The evening of the first Lord's Day is characterized by Jesus' appearance to his disciples, offering peace and the Holy Spirit, and specifically to the doubting Thomas. This event establishes the significance of the Lord's Day as a new dispensation of grace, distinct from the Old Testament Sabbath, and serves as a pattern for all subsequent Lord's Days. The sermon emphasizes that the Lord's Day is a time for worship, remembrance of Christ's sacrifice and resurrection, and for believers to be empowered to share the gospel. It concludes by highlighting Jesus' personal appearance to Thomas, leading to his confession, and extending the blessing of peace and divine presence to all believers, especially as they begin a new year.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.15 → restored 4.19
Now shall we open our Bibles again to the twentieth chapter of John, please, where we were this morning. Our subject this morning was the morning of the first Lord's Day. Our subject this evening is the evening of the first Lord's Day. John John twenty and verse nineteen then the same day at evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst and said unto them peace be unto you when he had so said He showed unto them his hands and his side.
Then were the disciples glad, for when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus unto them again, Peace be unto you. That's why we sang, Peace, perfect peace in this dark world of sin. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you. As my Father has sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, saying unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, or receive ye Holy Ghost. The article is not there. Receive ye Holy Ghost.
Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them. Whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord, but he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side. I will not believe. And after eight days again his disciples were within. and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the door is being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
Then said he to Thomas, Reacher, reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord, and my God. Jesus said unto them, I said unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. I fancy I can hear a little resonance, and I know why it is. That might turn on. Hello, and I'll turn it on.
I think we shall have to pray for some more. We used to call our brother Miller Mr. Tapeworm, you know, he used to look out for all the tapes, and we need to pray for another tapeworm to come here. Our brother, our brother Tillman used to do it. Let's look to the Lord, shall we? Blessed God, our Father, we thank you now for this occasion. We thank you for the thoughts we found in thy word this morning, and we pray that the Holy Spirit might take up this wondrous subject tonight and speak to our hearts. Speak, Lord, in the stillness of this evening hour.
May we hear thy voice, Lord, and feel thy touch of power. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we talked a lot this morning about the Lord's Day. We're talking today about the first of all the Lord's Days. Until this time, the Sunday as we call it, was known as the first day of the week. But it got a new appellation. He had a new name given to it. on the day that the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead.
The Lord's day. And it is the Lord's day, all day long, from the early sunrise to the sunsets. It's the Lord's day. And oh, how I wish we could get that into our heart deeply, deeply, that it's the Lord's day. I remember as a boy, Now let me say this. Once when I was in Greece, I talked to a dear man of God, Mr. Mosco, old brother Mosco, who was the pastor of the Second Evangelical Church, and he told me way, way back in the eighteen eighties, he went to England, and he landed in London on a Sunday afternoon.
He said, I'll never forget it. There was perfect calm. All stores were shut. Everything was shut down and everybody that seemed to be going around had a Bible under his arm going to church. I remember way back after the war I got a job in Scotland and the Scottish people, I don't know now, but in those days and they've always been very strict about the Sunday. All the taverns and public houses are all shut down on a Sunday there. And I was staying, I got a job up there, and I was staying in a rather nice hotel, but it was a godless place.
And I looked around and found what up there they call a commercial hotel, where travelers, busy men can stay. And it was, they had a kind of a Christian atmosphere about it. At least it was very proper, no drinking of anything. And I got in there. And I'd been there a couple of weeks, and I had to go and preach on the Sunday. And I noticed there was a notice there. It says, those who have to be away on Sunday evening, let us know in time and we'll prepare sandwiches if you can't be here in time for dinner. So I went out to him.
I said, now today I have to be out at dinner time. Will you get me some sandwiches? He said, oh, no, no. I said, well, that's what you say. No. He says, that's for travelers. If you're catching a train tonight, we make some sandwiches. We're not here in town. No, no. And the meeting was half past six. And it was one of those horrible nights. The snow slush was at least three inches as you walked. It went in his shoes. And it was coming down, slushed snow and water and rain and cold as ice in Glasgow. And I preached there. that night. And afterward, and a leading brother there, he came to say good night and took me to the door.
