Acts 2:42 reveals that the early church devoted itself to four central elements of corporate worship—the apostles’ teaching, fellowship through giving, the Lord’s Supper, and prayers—offered with sincere hearts in spirit and truth.
Having attempted to lay a foundation and provide evidence for the regulative principle of worship, we now need to move on to its more practical aspects. To do that well, however, we must first clearly define what we mean by worship. Not everything in the life of the church, or in the life of individual Christians, is regulated by the regulative principle.
You may remember what Mark Driscoll once said when arguing against the regulative principle. He suggested it made little sense to follow the regulative principle for one hour a week while following the normative principle for the rest of life. He said,
Why is it that we live by the normative green-light principle until we get to church, and then we have to live by the regulative red-light principle just for an hour a week as if there’s not a blur in between the lines? We also have other church gatherings, meetings, Wednesday night classes, community groups. Do they count red light, green light? The whole thing gets very confusing.
We have already established that the church must worship according to the regulative principle, despite Driscoll’s confusion on the matter. But he does raise an important question. What about other church gatherings? What if the church meets for a Bible study? What if the women gather for a craft night or the men for a game night? What about Sunday school?
I grew up in a church that was very strict about the regulative principle. If there was no positive command for something in Scripture, they refused to do it. On that basis, they were adamantly opposed to Sunday schools. For a long time, they also opposed corporate Bible studies. Their rationale was that they did not see these things commanded in Scripture.
Are they applying the regulative principle correctly? More importantly, what about us? Are we following the regulative principle when we meet together for Bible studies or Sunday school?
The key is to distinguish carefully between formal worship and other kinds of gatherings.
For example, a church picnic is not the same thing as our corporate worship on Sunday morning. Yet no one would suggest it is wrong for the church to gather for a picnic. Sunday school is not the same thing as corporate worship, either. Is there something wrong with an elder teaching the Bible outside of his Sunday morning sermons? Of course not. Is there something wrong with older, mature members of the church teaching children within the church?
While the primary responsibility of teaching children lies with their parents, Scripture does show a broader pattern of instruction within the body. Titus 2 instructs older members to teach younger members. Colossians 3 shows that believers should teach and admonish one another. Even the Great Commission reveals that the entire church is to be involved in teaching people to observe all that Christ has commanded. Jesus himself was not a parent, yet he welcomed and taught children.
What about craft nights or game nights? There is nothing inherently wrong with them. But we must maintain a clear distinction between those gatherings and the church’s formal worship.
When we read through the book of Ecclesiastes, the first imperative does not appear until chapter five, where we are told, “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God” (Ecclesiastes 5:1). Notice that a distinction is made between entering into worship and the rest of life.
Of course, there is a sense in which we should guard our steps at all times. We want to conduct ourselves according to God’s will in every area of life. Yet Scripture places special emphasis on guarding our steps when we approach God in worship. It is then that we must be especially careful about how we conduct ourselves.
Formal, corporate worship is not the same as the rest of life, and not all gatherings of the church are the same as corporate worship. Formal worship is distinct.
This is why the worship services in my church have a clear beginning and end. We often begin with a statement such as, “Now let us go to God in worship,” or with a prayer that serves the same purpose. Sometimes we are encouraged to take a moment of silent prayer to prepare our hearts. You will also notice that this moment always comes after announcements have been made. Announcements are not part of worship, so we create a clear break between those announcements and the worship that follows.
Likewise, we conclude our worship with a benediction or closing prayer. This helps show that our worship has a definite beginning and end. The worship itself is distinct from the rest of life and from the church’s other activities.
There are times that are uniquely holy. Certainly, there is a sense in which we can worship God at any time and anywhere. I have a set of books at home called Every Moment Holy, which includes prayers and liturgies for all of life. I once taught a Sunday school series on “everyday theology.” I even made the point that you can worship God while doing dishes or washing windows.
But that kind of worship is not the same as the worship we offer corporately as the church. Our corporate worship on the Lord’s Day is uniquely holy.
