“THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK”

There are four scriptures I would like to read—

—The first one you will find in Revelation 1: 9, 10, “I John, who also am your brother”, &c.

—The second is Acts 20: 7, “The first day of the week, we being assembled to break bread”, &c.

—The third is John 20: 19, 20;

—The fourth is 1 Corinthians 16: 1.

I think that in these four scriptures you will find that we have a complete testimony with regard to the first day of the week, or the Lord’s day. I apprehend that in the expression “the first day of the week” we are reminded of that which is entirely new. “The first of the week” (for the word “day” is not literally there) is involved in the expression “the Lord’s day”. We have the same day, but the day brought before us as specially connected with the Lord, and as marked or characterised by those things which belong to the Lord.

I have no doubt that in these four scriptures we have a very comprehensive expression of what belongs to and characterises Christianity. There is only one day mentioned in the New Testament in respect of Christianity, and that is the first day of the week, or the Lord’s day. There is no mention of any other day, and in this respect, Christianity stands in striking contrast to what preceded it. In connection with Judaism, we not only have different days, but we have different times of different days, we have hours, minutes, moments. We have days, many days, different days, and then we have weeks, months, and years, even going so far as fifty years. But in Christianity we have only one day.

I think the way Christianity is presented to us in the New Testament scriptures gives us only a week at a time. There is the “first day of the week”, and whatever belongs to that day is characteristic of Christianity. So that it is a question whether the Lord will tarry through the week; if He does not come during the week (and He may come)—that is how the truth is put before us, for there is no scriptural ground for delay or putting off the coming of the Lord. He may come this week—but if He tarry, if He does not come this week, we begin again next “first day of the week”, that is how it is presented. The point I want to press upon you just at this moment is that the “first day”, or the Lord’s day, is the characteristic day of Christianity; hence it characterises all the days that may follow. I think you will find I have read these four scriptures in their proper order. It is remarkable that the scripture in Revelation brings before us an individual Christian. You say, perhaps, ‘But John was an apostle’. We know that he was. But it is not as an apostle that he speaks in the verses I have read. But mark! he says, “I John, who also am your brother”—your brother—“and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience in Jesus”. That is, John comes before us as a Christian, and further, he comes before us as a Christian in fellowship. “I, John”, who speaks of himself as “your brother” (the brother of every Christian) “and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience, in Jesus, was in the island called Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus”. And what follows? “I became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”. There is perfect order. John is here brought before us as a Christian, an individual Christian who is in fellowship. And then he speaks of the Lord’s day. He says, “I became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”. That is the beginning. We shall come to the assembly presently, but there is something that precedes the assembly, there is that which is individual which underlies and precedes everything that is collective. We participate in the breaking of bread, which may be spoken of as privilege. But even in connection with the breaking of bread you find a double responsibility. There is a responsibility belonging to the assembly as such, and responsibility belonging to every individual who has part in it. But what precedes it? Why just what John expresses about himself—“I John, who also am your brother and fellow-partaker”. What precedes our coming together to break bread? You have to be ready for it individually, you have to be in fellowship for it individually. It is a poor thing to be connected with Christianity only in the way of responsibility. There is responsibility, but you will find in scripture that there is a basis upon which responsibility rests, and that is, that you are in the reality of Christian fellowship. I allude for a moment to a scripture just for the sake of making that point clear. At the end of Acts 2 (v 37), after an account of Peter’s testimony is given and the wonderful working of God when three thousand people were pricked to the heart, and cried out, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” They got a very plain answer through the lips of Peter, who says, “Repent, and be baptised, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”, v 38. They responded to that answer. And what is said about them then? “They persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles”, v 42. I just want to emphasise that point—they persevered in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship. The truth had been presented and taught, and they who responded to it persevered in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship. Then it goes on to say, “and in breaking of bread and prayers”.

