The Blog

Thoughts and Musings from City of Refuge Church

Sacred Sunday


Sabbath was on Saturday. Synagogue assemblies were on Saturday. Technically, the beginning of Sabbath occurred Friday at sundown and ended Saturday evening at sundown. The Jewish acknowledgement of a 24-hour day began in the evening until the following evening unlike modern times where we often think of the day beginning at sunrise in the morning. This explains why Genesis uses language for the creation of each day as “then there was evening and morning” rather than morning to evening.

Yet, in God’s providence, on the back side of Sabbath Saturday, He chose to be raised from the dead on a Sunday morning. Instead of exiting the tomb on Saturday evening after sundown, after Sabbath was officially over, He waited until Sunday. Obviously, Christ could have appeared to them late on Saturday evening, gathered them up, and walked them to the empty tomb that night or in the morning. But He did not do that. He chose to establish the pinnacle of His redemptive work NOT on Sabbath. There is nowhere that states that the church must worship together on Sundays. Immediately, however, they began to do so (Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2). Although, technically, Sunday was a workday for them. This is why many times a worker, particularly a servant, may have not been able to arrive at the church assembly on time. It also meant that the meeting time may have often been later in the day.

God chose to make Sundays a sacred time. There is no day more special than another in the New Covenant though. Sundays are not actually the new Saturday or the new Sabbath. The Christ followers chose to meet to commemorate the Lord, remember and celebrate His work, on Sunday just as the disciples met together immediately after learning of the resurrection on that first Sunday. Even Christ appeared multiple times to the disciples on a Sunday (John 20:19, 26). It is as if, when the modern Christ followers gather, they remember that it was this day of the week (Sunday) that the Lord burst out of the tomb, out of death, and that He pointed forward to it when instituting Communion to be partaken by the church.

By doing this, God made Sunday a sacred time for His new people to gather. Again, it does not mean they cannot gather on another day or that His followers worship Him with less energy and devotion on other days. Consider, though, He knew before time began that the resurrection would not occur on a Monday or Tuesday and that His church of all types of people in multiple nations over thousands of years would make Sunday a sacred day of meeting.

In many countries over the last two thousand years that Christ following has been acceptable, Sundays have been culturally cherished and consecrated for the church to set aside work and busyness to worship. Now, however, many of those countries do not make Sundays culturally sacred anymore. In nations where Christianity is not generally tolerated, the Christ followers labor to meet together knowing that their kinsmen will not make it easy for them to gather. Sometimes in places where worshipping Christ is acceptable, worshippers may have to walk half a day to be with other worshippers. Sundays are typically that day.

In the West, we need to make Sundays sacred again. We cannot wait for legislation, we cannot expect the grocery stores and businesses to acquiesce, and we cannot isolate ourselves with excuses that mostly center on our own comfort. There are times people are called into work, or get sick, have a newborn, and other legitimate reasons why individuals may not be able to gather with the body of Christ on a Sunday every now and then.

Christ died to form a nation, a people, the church of all nationalities, ethnicities, and backgrounds. We can worship individually each day but often there is only one day that we can gather corporately. Christ died for the whole church collectively not just individuals. In a way, we are made for each other, or even “saved” for each other. We do not have to like each other but we are commanded to love each other. It is loving each other, brothers and sisters in Christ, that the world will know we take Him seriously (John 13:35). How can we do that if we do not even know each other because we are not WITH each other.

Fight to be with the local gathering of the church. Fight for unity. Fight for love. Love of the body of Christ and the corporate gathering even when it is inconvenient and uncomfortable. Fight to make the Sunday assembly a top priority. It was a priority to Christ and His disciples. We can talk all day about the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, and we should, but we are supposed to talk about it together. There is not going to be a “together” if we do not take the Sunday gathering seriously. Consider how Good Friday points to the gathering on Sunday. We must make Sundays sacred again for the sake of Christ.