Today friends, I’m going to make a very bold statement. And I ask you friends, not to leave, not to turn me off please, until you’ve heard me out.
The statement I’m about to make is so bold that it would exclude me from ever again speaking in the pulpits of almost every Christian church on the face of the earth.
The statement is, that, …
Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus, or His disciples suggest that we should keep Sunday as a holy day. The churches know it, but they don’t preach it.
I have a little booklet here called ….
Where various churches own up to the fact that Saturday, or the Sabbath, is God’s holy day and Sunday is an ordinary work day and nothing more. As I thumb through the pages I notice statement after statement written by the different churches to back up what we are saying today. There are statements by the …
Baptists, Catholics, Churches of Christ, Church of England, Congregationalists, Lutherans, Methodists, Moody Bible Institute, Mormons, Presbyterians, Dictionaries, Encyclopaedias, Historical statements, even the Infidels, and several miscellaneous quotes from other writers. Feel free to download a copy of that 30 Page booklet, ‘Authoritative Quotations on the Sabbath and Sunday’ from the SABBATH section of this website.
Yes the churches know it, but they don’t preach it. They say …
“Yes, we know Sunday is not a holy day, but we’re not going to preach it. Let the sleeping dog lie.”
Today friends, using God’s word, and God’s word alone, I am going to use the eight texts in the New testament that speak about ‘Sunday’ or ‘the first day of the week’.
There are eight of them, and only eight, and we’re going to examine every one. Please hear me out...
We’re going to examine all of the eight texts in the New Testament regarding the ‘first day’ of the week, Sunday. Here we go. Some years ago, a Bible researcher by the name of Frank Breaden, painted … this picture that he called THE SUNDAY TEMPLE.
He explained that this Sunday Temple is held up by nine pillars. Each pillar is a Bible text. The first eight pillars represent the eight Bible texts in the New Testament that people use to support the idea that Christians should observe Sunday as a sacred day.
The last pillar, the ninth pillar, is the verse in Revelation chapter one and verse ten that people say shows that Sunday, the first day of the week, is the Lord’s day.
As we study these nine verses in the New Testament, these nine pillars that hold up the Sunday Temple, the question is, “Will this Sunday Temple stand, or will it fall?”
It’s interesting that for more than a hundred years, individuals have offered thousands of dollars to anyone who can find a verse in the New Testament that says Sunday is the day that Jesus and our heavenly Father want us to set aside to worship them on. Let’s see if we can claim that money.
The first pillar in the Sunday Temple is Matthew 28:1. What does the disciple Matthew say, …
“Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the tomb.”
This verse simply tells us that in the early hours of the first day of the week, after the Sabbath was past, some friends of Jesus came to visit His tomb.
So does it tell us that the first day of the week that we call Sunday today is a holy day, or the Sabbath day, or the Lord’s Day? No, it simply makes it clear that the first day of the week, Sunday, is not the seventh day, the Sabbath, or Saturday as we call it today. ….
Now the second pillar in the Sunday Temple is Mark 16:2. What does it say? We’ll read verse 1 as well.
Here, the disciple Mark is recording the same visit to the tomb as Matthew did in the previous verse. This verse is simply a historical record. It simply tells us that the Sabbath has passed and the first day of the week has arrived.
Is it a command to keep Sunday holy? No! Is it a new Sabbath, or the Lord’s Day? No!
So these first two texts or pillars certainly haven’t done a very good job of supporting the Sunday Temple. Now what about the third Bible text, the third pillar?
It’s the disciple Mark speaking again in his book. The verse is in Mark 16:9 and it’s about Jesus rising from the tomb on Sunday morning.
Mark 16:9 “Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.”
This too is simply a historical statement of fact, recording the resurrection of Jesus and His appearance to Mary Magdalene.
There is no mention here of the first day of the week being holy, or the Lord’s Day, or a new Sabbath day. Nor is there any suggestion to keep it holy because Jesus rose from the grave on that day.
Let’s follow this verse a little further. We’re going to add the very next verses. ….
Many church pastors try to tell their members that the disciples were meeting on that Sunday in honour of His resurrection. Well that’s completely dishonest, because the disciples thought He was still dead. They were mourning and weeping. …
So three pillars of the Sunday Temple have collapsed.
Now what about the next pillar, the fourth pillar in the Sunday Temple? It’s Luke speaking here in his book, chapter 24 and verse 1.
