Worshipping With the Early Church

Q: What does the Bible say about worshipping God?

The Bible emphasizes that worship must be rooted in truth and sincerity, as seen in Acts 2 and Hebrews 10. The Bible teaches that true worship is an exercise of the heart, focused on God's holiness and grace. In Acts 2, we see the early church engaging in worship that was centered on the preaching of Christ and the gospel. Peter's sermon highlights the importance of recognizing Christ's suffering and resurrection, leading to repentance and faith. Hebrews 10 further emphasizes the necessity of approaching God with boldness through the sacrifice of Jesus, reflecting a worship that acknowledges our need for mercy and grace amid our sinful condition. Authentic worship, therefore, must entail a heartfelt response to God's revelation in Christ, grounded in biblical truth.

Q: How do we know the gospel is true?

The unchanging nature of the gospel, preached by the apostles and affirmed by Scripture, is evidence of its truth. The truth of the gospel is rooted in its consistency and the historical reality of Christ's life, death, and resurrection. Peter's sermon in Acts 2 serves as a cornerstone for the Christian faith, asserting that Jesus, who was crucified, was also raised from the dead by God's sovereign plan. This gospel message has remained unchanged over centuries, as preached by faithful servants like Spurgeon, Whitefield, and the apostles themselves. The enduring power of the gospel to convict and convert hearts is further evidence of its truth, as it stands as the sole means by which humanity can be reconciled to God. Thus, the gospel's faithfulness throughout generations testifies to its divine origin.

Q: Why is preaching important in worship?

Preaching is vital as it communicates the gospel and convicts hearts, grounding worship in God's Word. Preaching occupies a central role in worship because it is through the proclamation of God's Word that individuals are informed of their sinfulness and their need for grace. As demonstrated in Acts 2, Peter's preaching stirred the hearts of those who heard, leading to repentance and faith. This divine interaction occurs because preaching is not merely the conveyance of information, but is empowered by the Holy Spirit to penetrate and transform lives. When the church gathers, the nucleus of true worship involves articulating and embracing the truths of Scripture, as it is through preaching that both believers and non-believers encounter the transformative message of Christ.

Q: How did the early church worship God?

The early church worshipped God through preaching, baptism, communal meals, and prayer, adhering to the apostles' teachings. The worship practices of the early church, described in Acts 2, focused on several key elements that emphasized their commitment to God and one another. They devoted themselves to the apostles' doctrine, underscoring the importance of sound teaching as a foundation for faith and practice. Baptism served as a public confession of faith, signifying repentance and acceptance of Christ's lordship. Additionally, the breaking of bread symbolizes fellowship and remembrance of Christ's sacrificial death, which fosters community within the body of believers. Prayer was central to their worship, reinforcing their dependence on God and fostering unity. Together, these elements formed a holistic approach to worship that reflected their genuine love for God and each other.

