 20:7. The early church had already begun to have meetings on the first day of the week (Sunday)
    • On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.
      • “break bread” klao artos (klao artoß) (klah’-o ar’-tos): this combination is used to signify communion or the Lord’s supper.
      • Same phrase used in 1 Corinthians 10:16
        • Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?
  • It wasn’t until around the 2nd Century that the early church began to formally meet on Sunday. There is no Scriptural mandate on when we as Christians are to meet.
  • Is that contradiction to “keep the Sabbath holy”?
    • Seventh Day Adventists and Seventh Day Baptists believe it is a contradiction and worship on the traditional Jewish “Sabbath”.
    • Orthodox and Reformed Jews worship on the “Sabbath” of Saturday.
    • Messianic Jews worship on Sunday.
    • We see evidence that the early church was meeting on Sunday instead of Saturday since they were basically excommunicated from the Jewish sect.
    • Sunday as the Sabbath basically “evolved” but there is no Scriptural mandate against it.
      • Mark 2:27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
    • The day is almost irrelevant for we are not made for the day. It was made for us.
    • Whatever day you have as your “Sabbath” puts you under God’s law for the Sabbath.

“What a tragedy it is when a believer sees worship only as something that takes place at church on Sunday morning.” –Ron Owens in Return to Worship