16/11/2025
WHY WE WORSHIP ON SUNDAY, THE DAY THAT CHANGED HISTORY FOREVER
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For centuries, God’s people kept the Sabbath, the seventh day (Saturday), as a day of rest, remembering God’s creation.
But from the earliest days of Christianity, believers began to gather on Sunday instead.
Why? Did the Church “change God’s law”?
No, God Himself fulfilled it, and Sunday became the new day of worship by His own action.
Let’s see how.
✝️ 1. THE SABBATH POINTED TO CREATION, SUNDAY PROCLAIMS NEW CREATION
In the Old Testament, the Sabbath honored God’s rest after creation:
“On the seventh day God finished His work… and rested” (Genesis 2:2–3).
It was a sign of the covenant with Israel (Exodus 31:16–17).
But Jesus brought something greater: a new creation through His death and resurrection.
📖 St. Paul says:
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
The day Jesus rose, Sunday, became the day the new creation began.
Isaiah had even hinted at this: “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth… from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before me” (Isaiah 66:22–23), now fulfilled in Christ’s eternal Sabbath rest.
✝️ 2. JESUS FULFILLED THE SABBATH
Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:27–28). He did not abolish it, He fulfilled it in Himself.
On the cross, He cried: “It is finished” (John 19:30).
He then rested in the tomb on the Sabbath, mirroring God’s rest after creation.
On the first day of the week, Sunday, He rose, bringing a rest far greater than a single day: eternal communion with God.
✝️ 3. THE RESURRECTION CHANGED EVERYTHING
Every Gospel testifies:
“On the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb… and found the stone rolled away” (Luke 24:1–2; cf. Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, John 20:1).
Sunday is the Day of the Lord (Revelation 1:10), the day death was defeated and life without end began.
As St. Ignatius of Antioch (c. A.D. 107) wrote:
“If the Sabbath is the end of the first creation, the Lord’s Day is the beginning of the new creation.”
✝️ 4. THE EARLY CHURCH WORSHIPPED ON SUNDAY
The Bible shows Christians gathering on Sunday:
- “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread…” (Acts 20:7), the Eucharist.
- “On the first day of every week each of you is to put something aside…” (1 Corinthians 16:2) — Sunday was the day of assembly and offering.
This wasn’t a later invention. It was the apostolic habit from the very start.
✝️ 5. SUNDAY IS THE EIGHTH DAY, THE DAY BEYOND TIME
The Fathers called Sunday the Eighth Day, not just the first of the week, but the day that bursts beyond time.
It is the day of eternity, the foretaste of heaven. On Sunday, we gather not only to remember the resurrection but to enter the eternal rest Christ has won.
✝️ 6. WHY NOT KEEP BOTH?
The New Covenant does not bind us to the old shadows alongside the new reality.
St. Paul warns:
“Let no one pass judgment… with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow… the substance belongs to Christ” (Colossians 2:16–17).
The Sabbath was a shadow, Sunday is the substance.
✝️ 7. SUNDAY IS THE TRUE LORD’S DAY
From the earliest post-apostolic writings:
👉 St. Justin Martyr (A.D. 155):
“On the day called Sunday, all gather together… because it is the first day on which God made the world and Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead.” (First Apology, 67)
We worship on Sunday not because man changed God’s law, but because God completed His work in Christ and began a new creation on that day.
✝️ SO:
The Sabbath was the seal of the old creation.
Sunday is the dawn of the new creation.
Every Sunday, we stand in the light of the Resurrection.
Every Sunday, we step into the eternal “eighth day.”
Every Sunday, we proclaim:
“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24)
We worship on Sunday, not to break God’s law, but to celebrate its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
God bless you 🙏
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