One of the most important patterns that we see coming from God, through the apostles of Christ in Acts, is the pattern for worship. In worship, we approach God; we come into the presence of God through specific acts or rituals, with a specific purpose, for a specific time. When you think about that very act, it is the most awesome, awe-inspiring thing we can do. Let it sink in that God allows us, sinful humanity, to come into His presence! That also argues that we need to do so just as God directs. If we are going to step into the presence of God, we have to do it the way God says. God has actually killed people in the OT because they did not worship God the way He prescribes, so it is an awesome thing to attempt to worship God.
Every single act of worship which Christ authorizes for Christians in the New Testament has its origins and a long history in the OT. In other words, Jesus does not call on Christians to do something new, different from what the Jews did in the OT. Jesus spiritualizes the acts; they are offered through Him, but they all have a long history among the people of God, most of them going back to the book of Genesis. Worship is as important to Jesus under the New Covenant as it was to the Father under the old covenant.
When Jesus had His conversation with the woman at Jacob’s well in John 4, Jesus told her that God is looking for “true worshipers,” those who desire to worship God in “spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24). It is no surprise, then, when we open the book of Acts, we find five specific acts of worship that have been commanded by the apostles of Christ for Christians to do, to show their thankfulness, praise, and trust in God.
PRAYER IS AN ACT OF WORSHIP WHEN WE EXPRESS OUR THANKS, PRAISE, AND TRUST:
“Pray” or some form of the word is used twenty-nine times in the book of Acts. God’s people are a praying people.
The first time “prayer” is mentioned in Acts is in 1:14 when the disciples met in the upper room to wait for the Holy Spirit. There, they spent their time praying. As we read through Acts, naturally, we find some of the prayers were done together, in worship, in the assembly of the church. Some of the prayers are by individuals as a part of their own, private spiritual life.
The unique characteristic of Christian prayer which distinguishes it from Jewish prayers in the OT is that it is now offered “in the name of Jesus Christ,” that is, through our relationship with Him (John 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:23-24, 26), Prayer is authorized in the name of Jesus but not in the name of anyone else. There is no authority for praying to anyone else, dead or alive, or through any one else, dead or alive, including the Virgin Mary.
Prayer is an act of worship when we express our thanks and trust in Jesus Christ.
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SINGING IS AN ACT OF WORSHIP WHEN WE EXPRESS OUR THANKS, PRAISE, AND TRUST:
“Singing” has a long history among God’s people, going back at least to the crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus 15. The book of psalms is largely a song book that was used by the Jews up to and through the Christian age.
While “singing” is only found once in Acts (Acts 16:25) when Paul and Silas are singing praises to God in prison in Philippi, Paul will write to the Christians in Ephesus that they need to allow the Holy Spirit to fill their hearts, as they “speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord” (Eph 5:19). While Paul and Silas’ singing was a small group, the reference here in Ephesians 5:19 and its sister verse, Colossians 3:16, is to worship in the church assembly. We see that when Paul says we are to “speak to one another.”
While our singing expresses our thanks and trust in Jehovah God and Jesus Christ, it serves a secondary purpose of teaching and encouraging one another. One reason why we, in the churches of Christ, do not use mechanical instruments of music in worship, is because of this didactic (teaching) purpose of singing. We must be able to understand each other in our singing because we are teaching each other in song. Our song service is a method of indoctrination, as it were, rooting theological truths deep into our hearts.
Jesus sang with His apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane before He was arrested (Matt. 26:30). In passages like Romans 15:9, 1 Corinthians 14:15, and Hebrews 2:12, we see that Christians sang together in the assembly of worship. Yet, James 5:13 shows us that Christians also sang privately, on their own, or in their own home.
Singing is an act of worship when we express our thanks and trust in Jesus Christ.
Paul Holland
