In Revelation 1:9-10, John, the writer of the book, explained that he was exiled to the island of Patmos for the word of the Lord and the testimony of Jesus. He wrote, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” The writer did not explain to the churches what day that was. We must assume that all the churches to which he wrote understood and knew what that day was.
There is a sense in which one might refer to any day of the week as “the Lord’s Day” because the psalmist wrote, “The day is thine; the night also is thine” (Psalm 74:16). However, it was not of a day in this sense of which John wrote. He wrote of a specific day, a day to which the Asian churches would immediately understand. He did not say, “I was in the Spirit on a Lord’s Day” — he said, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” This was a specific, definite day.
Peter referred to a certain day when he wrote, “The day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night” but it was not to this day of which John wrote. The day Peter wrote of has not yet come; it will come when we are not expecting it and when it comes the “heavens and earth will pass away with a great noise” (2 Peter 3:10). Had that been the day John had in mind, he would not have been writing Revelation because that day is the end of all days.
Others identify Saturday as “the Lord’s Day.” These cite the many times in which Paul and his company entered certain cities and on the Sabbath Day looked for Jewish believers in that place. However, that does not prove that the Sabbath is the “Lord’s Day” John wrote about. The Sabbath day was (is) the Jewish day of worship and if Paul was going to preach to a Jewish audience he would find them in the synagogue on that day. He might find them there perhaps on other days, but that was not certain. However, he knew certainly he would find Jews to preach to in their synagogue on the Sabbath. We know without doubt that the Sabbath is not “the Lord’s Day” of Revelation 1:10. The Sabbath was part of the law which was nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14) and to which law even Jews are now dead (Romans 7:4). The Gentiles were never under that law. Paul warned the Colossian Christians to let no man judge them in meat or in drink or in “respect of a feast day, or of a new moon, or a sabbath day” (Colossians 2:16). Paul warned us that if we accept circumcision (and thus the law), Christ is of no benefit to us because we are “fallen away from grace” (Galatians 5:4).
Since the Lord’s day is not just any day (Psalm 74:16), the day when Jesus returns and destroys the world, nor the Sabbath day, what day is “the Lord’s Day”? The seven churches of Asia all knew and every other church of Jesus knew too. If they knew, so can we.
“The Lord’s Day” is the day when Christians in Troas assembled to worship, the first day of the week. Acts 20:7 states that “upon the first day of the work when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.” The disciples in Troas were regularly meeting on the first day of the week to worship; specifically, to break bread. The expression “break bread” is a reference to keeping the Lord’s Supper, the memorial supper Jesus instituted and commanded His disciples to keep in His memory (1 Corinthians 11:23-25). Not only did the disciples in Troas meet on the first day of the week to break bread, disciples in Corinth were also meeting on that day to break bread (1 Corinthians 11:20). In this latter passage Paul told the disciples when they gathered together to eat the Lord’s Supper they could not do so — not because it was not the day that was set aside for them to do so — but because of the abuse they were making of the supper. The day when they were assembling together was the first day (1 Corinthians 16:1-2). Another part of our worship is to contribute to the work Jesus commanded His church to do, and we learn from 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 that the day the disciples were giving was the first day of the week. From 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, we know that Galatian churches had been given the same commandments the Corinthian church was given. Thus, Galatian churches were observing the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week, just as they were contributing on that day.
The Lord’s day is Sunday, the first day, because that was the day Jesus was raised from the dead, giving us a living hope by His own resurrection (John 20:1; 1 Peter 1:3-4). Our inheritance is incorruptible, undefiled, and one that does not fade away, and is reserved in heaven for us.
The Lord’s day is the first day of the week, Sunday, because that was the day that the Lord’s church (which was purchased by His blood) began. The beginning of the church is recorded in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit fell as Joel the prophet had predicted (Joel 2:28-32). The apostles were in Jerusalem where Isaiah the prophet had said it would be (Isaiah 2:1-4). It was in the days of “these kings” (the Roman Empire), just as Daniel had prophesied it would (Daniel 2:44-45), the day in which Peter used the “keys to the kingdom” as Jesus had promised that he would (Matthew 16:18-20). It was on that day that Peter told inquiring sinners what they must do to be saved (Acts 2:38-39). It was the day that people were added to the church for the first time, (Acts 2:47) and the day which Peter called “the beginning” (Acts 11:15). The day it began on was Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4), and Pentecost always fell on the first day, Sunday.
A New Covenant, promised by God (Jeremiah 31:31-34), included a new blood, a new law, a new feast, a new people, and a new day. John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day — the first of the week. That day was the day that disciples in Troas met (Acts 20:7), the churches in Corinth and Galatia met (1 Corinthians 11:20; 16:1-4), the day John was “in the Spirit” (Revelation 1:10), and the day that Christians meet to worship today. Jesus, not a Roman Caesar or the Pope, changed the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday.
Of course, Sunday is not the only day that disciples may study and preach the Word, sing, and pray (James 5:17-18). However, two items of our worship are confined to that day: the Lord’s Supper and our contributions to promote the gospel of Christ. When Christians meet on the first day of the week today, they follow the footsteps of early disciples in Troas, Corinth, Galatia, and Patmos. It is a special day. It is the Lord’s day.
Jim McDonald