Worshipped Together

They worshipped together in the Temple each day. (Acts 2:46)

The emerging body of Jesus followers shared a common love and focus: Jesus. One way they expressed that love was with common worship. They did so in the Temple, the place of sacrifice. Is it fair to say that their worship in the Temple was similar in form to what they had known, only now their worshipped focused on the revealed Messiah?

It’s interesting to me that these folks came from so many different geographical areas, and languages, and cultures, and perhaps worship styles. And yet, they worshipped together. I wonder if they used their own predominant languages, or Hebrew, or Aramaic, or…? We don’t know. We also don’t know what shape the worship took (what was the mix of praying, singing, reading, teaching, exhortation, silence). We do know they found the commonality to worship together. They were in unity in their worship, even with some obvious points of diversity. People from various cultures express differently an intimacy in worship. I wonder what those forms looked like for this first group?

Even though they had individually made decisions to publicly affirm and follow the new life offered by Jesus the Messiah, they moved forward as a group in adoration of the King.

I remember a key point of C.S. Lewis’ conversion testimony. He said that he could read and pray on his own (even though such activities were meant to be lived and carried out in community). But he knew he had to be part of a body of believers because he couldn’t serve communion to himself. This was an activity of shared Christian life which required worshipping together.

No doubt these early believers found robust points of shared worship experiences and reveled in them. And they were being led by men who had been with Jesus for three years! In fact, up until just a few days ago, Jesus had been in their midst instructing and encouraging them! What a blessed opportunity to worship daily the eternal Lamb of God in the centerpiece of Jewish life, the Temple! And doing so with leaders and mentors who had been discipled by the Messiah!

“Father, thank you for the rich scope of history, even to this present moment, of the body of Christ worshipping you together!”