We’ll get to chapter 24 and verse 1 soon, but before that we’ll read a few verses that lead up to it in chapter 23. We’ll start with …
(Just a little bit earlier than this, in verses 50 to 52, it tells us about this very good man called Joseph, who was a member of the church council. He had not been in favour of the church’s decision to crucify Jesus. He went to Pilate to ask for the dead body of Jesus. Now Luke 23:53-56.)
“Now on the first day of the week (that’s Sunday according to Today’s English Version and several other translations of the Bible. “Now on the first day of the week,) very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.”
Now friends, that brings up another interesting point. … A huge number of churches teach that when Jesus died, the Ten Commandments, including the fourth one about remembering the Sabbath day and keeping it holy, were all done away with and nailed to the cross.
Well Jesus had died, and these followers of His had never heard that the fourth commandment about the Sabbath had been done away with! The verses we just read said that after Jesus had died, His followers rested on the Sabbath day according to the commandment.
So these followers of Jesus, as we also say we are, rested on Saturday, the Sabbath, and then got up very early on Sunday morning to embalm the dead body of Jesus. …
According to the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:8-11, Saturday, the Sabbath, was, and always will be, God’s holy day. So even though Jesus was put into the tomb on Friday afternoon, and they had bought and prepared the spices on Friday afternoon, they waited till after the Sabbath was over, and went very early on Sunday morning, a normal work day according to the Bible, to embalm His body. So had the Sabbath day of rest been changed to Sunday the first day of the week? No!
Every Christian knows that Jesus died on Good Friday, rested in the grave on Easter Saturday, and rose up from the grave early in the morning on Easter Sunday. Does Friday become a holy day because Jesus died on Good Friday? Not according to the Bible.
Does every Thursday become holy because Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper on that day? Not according to the Bible. And nor does Sunday become a holy day because Jesus rose from the grave on that day. (Friends,) If Jesus had wanted us to keep Sunday holy, He would have told us to keep it holy, just like He told us to keep the Sabbath holy.
Friends, this Sunday Temple is getting a bit unstable. The first four pillars have collapsed. So what about the next pillar, the fifth pillar? This one’s in the book that John wrote, in …
“Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.”
This verse is simply a repeat of the earlier verses. Here again, the first day, Sunday, is not called holy, or the Lord’s day, or the Sabbath day, or any other day. It was simply noted here as a historical fact.
Now just an interesting observation in the Bible – none of the days of the week were named except two very important days, ‘Preparation’ and ‘Sabbath’. All the rest were only numbered. A long time after the Bible was written, the pagan Romans named the seven days after the gods they worshipped.
Friends, the first five verses we have read, representing the first five pillars of the Sunday temple, do show us some interesting points. …
On the other hand, the verses do show that Christ’s disciples treated the first day as a common working day, for they were prepared to embalm His body on the first day, a task which they declined to perform on the Sabbath.
Our next pillar to support Sunday observance is the sixth pillar of the Sunday Temple. And it’s John chapter 20 and verse 19. …
“Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ “
Does this verse say that the first day (Sunday) is a holy day, or the Sabbath day, or the Lord’s Day? No!
Some people say they were keeping Sunday in honour of His resurrection. Well we already noticed that they didn’t believe He had risen. We read earlier in Mark 16:9-14 about the same meeting. They couldn’t honour what they didn’t believe. No, …
The reason why the disciples were assembled there behind closed doors was, ‘for fear of the Jews’. They were not there for faith and devotion, but for unbelief and fear.
Well back to the pillars that hold up the Sunday Temple. The first six have collapsed.
Now what about the next pillar, the seventh pillar, Acts 20:7? In fact we’ll read a few more verses to see the whole story. We’re going to read from verse 6 right through to verse 13 in Acts chapter 20. …
Back in Bible times, when a day was measured from sunset to sunset, we notice in these verses that it was a night meeting and they had lights on as we see in verses 7 and 8. The older Bible translations say it was the first day of the week (Sunday) which is correct, because it was after sunset on Saturday night.
Some of today’s modern paraphrase versions of the Bible say it was Saturday night which is also correct because that’s how we would say it today. You will see all of that more clearly in the programme ‘A Day to Remember’ in the SABBATH section of this website.
Now here’s a very good question. “Why were these people assembled on the first day of the week?” …
PP It’s interesting, that Luke, who wrote this book of Acts, recorded eighty-four Sabbath services after Christ’s ascension back to heaven, and yet he recorded only one first day meeting, which is recorded in the very verse we just read in Acts 20:7.
You’ll see the record of those 84 Sabbaths in the programme titled ‘A Day to Remember’. You can go to Acts chapters 17 and 18 and count them up yourself, where Paul was speaking to both the Jews and the Greeks on the Sabbath.
