Devoted to Worship (Acts 2:42-47)

Introduction

Last week, we began a new series looking at the early church and what they devoted themselves to and what we as the church should continually devote ourselves to as well. We began by looking at how we as the church should devote ourselves to God’s Word.

God’s Word teaches us and shows us who God is, the God we follow and trust in. God’s Word also tells us and reminds us of the salvation that is available to us in Christ.

Finally, God’s Word teaches us what it means to be transformed by Christ and to live in holiness and obedience to Him.

This week, we will be looking at how the church should be devoted to our worship of God.

Read Acts 2:42-47

Acts 2:42–47 (ESV)

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

What is worship? This is a question we should be asking. However, when we talk about worship, we typically think of the style of worship, not what worship actually is or consists of. We think of the style of music that is played during a worship service, or we think of a particular place a time during the week.

Let me say this, we need to have a time where we gather regularly as a church to worship God together, which we will be talking about this morning. But simply attending a church service does not necessarily mean we are truly worshipping. Also, worship has nothing to do with the type or style of music played. Worship can be found among those who sing hymns and those who sing the modern worship songs or even the southern gospel music. However, there can be a lack of worship among those churches as well.

So if worship does not have anything to do with the style of music or the songs we sing or the time and place we meet, what does it mean to worship? Here in the book of Acts, we see that worship consists of at least a devotion to the Lord’s Supper through the breaking of bread and to the prayers. Now worship can encompass more than that, but it cannot encompass less than this.

Before we look at these two elements and how these are essential for worship, I would like to take a look at another passage where Jesus Himself teaches what worship is.

John 4:19–24 (ESV)

The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

In this passage, Jesus made an intentional stop in Samaria to reach out to a Samaritan woman, something no other Jewish man or woman would have done. Jesus knew she needed to hear the good news that He has come to save us. But during their conversation as Jesus was confronting her about her sin, she begins to talk about the worship of God. Notice here, that we like to make worship something that we can control, not something that we submit ourselves to. She talks about the differences between the Jews worshipping in Jerusalem and the Samaritans worshipping on Mt. Gerizim. When the northern kingdom split from the southern kingdom, the king of the northern kingdom built a temple there on the mountain to keep his people from travelling down to Jerusalem to worship God there.

It is in essence a question of what place is the right place to worship or what is the right style of worship?

What is Jesus’ response to her? There is soon coming a time when the place will not matter. What does matter, Jesus says, is that God is Spirit and we must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. The place or even the style is not what makes or constitutes worship. In summary, Jesus is saying that worship is seeking to love and honor God with both our mind and our heart!

I. Engage Your Mind in Worship

So going back to Acts 2:42

Acts 2:42 (ESV)

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

We see the church devoted themselves to the breaking of bread. Most Commentators and scholars are agreed this is in reference to the regular observance of the Lord’s Supper. In fact, a common practice for the people of God is every time they would meet together in fellowship and worship, they would share a meal together and as a part of that meal they would observe the Lord’s Supper.

Why is the Lord’s Supper important for us to devote ourselves to?

Jesus gave this special meal as a way for His disciples to remember the sacrifice He was about to make. This new observance was actually a part of an Old Testament observance the Jews had in order to help them to remember the miraculous and gracious working of God through history and in their lives.

Luke 22:14–20 (ESV)

And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

He wants them to ground their faith in what is true about Himself. God is gracious to give us these ways to remember His work and His character in our lives. These are symbols that help us to remember the truths of Scripture.

The Lord’s Supper reminds us:

We are sinners and God is holy

Blood was shed for the payment of sin

God is just and yet merciful

We can have eternal life only through the finished work of Christ on the cross

The Lord’s Supper helps us to ground our worship in the truth of God revealed to us in the person and work of Christ as we have read in God’s Word by the power of the Spirit.

Last week I gave this quote from A.W. Tozer -

A.W. Tozier - “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. ... Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.

The purity of our worship is dependent upon us seeking to know God as He truly is to the best of our ability. This does not mean our knowledge is complete or perfect, but we are seeking to grow in that knowledge and the Gospel in the Lord’s Supper reminds us of the basic truths of God that Christ Himself has revealed to us!

II. Engage Your Heart in Worship

Second, we are called to engage not just our minds in worship, but also our hearts.

Knowledge of truth is insufficient on its own.

James 2:19 (ESV)

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

It is possible to know all the right things about God and still fail to worship Him. This is what Jesus meant in Matthew 15:8

Matthew 15:8 (ESV)

“ ‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me;

John Piper once wrote, “Where feelings for God are dead, worship is dead.”

We need to seek to grow in our knowledge and understanding of God and of His glory, but we cannot simply stop there. There must be a change of heart and affections which leads us to love Him and seek to show forth His honor and beauty in our lives.

This is where devotion to prayer comes in. Prayer is that act, when it becomes more than simply an act that God can use to connect our hearts with His.

