"I, John,
both your brother and companion in the tribulation
and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on
the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and
for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the
Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me
aa loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, 'I am the
Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last.'”
Revelation 1:9
Commentary:
3. The day and time in which he had this vision:
it was the Lord’s day,
the
day which Christ had separated and set apart for himself, as the eucharist
is called the Lord’s supper. Surely this can be no other than the Christian
Sabbath, the first day of the week, to be observed in remembrance of the
resurrection of Christ. Let us who call him our Lord honour him on his own
day, the day which the Lord hath made and in which we ought to rejoice.
4.
The frame that his [John's] soul was in at this time: He was in the Spirit. He was
not only in a rapture when he received the vision, but before he received
it; he was in a serious, heavenly, spiritual frame, under the blessed
gracious influences of the Spirit of God. God usually prepares the souls of
his people for uncommon manifestations of himself, by the quickening
sanctifying influences of his good Spirit. Those who would enjoy communion
with God on the Lord’s day must endeavour to abstract their thoughts and
affections from flesh and fleshly things, and be wholly taken up with things
of a spiritual nature."
"Now it happened on the second Sabbath
after the first that He went through the grainfields. And His disciples
plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands.
And some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why are you doing what is not
lawful to do on the Sabbath?”
But Jesus answering them said,
“Have you not even read this, what David did when he was hungry, he and
those who were with him: how he went into the house of God, took and ate
the showbread, and also gave some to those with him, which is not lawful
for any but the priests to eat?” And He said to them, “The Son of Man
is also Lord of the Sabbath.” Luke 6:1-5
Commentary: The Son of man is Lord also of
the Sabbath. In the kingdom of the Redeemer, the Sabbath day is to be turned
into a Lord’s day; the property of it is, in some respects, to be altered,
and it is to be observed chiefly in honour of the Redeemer, as it had been
before in honour of the Creator, Jer. 16:14, 15. In token of this, it shall
not only have a new name, the Lord’s day (yet not forgetting the old,
for it is a Sabbath of rest still) but shall be transferred to a new day,
the first day of the week."
"...He
said to them, 'Have you never read what David did
when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him:
how he went into the house of God in the days of
Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which
is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also
gave some to those who were with him?'
"And He said to them,
'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the
Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the
Sabbath.” Mark 2:25-28
Commentary:
"Whom the
Sabbath was made by (v. 28); "The Son of man is Lord
also of the Sabbath [It's the Lord's Day!]; and therefore he will not see the kind intentions of the
institution of it frustrated by your impositions.’’ Note, The Sabbath days
are days of the Son of man; he is the Lord of the day, and to his honour it
must be observed; by him God made the worlds, and so it was by him that the
Sabbath was first instituted; by him God gave the law at mount Sinai, and so
the fourth commandment was his law; and that little alteration that was
shortly to be made, by the shifting of it one day forward to the first day
of the week, was to be in remembrance of his resurrection, and therefore the
Christian Sabbath was to be called the Lord’s day (Rev. 1:10), the Lord
Christ’s day; and the Son of man, Christ, as Mediator, is always to be
looked upon as Lord of the Sabbath. This argument he largely insists upon in
his own justification, when he was charged with having broken the Sabbath,
Jn. 5:16.
They came together upon the first day of the week, which they called the
Lord’s day (Rev. 1:10), the Christian Sabbath, celebrated to the honour of
Christ and the Holy Spirit, in remembrance of the resurrection of Christ,
and the pouring out of the Spirit, both on the first day of the week. This
is here said to be the day when the disciples came together, that is, when
it was their practice to come together in all the churches. Note, The first
day of the week is to be religiously observed by all the disciples of
Christ; and it is a sign between Christ and them, for by this it is known
that they are his disciples; and it is to be observed in solemn assemblies,
which are, as it were, the courts held in the name of our Lord Jesus, and to
his honour, by his ministers, the stewards of his courts, to which all that
hold from and under him owe suit and service, and at which they are to make
their appearance, as tenants at their Lord’s courts, and the first day of
the week is appointed to be the court-day.
3. They were
gathered together in
an upper chamber (v. 8); they had no temple nor synagogue to meet in, no
capacious stately chapel, but met in a private house, in a garret. As they
were few, and did not need, so they were poor, and could not build, a large
meeting-place; yet they came together, in that despicable inconvenient
place. It will be no excuse for our absenting ourselves from religious
assemblies that the place of them is not so decent nor so commodious as we
would have it to be.
