The Lord’s Supper: Every First Day of the Week

Posted: November 6th, 2005 | Author: stauffer | Filed under: Articles

The only verse in the New Testament that tells disciples when to observe the Lord’s Supper is Acts 20:7 where Luke, who was present that day in the city of Troas, says: “And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread.” He explains that brethren assembled for the purpose of breaking bread.

Historians report that theologians, bishops, and other church leaders of the second century tell us that the disciples of the first century met every first day of the week to eat the Lord’s Supper. Neander, a Lutheran historian, notes: “The celebration of the Lord’s supper was still held to constitute an essential part of the divine worship on every Sunday, as appears from Justin Martyr in the year 150.”

Modern theologians and Bible commentators, however, have decided that it is enough to observe the Lord’s Supper monthly, quarterly, or annually. One wonders where in the Bible they found authority for these practices. Did they decide this because it is more convenient and less trouble, because weekly is too boring or too routine, or because it is not as important as singing or praying or giving?

We don’t have to imagine how the Lord feels about those who find ways to get around what he has clearly taught his people to do. The Old Testament, which was written for our learning and admonition (1 Corinthians 10:11; Romans 15:4), tells us about a man who violated the sabbath law which forbade work on that day. The man who was found in the fields gathering sticks on the sabbath was taken to Moses and God told the leader of Israel to have him stoned to death (Numbers 15:32-36).

This man could have offered the same defense that modern denominationalists offer for not observing the Lord’s Supper on a particular first day of the week. “God, you said ‘remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy,’ but you didn’t say every sabbath.” So, people say today: “Luke didn’t say ‘every first day of the week.’”

If Acts 20:7 does not authorize the observance of the Lord’s Supper weekly, then it authorizes no frequency at all. One could observe it once a month, once a year, or once a lifetime. If God had said “the first day of the month,” we would understand he intended it to be monthly. If he had said “the first day of the year,” we would conclude he meant annually. But he said: “first day of the week.” Is it not clear that He meant weekly?

What we know about the “first day of the week” is that it is the day the Jesus was raised from the dead, the day He met with his disciples, the day when the church was established (Pentecost), and the day disciples gave as they were prospered (John 20:1, 19, 26; Acts 2:1; Leviticus 23:15-16; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2).

It is amazing that believers in Jesus meet on the Lord’s day, the first day of the week, and do everything – sing, pray, give, study – except the one thing they are told to do to remember Jesus. The Lord’s Supper is a memorial feast of unleaven bread and fruit of the vine that disciples eat to remember the death of Christ (Matthew 26:26-28; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Does anyone want to meet Jesus in judgment and have to explain that he assembled on the first day of the week in honor of his resurrection but didn’t remember his death by taking of the Lord’s Supper?