WHAT A CHRISTIAN WORSHIP SERVICE LOOKED LIKE IN THE FIRST CENTURY
(I Tim. 4:13)
OVERVIEW OF I TIMOTHY 1:1 to 4:13
1:1-2 – Overview of Christian Faith based on His names and blessings.
1:3-4a False teaching in Ephesus and how humanistic philosophy effects us today.
1:4b-6 – Commanded to love. (Loving God, fellow Christians, the non-Christian world)
1:7-8 – The law’s deterrent, punitive and educative purposes
1:8-11 – “Whatever else …” The Gospel Ethic. (Law-Philia University)
1:11 – Our Relationship with “The Blessed God.” (Causing God pain or joy)
1:12-16 Why Paul considered himself the worst of sinners.
1:12-16 Conversion of the apostle Paul.
1:12-16 Paul’s call to ministry.
1:17 Paul’s doxology of praise for his conversion.
1:18-20 How to avoid shipwrecking our faith.
2:1-3 The Christian is to pray for all men.
2:4,6 Comparison of Calvinism & Armenianism.
2:5-6 The man, Christ Jesus, the only mediator.
2:1-7 The vision, the message, the means.
2:8-15 Treatment of women in the ancient world, the early church and the Bible.
2:8-15 Three key hermeneutic principles to follow when studying the Bible.
2:8 Praying Men with Peaceful Hearts
2:9-10 A First-Century Christian Woman’s Dress and Deeds
2:11-12 Does Submission Demand Silence?
2:13-15 Paul’s Logic for Requiring Women to Be Silent in The Ephesian House Churches.
3:1 Why Aspiring to Church Leadership Can Be a Good Thing.
3:2 Spiritual Gifting Required of an Ephesian Elder – Teaching
3:2 Spiritual Gifting Required of an Ephesian Elder – Hospitality
3:4-5 Spiritual Gifting Required of an Ephesian Elder –Leadership
3:2-7 Ethical Demands of the NT and the Ethics Tests for Elders
3:2-7 Ethical Qualities Required of an Ephesian Elder
3:8-13 The Ever Present Danger of Ethical Disconnect in a Christian’s Life
3:8-13 The Ministry of Deacons in the Early Church
3:9 Keeping Hold of the Deep Truths of the Faith
3:11 An Official Deaconesses in the NT Church?
3:14 Results That are Better Than Answered Prayer
3:15 God’s New Community – The Church of the Living God
3:15 God’s New Community – God’s Household
3:15 God’s New Community – The Pillar & Foundation of the Truth
3:16a Introduction to the Hymn in I Tim. 3:15 – The Mystery of Godliness
3:16a The Mystery of Godliness – A Life Focused on Christ
3:16b The Incarnation – He Appeared in a Body
4:1-2 How False Teaching Enters the Church
4:3-5 Common Grace
4:6 Word of God in Life of the Believer
4:7a Godliness – Divine / Human Role
4:7b Train Yourself to be Godly
4:7c Spiritual Disciplines (The Word of God)
4:7d Spiritual Disciplines (Devotions, Worship)
4.7e Spiritual Disciplines (Church Attendance, Journaling, Practicing Presence of God)
4:8-9 Why Godliness Has Great Value
4:10 Putting Our Hope in the Living God
4:12 Setting an Example for Believers
4:13 What a Christian Worship Service Looked Like in the First Century.
Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
13 Until I come, devote yourself to the PUBLIC READING of SCRIPTURE, to PREACHING and to TEACHING. 14Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
1Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity (I Tim. 4:12-5:2).
INTRODUCTION:
A. Breakdown of I Tim. 4:11-5:2
Vs. 11 refers back … command and teach these things.
Vs. 12 – The need to be a good example.
Vs. 13 – The key components of Timothy’s public ministry
Vs. 14 – The importance of using his spiritual gifts
Vs. 15,16 – The need of focus for success.