4. They came together to break bread, that is, to
celebrate the ordinance of the Lord’s supper, that one instituted sign of
breaking the bread being put for all the rest. The bread which we break is
the communion of the body of Christ, 1 Co. 10:16. In the breaking of the
bread, not only the breaking of Christ’s body for us, to be a sacrifice for
our sins, is commemorated, but the breaking of Christ’s body to us, to be
food and a feast for our souls, is signified. In the primitive times it was
the custom of many churches to receive the Lord’s supper every Lord’s day,
celebrating the memorial of Christ’s death in the former, with that of his
resurrection in the latter; and both in concert, in a solemn assembly, to
testify their joint concurrence in the same faith and worship."
"Now
after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began
to dawn, Mary Magdalene band the other Mary came to
see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake;
for can angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and
came and rolled back the stone from the door...
"...the angel answered and said to
the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek
Jesus who was crucified. 'He is not here; for He is
risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord
lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that
He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going
before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold,
I have told you.” Matthew 28:1-8
Commentary:
"...the
seventh-day Sabbath being buried with Christ, it arose again in the
first-day Sabbath, called the Lord’s day (Rev. 1:10), and
no other day of
the week is from henceforward mentioned in all the New Testament than this,
and this often, as the day which Christians religiously observed in solemn
assemblies, to the honour of Christ, Jn. 20:19, 26; Acts 20:7; 1 Co. 16:2.
"If the deliverance of Israel out of the land of the north superseded the
remembrance of that out of Egypt (Jer. 23:7, 8), much more doth our
redemption by Christ eclipse the glory of God’s former works.
"The
Sabbath
was instituted in remembrance of the perfecting of the work of creation,
Gen. 2:1. Man by his revolt made a breach upon that perfect work, which was
never perfectly repaired till Christ arose from the dead, and the heavens
and the earth were again finished, and the disordered hosts of them modeled
anew, and the day on which this was done was justly blessed and sanctified,
and the seventh day from that. He who on that day arose from the dead, is
the same by whom, and for whom, all things were at first created, and now
anew created.
(4.) "He arose as it began to dawn toward that day; as soon as it could be
said that the third day was come, the time prefixed for his resurrection, he
arose; after his withdrawings from his people, he returns with all
convenient speed, and cuts the work as short in righteousness as may be. He
had said to his disciples, that though within a little while they should not
see him, yet again a little while, and they should see him, and accordingly
he made it as little a while as possible, Isa. 54:7, 8.
"Christ arose when
the day began to dawn, because then the day-spring from on high did again
visit us, Lu. 1:78. His passion began in the night; when he hung on the
cross the sun was darkened; he was laid in the grave in the dusk of the
evening; but he arose from the grave when the sun was near rising, for he is
the bright and morning Star (Rev. 22:16), the true Light. Those who address
themselves early in the morning to the religious services of the Christian
Sabbath, that they may take the day before them, therein follow this example
of Christ, and that of David, Early will I seek thee."
"One
person esteems one day above another; another esteems
every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own
mind. He who fobserves the day, observes it to the
Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord
he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord,
for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to
the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. For
hnone of us lives to himself, and no one dies to
himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we
die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or
die, we are the Lord’s." Romans 14:5-8
Commentary:
(2.) Those who
thought themselves still under some
kind of obligation to the ceremonial law esteemed one day above another—kept
up a respect to the times of the Passover, Pentecost, new moons, and feasts
of tabernacles; thought those days better than other days, and solemnized
them accordingly with particular observances, binding themselves to some
religious rest and exercise on those days. Those who knew that all these
things were abolished and done away by Christ’s coming esteemed every day
alike.
"We must understand it
with an exception of the Lord’s day, which all
Christians unanimously observed; but they made no account, took no notice,
of those antiquated festivals of the Jews. Here the apostle speaks of the
distinction of meats and days as a thing indifferent, when it went no
further than the opinion and practice of some particular persons, who had
been trained up all their days to such observances, and therefore were the
more excusable if they with difficulty parted with them. But in the epistle
to the Galatians, where he deals with those that were originally Gentiles,
but were influenced by some judaizing teachers, not only to believe such a
distinction and to practice accordingly, but to lay a stress upon it as
necessary to salvation..."
"For I
received from the Lord that which I also delivered to
you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He
was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks,
He broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body
which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.
In the same manner He also took the cup after supper,
saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This
do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.'..."