He said, good night, Brother Willie. I suppose you'll go straight home. I thought, I wish I had a home to go to. I was in a hotel and had had no dinner. And I felt like the hymn about the Lord, wandering as a homeless stranger in a world whose hands had made. And I I went up this street, down that street, and around that street. Everything was shut right up. It was the Lord's thing. He shut it up. Finally, I found a little Greek restaurant. And I got in there and I used to get some food. When I was a boy, the English people were crazy mad about football.
They're more so now than they were then. Of course, football with them is soccer. But actually what? They never played football on a Sunday. Never. You never heard of football on a Sunday. Today, turn on your television. I heard them say on the television yesterday, we'll have six hours of football tomorrow. Six hours of football on the Lord's Day. What a change. Now, God gave it this title, The Lord's Day. He never changed it. Now, I don't think I'm trying to put you back under law. I'm not. I think I made it very, very clear this morning that the Sabbath ended.
Let's look at the verses we saw this morning, Matthew, verse one. Matthew, verse one. It says there... In the end of the Sabbath. And I think that is significant language. There is no word in Scripture that has not meaning. The end of the Sabbath. And when you hear Christians talking about the Lord's Day is the Sabbath, they tell you they are not educated in the things of God. You cannot call the Lord's Day the Sabbath. The Sabbath ended when the Lord Jesus said it is finished. And they put his precious body in the grave.
That was the last Sabbath day. All Sabbath will be celebrated in the millennium, I believe, for that was the last Sabbath day. It was the end of the Sabbath, and it was dawning. We saw it this morning. It began to dawn toward the first day of the week. Something new was coming in. A new day. Back in the Old Testament days, turn with me for a moment to Leviticus twenty-three. In the Old Testament days, God gave to the children of Israel certain feasts which they had to keep. Leviticus twenty-three. Look at verse four.
These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which he shall proclaim in their season. In the fourteenth day of the first month at evening is the Passover. Verse six. on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread. Verse nine, and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When he come into the land that I give you, he shall reap the harvest thereof, and he shall bring the sheaf of the first fruit.
And he shall wave the sheep before the Lord to be accepted for you on the morrow after the Sabbath. Look at verse fifteen. And he shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that he brought the sheep of the wave offering, seven Sabbath to be complete. And then they had to offer the meat offering. And then you go down to verse twenty-seven. On the tenth day after the seventh month, there should be a day of atonement that should be a holy convocation of Jesus.
Look at verse thirty-three. The Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying the fifteenth day of this seventh month should be the feast of tabernacles. Seven feasts of Jehovah, which had to be kept. And every Jew, every male Jew, had to appear at Jerusalem at least three times in the year, and he had to bring something with him, an offering to God. That was law. That was the law under which God faced. That's all gone. But we got something much better, much simpler, and to me much more mean. All these feasts looked on in some way or another, You know how we've enjoyed the ministry on the Feast of Jehovah from this platform, from the various speakers that have been here.
Three of our speakers have had for their subject the Feast of Jehovah. And they all looked on to Christ, either in his sufferings, his death, or his resurrection, or his triumphant reign, millennial reign, and so on. It's all in these Feast. But when the Lord Jesus died upon the cross, he said, It is finished. And those three sentences. But he gave us something else. He gave us the Lord's Day. Not seven times in the year, but fifty-two times in the year, if you please. Fifty-two times in the year. Every Lord's Day, the first day of every week.
And so God, now, He doesn't work from... Easter to Easter, pastor to pastor, and so on. He works from Lord's Day to Lord's Day, Lord's Day to Lord. A short period of time. So simple, so easy to understand. He gave us the Lord's Day. Somebody said to me, what do we want with Christmas trees and Christmas and all that? I ask you, what do we want with it? It's not in the book. We don't work from Christmas to Christmas, from Easter to Easter. It's not in the book. We work from Lord's Day to Lord's Day.
