Rev. 1:10
It was the Lord’s Day, and I was worshiping in the Spirit. Suddenly, I heard a
loud voice behind me, a voice that sounded like a trumpet blast.
Some time back
I heard a word from my Pastor Dr. Mark Barclay talking about digging out the
wells of our fathers. Back in the days of Abraham, who is called the “father of
faith”, he had dug many wells to provide the water they needed to sustain them.
The Philistines had come along and filled those wells back up with dirt. Isaac
then came and dug out those wells that his father had dug to once again to provide
life-giving water that was needed to sustain them.
We have many
great “fathers of the faith” who have studied the Word of God and walked with
God for years who learned very valuable truths about how we can develop and
maintain our walk with Him. It seems that many, like the Philistines, have now
come along and worked at filling up those wells. For example, every great father
of faith would tell you of the importance of honoring God on the Lord’s Day.
But many today don’t believe it is that important. In fact they think that
those who talk about such things are being “legalistic”.
My friends,
there is a difference between being legalistic and being true to God and His
Word. There seems to be a lot of emphasis today that the Bible is not that
important, and some say it is no longer relevant for today. The fact is the
Bible can never replace our walk with God, but nor should our Bible be replaced
with other things, for God’s Word and what it teaches helps us to develop our
walk with Him. God and His Word are one.
One of the
truths that the fathers before us knew was the power that comes from honoring
the Lord’s Day. It was never intended by God to be a bondage to man, but a
great blessing to man. Man did not come up with the idea of the Lord’s Day; it
was the Lord Himself that made this day special. As we are coming up on
resurrection Sunday, it was on this special day that Jesus was raised from the
dead and it was after this that the first day of the week on which He was
resurrected became known as the Lord’s Day.
Now just like
man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man, so is it that the
Lord’s Day was made for man; to be a blessing to him and to help him draw
closer to God and to grow in his relationship with Him. This week I want to
cover this subject of “The Lord’s Day”. It is something that when understood
will become an even great blessing to your life. Just as our fathers in the
faith who walked closely with God knew the importance of honoring this day, I
believe it is time for us to examine what they knew from the scriptures about
this subject that they walked in and became great men and women of God. So let’s
get our shovels out and start digging.
In our
foundation text this week we see a direct reference from John about the Lord’s
Day. He had been banished at the time to the island of Patmos for preaching the
gospel. John even while exiled still honored the Lord’s Day as we see in
Revelation 1:10 that he was worshipping God in the Spirit on this first day of
the week. The establishment of this day came about through the disciples seeing
Jesus raised from the dead on Sunday. He appeared to them as they were all
gathered together for fear of the Jews. From this time onward they recognized
in honor of the resurrection of Christ that this day would be the Lord’s Day.
It simply means a day belonging to the Lord.
Now remember
the purpose for God acknowledging this through what we see the disciples doing
was not to put man in bondage to some kind of rule or regulation. The disciples
were so grateful for what Christ had done for them that this day was set aside
as a day that belonged to the Lord. They would give Him the first day of the
week by coming together to worship God and be taught the Word of God. We see
this then carried out in the book of Acts.
Acts 20:7
And on the first day of the week, when we were assembled together to break
bread [the Lord’s Supper], Paul discoursed with them, intending to leave the
next morning; and he kept on with his message until midnight.
Here we see
the disciples on the first day of the week, Sunday, assembled together to break
bread (receive communion), and to hear the Word of God preached, which in this
case happened to be the apostle Paul sharing the Word of God with them. First
notice that they are assembled on the Lord’s Day. Hebrews 10:25 tells us that
we are not to forsake assembling together. Some say they don’t forsake doing so
because they fellowship with other believers. But assembling together and
gathering together are two different things. The word assembling means with all
the leadership and the body present.
Here in Acts
20 we find out that this day of assembling was to be on the first day of the
week, which John called the Lord’s Day. So in honor of Jesus and what He had
done for them the disciples gave to the Lord the first day of each week as a
time to honor Him through worship, praise, communion, and the preaching of the
Word of God. By the way did you notice how long this service here in Acts 20
went? Paul preached until midnight. Pretty long church service.
