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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/stuart-thompson/the-first-day-of-the-week/
Let's open together, first of all, in the book of Acts, please, chapter 20. Acts chapter 20, and we'll pick up at verse 7. Acts 20, verse 7, and upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow.
It is the first half of that verse that I want to look at, and that will really be the introduction to the theme of my consideration this afternoon. It was upon the first day of the week that the disciples came together to break bread.
It's just a few weeks ago, I was in my car, heading from northern Michigan, doing a quick run to the, well, I don't know if they say it anywhere else, I think Michigan's probably one of the few places you use the expression, I was going downstate.
So you got to have a tall, slim state, I think, to speak in those words, but making a quick run downstate and back within the day, and playing with the radio, running the dial across, picked up what I thought was a Christian radio station, and well, that's an interesting line of things.
That man's speaking quite emphatically, and before I knew it, I realized I was listening to somebody from a place that I wouldn't have given much thought to or consideration. It was a man that was given to the following of keeping the Sabbath.
So immediately I asked myself the question, yes, first day of the week. We're going to look at something that is as basic to our practice, our persuasion, as you can get. The behavior of Christians meeting on the first day of the week.
Now, if I were to ask you, well, why do you meet with Christians, other believers, on the first day of the week? And with all due respect, just to speak frankly, some of you say, well, that's what they do.
From where I've come from, a quote, non-churched family, and heard the gospel, and introduced to these people after I was saved, that's what they do. So that's what I do. Some of us that were raised with such a privilege may just have been doing it because that's how it was done.
And with a little more thought, we will immediately say, well, that's the day of resurrection. Now, I'm not disputing that, but I might ask you, and somebody else might say to you, well, how do you know that Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week?
And our immediate response could very well easily be, well, the gospels are full of it. It's everywhere. It was the first day of the week. And someone might say to you, really? Show me. I'm from Missouri.
Show me. And so you will turn to Matthew's gospel. You might turn to Luke's gospel. You can go through the four of them. You'll turn to John. I'm saying this because to the best of my understanding at this point, there is only one occasion in the record of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus in the four gospels.
There is only one specific occasion where we are told that he was raised from the dead or he himself rose from the dead on the first day of the week. Now, if some of you are saying, do you read your Bible?
I'm glad you're thinking that way in your minds because it at least tells me that you are aware that there are many comments of things that took place on the first day of the week after he was raised from the dead.
So in Matthew and Mark and in John's gospel, there are these substantial records of his appearing to numerous individuals on the first day of the week. But I'm being fussy because not one of those statements say he rose on that day.
Now, having said that, let's go to the gospel of Mark, please. Chapter 16. Mark chapter 16, verse one is to use the term is very typical of the various records made in the gospels. It says in Mark 16, verse one, and when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Salome, had bought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him.
And very early in the morning, first day of the week, they came under the sepulcher at the rising of the sun. And the record goes on then, speaking of how they arrived there on the early morning of the first day of the week.
Now, come down, read verse six. And he, the angel, said unto them, Be not afraid, ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified. He is risen. He's not here. Behold the place where they laid him. He's not there.
He is risen. When did it happen? Verse eight. And they went out quickly and fled from the sepulcher, for they trembled and were amazed. Neither said they anything to any man, for they were afraid. Now, verse nine.
Now, when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene. Now, even in our English translation here, the King James Version, the distinctness of it is not even apparent.
The comment, the translation says, when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week. Yet it is that very statement that there are, there you can take a literal rendering, there may be other translations that you would look at, and it would say the likes of this.
Literally it says, and rising early on the first day of the week. Subsequently to that, he appeared. So this, as I suggested, as best as I can determine at this point in my understanding of what the record is in the gospel, this is the only distinct statement in all those post-resurrection chapters that says he actually rose on the first day of the week.
But it's there. Rising early on the first day of the week. Now, I am not an expert in manuscripts and texts of the scriptures. Many of you here likely are aware, not all of you, and I do not want to plant any seeds of doubt just to point it out, because if you're not aware of it, you're probably going to stumble over it sooner or later, that there are various manuscripts that will say from verse 9 to the end of Mark chapter 16 is not found.
I'm glad to see that even the bulk of contemporary English translations will include these verses. Some may point out in their edited notes something to that effect, that they don't find these verses.
But if there was anything in my mind that would suggest that those texts that do not include it fall short, it is just this. That this is the statement of the gospel records. That Christ rose on the first day of the week.
And not only that, just if you would, contextual evidence that this belongs here. Dear Mr. Paisley has said it would be most untenable that this gospel could end on the word that closes verse 8. Afraid.