Vs. 5:1-2 – How to treat members of God’s family (Belongs with 4:12-16. I Tim. 5:3 starts a new section dealing with widows)
B. Focus of study in this text
1. The program in a First Century Worship Service
2. The centrality of the Word in First Century worship
3. The “Public Reading” of Scriptures
4. Preaching
5. Teaching
6. Maximizing what we learn through the reading of Scripture, preaching and teaching.
I. CONTENT OF A FIRST CENTURY WORSHIP SERVICE
A. The church is patterned after the Jewish Synagogue
1. The Jewish synagogue was developed after the exile (Around 732 BC), during the dispersion of the Jews to Babylonia and Assyria. Eventually Judaism taught that if there were 7 adult males, then a synagogue could be formed.
2. We have one clear picture of a Jewish gathering, larger than a synagogue, in Neh. 8:1-12. It is of the Jewish returnees from the dispersion gathering in a public meetings in Jerusalem. Here we gain a bit of insight about the original content of synagogue worship.
READ NEH. 8:1-12 AND ASK: What are some of the distinctives of this gathering?
B. The Content of a Church Service as indicated from the Bible.
1. Reading of Scripture, preaching & teaching.
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching (I Tim. 4:13).
2. Prayer
1I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone– 2for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. …… 8I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing (I Tim 2:1-2, 8).
3. Singing (I Tim. 3:16; Col. 3:16)
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God (Col. 3:16).
Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great:
He appeared in a body,
was vindicated by the Spirit,
was seen by angels,
was preached among the nations,
was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory (I Tim. 3:16).
4. Charismatic utterances
Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head–it is just as though her head were shaved (I Cor. 11:4-5).
Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil (I Thes. 5:19-22).
5. Testimony / Sharing
What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church (I Cor. 14:26).
6. The Lord’s Supper
23For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes (I Cor 11:23-26).
C. Content of Christian Worship Service in 160AD
READ: Have someone read the following on the OVH.
“And on the day called Sunday,(1) all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succors the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. (From Justin Martyr’s “Discourse with Trypho the Jew,” a defense of Christianity)
ASK: Based on the explanation of Justin Martyr, writing roughly 100 years after Paul wrote I Timothy, what did a Christian Sunday gathering look like?
II. CENTRALITY OF THE WORD OF GOD IN WORSHIP
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching [the Scripture] (I Tim. 4:13).
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (II Tim. 3:16-17).
A. “Devote [prosecho]” – same Greek word used in I Tim. 1:4; 3:8 and can mean “be addicted to.”
nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work–which is by faith (I Tim. 1:4).
8Deacons, likewise, are to be men worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain (I Tim. 3:8).
B. ASK: What “Scriptures” was Timothy to be “addicted to” reading, preaching and teaching?
Quote from “Why the ‘Lost Gospels’ Lost Out” In Christianity Today June, 2004 pg. 26.
In Dan Brown’s best-selling novel “The Da Vinci code,” villain Leigh Teabing explains to cryptologist Sophie Neveu that at the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325) “many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon,” including the divinity of Jesus. “Until that moment,” he says, “Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet … a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless.” Neveu is shocked: “Not the Son of God?” Teabing explains: “Jesus’ establishment as ‘the Son of God’ was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicea.” “Hold on. You’re saying that Jesus’ divinity was the result of a vote?” “A relatively close one at that,” Teabing says. A little later, Teabing adds this speech: “Because Constantine upgraded Jesus’ status almost four centuries after Jesus’ death, thousands of documents already existed chronicling His life as a mortal man. To rewrite the history books, Consantine knew he would need a bold stroke … Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those Gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up and burned.”
“The Da Vinci Code” is good fiction but poor history?
110 AD Papias gives anecdotal information about the Four Gospels.
130 AD The Four Gospels and Paul’s letters accepted as authoritative in some parts of the church.
200 AD The Muratorian Canon published, a near complete list of the present New Testament. (This was 125 years before the Council of Nicea)
C. The Scriptures were central in the early church and have been central in the life of all evangelical churches since the reformation.
