SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/3/2018 11:52 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “Availability”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 20:7-17
Message of the verses: “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 message until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered together. 9 And there was a young man named Eutychus sitting on the window sill, sinking into a deep sleep; and as Paul kept on talking, he was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third floor and was picked up dead. 10 But Paul went down and fell upon him, and after embracing him, he said, "Do not be troubled, for his life is in him." 11 When he had gone back up and had broken the bread and eaten, he talked with them a long while until daybreak, and then left. 12 They took away the boy alive, and were greatly comforted. 13 But we, going ahead to the ship, set sail for Assos, intending from there to take Paul on board; for so he had arranged it, intending himself to go by land. 14 And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and came to Mitylene. 15 Sailing from there, we arrived the following day opposite Chios; and the next day we crossed over to Samos; and the day following we came to Miletus. 16 For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. 17 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church.”
As I begin this first part of this section I think that
it is important for us to discuss why it is that the church meets on the “first
day of the week.” In John MacArthur’s
commentary he cites the reasons why the church does not meet on “The Sabbath”
as some think, and also goes into in some detail why believers do not keep the
Sabbath as some think that we should.
This is the third missionary of Paul and according to a
map that I have looked at giving the details of it I found that it lasted three
years, from 53-58 AD. As we look at
verse seven we see that what we are looking at is an early church service
telling us that it happened on the first day of the week that is Sunday, the
day that the Lord Jesus Christ arose from the grave. I will try and summarize this list of ten
reasons why the church meets on Sunday, and why believers are not required to
keep the Sabbath. Some of those reasons
were a bit new to me. In citing these
reasons I am not saying that believers are not to take a day of rest for when
God created the world He did rest from His work on the last day, which is
Saturday. However as far as the Sabbath
day it was for the children of Israel as that Law was given on Mount Sinai and
that is the first reason. As far as the
second reason there is no command in the New Testament for believers to keep
the Sabbath, in fact nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated in the NT, and
the one that is not repeated is the keeping of the Sabbath. Reason three goes back to the OT and there
was no requirement for any people other than Israel to keep the Sabbath. Reason four also goes back to the OT times
and it has to do with no one keeping the Sabbath before Moses wrote it in the
Law. Reason five: In the Jerusalem Counsel meeting we looked at
in Acts 15 there is no mention of believers keeping the Sabbath. Sixth reason and this has to do with Paul’s
mentioning of many sins to avoid as seen in his writings and there is not one
mention of a sin of not keeping the Sabbath.
Reason Seven: “16 Therefore no
one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a
festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day- 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but
the substance belongs to Christ (Col. 2:16-17).” Paul not only mentions the Sabbath as a
shadow of what was to come, but mentions other things too. The Substance is the Lord Jesus Christ and He
has come. Reason eight comes from
Galatians 4:10-11 “10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I
fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.” Paul is rebuking the Galatians for thinking
that God expected them to observe special days, like the Sabbath. Ninth Reason comes from Romans 15:5 “One person
regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person
must be fully convinced in his own mind.”
Paul is talking about some of the converted Jews as to whether or not
they should continue to observe the Sabbath.
This had to be a very difficult time as it was in the transitional
period. As these Jewish believers became
more mature they would understand that they did not need to observe the Sabbath. Now as far as the tenth reason that John
MacArthur gives I think that it best that I quote him:
“Tenth, the book of Acts and
the subsequent writings of the early church Fathers make clear that the church
from earliest times met for worship on Sunday.
For example, the Epistle of
Barnabas, written at the close of the first century says:
‘Your present Sabbaths are
not acceptable to me, but that is which I have made, [namely this] when, giving
rest to all things, I shall make a beginning of the eight day, that is, a
beginning of another world. Wherefore,
also, we keep the eight day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose
again from the dead. (XV: The Ante-Nicene
Fathers [reprint; Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1973], 1:63.
MacArthur has more quotes from early church fathers, but
I believe that we all get the point that I am trying to make here. We will look in more detail to the verses in
this section in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Let me pick up on
what we read in the book of Colossians stating that the OT Laws were only a
shadow of things to come and Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of those things
written in the OT Law, as He kept it perfectly while on earth and He kept it
for us so we don’t have to, for we all fall short of the glory of God. Because nine of the Ten Commandments are
repeated in the NT, as believers we are to keep them with the help of the Holy
Spirit.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Holy Spirit will do a work in
my life to get me over something that is going on that I do not like going on
in my life at this time.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Joseph” (Genesis 37:5-9).
Today’s Bible
question: “To which book of the law did
the prophets continually refer when emphasizing the fact the Lord is the God of
Israel?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/3/2018 12:35 PM
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