Grace Chapel Bible Ministries

Worship call 1117 The first day - 2024/07/24

while the 7th day of the week was a commandment that those under the Law was to observe there is no such commandment for the first day of the week which is Sunday. as Jews under the law were to look forward to the 7th day for their rest, those in Christ begin their week as a response to the truth that Jesus Christ has risen.

Duration:: 32m
Broadcast on:: 24 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> Welcome to worship call with Bible teacher Buzz Lullbeck. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. [BLANK_AUDIO] All right, there we go. I forgot to set up the microphone. But anyway, throughout the centuries, prior to Christ, by command, by the law, by the law of Moses, the seventh day, which is our Saturday, man would work and they would look forward to that rest coming. But a day came when the rest was at the beginning of the week. The day when our Lord Jesus Christ came on memory and it wasn't by the law that we kept it and we do keep it. But it was by the response of the truth that Jesus Christ lives. This is the fourth day of the week in God's created order. The 24th day of the seventh month, the 24th year of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord. Father in heaven, thank you for this day. Thank you for opening up our hearts to study your word each morning. What a refreshing time it is and a wonderful time it is to give you the first fruits of our day. And Bible study in prayer and meditation upon your word. Open our hearts this morning to these wonderful truths in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Now, after the Sabbaths as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, now the Sabbaths had passed. And that is the day, that first day of unleavened bread at the past and the seventh day Sabbath. So the high Sabbath and the weekly Sabbath had passed. And again the church by law throughout the centuries had made by law by their commandment to make the seventh day sacred to them. The Pharisees had also added so much more to that seventh day that made that seventh day just burdensome rather than it was something to be celebrated. We work throughout the week and now here is the day when that day when even our slaves and the creatures, our beasts and burdens are rested. And again, there was a command and even to this day under the law, the people continue to continue to continue to come up. There we go. The people continue to this day to in a nation that has rejected Christ. They are still that day. Everything stops. Everything stops in Israel on the day when on the Sabbath, on that seventh day. Now the Sabbaths had passed. The high holy day and the seventh day Sabbath. The first day of the week, which we call Sunday was a day when we recognize as a church, when we recognize as a church that Jesus Christ raised on that day. And it is a day that we commemorate for that. It is a day that we commemorate. It is a day and it's not about the wall either, but it is something that we have as a church, as a body of Christ, we have responded. It is a response to the truth that the day of rest had come and that rest says the writer in Hebrews. Our rest is the Lord Jesus Christ, Acts 20 verse 7, on the first day of the week, on the first day of the week, which is our Sunday. When we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day and he prolonged his message until midnight. 1 Corinthians 16, 2, on the first day of every week, each one of you is to put aside and say as he may prosper so that no collections be made when I come. So throughout the age of Israel, there would be the command to keep the seventh day holy, the recognition of God as a creator. And I will not say that that is still not something that we should dismiss and you do what is in your heart. There are those that keep that seventh day and they find it a day of rest and they recognize what it is truly the day of the Lord. It is the day when God had established his work, had finished his work and so if it's in a person's heart to keep the seventh day, good to go. And I will still say it is still a day that we honor the creator's rest and the rest in him. The first day of the week, worship is not commanded. Here's the difference. Let's talk about the differences between the seventh day and the first day of the week. The first, the seventh day was commanded. They were to do that. They were to do their work and contrary to some people's belief, this was Jews, this was Israel. The law set these people apart from all other nations of the world. Now if other nations and individuals and other nations, individuals wanted to practice what the Jews were practicing very well. But when it came to the law, it set these people apart and for them, the Sabbath day was a sacred day and they looked forward to that rest. But when it comes to the church, there is no law. Listen to this. Listen, listen, listen. There is no law pertaining to the first day of the week. You won't find it in scriptures. What you will find as we just read is that there is a response to the truth. Our worship on the first day of the week is a response to the truth that Jesus Christ rose up on that first day. And he lives to this day. The first day is a celebration. It is a communion with one another. It is, and it's also communion with the one who lives, which is our Lord Jesus Christ. It used to be in our nation and you remember that those of us who remember are old enough to remember that, and if we look back on it, we could, as Christian, we could truly say those were special days. Remember that on Sunday, the streets were rolled up, stores were closed, businesses were shut down. You did not conduct a business, and a nation didn't conduct business on the first day of the week, which was Sunday. They called the Lord's Day. I go back and forth with that, but it was a day when everyone shut down and recognized, I won't say everyone, but our society recognized that it was a day that we come together, that worship, that we come together to recognize. And it wasn't by the law. Again, there is no establishment of the law in the Bible for this practice, but it was a practice as a nation that responded to the truth that Jesus Christ lives. I had a, I told you a story of a gentleman who was telling me a story, he said, "Yeah, I was cutting, you know, I know it's a sin, but I was cutting my grass last Sunday." And he went on with the story, I said, "You know what?" I go, "What you did, there is no sin in what you did in cutting your grass." Now, what was the sin was that you think, first of all, what you thought was a sin, you did anyway, so therefore it was a sin. There is, again, there is no ordinances on how we conduct that day, but it certainly is a response of the truth within our hearts to keep that day holy. And that's a personal thing, and it's sad today because we see when we go out, when an early church began to worship on that first day, it was in response, and it was a response to the most glorious truth. And today, it's business as usual on that first day. So, it's not that we are breaking the commandment working on the first day, it is the fact that we have come complacent as believers. And the early church recognized the first day of the week, and Jesus rose sometime after sundown on Saturday, which began the third day. Jesus arose on the third day, Matthew 16, 21. From the time that Jesus began to fill his disciples, that we must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day. Matthew 1723, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day, and Matthew 1240. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And other passages go along with that too. Believing Jesus Christ is our acknowledgement of the resurrection. We worship a very much living Savior, not a dead martyr. And we begin with the first day of the week. We are no longer looking for the end of the week for a rest because Jesus Christ is our rest. In our acknowledgement, we are assured that not even death can break our spirits. See that first day of the week for the Christian, we wake up and to observe that first day. And as our rest in Jesus Christ, it's not just a day of rest. Every day is a day of rest for those who are in Christ, because Jesus Christ is our rest. But with that acknowledgement, we could go on and we could face that week. We could face that week knowing that Jesus Christ, knowing the truth from the beginning of the week to the end. Sad to say there are those people that live for the end of the week. They live for the week in. Thank God it's Friday kind of mentality. Thank God we are able to put our troubles down rather than just take a break, rather than looking rather than basking in the truth that came from the beginning of the week that Jesus Christ lives. 2 Corinthians 1 9 through 10. Indeed, we have the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivers us from a great peril of death and will deliver us. He on whom he has set our hope and he will yet deliver us. And in 2 Timothy 1 10. But now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus, our Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immorality to light through the gospel. So how do you handle the bad, how do you handle bad news on Monday? And for most of the working class Monday is the worst day of the week. For most because they dread throughout the entire week, that's that lays ahead of them. The devout looks at that first day. So here we are dealing with Matthew coming back to Matthew 28. Now after the sabbas, as it began to dawn on the first day, Mary Mary Lynn and the other Mary came to look at the grave and behold, a severe earthquake had occurred for the angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord descended from heaven. I'm sorry, that's the end angel of the Lord had descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and set upon it. This must have been, first of all, we were dealing with Mary, I was going to deal with Mary here. So we were dealing with this ladies, they come to it, there was an earthquake and nothing else was said about it. There was a powerful earthquake of that night. A few things happened. First of all, the earthquake, earthquake happened and the angel, this glorious, this particular angel came down. These guards thought that this was a was going to be an easy assignment that guard the dead body and probably something that no one ever heard of doing before, but they go guard this body, they go guard this tomb which was sealed and sealed and probably cords around it and what have you. And all of a sudden the bright lights and the magnificent angel and angel of the Lord came down, the earthquake that happened, this was going to be a very unusual night and they fell down as though they were dead before this particular image. Now they're going to have some explaining to do, later on, but right now the big thing was the fact that right before them, right at the moment, was the incident which was taking place right before them. As the women were on their way early in the morning before the sun came up, they might have been talking about this. So what of this earthquake? What do you think of this earthquake? For me, when I think about this earthquake, I think of a convulsion that here was that man put the son of God to death and that grave would not hold him and it was almost like the earth was gone into convulsion. The sinful and the earth that was tainted with sin could not tolerate. I almost see it as a picture that Jesus was figuratively just spit out of the earth that sin or that the grave just could not contain him. So there was a convulsion of the earth, the angel rolled away and that stone was not rolled away in order for Jesus to walk out and mention this yesterday, that stone was rolled away to let the witnesses in to see what just happened. Okay, come back to Matthew. Come on back to 28. There we go. Behold, a severe earthquake had occurred and an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. Here's a messenger. I see this as well and he sat upon him. Here's the angel that was waiting for the arrival of the women. What happened to the guards? I guess they ran off or what have you. There was nothing left to do. The stone was open. The body was missing. What are they going to do? If I was the guards under the subject of capital punishment, I think I'd be headed for the hills. But here's the angel. He sat there and he's waiting for the arrival of the women that he could communicate to them the message that Jesus Christ lives. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was like white as stone. The guards shook with fear in him and became like dead men. They just laid there on the ground and the angel said to the women, maybe they were still there. Maybe the guards were still laying on the ground and face down while the women were speaking to him at this point. That's funny. The guards, you guys just lay there. Here's the angel talking to the women. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid. Stop being afraid. Stop being frightened." He didn't tell that to the guards. But he tells us to the women. This message was to the women. It wasn't to the guards. The women and fear got a block in thought. It's time to bring back the thinking again. It's time to hear what the message, what they had to say. Let's bring that back over here. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid. Stop being afraid." I know that you're looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here for he has risen. Just as he said, "Come. See the place where he was lying. Go quickly and tell the cycles that he has risen from the dead." Let's look at another account. Let's go on to Mark 16d8. Now when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salomon. I was confused with Salomon yesterday. Salomon is just a Greek lady, a Greek name here. She's just one of another Mary that was coming to him. She brought spices so that they might come to annoy him. Early, again, here we go, very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. They were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?" They had a problem here on their way there. That was one of the things they were conversating with. I'm very curious to know what the order of these things were. It was an earthquake when they arrived. The tomb was gone. What was it exactly what transpired here? Just another story. Very early first day of the week. They were saying to one another, "Who had rolled away the stone for us from the entrance?" Looking up, they saw the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large. Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right wearing a white robe and they were amazed. He said to them, "Do not be astonished. Do not be amazed. You are looking for Jesus Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen. He is not here. Behold. He is the place where he had laid." They were the first to discover the empty tomb, but go to the disciples. Now they're giving instructions. Let's go back to... That was Mark. Let's go to Luke. On the first day of the week, at the early dawn, it came about. The tomb came to the tomb, bringing the spices, which they had prepared, and they found a stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold two men suddenly stood near and dazzling closing. And as the women were terrified, they bowed their faces to the ground. The men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" He is not here, but he has risen. Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee, saying, "The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful man." And be crucified, and on the third day rise again. And they remembered his words and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven to all the rest. And then let's go ahead and hit John's gospel. Again, all of it on the first day. Now again, as I said yesterday, these skeptics would be saying, "See, see, there's contradictions all over the place. The Bible contradicts itself." No, you have four different accounts. Four different ways they receive the messages. These inspired by the Holy Spirit there, it is truth. And in these truths, look at the commonality rather than the different accounts. Look at what's true in all the accounts. Put it all together. What's true? The third day he has risen, the women had witnessed it in all four accounts. And now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early in the tomb. While it was still dark in the salt of stone, it had already taken away from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciples from Jesus' love and said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." So Peter and the other disciples went forth and they were going to the tomb left. Oh, I've got a few minutes. Let's go over this one. And the two were running together and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. That would be John. As stupid and looking in, he saw the linen rapids laying there, but he did not go in. So Simon Peter came following him and entered in the tomb and he saw the rapids laying there. The face cloth which had been on his head was laying with the linen rapids, but rolled up and placed by itself. So the other disciple, let's do that. There we go. So the other disciple who was first come into the tomb then also he saw and believed. He responded and it was John who made the right application. For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again. So even up to this point they were still doubtful of scripture, but John responded. So the other disciples went away to their own homes, but Mary, this is Mary Magdalene, was standing outside the tomb weeping. None of them have seen Jesus yet. They have only received the news. Standing outside the tomb weeping and so she wept. She stooped and looked into the tomb. And once again here is those two angels again. She saw two angels and wife, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. Here are messengers. Again they are waiting before it. He was on the stone here and he is in there. Yes there are different versions of this because there are different witnesses. They had different things that they saw, different ways they accounted to store when the body of Jesus was laid there. And they saw her woman, Gune, why are you weeping? And she said to them because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid them. And when she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know it was Jesus. She just got done looking into a dark tomb. She turned around in the brightness of the day. Jesus was probably, her eyes were probably still not adjusted yet to who it was. And Jesus said to her, Gune, why are you weeping? Again, a second answer again. Who are you seeking? I think Jesus is having a good time here. I think he is enjoying the moment. Supposing him to be a gardener and she let him, he let her think that. She said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. And she turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabinai, which means teacher. No one says your name like the one that you love most. And here it was that Mary was, Mary, Mary Magdalene was rescued by Jesus. When the rest of the world was turning from her, a demon-possessed woman, Jesus saved her. And she wasn't dear to him for who he was and what he had done for her. Her response was to seek him. Seek and you will find knock and it will be answered to you. Ask and it will be answered. She was seeking and she found. I think those who, Mary was the most devoted. And I think those, I have to think in my mind's eye, those who are most devoted to the Lord, those who truly seek him. Those who are seeking to grow closer to him will have the first place in line to see the Lord in his return. Let's close out and pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this opportunity this morning. The fellowship in your word, open our hearts to these things as we continue to grow and grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray, amen. All right. It's another fine day and the Lord serve him well. And Lord will in spirit guide, raptor pendant. We'll be back here in the A.M. [silence] [silence] [silence] [BLANK_AUDIO]