Banias Falls
- The Lord’s Day
Rev 1:10
On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, (NIV)What follows are a series of scriptures that highlight the significance of the First Day of the week in the New Testament, and a few quotes from Christian writers in the generations immediately after the New Testament, speaking of the First Day of the week as the day of assembly and worship for the church, the Lord’s Day.
#1 Resurrection Day
On The First Day of The Week
Matt 28:1-7
28 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
NIV
On The First Day of The Week
Mark 16:1-5
16 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
NIV
On The First Day of The Week
Mark 16:9-14
9 When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. 11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.
12 Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. 13 These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.
14 Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
NIV
On The First Day of The Week
Luke 24:1-8
24 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'” 8 Then they remembered his words.
NIV
Note: The angel’s quotation is not found previously in Jesus’ words in Luke, but is in Matthew 16:21, 10:19)
On The First Day of The Week
Luke 24:13-24
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”
NIV
On The First Day of The Week
John 20:1
20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.
John 20:19
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”
John 20:26
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”
NIV
John 20:26
26 After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
NASU
Remember, The Resurrection Is Central to the Gospel: Romans 1:2-4, 1 Corinthians 15:1-7, 16-17.#2 The Promise Fulfilled
Acts 1:4-5 On one occasion, while Jesus was eating with the disciples, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 2:1 1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
Acts 2:4 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Acts 2:1, Pentecost
Pentecost was also on The First Day of The Week
Pentecost means “fiftieth” because this feast was held fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits (Lev 23:15-22). The calendar of Jewish feasts in Lev 23 is an outline of the work of Jesus Christ. Passover pictures His death as the Lamb of God (John 1:29; 1 Cor 5:7), and the Feast of Firstfruits pictures His resurrection from the dead (1 Cor 15:20-23). Fifty days after Firstfruits is the Feast of Pentecost, which pictures the formation of the church. …
The Feast of Firstfruits took place on the day after the Sabbath following Passover, which means it was always on the first day of the week. … Jesus arose from the dead on the first day of the week and “became the first-fruits of them that slept” (1 Cor 15:20). Now, if Pentecost was fifty days later – seven weeks plus one day – then Pentecost also took place on the first day of the week. Christians assemble and worship on Sunday, the first day of the week, because on that day our Lord arose from the dead, but it was also the day on which the Holy Spirit was given to the church.
(from The Bible Exposition Commentary. Copyright © 1989 by Chariot Victor Publishing, and imprint of Cook Communication Ministries. All rights reserved. Used by permission.)
#3 Communion Day, Collection Day
On The First Day of The Week
Acts 20:7
7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.
ESV1 Cor 16:1-3
16 Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
ESV
When You Come Together
1 Cor 11:18
18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part,
1 Cor 11:20
20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.
1 Cor 11:26
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
1 Cor 11:33
33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another—
ESV
When You Come Together
Heb 10:24-25
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
ESV
# 4 On The Lord’s Day
Rev 1:10
10 On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,
NIV
Addendum: The citations below from obth pagan authorities and Christian authors who lived within a few years to a few decades of the apostles present the historical fact that the meeting day of the church was a set day, the First Day of the week, and was called the Lord’s day.
A Fixed Day
Pliny the Younger was governor of Pontus/Bithynia from 111-113 AD. He wrote a letter to the emperor Trajan describing his efforts to eradicate the Christian faith, and the information about Christians that he had gained by torture. This is an excerpt from his letter.
“They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food–but ordinary and innocent food.”
On The Lord’s Day
ca. 90 AD The DIDACHE, the apostle John was probably still alive when this was written.
1. But every Lord’s day do ye gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. 2. But let no one that is at variance with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned.
The Epistle of Barnabas, ca.100 AD 15:6-8
We keep the eighth day [Sunday, the day after the Sabbath] with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead.
On The Lord’s Day
First Apology of Justin Martyr, 150 A.D., Ch 68
And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.
On The Lord’s Day
Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, to the Magnesian church ca. 110 A.D.
If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death-whom some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith, and therefore endure, that we may be found the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only Master-how shall we be able to live apart from Him, whose disciples the prophets themselves in the Spirit did wait for Him as their Teacher?
On The Lord’s Day
Ignatius to the Magnesians ca. 110 A.D.
58 But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing and plaudits which have no sense in them. And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days [of the week]. Looking forward to this, the prophet declared, “To the end, for the eighth day,*” on which our life both sprang up again, and the victory over death was obtained in Christ,
*Ezekiel 43:27
On The Lord’s Day
Ignatius to the Trallians ca. 110 A.D.
66 On the day of the preparation, then, at the third hour, He received the sentence from Pilate, the Father permitting that to happen; at the sixth hour He was crucified; at the ninth hour He gave up the ghost; and before sunset He was buried. During the Sabbath He continued under the earth in the tomb in which Joseph of Arimathaea had laid Him. At the dawning of the Lord’s day He arose from the dead, according to what was spoken by Himself, “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man also be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The day of the preparation, then, comprises the passion; the Sabbath embraces the burial; the Lord’s Day contains the resurrection.
Calendar Language:
Roman (Latin) days of the week__________Spanish days of the week
dies Solis (sun)_______________________Domingo (Rev 1:10 Latin – dominica die, Lord’s Day)
dies Lunae (moon)____________________Lunes
dies Martis (Mars)____________________Martes
dies Mercurii (Mercury)_______________Miercoles
dies Iovis/Jovis (Jove=Jupiter)__________Jueves
dies Veneris (Venus)__________________Viernes
dies Saturni (Saturn)__________________Sabado (Sabbath)
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