Think of Moses approaching the burning bush in Exodus 3. As Moses drew near, God said, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). When the church gathers for formal worship, we are standing on holy ground, if you will.
“Guard your steps,” Solomon says. “Take your sandals off your feet,” God says. In other words, the gathered church’s formal worship is special. It is not like everything else. It is not even like other church gatherings. In our formal worship, marked by a clear beginning and end, we come into the special presence of Christ, and the special presence of Christ is with us.
For this reason, Hebrews 12 says, “Let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe” (Hebrews 12:28).
The Parts of Worship
The question now becomes: what is acceptable worship? To answer that, we must make another important distinction—this time between the parts and the circumstances of worship. We will begin with the parts, or elements, of worship.
Consider the very beginning of the church in Acts 2. In one sense, the church existed prior to this, but we might say it was the church in utero. In Acts 2, we see the church fully formed, fully born. And what do we find the church doing?
On the day of Pentecost, Peter preaches to thousands. There is an outpouring of the Spirit, and many respond positively to what they have heard and seen. Then, we read,
So those who received [Peter’s] word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:41–47)
This passage provides an insightful description of the early church. While we do not have direct commands here, we do have teaching through example. Moreover, the practices mentioned in this passage are reinforced elsewhere in the New Testament.
For apostolic teaching, we might look to passages such as 1 Timothy 2 or 1 Corinthians 14. For fellowship and sharing, we could consider 1 Corinthians 16. For the breaking of bread, 1 Corinthians 11. For prayers, again 1 Timothy 2. As we continue through the New Testament, it becomes clear that this example in Acts reflects the practices the church is meant to continue.
At the same time, we must recognize the time and setting of this passage. This is the very beginning of the church under the new covenant—a transitional period between the old and the new covenants. Not everything here applies directly to us in the same way. For example, we read that “many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles” (Acts 2:43). We no longer have apostles performing signs and wonders in the church because those were tied to a unique period in redemptive history. Likewise, the believers were still attending worship in the temple, which we no longer do since the church itself is now the temple of God.
So not everything here is directly applicable. Yet the rest of the New Testament clarifies which elements remain binding for the church.
Notice that Acts 2:42 identifies four specific acts of worship:
The apostles’ teaching
The fellowship
The breaking of bread
The prayers
Pay careful attention to the wording. The text does not say teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayers. Rather, it says the teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, the prayers. Luke is referring to specific corporate acts of the church in worship, not general activities, but identifiable elements of gathered worship.
There is another detail here that is easy to miss. In most English translations, these four elements are arranged in two pairs. Teaching and fellowship are grouped together, and the breaking of bread and prayers form a second pair. There is no conjunction between fellowship and the breaking of bread.
Sam Waldron illustrates this structure helpfully:
Suppose a young person had lunch at someone’s house. Later, his mom asked what he had to eat, and he said, “We had sandwiches: peanut butter and jelly; bacon, lettuce, and tomato.” You would not mean—and your mother would know that you did not mean—that you had one awful sandwich composed of peanut butter, jelly, bacon, lettuce, and tomato. No, she would assume from the construction of your sentence that you had two kinds of sandwiches.
That appears to be the structure in Acts 2:42 as well. The early church’s worship seems to fall into two divisions.
Nick Needham, in the first volume of 2,000 Years of Christ’s Power, describes a similar distinction in early Christian worship. He refers to what he calls the “service of the Word” and the “service of the upper room.” He writes,
An important point … is that the service of worship was divided into two distinct parts. The first part, known as “the service of the Word” (singing, reading, sermon), was opened to baptized believers, those who were receiving instruction in the Christian faith, and probably those who were curious about Christianity. The second part, the prayers and … (the Lord’s Supper), was only for those who had been baptized; the rest had to leave.
Needham is not specifically commenting on Acts 2:42. He is describing the pattern of worship in the early church based on historical evidence. Yet his description closely resembles what we see in this passage, especially when we notice the grammatical pairing.
