Lesson 6: The LORD’S Day Worship

Lesson 6: The Lord’s Day Worship

After becoming a Christian through the process of faith by repenting of your sins, confessing faith in Jesus as the Son of God and Lord of your life, and getting washed in the blood of Jesus through water immersion, the NEXT step in your new life, is worshiping God in spirit and truth. Because you are grateful for salvation, and because you are commanded to worship in spirit and truth. And “in spirit and truth worship” is both a physical and a spiritual act. 

Worship is both a physical and a spiritual act because you are a physical and a spiritual being. 1 Thessalonians 5:23: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

So, you are a physical and a spiritual being, and you must learn to worship God in your spirit, through your body, in the forms that God commands, or according to truth. This is why Jesus says in John 4:24: “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. 

• In spirit means to connect with God through the non-physical rational part of your being.
• In truth means to conform to what is real, genuine, and free of lies and deception. 

And as the Theological Dictionary says, “We live in truth as well as worship according to correct doctrine or truth” (Kittel). With that said, let us take a look at the simple yet powerful forms of New Testament worship.

The day of worship.

The Jews were more accustomed to staying home on Saturdays to rest, as they were commanded to do under the Law of Moses (Exodus 16:22-30, 20). During the Babylonian captivity, far away from the Temple in Jerusalem, they developed the synagogue meetings on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays. When Jesus was on earth, as a Jew, He often gathered with other Jews in the Synagogue on Saturdays (Luke 4: 16, John 9:22). But the Law of Moses, and all its laws, including the weekly sabbaths, served their religious purpose until John, Jesus and the Kingdom of God came (Luke 16:16, Colossians 2:16-17, Acts 2:42, 47). 

Jesus rose from the grave for our salvation on the first day of the week (John 20:1). After that, He met a few times with His disciples on Sunday, the first day of the week with His disciples (John 20:19, 26).

When the Holy Spirit came, in Acts 2, He started the church of Christ on the first day of the week.

• Acts 2:1: “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.” Pentecost was a Jewish Feast Day that always fell on a Sunday.
• Acts 2:38-41, 47: “Praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

After that, Christians gathered with their local congregations of the Church every Sunday to worship, just like we do now. In the beginning they did not have established “church buildings” as we are so blessed to have today, so they worshipped in their homes and in other buildings that would allow them to meet.

Decades after the beginning of the church on a Sunday, Sunday became known as the LORD’S DAY. This is because the resurrection of Christ was and still is the most important thing to ever happen on the first day of the week, after the first day of creation (Revelation 1:5-10).

• Revelations 1:5: “And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood.”
• Revelations 1:10: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet,”

Along with Sunday been His resurrection day, Jesus gives us two additional reasons why He commanded the church to worship God on Sundays. Both reasons are associated with Jesus, His resurrection and our salvation:

1. Jesus truly became the Son of God with power on the day of His resurrection: Romans 1:4.
2. Jesu became the chief corner stone of the church: Acts 4:11

For those three reasons, as you read the book of Acts and the instructive letters of Paul to the church, you will notice that the disciples gathered together on Sundays, at a time that they all agreed on.

• Acts 20:7: “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his [a]message until midnight.”
• 1 Corinthians 16: 1-2: “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you are to do as well. ² On the first day of every week, each of you is to put aside and save as he may prosper, so that no collections need to be made when I come.”

And when they came together as the church on the first day of the week, we see them offering worship to God through 5 physical expressions of their faith.

• They ate the Lord’s supper together: Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 11:23-34.
• They gave an offering together: 1 Corinthains 16:1-2
• They sang praises to God together: Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16
• They prayed together: 1 Corinthians 14:15
• They were uplifted by the word: Acts 20:7

These worship activities were ordered by Jesus for the church, so that each Christian could participate in every worship activity.

As a new Christian, you will notice that not all your new brothers and sisters in Christ take worshipping on the Lord’s Day as faithfully as Jesus commands. You must not follow their unfaithful example. This is why we are reminded in Hebrews 10:24-26: “And let’s consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds, ²⁵ not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. ²⁶ For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.”

Please notice that Jesus will judge you as forsaking worship, when you willfully make plans to do things, other than gathering with the church on the first day of the week to offer praise and worship to God.

Yes, God understands that life will prevent us from gathering with the church in emergency situations. And so Jesus gives us three occasions that may prevent us from gathering with the church to worship. During those situations, Jesus will not judge you as one who is willfully forsaking the gathering of the church for worship.

In our next lesson, we will talk more about how to remain faithful to God in worship and what you actually do, when you worship God in your spirit, through your body.

Until next time, keep reading, keep praying, and keep learning and growing in Christ.

LESSON 5

Works Cited

Gerhard Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich, and Geoffrey William Bromiley, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1985), 876.

(c) Richard Nepaul 2023

THIS SERIES IS PRESENTLY ON A BREAK UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.