Breaking Bread and Keeping the Sabbath

Home
Free Resources
The Sabbath Blog

People often quote the story in Acts 20—of Paul and his fellow workers meeting on the first day of the week to “break bread together” (v. 7)—as evidence that Paul celebrated the Communion service as part of a worship service on a Sunday. They assume that this demonstrates Paul’s regard for Sunday as a sacred day. There are a few problems with this idea.

Jesus instituted the Communion service on the Thursday night before His crucifixion as a way to commemorate His death (Matthew 26:26:30), not His resurrection. Paul confirms this when he writes to the church in Corinth, “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). According to these Scriptures, participating in the Communion service highlights Christ’s sacrificial death.

“Breaking bread” is not clearly defined in the Scriptures as being a Communion service. Luke, the writer of Acts, records one other time when believers met to break bread together: “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart” (Acts 2:46). If we assume that “breaking bread” means having a communion service, these believers were celebrating every day!

Going back to the story of Paul, after having broke bread, the record says that Paul preached until midnight and “there were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together” (Acts 20:8). Luke is referencing the biblical method of counting days, beginning in the evening (Genesis 1). Following this reckoning, this meeting would have taken place on what we consider Saturday night.

Since this is the only record of a Christian meeting on the first day of the week, it would seem that Luke would highlight the importance of honoring Christ’s resurrection if the Sabbath had been changed. But the key point of this story is a resurrection of a dead believer, with no reference at all to Christ.

You may have family or friends who are asking questions about why you keep the seventh-day Sabbath holy—when the whole world seems to regard Sunday as sacred. Click here for a FREE resource you can share that will help to answer those questions.

Separation of Church and State

The Blessings of the Sabbath

The Sabbath is Jewish, Sunday is Christian

Isn't obedience legalism?

Comments

When you post, you agree to the terms and conditions of our comments policy. Click here to read it.

If you have a Bible question for Pastor Doug Batchelor or the Amazing Facts Bible answer team, please submit it by clicking here. Due to staff size, we are unable to answer Bible questions posted in the comments.

To help maintain a Christian environment, we closely moderate all comments.

Please be patient. We strive to approve comments the day they are made, but please allow at least 24 hours for your comment to appear. Comments made on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday may not be approved until the following Monday.

Comments that include name-calling, profanity, harassment, ridicule, etc. will be automatically deleted and the invitation to participate revoked.

Comments containing URLs outside the family of Amazing Facts websites will not be approved.

Comments containing telephone numbers or email addresses will not be approved.

Comments off topic may be deleted.

Please do not comment in languages other than English.

Please note: Approved comments do not constitute an endorsement by the ministry of Amazing Facts or by Pastor Doug Batchelor. This website allows dissenting comments and beliefs, but our comment sections are not a forum for ongoing debate.

Articles

Related Articles

Comments

Articles

Are we still under the law?

We should keep the spirit ...

The Lost Day of History

Which Day of the Week Is ...

Sabbath-Keeping Christians ...