*Note: This series has been developed from a manuscript that was used to preach a sermon on May 10, 2026, at Emmanuel Reformed Baptist Church (SeaTac, WA). The title of that sermon was “A Case for AM and PM Sabbath Day Worship Services,” and it can be accessed here. Click here to read each part of this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
As we transition into the New Covenant era of redemptive history, we don’t behold the disappearance of public worship services on the Sabbath day, but rather discover their continuation in local churches on the first day of the week as opposed to the last day of the week. And what’s especially striking is that the New Testament reveals a pattern of worship that aligns with much of what we’ve already considered in connection with the Old Covenant. Just as we see examples of Old Covenant Believers gathering for AM and PM worship on the Sabbath Day, so also do we witness occasions of New Covenant Christians following suit. Although it’s perhaps not as clear as we’d like for it to be upon a surface-level reading, the text of 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 offers a clue about the nature of worship services on the Sabbath. The Apostle Paul writes, “Concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: 2 On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.”[1]
While it’s certainly true that there’s been an abundance of historical debate as to how we ought to understand the underlying context of this passage, there are two points of observation that I want to quickly highlight for the purposes of this article. First, Paul clearly assumes that the Corinthians were going to meet on the first day of the week. As stressed by John Calvin:
It is easy to infer from this [passage] that the faithful always had a particular day for resting from their work—not because inactivity is a way of serving God—but because it is of importance for preserving common concord; that a particular day should be appointed for meeting together for worship, since it cannot be done every day.[2]
By explicitly highlighting the first day of the week, Paul seems to be alluding to an activity that regularly took place in the life of the church at Corinth, which would be expected in light of the ecclesiological framework that undergirded the first-century Christian movement. But secondly, in addition to these textual details, there was a unique historical context from which Paul develops his instructions in 1 Corinthians 16:1-2. Francis Turretin argues:
The Apostle [Paul] wishes [for] collections to be made by Believers upon each first day of the week—the day on which their public assemblies for worship ought to be held—which [causes him to] draw from the custom of the Jews. According to Philo and Josephus, [the Jews] used to make collections in the synagogues of tithes and other voluntary offerings.[3]
Assuming Turretin’s reasoning is cogent, it’s possible that this financial collection would have taken place in the context of a morning worship service; I place great emphasis on the word possible because I don’t want to say more than what’s plainly evident by the text. Nevertheless, as we’ll see in comparison to our next New Testament cross-reference, there are several instances where we can encounter an overt reference to the “evening” when significant events occur on that part of a given day; this can be found in regard to passages that deal with Christ’s institution of the Lord’s Supper in the evening (Matt. 26:20; Mark 14:17; Luke 22:14), and passages that deal with Christ’s resurrection appearances to select Disciples in the evening (Luke 24:29-30; John 20:19).
Yet if there’s any doubt as to the timing of when the brethren were gathered for worship in 1 Corinthians 16, there’s absolutely no doubt when we come to the narrative of Acts 20:7-12. Luke recalls those events by writing:
7 On the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together. 9 And in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep; and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. 10 But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, ‘Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him.’ 11 Now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed. 12 And they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted.
