"Going To Church" In The First Century

For many of us, a key aspect of our Christian lives is coming to church. If we asked people on the street what Christians do, their first thought would probably be that we go to church on Sundays. Over the next three weeks we are going to look at what “going to church” was like for the New Testament Christians. It was actually very different from what we do. In some ways I am going to emphasise how different it was. I don’t do that to criticise what we do. Our church is many-faceted. It is not all about Sunday services. Some of what we see in the New Testament church is perhaps more evident in our small groups or some of the ministry team we have. But I do believe there is value is seeing how the New Testament church fellowshipped and ministered to each other. Maybe there are things for us to learn.

But, for a start, let’s think in terms of our services. Why do we gather each week like this? Why do those of us who work for the church invest so much time into preparing for Sunday? Are our services meant to be primarily evangelistic (We do tend to hope that people will come to church and be converted.) or primarily about growing Christians to maturity, or about worshipping God, or what?

We cannot answer that by referring to what people think or what has become the traditional pattern. What does God say, in the Bible, about Christian gatherings?

So, help me out here. What does the Bible say about church services?

There are some relevant passages but there are surprisingly few! When coming to church is so central to how we understand Christianity, isn’t it strange that the Bible says so little? Wouldn’t you expect God to give us instruction about this most central part of our faith – what these gatherings should look like; what sort of music is appropriate; how many hymns or songs there should be; and whether they should be hymns or songs; how long services should be… God, give us some guidance here!

When “going to church” is so central for us, why is it so relatively insignificant in the New Testament? Have we got things out of kilter? Have we focused on one aspect of Christian living to the neglect of other aspects that, perhaps, the Bible gives much more attention to?

Having said that, the New Testament does emphasise Christians gathering together. Hebrews 10:25 says, “Do not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing.” We are to meet and we should not de-emphasise the importance of meeting. Meeting together is a key part of being a Christian and part of a Christian community.

But that still leaves the question of why? What is it all about? What are these meetings meant to be like?

READ 1 Corinthians 14:26-33.

1 Corinthians 14 is perhaps the single longest passage about Christian gatherings. We have read only a part of it. I am not going to talk about tongues and prophecy and how they are to be exercised in the gathering – at least, not today.

Verse 26 says, “When you come together”. Here is instruction about the gathering. This is about what we call “church services”. When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation.

Wow, that’s a bit different, isn’t it? Everybody brings something. One of the things that is obvious about New Testament gatherings is that they were highly participatory. Everybody took part. That contrasts with most modern worship services where a few people take part and most of us are reasonably passive. We stand and sit and sing. It is not entirely passive but we do not all come to church having prepared something to share. By and large, we receive what others have prepared.

Look at the ways people contributed. A hymn. Someone might say, “All week I have been thinking about the words of “Holy, holy, holy””. I am overwhelmed by the thought that God is so pure, so perfect, so intolerant of sin; perfect in all His ways. He will not compromise. And yet in His mercy, He has forgiven me and made me His child. Can we sing “Holy, holy, holy” together?” Or maybe someone just started singing a song that she was making up on the spot, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Maybe whoever was leading had already chosen some songs but there was a spontaneity about the gathering as other people also brought songs. And they were songs that were real for them and so the content of the gathering was rooted in people’s lives. They sang about what was current and real and important for them.

A word of instruction. Some people contributed teaching. Again, maybe some of the leaders but maybe also anybody who had been reflecting on the scriptures and shared what he/she was learning.

A revelation. What does that mean? Look at verses 29 and 30. In the middle of 5 verses about prophecy – about God revealing something through some of the church members – Paul says, “And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop.” “Revelation” is another word for what God does through prophecy.

We can be sure it didn’t mean some new-fangled idea that someone had come up with that was contrary to scripture. V.29 says that, when a prophecy is given, others should weigh carefully what was said. It was to be tested. And that is another way that people were involved. Some prophesied; some discerned whether it had come from God or whether it was really just the ideas of the person.

