Some of you who are older will remember the strict observance of the Sunday in the old Orange Free State Province under Apartheid. Apart from the fact that females were by law not permitted to wear a bikini, all Sunday swimming was banned. We planted two Churches in the capital city of Bloemfontein and went through once a month for the weekend. We stayed over at our friend’s farm which saw the Modder River passing through the lower section. So swimming for us was not an issue on a Sunday afternoon once back home after the two worship services. Did we do wrong? Did we break the province’s law and did we break the Fourth Commandment?
For a few days we have been grappling with the following text:
Ge 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
How does this apply to Christians? Yesterday I requested … Try to search the Gospels and find which day Jesus died and which day He rose from the dead. This was not a trick question. Remember the calendar used in Jesus’ day and ours today has the exact same format … Sunday through to Saturday. The Jewish Sabbath Day was celebrated on Saturday … actually, from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday.
1) Jesus was executed on the Friday. After the death of Jesus, Luke tells us that Joseph, who was a member of the Sanhedrin, like Nicodemus, never supported the Jewish leaders decision to murder Jesus, went to Pilate and request he be given Jesus’ body for burial. Joseph was a good and upright man who was waiting for the Kingdom of God to arrive. Luke tells us Jesus died on the Friday … he writes:
Lu 23:54 It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
See that? The Passover Festival in commemoration of their freedom from Egypt was about to begin. There was a double miracle before Jesus died:
Lk 23:44 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
(1) Darkness in the middle of the day to 3pm.
(2) The curtain barring access into the holy of Holy was torn apart. Both these events tell us something about Jesus’ substitutionary death, the Father’s displeasure on sin, yet equally His acceptance of the Son’s sacrifice for sin. The point is that the day was moving towards sunset (after the darkness ended), which was the official start of the Sabbath Day, which in turn was the start of the annual Passover Festival. The Sabbath was, as said, sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. Jesus died on the Friday. We know this day either as Good Friday or Bloody Friday.
2) Jesus was dead from Friday to Sunday. Joseph either had a tomb cut in the rock or cut it himself. Luke says this tomb had not yet been used
Lu 23:53 Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.
He sealed the tomb with a huge rock. John’s Gospel says Nicodemus assisted him. Mathew informs us that the Jews wanted to prevent a “resurrection story” and had Pilate station a guard at the tomb:
Mt 27:65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.
In no manner could anyone access the tomb to steal Jesus’ body to fake a resurrection.
3) Jesus rose on the Sunday, the first day of the week. He promised this. Consider the flow of the following verses as the time drew near …
Mt 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Mt 17:22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.”
Mt 20:18 “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death 19 and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”
There is no mistake that He prophesied this! The third day works as follows … day one was Friday, day two was Saturday and day three was Sunday, the first day of the week. Luke informs us:
Lk 24:1 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.
Then they were told by the two angels:
Lu 24:5 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.
Later in Luke we are told that the Resurrected Jesus meets up with two disciples on the Emmaus Road and later appears to the disciples. Why is this significant?
4) Jesus passed over the Old Covenant and commenced the New Covenant in His Blood. What is vital to grasp is that Jesus did not start a new religion. The religion of the Bible remains the exact same. It is the same God. It is the same faith. It is the same grace. The difference is that Jesus who is God fulfilled the function of the priest and sacrificial system. It all pointed to Him. He became the Great High Priest officiating at the altar of the Cross, sacrificing Himself as the Lamb of God to take away sin and appease a Holy God. And here is comes … In his death He passed over the old system, rendering it obsolete. In His resurrection He commenced a new and living way, that by His Blood sacrifice, all who believe might enter through the now open curtain into the Holy of Holies and become children of God. Same religion. Same Word of God. Same Faith. Same Grace. The difference is the Blood!
Jesus ushers in a new creation from all who are born anew by the Spirit of God. The other difference is that the Christian day of worship is now on the first day of the week in commemoration and honor of King Jesus’ victory over death and satan. The sin of the believer is pardoned. Peace with God is achieved. Restoration is restored through Jesus redemptive victory at Calvary. The Fourth Commandment remains intact though the day changes from Saturday, the last day of the week to Sunday, the first day of the week. We follow the apostle John calling this day:
Rev 1:10 On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit.
We are the New Creation and we worship our God on the day He rose in honor of His grace and kindness to undeserving sinners like us.
Father, thank You for instituting a day, separated from the others in each week whereby we Your children may gather in worship and celebration. Help us to use this day correctly and mercifully be with those who because of a multitude of legitimate reasons cannot worship with us. Amen.