The Essentials of Worship

“Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus,” 2 Tim 1:13-14.

The New Testament doesn’t spell out explicitly when, where, and how we are to worship, but this doesn’t mean we aren’t told when and how to worship.  As Moses was shown a pattern on the mountain for how he was to construct the tabernacle, in that he was told, “And you shall raise up the tabernacle according to its pattern which you were shown on the mountain,” Exodus 26:30, so we have been shown a pattern in the New Testament for how we are to worship.

The day of the week
There is but one day given prominence in the New Testament, and that is the first day of the week:

• It is the day on which Christ arose, Mark 16:9, “Now when He rose early on the first day of the week…”

• It is called the Lord’s Day, Rev 1:10, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day…”

• It is the day on which we are to give of our means, 1 Cor 16:2, “On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.”

• Lastly, and most importantly, it is when the disciples came together for the purpose of breaking bread, that is, to take of the Lord’s Supper, Acts 20:7, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread…”

The example we are shown is to meet on the first day of the week.

What is to be done

• We take of the Lord’s Supper, Acts 20:7, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread…”

  • Paul in giving his account of the instituting of it, says, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes,” 1 Cor 11:26. In saying, “As often,” he implies it is to be done on an ongoing basis. As the disciples came together on the first day of the week to partake of it, so it is to be done on every first day of the week.

• We give, 1 Cor 16:2, “On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.”

• We give a message from God’s word, Acts 20:7, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.”

• We sing, Eph 5:19, “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord…”

• We pray, 1 Tim 2:8, “I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere…”

• It is the men who are to conduct the service, 1 Tim 2:8, 11-12, “I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting…Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence,” and again, 1 Cor 14:34-35, “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.”

The Essentials of The Lord's Supper

“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’  In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes," 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.

The Lord’s Supper has been instituted by Jesus, as the means by which we are to remember Him, in dying for the sins of the world.  It is variously called communion (from 1 Corinthians 10:15-22), the breaking of bread (from Acts 20:7), and the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:20).

The Institution
The Lord’s Supper was instituted on the night Jesus was betrayed, during the Passover feast.  There is a correlation between the the Passover and the Lord’s Supper (discussed below), but they are not one and the same.

The account in Matthew reads,

“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’

“Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you.  For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.  But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom,’” Matthew 26:26-29.

Paul’s account from Corinthians quoted above adds additional information, that it’s done as a remembrance.

The Bread and the Cup
The Supper consist of two elements, the bread and the fruit of the vine.  The bread is unleavened; as they were eating the Passover when the Lord instituted it, it was unleavened bread that Jesus used.  The fruit of the vine is the juice of the grape, whether fermented or unfermented.

The bread is taken first, and is broken off by each person as they partake of it.  This is because, “He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you,’” and, “The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” 1 Cor 11:24, 1 Cor 10:16.  Then the cup is partaken of.

It must also be taken of with sober reverence, for if it is done carelessly with no thought as to what we’re doing, or the state of our heart, there is a heavy price,

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.  Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body,” 1 Cor 11:26-30.

This is not to say we should fear doing it, only that we need to be sure that our heart and attitude are right when we do partake of it.

The Frequency
We partake of it every first day of the week, every Sunday.  The two relevant verses are 1 Cor 11:25, “This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me,” indicating that it is to be taken on a continuing basis, and Acts 20:7, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread,” showing that it was on the Lord’s Day (the first day of the week) when they partook of it.

The Passover and the Lord’s Supper
“For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us,” 1 Cor 5:7.

There is a correlation between the Passover and the Lord’s Supper, but they are not the same thing.  The Passover is the type, the shadow, and the Lord’s Supper is the antitype, the substance.

The Passover was instituted on the night the Jews left Egypt, when the firstborn of Egypt were killed, but the firstborn of the Jews were “passed over.”  It was kept as a remembrance year by year, to remember the freeing of Israel from the land of bondage.

The Lord’s Supper is a remembrance that is kept week by week, to remember our being freed from the bondage of sin.  In the day of judgment, we will be passed over, spared the destruction of the unrepentant world.

The Essentials of Baptism

What Is Baptism?
Baptism is an immersion in water, and is the point at which a repentant believer is forgiven of his sins.