Who would ever think that the gospel written by Mark could conclude with people that were in fear? Totally inconsistent with the other portions in the gospel records. As Mr. Paisley would say, it's not tenable.
It just doesn't make sense. And so even with that idea in our minds, we can gladly follow into the next verse and see this statement. Jesus rising early on the first day of the week. Consequently, subsequently, thereafter appeared to Mary Magdalene.
So all the other statements are really statements that are just built on this truth. We don't diminish them. We can't take anything away from them. But be assured, the scripture as far as the historical record, just looking at the gospels in that sense, include this truth.
He rose on the first day of the week. Now, is there anything else that we can find in the word of God that will point distinctly to that matter? Turn with me to first Corinthians chapter 15. As we go there, many of us recognize that this is the great resurrection chapter of the church epistles.
First Corinthians chapter 15. Paul is writing a defense of the truth of the resurrection of Christ, but not just that he rose, the consequences of it, the impact of Christ having been raised from the dead.
But he does say something that is notable and we'll pick it up. First Corinthians 15 and verse 20. In conclusion, after his various statements in his development, in his argument, Paul says in first Corinthians 15, 20, but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruit, maybe more rightly rendered singular, not first fruits, but first fruit of them that slept.
Now, in the immediate context where this statement is made, it's not just that Paul is saying that he simply rose from the dead, but in rising from the dead, he is the first fruit of them that slept. And that is the tremendous perspective of God, of a believer when he dies.
And it's repeated even in other portions of the scripture. When a Christian dies, yes, we know the great truth, absent from the body, present with the Lord, but there is a sense of a body laid to the grave, sleeping.
I'm not a real morning person, so if you bother me too early in the morning, I might not be too pleasant with you. But going to sleep implies waking up. And so when that idea is applied to Christians, it is telling us that there is a waking time coming.
And when it says that the Lord Jesus Christ is the first fruit of them that slept, the implication is then he is the first of all those that will later be raised from the dead. So in the immediate context, Paul is telling us the great truth is that when Christ rose from the dead, everybody else that died in Christ will rise from the dead.
But he's called here the first fruit. Let's go back now to Leviticus, please, chapter 23. My exercise in looking at this this afternoon is not just, you know, time filler or review. Another thought that I had considered in view of message for the conference was the need for the continuity of truth.
You know, we want to exhort each other and our brethren that teach in the local assembly to keep passing it on. Generate, don't take it for granted. Generation to generation, they just don't absorb it by association.
They've got to be taught it. And I asked myself, well, OK, you can tell other people that maybe I'd teach them something. And so we're right back to a basic one here. The first day of the week. I expect there are believers here today younger in the faith, and you may not have been spoken to in this line of things before.
You have, perhaps, to use expression, just been born into it. Practice of gathering on the first day of the week. Well, we've seen that the Lord Jesus specifically rose that day. He's been identified by Paul in 1 Corinthians that he is the first fruit.
Back in Leviticus, chapter 23, these various feasts, and there are brethren here that give a lot of attention to this. Dear brother Larry Steers was telling me that he spent two weeks on this chapter.
Well, I can give you a few minutes. Leviticus, chapter 23, come down to verse nine. It says, the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When you become into the land which I give unto you and shall reap the harvest thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits.
And the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, would make that singular. You shall bring a first fruit, a sheaf of the first fruit of your harvest unto the priest. And he, the priest, shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for you.
Now, here's the point. When will he do it? He will wave it before the Lord to be accepted for you on the morrow after the Sabbath. The priest shall wave it. When's the Sabbath? The Sabbath, we understand very clearly, is the seventh day, what we call Saturday.
What's the day after Saturday? It's Sunday. That is the first day of the week. So when Paul identified the resurrection of the Lord Jesus as the first fruit of them that slept, yes, immediately he's telling us that assures that others, the believers that die in Christ, will be raised.
But he's also linking Christ back to this great truth that Leviticus 23 has recorded for us. The great truth of resurrection being pictured in the initial harvest that was taken. A sheaf of the first of the harvest was taken and raised before the Lord.
Tremendous picture of resurrection. Because if the little bit of the harvest has been taken, the rest is going to be taken in the harvest. But that's not our point right here. The point is they were told when to wave it.
Do it on the day after or the morrow after the Sabbath. Do it on the first day. That was totally contrary to the mindset of the average Jew. They were so bent and given to Sabbath keeping. But now the Spirit of God is saying this day is going to be distinct from the Sabbath.
This is at the beginning of the week and it is the day where the picture of resurrection is introduced to those people. Now, I'm not saying they clearly understood what it implied. And just for interest sake, if you run down through the chapter, you will come to the 50th day.