I've often thought, I'm glad
that I'm not traveling in a covered wagon. I'm glad that we have modern
transportation farming. With the population increase
as it is, methods of farming have to change. I remember the
old-time plow. one row at a time. Now they plow
ten rows at a time, you know, with a tractor. So science, medicine,
dentistry, improvements are necessary. But let me emphasize and emphasize
it as strongly as I am able, in the worship of the Lord, change
usually means a departure from truth. That's right. Change in the worship of the
Lord, in the preaching of the gospel, change usually means
a departure from grace and from the Word of God. That's what
change usually means. In praising the Lord, in worshiping
God, in seeking His presence, change usually means compromise
for some reason, for somebody's benefit. We're taking the edge
off there. We're taking the sharp edge off
to keep someone being offended. That's what change means. Change
means compromise. Change means an exercise in the
flesh and leads to even more error. How can one improve on
the worship of the early church? Tell me. 1900 years ago, when the early church
met together to worship God, to preach the gospel, to praise
the Lord, to seek His presence, how could you improve on that
time? What would you do to improve
on what they did and how they did it? How can you improve on the preaching
of the apostles? Here we have the preaching of
the apostles. How do you improve on that? You
improve on their preaching? How do you improve on the praise
of these redeemed people in early days? Look in Hebrews 10, verse
19, that scripture you just turned to, in Hebrews 10, 19. Can you
improve on this? Listen. Having therefore, brethren,
boldness, To enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus is still
the same holy place. In matters pertaining to our
Lord, to our souls, to our relationship with Him, to eternal matters,
it's the same. God's the same. He's holy. He said, I am the Lord, I change
not. He's the same. I'm the same. I'm a sinner. I'm
just like any other sinner, whether it's in medieval days or modern
days. I'm just a sinner. The need is
the same mercy. Let us come boldly to the throne
of grace to find mercy and grace to help us. The way is the same. The blood is the same. The gospel
is the same. Read it. Listen to it. Having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath
consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh,
and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw
near with a true heart, sincere heart,
no hypocrisy, no insincerity, with a true heart and full assurance
of faith that we are welcomed there in Christ's name. Having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water, let us hold fast the profession of our
faith without wavering. For he's faithful, it's promised.
God is the same, he's holy. We're the same, we're sinners. We may not be wearing oriental
robes, but under this blue suit is a heart of sin, just like
under those robes, they're no different. The need's the same, the mercy
of God, the gospel is the same, the blood and righteousness of
our Lord. Worship is the same, it's a heart
exercise. And gospel preaching is the same
as the power of God unto salvation. Now, turn to my text, Acts chapter
2. I call this message, Worshiping
with the Early Church. Worshiping with the Early Church.
In Acts chapter 2, we find that Peter preached to them. And he
preached the same thing that I preach to you here every Lord's
Day. I thought about it today, and
I believe I can say what Charles Spurgeon said over a hundred years ago. He
said, as he came to the close of his ministry, after pastoring
the tabernacle for 38 years, he said, in all these 38 years,
my message, my gospel, my doctrine has not changed one Tide. That's the word he used. Not
one tide. Not one iota has my gospel changed. And I believe I can say that
in these 42 years. The things I believe, when I
heard this message of grace and began to study and read the Word
and to study the old writers, it has not changed one iota. It's the same message, the same
gospel. And that's what Peter, I'll preach
what he's preaching here in Acts 2, verse 22. You men of Israel,
hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know, Him,
being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
You did what God determined before to be done. You did what God
ordained, what God purposed. Verse 24, Whom God hath raised
up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible
that he should behold of it, thou wilt not leave my body in
the grave, nor suffer thy holy one to see corruption. For David
speaketh concerning him. I foresaw the Lord always before
my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.
Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover
also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my
body in the grave. Thou wilt not abandon my soul,
neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou
hast made known to me the ways of life, thou shalt make me full
of joy with thy countenance." Men and brethren, let me freely
speak to you now of the patriarch David. Peter said, now let me
talk to you about David. David wrote those words. But
David is both dead and buried, and his grave is with us to this
day. Therefore, being a prophet and
knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit
of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ
to sit on his throne." This is what our book, Old Testament
Pictures, is all about. We preach the same thing. Moses
wrote of me. Abraham saw my day. David wasn't
talking about himself, he was talking about his son, his Lord.
How he can be David's son and David's Lord, that's the gospel.
David, verse 30 here, "...therefore being a prophet, knowing that
God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his
loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit
on the throne." His throne. And David, seeing this, before,
spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not
left in hell, neither his flesh did seek corruption. This Jesus,
this same Jesus, have God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right
hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which you now see
and hear. David is not ascended into the
heavens, but he said himself, Thee, Lord, God the Father, said
to my Lord Christ, the God-man, sit thou on my right hand. Shall
I make thy foes thy footstool? Peter hears preaching of victorious
Redeemer, an effectual Redeemer, a sovereign Redeemer, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the conquering Christ. He's on the throne, the
