3 - Did the Apostles Ever Teach Christians to Keep Sunday?
Updated: Sep 1
Before we accept a change in God's day of rest, let's look carefully at the evidence.
In our first post, we asked:
Who has the authority to sanctify?
We went back to Creation and found that the Sabbath began with God Himself.
God created.
God rested.
God blessed.
God sanctified.
The seventh day was made holy by the Creator, not by a human institution.
In our second post, we then asked:
Did human religious authority ever claim the right to change the Sabbath?
History gave us reason to take that question seriously.
But there is a question we must answer before history can settle anything for us:
Did the apostles ever teach Christians to keep Sunday instead?
If the Sabbath was changed after Christ, the most important evidence should be found in the New Testament itself.
So let's put the assumptions aside and examine the passages.
Sunday Is Certainly Mentioned in the New Testament
We should begin by acknowledging the obvious.
The first day of the week is mentioned several times.
Jesus rose on the first day.
“Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn...”— Matthew 28:1
Jesus appeared to His disciples on the first day.
“Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week...”— John 20:19
So something important happened on Sunday:
Jesus rose from the dead.
There is no controversy about that.
The question is not whether Sunday became significant.
It did.
The question is:
Did the apostles teach that the first day of the week became the new Sabbath?
Those are two different questions.
What Does John 20 Actually Say?
John tells us that Jesus appeared to His disciples on the first day of the week.
But notice what John does not say.
He doesn't say:
“Therefore the Sabbath was changed.”
He doesn't say:
“The first day was now sanctified.”
He doesn't say:
“The disciples were commanded to keep Sunday holy.”
John is telling us when Jesus appeared.
That's important.
But we shouldn't make the passage say more than John says.
The resurrection is the central event of Christianity.
But resurrection day and Sabbath day are not automatically synonymous.
If the resurrection changed God's appointed day of rest, we should expect Scripture to tell us so.
So let's keep looking.
What About Acts 20:7?
This is probably one of the most frequently cited passages for Sunday observance:
“Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them...”— Acts 20:7
At first glance, this sounds straightforward:
They gathered on Sunday.
But Luke gives us something extremely important:
Context.
Why were they gathered?
Because Paul was leaving the next day.
Luke is describing a specific occasion in Paul's journey.
Paul had arrived in Troas and was preparing to continue his journey. The believers gathered together, Paul spoke to them, and the meeting continued late into the night.
In fact, Paul spoke until midnight.
Then Eutychus fell asleep and fell from the third story.
Paul embraced him, and the gathering continued.
Luke says:
“Now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed.”— Acts 20:11
Read the whole scene.
This is a farewell gathering.
Paul is leaving.
The believers want time with him.
They eat together.
Paul teaches them for hours.
He leaves after daybreak.
Luke never says:
“This was the new Christian Sabbath.”
He never says:
“Sunday had replaced the seventh day.”
He simply records what happened.
And there's another detail we need to consider.
The gathering takes place during the night. In the Jewish reckoning of a day, the evening begins the new day.
So we shouldn't automatically impose our modern Sunday-morning worship schedule onto this passage.
The text itself doesn't do that.
“They Broke Bread” — What Does That Mean?
This phrase is sometimes treated as though it automatically means:
“They celebrated the Christian worship service.”
But Luke uses similar language elsewhere for ordinary Christian meals.
Acts 2:46 says believers were:
“breaking bread from house to house, eating their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.”
So “breaking bread” can certainly describe Christian fellowship and eating.
Acts 20:7 may include worship and communion-like fellowship. We shouldn't exclude that possibility.
But the text itself does not say:
“They gathered because Sunday had become holy.”
That's the point.
The gathering is real.
The first day is real.
The command to sanctify Sunday is not stated.
What About 1 Corinthians 16:1–2?
This passage is also frequently presented as evidence that Sunday became the Christian Sabbath.
Paul writes:
“Now concerning the collection for the saints... On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside...”— 1 Corinthians 16:1–2
But look at the context.
Paul begins:
“Now concerning the collection for the saints...”
He's organizing financial assistance for believers in Jerusalem.
His instruction is about setting money aside according to one's prosperity.
Again, the first day is mentioned.
But Paul doesn't say:
“Gather for worship.”
He doesn't say:
“Keep this day holy.”
He doesn't say:
“The Sabbath has been transferred.”
The passage is about a collection.
And that's why context matters.
But What About Paul's Sabbath Practice?
Now we encounter something that deserves just as much attention.
Luke repeatedly records Paul ministering on the Sabbath.
Acts 13:14
Paul enters the synagogue on the Sabbath.
Acts 13:42
The Gentiles ask to hear the Gospel the next Sabbath.
Acts 13:44
“On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.”
Think about that.
Gentiles are specifically involved.
They hear the Gospel.
They want to hear more.
And they ask to hear it the next Sabbath.
Then almost the entire city gathers.
Again, we shouldn't turn this into a proof-text and say:
“Therefore every Christian is commanded to keep Saturday.”
The passage doesn't explicitly say that.
But it does create a serious question for anyone claiming:
“The apostles had already replaced the Sabbath with Sunday.”
Because Luke continues describing Sabbath activity after the resurrection and within the Christian mission.
And Luke Says Something Even More Explicit
Acts 17:2 says:
“Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures.”
“As his custom was.”
That's Luke's description.
Not:
“Paul used to do this.”
Not:
“Paul did this before the cross.”
Not:
“Paul was trying to convince them to abandon the Sabbath.”
Luke simply describes it as Paul's custom.
And Acts 18:4 says:
“And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.”
Every Sabbath.
And now we have another important detail:
Greeks.
So the question becomes increasingly interesting.
