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Great Texts on Worship #5
By Rev. Hughes Oliphant OldPrevious articles in the Great Text series by Hughes Oliphant Old:
Acts 2:42 Acts 2:42 sums up very briefly what was included in the worship of the earliest Christian Church. It tells us that after the surprising events of Pentecost when several thousand people were baptized into the Church, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:42, RSV).
It was only a few days before Pentecost that Jesus himself had commissioned the Apostles, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them...and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20, NIV). That teaching was to be an essential part of the life of the Church was something that Jesus had directed them to do at a very significant moment in his time with them. In fact, as the Gospel of Matthew presents it, these were his parting words. It is hardly surprising that the first Christians gave a major portion of their time to the apostolic teaching and preaching. One gets the impression from Acts 6:1-6 that more was involved in the ministry of the Word than simply preaching and teaching. Following well established Jewish tradition, a good amount of time each week day was given to corporate study. At such times one would go over the traditions of Jesus, discuss their meaning, and commit them to memory. This was how the Apostles handed on the oral tradition of the words and works of Jesus.
While the teaching of the Apostles is fairly obvious, what about the fellowship of the Apostles? The Greek word used here is
koinonia, which literally means "sharing," although most often it is translated as "fellowship." The word "fellowship" as we use it today has faded from its New Testament meaning. The book of Acts has far more in mind than having a good time with each other. It also means supporting each other in time of need or sorrow.
Certainly from what we read in the early chapters of the Acts of the Apostles the first Christian community thought of their fellowship in very practical terms. They shared their goods with each other. The giving of alms and works of mercy became a major function of the Church. Taking care of the poor, the elderly, and the sick became a specific ministry of the deacons (Acts 6:1-6). Still later we find Christians collecting alms on the first day of the week, the day which was already the day of Christian worship (I Corinthians 16:1-2). We do not know how this collection was made nor can we be sure that it took place during the service of worship. In the synagogue people usually put their alms in an alms chest at the door of the synagogue either on entering or leaving. Offertory processions during the service, however, seem to have come in much later.
The breaking of bread was the obvious expression for the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, which apparently was celebrated every Lord's Day from the very beginning. In the earliest days the Supper was celebrated in the evening, namely, the evening of the first day of the week. This expression was not necessarily limited to the sacramental meal. It was at these meals, however, that Jesus came to them, or, at least that is the way Luke seems to understand the story of the two disciples who shared a meal with Jesus in the inn at Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35).
Jesus seems to have made a point of sharing a meal with his disciples. There were several occasions in which Jesus fed a multitude. He seems to have done it as a sort of prophetic sign. The Last Supper was apparently the last of many suppers Jesus and his disciples shared together. Devout Jews in those days regularly met together on the eve of the Sabbath to share a meal and discuss matters of faith and devotion.
Another important sacred meal was the feast of Passover. The Last Supper as it is reported by the synoptic Gospels was an observance of the Passover feast and it seems to have been a prototype of the Lord's Supper (I Corinthians 11:23-26), for it was on the same night that Jesus was betrayed that Jesus instituted the sacrament, the Apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians. When Acts 2:42 speaks of the breaking of bread, far more was meant than a simple fellowship meal.
Finally, Acts 2:42 speaks about the prayers which the early Church maintained. As F. F. Bruce points out, the Greek text speaks of prayers rather than prayer and this probably implies prayer services, organized morning and evening, such as would normally be found in both the Temple and the synagogue. Even today, in Korean churches it is customary to hold morning prayer at the church every weekday morning. Hundreds of people attend these services.
There was a difference between the worship of the Lord's Day and the daily prayer services. The Lord's Day service would be much longer, to be sure, but even more than that, the Lord's Day service seems to have put an emphasis on preaching, especially preaching the heart of the Gospel, preaching the Word as Jesus had preached it, and recounting the story of his sacrificial death and victorious resurrection. The Lord's Day worship was also characterized by the celebration of the Lord's Supper. There seems to have been a strong link between the Lord's Day, the Lord's Supper, the Lord's Cup and the Lord's Table. Daily prayer, on the other hand, put the emphasis on prayer and praise. The psalms were sung. Prayers of supplication and intercession were offered and, no doubt, even in earliest times the Lord's Prayer was recited.
One of the first stories Luke tells us about the worship of the earliest Christians is the story of Peter and John going up to the Temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. As the Jews of that day reckoned it, that was the hour of evening prayer. Daily morning and evening prayer was an important spiritual discipline in the early Church. We would do well to reclaim it today.
Christian worship even today would do well to maintain this four fold service.
Hughes Oliphant Old, formerly pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church in West Lafayette, Indiana, teaches worship at Princeton Theological Seminary
This is an excerpt from Worship Leader magazine. To read more articles like this - click here to subscribe.
