Summary: A lesson in worship exhibited in the first century.
SERIES: “LESSONS FROM THE EARLY CHURCH”
TEXT: ACTS 20:7-12
TITLE: “UNDERSTANDING CORPORATE WORSHIP”
INTRODUCTION: A. Worship is important
1. Back during the days when people would travel by sailing ship, a young boy
was traveling with his father. The boy was amazed at all of the activity and work it
took to sail one of those ships.
He watched everything the sailors did and he noticed every night that the
captain of the ship would stand on the deck and point a funny-looking instrument
at the sky. He asked his father what the captain was doing. His father said, “That
funny-looking instrument is called a sextant. With it, the captain can ‘shoot the
stars’ and then he will be able to take our bearings. The captain can then see
where we are and find out if we are going in the right direction.”
2. Sometimes in life we become confused and we lose our way
--We need the checkpoint of worship to touch base with the Lord to see where we
are and find out if we’re going in the right direction.
3. This concept is vividly illustrated in Isaiah Chapt. 6
a. We see a description of a vision in which Isaiah is carried into the presence of
God on His throne
b. Isaiah is overwhelmed at the sound of the heavenly worship of the angels and
he’s profoundly confronted with his own unworthiness
c. He also dramatically comes into contact with God’s mercy and grace as Isaiah
sees his sinfulness made clean
d. During this scene of worship, God issues a call for those who would serve Him
--Isaiah gratefully responds to God’s call because of his encounter with God in
4. J.J. Von Allmen, Worship: It’s Theology and Practice, “Christian worship is the
most momentous, the most urgent, the most glorious action that can take place in
the human life.”
B. Last Sunday evening, we looked at idolatry, which is improper worship
--Idolatry is when the emphasis in our life and our faith is on the wrong thing
1. We learned our emphasis should be on Jesus Christ – with our eyes, mind, and
heart centered on Him.
2. When our emphasis is on anything else, our worship becomes idolatrous
3. Scripture teaches us that worship has two categories: personal worship and
a. Personal worship is when we worship God individually and privately.
--Include times of prayer, Scripture study, reflection, and singing
b. Although personal worship is extremely important in our spiritual growth, I want
to focus tonight on corporate worship – when the individual members of the
Body of Christ come together publicly to join together in worship
C. Acts 20:7-12 – On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul
spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking
until midnight. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting.
Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep
sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from
the third story and was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the young
man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive! Then he