The Early Church
Notes
Transcript
Synagogue
After the temple was destroyed by Babylon in 587 BC, Jews needed a new place and means of worship. Rooms or purpose-built buildings for worship existed before that time, but they always faced the temple and were considered proxies for it. At the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, as the new temple was being built, the Great Assembly wrote rules on “Houses of Assembly” (beyt knesset), which comes into English through Greek, synagogue (assembly).
The Lexham Bible Dictionary 2016 Worship Practices
• reading of the Torah
• reading of the prophets
• instruction
• sermons
• communal prayer
He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. As usual, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.
How should the New Testament church impact our worship?
Two Protestant views:
Regulative principle of worship: only include what’s explicit in the NT for worship. The NT regulates what our worship looks like. (no guitars, no announcements)
Normative principle of worship: while the NT church is a normal pattern, not a hard limit, so we can add to it. (guitars, smoke machines?)
Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu each took his own firepan, put fire in it, placed incense on it, and presented unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them to do. Then fire came from the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.
David and the whole house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all kinds of fir wood instruments, lyres, harps, tambourines, sistrums, and cymbals.
So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.
Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, a close friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
As they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after they had fasted, prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them off.
On the first day of the week, we assembled to break bread. Paul spoke to them, and since he was about to depart the next day, he kept on talking until midnight. There were many lamps in the room upstairs where we were assembled, and a young man named Eutychus was sitting on a window sill and sank into a deep sleep as Paul kept on talking. When he was overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was picked up dead. But Paul went down, bent over him, embraced him, and said, “Don’t be alarmed, because he’s alive.” After going upstairs, breaking the bread, and eating, Paul talked a long time until dawn. Then he left. They brought the boy home alive and were greatly comforted.
Ways in which the early church was different than today:
Very different than surrounding culture.
Shared Jesus (sometimes forced to!).
High respect for the Bible.