You say, how about celebrating Easter? We celebrate Easter every Lord's Day. The death of the Lord Jesus and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God set it up that way in the New Testament. And so it says it's dawning. It's dawning. It's dawning toward the first day of the week. And the first day of the week broke. And the sun came up on that glorious morning, and they ran to the tomb, and they found the tomb was empty, and the stone rolled away. And as we read this morning, a triumphant angel sitting upon the stone in triumph, bright and shining, with raiment all shining and bright. And he said, as he touched them, as he touched them, he said, to them, peace beyond you.
Rest. And we looked at that this morning. The morning of the first of all the Lord did. The morning of the first Lord's day. And there was an afternoon to the first Lord's day. You know that? I sometimes like to give a talk. A Sunday afternoon walk and take the walk to Amaz with the Lord Jesus. On the day of his resurrection, as two disciples walked to Amaz, the Lord went with them and they walked.
And I personally walked from Jerusalem to Amaz and back again the same day. That's sixteen miles, eight there and eight back. And that's what the Lord did. He walked those eight miles with them to Amaz. An afternoon walk on the Lord's day. And then the sunset and evening came and we read in our verses, Jesus appeared in the midst of them. So from early morning all through the afternoon and back again in the evening, the Lord Jesus spent the Lord's day with us. Now we have a theory in the scriptures, proposition in the scriptures which you all know about what we call the theory of first mentions, first mentions.
Let's just say the first time you get a word mentioned in the Bible, that's the place where you find the real meaning of that word. The first time you get that word mentioned. For instance, the first time you get worship in the Bible, do you know where it is? The first time worship is mentioned in the Bible. Genesis twenty-two, Abraham said to his servants, to his young men, as he took his son Isaac and put the Lord on his back, and he said he took the fire and he took the knife and he took the wood. What do you think he said?
I and the lad will go yonder and worship. That's the first time you get the word worship. and it tells you what worship means. It meant that Abraham was going to give the dearest treasure of his heart. He was going to give his only son Isaac to God in a sceptic way. That's worship. What do we know about worship? And first mentions give you the meaning of words in the Bible. And the first mention in the Bible of this first day of the week in the sense in which we get it in the New Testament is here in Matthew twenty eight in Luke twenty four in Mark sixteen and John twenty it dawned toward the first day of the week something altogether new and I believe that the events of that first day give character give character to all the Lord's days.
The events of that first day, what they did and what he said and what happened, gives character to all the Lord's days through history. Now we're just starting a new year. As we pointed out this morning, they were just pointing, they're starting a new era. We talked a little bit about the majesty and the thunders and the lightnings and the glory with which God gave the law and with which God started the dispensation of law, which lasted fifteen hundred years, but that ended when the Lord Jesus died. He said it is finished. And on the first day of the week when he rose from the dead, a new dispensation started.
We call it the dispensation of grace, the sixth dispensation in God's great economy for the history of mankind. Of course, Sabbath. The Saturday is the seventh day. And the seventh dispensation will be the Sabbath rest, the millennial kingdom of the Lord Jesus. And as we said this morning, eight in Scripture is resurrection. And when we get to the eighth dispensation, it's the eternal kingdom with God over all. Blessed forevermore. That's the economy, the layout of God's great plan.
for the ages. But here we are in the beginning of the sixth dispensation, the dispensation of grace. God is bringing in something new, and the thing that is going to give it character, and the thing that is going to go right through with this dispensation, is this term the first day of the week. Why? Because it is based on the glorious work of the Lord Jesus at Calvary. and his triumphant resurrection there in the garden at Jerusalem. Now we talked a little bit about those six days and seven days this morning, and we mentioned the eighth day.
Turn with me a moment to Matthew seventeen, and see how this is used in the scripture. Matthew seventeen. Verse one, the Lord is going to take the disciples up onto the Mount of Transfiguration. Matthew seventeen verse one. And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother and bringeth them up into a high mountain of fire. Look at Mark chapter nine. Mark chapter nine. Verse two, and after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter and James and John and leadeth them up into a high mountain apart and was transfigured before.
How but look at Luke chapter nine. See how Luke puts it in Luke chapter nine. Luke chapter nine and verse twenty-seven. I tell you of a truth. There be some standing here. which are not taste of death till they shall see the kingdom of God. And it came to pass after about an eight days. Eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James and went up into a high mountain to pray. And as he prayed, his fashion of his countenance was altered. And his raiment was white and grissary. Why six days and why eight days? Well, it says after six days.
When you and I come together on Sunday morning to break red, to remember the Lord Jesus, it's after six days. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, six days. It's after that. But if you count from this Sunday to next Sunday, it's the eighth day. Now let's go back to Leviticus twenty-three again. Leviticus twenty-three. Eight is the number of resurrection. Leviticus twenty-three. Verse eleven.
And he shall wave the sheaf. This is the sheaf of first fruits. First fruits. And it says in Corinthians fifteen, Christ is the first fruits of them that say. He was the first. Oh, you say, but people were raised from the dead before Christ. Yeah, they were. But they weren't first fruits in this sense. If they'd been raised ten thousand of them before Christ, they couldn't have been the first. This is talking about this essential value as the eternal Son of God after the work. In priority, in value, the Son of God was first fruit for God. And it says, He shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest.
Listen, verse nine. And he shall wave the sheep before the Lord to be accepted for you on the morrow after the Sabbath. That's the eighth day, you know. On the morrow after the Sabbath. That's the eighth day. And eight is resurrection. And the first fruit are a type of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go down to verse fifteen. and he shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath from the day that he brought the sheep of the wave offerings. Seven Sabbaths shall be complete. Seven Sabbaths are forty-nine. And the Greek word for fifty is Pentecost.
Seven Sabbaths shall be complete. Even on the morrow after the seventh Sabbath, That's the fiftieth day. You shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. That's the Feast of Pentecost. And fifty days after the resurrection of the Lord we get the Feast of Pentecost. How wonderfully these things are all portrayed in the Old Testament. So God uses then six days after six days to describe the position of the first day of the week. And he also calls it the eighth day or the day after the seventh. the day after the Sabbath. And this was something new that God has brought in.
So at evening then, he met the disciples in that upper room. Verse nineteen of chapter twenty. We're getting near the end of our studies in John's Gospel. It has been going on a long time. Verse nineteen, the same day at evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst and said unto them, Peace be unto you. I said that I believe this first Lord's day gives a pattern, gives a sample of what the other Lord's days were going to be.
He met them early in the morning. He met Mary at the tomb. He met them in the afternoon. And the evening, for fear of the Jews, they were shut up. And the place was barred where it says the Greek word there really means barred. They pulled the bars across. They were afraid of the Jews. The doors were shut. They were barred where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews. And Jesus came and stood in the midst and said unto them, Peace be unto them. Does it ring a bell in your heart? It does in mine. No bars could keep him out.
No walls could keep him out. No doors could keep him out. He's raised now from the dead. He's got a... He still has his body, but he's got a body now that he can move all over. He can go through walls and doors. and he appeared in the midst. Don't you think that when we meet on the first day of the week, in the name of the Lord Jesus, on the Lord's day, does anything he appears in our midst? Perhaps our eyes can't see him, but I remember his words, where two or three should gather together in my name, there am I in the midst.
And these poor disciples there, Of course they were frightened until he spoke to them. And I think in years to come they must have thought about this. This was a pattern, this was a sample. How many of them were to spend days and weeks and months in prison cells? We read about John this morning on the island of Patmos. And he says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, locked up in his prison cell, and suddenly the walls disappeared and the ceiling disappeared. And he turned around and there was the Lord himself with him on the Lord's day.
