Why Do We Worship on Sunday?

Why did God “rest” on the seventh day? Was He really tired from all that work of creating? The seventh day was set aside as a holy day so that man’s week would culminate in a designated time for rest from work. It was to be a time of complete focus on God, and communion with Him. Exodus 20:8 declares, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

God desires to commune with us every day, but He intentionally set aside the seventh day, the Sabbath, as a day dedicated exclusively for this activity. That’s why we gather each Saturday for worship, right? Uh oh…Saturday is not our designated day for gathering to commune with God? But, God said that we should remember the Sabbath day…and Genesis 2, and Exodus 20, among other passages, instruct us that this day was the seventh day. Why, then, do we gather on Sunday? This article will suggest several answers to this important question. Why do we gather for corporate worship on Sunday instead of Saturday?

First, let’s examine what the New Testament teaches us about the earliest Christian worship gatherings. I think you will see that there is Scriptural Evidence that early Church met on Sundays. Acts 20:7 says, “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.” In 1 Corinthians 16:2, Paul wanted to collect an offering from the church at Corinth. He asked them to gather the money on the "first day of the week." In Revelation 1:10, the apostle John said that he was, "in the Spirit on the Lord's Day." Most scholars have inferred from this verse that John was referring to Sunday. We often call Sunday "the Lord's Day" and this term for Sunday, it is believed, comes from John’s statement in Revelation 1:10.

Here are three pieces of evidence from the first few centuries of the Church. In the "Didache" a first century church manual, we find, "But every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure." In the early part of the second century, Ignatius of Antioch wrote his "Epistle to the Ephesians" describing Christians with a Jewish background as those who “have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in observance of the Lord's Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death.” Justin Martyr, writing in the middle of the second century said that, “On the day we call the day of the sun (Sunday), all who dwell in the city or country gather in the same place (to worship).”

These passages of Scripture and examples from the fledgling Church, strongly suggest and establish that the Church gathered on Sunday to worship. But, the question remains, “Why did they meet on Sundays?” What changed?

The Early Church described it in two words: "Divine Recapitulation." This is an amazing truth and answers perfectly our question concerning Sunday worship. Divine Recapitulation goes like this…God began creation on Sunday, the first day, and finished creation in six days. Then, He rested on the seventh day. The Church has long taught that the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday was to be considered the eighth day. God created from Sunday to Friday and rested on Saturday. Jesus was crucified on Friday, and was resurrected on Sunday…the eighth day! On this day, God, through the atoning work of Jesus, recreated! Behold, in Christ, all things have become new. The curse of Adam has been reversed by the New Adam. The Garden has been restored in Christ. Paradise has been reborn and morning has broken! 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

Why do we worship on Sunday? Because that is the day of Jesus’ Resurrection! This was the practice of the early believers as they gathered to break bread on the first day of the week. This has been the practice of the Church for twenty centuries. The connection to Jesus’ resurrection and the theological truths of the Divine Recapitulation should not be minimized. When we gather on Sunday we are proclaiming to the world, “We believe in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.” There are churches today who say it doesn’t matter when we worship, as long as we worship sometime. If there is an unavoidable scheduling conflict, then this is understandable. I pray that we will always cherish the God given Tradition of gathering for worship on the Lord’s Day, the first day…or the eighth day…the day of the Sun, Sunday!