Expert: Ernie Laurence, Jr. - 10/17/2007

Question
QUESTION: Do we take the Lord Supper on the Sabbath?

ANSWER: No.  There is no scriptural support for this.

We have a series of passages that show that we are to take the Lord's Supper on the first day of the week.

1 Cor. 11:17f - we are told that the purpose of them assembling is to take the Lord's Supper

1 Cor. 16:1-2 - they were commanded to give when they assembled each first day of the week.  It is implied here that they were already meeting each first day of the week.  The reason for their assembly is given in 1 Cor. 11.

Acts 20:6-7 - Paul waits six total days "And upon the first day of the week...the disciples came together to break bread...".  He was in a hurry (vs. 16) but still waited a total of six days in order to partake of the Lord's Supper on the first day of the week.  Here is the example that proceeds from the command implied in 1 Cor. 16 for the purpose stated in 1 Cor. 11.

It is the first day of the week that we are to partake of the Lord's Supper, not the last.  I have read no scripture that indicates the regular Sabbath or one of the feast Sabbaths is a New Testament observance.

If you have some scripture that you would like me to address, please post them and I will gladly look them over and give you an answer from those scriptures.

In Truth and Love,

Ernie

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: So the Sabbath is a day of rest, and on the first day of the week we Worship the Lord and take the Lord Supper?

Answer
The Sabbath is an Old Testament day of rest.  The general Sabbath came every seventh day of the week (Exodus 20:8-11) but there were feast days that were also called Sabbaths that may or may not have fell on the seventh day of the week.  The first and last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the evening of the Passover, and so on (Lev. 23).

As we are no longer under the Old Testament (Col. 2:14; Eph. 2:15; Gal. 3:24-25; Hebrews 8-9; Romans 2-3) then we are not subject to any Sabbath day.

So, yes, the first day of the week is the day we worship Jehovah by taking the Lord's Supper.  This is according to the New Testament, the covenant we are under today.

In Truth and Love,

Ernie