📜 Worship — Unit 3: Worship in History I

I. Worship Before the Bible: Pagan and Biblical

Worship is older than the church, older than Israel, older than recorded history. It is part of human nature, found in every culture and every religion that has ever existed. People have always worshipped some object, and most often that object has been drawn from nature, the sun, the storm, the river, the mountain. So what makes biblical worship different from pagan worship? Franklin Segler answers in one word: revelation. The pagan gropes in the dark and invents a god out of nature and imagination. The biblical worshipper responds to a God who has stepped forward and revealed Himself. Pagan worship reaches up and guesses; biblical worship answers a God who has spoken first.

II. Old Testament Worship: Tabernacle and Temple

Old Testament worship centered first on the tabernacle and later on the temple. Even in the time of Moses, God made detailed provision for worship, and much of the Pentateuch concerns the tabernacle and the priesthood. When Solomon built the temple, the offering of sacrifices became its most important feature. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin, but it pointed forward to the Lamb who would. The Psalms were sung, chanted, and recited in the temple, and we still sing the Psalms in our praise today, a direct line from Solomon's temple to your congregation on Sunday morning.

During the Babylonian captivity, when the temple lay in ruins and the people were far from Jerusalem, a new institution arose: the synagogue. It served two purposes at once, teaching and worship. The synagogue service was informal, led by the ruler of the synagogue. They read the Scriptures, prayed, gave exhortation, recited the Shema, and answered with Amens. This is the worship Jesus knew. Luke 4:16 tells us He went into the synagogue "as His custom was." The reading of Scripture and the exposition that mark our services today come straight from the synagogue.

III. New Testament Worship and the First Day

The first Christians were Jews who still worshipped on the Sabbath, but very quickly they began to gather on Sunday, the first day of the week, to remember the resurrection. This became the Lord's Day. Already in Colossians 2 Paul has to tell the believers to let no one judge them regarding a Sabbath day, which means the change to Sunday worship was being questioned even then. The resurrection is the reason the church gathers on the first day of the week.

New Testament worship had several recognizable elements: hymns, both the Psalms and new compositions like the hymn in Philippians 2; the two ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper; congregational Amens; the preaching of the word; and the offering for the needy. The believers sang, broke bread often, baptized new converts promptly, and gave generously. The shape of our worship today is already visible in the book of Acts.

IV. The Early Church and Its Corruption

The first broad outline of a Christian worship service comes to us from Justin Martyr, writing around AD 140. He describes the Sunday assembly: the memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read, the president gives a discourse, all rise and pray, bread and wine are brought, the people say Amen, and the deacons carry a portion to the absent. It is a simple, beautiful, recognizable service.

Then came Constantine. In the fourth century Christianity became the legal religion of the empire, and the effect on worship was mixed at best. Crowds entered the church automatically, including unregenerate pagans baptized without conversion. Elaborate basilicas replaced humble homes, the clergy began to wear distinctive dress, and the culture began to mold the church instead of the church molding the culture. The Eucharist shifted from joy to fear and awe, ornamentation increased, and by the fifth century preaching had collapsed while tradition was elevated above Scripture. Three corruptions followed: the church was sacramentalized (salvation through seven sacraments and a bank of merit), clericalized (the priesthood of believers lost to a priestly class), and institutionalized (a living body hardened into an organization). Against all of this, Baptists hold a free church tradition, no fixed liturgy like the Book of Common Prayer, but the latitude of the apostolic church, where no fixed order even appeared until around AD 215.

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