The Mode
The act of baptism is to immerse the person fully under water, and then raise them up again.  Immersion is the only method we have in the New Testament, and is the meaning of baptizo, the original Greek word underneath our English word baptize.

The Result
The result of baptism is our salvation.  This is not because of the washing of the body, 1Peter 3:21, but because it is the point at which we are washed in the blood of Christ, which is what saves us.

Revelation 1:5 states, “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,” and again, Hebrews 13:12 says, “Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood...”  It is the blood of Christ which saves us; but in order for us to be saved, there has to be a point at which we are washed in it, for it is evident that not all are saved, but only those who are in Christ.  And this point we are shown in the baptism of Paul, “And now why are you waiting?  Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord,” Acts 22:16.  It is in baptism that we are washed in the blood of Christ.

The Word
Our English word baptism is a transliteration of the Greek word baptizo, which means to immerse (a transliteration is where the sound of a word in one language is carried over into a second language (in our case, from Greek into English), creating a new word).  Why was this done, and the word not translated?  The practice dates back at least as far as Jerome’s Latin translation, the Vulgate (390 - 405 AD), where he transliterated the Greek into the Latin.  The reason he did this, or whether the practice preceded him, is not known to me.  It is easy to see that the act of baptism carries with it a far greater significance than simply the immersion itself, and that this may be the reason Jerome transliterated the word instead of translating it.  Whatever the reason may have been, the practice of transliterating 'baptizo' persists to this day.

The definition of the Greek word baptizo is:
Arndt & Gingrich - “…dip, immerse, dip oneself, wash”[1]
Thayer - “To dip repeatedly, to immerge, submerge”[2]
Liddell & Scott - “to dip in or under water”[3]
Abbot-Smith - “…to dip, immerse, sink”[4]
Bullinger - “…to make a thing dipped or dyed.  To immerse…"[5]

This definition of baptizo correlates with the examples we have in the New Testament.  Mark 1:9-10a states, “It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water…,” and likewise, Acts 8:38-39a states, “So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. Now when they came up out of the water…”  In both examples, they were in a body of water when the baptism took place, and they came up out of it when they were through.  If we were to translate the passage from Acts instead of transliterating it, the meaning is very clear, “So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he immersed him. Now when they came up out of the water……”  To baptize, is to immerse.

This definition also correlates with the figure it stands for, a burial with Christ.  Romans 6:3-5 states, “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
”For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection…”  We are buried with him when we are baptized, and are raised to a new life.  As a body is put under the ground when it is buried, so we are put under the water when we are baptized.

Endnotes
[1] Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1996), p. 131, translated by William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, revised and augmented by F. Wilbur Gingrich and Frederick W. Danker
[2] Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon Of The New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1995), pg. 94.  This edition was prepared using the fourth edition published by T. and T. Clark in 1901
[3] Liddell & Scott, An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, 1975), pg. 146
[4] G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1973), pg. 74
[5] E. W. Bullinger, A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1999), pg. 80

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The Essentials of Biblical Authority

“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth,’” Matt 28:18-19.

Jesus is the authority in the church and in the world, as all authority has been given to him by the Father.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine.  Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you,” John 16:12-15.

Jesus plainly states that the New Testament is written on his authority, as the Spirit did not teach from himself, but from Christ.

“Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus,” 2 Tim 1:13.

We are instructed to hold fast to the pattern we have heard from Christ (what Paul taught is from Christ).

“Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven,” Matt 5:19-20.

Jesus states that if we don’t follow what he taught, and teach as he taught, we will not enter heaven.

“But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.  As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed,” Gal 1:8-9.

Paul plainly states that there is no other doctrine in the kingdom of Christ other than what we have in the inspired writings of the New Testament.

“Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.  If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds,” 2 John 9-11.

John agrees with Paul, stating that anyone who does not abide in the doctrine in the New Testament does not have God, but rather works evil.

"And the Lord said to me: 'What they have spoken is good.  I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.  And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him,” Deut 18:17-19.

“He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him — the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.  For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.  And I know that His command is everlasting life.  Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak,” John 12:48-50.

Moses prophesied, and Jesus confirmed, that we will be judged by the words that Jesus has spoken, both when he was on earth, speaking by the authority of the Father, and by the New Testament, authored by the Spirit by the authority of Christ.

(For a more in-depth treatment, see "On Biblical Authority")