The key doctrinal features of the Reformation is best summarized in five Latin watchwords: Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Solo Christo and Soli Deo Gloria.
As it may be said that the seed of the Reformation first began to germinate as Martin Luther began to read the Bible in the original languages, so it may also be said that the Reformation began to bloom fully as Martin Luther uttered those immortal words of his at the Diet of Worms in April 1521:
Unless I am convinced by testimonies of the Scripture or by clear arguments that I am in error—for popes and councils have often erred and contradicted themselves—I cannot withdraw, for I am subject to Scriptures I have quoted; my conscience is captive to the Word of God.… Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise. So help me God.
What Luther verbalized that day was but an eloquent expression of the most foundational principle of the Reformation. The Reformation was indeed wholly founded on the Word of God only: Sola Scriptura! All the Reformers, like Luther, rejected the doctrines of tradition, councils and popes, wherever they contradicted canonical Scripture, and conversely they sought to build every reformational principle they advocated from the Scripture. This does not mean that the Reformers were individualistic and innovative in their study of Scripture (as many who caricaturize the doctrine of Sola Scriptura assert). Far from it! The Reformers recognized that the Church is the “pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15), and therefore they maintained high regards for the confessional and interpretive consensus of the Church. However, they saw also that the Scripture alone is the perfect and sufficient final authority for all matters of faith and life. Therefore they rejected any interpretations of popes and councils which they understood to be either clearly contradicting the Scripture, or have no basis in the Scripture.
Thus, the Reformation saw the rejection of many unbiblical Roman Catholic doctrines, such as the existence of Purgatory and the doctrine of Transubstantiation. Through the Scriptures, the Reformers also found that there are only two, instead of seven, sacraments; and that there is no scriptural justification for the clear distinction between clergy and laity; neither is the veneration of Mary, saints and angels lawful. Neither is there any basis for believing in the validity of an infallible apostolic succession. It was for this reason that the Reformation was essentially anti-papacy.
The Bible (through the principle of Sola Scriptura) was not only the basic doctrinal foundation of the Reformation, it also became one of the most important features in the lives of the Reformed believers. In line with the teaching of the priesthood of believers, it became necessary to make the Bible available to everyone. As a result, in every Reformed sector, the Bible was translated into the vernacular language. Luther completed his translation of the New Testament into German in 1522. By 1532, the Old Testament was completed. The French translations came by way of the humanist Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples in 1523 (NT) and 1528 (OT), as well as by Pierre Robert Olivetan, Calvin’s cousin, in 1535. The first English New Testament was published in 1525 by William Tyndale. The complete English Bible was the Mile Coverdale’s Bible in 1535.
We are saved by faith alone through grace alone as revealed only in the Scriptures. Christ is our lone Head and all is for the glory of God alone.
III. THE PUBLIC READING OF SCRIPTURES
A. The Greek Word for “public reading” here is anagnosis and was used to describe the public reading of a will, dispatches, petitions and reports.
B. We have many references to Public Reading of the Scriptures in the NT.
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read (Lk. 4:16).
The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath (Acts 13:27).
For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath” (Acts 15:21).
After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea (Col. 4:16).
I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers (I Thes. 5:27).
Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near (Rev. 1:3).
* The synagogues only read from the OT but the church read both from the OT and the writings of the apostles.
C. QUESTION: Why was the public reading of Scriptures of such great importance in the early church?
IV. PREACHING
A. There are several Greek terms used for preaching in the NT. One of he most common ones is kerusso which refers to preaching as proclamation … e.g. “… how beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim the Gospel” (Romans 10:15). Another is euaggelizo which Jesus used of himself when he said he came to proclaim the Gospel to the poor, the good news of the Kingdom.
B. In I Tim. 4:13 the Greek term for preaching is “paraklesis” which can mean a “stirring address or discourse” but also includes exhortation, admonition, comfort, encouragement.