The day of Pentecost. And they were given the instruction of how to count it out. The seven weeks until the morrow after the Sabbath. And then they were to celebrate this day and it was called Pentecost.
Now, I don't know where I... Somewhere recently I said, this is sarcastic, Stu. I too easily can bend towards sarcasm. But when did creation start? Oh, it was on the first day. Right. And so, you know, first day is not really such a big surprise or it shouldn't be.
Pentecost, the birth of the church, the body of Christ was on the first day of the week. Counted the Sabbath and you went to the morrow after the Sabbath and arriving at that 50th day from this offering day.
And you were on the first day of the week again. So it became in the mind of God, in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, a day of great significance. The day of resurrection was a day of tremendous significance.
It is the day, as Acts chapter 20 very clearly said, the believers came together to break bread. And those that are expert linguists that know the text will point out that in Acts 20 and verse 7, the coming together is of such a grammatical structure that it teaches us that it wasn't just that particular week that Paul was there that they did that, but it was the habit.
It was the thing that took place on a weekly basis. They came together and were coming together on the first day of the week. That was the pattern of their behavior. And we would ask ourselves why? Because it was the day that the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead.
The first day of the week. And it was something that God foretold, if you would, in type, in a picture, through this sheaf offering that was taken to be waved before the Lord on the morrow after the Sabbath.
And just remind yourself of those words again in the middle of that verse, accepted for you. We do not take anything away from the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross. But without the resurrection of the dead, we don't have the full story.
We don't have the fullness of him who is accepted for us. So it is a day of great significance. It's the day of resurrection. I'm not going to go to it, but you know in Revelation chapter 1, we have John speaking about being in the Spirit on the Lord's day.
A day that is marked by the character of the Lord himself. What brought that characteristic to the day? What made that day so particular? It's not the day of the Lord as some immediately conclude, but rather it's a day that takes the character of Christ himself.
Where did that come from? It came from the fact that he rose on that first day of the week. So there is a day that carries something of the very character of a risen living man. And it is undoubtedly this first day of the week.
It is the day that the assemblies would gather, as we noted in Acts 20, 1st Corinthians 16 verse 2, as well Paul in exhorting the Corinthians and reminding them of obligation. Obligation to provide, to give material things.
He reminded them on the first day of the week when you come together, that would be the day that they would give those material measures which would support not only the work of God, but believers that were in great need.
So it's the day of resurrection. It's very clearly pointed out by Mark in particular, but as well the other gospel records show that everybody was surprised to see the Lord on that day. There was no evidence that he had appeared to any previous to the first day of the week.
It is the day that is marked by the type of the first fruit. It's a day of distinction as John spoke in the Revelation. I want you to come with me now to Psalm 24. After my drive that day and getting home and the next day still throwing that around my mind and saying, you know, Stu, it's been a while since you've looked at it and it's been a while since the Saints at home in the assembly would have heard it specifically.
And you've got some younger ones coming up in the assembly now it's time to speak about it. So I was giving it some thought and I must confess I don't know where I first stumbled over this. Looking at so many different, particularly electronic versions of commentaries, there was a reference made to this Psalm.
And I have never heard anybody else note this before. So I don't want to think, you know, I'm presenting novel things here, something unusual. But the Psalm 24, the heading says this, a Psalm of David.
Yet in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, it says this, a Psalm of David on the first day of the week. Now where the translators of the Septuagint came up with that, I don't have the expertise or the sources to determine.
I don't know where they came up with that. But when looking at it and trying to find some other input on that particular point, I stumbled over something that I hadn't seen before as well. So you're saying you're doing a lot of stumbling.
Did you hurt yourself? Well, I don't think I hurt myself. It's all been fresh things that I've enjoyed in my own soul. There are actually seven Psalms that are uniquely labeled to the days to a day of the week.
So I'm just going to review this for your own sake, if you ever want to look at each of these Psalms under that in that sense. But glean from another's efforts. Psalm 24 then, it's the only time you'll find it even in the Septuagint.
When you go back to Luke, or rather Leviticus 23, where we read of the type of the first of the first fruit the sheaf offered, it's the moral after the Sabbath. And the language that's even used in the Septuagint isn't specific to what we have here in Psalm 24.
First after the Sabbath is the language of it. It's the only time it's found. Psalm 48 is the Monday Psalm. It's called the second after the Sabbath in the Septuagint. Psalm 82, Tuesday. This is gleaned by the writer that I was looking at from the Talmud, the record of rabbinic writings.