I want to press this point upon you a little as the Lord may help. I apprehend that when you come to the Lord’s day the first question is—“Are you in fellowship?” What is the point of fellowship? The point of fellowship is the death of Christ. But mark! it is not the death of Christ as in the Lord’s supper. It is the death of Christ as our passover. In 1 Corinthians 5: 7 we read, “For also our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed” (or slain). Now what is the import of Christ as our passover? It is the death of Christ as the expression of the judgment of God upon sin, on evil—on all that is contrary to God. If you go back to the type, the literal passover in Exodus 12: 12, what characterised that night? Judgment! Jehovah, through Moses, said: “I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite”. Mark that! He does not speak about blessing there, He speaks about smiting. “And will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast ... I will execute judgment: I am the Lord”. It was a night of judgment—the judgment of God. He took account, and solemn account, of everything in the land in relation to Himself, and all that was contrary to Him He smote. He executed judgment upon it. That is the death of Christ as our passover. It is a serious question, beloved! Are we in the fellowship that is based upon the death of Christ as the judgment of God upon evil? Do you ask what has come under the judgment of God? We might sum it up in three terms. The flesh, and the world, and Satan as the prince of this world; all these have come under the judgment of God. Well, then, what does it mean to be in Christian fellowship? It means that you and I are morally in accord with what is expressed in the death of Christ as our passover. But are we?

You know there are two things enjoined on Israel, Exodus 12. There was the passover, and based upon it, and you might say formed by the divine judgment as expressed in the passover, there was the feast of unleavened bread. What was that? It was the practical answer on the part of Israel to the judgment of God which was expressed in the passover. Hence every bit of leaven was to go: and to go, not only out of the bread but out of the houses—“the very first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses”. Now look at the application of it by the Spirit to Christians in 1 Corinthians 5. All is based upon Christ’s death. Christ our passover has been sacrificed. What have you had to do with that? You have had nothing to do with it unless you have accepted it in the faith of your soul. The question is—Are you in accord with it? The trouble at Corinth was that they were not practically in accord with the death of Christ; they were practically allowing that which had really come under the judgment of God in the death of Christ; that was the cause of all the trouble. The Lord never instituted the Lord’s supper or the breaking of bread and called us to it that we might eat and drink judgment to ourselves. But that was what they were doing at Corinth. And why? Because they were not in the reality of fellowship. They were responsibly in fellowship. Every Christian is responsibly in fellowship. But, oh! what a poor thing it is simply to incur the responsibility without the spiritual reality of it. That is how it was with those at Corinth, and that is where we come short. We are not ready in spiritual condition to come together on the first day of the week to break bread if we are not in fellowship with the death of Christ, and that means that you are in accord with it, that there is that in you which morally corresponds to the judgment of God as seen in the death of Christ. What is that? Self-judgment! There is the disallowance of the flesh and the disallowance of the world and the disallowance of Satan.

These are simple things to speak of. We know something about the breaking of bread; some of us have known it for a good many years. I ask, Did you ever hear of any trouble among the saints who break bread together? We know there has been trouble. Why does trouble come upon us? Is it not because we are not truly in Christian fellowship? We are not in accord with the death of Christ. Responsibly every Christian is in fellowship. It is not a matter of choice. “God is faithful, by whom ye have been called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”, 1 Cor 1: 9. Every Christian is under that call. Each one is under the responsibility of it too. There is no such thing in scripture as a Christian not in fellowship. Of the three thousand converted in Acts 2 every one of them persevered in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship. There was no Christian in those days that was not in fellowship, and there would not be now if things were right. Well, you cannot set everybody right, but there is one person you can see to, and that person is yourself. You can at least do what Paul said to Timothy: “Give heed to thyself”, 1 Tim 4: 16. The question for me is: ‘Am I really in fellowship?’ The beginning of all Christian fellowship is that you are in the fellowship of Christ’s death—that there is the answer in you to the judgment of God expressed in the death of Christ. Then you walk in habitual self-judgment, in habitual refusal and disallowance of the flesh in you, and of the world around you, and of Satan. I am bold to say that not one of us Christians is going on according to God unless we are thus in correspondence with the death of Christ as the expression of God’s judgment.

Well, now, to revert to Revelation 1, John says: “I John, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience, in Jesus, was in the island called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus. I became in the Spirit ...”. How did he “become”? Things do not happen accidentally or incidentally in Christianity. My beloved brethren, it is a wonderful thing to become in the Spirit. It is not a question of having the Spirit. It is a question of coming into that condition where you are under the control and power of the Spirit of God. That is where the Lord’s day begins. It begins with us individually. There was John! He could not have gone to a meeting for the breaking of bread on that Lord’s day, for he was in the “island called Patmos”. I have no doubt that Satan at the back of the Roman power triumphantly said, ‘I have stopped that man; I have got him banished’. But has he defeated and stopped him? Oh no! John is there in the Spirit. John is in fellowship. I would say to you, Are you in fellowship? You say, perhaps, I have had to move off further and I cannot get to the meeting. I do not ask if you can get to the meeting, but are you in fellowship? John though banished from all the saints was in fellowship because there was the answer in his soul to the death of Christ. John had tribulation, and you will have it if you are in the fellowship of Christ’s death. If you allow the flesh, the world, the devil, you can have an easy, a smooth-going time—but do you want to have such a time here where He was rejected? Ah no! we want to be in the “kingdom and patience in Jesus”.