I'm sure his mind must have gone back. John used to thought of that wonderful resurrection day when the Lord Jesus appeared inside the locked door. Don't you think when they put Peter in prison in Acts twelve, and he was all shut up there with four quarts, hurling the soldiers to keep him? He went to sleep, you know. Why? Because I think he could remember the Lord staying inside the locked doors. Peace, I give unto you. And he went to sleep. And the Lord came, an angel came, and opened the prison doors, and let Peter out. Oh, how they needed this.
We're starting a new year. We don't know what we're going to need in nineteen seventy-six. We might need, oh such a lot, to go through the problems that are coming into our lives in nineteen seventy-six. But if we could only get this lesson into our hearts on this first Lord's day of this year, listen to the words. Then came Jesus. and stood in the midst and said unto them, Peace be unto me. Peace be unto me. Peace, perfect peace, with trouble surging round on Jesus' bosom, not the peace that is found.
Look at the fourteenth chapter, verse twenty-seventh. The Lord Jesus left his disciples a parting gift, And that's very lovely, you know. When we go away, sometimes we leave a parting gift. I have one or two parting gifts. When I left the city of Hall in Yorkshire, where we lived for seven years, where we got an assembly started, built a chapel like we have here, and things were really humming and going. And the Lord suddenly picked us up and sent us to Athens, Greece. And there was one lady came to me. And she gave me a parting gift. She said, Mr.
Willie, there's a gift for you in that envelope. She didn't write very well, but scratched on the paper in full writing, it said, Jim, Mr. Willie, I'm giving you the greatest treasure I have. And it was a golden cross. I thought, now, what do I want with a golden cross? What do I want with a golden cross? And what do you think she said? She said, I've had this from child and I treasure it. And I'm giving it to you. Because you were the first man to tell me the meaning of the cross. I tell you what, I still got that cross. I take it with me. I keep it with me. I take it with me in all my travels.
I still got that little song. A pardon gift. And the Lord Jesus said, I'm going to give you a pardon gift. Peace I leave with you. Chapter fourteen, verse twenty-seven, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, nor does the world give it unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. But I'll tell you something. He didn't send the gift through the mail. He didn't send it by parcel, poster, united postal carriers. He came himself. There was trouble all around.
They were locked in for fear of the Jews. And the Lord brought that gift to them. And he said, Peace be unto you. Peace be unto you. You're going to face lots of problems. Every man except John, every man was going to be martyred. Everyone was going to lay down his life for Christ. Everyone would be imprisoned and beaten and finally, as I said, mocked. And they would suffer very, very much, but the Lord said, Here's my parting gift and I'm bringing it in person. Peace, I leave with you my peace.
I give unto you. Beloved, we start in nineteen seventy-six. What's it going to bring? I don't know. But I tell you what, on the very first Sunday of nineteen seventy-six, The Lord comes into our midst here. And here's his gift. Peace I leave with you. Peace be unto you. Not of the world give us good eye unto you. Let not your heart be troubled. But when he had so said, you see, how can we have peace? Nobody can know peace if you don't know Christ as your Savior.
And maybe somebody here tonight has never yet accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior. You don't know peace. You can know peace. Peace is not something that's affected by external things, it's affected by internal peace. I can imagine a scene of beautiful peace, a beautiful meadow, a lovely flowing river, all peace in a spring morning. And I watch a man rushing across that net and he's turning around and looking. He's a murderer. He's a fugitive. He's rushing away from justice. And he's rushing away. Oh, so peaceful. He doesn't know anything.
I can see another scene. It's a battlefield. The shot and shell and guns and shrapnel are falling all around. There's no peace there. Ah, yes, there's a young man. He's believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Word of God, it says, are thousands who fall at thy side, ten thousand at thy right hand. And that's you. And amidst all the turmoil of battle, he's got peace. Peace does not depend upon the external circumstances. It depends on what's inside. Have you got peace with God? Romans five, verse one.
Listen to it. Romans five, verse one. Wherefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Peace with God. What a wonderful moment in your life and mine when we accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and at last we got to Christ. The storm is all over. He's given us forgiveness of sin. So here we say, it says, And when he had so said, when he said peace, when he had so said, he showed under them his hands and his side.