throne. Now therefore, summing his message
up, Peter says, therefore, verse 36, let all the house of Israel
know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, the tender plant, the root out
of dry ground, the man of sorrows who was acquainted with grief,
the one who was despised and rejected of men, God hath made
that same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. That's
preaching. And that's what I'm saying, let's
not ever let that slip away. Let's not ever cease to do that. Let's don't go into the sharing
business. Let's don't go into the discussion business. Let's
stay with the preaching. That's what the early church
did. Peter preached. He preached and listened. Now,
when they heard this, now you pause a minute. A while ago,
the wind, came through their wind. Remember when the wind
blew? We talked about it earlier there
in Pentecost. They heard the rushing wind, rushing mighty
wind, the Holy Spirit came. And then they heard the disciples
speak in other languages and other tongues, and they were
amazed. And cloven tongues of fire. And
for a while these people were taken up with the sound of the
rushing of the mighty wind. They were taken up with these
unlearned Galileans who were speaking languages they'd never
learned. But now, Peter's preached Christ. And it doesn't say when they
heard the wind, or when they heard the tongues. When they
heard this. What? Who Christ is. That's what
they heard. They heard who Christ is. They
forgot the wind. They forgot the apostles. They
forgot these people who were preaching in other languages.
There was one object of concern, and that is, they had bloody
hands. They crucified the Son of God. And when they heard this, they
were pricked in their hearts, and they said to Peter and to
the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what are we going
to do? I'll tell you, it's the preaching
of the Word that convinces men of sin. It's the preaching of
Christ that breaks the heart. It's the preaching of the Gospel
that brings men to this crossroads. What are we going to do? What are we going to do? What
did the early church do? They preached. They preached Christ. They preached Christ. And men
were convinced and convicted and converted when they heard
this. They said, what are we going
to do? And Peter said to them, repent. Change your mind. That's repentance. It takes place in the soul, in
the heart, in the inner man. Change your mind about God, and
about sin, and about yourself, and about your religion, your
ceremonies, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. for the remission of sins, and
you'll receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promises unto
you and your children, to all that are far off, even as many
as the Lord our God shall call. Promise of life, forgiveness
of sin, presence of the Holy Spirit, peace of God, rest in
Christ, adoption, and with many other words, Did he testify and
exhort, preach to these people, preach to them, taught them,
exhorted them, led them through the scriptures like Paul from
morning till evening, led them through the Word of God. And
he said to them, deliver yourselves, save yourselves from this perverse
generation, get out of it, come out of it. He wasn't talking
about the drunks and the gamblers, he was talking about the synagogues
and the religious thing. Get out of this religious generation. This is a religious generation.
You get out of it. You part company with them. Save
yourselves from this untoward or perverse generation, self-righteous
people. All right, what follows are seven
things I want you to look at. Here now is the early church.
They preach the Word, they've heard the Word, they've received
the Word. What happened? How did they conduct themselves?
Well, first of all, in verse 41, they gladly received his
Word. They gladly received his Word.
That's the mark of a redeemed person. They gladly received
the Word of God. God sent them a preacher. God
sent them an anointed preacher. He preached to them and they
heard him. And they didn't argue with him. They didn't run him
out of town, they heard him. And it says they received his
word, gladly, gladly, rejoiced to receive his word. And then
secondly, they were baptized. They confessed the Lord. You
see, this is the way that the New Testament church confessed
Christ. They preached the word. people
heard the Word and received the Word and confessed Christ in
baptism. That's the way that they confessed
Christ, they were baptized. And it doesn't matter who does
the baptizing because it's not a sacrament and it's not a ceremony,
it's a confession. If you look over at 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, Paul indicates to us that The one by whose hands
we're baptized doesn't carry that much significance or weight.
I had someone mention to me not long ago that
the pastor who baptized him was no longer preaching the gospel. that I confessed Christ and I
was baptized, but the man who baptized me is no longer preaching
the gospel, no longer even professing the gospel. Where does that leave
me? I said, well, where you were, you know. It's not the hands
of the man who baptized you. It has nothing to do. It's just
the fact somebody has to put you under. But baptism is your
confession before God and before the people of Christ as your
Redeemer. And that's what Paul says here
in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 14. He says, I thank God I baptized
none of you. Now, if the person had anything
to do with it, they'd line up wanting Paul to baptize them,
and he knew that. Boy, just imagine being able
to say, the apostle Paul baptized me. You're not even supposed to think
that way. He said, I thank God I baptize none of you but Crispus
and Gaius, lest any should say I baptize in my own name. My
person and my name has nothing to do with this ordinance. I
baptize also the household of Stephanus, and besides that,
I don't know whether I baptize anybody. He doesn't even keep
a record of it. Slipped his mind there by who
he did baptize. That's good. That's good. You say, Paul, a little absent-minded.
No, he's just simply saying and showing us a truth here we need
to learn. That the man who does the baptizing
has nothing to do with this confession of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
a confession the person is making himself before the Lord and before
the people. I'm confessing Christ. All right,
they preached the word. The people gladly, gladly received
the word, rejoiced in it. They confessed Christ by baptism. Now look next. And the same day
there was added unto them about three thousand souls. Added unto
