Hi, I'm David Bercot, and tonight I want to talk to you about what an early Christian worship service was like. Now, I want to say at the outset that there is no agenda connected with this message. I didn't choose this topic for the purpose of trying to persuade everyone to change their worship services to be just like those of the early Christians, because neither Jesus nor his apostles ever specified how we must conduct our worship in times of fellowship together.
On the other hand, there were some apostolic customs that seem to have been preserved in early Christian worship, so unless we have a good reason not to do things the way they did, I think it's a good idea to at least look at how they worshiped and see if we can perhaps incorporate some of their practices in our assemblies today. Let's begin with what day of the week did they worship on? Well, this answer is relatively easy. It was on Sunday, and their writings make this quite clear.
I want to read to you just four examples. The first is from the Didache, which may have been written about the same time as the letters of the apostle John, and it says this: "But every Lord's Day, gather yourselves together and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, so that your sacrifice may be pure." The sacrifice they're talking about is communion or the Eucharist.
Now, I want to read to you from Ignatius, who was a disciple of the apostle John, and he wrote his letters within a decade after the book of Revelation was written. He said, "No longer observing the Sabbath," which was Saturday, "but living in the observance of the Lord's Day," which was Sunday.
That the Lord's Day was Sunday is made crystal clear in the Apology of Justin Martyr, written about the year 150 or 160, and he's explaining to the Roman emperor what Christians do, and he says, "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.
But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God made the world, and Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead on that same day." Finally, I want to read to you from Tertullian, written about the year 197.
He says, "Some suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians because we make Sunday a day of festivity, but we devote Sunday to rejoicing for a far different reason than sun worship." So if you were going to visit an early Christian worship service, you would need to do it on Sunday.
Now, I'm not going to go into any more detail on that on this message, because years ago I recorded a message entitled "What the Early Christians Believed About the Sabbath," and that goes into detail about the fact that they did worship on Sunday. Actually, the early Christians had two different meetings on Sunday, one in the morning and one in the evening. This is clear from a number of their writings. I want to read to you just two documents that testify to this. The first one isn't from a Christian.
It's from a Roman governor. His name was Pliny the Younger. He was governor of Bithynia, and he wrote a series of letters to the emperor Trajan about the year 100, asking the emperor how he should deal with Christians who were brought before him for punishment. Now, in the course of his letter, he talks about some who appeared before him and said that they used to be Christians, but they were no longer Christians. And then he says this. This is Pliny in his letter.
He says, "But they declared their guilt or error was simply this: on a fixed day they used to meet before dawn and recite a hymn among themselves to Christ as though he were a god. This ceremony over, they used to depart and meet again to take food, but it was of no special character and entirely harmless." So he mentions that they met early in the morning before dawn, and then it says later they met again to partake of food. This was actually the love feast that you no doubt have read about in the New Testament.
And again, this is about the year 100, about the same time that the apostle John died.
Now we're going to move to around the year 250 now, and I want to read to you an excerpt from a letter that a Christian bishop named Cyprian wrote, and it was concerning some break-off Christians who had developed the practice of using only water in their communion in the morning service when they celebrated the Eucharist, and then at night in their love feast they would apparently have a second communion, and this time it would be wine mingled with water.
You see, the ordinary custom for the early Christians for their communion was a cup of wine that was mixed with water, and apparently some of the Christians felt like it was inappropriate to be drinking wine that early in the morning. Normally, people don't drink wine with their breakfast, but they do at their evening meal. Anyway, in the course of discussing and reprimanding this practice, Cyprian reveals again the fact that they had two worship services on every Sunday.
He writes, "Does anyone perhaps flatter himself with this notion that although in the morning water alone is seen to be offered, yet when we come to supper we offer the mingled cup? However, when we come together for supper," which was the love feast, "we cannot call the people together to our banquet so as to celebrate the truth of the sacrament in the presence of all the brotherhood.
Should we then celebrate the Lord's cup after supper so that by continual repetition of the Lord's supper we may offer the mingled cup?" He says, "However, we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord in the morning." So he was against this idea of having two communion services a day, one in the morning using just water and one in the evening using water mingled with wine. But our concern this evening is simply to note the fact that the early Christians had these two different times of worship on Sunday.