If Paul had taught that the Sabbath had been abolished for Christians, why does Luke repeatedly describe his Sabbath practice, including ministry involving Gentiles?
If the Sabbath Had Been Abolished, Where Is the Controversy?
There is another detail we shouldn't overlook.
The Gospels repeatedly show Jesus being confronted over the Sabbath.
His opponents watched Him.
They questioned Him.
They accused Him.
They even sought to destroy Him because of what He did on the Sabbath.
Why?
Because the Sabbath was a very public issue.
Jesus healed on the Sabbath.
His disciples picked grain on the Sabbath.
He challenged the religious leaders' interpretation of Sabbath observance.
And yet notice something remarkable.
Jesus never responded:
“The Sabbath doesn't matter anymore.”
Instead, He went directly to the purpose and meaning of the Sabbath.
“The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”— Mark 2:27
And then:
“Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”— Mark 2:28
Now consider what would have happened if, after Christ's resurrection, the apostles had begun teaching:
“The seventh-day Sabbath has been abolished. Sunday is now the Christian Sabbath.”
That would have represented a major theological change.
And the New Testament gives us plenty of examples of the apostles being challenged over controversial changes involving circumcision, food, Gentile inclusion, and the law.
So where is the controversy over abolishing the Sabbath itself?
Where is the apostle explaining:
“The fourth commandment no longer applies”?
Where is the announcement:
“The Sabbath has been transferred to the first day of the week”?
We don't find it.
Instead, we find Paul continuing to reason from Scripture on the Sabbath.
That doesn't by itself settle every question about Sabbath observance.
But it does mean we should be careful about claiming that the apostles simply abolished it.
Because if that was their teaching, we should expect Scripture to tell us.
And that's precisely what we're looking for.
But Was Paul Just Evangelizing Jews?
That's the strongest response.
And we should acknowledge it.
Of course Paul went to synagogues because that was where people were gathered who knew the Scriptures.
That explains part of his behavior.
But it doesn't answer the entire question.
Because in Acts 13:
Gentiles ask to hear the Gospel on the next Sabbath.
And in Acts 18:
Paul reasons with both Jews and Greeks every Sabbath.
So we need to distinguish two claims:
“Paul used the Sabbath as an evangelistic opportunity.”
That is certainly possible.
From:
“Paul taught that the Sabbath had been abolished and Sunday had replaced it.”
That requires something more.
Where is that teaching?
Now Let's Return to the Foreigner Question
This is where some of the arguments we've encountered recently have taken us.
We've heard:
“The Sabbath was only given to the Jews.”
There is an important truth underneath that statement.
Exodus 31 explicitly identifies the Sabbath as a covenant sign between God and Israel.
We shouldn't deny that.
But we also shouldn't let that statement answer a larger question it hasn't actually answered.
The Old Testament Sabbath legislation includes the ger, the stranger or sojourner within Israel's gates:
Exodus 20:10
Deuteronomy 5:14
Exodus 23:12
And Isaiah 56 speaks of foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, hold His covenant, and keep the Sabbath.
Jewish sources themselves recognize the complexity of the Hebrew term ger and distinguish categories such as resident foreigners and converts.
So we don't need to claim that every Gentile everywhere was automatically under the Mosaic Sabbath covenant.
That would go beyond the evidence.
But neither can we simply say:
“The Bible says the Sabbath was exclusively for ethnic Jews.”
The evidence is more complicated than that.
And here's why that matters for our present question:
Even if we grant that the Mosaic Sabbath was given to Israel as a covenant sign, we still have to ask what happened to it after Christ.
That's the question we're investigating.
So Where Is the Change?
Let's put everything we've seen on the table.
The New Testament tells us:
Jesus rose on the first day.
Jesus appeared to His disciples on the first day.
Believers gathered on the first day in Troas.
Paul instructed believers to set aside their collection on the first day.
But it also tells us:
Paul repeatedly ministered on the Sabbath.
Luke calls it Paul's custom.
Gentiles asked to hear the Gospel on the next Sabbath.
Almost the entire city gathered the following Sabbath.
Paul reasoned with Jews and Greeks every Sabbath.
Now ask the question without denominational assumptions:
Where is the apostolic command transferring the Sabbath to Sunday?
Not:
“Where does the Bible mention Sunday?”
We have those verses.
Not:
“Did Christians ever meet on Sunday?”
They did.
The question is:
Where did an apostle say that Sunday had now become the holy day established in place of the seventh day?
That's what we are looking for.
And so far, the passages we've examined don't say it.
And This Brings Us Back to Authority
Remember where this series began.
God did not merely rest on the seventh day.
Genesis says:
“God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.”
Who did that?
God.
The Creator.
And Exodus 20 connects the Sabbath directly to Creation:
“For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day...”— Exodus 20:11
Then Revelation's final call to worship says:
“Worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”— Revelation 14:7
The Creator is brought back into the center of the final call to worship.
So perhaps we've been asking the wrong question.
Maybe the ultimate issue isn't:
Saturday versus Sunday.
Maybe the deeper issue is:
Who has the authority to sanctify?
And ultimately:
Whose authority governs your life?
One More Question
We have examined the apostles.
We've looked at the first-day passages.
We've looked at Paul's repeated Sabbath practice.
And we've asked where the actual transfer command is.
But there is still one person we haven't fully allowed to answer the question.
Jesus.
Before we decide what the apostles changed, we should ask:
Did Jesus Himself ever abolish the Sabbath?
Because He said something remarkably different:
“The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”— Mark 2:28
And He said it in a context where He was confronting people who had turned God's gift of Sabbath into something very different from what God intended.
So our next question is not:
“What does tradition say Jesus did?”
It's:
One layer at a time.
Comments