Friday Night Fellowship
Why we Worship on Fridays
By Rev. Cheryl S. Birch
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From the very beginning of time the Lord set a pattern for doing things.
Even His way of reckoning time and when to rest is recorded in the Book of Genesis.
Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Genesis 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Genesis 1:12 – 13 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed
was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
Genesis 1:17-19 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the
night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Genesis 1:21 -23 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly,
after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and
multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Genesis 1: 27 & 31 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he
them…And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth
day.
We see by this pattern that a day to our God begins in the evening and ends in the afternoon for in every section of creation the
evening and morning are described as a day.
Then it says in Genesis 2: 1-3
Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had
done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it,
because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made
So the Lord’s Day, the Sabbath, called Shabbat in Hebrew, is a sanctified and blessed day of rest. Additionally, God commanded
His people to keep the Sabbath in Leviticus 23: 1-3 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and
say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts. Six
days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the
sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
Even more specific regarding the Sabbath is what the Lord says in Exodus 31:15-18.
Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath
day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout
their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made
the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’”
And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone,
written with the finger of God.
Not only did the Lord say His people should keep the Sabbath, He wrote it down for Moses on tablets of stone with His own finger
When exactly is Shabbat or the Sabbath? The Lord says that it is to be kept on the Seventh Day.
Sunday is the first day of the week. As we progress through the week we come to the last day or the seventh day of the week which
is Saturday. The Sabbath begins on Friday evening and ends Saturday afternoon. That is the time frame that God rested and it is
the time that He blessed and sanctified and commanded that His people worship and rest.
This is the Lord’s pattern of doing things and the rhythm that He set for us so that we could rest in Him and be refreshed every 7th
day.
Some folks might argue that this pattern was just for the Old Covenant Jews and that the 7th day Sabbath rest is not a New
Covenant pattern. However, Biblically there is no pattern for first day rest and worship. All the proof points to the 7th day.
First of all, Jesus kept the Sabbath. He was without sin so even by inference we know He would not have broken a commandment
of His Father. He would keep the Sabbath so as not to sin.
Quite a lot is recorded about Jesus and the Sabbath. He preached on the Sabbath in Matthew 12 and said of Himself in verse 8 that
“the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
In Mark 1 and Mark 6 it says that He entered the synagogue and taught on the Sabbath. In Mark 3 he healed people on the Sabbath.
In Luke 4 it says He went to the Synagogue and, as it was his custom, he stood to read scripture. In John 5, He taught and He
healed people in the Synagogue on the Sabbath.
There is no doubt that Jesus kept the Sabbath as God commanded.
Second, one might ask “Did the first Christians, the first church, also keep Sabbath?”
Yes!
The book of Acts mentions many times Paul, Barnabas, Peter, John and others entering the Temple or Synagogue and keeping the
Sabbath.
There are historical records as well of “The Way,” as Christians were first called, worshipping in Temple. They were considered a
sect of Judaism for quite some time. They kept the feasts (1 Corinthians 5:6,7) knowing that Jesus fulfilled or would one day fulfill
them. And, they kept the Sabbath because that was and is the day the Lord set aside for worship and rest. We need to remember
that the first church had only the Old Covenant as their bible. The New Covenant was in the process of being recorded. Under
inspiration of the Holy Spirit they were able to see Jesus and the plan of God in the Old Covenant. They followed His plan freely
choosing to keep His commandments,not as slaves to the law, but because they loved God and wanted to be like Him. (Read Acts
13:14, Acts 16:15, Acts 17:2 and Acts 18:4)
Gentile believers entered into the same pattern as the Jewish believers. The Gentiles were witnessed to by Messianic Jews such
as Paul and Barnabas. They were taught the commandments of God and their teachers read the Old Covenant scriptures to them,
just like they shared with Jewish brethren.