All right, so let's first talk about their Sunday morning worship. What time of the day did they worship? Well, Tertullian writes this. This was written about the year 211. He says, "In congregations before daybreak, we take from the hand of no one but the presidents the sacrament of the Eucharist." So their Sunday morning worship wasn't at 9 or 10 in the morning like ours tend to be today, but rather they met before daybreak, and that is corroborated by what Pliny the Younger said in his letter to Emperor Trajan.
You may remember he says that these lapsed Christians had declared that on a fixed day they used to meet before dawn and recite a hymn among themselves to Christ. Now, why do you suppose that they met so early in the morning before daylight? Well, I can think of three likely reasons they themselves never explain, but I think probably the primary reason was because of persecution. From around the year AD 90 up until the time of Constantine, Christianity was outlawed in the Roman Empire.
I mean, it was a capital offense just to be a Christian. Now, normally the Roman authorities let the Christians alone unless somebody brought up a complaint against a Christian. Most of the persecution tended to be mob-inspired. They would come and go depending upon the mood of the population. Nevertheless, since there was such a high danger, it would seem reasonable that the Christians would want to meet in the dark.
So on Sunday morning they met before it was light, and then they met again after dark Sunday night. Now, a second possible reason is that until the time of Constantine, Sunday was not a holiday. Most people worked on Sunday, and a large percentage of the Christians were either slaves or were hired workers. And so it's quite likely that they wouldn't have been free to necessarily meet during the day on Sunday. So that would be a second reason for meeting again before dawn and then again after dark.
And then another possible reason for the meetings at dawn was since Sunday was a day of commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it would be fitting to meet before dawn because the Gospel of John tells us that Mary Magdalene came to the tomb while it was still dark before daylight. So if you're commemorating this resurrection, well, what a fitting time to do it than to meet before dawn.
Okay, so we've talked about what time of the day they met on Sunday, but what did they do on Sunday mornings when they met together at this early hour? Well, we are blessed by the fact that when Justin Martyr wrote his apology, he gave a very complete description of their worship service, which would have been around the year 150 or 160. Now, I'd read to you part of this before, but let's read it again.
It says, "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 us and exhorts us to imitate these good things. Then we all rise together and pray." Okay, let's just analyze what he said so far.
When they got together, they read from the scriptures, either the writings of the apostles or he says the writings of the prophets, no doubt meaning all of the Old Testament books. You see, most people in those days did not have a copy of the scriptures at home, and in fact, almost nobody did. So the only time that they were able to hear the scriptures was on Sunday morning when they came together. So reading the scriptures out loud was a very important part of their service.
This is coupled with the fact that probably at least half of the Christians in that era were illiterate and couldn't read, and so it was important that they heard the scriptures being read just directly from the writings of the apostles or of the Old Testament prophets and other Bible writers.
And then he says, "After the reading from the scriptures, the president, apparently meaning whoever was presiding, the elder or bishop there, verbally instructs us and exhorts us to imitate these good things." So then he preached to the congregation on that reading. And it's interesting, he doesn't say that the president explains the things to us, but rather exhorts us to imitate these good things. So there wasn't necessarily a lot of commentary, but perhaps more exhortation. What it says is clear enough.
Now, do what the scriptures say to do. Then he says, "We all rise together and pray." Well, so far this would be like most Christian services today, Bible reading, a sermon, and prayer together. This passage also reveals that early Christian worship was patterned very closely after the worship in Jewish synagogues, because when they came together, they had prayers. Somebody would read from the scriptures, and then somebody would teach from the scripture that had just been read.
You probably remember when Jesus was in the synagogue, and he was called on to get up and read the passage, and then he gave the application to himself, which caused quite an uproar. And it would have been natural for the apostles, who were Jews, to conduct a very similar service once they started having their own meetings. Okay, now that wasn't the entire service. Justin Martyr continues on in his apology.