them. Now I'm not a great I'm not much
on church role books. It's all right to have. I'm sure
it's a necessary thing that you have and so forth for addresses
and contacts and all, but I don't believe this, but there are a
lot of churches that have a long roll of people that they never
see. To me, anyone who worships here, on what you call a regular
basis and loves Christ and loves the gospel is a part of this
fellowship. You're added to this fellowship
by your confession of Him, by your love for Him, by your relationship
with Him. If you're one of the children,
you belong with the family. I don't have to keep a record
of who's a family around here. If you want to hear it, you're
the family. You understand what I'm saying? You're here. This
is the Lord's house, the Lord's people, the Lord's family, the
Lord's church, and so if you know Him, then you're one of
us. You're my brother. You're my
sister, and I don't need to check the rule books to see if you're
one of our family. You see what I'm saying? When
they confessed Christ, they were added to them. That's a togetherness.
That's a fellowship. That's an identification with
the people of God. I thought the other day, this
illustration, when I was thinking about this is, here's a mama
duck. She comes up out of the water
and waddles across the grass, and here comes another little
duck, and another little duck, and another little duck, and
they all just keep coming, you know, in a line there. And ducks
of a feather flock together, don't they? And they just go
where one goes, they all go. And that's the way we are. We're
the family of God. We follow Him. And if you're
a duck, you're one of us. That's right. That's added to
them. All right, look, let's go on.
And verse 42 says, "...and they continued steadfastly in the
apostles' doctrine." Yes, sir, first century theology. What
I'm preaching to you tonight is what I heard 43 years ago, the gospel of God's
sovereign grace, the character of God, the glory of God, the
grace of God. the gospel of his glory. But
that's not when it started. It's the gospel Spurgeon preached,
and Whitefield preached, and Bunyan preached, and Newton preached,
and Augustine preached, and Ignatius preached, Paul preached, and
David preached, and Abraham preached, and Abel believed. That's my
theology. And these people continued in
that doctrine. They continued faithfully. They
continued, listen, the word is steadfast. Steadfast, stable,
established. Paul said, I delivered unto you
the gospel, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures. He was buried and rose again according to the scriptures.
That's my doctrine. And they continued in it. And
they continued in fellowship. Turn with me to Colossians 3
for a moment. Colossians chapter 3. They continued
in fellowship. In Colossians 3, beginning with
verse 12. Put on therefore as the elect
of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercy, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, longsuffering, Colossians 3, 13, forbearing
one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel
against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above
all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness,
and let the peace of God rule in your heart, to the which also
you are called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of
Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching, admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
with grace in your heart to the Lord. And whatever you do in
word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
to God and the Father by Him." These people were one in fellowship. And then back to the text. In
the sixth place, they heard the Word gladly. They
confessed Christ. They identified with one another.
They continued in the truth and the doctrine, the Apostles' doctrine.
They continued in fellowship and breaking of bread. Breaking
of bread. Now, I'm sure that they shared
their meat and food with one another. I'm sure that they They
entertained one another around the table. They went to each
other, to the homes of one another, and they ate, and had fellowship
suppers, and they shared what they had. They had all things
common. But this is talking about something else. This is talking
about what we're doing tonight. The table of the Lord. The table of the Lord. They broke
bread. They assemble around the table
of the Lord, remembering his death, his blood, his broken
body. Let's read in 1 Corinthians 11
what Paul gave to the early church, just what I'm giving to you tonight,
what I'm sharing with you this evening. In 1 Corinthians 11,
verse 23. 1 Corinthians 11, 23, Paul says,
I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.
At the same night in which he was betrayed, he took bread,
and when he had given thanks, he break it and he said, take
and eat it. This is my body broken for you,
this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he
took the cup, and when he had supped, saying, this cup is the
new covenant, In my blood, this do you as often as you drink
it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord's death till he
comes." Now back to the text. Now this is the worship of the
early church. They preached the gospel and
they heard it gladly. They were baptized, they confessed
Christ. And they were identified with one another. And they contended
steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, not veering to the
right or to the left. They stayed right with the truth
and fellowship with one another. And they met together and broke
bread, remembering the broken body and shed blood of our Lord.
And then they continued in prayer. And this is my concern, and this
is my prayer daily, that the Lord will allow us and help us
and lead us to truly worship Him. in spirit and truth. Worship him, receive his word,
rejoice in it, continue in the truth, fellowship, break bread
with one another and pray for one another. Pray for one another
and enjoy his presence. What a blessing.

Worshipping With the Early Church

What does the Bible say about worshipping God?

How do we know the gospel is true?

Why is preaching important in worship?

How did the early church worship God?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

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Worshipping With the Early Church

What does the Bible say about worshipping God?

How do we know the gospel is true?

Why is preaching important in worship?

How did the early church worship God?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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