An in-depth study of when Sunday worship began is in an article by Kenneth A Strand. Historical evidence shows that Sunday
worship started in Alexandria and Rome and later was commanded as a worship day of rest by Constantine. The reason was
primarily anti-Jewish sentiment in Rome and Alexandria starting in 130 AD. Christian fellowships elsewhere kept the Sabbath. Later
under edict of Constantine in 321 AD Sunday became a man-commanded day of rest for most of the known world. There was a lot
of discussion amongst the church folks about this new day of rest and for a time both 7th day Sabbath services and Sunday worship
services were held. But with the continued increase of anti-Jewish attitudes and pressure from the government, the church by and
large moved to Sunday worship. Sundays were standard by 500 AD.
The result is that most of Christendom worships on a man-commanded day, not a God-commanded day.
While the reason given us for many hundreds of years to explain Sunday worship is that it is a celebration of the day Jesus rose
from the dead or that it is a “first fruits” day… both are invalid explanations for the change in the light of history. The truth is starting in
130 AD the blessing of resting and worshipping God on the 7th day was under attack. And, because the church fathers were anti-
Semitic and wanted to separate themselves from all things Jewish, we have been robbed for hundreds of years of that blessing.
Please know, we are not religious about our day of worship nor are we ridged keepers of the law. We know that Jesus set us free
from the law of sin and death. Every day is a great day to worship the Lord.
Yet, there is a special God ordained blessing and sanctification on the 7th day that is still a blessing today. We have chosen to
enter into the pattern of rest that our God set up from the creation of the earth. Worshipping any time from Friday evening through
Saturday is part of the Sabbath rest. By moving into Friday worship we found great healing and peace as we entered into the rhythm
of God for our lives.
Many folks think having the “main worship services” on any day but Sunday is odd, weird or even evil. They say we are forsaking the
Lord’s Day. We know that going against hundreds of years of tradition can seem that way. It was upsetting to us when we first
realized how much blessing we had been missing. Once again, the truth is, the Lord’s Day referred to in the Bible is the 7th day
and there is nothing weird, odd or unholy about worshipping on the Sabbath.
In fact, we believe that worshipping on the 7th day is more than a valid choice – it is the day God chose and commanded. All
other days we worship Him are “frosting on the cake.”
Hebrews 4:9-11 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from
his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of
disobedience.
Even His way of reckoning time and when to rest is recorded in the Book of Genesis.
Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Genesis 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Genesis 1:12 – 13 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed
was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
Genesis 1:17-19 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the
night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Genesis 1:21 -23 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly,
after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and
multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Genesis 1: 27 & 31 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he
them…And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth
day.
We see by this pattern that a day to our God begins in the evening and ends in the afternoon for in every section of creation the
evening and morning are described as a day.
Then it says in Genesis 2: 1-3
Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had
done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it,
because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made
So the Lord’s Day, the Sabbath, called Shabbat in Hebrew, is a sanctified and blessed day of rest. Additionally, God commanded
His people to keep the Sabbath in Leviticus 23: 1-3 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and
say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts. Six
days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the
sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
Even more specific regarding the Sabbath is what the Lord says in Exodus 31:15-18.
Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath
day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout
their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made
the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’”
And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone,
written with the finger of God.
Not only did the Lord say His people should keep the Sabbath, He wrote it down for Moses on tablets of stone with His own finger
When exactly is Shabbat or the Sabbath? The Lord says that it is to be kept on the Seventh Day.
Sunday is the first day of the week. As we progress through the week we come to the last day or the seventh day of the week which
is Saturday. The Sabbath begins on Friday evening and ends Saturday afternoon. That is the time frame that God rested and it is
the time that He blessed and sanctified and commanded that His people worship and rest.
This is the Lord’s pattern of doing things and the rhythm that He set for us so that we could rest in Him and be refreshed every 7th
day.
Some folks might argue that this pattern was just for the Old Covenant Jews and that the 7th day Sabbath rest is not a New
Covenant pattern. However, Biblically there is no pattern for first day rest and worship. All the proof points to the 7th day.
First of all, Jesus kept the Sabbath. He was without sin so even by inference we know He would not have broken a commandment
of His Father. He would keep the Sabbath so as not to sin.