Although there are a number of remarkable details embedded in this passage, I just want to amplify two aspects of this text that are of relevance to this article. On the one hand, this Spirit-inspired account shows us that a real local church in Troas intentionally gathered for corporate worship on a Sunday evening. On the other hand, the terminology that’s used for “break bread” is likely a figure of speech that intends to harken our minds to the Lord’s Supper (cf. 1 Cor. 11:23-26). As noted by a number of New Testament commentators, the language that Luke uses for “break bread” in Acts 20:7 is interchangeable with the language that Paul uses for the bread being broken—and the body of Christ being broken—in 1 Corinthians 11:24.[4] With this linkage established, it appears that Luke and Paul are not only intending to describe the Lord’s Supper, but that they’re also intending to identify when the Lord’s Supper was commonly administered in the first-century church. Given Wilhelmus a Brakel’s commentary in The Christian’s Reasonable Service, the overwhelming likelihood is that the Lord’s Supper was observed by the earliest Believers within the context of an evening worship service. A Brakel states the case as follows:
Scripture denominates this sacrament as ‘the Lord’s Supper,’ [and] it is called a supper since it was instituted in the evening. The Passover lamb had to be killed between two evenings and between light and dark, this being the latter part of the previous day and the beginning of the next day. This, according to Jewish calculations, began at sundown. By the time it was prepared and eaten, it would already be far into the evening. Upon having eaten the Passover, the Lord Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. It could not have been instituted any earlier since the Lord’s Supper replaced the Passover, and two sacraments of identical nature could not have been observed at the same time. It could also not have been instituted later, for the Lord Jesus was captured that very night and put to death on the next day… [Thus], the early church frequently celebrated the Lord’s Supper in the evening, as formal meals were then served in the evening… The celebration of the Lord’s Supper is referred to as the ‘breaking of bread’ (such as in Acts 2:46), and the cup is referred to as the ‘cup of thanksgiving’ (such as in 1 Corinthians 10:16).[5]
On the basis of interpreting Scripture with Scripture, we have every reason to believe from the language that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 11 that the Lord’s Supper was observed by the early church during evening worship services, and that the event of “breaking bread” in the Acts 20 worship service is a reference to what is conveyed in 1 Corinthians 11 (i.e., the Lord’s Supper). If ever we needed warrant for a PM worship service—and if ever we needed warrant for observing the Lord’s Supper in the context of a PM worship service—then surely we now have it in abundance. It’s been well said by Pastor Steve Meister that “there’s more biblical warrant for a PM worship service than there is for small groups,” and yet the predominant trend in our era is for local churches to prioritize any number of midweek ministries over a regular PM worship service.[6] While an extensive study of how PM worship services have been prioritized and utilized throughout church history is outside the scope of this article; consider a succinct sample from the following assessment provided by R. Scott Clark:
The pattern of two services each Sabbath continued among the early Christians. In his letter to the emperor Trajan, Pliny the Younger reported that the Christians met on Sunday before daybreak and then again later in the day. The practice of morning and evening services continued throughout the Medieval church and into the Reformation. The Reformed church orders, including Heidelberg (1563), Dort (1619), and the DPW (1644) all called for two services each Sabbath. The entire Christian tradition, east and west, ancient and medieval, Roman and Protestant, has recognized the fundamental creational and re-creational pattern of morning and evening services.[7]
Although it’s not inherently sinful for a congregation to lack a PM worship service, the absence of such a meeting appears to fall short of what can be found across the bulk of church history, in supplementation to what we’ve noted from the history of God’s covenant people throughout the storyline of Scripture. My prayer is that this series has provided readers with material for ongoing reflection, and with motivation to “not forsake the assembly of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:25). Lest our generation wrongly presume that we’re wiser than our spiritual forebearers, we would do well to maintain our commitment to AM and PM Sabbath Day worship services until Christ returns or calls us home.
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[1] Unless otherwise noted, all in-text citations from Scripture are derived from the New King James Version.
[2] John Calvin, Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, ed. David W. Torrance and Thomas F. Torrance, trans. John W. Fraser (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1960), 350.
[3] Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, ed. James T. Dennison, trans. George Musgrave Giger, vol. 2 (Philipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 1994), 93.
[4] Robert P. Martin provides exegetical and historical support for seeing a connection between “break bread” in Acts 20:7 and the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11 on page 284-285 in The Christian Sabbath: Its Redemptive-Historical Foundation, Present Obligation, and Practical Observance. See also Sam Waldron, How Then Should We Worship?: The Regulative Principle and Required Parts of the Church’s Corporate Worship (England: Evangelical Press, 2022). 141-142.
[5] Wilhelmus à Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service: The Church and Salvation, ed. Joel R. Beeke, trans. Bartel Elshout, vol. 2 (Grand Rapid, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2020), 525.
[6] Pastor Steve Meister’s excellent sermon can be accessed via the following link: https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermons/1027241720446144.
[7] R. Scott Clark, Recovering the Reformed Confession: Our Theology, Piety, and Practice (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2008), 338-339.
Dewey Dovel is a pastor of Emmanuel Reformed Baptist Church in SeaTac, Washington. He also serves as a co-host of The Covenant Podcast, a fellow of Savoring the Savior Books, and a visiting lecturer at multiple theological institutions. Above all, Dewey is blessed to be a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband, and the father of two daughters.
