Why We Worship on Sunday

“Why do we keep the Sabbath on Sunday rather than Saturday?”  This has to be in the top ten FAQ’s I get as a pastor.  Aren’t Christians bound to the Ten Commandments?  The fourth commandment – “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy” – clearly states that the “seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord” (Exodus 20:10).  So why don’t we go to church on the seventh day (Saturday) rather than the first day (Sunday)?

A couple of weekends ago, I was in Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, where my son Alex is in enrolled in a maritime studies program.  For one event, all the students and their families gathered in the building of an old Seventh-Day Baptist church, which at one time was the only house of worship in that little village.  The Seventh-Day Baptists trace their roots to early 17^th century England.  They split from other English Baptists over their conviction that by moving the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, Christians were in violation of God’s laws.  The first Seventh-Day Baptist church in America was founded in Newport, Rhode Island, not far from Mystic.

So do the Seventh-Day Baptists have a point?  Yes, but I believe they are also missing the larger point.  Let’s remember why early Christians adopted a new

Sabbath in the first place.  Christ was raised from the dead on a Sunday.  Immediately, it became the practice of his followers to come together for prayers and worship every Sunday.  In the early years of the church, most followers of Christ were Jews who continued their custom of Sabbath observance from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, and then worshiped again on Sunday in honor of the resurrection.  As Christianity spread and outgrew its Jewish roots, more and more of its followers were Gentiles who had never worshiped on Saturday, but from the time they joined the church, they were worshiping on Sunday.  It didn’t take long for Sunday to become the “Christian Sabbath.”  For Christians, every Sunday is a “little Easter.”  By worshiping on Sunday, we remind ourselves that the cornerstone of our faith is Christ’s resurrection.

Easter is not limited to one day a year, or even one season of the year.  In a very real sense, we celebrate Easter every week.  With the Christian Sabbath, we keep before us the reality of Christ’s resurrection and his living presence in our midst. 

Yes, as Christians we are bound to the Ten Commandments.  But the fulfillment of those commandments, and all God’s laws, are found in Christ, who declared himself to be “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28).  We look to Christ to understand how to fulfill God’s laws in our own lives – not just in letter but also in spirit.  A thousand generations of Christians have recognized that his resurrection transformed everything, including when and how we worship. 

When we gather for worship on Sunday, we do well to remember just how life-changing the resurrection of Christ was for those early believers.  Easter is not just an annual observance.  It’s a continual reality renewed every Christian Sabbath.

Copyright 2012 by J. Mark Lawson