1 Corinthians 11:23-25
Commentary:
"...The Lord’s supper is
not a temporary, but a standing and perpetual ordinance. We have here the sacramental actions, the manner in
which the materials of the sacrament are to be used.
"[1.] Our Saviour’s
actions, which are taking the bread and cup, giving thanks, breaking the
bread, and giving about both the one and the other.
"[2.] The actions of the
communicants, which were to take the bread and eat, to take the cup and
drink, and both in remembrance of Christ. But the external acts are not the
whole nor the principal part of what is to be done at this holy ordinance;
each of them has a significancy. Our Saviour, having undertaken to make an
offering of himself to God, and procure, by his death, the remission of
sins, with all other gospel benefits, for true believers, did, at the
institution, deliver his body and blood, with all the benefits procured by
his death, to his disciples, and continues to do the same every time the
ordinance is administered to the true believers. This is here exhibited, or
set forth, as the food of souls. And as food, though ever so wholesome or
rich, will yield no nourishment without being eaten, here the communicants
are to take and eat, or to receive Christ and feed upon him, his grace and
benefits, and by faith convert them into nourishment to their souls. They
are to take him as their Lord and life, yield themselves up to him, and live
upon him. He is our life, Col. 3:4.
III.
"We have here an account of the ends of this institution. [1.] It was
appointed to be done in remembrance of Christ, to keep fresh in our minds an
ancient favour, his dying for us, as well as to remember an absent friend,
even Christ interceding for us, in virtue of his death, at God’s right hand...
"[2.] It was to show forth Christ’s death, to declare and
publish it. It is not barely in remembrance of Christ, of what he has done
and suffered, that this ordinance was instituted; but to commemorate, to
celebrate, his glorious condescension and grace in our redemption. We
declare his death to be our life, the spring of all our comforts and hopes.
And we glory in such a declaration; we show forth his death, and spread it
before God, as our accepted sacrifice and ransom. We set it in view of our
own faith, for our own comfort and quickening; and we own before the world,
by this very service, that we are the disciples of Christ, who trust in him
alone for salvation and acceptance with God.
IV. "It is moreover hinted here, concerning this ordinance, [1.] That it
should be frequent: As often as you eat this bread, etc. Our bodily meals
return often; we cannot maintain life and health without this. And it is fit
that this spiritual diet should be taken often tool The ancient churches
celebrated this ordinance every Lord’s day, if not every day when they
assembled for worship.
"[2.] That it must be perpetual. It is to be
celebrated till the Lord shall come; till he shall come the second time,
without sin, for the salvation of those that believe, and to judge the
world. This is our warrant for keeping this feast. It was our Lord’s will
that we should thus celebrate the memorials of his death and passion, till
he come in his own glory, and the Father’s glory, with his holy angels, and
put an end to the present state of things, and his own mediatorial
administration, by passing the final sentence. Note, The Lord’s supper is
not a temporary, but a standing and perpetual ordinance."
"Now
concerning the collection for the saints, as I have
given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must
do also: On the first day of the week let each one
of you lay something aside, storing up as he may
prosper, that there be no collections when I come.
And when I come, whomever you approve by your
letters I will send to bear your gift to Jerusalem."
1 Corinthians 16:1-3
Commentary:
"2. Here
is the measure in which they are to lay by: As God hath
prospered them... as he has been prospered, namely, by divine
Providence, as God has been pleased to bless and succeed his labours and
business. Note, All our business and labour are that to us which God is
pleased to make them. It is not the diligent hand that will make rich by
itself, without the divine blessing, Prov. 10:4, 22. Our prosperity and
success are from God and not from ourselves; and he is to be owned in all
and honoured with all. It is his bounty and blessing to which we owe all we
have; and whatever we have is to be used, and employed, and improved, for
him. His right to ourselves and all that is ours is to be owned and yielded
to him. And what argument more proper to excite us to charity to the people
and children of God than to consider all we have as his gift, as coming
from him?...
"3. Here is the time when this is to be done:
The first day of the week, kata
mian sabbatoµn (Lu. 24:1), the Lord’s day, the Christian holiday, when
public assemblies were held and public worship was celebrated, and the
Christian institutions and mysteries (as the ancients called
them) were attended upon; then let every one lay by him. It
is a day of holy rest; and the more vacation the mind has
from worldly cares and toils the more disposition has it to
show mercy: and the other duties of the day should stir us
up to the performance of this; works of charity should
always accompany works of piety."
See
God's Eternal Covenant
and His
covenant with Abraham.