He says, "Having ended the prayers, we greet one another with a kiss." You no doubt remember all of the references in the New Testament to greet one another with a holy kiss, and that's exactly what they did as part of their service in addition to other times. He then continues, "Then there is brought to the president of the brethren bread and a cup of wine mixed with water. He takes them and gives praise and glory to the Father of the universe.
And when the president has given thanks and all the people have expressed their assent, those whom we call deacons give to each of those present the bread and the wine mixed with water over which this thanksgiving was pronounced to partake of." He says, "And they carry away a portion to those who are absent. And this food is called among us the Eucharist, which is Greek for thanksgiving.
And no one is allowed to partake of it but the one who believes that the things which we teach are true and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins and unto regeneration and who is living as Christ has commanded." Okay, so after the sermon and a time of prayer, they greeted one another with a holy kiss. Then the cup and the bread were brought to the brother presiding. He would give thanks over them. All of the people would assent.
And then the deacons would give each one present some of the bread and some of the cup, which was, he says, wine mingled with water. And if somebody was absent because they were sick or in prison or something like that, they would carry a portion of the communion to them so that they could share in it as well.
Now, their communion wasn't just a totally open thing because he says no one is allowed to partake, but the ones who believe that what we teach are true and have been washed with the washing, referring to baptism, referring to the new birth. So these are born-again Christians. They're the only ones who are allowed to participate. And then he adds, "And who is living as Christ has commanded." So then you had to also be living an upright life. Someone under church discipline was not allowed to partake of communion.
So that was their Sunday morning worship. The reading of scriptures, preaching based on the word that had been read, prayers together, exchanging the holy kiss, and then celebrating communion together. This is what they did every Sunday. Now, we have a writing that's actually even earlier than that of Justin Martyr, the Didache, which, as I said, was probably written about the same time as the letters of John or shortly after the apostle John's death.
And here in the Didache, it gives a recommendation of a type of prayer that would be appropriate. It says, "Now concerning the Eucharist, which was thanksgiving, give thanks in this manner.
First, concerning the cup, we thank you, O Father, for the holy vine of David, your servant, which you made known to us through Jesus, your servant, to you be the glory forever." And concerning the broken bread, it says, "We thank you, our Father, for the life and knowledge which you made known to us through Jesus, your servant, to you be the glory forever.
Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills and was gathered together and became one, so let your church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom. For yours is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ forever." And it continues, it says, "But let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist, but those who have been baptized into the name of the Lord.
For concerning this also, the Lord has said, 'Do not give that which is holy to the dogs.' But after you are filled, give thanks in this manner. We thank you, Holy Father, for your holy name, which you made to dwell in our hearts, and for knowledge and faith and immortality, as you have made known to us through Jesus, your Son. Glory to you forever. You, Lord Almighty, created all things to show forth your name. You give both food and drink to man to enjoy and everlasting life through your Son.
Above all, we thank you because you are mighty. Glory to you forever. Remember, Lord, your church to deliver her from all evil and mature her in your love, and gather her from the four winds separated into your kingdom, which you have made for her, because you have the power and the glory forever. Let grace come and this world pass away. Hosanna to the Son of David. If anyone is holy, let him come. If anyone is not, let him repent. Maranatha.
Amen." And then it concludes that paragraph saying, "Allow the prophets to give thanks as they desire." So it describes the same type of service as did Justin Martyr in his apology. It gives us a little additional insight into the type of prayers that they gave, but it makes it clear that he did not have to pray these exact words. And it's interesting because in the Didache, it indicates that it's the prophets who are presiding at the communion.
Tertullian, in his apology, gives us some additional insight into the types of things they prayed about on Sunday morning. He says, "We are a body knit together as such by a common religious profession, by unity of discipline, and by the bond of a common hope. We meet together as an assembly and congregation so that, offering up prayers to God with united force, we may wrestle with him in our supplications.
We pray too for the emperors, for their ministers, and for all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, and for the delay of the final consummation. We assemble to read our sacred writings." As I said, that's an excerpt from his apology written about the year 197. Well, so much for the Sunday morning worship. Now let's talk about the Sunday evening worship, which is when the early Christians had their love feast. Now, these love feasts are talked about in the New Testament.