Quite a lot is recorded about Jesus and the Sabbath. He preached on the Sabbath in Matthew 12 and said of Himself in verse 8 that
“the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
In Mark 1 and Mark 6 it says that He entered the synagogue and taught on the Sabbath. In Mark 3 he healed people on the Sabbath.
In Luke 4 it says He went to the Synagogue and, as it was his custom, he stood to read scripture. In John 5, He taught and He
healed people in the Synagogue on the Sabbath.
There is no doubt that Jesus kept the Sabbath as God commanded.
Second, one might ask “Did the first Christians, the first church, also keep Sabbath?”
Yes!
The book of Acts mentions many times Paul, Barnabas, Peter, John and others entering the Temple or Synagogue and keeping the
Sabbath.
There are historical records as well of “The Way,” as Christians were first called, worshipping in Temple. They were considered a
sect of Judaism for quite some time. They kept the feasts (1 Corinthians 5:6,7) knowing that Jesus fulfilled or would one day fulfill
them. And, they kept the Sabbath because that was and is the day the Lord set aside for worship and rest. We need to remember
that the first church had only the Old Covenant as their bible. The New Covenant was in the process of being recorded. Under
inspiration of the Holy Spirit they were able to see Jesus and the plan of God in the Old Covenant. They followed His plan freely
choosing to keep His commandments,not as slaves to the law, but because they loved God and wanted to be like Him. (Read Acts
13:14, Acts 16:15, Acts 17:2 and Acts 18:4)
Gentile believers entered into the same pattern as the Jewish believers. The Gentiles were witnessed to by Messianic Jews such
as Paul and Barnabas. They were taught the commandments of God and their teachers read the Old Covenant scriptures to them,
just like they shared with Jewish brethren.
An in-depth study of when Sunday worship began is in an article by Kenneth A Strand. Historical evidence shows that Sunday
worship started in Alexandria and Rome and later was commanded as a worship day of rest by Constantine. The reason was
primarily anti-Jewish sentiment in Rome and Alexandria starting in 130 AD. Christian fellowships elsewhere kept the Sabbath. Later
under edict of Constantine in 321 AD Sunday became a man-commanded day of rest for most of the known world. There was a lot
of discussion amongst the church folks about this new day of rest and for a time both 7th day Sabbath services and Sunday worship
services were held. But with the continued increase of anti-Jewish attitudes and pressure from the government, the church by and
large moved to Sunday worship. Sundays were standard by 500 AD.
The result is that most of Christendom worships on a man-commanded day, not a God-commanded day.
While the reason given us for many hundreds of years to explain Sunday worship is that it is a celebration of the day Jesus rose
from the dead or that it is a “first fruits” day… both are invalid explanations for the change in the light of history. The truth is starting in
130 AD the blessing of resting and worshipping God on the 7th day was under attack. And, because the church fathers were anti-
Semitic and wanted to separate themselves from all things Jewish, we have been robbed for hundreds of years of that blessing.
Please know, we are not religious about our day of worship nor are we ridged keepers of the law. We know that Jesus set us free
from the law of sin and death. Every day is a great day to worship the Lord.
Yet, there is a special God ordained blessing and sanctification on the 7th day that is still a blessing today. We have chosen to
enter into the pattern of rest that our God set up from the creation of the earth. Worshipping any time from Friday evening through
Saturday is part of the Sabbath rest. By moving into Friday worship we found great healing and peace as we entered into the rhythm
of God for our lives.
Many folks think having the “main worship services” on any day but Sunday is odd, weird or even evil. They say we are forsaking the
Lord’s Day. We know that going against hundreds of years of tradition can seem that way. It was upsetting to us when we first
realized how much blessing we had been missing. Once again, the truth is, the Lord’s Day referred to in the Bible is the 7th day
and there is nothing weird, odd or unholy about worshipping on the Sabbath.
In fact, we believe that worshipping on the 7th day is more than a valid choice – it is the day God chose and commanded. All
other days we worship Him are “frosting on the cake.”
Hebrews 4:9-11 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from
his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of
disobedience.