How else could we have peace? How else could we have peace except by the work of Calvary, except by the redemptive work of Christ at the place called Calvary when he bore our sins in his own body on the scene? except by those nailed pierced hands on that ribbon side. But when his blood flowed, the blood of Jesus Christ was cleansed all still. And they must have been saying, how can we understand peace? He said, this is how you understand it. Look at my hand and look at my side. I have made peace by the blood of my cross. And so he gave them peace, and he breathed on them. Then were the disciples, Look at the words, them were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.
That's how we should be as we enter nineteen seventy-six. Them were the disciples glad as they saw the Lord. And Jesus said unto them again, Peace be unto you. But he says, I've got something for you to do. These hands show you that I've saved you by my tremendous sacrifice at Calvary, and I bring you peace with God. But just like he said to Mary that morning, go and tell my brethren that I send to my Father and your Father, my God and your God. He says, I've got something for you men to do.
Listen to it. Jesus said unto them, peace be unto you. As my Father has sent me, even so send I you." That was their business. From now on he says to these disciples, Your business is to take the gospel. As the Father sent me into the world, so I'm sending you to go and talk about this piece and tell about these nail-pierced hands and tell the story of Hell read and tell about this glorious resurrection, this first Lord day, and go out with the gospel.
As the Father has sent me, even so have I sent you. When he said this, he breathed on. He said, receive Holy Ghost. Now, it doesn't say, there's no article there. It doesn't say, receive the Holy Ghost, because the Holy Ghost was given at Pentecost some days later, fifty days later. receive Holy Ghost. And he breathed just out the Lord Jesus. When he started his ministry, went down into the Jordan and was baptized, and the Holy Spirit came down upon him, and the follower died. So as they were going to start their ministry, he breathed on them, says, receive the Holy Ghost.
And that's how he sent them out. Whoso are sins you remit, they should be remitted. Don't get upset about this. We can't remit sins. They couldn't remit sins. And we can't forgive sins. Only God can forgive sins. But I tell you what? If I tell a man the way to be saved, and I tell him he's a sinner, if he believes in Christ, who died for his sins according to the Scriptures, and if I point him to the Scriptures, and not from me or my word, but from the Scriptures, he believes, on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's got eternal life and his sins are remitted. That's what it means. That's the only way we can remit sin. The Lord himself can forgive sin, but we can show people how to get forgiveness.
Only God speak to your heart and mind. I don't know how long I've got left. Sometimes wonder, and I expect we all do. Why not let's use what we can of it for him. Life is so short. Life is so short. There's so little left for us, and there's so many souls to be saved, and so many of God's people need our help. May God help us. And so we get a picture on the first day of what I think are some of the things which give character to the Lord's day. Now, I'd like to mention three things.
In these resurrection chapters, it tells you that the women who came early to the sepulcher, they brought spices. Of course. They were going to anoint the Lord. You think this is something that gives character to the Lord today? Did on the Lord's day we bring spices? I do, you know. I think it gives character. Look at Acts twenty and verse seven, well known to all of you, Acts twenty verse seven. Verse six, and we sailed away from Philippi.
That's up in the northern part of Greece. And they sailed from a port called today Kabbalah, who you did. We sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and came to Troas in five days where we obeyed, where we abode seven days before. Well, while we were talking just now about the six days, after six days, and we were talking about the eighth day, what's going to take part? What's going to take place? They waited seven days. What's going to happen? It's going to be the Lord's day.
It's going to be the Lord's day. And he didn't rush on his journey, Paul. You know, I've always made it a rule of my life when I go on vacations. I try and get back Saturday night because I don't want to be rushing around on the Lord's day. Paul didn't do it. He stayed. And he waited seven days. What for? Why did he wait seven days? They arrived at Troas in five days where we abode seven days. Why? On the first day of the week, the disciples came together to break ground.