So the question again is, why were Paul and his friends assembled on this one-off first day of the week?
Firstly, there is no record anywhere in the New Testament scriptures that any of the Christians had regular meetings on Sundays. Sabbath yes! - But not Sundays.
Secondly, one of the purposes of this meeting was to bid Paul farewell.
Thirdly, the fact that these disciples came together to break bread didn’t make it a holy day because in …
(we read about the followers of Jesus, that)
“… continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, …”
The simpler Good News Bible says it this way in Acts2:46 …
“Day after day they met as a group in the temple, and they had their meals together in their homes, eating with glad and humble hearts.”
These verses don’t suggest any more than regular community meals where they ate together several times a week. Breaking bread does not make a day holy and nor is there any suggestion here that the first day (Sunday) was being kept as a holy day.
If breaking bread could make a day holy, then the last Supper on the Thursday night before Jesus died would make Thursday a holy day.
Friends, we can’t decide to make a particular day holy. Only a holy God can make a day holy. So let’s get back to the ‘first day’ text in Acts 20:7 … We’re starting again at...
We’ve already covered verses 6 and 7 where Paul continued speaking until midnight. Then verses 8-10 tell the story about how the young man called Eutychus went to sleep in the window opening where they were gathered on the third story. He fell out the window and was taken up dead. Paul went down and performed a miracle and the young man lived.
Sunday was one of the six working days but the Sabbath of course was, and still is, God’s special day that He has asked us to set aside to honour Him. Now what did Paul do on Sunday, the first day of the week? Luke tells us in that same Acts 20 and verse 13 where he says…
“Then we went ahead to the ship and sailed to Assos, there intending to take Paul on board; for so he had given orders, intending himself to go on foot.”
So some of them went the long way round the cape in the ship. Paul decided to take the shorter route, by foot, walking straight across the cape on the path from Troas to Assos. It’s a distance of 32 kilometres.
Paul was a devout Jewish Christian and there’s no way that he would walk that far on the Sabbath. But he was happy to do that 32 kilometre walk on Sunday, a normal work day.
Alright, I think we’ve spent enough time on Acts 20:7, the seventh pillar of the Sunday Temple. Here’s come the eighth reference to Sunday, the first day of the week. 1 Corinthians 16:2. We’ll read verse one also.
Now it’s interesting what it says in the Catholic Catechism.
Question: “Why do we observe Sunday?”
Answer: “Because the early Christian church observed the first day. See 1 Corinthians 16:2”
Well friends, there is no mention whatsoever in verse 2 of Sunday keeping or a church service.
Paul had asked the Galatian Christians, and now the Christians at Corinth, to put some money aside for what we might call a special ‘Judean Relief Appeal’. Due to persecution and famine, the Christians around the Jerusalem area were really struggling.
Friends there is no mention here of Sunday-keeping. In the New World Translation (it reads,) “… set aside at home” (which would mean that they didn’t give this money at church.)
The Greek meaning for this is, “lay by him in store”
To use this text as proof of regular Sunday-keeping by all the early Christians, or as legislation for Sunday observance for all future Christians, is to go far beyond the evidence contained in this text.
The eight Sunday text pillars that hold up the Sunday Temple have collapsed, and there is only one more text that people use in an attempt to support Sunday keeping. --- Revelation 1:10.
Let’s look at that text. The disciple John is speaking here and he says:
“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, …”
This solitary text is the one and only reference to ‘the Lord’s Day’ in the Bible. This is the text that many Sunday-going Christians regard as the key-witness for Sunday sacredness.
It certainly does show that the Lord has a day. But does it say which day is the Lord’s day? No, not at all!
Only man-made church creeds say that the Lord’s day is Sunday.
Sunday as the Lord’s day is found nowhere in God’s Holy Scriptures.
The Bible gives us positive proof that Sunday sacredness has no place whatsoever in the example or teachings of Jesus.
The Bible has shown us today that the long-time custom of Sunday observance has not got a single shred of scriptural foundation.
The only foundation it has ever had is ‘Tradition’ which is another name for ‘the commandments of men’, which Jesus spoke about in Matthew 15, verses 3, 8 and 9. Let’s read it. Here Jesus was addressing the very same problem of the church leaders in His day.
The Sunday Temple is not based on God’s Word. The Sunday Temple is based on man-made TRADITION.
Friends, a huge percentage of Sunday-keeping pastors know the facts that I have presented today, but why don’t they tell their people the truth?
