Mention the Lord's Day and the thoughts of many Christians turn at once to the spiritual decline in our country today. Instead of a day spent in seeking to know God more fully, men spend it in the vain pursuit of a satisfaction which is but a fleeting prelude to the drabness of another Monday morning. Now it is right that we should be concerned about the nation, for our constant and continuing responsibility is to go to men and women with the gospel. But we also need to think about the Lord's Day as it concerns us. How should we use it? How can we make it a blessing to our own souls and to our families?

The very title of the day suggests its primary function. It is the day of the Lord's resurrection and so it is the weekly festival of joy, recalling that first glorious Lord's Day when the Lord met the stricken disciples and thrilled their hearts with the wonder of His resurrection. The cross had shattered their hopes, for they had been sadly mistaken in their thinking, and their Messiah seemed to have failed. But the Lord's Day morning scattered doubts and fears and gloom, for He had risen from the dead.

But the Lord who appeared to the disciples was the One who had been crucified. The risen Lord among His disciples in the upper room points to His hands and feet and side. So that first Lord's Day evening was the first of the long series that has continued down Christian history when His people have gathered to reflect on Christ crucified and risen from the dead.

Then again the Lord's Day and the Lord's Supper were from the early days closely linked. When the two disciples walked to Emmaus they were in a state of deep gloom and sorrow. Even when they met with Jesus their eyes were closed so that they did not recognise Him. But as He talked with them their hearts burned within them and as they met with Him at the table He made Himself known to them in the breaking of the bread. Those two at Emmaus were the forerunners of a great company who on the Lord's Day have had zeal and hope rekindled as they have heard the Word of God and as they have met around the table recalling His dying love, and looking forward to His triumphant return.

The Lord's Day is thus for the Christian the feast day of the new creation. When God created all things He reached the climax of His activity in His creation of man. Then He rested and set apart the seventh day as a weekly reminder of the glory of the Creator and the perfection of His work. But man rebelled and creation was spoiled. Man himself was defiled, the image defaced, his nature depraved. What was needed was a new creation, and this was precisely what Christ effected by His atonement, crowned as it was by His resurrection. So the Lord's Day is the weekly reminder of the greatness of the Saviour and of the glory of the new creation – 'If any man be in Christ he is a new creation' – for the Lord's Day helps to keep fresh in our minds the foundation of this new creation.

This means that the Lord's Day is essentially a day of rejoicing. That is why I used the Old Testament language to describe it as 'a feast day' or 'a festival'. That is why we need no other man-made or church-devised festivals, for we have the supreme festival. We do not need to wait for an annual event termed 'Easter', for every Lord's Day we may greet each other with the re-assurance 'Christ is risen from the dead'. The world will not understand. To spend a day reflecting on God and His glory is for them insufferable boredom. But for us it should be the delight of our heart.

Hence the Lord's Day may well be viewed as a foretaste of heaven. The Lord's supper, says Paul, means a showing forth of the Lord's death 'till He come'. When we meet on the Lord's Day we rejoice, but we also realise that as yet 'we walk by faith and not by sight'. So it is a pilgrims' festival. We rejoice, but we press on. We turn the eye of faith to the exalted Lord and we are given each Lord's Day an incentive to hasten towards the day of the eternal Sabbath when we shall see Him face to face.

It is for these reasons that the ministry of the Word is of such importance on the Lord's Day. This is the day when the Church gathers together in fellowship. They come to reflect upon the glory of Christ and the greatness of His saving work. But if they are to be delivered from a merely formal gathering with a routine recollection of the resurrection, they must constantly grow in their understanding. Hence the great purpose of the assembly on the Lord's Day is to sit under the ministry of the Word of God.

But obviously we will not spend the whole day in the services of worship. How then, should we use the rest of the day? How may we make it a day of real profit? One answer to this is found in Paul's reminder that this is the day when we set aside the money which is to be used for the work of the gospel (1 Cor. 16:1). But to give wisely when there are so many competing demands involves knowledge. This means reading if we are to be kept informed of the missionary situation in the world at large which calls for our prayers as well as our gifts.

But there is a wider field of reading, which is sadly neglected at the present time. So many Christians live at rather a hectic pace. There is so much activity, so many commitments, and often so much superficiality. The Lord's Day is surely one of God's gracious provisions. Here is the opportunity which is often lacking during a busy week to read the biographies of some of the great men and women of God; to study the truths which have been distilled from the Word; to read the record of God's dealings with His people in the history of His Church.

All this means that the Lord's Day is to be used positively and constructively. Some people interpret rest in a thoroughly and carnal way. For them it seems to mean an enormous dinner followed by a prolonged afternoon sleep to recover from the effects of over-indulgence. The Lord's Day is meant for the nourishment of our souls, not for gluttony and sloth!

The Lord's Day can also be profitably used to give hospitality to some of the lonely people whom we tend to meet in a rather detached way. There are Christians who leave the fellowship of an evening service to return to the empty loneliness of a flat or bed-sitter. Here is an opportunity to practise hospitality. The object is not simply to engage in the idle chatter with which some Christians fill the Lord's Day, but to enjoy fellowship in the things of God. You will find, as Hebrews 13:1 points out, the blessings which God imparts to the generous soul.

It is significant that the New Testament never prescribes rules and regulations for the Lord's Day. The keynote is liberty rather than law. But liberty does not mean licence. It means rather a disciplined freedom to grow in grace.

John on Patmos declared that he was 'in the Spirit on the Lord's Day'. Clearly the work of the Spirit in his case was a special activity, as John was to be the recipient of the revelation of Jesus Christ. But it is none the less true for every believer that the key both to the enjoyment and the profitable use of the Lord's Day is that we should be 'in the Spirit'. The Spirit's ministry is to glorify the Lord Jesus (John 16:14), and the Lord's Day is the special occasion for submitting to the instruction of the Spirit. This then is our ultimate aim for the Day – the Spirit of God leading the people of God in worship, fellowship and joyful recollection of the risen Lord, and stirring them to keen anticipation of the glories that lie ahead.