So we clearly
see that this is the design of God that He provided as a way for us to come
together with not just a few believers present, but all the leadership as well;
and it would be a time of honoring the Lord. Going to God’s house for many
becomes a bondage to them for several reasons. First of all if you are not
hearing God’s Word preached, but instead just man’s ideas and theories, you are
not going to grow in faith. John was worshipping the Lord in the Spirit, so if
you don’t allow the work of the Holy Spirit in your church you are going to be
missing another very important element of blessing for the church. Another
reason God’s house becomes a bondage to people is because they like others God
speaks of in the Word say they love God, but their hearts are far from Him. God
wants our hearts.
Is. 58:13 If you
stop trampling on the day of worship and doing as you please on my
holy day, if you call the day of worship a delight and the Lord’s holy day
honorable, if you honor it by not going your own way, by not going out
when you want, and by not talking idly,
Is. 58:14 then you
will find joy in the Lord. I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. I
will feed you with the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob. The Lord has spoken.
Here in
Isaiah we have some powerful verses that we can glean from about what is
promised for those who do not trample on the day of worship, but instead
recognize it as a holy day, a day set apart to honor the Lord. I want to share
with you some powerful things that are revealed here about how we can honor the
Lord’s Day and what it will mean to those who do. Remember we don’t have to do
this we get to. Sure we will miss church at times, but if our heart is set on
Him coming to church will be something we look forward to.
1. Don’t
forsake assembling as the church.
To stop
trampling on the day of worship means we don’t go and choose to do what we
please, but instead we come together to worship our God and grow in our
relationship with Him. We also grow in the knowledge of His truth that will
bring liberty to our lives.
2. Call the
Lord’s Day a delight.
This means
we should look forward to Sunday’s to come to God’s house and get all that God
has for us, and allow Him to use us in our gifts and abilities to bless our
church family. Image how different the body of Christ would be if the Lord’s
Day became the day they look forward to each week.
3. Make it
a holy day – honor the Lord.
The Word
holy means to set apart. To honor the Lord on this day we do so by setting that
day apart unto Him to come and be blessed by the Lord. It isn’t holy if we
choose to do our own thing and not come to honor Him.
4. Don’t
come with your own agenda.
When we
come to God’s house we should come with no agenda. We should come with hungry
hearts and thirsty souls for God wanting to be refreshed in His presence and
hear from our God what He wants to say to us.
5. Don’t be
focused on yourself, walk by faith not by sight.
Come and
learn from Him and learn of Him, which is learning to walk by faith and not by
sight. We are not going out when we want; we are learning to live life His way,
which is a life of faith.
6. Come and
get God’s Word on your lips.
We not only
come to hear and apply what God has for our life, but we also come to hear what
He says about us and then begin to say the same thing. Our words have a lot to
do with our future and we come to get His Word in us so we can speak it over
our life and see it work for us.
If we do
what verse 13 above says there are three very powerful things that verse 14
tells us will happen. Remember coming to God’s house should be a delight to us.
If it is not then we need to examine our hearts for if we truly love Him we
will desire to be in His house. The benefits revealed in verse 14 are: 1. You
will develop a close relationship with God. 2. You will rise above your
enemies. 3. You will learn to walk in your God-given inheritance.
One who
finds their joy in the Lord has that joy in Him and not other things because
they have become very close to Him. This is referring to our close walk with
God. To ride on the heights of the earth is to rise above your enemies, which
we have promise of through Jesus Christ. And we will walk in our rightful
inheritance as given to us through Jesus and the blood He shed.
Remember
you don’t have to honor the Lord’s Day you get to. If we don’t have a desire to
do so our desires are on other things than God. He did not make this as a
bondage to man, but a great blessing. I have come to love the Lord’s Day, for
being in God’s house all these years has brought great blessing to my life, and
brought me closer and closer to Him. I pray you search your heart and realize
the great blessing in honoring this day. When done right you will never regret
it.
See You Again
Next Week For More “Weekly Wisdom”
May God’s Best
Be Yours!
Pastor Darryl
Baker