The answer is found in the book titled …
“… it is exceedingly difficult for many contemporary pastors to acknowledge the lack of scriptural support for their office simply because they are financially dependent upon it. As Upton Sinclair once said, ‘It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.’ ”
Well friends, after all that, I want to say that…
God does have a special day that’s known in the Bible as the Lord’s day, and it’s not Sunday, the first day of the week.
Let’s look at some verses. In Genesis 2:1-3 we read these words about the end of creation week.
Friends, the Sabbath is ‘God’s holy day’, the ‘holy day of the Lord’.
People who misquote Revelation 1:10 about Sunday being the Lord’s Day, dishonestly use that verse to uphold man-made church traditions and not God’s holy truth.
Next verse!
(this is God Himself speaking in His Ten Commandments)
The word ‘hallowed’ means, made holy. Not Sunday, but the Sabbath, is God’s holy day. The Sabbath is the Lord’s day. But you might say, “I keep the first day of the week, Sunday, in honour of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.”
Friends, so would I, if He asked me to. “But if I don’t keep Sunday in honour of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, then what will I do?”
Well it’s not Sunday, but the Lord’s Supper that is divinely appointed for that. In fact, many, many of the communion tables in churches have the words of 1 Corinthians 11:24 engraved along their fronts. … DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.
In fact, the Bible doesn’t even tell us on which day we should have the communion service. It simply says in …
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”
So we can have a communion service every day if we want to.
Friends, the Sunday Temple, as we have seen, is not held up by God’s word in the holy Scriptures, but by the traditions of men.
Again, as Jesus said in …
Friends, these verses weren’t just written for the church leaders 2,000 years ago, they were written for us today! It’s serious to trample on God’s Word. It’s serious to trample on God’s Sabbath.
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
What will it be friends?
--- If we love Him, we will keep His commandments.
--- Is it fair then to suggest that if we don’t keep His commandments that we don’t really love Him like we should?
--- I think so!
--- Just a little further down in that very same chapter, Jesus continued with these words also …
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is He who loves Me. And He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love Him and manifest (which means make known) Myself to him...
Do you see that? These verses are stating that the commandments of Jesus and the commandments of God the Father, are one and the same. There are not two sets of commandments – only one set – the Ten Commandments, which includes the fourth one that says, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.”
Think about this verse …
“Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, when you refuse to do what I say?”
It’s a good question? And it’s a question that Jesus asks you and me too. ….
Friends, I absolutely believe that this is a salvation issue.
Jesus says in Matthew 12:30, “He that is not with Me is against Me.”
Here, the old artist Frank Breaden has depicted these same points ….
TRUTH or TRADITION ?
What will it be friends, Truth or Tradition? Choose you this day!
Will you stand with Jesus, and the Bible, with those who keep the commandments of God?
Or will you stand on man-made Traditions with those who keep the commandments of men?
“He that is not with Me … is against Me.”
Friends, Jesus Christ died for us. Are we going to stand on His side?
--- Perhaps there is a strange conflict going on in your mind. New truth struggling with old tradition. You and I must choose between two great systems, the religion of man or the religion of Jesus.
--- In the Old Testament friends, there are the words of Joshua. In a time of great spiritual crisis, after presenting the truth to the people, he turned to those people and he said, in …
“You need to choose today who you will serve. (Then he went on to say) I know what I’m going to do. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Friends, in view of these truths that cannot be contradicted, I pray today, that you will say, with all those who gave us their example in the Bible, that, “As for me and my house, by God’s grace, we will serve the Lord.”
Loving Father and Almighty God, what man can deny the truthfulness of Your word? Here is evidence for the most cynical and the most sceptical if he comes with an open mind to Your Word.
Today, we want to tell You that by Your grace and with Your help, we’re going to follow You. Even though it’s an unpopular course, we’re going to follow Your Word, and we’re going to follow Jesus who carried His cross to Calvary for us.
Dear Father, as we’re praying here with our heads bowed in Your presence, perhaps there are some here who will say with me, ‘By God’s grace, I’m going to follow Jesus and truth.’ Can you join me in that prayer friend? ---- ‘By God’s grace, I want to follow Jesus. I want to follow truth.’ God bless you.
Dear Father, bless these dear people. Bless the upraised hearts and save us when Jesus comes, because we have not followed man-made traditions, but we have followed Jesus and the Bible, out of our growing love for You Father, and Jesus. Amen.
Friends, if you have been blessed and challenged by this message, then please take time now to send it on to your friends.
Thank you.
Thank You,
Ray Archer
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