2025 April news-letter article

Up from the grave He arose,

with a mighty triumph over His foes; He arose a victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign; He arose, He arose, hallelujah Christ arose!!  There are certain songs that we sing around Resurrection Sunday each year.  Some of these (like “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today”) clearly belong around the feast/festival of the Resurrection on the calendar each year.  Others, in my opinion, are fair game to be sung any and every Sunday.  Not everyone shares this opinion with me, but not everyone can be right all the time, haha!  In Acts 19:7, Paul was in the middle of his third missionary journey.  We read that “we (including Dr. Luke)” reached the town of Troas.  “On the first day of the week, we assembled to break bread.”  Scholars debate what bread they were breaking; it could have been a “love feast” (Jude 12) where the church shared a common meal and experienced fellowship.  It could also have been a very explicit reference to observing the Lord’s Supper; it’s also likely that sharing in the Lord’s Supper was part of a larger meal together.  Either way, we know that the church of Troas was gathering to share in brotherly fellowship.  We also read that they heard from Paul.  Was he “preaching”, or was it a round-table discussion?  Either way, like any good preacher, “he extended his message until midnight”!

In the New Testament letters, we find that this gathering on the “first day of the week” became a norm across the Church.  Why?  Because, on “the first day of the week (John 20:1)”, Jesus emptied His own grave!!  For two millennia, Christians have referred to Sunday as “the Lord’s Day”, because that’s the day that made the Good News good.  We could debate the appropriateness of “Good Friday”; it was a day that brought good to mankind, but it most certainly was not a good day for Jesus.  Sunday, however, was a good day by any standard!  It was that day, when sin/death was finally defeated, once and for all!  The Good News, without the resurrection of King Jesus, is just News.  So, it’s the Lord’s Day, and very early on in the New Testament, it became the pattern of the Church to gather on the Lord’s Day to worship together.

I have a friend who has been struggling to reconcile the Old Testament instructions regarding a sabbath day and the New Testament pattern of worship on the Lord’s Day.  To be clear, the principle of a sabbath pre-dates the Old Covenant (Law).  Instructions for food were given in Exodus 16, and they were modeled after the pattern established by the Creator in Genesis 1.  Many of the rules and regulations surrounding sabbath observance are found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, but the idea of rest and worship clearly comes before the Law is received.  If you want to make your day of rest and worship the “sixth day”, as in Saturday, feel free to do so.  We could also debate which day of the week should start the week and what calendar we ought to use, but I digress.  The key here, for us as followers of Jesus, is to take to heart the beauty of the gift of rest, and to rightly practice a life-style of worship.  After all, in Mark 2:27, Jesus reminds the Pharisees that “the sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath.”  Honor God in your home, let your conscience be your guide, and allow for fellow brethren to charitably disagree.

As for our church, so long as I am a pastor here, we shall gather on the Lord’s Day, and lift high the name of Jesus in praise!  We know that He fulfilled the Law and all it’s commands; we know that because of the ministry of our great High Priest, we are not bound to the Law.  We will continue to strive to better appreciate God’s gift of rest; we will continue to strive to better observe a sabbath (regardless of day), accepting God’s gift of rest.  We will continue to exercise worship as a lift-style, and we will celebrate the resurrection of the Christ, each and every Lord’s Day!

Christ the Lord is risen today, sons of men and angels say,
raise your joys and triumphs high, sing ye heavens, and earth reply:
allelujah!
--A.J.