I know, alas! that it has come to pass that many are just Sunday go-to-meeting Christians. Excuse me for putting it in that blunt way, but I want to press on you the way to begin the Lord’s day. The first thing is, you are in fellowship—in the reality of it, in the truth of it. There is response in your soul to the judgment of God expressed in the death of Christ. You are keeping the feast, not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but “with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”, 1 Cor 5: 8. You are morally transparent. There is nothing to hinder the sunshine of His love if we are keeping the feast of unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I do not want to be in concert with the world or the flesh. I want to be in concert with God, and if I am it does not matter about my circumstances. Let me be on the island of Patmos or wherever He wills me to be, but let me be found in correspondence with God.

Well. John “became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”. Now we are on the line for the next scripture that I read—Acts 20: 7, “And the first day of the week, we being assembled to break bread”. Who came together? All those who were in the reality of Christian fellowship. I know where they put the breaking of bread in Christendom. But what thought have we of it? I was taught once that it was a ‘means of grace’—that we come to partake of the Lord’s supper as a means of grace—that if you do not know that your sins are forgiven the sacrament is a good place to be at. That is all wrong. I will tell you what the breaking of bread is—it is the divinely appointed expression of Christian fellowship. The breaking of bread does not manufacture the fellowship, it supposes it to be there. If it is not there, if I am not in the fellowship of Christ’s death, what is the breaking of bread? It is eating and drinking judgment, that is what it will prove to be to me; that is what it proved to be at Corinth. Why did it prove to be eating and drinking judgment to themselves? Because they were not in the truth of fellowship. They were not keeping the feast of unleavened bread. They were not morally and spiritually in correspondence with the death of Christ as the expression of God’s judgment on sin. And I would emphasise this; I would that the Lord might be pleased to bring it home to us. I do not want to surround the wonderful blessings and privileges of Christianity with an atmosphere of fear and trembling; God forbid! I do not want to frighten anybody’s soul, but we are entitled to take account of these things in all their seriousness. If you are in fellowship with the death of Christ you are ready, you are eager for the Supper. You will be in a spirit something akin to the spirit of the Psalmist in Psalm 122: 1 when he says, “I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah”. Do you know what it is to feel glad when you are going to the breaking of bread, your heart full of joy, holy gladness filling your soul? Where am I going? I am going to meet with the saints to break bread. Some say that if you break bread so often it will become a formality. Did you ever get afraid of eating your regular meals? So long as you have got a good appetite you need not be afraid of its becoming a form. I am not afraid of its becoming formal, I am “glad” like David to “go into the house of Jehovah”. David was glad when he heard the invitation, “Let us go into”.

“The first day of the week, we being assembled”. The point is, I repeat, Are you ready to come together? If in every believer there was moral correspondence with the death of Christ, if the flesh and the world were disallowed in coming together we should know something about having a feast, and there would not be trouble among us. When Paul heard there was trouble at Corinth he put his finger on the spot. He said, ‘You are fleshly’. What does that mean? Is it that you have got the flesh? No, but that you allow the flesh. The Corinthians were allowing the flesh and Paul puts his finger on the spot; he says—“Whereas there are among you emulation and strife, are ye not carnal?”, 1 Cor 3: 3 Do you ever have such things where you meet to break bread? If all like John were in the Spirit on the Lord’s day there would not be trouble. When the Spirit is in power in the saints there is no trouble.

When we come together to break bread, the first thing for you is to be individually right. If you are, when the Lord’s day morning dawns upon you it finds you ready for it. Just try it. On Saturday night, before I go to sleep for the night, I like to say to the Lord, ‘Lord, I want to become in the Spirit on the Lord’s day’. John became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, not when he was at a meeting, but when he was in Patmos. You may say how could he be in fellowship where there were no saints. John was more truly in fellowship than are some of us with meetings all about us. He was in the reality of fellowship, and if you and I know what it is to be in the reality of fellowship we shall know what it is to become in the Spirit on the Lord’s day; we shall come under the active control and power of the Spirit of God.

Take a scripture like Galatians. “But the fruit” (not fruits, it is the one undivided fruit)—“but the fruit of the Spirit is love”, Gal 5: 22. That is good to begin the Lord’s day with—love. The blessed activity of the heart going out in love to God and Christ and to all the saints. “Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control”. Do we know anything of that?