So there is a place for a Billy Graham type evangelistic sermon in the church; place for a strong sermon on God’s judgement e.g. fire and brimstone and the coming of God’s Kingdom and a comforting, encouraging sermon too. All should be evident in a good pulpit ministry.
C. Preaching has always played a central role in the life of the church.
The fourth century bishop of Constantinople John Chrysostom was nicknamed “golden mouthed.” Of him John Stott writes:
He is generally and justly regarded as the greatest pulpit orator of the Greek church. Nor has he any superior or equal among the Latin Fathers. He remains to this day a model for peachers in large cities. Four chief characteristics of his preaching may be mentioned. First, he was biblical. Not only did he preach systematically through several books, but his sermons are full of biblical quotations and allusions. Secondly, his interpretation of the Scriptures was simple and straightforward. He followed the Antiochene school of “literal” exegesis, in contrast to fanciful Alexandrian allegorizations. Thirdly, his moral applications were down to earth. Reading his sermons today, one can imagine without difficulty the pomp of the imperial court, the luxuries of the aristocracy, the wild races of the hippodrome, in fact the whole life of an oriental city at the end of the fourth century. Fourthly, he was fearless in his denunciations. In fact, “he was a martyr of the pulpit, for it was chiefly his faithful preaching that caused his exile.” (Cited in John R. W. Stott, Between Two Worlds [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982], 21).
You can read John Chrysostom’s sermons by going on to Google and typing in quotes: “John Chrysostrom” sermons.
THE REFORMERS focused on preaching too. We have 2000 extant sermons of Luther. From 1541-1564 Calvin preached twice each Sunday and every other week preached every week night. There are many other great preachers like Alexander Maclaren, Joseph Parker, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon etc. etc.
V. TEACHING
A. Preaching is more about proclamation, declaration whereas teaching is more explanation with a goal to build up.
B. The Greek word for teaching, didaskalia is used 15 times in this epistle. This is where we get our word “didactic” (informative, instructive). In fact an early Christian writing available to many Christians was titled “The Didache” which means “The Teaching.”
C. Teaching was a main means of communicating truth and also heresy. False teachers were a major problem in Ephesus.
As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach [heterodidaskaleo] false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies” (I Tim. 1:3-4).
Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach [didaktikos] (I Tim. 3:2).
The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching [ didaskalia ] (I Tim. 5:17).
He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught [didache], so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it (Titus 1:9).
Teaching may have been Timothy’s gift referred to in Vs. 14.
VI. MAXIMIZING WHAT WE LEARN THROUGH THE READING OF SCRIPTURE, PREACHING AND TEACHING.
The great challenge of preaching and teaching:
“It is not so with us [preachers & teachers], as with other laborers: they find their work as they leave it, so do not we. Sin and Satan unravel almost all we do, the impressions we make on our people’s souls in one sermon vanish before the next.” (John Flavel, cited in Thomas, A Puritan Treasury, 193)
QUESTION: What can we do individually to maximize for our soul’s benefit what we learn on Sundays from the ministry in the Worship Center and this gathering?
SO WHAT???
1. The pattern of the NT is the pattern we seek to live like and we need to follow that pattern as far as our corporate Christian life goes, as much as possible.
2. Reading of Scripture, preaching, teaching, sharing, encouraging each other, challenging each other, singing, setting at the Lord’s Table – this was the church life and the early church and must be ours too. We will not fully participate in the life of the church if we only attend the morning worship service.
3. We must keep the Word of God central is our lives and in our worship. This has been a hallmark of true Christianity through out the centuries.
4. Preaching and teaching the Word is of vital importance to the church but its impact is decreased unless we learn how to maximize what we learn is our own daily walk.
5. We need to ask ourselves: Is the Scripture central in my life? Do I read it? Do I hear the Scriptures taught? Do I meditate on the Scriptures? Do I memorize the Scriptures? If I don’t read, memorize, meditate upon and only hear 30 minutes of teaching from the Scripture each week, it is doubtful if the Scriptures are central in my life.