In other words, some elements of worship were accessible to a broader audience. Others were reserved for the gathered body of believers. Worship, after all, is not the same thing as evangelism. Worship is primarily for those who are reconciled to God, members of the body of Christ. While evangelism may occur during worship, it is not the central purpose of worship.
Many churches today follow a seeker-friendly model in which worship services are intentionally designed to appeal to unbelievers. But historically, this was not the norm. In many times and places, believers could not even meet publicly due to persecution. They gathered privately, sometimes secretly, and there was nothing wrong with that. Worship is one thing; evangelism is another. Worship takes place within the body of Christ, while evangelism primarily occurs as the church goes out into the world. We gather for worship, and we scatter to disciple the nations.
There may also be another explanation for the pairing in Acts 2:42. The first pair, teaching and fellowship, points to the church’s formation. The apostles’ teaching shapes the church doctrinally, while fellowship expresses the shared life created by that truth. Teaching forms belief, and fellowship expresses the unity that belief produces.
The second pair, the breaking of bread and the prayers, consists of acts directed toward God by the unified body that has been formed and instructed by the Word.
The Apostles’ Teaching
Let us now consider the four components of worship in Acts 2:42, beginning with the apostles’ teaching.
This is the teaching of God’s Word.
Prior to the Reformation, the medieval church largely neglected the apostles’ teaching in worship because it had largely neglected the authority of Scripture. But when the Reformation took place, the teaching of God’s Word was restored to a central place in worship. In fact, many of the Reformers moved the table for the Lord’s Supper to the side of the sanctuary and replaced it with the pulpit at the center of the church. John Calvin even placed a large copy of the Bible at the center of his church in Geneva.
The Catholics objected strongly to this. Because they believed Christ was physically present in the elements of the Lord’s Supper, the bread and the wine, they saw the Reformers as demoting Christ and replacing him with a book.
Why did the Reformers make this change? For one thing, they did not believe Christ was physically present in the bread and cup. The elements symbolized Christ, but he was not physically present in them. More importantly, however, they believed in the authority of Scripture.
Why should the Bible be the focal point of the church rather than the Lord’s Supper? Because before the church can even share in the Lord’s Supper, we need the Word of God to direct us. First, Scripture must tell us toobserve the Lord’s Supper. Second, it must tell us how to observe it. Everything the church does begins with the authority of Scripture.
Sadly, the apostles’ teaching has taken a back seat in many churches today. Visit many evangelical churches, and you will find an intentional distinction being made between worship and preaching. Worship, in their minds, consists of singing and praying, while the sermon is treated as something separate.
For that reason, I sometimes hesitate even to use the label “worship leader” for the person leading the singing and prayers. That language can suggest that preaching is not part of worship. But there should be no such distinction. Preaching is not separate from worship.
We see this in the early church. We see it throughout church history. We see it again in the Protestant Reformation. Preaching is not merely a part of worship, and it certainly is not something distinct from worship. It is central to the church’s worship.
Sam Waldron writes,
Pride of place in this listing of the elements or parts of the church’s worship is given to the public ministry of the Word. Of course, it is clear that the apostles’ teaching was not the only thing, but it is equally clear that it was the first thing. The first thing in worship and the first priority in church life is the church’s doctrine and teaching. Nothing else can make up for deficiencies in this area.
He continues,
Music and singing are important. Let no one misunderstand. Congregational singing of the Word is an appointed part of worship. The circumstances of our singing must be handled in such a way as to best serve the people of the church. It is important how and what we sing, but in this passage, isn’t it amazing (given the priorities of today’s church) that music and singing are not even mentioned? This says something very penetrating about the misplaced priorities of today’s church.
To his point, I once went through the book of Acts and counted how many times we see believers preaching, praying, and singing. Not all of those instances occur in the context of corporate worship, but the comparison is still revealing. Preaching appears roughly twenty-one times. Prayer appears about twenty times. Singing appears only once when Paul and Silas were in prison in Acts 16.
