Strict Sabbatarians (e.g. Seventh-Day Adventists), who believe the Old Covenant commandment hallowing Saturday as the weekly Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-12) is yet in effect, insist Saturday is the Lord's Day. They also teach that faithful Christians taught the same until Constantine, emperor of Rome, sanctioned Sunday as a holy day early in the fifth century. They are wrong.

In the preceding message we observed: 1. The Lord's Day is Sunday, the first day of the week. This was confirmed without dissent in the writings of contemporaries of the apostles and other early church fathers, including Barnabas (thought by many to be a companion of Paul the apostle), Ignatius (died 98 or 117), Justin Martyr (circa 100-165), and Chrysostom (345[?]-407). These authorities prove Strict Sabbatarians are wrong when they say the early church observed Saturday as the Lord's Day until Constantine, emperor of Rome, sanctioned Sunday as a holy day early in the fifth century. 2. The Lord's Day is the day established by God for commemorating His resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ. It fulfills the prophecy of Psalm 118:22-24 (cp. Matthew 21:42; Acts 4:10f; 1 Peter 2:7f): "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

We now continue.
3. The Lord's Day is the day on which Christian churches assemble for worship. We do so according to the example of the apostles cited in the New Testament. "Now on the first day of the week [Sunday], ... the disciples came together" (Acts 20:7).

We assemble on the Lord's Day, Sunday, the first day of the week, in order to observe those acts peculiar to Christian worship. We "break bread" in the observance of the Lord's Supper and listen to the preaching of God's Word (Acts 20:7), and express our joy for what God has done for us through Jesus Christ (Psalm 118:24), and collect our offerings for the Lord's work (1 Corinthians 16:2), and so forth.

We assemble on the Lord's Day, Sunday, the first day of the week, in the same attitude of John the apostle when he said "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day" (Revelation 1:10). To be "in the Spirit" is to worship under the influence of the Holy Spirit, being filled and led and taught by Him, and enabled by Him to worship and adore Jesus Christ. And to be "in the Spirit" is to worship in a state of elevated spiritual devotion and religious enjoyment.

4. The Lord's Day is not a Christian Sabbath. Semi-Sabbatarians agree with Strict Sabbatarians regarding the present-day obligation to obey the Old Covenant commandment hallowing a weekly Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-12). But Semi-Sabbatarians differ in teaching that the weekly Sabbath has been moved from Saturday to Sunday, thereby establishing Sunday as the Christian Sabbath.

They have no scintilla of Scriptural evidence. Nowhere does the Bible intimate such a changing of days, nor that Sunday is a Sabbath, nor that the apostles observed it as such.

Indeed, the New Testament emphatically teaches otherwise. Sabbath days belonged to Old Covenant times. That covenant has been abrogated and superseded by the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:6-13). Consequently, the Sabbaths of the Old Covenant are to be ignored in these New Covenant times (Colossians 2:16f). And God approves the Christian who "esteems every day alike" (Romans 14:5).

Rather, the Christian Sabbath is that rest which is found by faith in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 3:7-4:11). It is not a rest from physical labors for one day. It is rather a perpetual rest from spiritual labors (Matthew 11:28f). Have you entered into it?