Prayer is something that can seem to be somewhat frightening to us. We think we don’t have the right words to say to a holy and powerful God. I don’t know how to pray like the deacons and the pastors of the church. Or it is hard for us to pray because we do not see or feel the presence of God near us. Of course, could it be that we fail to feel the presence of God because we are not praying to Him the way He invites us to?

So let’s talk about what prayer is. When many of us think of prayer, we probably think of going to God with certain needs and requests we have of Him. Let me say this is good and right since His Word invites us and encourages us to go to Him with our requests and needs. Peter tells us to cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us! Paul tells us in Philippians 4:6

Philippians 4:6 (ESV)

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

But prayer is so much more than simply presenting our requests to God. Prayer is the communication with God where we do share our own needs and desires with Him, but also where we meditate on the truth of God we have learned from His Word in such a way as to let it soak into our hearts.

We see where God used the prayers of His people to draw them into a closer relationship with Himself, to produce the affections and love for God to fuels their worship.

Moses spent 40 days upon a mountain in close communication with God that led to him desiring to see more of God and that transformed Moses’ appearance. Jonah was brought back into the mission God had for him when he was forced by God to pray for three days in the belly of the fish. David struggled with his emotions quite a bit and we have those recorded for us in the book of Psalms. There were times when he was joyful, times when he was angry, times when he was confused. But if you read through the Psalms, you will see a man who after praying, his affections and emotions were realigned after spending some time meditating on what he knew to be true of God.

You may or may not have heard of this acrostic tool to help in guiding your prayer life. ACTS. Each of these letters stands for a way we ought to pray to God.

Adoration - This is where we pray through what we know of God’s character and we praise Him for who He is. We do not only want to praise Him for what He has done, but start simply for praising Him for who He is. Through this time of prayer, we are meditating on God’s character and we are getting to see and experience His beauty and majesty. Take time to think through His being holy, just, love, gracious, merciful, compassionate, eternal, sovereign, all-powerful, all-present, etc. Let His nature and character, as revealed by the truth of God’s Word, deepen your affectionate response to Him.

Confession - This is where we focus on God’s holy standard and how we as sinners have rebelled against Him. So here we want our both our minds and our hearts to feel the weight of our sin and the sorrow and grief our sins have brought about, in our own lives, in the lives of others, and through the cross of Christ. Brokenhearted-ness is part of those emotions that can draw us deeper into worship, because through confession, we also experience the love and the mercy of God that He has saved us and redeemed us from our rebellion.

Thanksgiving - This is where we praise God for what He has done and offer our thanksgiving to Him. Our hearts can be drawn into deeper affection for God as we meditate on His works of salvation and provision in our lives.

Supplication - Supplication is where we present our requests to Him, learning to trust that God will give and provide the best response and answer to our prayers according to His perfect wisdom. We may not always get the results we want, but as we learn to trust that His ways are best because He loves us, then we can present our requests to Him knowing that He truly does care for us and wants the best for us.

Along with this method, another way that we can use the truth of God in our prayers to help us seek God’s heart and to realign our hearts with His and that is by using Scripture to lead and guide our prayers. If worship is to honor God in both truth and spirit, then what better way to bring our hearts to respond in affection to the truth of God then by seeking to pray as we read through God’s Word.

Last week, we talked about our devotion to God’s Word and we said that when we read His Word, we should first ask, what does this passage say about God’s character? As you answer that question, spend time in prayer thanking Him for who He is. Maybe it is His holiness that you encounter, or maybe it is His lovingkindness as a shepherd, such as in Psalm 23. You can pray, thanking Him for His loving care over your life and for always walking with you, even during the dark and hard moments. Or maybe it is asking Him to shepherd you through a difficult decision or to shepherd you in how you steward your finances.

This method of praying God’s Word was actually introduced to me by a book by Donald Whitney called “Praying the Bible.” Our Wednesday night prayer meeting will be going through this book together starting this Wednesday night, and I would encourage anyone who is not already involved in leading in Awana or in the Awana Mom’s Bible study to join in with the Prayer meeting as they walk through this book together.

If we desire to be a people who have their foundation upon Christ, we must be a people devoted to prayer, both corporately and privately.

Privately, find those times at home where you can pray with your family and also where you can pray on your own. Find a prayer journal that you can write down your prayers, even going through the ACTS method, or another way you may have learned. Remember, it isn’t simply the act of prayer. It is through prayer that we are wanting to seek the heart of God and to bring our hearts to desire Him above all else.

When we devote ourselves corporately, we want to make sure that during our church prayers that we are not simply listening to the prayer of whoever is praying. We want to be a congregation who are all praying at the same time. Do not simply listen to the prayer being prayed. Be praying yourself for the church and for the Holy Spirit to move among our time of corporate worship and for Him to move within your own heart, to draw you into an affectionate relationship.

Conclusion

Worship is the act of seeing and recognizing the worth of God, both in truth and in our emotions.

John Piper also writes, “Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full of artificial admirers (like people who write generic anniversary cards for a living). On the other hand, emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the discipline of rigorous thought. But true worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship.