Our previous six-part series covered the process of salvation. We talked about how you can accept God’s gift of salvation and becomes a member of the church He built. The final step in the process of salvation is faithful living. And faithful living requires faithful attendance at the weekly church services. And faithful attendance to a church that engages in each of the acts of worship.
The Bible teaches us that if we are to maintain our Salvation one of the things we have to do is meet with the Saints regularly.
“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Hebrews 10:25
And when we meet with them, it should be on the first day of the week. Many churches have additional days where they meet in the middle of the week or other times where church members will get together and spend time with one another. These are all fine and usually beneficial. But the primary day that we are concerned about is the first day of the week, which is Sunday.
When we study the Bible we find that the first century Christians also met on the first day of the week as was commanded.
When they met, they engaged in five specific acts of worship to God.
- They sing songs of praise to God in acapella style.
- They prayed to God.
- Weekly, they partook of the Lord’s Supper.
- They listen to preaching about the word of God.
- They set their money aside for the work of the church.
Singing Verses
But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
Acts 16:25 ~ (not public worship, but singing nonetheless).
“Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord”
Ephesians 5:19
Prayer
“But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”
Matthew 6:6
And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”
Matthew 21:13
“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
Acts 2:42
Lord’s Supper
23 “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; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, [d]“Take, eat; this is My body which is [e]broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 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.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
1 Corinthians 1:23-33
27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and [f]blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks [g]in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the [h]Lord’s body. 30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many [i]sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.
32 But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. 33 Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 34 But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come.”
Weekly Lord’s Supper + Preaching
“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.”
Acts 20:7
Setting Aside/Giving Money for the work of the church
“Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: 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.”
1 Corinthians 16:1-2
These five elements are required for the weekly worship on the first day of the week. If one of these elements is missing, the worship lacks a basic scriptural Foundation.
Now many churches try to leave out various elements of worship. Most notably they will leave out the regular partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Stating something like “it makes it lose its specialness if we take it too often”. So these churches will then only partake of the Lord’s Supper on special occasions, such as Christmas or Easter.
But this is not what the Bible teaches, we learn that the disciples met each first day of the week and broke bread (Partook of the Lord’s Supper).
Every week the Lord’s Supper was being observed and partaken by first-century Christians. And whether or whether or not it loses its specialness is all in the mind of the partaker. That’s why an individual has a responsibility to remain focused and remember and direct his thoughts each week so that communion doesn’t lose its specialness.
Arguably, everything loses specialness to us over time. That’s why we occasionally have to refresh our minds, look at something with a different perspective, and regain that appreciation for it. Or some outside event will force us to appreciate it more.
Take your relationships for example. It can be very easy to take these relationships for granted. But then when your loved one has a health crisis, you certainly appreciate the brevity of life and how special they are in your life. And once again time spent with them regains the specialness that it once had.
What happened to your mind? Simply a change in perspective brought on by a change in outside events.
But thankfully for us, we do not have to wait for a change in outside events to change our perspective. We have the power to direct and control our thoughts, so we can change our perspectives whenever we want.
There’s an ancient stoic exercise called negative visualization. In this exercise, you picture the worst-case scenario, or a horrible thing happening to you, a loved one becoming sick and dying. As dark as it is, you imagine all these things so that you can be more thankful for those things that you do have.
This exercise helps you to realize that the present moment is not nearly as painful as you think it is. And by doing this exercise you can shift your perspective without having to literally go through those negative events of losing a loved one, watching them get sick, or becoming sick yourself.
Additionally, you can do the same exercise when it comes to the Lord’s supper or any of the other acts of worship. Find ways to shift and change your perspective so that it doesn’t lose its specialness. Ideas for that could be an article all of its own.
Regarding the other acts of worship, you’ll notice that these can also be done outside of the public worship assembly. There is scriptural evidence of people singing outside of the worship assembly. We are also encouraged to pray outside of the public worship assembly. We can listen to lessons and preach outside of the normal assembly during a gospel meeting or something like that. The only act of worship that cannot be partaken in outside of the public assembly is the Lord’s Supper, which is on the first day of the week.
But when we come together once weekly on the first day of the week to engage in public worship service, there’s a specific recipe of requirements for that worship. It is that same list of 5 items that we mentioned above, go back and look at those. But each of those elements must exist in the worship service for that service to be acceptable to God.
So if you followed the process of Salvation series, and become a member of the church, you now need to find a congregation that scripturally engages in each of the acts of worship on the first day of the week. I’d encourage you to visit a local Church of Christ. these are the congregation to try to do exactly what the Bible teaches, nothing more and nothing less. Church of Christ is the same church that was built 2000 years ago on the day of Pentecost. So I would highly encourage you to find your local church and start attending!
Other reading: How to be internally motivated