I think that's why he read it. On the first day of the week, the disciples came together to pray prayer. If you notice when the Lord Jesus went to a mess with those disciples and revealed himself to them, and revealed that he was the one of who Moses and the prophets say, what a wonderful Bible lesson they had that day. And you know what they said when they, he disappeared and left them? that he was known unto us in the breaking of bread. So on that very first day of the week, the very first Lord's day, the Lord Jesus with a couple of disciples broke the bread.
I'm talking about first mentions. I'm talking about a pattern, the first day, which is an example and a pattern for all the first days. And here in Acts twenty they waited, and on the first day of the week. They broke bread. You do that. Most of us here do. But many Christians don't do it. Many Christians don't see the necessity. Many Christians say, ah, I break bread once in three months. We have a communion service once a year. All that once a year business was belonging to Leviticus XXIII, the Feast of Jehovah.
We don't have once a year now. We have once a week, you know. the Lord's day. And on the Lord's day, the first day of the week, they came together to break grace. Here's the sample, here's the pattern in the first of all the Lord's days. I don't know how you stand, but I personally make that a rule of my life to be at the Lord's table on the Lord's day. We're not under law, mind you, we're under grace. But grace is stronger than law. And grace means more than law when the Lord Jesus says, remember me. But tell me something, I'm going to be there.
So these two things, they did. They brought spices, and that's just what we do. When we gathered here this morning to remember the Lord Jesus, then we put the incense upon the altar, and our hearts go up in worship and praise that he did. He drinks spices on the first day of the week. Now let's read one more and I see our clock is going. First Corinthians chapter sixteen. First Corinthians chapter sixteen. I'm reading about things that happened on the Lord's day. One Corinthians chapter sixteen verse one.
Now concerning the collection. Well, you say we have a collection in our church every meeting. That's what the Jewish leader told me when he came the other day. He said, we'd have a collection every day. I said, we won't have a collection at all. I said, there'd be a collection. It would be at the Lord's table. That's the only one. I said, we'd have two boxes at the back. He wanted to give some money in there, but no collection. I told him that. Listen, now concerning the collection for the saints. as I have given order to the churches of Galatia upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God has prospered him.
I think this is one of the orders concerning the Lord's name. That's why we have our offerings Sunday morning. That's part of our worship. Lord, I'd like to get a little more personal on this question. I personally believe, now some of you may not agree with me, I personally believe that we should make a contract with God to give God a percentage of our income. I believe this. Now you say you're putting us under law, I don't think so. I don't think so. Because if the Jew had to give a tenth, a tithe, a tenth, and if he had to give the first And if he had to give the redemption shackle, all of which amounted to something around about thirty percent of his income.
I never preached that we've had to tithe because I don't think tithing is enough. Tithing is giving a tenth. I don't think it's enough. On the first day of the week, their sight, as God has prospered. as God has prospered. My brother wrote me from England a few years ago, I don't know, twenty years ago, and he said, in our assembly, he said, they just give the same kind of offerings that they used to give before the war. He said, it's not enough. And he said, nobody wants to talk about giving. Everybody says, the Bible says, let not thy right hand know what thy left hand give it, so they won't talk.
And he said, I've asked you all, I've asked so many of the brethren who preach, come and talk to us about you. Oh, no, I'm not going to talk about giving. That's a private matter. No, no. And he said to me, I think I heard you talk about giving one. How about making me a tape and sending it so I can play it to the saints in our assembly? And I made a take called Giving to God. And I went into it in detail. And explain what the Jew gave. Tithing is not law. Abraham tithed.
That was long, long, five or six hundred years before the law. Abraham tithing. So tithing done what didn't start with the law. giving to God. God expects us to give to him. And he had a tape, and they had a Saturday evening supper, and they got everybody from the assembly there, and they played the tape. And a few months after, four of the elders sent a letter to me and signed it. And they said, our offerings have increased four hundred percent. Thank you for that lecture. I think we ought to talk about these things. God is so good to me that I've made a new resolution to step up what I give to God this year, to step it up because he's worthy.