A tongue or an interpretation. Someone spoke in a language he or she has never learnt but enabled by the Holy Spirit. And someone else, also empowered by the Holy Spirit, interpreted that message. There is a whole lot of instruction in this chapter about tongues and prophecy. We will look at that another time. The point at the moment is that Christian gatherings were interactive and relational. Everybody had a contribution to make. That included using their spiritual gifts in ministering to one another.

This is different from just being a part of an audience. Is it frightening? Does the idea of speaking or singing or praying in a worship service give you the heebie jeebies? Would you stop coming to church if there was an expectation that you would contribute?

Or, is it appealing? Would you like church to be more relational and interactive? Would you like to grow in how you can minister to others and receive ministry from others? Would church be more satisfying if it was more active, with more personal engagement? Are you bored by just sitting and receiving?

The New Testament Christians did not sit in rows. They didn’t even have church buildings. They met in homes and so they sat around someone’s lounge, facing each other and interacting with each other. That, in itself, tells us there was a very different feel and intention.

Probably all of their gatherings involved sharing a meal. The description of the church in Acts 2 is not just about when they gathered together. It is a description of the broader life of the church. Nevertheless, much of what is described must have taken place in their meetings. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer… Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. (Acts 2:42, 46-47)

There is a huge sense of community and togetherness, of meeting and eating.

If we look just three chapters before 1 Corinthians 14, 1 Corinthians 11 is about the Lord’s Supper. The Corinthians were getting a whole lot of things wrong but we can still learn about their meetings.

One of the things they were getting wrong was that those who could get to their meetings in good time ate all the food. Some of them were drinking so much that they were getting drunk. Those who arrived later – probably the slaves who could not get away so readily – missed out and the early birds didn’t seem to care! That says a whole lot about their disunity and their lack of love for one another but it also says something about the Lord’s Supper. If they were getting drunk, on the one hand, or going hungry, on the other hand, it suggests we are not talking only about a tiny quantity of grape juice and a minuscule square of bread. We are talking about a meal. The Lord’s Supper was celebrated in the context of a full meal. They ate together; they shared together; they talked; they sang, they listened to teaching; they asked questions, cared for each other, prayed for each other. In that context they paused and, as they shared the bread, they reflected on Jesus’ death on the Cross for them. As they shared the wine, they reminded each other that Jesus’ blood had been shed for them. They knew they were forgiven and they were part of this community only because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross. In their pausing and their shared words and their eating the bread and drinking the wine, they proclaimed the Lord’s death until He comes again.

Do you get a feel for how interactive and relational church gatherings were? There is a huge emphasis on community, with words like fellowship, together, eating, meeting, sharing, mutual ministry, one another…

We get a similar picture in passages like…

Ephesians 5:18-20

Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 3:16

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

We think of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs being addressed to God but Paul talks about speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs; teaching and admonishing one another… singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Even the singing is about ministering to one another. They sang God’s truths to each other to encourage each as they expressed their thankfulness.

The biblical picture is very different from a modern church service. In comparison, modern worship is individualistic, not relational. Yes, we are in the same building but we do not interact much. It is easy to come expecting to receive. We do not come ready with a song or some teaching to contribute.

As I said before, church life is not only about worship services. We also have Life Groups and other types of fellowship, and ministry opportunities. Some of these New Testament priorities are picked up in other contexts. We can take a wholistic view.

The value of studying the New Testament gatherings is that they give us an insight not only into how the church operated but why. Their practices reflect their purpose. Why were their gatherings so participatory and interactive? Why did they gather around meals? Why did they all contribute to the meeting? Why did they prioritise community and people ministering to one another?

There is a reason and we will look at that next week. What was the purpose of their gatherings? If we know that then it becomes very plain why their meetings looked like they did. We can ask the question why we meet and then also think about how best to achieve that purpose. My inclination is that what we see in the New Testament is what many people are hungering after.

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