Why do we gather together around the Lord’s table on the Lord’s day to partake of the Lord’s Supper with the Lord’s people? The answer is simple: out of reverence for the Lord in keeping with the Lord’s Book.

Jesus arose from the dead "on the first day of the week" (Luke 24:1,13,21,46). It was exactly forty-nine days later, on a Sunday, that Peter and the other apostles preached the gospel of a crucified Lord who had risen from the dead and was now crowned as the Savior "for you and your children, and for all who are afar off" (Acts 2:39). On this day the church began. One may argue that all of this was happenstance, but the timing of the Lord is more exact than the time clocks of man. In fact, the Lord’s calendar is loaded with much more significance.

A pattern begins to emerge in the pages of the New Testament. From Acts 20:7, we learn that Paul and his company assembled with the church at Troas "on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread" (Acts 20;7). Paul stayed an entire week beforehand in order to be able to meet with the church (20:6), which is all the more surprising since Passover had already passed and he would have to hurry to get to Jerusalem before Pentecost (20:16). Obviously, there was great significance to "the first day of the week" as the day the church assembled.

The church at Corinth "came together... to eat the Lord’s Supper," though there were abuses (I Cor. 11:20 and context). When did they meet? The First Epistle to the Corinthians was written before the events of Acts 20:7. Even still, the apostle Paul writes, "On the first day of every week (kata mian sabbatou), each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income… so that when I come no collections will have to be made" (I Cor. 16:2, NIV). Once again, the "first day of every week" carried special meaning.

In Revelation 1:10, John says, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day (te kuriake hemera). Bauer’s lexicon defines the relevant term, "the Lord’s day... i.e. certainly Sunday (so in modern Greek)" (p. 458). This conclusion is verified in early church history. The Didache instructs, "And on the Lord’s own day (kata kuriaken de kuriou) gather yourselves together and break bread and give thanks... (14:1). In the early second century, Ignatius writes, "If therefore those who lived according to the old practices came to the new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath but living according to the Lord’s day, in which also our life arose through him and his death..." (Magnesians 9). Justin Martyr added, "We all make our assembly in common on the day of the Sun, since it is the first day, on which God changed the darkness and matter and made the world, and Jesus Christ our Savior arose from the dead on the same day. For they crucified him on the day before Saturn’s day, and on the day after (which is the day of the Sun) he appeared to his apostles and taught his disciples these things" (Apology I, 67:7).

Do you honor the first day of the week as the "Lord’s Day"? Can you say the same thing if recreational interests take precedence over the Lord’s Supper?