Yet many churches today prioritize singing over preaching, sometimes even to the neglect of preaching. The pattern of Scripture, however, makes it clear that the preaching of the Word should stand at the center of the church’s worship.
The Fellowship
Next, we have the fellowship.
Interestingly, the Greek word translated as “fellowship” here refers to sharing or having something in common. Often, it carries the idea of contributing something to someone else. To see this more clearly, it helps to notice how the word is used elsewhere in the New Testament.
In Romans 15:26, Paul writes, “For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.” The same word appears here, translated as “contribution.”
In 2 Corinthians 9:13, Paul says, “By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others.”
Hebrews 13:16 adds, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” In this case, the word is translated as “share.”
Share, contribution— These are the most common ways this word is rendered. We see similar usage in Romans 12:13, Galatians 6:6, Philippians 4:15, and 1 Timothy 6:18.
From the same root word, we also get the word common. “And all who believed were together and had all things in common” (Acts 2:44).
For that reason, verse 42 is probably not referring merely to fellowship in the general sense of enjoying one another’s company. It appears to describe something more tangible—a specific act within the church’s worship.
According to John Calvin, this refers to “alms, and … other duties of brotherly fellowship,” such as financial giving.
Sam Waldron likewise observes:
The sharing or giving of the early Christians is described as laying their gifts at the apostles’ feet in a public setting. [See Acts chapter 4.] This laying of their gifts at the apostles’ feet appears to picture a formal or at least a public setting in which these gifts were brought, and it is difficult to exclude from such a picture the public worship of the church.
Paul also gives explicit instructions about this practice in 1 Corinthians 16:
Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week [that is, the day of their corporate worship], each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. (1 Corinthians 16:1–2)
Here, Paul gives a positive command for the church to bring financial offerings on the day of worship. This suggests that the early church understood this sharing (or fellowship) as an act of worship.
At the same time, the concept likely extends beyond financial giving alone. Giving money is certainly included, but the word may also point more broadly to the giving of ourselves to one another. As members of one body, we should be willing to give ourselves for the good of the whole. Nothing should be allowed to disrupt the unity or fellowship of the church.
Jesus addresses this principle in Matthew 5, saying,
If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23–24)
In other words, worship involves giving, both the giving of our material resources and the giving of ourselves for the unity and good of the body. Yet the specific act of worship named in Acts 2:42 most likely refers to the church’s financial giving.
The Breaking of Bread
Next, we have the breaking of bread.
Again, this refers to a very specific act of the church in worship. The text does not say breaking of bread in a general sense; it says the breaking of bread. I believe the New Testament consistently uses this phrase to describe the Lord’s Supper.
On the night that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper with his disciples, we are told, “Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body’” (Matthew 26:26).
Later, in 1 Corinthians 10, Paul refers to the Lord’s Supper as “the bread that we break” (1 Corinthians 10:16). He says essentially the same thing again in chapter 11. For that reason, the breaking of bread is not merely an ordinary meal. The early church may have shared a meal before or alongside the Lord’s Supper, but the phrase itself refers specifically to the Lord’s Supper.
Nowhere in Scripture are we told exactly how often the church must observe the Lord’s Supper. Some argue that it should be practiced less frequently so that it does not become routine or stale in our minds. Yet the language of Acts 2:42 suggests that it may have been practiced quite regularly. It appears alongside the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, and prayers as something to which the church “devoted themselves.” In other words, these were practices they pursued earnestly and consistently.
It is possible that the early church observed the Lord’s Supper every week. We cannot say with certainty. But if anything, the passage’s emphasis would caution us against minimizing it. There is no biblical rule about how often we must observe it, but there is every reason to treat it as a regular and cherished practice.
