Saturday or Sunday?

Rev.A.Stewart answers a question about on what day Christians should worship, showing plainly that in the NT it is to be on Sunday and not Saturday. 

Saturday or Sunday?

A lady asks, "Can you tell me why some people worship on Saturday rather than Sunday?" First of all, we need to understand that the Christian church worships and has worshipped on the first day of the week, Sunday, the Lord’s Day, from the days of the apostles onward, for several important, biblical reasons:

1. Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday with a "great earthquake" (Matt. 28:2).

2. Peter and John beheld Christ’s empty tomb (Luke 24:12; John 20:3-10), as did the women (Matt. 28:1-8; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-10) and Mary Magdalene (John 20:1-2, 11-13) to whom the angels spoke, on a Sunday.

3. All the specified days on which the Lord appeared after He rose from the dead are Sundays. On that first Sunday, He showed Himself to five parties: the women (Matt. 28:9-10), Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9; John 20:14-18), Peter (Luke 24:34; I Cor. 15:5), the two travellers on the Emmaus Road (Mark 16:12; Luke 24:13-32) and ten disciples (Luke 24:36ff.; John 20:19-23). On the second Sunday, He revealed Himself to the eleven disciples, Thomas being with them (John 20:24-29).

4. The ascended Christ poured out His Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday (Acts 2), the beginning of the "last days" (17), the birthday of the Christian church and the occasion of the first Christian sermon and baptisms.

5. The apostle Paul preached and administered the Lord’s Supper in the church at Troas, where he raised Eutychus from the dead, on a Sunday (Acts 20:7-12).

6. The church was commanded to give offerings on a Sunday (I Cor. 16:1-2).

7. Christ manifested Himself to the apostle John, and so gave him the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, on a Sunday or Lord’s Day (Rev. 1:10).

Seventh-day sabbatarians assemble on a Saturday because they reject the significance of these acts of Christ and His Spirit, as well as the example of the apostolic church, and have not grasped the greatness of the salvation we have only and fully in Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28), who possesses authority and power to change the day and invest it with richer and deeper meaning and blessedness. He ceased from His work of purchasing redemption for His elect and entered His sabbath rest upon His resurrection from the dead on a Sunday (Heb. 4:10; Westminster Confession 21:7-8; Westminster Larger Catechism, Q. & A. 115-121; Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 38).

Sadly, songs by seventh-day sabbatarians are included in many evangelical hymn books. Francis Augustus Blackmer, who wrote "Once I thought I walked with Jesus," belonged to the Seventh Day Adventists who believe that observing Sunday as the Lord’s Day is the mark of the beast (Rev. 13:16-18); Samuel Stennett, who penned "On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand," was a Seventh Day Baptist (cf. "Our Own Hymn Book Versus God’s Own Hymn Book: A Critique of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster Hymnal"). Rev. Stewart