What is Christian Worship?

There’s been alot of discussion on this blog, and others, on what is and is not appropriate Christian worship. I would like to take the coming weeks to examining Holy Scripture, the Early Church, and the current Church to better understand what Christian Worship is.

The best place to begin in the Acts of the Apostles.  In Acts 2:42, Christian worship is described as:

 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

The apostles’ teachings is the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. The fellowship of believers is the corporate form of worship there Christians gather together. The breaking of bread is Holy Communion. Prayer is prayer done in the name of Christ.  This can best be summarized that Christian worship is a gathering of believers around Word and Sacrament under that name of Christ.

The result of proper Christian worship can be seen in the following verses from Acts 2:43-47:

Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Proper Christian worship will result in believers performing good works for their fellow believers. Here we see that proper creeds (statement of beliefs) lead to deeds. There is a false teaching that started with UnitarianChurch in the early 1800’s that deeds and creeds are mutually exclusive. This false teaching found a new home in liberal Christian church in the early to mid 1900’s and with Rich Warren last statement about creeds and deeds.

Does your church’s worship reflect Acts 2:42?

Comments

[B. Becker]

On what basis do you state that the the activities described in Acts 2:42 are "worship"? The new testament no where has any example or teaching of "corporate worship".

[William Hicks]

Christ said,"I and the Father are one."If this indeed is true, why in God's name have Christians for 2000 yrs been worshipping their Father. God is our Father. He(or Christ) wants respect-not worship. Who goes through life WORSHIPPING their father. "Abba", I love you as I loved my Daddy. I don't think you want me bowing before you in worship.
Also, I almost can hear God saying," What fools these mortals be" when they partake in the ritual of Communion. Jesus had a last meal w/ his disciples. The words about His body and blood attached to that ritual are not in our earliest sources of New Testament literature. He did not say it. It was added by scribes or whoever at least 200 yrs later to support the hideous doctrines that had evolved in Christianity.
Somehow through it all, God's grace has triumphed- in spite of these perversions and errors.
God bless!

[Steve]

William:

Your logic about worhiping God is a bit puzzling. Are you saying that Christians are to only respect God, the Father, not worship him?

As for Christ's words, St. Paul's letter to the Church in Corthin in the earliest written text containing Christ's words. On what basis do you make your statement that scribes added these words centuries latter?

[Andrew Gillett]

I would add a couple things. First, I would argue that vs. 42 is really the key, and that this common English translation is actually incorrect, as did one of my Sem. Profs., Dr. Thomas Winger of St. Catherines Lutheran Seminary in St. Catherine's, Canada.

It could actually be the original liturgy of the church, and would read as follows:

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship - that is, to the breaking of bread - and to prayer.

Thus, we have three parts of worship that are still found today - the Apostles' teaching (the Service of the Word), Holy Communion, and the Prayer of the Church.

Of course, there is evidence that "the prayers" that we are reading (as is demonstrated in the following chapter that leads to the incident at the Temple Gate Beautiful and the fall out) about the Jewish hours of prayer (that lead to the Monasterial Hours of Prayer).

Also, it could be argued - given the connection between the "fellowship" and "the breaking of bread" that we are seeing the first hint of the early unity of the "Agape Meal" and Holy Communion, as Paul speaks about it in 1 Cor. 11.

As to the comment on "worship" not being in the Bible, i think that is because the reader has made a dangerou disconnect - that prayer and worship aren't virtual synonyms. Like a lot of pop-American ideaology derived from the Reformed (Calvinists and Arminians) as well as Lutheran Piestism (Spener drew it out of the Reformed after time in Geneva), he has turned prayer (clearly stated in the NT) into a personal thing, while worship is a corporate thing - a very dangerous and un-Biblical division. In fact, prayer and worship are united throughout the OT in the Tabernacle/Temple Worshi and demonstrated by Christ's intercession in the NT as the true sacrifice and High Priest.

In fact, given the sheer amount of corporate prayer/worship in the OT and NT - including the Epistles and Gospels being intended for corporate use - I would challenge the individual Christian to prove a Scriptural basis for individual prayer/worship OUTSIDE the Corporate reality of Israel and the Church.