The Scripturally Prescribed Structure of Christian Worship

After a recent meeting in which the Biblically prescribed structure for worship was discussed (four-fold pattern) , one of those participating e-mailed me several insightful questions. The following is one of the questions posed and my response. Robert Webber's classic "Worship Old and New" was consulted in preparing the answers.

Question: If “worship” encompasses all we do on Sunday mornings (We gather, we hear the Word, we share the meal [quarterly…that’s another story], we go forth to live and tell), where or how does the other more fundamental pattern of Biblical worship fit in? The pattern that is found in the worship of Abel (Gen 4.4), Abraham (Gen 22.5), Job (Job 1.20-21), David (Ps 96.7-9), Isaiah (Is 6), Paul’s instructions to the churches (1 Cor 13.25-26), and John’s depiction of the throne room of heaven (Rev 4).


Response: There is a difference between individual worship such as the offerings of Cain and Abel or Abraham and Isaac, and corporate worship – that is the Assembly of God’s people (qahal Yahweh). Robert Webber Claims that the Old Testament image that best reveals this concept is the gathering of Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:1-8). Note the elements of the four-fold pattern of worship here. 1. God convened the meeting with the Israelites. The people gathered and fulfilled specific responsibilities – but all of them were participants in the event. 2. God’s Word was proclaimed to them. 3. The people responded to the Word of God by accepting the conditions of the covenant – and this is ratified by a dramatic symbol which served to seal the agreement – the sprinkling of blood. 4. God’s covenant with Israel is established and they become His people. In this and other Old Testament passages we observe God’s requirement that a blood sacrifice be offered – this is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ sacrificial death and our participation in that death at the Lord’s Table and in Baptism (1 Corinthians 10:16, Romans 6:1-5). Nehemiah 8 also contains the pattern – the people gather in the town square, the Law is brought out and read by Ezra, the people have a feast and then go out to live the renewed covenant.

In Christian worship we follow the same pattern. We gather, hear God’s Word, accept God’s terms by responding at the invitation or by taking the cup which ratifies the New Covenant in His blood, and then, ostensibly, we go forth to live as God’s People. This connection is thrilling to me. Worship that is ordered like this is following God’s prescription from the very beginning.

Quick aside: Did you see the Nativity movie that was recently released? There was a key moment in the movie that applies to our discussion. Joseph seeks Mary to be His bride. He, therefore, asks Mary’s father for her hand in marriage. There is a very important gathering of Joseph, Mary and her parents. The terms or words of the covenant are proclaimed to her. The all important moment comes when she is offered the cup. If she drinks it, the covenant is agreed to. If she does not, the arrangement falls apart. She does drink the cup and they go out of the meeting to live within the ratified covenant. What an amazing parallel to Christian worship and the four-fold pattern - and most vividly, Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper. In this act He is proposing to His bride. Note His words, “This is the New Covenant in my blood…” – a covenant is a legally binding relationship. Note also in John 6, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whosoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise Him up at the last day.” The Lord’s Supper may be seen as our participation in the covenant to be the Bride of Christ. INCREDIBLE!! And what does the Lord’s Supper pre-figure? It is nothing other than the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. GOOSEBUMPS!!! I love the depth of these theological consistencies in God’s design.

Other passages worth considering are Acts 2:41-44, and Luke 24:13-35. Also note the evidence of this four-fold pattern in the very early church. About 155 A.D., Justin Martyr wrote in his First Apology, chapter 67, “And on the day called Sunday, 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.
Note the pattern in these New Testament passages and early Church document:

Gathering: (Acts 2 - Christians gathered), (Luke 24 - Disciples and Jesus gather), (First Apology 67 - Christians gathered)


Word: (Acts 2 - Apostles Teaching), (Luke 24 - He opened the Scriptures), (First Apology 67 - Read memoirs of Apostles)


Table: (Acts 2 - Breaking of Bread), (Luke 24 - Broke the Bread), (First Apology 67 - Bread and wine are brought)


Sending Forth: (Acts 2 - Living in One Accord), (Luke 24 - Ran to tell others), (First Apology 67 - Went out to serve others)


Why is this pattern more significant in the shaping of our worship than Isaiah’s vision in chapter 6:1-8? Because that passage reveals Isaiah’s experience and it is not repeated anywhere else in the Scriptures. By definition a one time experience is not a pattern. It is not the qahal Yahweh - the assembly of God’s People. What we do see there is a glimpse of heavenly worship in which the “Holy, Holy, Holy” is being sung. The early Church sang this heavenly text during Communion every week. They believed that at the Lord’s Supper a convergence of heaven and earth took place. At the Table they were spiritually whisked to heaven where they joined the angels, archangels and saints of all the ages around the throne. The Sursum Corda is used to this day in many churches as a preface to Communion. It can be dated to 215 and Hippolytus writing, The Apostolic Tradition. The responsive reading narrates what the church believed was happening to them as they were transported into heavenly worship.

Presider: The Lord be with you.
People: And with your spirit (or And also with you).
Presider: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them to the Lord (or We have them with the Lord).

Clearly, heavenly glimpses from Isaiah and Revelation have impacted earthly worship. This contribution notwithstanding, it is the four-fold pattern's unparalleled repetition that supports its use as the blueprint for structuring Christian worship.

This pattern for worship has been evident throughout the Old Testament, the New Testament, Church history and is practiced around the world today. I believe it is God’s prescribed pattern for our worship and any other pattern seems far less obvious in the Scriptures.

Webber summarizes it this way, “One can study the history of worship from the early Church to the present and discover, without exception, that Sunday worship has always been characterized by these four acts.” I disagree with Dr. Webber here only slightly. Some of today’s contemporary churches have jettisoned any semblance of Biblical or historical pattern.

Note the shifts and turns through the years. Webber points out that the early Church had underdeveloped gathering and sending forth liturgies, the medieval period nearly lost the ministry of the Word, the Reformation nearly dismissed the Table (Zwingli), in the age of reason, the enlightenment, worship moved from experiential to cognitive, from pageant to lecture, and sanctuaries became auditoriums so people could sit and listen. The great awakening and revival movements replaced the Table with the invitation, and today, many churches reinvent the wheel every Sunday for the sake of being creative. There is little or no connection to a Scriptural pattern. There is also no appreciation for heritage or history. I believe that we should reclaim the Scriptural integrity of the Biblical four-fold pattern.