When John became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, what happened to him? He heard a voice. I know that was a special revelation to John, but in principle the moment you become in the Spirit you will find yourself in touch with Christ—the Spirit will put you in touch with Christ. Is it not wonderful, to be in touch with Christ in a living way by the Spirit? When a man gets in touch with Christ by the Spirit all the enemy’s schemes will be overthrown for him. If we come together in the reality of fellowship the Spirit will put us in tune and in time and in unity. He will put the saints together, and bring about the most wonderful unity and harmony.

Now a word as to the breaking of bread. There are the two sides to it. There is the Lord’s side and our side. What is it on His side? It is all love; it is nothing about the judgment of God, nothing about demand. That does not belong to the breaking of bread. What does belong to it? Let Him speak, and let us listen. He said: “Take, eat”; “This is my body which is for you”, Luke 22: 19. That is the language of love. That is the way love takes; that is the way He would bring His love right home to our hearts. And then of the cup He says: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you”, v 20. It is all love on His part—no judgment. On the other hand, “Christ our passover” is all judgment, the judgment of God, and that is where we want to begin in our souls. We must be in accord with God. Everything that is contrary to God must be judged. That is where we begin. We are in the fellowship of His death as the expression of the judgment of God, but being in that fellowship there is nothing now to hinder the Spirit from putting us into accord with all the love that fills the heart of God, and that was told out when Christ gave His body for us and poured out His precious blood for us. Now then, that is our side. And we respond to His love. “We love him, because he first loved us”. How simple it is! It is not that we try to love Christ. Christ brings His love to bear upon our hearts, and there is an answer to it. That is our side of the Supper. We are responsive to Christ’s love, and to God’s love, for the love of both comes out in the supper. “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you”. Oh, how the love of the heart of God is expressed! Is your heart touched by it? It is very simple: you drink in Christ’s love and God’s love and there is the response to it in your heart. That is the Lord’s supper, that is the breaking of bread, and let me warn you against your minds, as such, becoming entangled with points about the Supper. See to it that you are in the reality of fellowship and in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and then the love of Christ will have full control in your heart and you will respond to His love. With your heart thus responding to Christ’s love and to God’s love you will never find a locked door to whatever spiritual heavenly privileges belong to the assembly, you will find every door wide open.

I like what Mr Raven said in one of his later readings speaking about the Lord’s day morning, ‘It is the meeting-place’¹², and I would not like to go away from the Lord’s day morning meeting with a feeling of disappointment in my heart. If you get a sight of Him, you will do what they did in John 20, “They rejoiced”. Why did they rejoice? They rejoiced, seeing the Lord. Your heart will rejoice, it will be ravished. Do you know what it is to have your heart ravished? My heart has been ravished in connection with the breaking of bread. In John 20 they have not come together there to break bread. They have come together as His “brethren” in resurrection and in the light of His ascension. That wonderful message had been brought to them, “go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. They are there as His brethren. What does that mean? That they are derived from Himself, “Both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”, Heb 2: 11. The blessed, holy grain of wheat has fallen into the ground, it has died, it is no more “alone”, there is “much fruit”. There they are gathered as His brethren, and what happens? “Jesus came and stood in the midst, and says to them, Peace be to you”. What then? “The disciples rejoiced therefore, having seen the Lord”.

Let us not be content with anything less than all the reality of Christianity. Is not the Spirit here? Do not be content with simply breaking bread; do not, I beg of you, become a mere bread-breaker. Do not be satisfied with anything short of the divine touch of His love. Let your soul know what it is to be thus in the light of what you really are as one of His brethren—in the light not simply of His death, and not alone of His resurrection, but let your soul know the light of that heavenly place into which He has gone. “I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”.

From thence He comes within our midst in heavenly grace

To lead our holy praise, who ‘Abba, Father’, cry.

Brethren, I long to know more of it myself. I long that we might all know it. Do not be satisfied with anything less than a full Lord’s day portion. Do not be content to touch the fringe of Christian privilege, but seek to know it in all its divine fulness. He delights to come to us. What it must be to Him to have a company down here of which He is the centre. He has been here. He was the centre of a company when He hung upon the cross. There were those around Him who loved Him. But He has got another kind of company now, and into the midst of that company it is the infinite delight of His heart to come.

May we know the divine reality of being in that place, and of rejoicing (as they rejoiced) “having seen the Lord”.

May the Lord be pleased to add His blessing.