What are you going to do? On the first day of the week, give to God as God has given to you, as he's promised to you. I won't say anymore, and I know it's a delicate subject, These are some of the things that happened on the first day of the week. And to me, the first day of the week is significant. And we've talked this morning and this evening about the first of all the Lord's day. We read this morning about John in the prison at Patmos and how he was on the Spirit on the Lord.
And as he was in the spirit on the Lord's Day alone, he had no bread and to sit down and break bread with. But he was in the spirit on the Lord's Day. And the Lord appeared to him inside that prison cell. And the Lord revealed to him such wonderful things on the first day of the week. I'll say what I said just now. It is the Lord's day from early morning to learning until late night. The Lord's day, the first day of the week. Every minute belongs to him. I remember when I was in my twenties, of course I used to be up early in the morning and get to the Lord's table and so on, but I remember in the evening we were all without preaching the gospel.
And I had a great friend I used to go out preaching when he used to say, Bob, I like to go home on Sunday. Tired, tired in preaching the gospel, but not tired out preaching the gospel. Because every Sunday we were out preaching the gospel on the first day of the week. Oh, there's so much to be done. Read the Bible. She was connected with this wonderful day which God has given us fifty-two times in a year. Next time put into practice some of these things.
Poor old Thomas, you know. But he's another pattern you see. It says, look at this. Verse twenty-six. After eight days. Here we get the eight days of this. The day after the Sabbath. The first day after the Sabbath. another eight days. That's to say, counting from that first Lord's day to the next Lord's day, that's eight days, and after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas was with them, and then came Jesus. For old Thomas stayed home. Thomas called Didymus.
That means he was a twin. Didymus means he was a twin. And he wasn't there. He wasn't there that Sunday. Thank God he got there the next Sunday. If you missed it this morning, let's be there next Sunday. Thomas got back there. And look at the grace of the Lord Jesus. The week before, he said to all the others, Please be unto you. Poor old Thomas missed it. He said, I can't believe it. Unless I can see with my eye and put my finger in the nail print, I can't believe. But how gracious the Lord was to Thomas. Listen. After eight days again, his disciples were within, and Thomas with them, then came Jesus.
The door had been shut and stood in the midst of what he said. Peace be unto him. Thomas, you're here now. I'm talking to you. Peace be unto him. Then said he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger. And behold, my hand. Reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side. and be not faithless for believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. This is where we stop tonight. Can we do that? Can we bow at his feet on this Lord's day?
In the first Lord's day of nineteen seventy-six, we say, My Lord and my God. Listen to the words Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen, thou hast to be. Vesida are they that have not seen. And I did agree. That's where you and I come in. We weren't there on that first Lord's day. We are here on the... I used to written up how many Lord's days since the first one until today. It's a lot of Lord's days. And we are here near the end of... the history of the church. And he says of us, blessed are they that have not seen this relief.
And he says to you and me tonight, peace be unto you. As you start in nineteen seventy-six, peace be unto you. I'm going to be with you. I'm going to stand by you. I'm going to go all the way with you until the end of the chapter. Peace be unto you. And so we come to the end of our studies in John's Gospel. Over three years we've been talking about John's Gospel. A couple of verses that come we've spoken up so many times we needn't mention. And then by and by we get the epilogue chapter twenty one. I don't know when that'll be when the conferences are over, some Sunday perhaps we might look at that.
But I do thank God I have personally enjoyed the studies in John's Gospel. And we end up with these words. My Lord. And my God shall we pray. Bless you, God, our Father, we vow before thee. We thank thee for the revelations to our hearts. We thank thee that in this wondrous gospel we have seen the eternal word. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. And in this wonderful gospel, through the months and years, we have been beholding his glory.
And tonight at the first Sunday of another year, as we behold thy glory of fresh Lord Jesus with Thomas, we bow at thy feet in adoration. And he said, My Lord, and my God, take us out in the nineteen seventy-six, we pray. and use us for thy glory until we see thee face to face. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus.