First, we are totally unworthy to worship God. The Bible states, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The humbling truth is that those who even claim to be teachers of others are not taught enough in the grace of God to even understand what they are asserting. Everyone stands in utter need of God’s grace. If we are to be prepared for worship we must be prepared by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not “a get out of hell free card.” It came at a great cost and costs man everything to receive it. It is the announcement of the reality that Jesus Christ is King as proven by his death, burial, and resurrection; and that this King is making all things new. Therefore we are to submit to our new King or perish. That is really bad news for sinners, unless the King came and provided what he also commanded—which he did and does. In his death we find life. The cross of Jesus Christ is forever the place of power for man to be raised from spiritual death.

This may sound different to you if you all you understood of the gospel is that of getting you to heaven by doing something to get there. But it is the gracious work of God through His Son Jesus Christ and applied by His Spirit that alone provides salvation. We are made acceptable to God by God. The good news is essentially God Himself: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Looking to Him, all of life will then fall into order again. Looking away from him, there is no hope to order our lives toward true blessedness.

In comes the Lord’s Day. The Sabbath is part of the moral law which has not been abrogated by the death of Christ, but fulfilled. Nonetheless, though the Sabbath is fulfilled, it’s not the only thing that was fulfilled, all the other commandments were as well! Does this mean that we go on breaking God’s commandments because Christ fulfilled them? Of course not! The gospel is all of God’s grace and bears fruit of obedience to God also by God’s grace. It is in light of the mercies of God that we are gladly obedient to God. It is not a work we do, but a work that God prepared as a blessing for us to walk in. So, although the law of the Sabbath was fulfilled, the Sabbath has been made new. The Christian Sabbath is observed the first day of the week, and this is called the Lord’s Day. The law remains, but is observed in regards to and in gratitude for Jesus Christ, because that was the plan from the beginning.

So, if we are to begin our weeks in a blessed way, it will be by observing the Christian Sabbath. The Christian Sabbath is observed when Christians come to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They do so appropriately morning and evening (See Psalm 92), just like the Jewish Sabbath was observed. The difference is that they may observe this Sabbath with full knowledge of who Christ is and what Christ has done. Then was a shadow of the good things to come. We live in the reality of the rest that God has provided us.

We come together to learn from God about God. Every Sunday there are two preachers in the pulpit. The human preacher is functioning as a vessel through which the divine preacher is speaking. There is no real rest without revelation from God’s word properly explained and interpreted and applied for the glory of God.

We come together to encourage one another. There is no zoom church. There is no facebook church. There is no virtual church. Church requires face-to-face gathering. The apostle said in Hebrews that this would be the temptation in the last days—to forsake our assembling together, as is the habit of some. So, everything fights against the believer attending face to face, but it is absolutely necessary to do so. The Bible knows nothing of church that does not gather to worship. The Bible knows nothing of worship without the church bought by the blood of Christ to do so.

Tomorrow, among many other things that may be mentioned, we endeavor to gather in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day face-to-face to obey, rest, learn from God and about God, and encourage one another.