And they refer to Psalm 82 as the Tuesday Psalm. Psalm 94 is the Wednesday Psalm. That's from the heading in the Septuagint, fourth after Sabbath. Psalm 81, Thursday Psalm. This writer gleaned that from the Latin writings.
Well, you can be sure I never would have found that one. From the Latin writings. Psalm 93 is the Friday Psalm. From the Septuagint, from the Greek, only time in the Old Testament. Day before Sabbath is how it is identified.
And then the seventh, the Sabbath Psalm, Psalm 92. And if you were to turn to it, you'll see it in your heading. It's the only Psalm that's identified as the Sabbath Psalm. So both the Hebrew text and the Septuagint text include that in the heading.
The Psalm for the Sabbath, Psalm 92. So that's something for you if you want to spend some time at it, which I haven't yet done. But there may be some interesting links to the days of the week. But this Psalm 24, let's read it together.
A few comments. It's a rich Psalm. And I do not have even the insight to give it its worth. But we're going to read it with a couple of comments. Psalm 24, verse 1, the heading rather, a Psalm of David on or for the first day of the week.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hell of the Lord or who shall stand in his holy place?
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
This is the generation of them that seek him that seek thy face, O Jacob. And the margin of your Bible may say, O God of Jacob, Selah or pause. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory, Selah. I would have to tell you that reading that psalm with the perspective that it could be linked to the first day of the week is a thrill to my soul. Now there may be some men here that are very keen and apt on eschatology, study of future events, things that are to come.
I can't help you there, I must confess, with great accuracy. Is there anything that would suggest that the Lord, I'm going to jump to this, we'll come back to it, build to it. Is there anything that we could find in the scriptures that would indicate that the Lord will arrive in Jerusalem on that great day of His coronation on the first day of the week?
I don't know. But if it happens that way, I won't be surprised. I'm just going to read my note here. The power of His resurrection on the first day of the week cannot be separated from the prospect of His glorious coronation.
Those two things are inseparable. So whether this will be an event that takes place on the Lord's day, on the first day of the week, we may not be able to pin that down from other portions of the Word of God.
But read this psalm with that view in mind. It tells us of the creation, the first day of the week. The earth is the Lord's. He's established it. That commenced on the first day of the week. Who will ascend into the mount or the hill of the Lord?
Only those that are marked with those various characteristics. And of course the Lord Jesus Himself is the ultimate fulfiller of those things. One who has clean hands, pure heart, not lifted up his soul unto vanity, never sworn deceitfully.
There's no one else that can fulfill those things like the Lord Jesus Himself. He is the one who has full right and capacity to ascend. And what a day that will be. I've got to tell you that at times more than ever in recent weeks and months, when we look at world events and the violence of religious opposition in this world, my heart at times longs more and more for this particular day.
You know we sing in our hearts and we sing out loud, Oh Lord Jesus, how long? You know, the rapture. We'd love to go home to be with the Lord. But even beyond that, I often find myself thinking, I long for the day because it is His total right to walk into Jerusalem and to be honored like none other and to take His place as He will in a coming day.
A lot can be said about this psalm. The time is gone. Just come to those closing questions. The, well, the exhortation, first of all, lift up your heads, you gates. He lift you up, you everlasting doors.
He is going to with single dignity and right move into that city. They say that Eastern Gate is totally bricked in and closed in at this point in time. That's no problem to our Lord. He will move in to that city.
And the gates themselves are made in figurative terms here to just rise up with wonder and exultation at the arrival of this King of Glory. He'll come in. He shall come in. He will come. This is inevitable.
It is irresistible. And the question is asked, who is? Young's translation makes it even more emphatically. He says, who is this? And then in quotation, Young puts the King of Glory as if to stand back with wonder.
Is this Him? Yeah, this is Him. All right. The Lord strong and mighty and the Lord mighty in battle. The question is asked again. Verse 10. He is the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies. See, this is something this world does not want to even think about.
A man with all just right and authority to come in and destroy those that have opposed the God of heaven and earth, the one who established it all, to ride in and be recognized. The world doesn't want to see this.
But He is the Lord of an army, of armies. He's going to have victory one day. This is going to take place. He alone is the King of Glory. The psalmist David, as he wrote that, paused. He said, Selah, for us today, just stop.
Think about it. That's our prospective future. It's a great day of distinction. It's the day of resurrection. It's a day with tremendous prospects. So don't go home and say, Stu Thompson teaches that the Lord will arrive in Jerusalem on the first day of the week.
I don't know. But these tremendous words are found in a psalm that those translators, for whatever reason, thought it suitable to say, a psalm of David on the first day of the week, the King of Glory will arrive.