Jonathan Edwards beautifully described the purpose of the Lord’s Supper when he wrote,
We ought carefully and with the utmost seriousness and consideration attend the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper: this was appointed for this end, to draw forth longings of our souls toward Jesus Christ. Here are the glorious objects of spiritual desire by visible signs represented to our view. We have Christ evidently set forth crucified…. Here we have that spiritual meat and drink represented and offered to excite our hunger and thirst; here we have all that spiritual feast represented which God has provided for poor souls; and here we may hope in some measure to have our longing souls satisfied in this world by the gracious communications of the Spirit of God.
The Prayers
Finally, we have the prayers.
In some translations, you will not find the definite article the before the word prayers. However, the definite article is present in the original Greek. Once again, this suggests that the text is not referring to prayer in general but to the prayers offered in the church’s formal worship.
We see this emphasis elsewhere in the New Testament. In 1 Timothy 2:8, Paul writes, “I desire then that in every place [that is, in every church] the men should pray, lifting holy hands.” In that context, Paul is referring specifically to the prayers offered in the church’s corporate worship.
It is worth noting that the primary emphasis in that verse is not merely that men should pray, though that is clearly stated, but that prayer itself must be present in the church’s gathered worship. In other words, the prayers are an essential and integral part of corporate worship.
Worship in Spirit and Truth
These four elements—the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers—provide a baseline for the parts of corporate worship. Of course, there are additional elements we have not yet discussed, such as singing and the public reading of Scripture. Nor have we addressed how these elements should be carried out—the so-called circumstances of worship.
For now, however, I want to briefly address an essential aspect of worship that is less tangible than the others.
Even when we follow the regulative principle of worship—doing only what God explicitly commands—our worship could still be missing something vital. Recall what Jesus said in John 4:
The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:23–24)
He also told the Jewish leaders in Matthew 15, quoting Isaiah, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me” (Matthew 15:8–9).
In their case, the traditions of men had corrupted their worship. They were not even keeping God’s commandments. But even if we are careful to worship according to the truth of God’s Word, even if we follow the right forms, our worship may still fall short.
Following rules is not the same thing as offering true worship.
My five-year-old son has developed a habit of groaning whenever we ask him to do something he does not want to do. He will obey, but while he is doing it, he lets out this long, reluctant “Uhh.” You can probably see the problem.
According to Christ, our worship, even when it is done in truth, according to the Word of God, is only as good as our hearts. We must worship in truth and in spirit. Our hearts must not be far from God.
These two things must remain in balance. Both are absolutely necessary, and we must not emphasize one to the neglect of the other.
Some churches, for example, focus heavily on producing emotional experiences. They use lighting, smoke machines, and every available technique to create an atmosphere where people will feel something. Not long ago, I read an article by a Christian pastor who attended a Taylor Swift concert with his daughter. I was frankly astonished by what he wrote. He described the experience in almost spiritual terms. Halfway through the article, you might have thought he had ascended a mountain to meet with God like Moses. And why was he writing about it? He was suggesting that the church could learn something about worship from a Taylor Swift concert.
Given that kind of thinking, it is not surprising that the worship in some churches now resembles a concert more than the worship we read about in the early church.
Why do churches pursue this approach? They may offer various justifications, but often the goal is to manufacture an emotional experience. They want people to feel something. And perhaps we should feel something. But is that what Jesus means when he says we must worship in spirit?
I would argue that it is not.
Jesus is describing the posture of the heart. True worship engages the heart. The heart is sincere, reverent, humble before God. It is willing, cheerful, and serious about offering spiritual sacrifices to him, and it delights to do so.
Many passages reflect this principle. Psalm 51:16–17 says,
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Hebrews 13:16 adds, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”
Second Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
Psalm 141:2 says,
Let my prayer be counted as incense before you,
and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!
And Psalm 27:6 says,
I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the LORD.
The examples are many. Feelings may be involved in worship, but emotional experience itself is not the priority.
As Sam Waldron puts it, “Don’t let anyone tell you that if you have the (divinely appointed) parts, you don’t need the heart! On the other hand, don’t let anyone tell you that if you have the heart, you don’t need the parts!”
