Defending Sunday Worship?
Imagine having to defend the practice of gathering together for worship (in song, Scripture reading, and preaching). How would you explain these practices to someone else? What if you also had to give good reasons for gathering together on Sunday to do these things? Would you look at church history? Your own church’s tradition? Would you use only the Bible?
You would think that this should be a trivial task since the church has been meeting on the first day of the week for so long and it’s a nearly universal practice. However, if you were seeking to defending the weekly gathering of the church on Sunday and look for clear scriptural support you would find these two verses:
Acts 20:7 says, “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.”
1 Corinthians 16:2 says, “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.”
That’s it. Yet our statement of faith concerning the Lord’s Day says this: “We believe the first day of the week is the Lord’s Day commemorating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that it is the divinely appointed day to be kept sacred for worship and spiritual exercise.”
I agree with that statement, but we have to admit that we don’t have a command in Scripture that details this perhaps as much as we would like.
What’s the point of discussing Sunday worship? I want you to see that there is more scriptural warrant for weekly communion and a weekly shared meal than there is for meeting on the first day of the week. That is, if you believe meeting on the first day of the week is scriptural (as I do and as our statement reads), then it would follow that we also believe that meeting should consist of the Lord’s Supper and a meal together.
Scriptural Support for a Weekly Practice of the Supper
The institution of the Lord’s Supper is in three of the four gospels (Matthew 26:26–29; Mark 14:22–25; Luke 22:14–23). We see it practiced in the early church in Acts 2:42 and Acts 20. And, we also see it commanded and practiced in Corinth during the gathering of the church (1 Corinthians 11:17–34; 10:16–17). You can see already that there is more Scripture dealing with this than with gathering on the first day of the week.
Acts 2:42
Acts 2:42 says, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
What is the breaking of bread? This can be a term used for a regular meal (cf. Luke 24:30,35; Acts 20:11; 27:35).
Acts 2:46 says, “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts.” Clearly, a meal is in context here.
However, almost all interpreters understand Acts 2:42 to refer to the Lord’s Supper taking place in the context of a meal for the following reasons:
- The breaking of bread appears between a list of spiritual church-gathering activities “teaching and the fellowship” and “prayers” in Acts 2:42.
- Paul uses the term “the bread that we break” (1 Cor 10:16) to refer to the Lord’s Supper.
- Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper in the midst of the Passover meal (Luke 22:7–23).
- The Lord’s Supper in Corinth (1 Cor 11:17–34) was practiced with a meal.
In summary, Acts 2:42 describes the daily gathering in the first few weeks of the church where they would gather for teaching, prayers, fellowship, and eating together while practicing the Lord’s Supper.
Acts 20:7
Acts 20:7 says, “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.”
What is being described here? The now weekly (rather than daily) gathering of the church on the first day of the week (Sunday). This is the day of the week when they “gathered together to break bread.” This appears to include a fellowship meal (Acts 20:11) as well as the Lord’s Supper.
In summary, Acts 20:7 describes the weekly gathering as including a meal, practicing the Lord’s Supper, and listening to teaching.
1 Corinthians 11:17–34
This passage describes the Lord’s Supper and its abuse in Corinth. Of note is the following:
- The Lord’s Supper was in the context of a meal (v. 21, 33)
- The Lord’s Supper was practiced when they came together as a church—i.e., weekly on a Sunday (“when you come together” [v. 17]; “when you come together as a church” [v. 18]; “when you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.” [v. 20]). From verse 20 especially, we see that they came together to eat when they gathered as a church.
- The saying “as often as you eat…” which has traditionally been used to argue that the frequency is not important was quoted in the midst of a weekly practice of the Supper.
In summary, 1 Corinthians 11:17–34 describes the weekly gathering of the church where they practiced the Lord’s Supper and ate a meal together. As we consider all these verses, it seems that every time the church gathered they shared a meal and practiced the Lord’s supper.
Historical Support
If there is so much evidence in Scripture, then why does this practice seem so foreign to the church? There are many factors, but there have also been many in church history that have defended the practice. Consider the following:
The Didache, the earliest Christian document besides the New Testament describes the practice of weekly communion. It says, “But every Lord’s day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure” (14:1).
From the earliest Roman description of Christianity, the imperial governor Pliny the Younger (61/62–c. 113) mentions in a letter to the emperor Trajan (reign 98–117) that Christians in Bithynia and Pontus were in the habit of meeting on a weekly basis to partake of food (Pliny, Letter 10.96).
Justin Martyr in his First Apology (151/155 AD) discusses the Lord’s Supper as a regular weekly communion (Justin Martyr, First Apology, 65 and 67).
John Calvin, the reformer held that ancient rule that no meeting of the church should take place without also partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Ultimately, he was denied by those in authority over him but he prayed that future churches may recover this ancient practice.
Charles Spurgeon said, “So with the Lord’s Supper. My witness is, and I think I speak the mind of many of God’s people now present, that coming as some of us do, weekly, to the Lord’s table, we do not find the breaking of bread to have lost its significance—it is always fresh to us. I have often remarked on the Lord’s-day evening, whatever the subject may have been, whether Sinai has thundered over our heads, or the plaintive notes of Calvary have pierced our hearts, it always seems equally appropriate to come to the breaking of bread. Shame on the Christian church that she put it off to once a month and mar the first day of the week by depriving it of its glory in the meeting together for fellowship and breaking of bread and showing forth the death of Christ till he comes. They who once know the sweetness of each Lord’s day celebrating his supper, will not be content, I am sure, to put it off to less frequent seasons. Beloved, when the Holy Ghost is with us, ordinances are wells to the Christian, wells of rich comfort and of near communion” (“Songs of Deliverance,” Sermon no. 763, July 28, 1867).
Despite the Scriptural and historical warrant, the vast majority of Baptist churches today and through the last few hundred years have observed the ceremony once per quarter or once per month. Some have argued for weekly practice such as William B. Johnson, the first president of the Southern Baptist Convention, but it remains a minority position.