Why is there church on Sunday?

A Reformed Church pastor was asked the following question:  

Why is there church on Sunday? The Ten Commandments say that the seventh day, or Saturday, is the Sabbath. Jesus, in Luke 4, worshiped on Saturday. Aren’t Christians worshipping on the wrong day? 

His response agreed it was correct that Jesus worshipped on Saturday, and that Luke 4 teaches it was His custom to worship weekly with the people of God. The Ten Commandments include the commandment to honour the Sabbath, he says, that has not changed. In fact, he affirms, the Sabbath was ordained in creation! It affords believers and their families the chance to receive one of God’s chief blessings. He goes on to make some statements, backing them up with Scripture. I’d like to take a closer look at them. 

His first statement is the subject of this piece, and also the foundation on which the rest of his explanation is built. In it he claims that while the fourth commandment remains valid, the church is no longer required to keep the Jewish Sabbath! On what does he base this claim? On Colossians 2:16. 

Now this is a pretty big statement that he makes here. According to the Law of God, refusing to honour His Sabbath was an offense punishable by death! Did GOD change His Law? Or is it a new ‘human tradition’? 
 
Bear in mind that, in the New Testament letters (the Apostolic letters), we have only one side of the discussion. The writers are giving answers, but we don't see the questions. So to flatly state 'this is what Paul (Peter, James) meant' is a bit presumptuous. (And to build an entire religion on it is something else.) 

We can carefully examine the context of statements within letters, and try to understand them in light of other historical evidence of the day. We MUST regard each statement in light of the Torah (instruction, Law) found in the Old Testament, for if they are of YHVH,  they will not break His commands. Yeshua Himself warns that anyone who breaks the least of His commandments will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:19). 

Let's take a closer look at Colossians 2:16…in its context of the entire chapter of Colossians 2.
 
1For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 5For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. 6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. 16Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. 20If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 "Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch" 22( referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.  

Paul (generally agreed to be the writer) encourages the Colossian congregation to reach greater understanding of the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Messiah. THAT understanding will help protect them from being led astray by arguments which sound good but are designed to lead them away from truth. Yeshua is the embodiment of the Law of God, perfectly fulfilled. 

Paul encourages the Colossians to walk after HIM (Yeshua), to become rooted and established in HIS truth. To themselves walk in the perfection of the Law! Not to walk in the shadow of an outward conformity only, but to walk (run, as in Psalm 119:32) in the fulness of the Law lived out from the purity of a renewed heart. NOT to substitute false truth presented through human interpretation, and walk after it. 

Human arguments and worldviews (philosophy) are very attractive, yet empty. Human nature rebels against submitting to the truth of our need to be saved. We can’t contribute to our salvation; we can only humbly accept it. Our sin nature doesn’t want to do that! 

Paul reminds the Colossians that their debt of sin (with its sentence of death) was cancelled! That those who held power over them in their weak state of sin are effectively made powerless! He warns them not to let themselves again become enslaved to the bondage of human tradition, of human attempt to merit God’s grace. 

Two of the main issues of the day were emphasis on strict rules for purity, and honouring the Sabbath and holy days. Paul touches on this here in verse 16. 

Other historical documents bear out this 'scrupulosity concerning meats' (purity) their 'superstition as respects the Sabbaths' (note the plural...this includes high holy Sabbaths), their 'fancies about fasting and new moons' (Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus). 

Man-made ‘fence laws’ were enacted so if any law were broken, it would be the fence law and not the Law of God. This is a fine sounding argument but ineffective. It controlled only the outward behaviour and had no impact on the heart state out of which obedience is meant to come. 

Paul compares this man-made emphasis on how to celebrate holy days or how to eat (the human teaching of ritual purification of the hands, for example, so as not to transmit ‘uncleanness’ to food) with the worship of angels and the practice of ‘asceticism and severity to the body’. None of these things are Scriptural. Paul told them not to let anyone judge them based on man-made rules. What he was NOT teaching them was to do away with the Sabbath! That is a ludicrious conclusion.

Based on the context of verse 16, it is the opinions on HOW to observe the Law that the writer was discussing. The Sabbath, the holy days, the (simple) food laws God gave, were given to point us to our need for Messiah. They spelled out righteousness for us and showed us our shortcoming and our need for saving. They show us what righteousness looks like. They are not Messiah! They cannot save us! They show us HIS righteousness. They are a shadow of Him. IN Him is all the fullness of the teaching and instruction (the Law) of God, perfectly shown. HE is the light to the nations that Israel, because of sin, could never be. 

These simple laws had become covered over with human laws that became an enormous burden for the people. So, Paul reasons, why then do you turn back to these empty attempts at self justification? These are human laws and teachings! Paul strongly writes that BECAUSE Yeshua has cancelled the record of debt that was against them, thereby disarming the rulers and authorities who held power over them, they are not to again allow anyone to judge them in their celebration of holy days or in how they ate their food, and submit themselves again to the teachings of the human rules and human laws. 

In context, Paul could not be referring to the Torah, the Law of God given at Mt Sinai. There is no evidence here that the Law of God regarding food and drink or holy days is altered in any way. And most clearly, there is NO evidence that Paul is establishing a new law of his own, that the Sabbath and the holy days are ended! 

Finally, it is said that whenever you see a ‘therefore’ statement, look what it is there for! 

Reading the verse before as well as verse 16, it reads: And you…God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Therefore (because HE forgave you) let no one (no human) pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 

Because HE forgave you and cancelled the sentence of death you were under, don’t let any human (religious) ruler or authourity pass judgment on you, as to their opinions of how you eat, drink or worship. Only God has the right to do that! Our human interpretation of what is acceptable to God can only ever be a shadow. In Christ is found the truth.

Next time...based on the assumption described above (that the church is not required to keep the Sabbath) the Reformed pastor gives his reasons (backed up with Scripture) for the change of Sabbath to Sunday.