What about next Sunday?
April 10, 2012
I have been in Zambia for the last few days - due to leave for home fairly soon - and so opportunity for anything other than my responsibilities here has been limited. However, things have slowed down a little, and I have an opportunity to pause.
As I paused I came across a snippet from Spurgeon here which I provide in slightly fuller form, and I offer it in the form of a question: What about next Sunday?
And so, what of next Sunday? Have you peaked for the year, or will you enjoy in short order another, and another, and another day in which you can meditate on the rising of our Lord, and seek to enter into fellowship with him in his risen life?
As I paused I came across a snippet from Spurgeon here which I provide in slightly fuller form, and I offer it in the form of a question: What about next Sunday?
There is no ordinance in Scripture of any one Lord's-day in the year being set apart to commemorate the rising of Christ from the dead and for this reason every Lord's-day is the memorial of our Lord's resurrection. Wake up any Lord's-day you please, whether in the depth of winter, or in the warmth of summer and you may sing -
Today he rose and left the dead,
And Satan's empire fell!
Today the saints his triumph spread,
And all his wonders tell.
To set apart an Easter Sunday for special memory of the resurrection is a human device for which there is no Scriptural command. But to make every Lord's-day an Easter Sunday is due to him who rose early on the first day of the week. We gather together on the first, rather than upon the seventh day of the week, because redemption is even a greater work than creation and more worthy of commemoration and because the rest which followed creation is far outdone by that which ensues upon the completion of redemption! Like the apostles, we meet on the first day of the week and hope that Jesus may stand in our midst and say, "Peace be unto you." Our Lord has lifted the Sabbath from the old and rusted hinges whereon the Law had placed it long before and set it on the new golden hinges which his love has fashioned. He has placed our rest day, not at the end of a week of toil, but at the beginning of the rest which remains for the people of God. Every first day of the week we should meditate upon the rising of our Lord, and seek to enter into fellowship with him in his risen life.
And so, what of next Sunday? Have you peaked for the year, or will you enjoy in short order another, and another, and another day in which you can meditate on the rising of our Lord, and seek to enter into fellowship with him in his risen life?