I'm going to read to you two examples. One is in 2 Peter 2:13, which talks about ungodly Christians. It says, "They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you." Another reference is in Jude 12, where he says, "These are spots in your love feasts while they feast with you without fear." Well, the love feast continued for centuries after the apostles. Tertullian goes into detail about it, written about 100 years after the apostle John died.
He says, "You Romans attack also our humble feasts on the grounds that they are extravagant as well as infamously wicked." What he's talking about there is that the rumors that circulated were that these feasts of the Christians were wanton occasions, where they practiced gluttony and all kinds of sexual immorality. And Tertullian is attempting to show them that this isn't at all what happens. He says, "You make a great ado about the modest supper room of the Christians. Our feast explains itself by its name.
The Greeks call it agape. That is love. Whatever the meal costs, our outlay in the name of piety is gain. For we aid the needy with the good things of the feast." So one of the purposes of the love feast was so that those Christians with greater means could furnish a meal for their brothers and sisters who didn't have as much. And that was quite a revolutionary thing. I mean, the pagan Romans never did that. They had plenty of banquets, but they didn't invite the poor and the sick to intermingle with them.
The rich had their own banquets, and the poor never got to taste of any of them. But in the Christian love feast, which was modest, but it was a feast, and it was a time of rejoicing, and it was a time when the poor could share in this rejoicing with their brothers and sisters who had more. Anyway, Tertullian goes on to describe it in more detail. He says, "Before reclining, the participants first taste of prayer to God." So their love feast began with a prayer.
Now, he says, "Before reclining, at that time, the church still followed the Roman custom of reclining on couches around a table. Nowadays, we tend to sit in chairs, but the Romans were accustomed to reclining on sort of a couch." Tertullian continues, "Only as much is eaten as satisfies the cravings of hunger. Only as much is drunk as befits the chaste. The participants talk as those who know that the Lord is one of their hearers.
After washing the hands and the bringing in of lights, each is asked to stand forth and sing, as he can, a hymn to God, either one from the Holy Scriptures or one of his own composing. This is proof of the temperate measure of our drinking. Just as the feast began with prayer, so it is closed with prayer.
We depart from the feast not like troops of mischief doers, but as ones who have as much care for our modesty and chastity as though we had been at a school of virtue rather than a banquet." So this is what the agape was like in Tertullian's day, at least in North Africa where he lived. They came together, ate a meal, and then different brothers took turns standing up, he said, and singing a song, either one of the psalms from the scriptures or one that they had composed.
Tertullian's description of the love feast sounds somewhat similar to the description of meetings that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 14.
He says, "How is it then, brethren, whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation, let all things be done for edification." I'm thinking what Paul is describing there in 1 Corinthians 14 is the love feast, where the brothers took turns, he says, with a psalm or a teaching or a revelation, whatever gift that they happen to have.
That Paul is talking about the love feast seems extremely likely from the fact that in 1 Corinthians 11, just a few pages before, he specifically talks about the Lord's Supper, saying, "Now in giving these instructions, I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.
For there must also be factions among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Therefore, when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others, and one is hungry and another is drunk. What, do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this?
I do not praise you." So at that point in time, the agape was falling far short of apostolic standards of holiness. He says that the poor often go hungry. They weren't sharing the meal, as Tertullian described in the love feast in his day. I'm sure Paul's admonition to the Corinthians was read throughout all of the churches and that the abuses that he talks about there were corrected. Now, I know today, at least in evangelical churches, we think of the Lord's Supper as communion.
We used to use those terms interchangeably. But Paul is obviously talking about more than communion because he talks about eating ahead of one another, one being hungry. No one partakes of the Eucharist because they're hungry or thirsty. He says, "One is hungry and another is drunk." Again, a little sip of wine mingled with water would not make anybody intoxicated. This must have been much more that was going on. And yet the communion is involved as well because he continues on in 1 Corinthians 11.
Paul says, "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.'" So there he's definitely talking about communion or the Eucharist.
So what most historians believe is that in the New Testament period, communion was combined with the love feast, that they had both at the same time, which would be fitting because when Jesus instituted communion, it was right at the end of a meal. It wasn't a separate worship service or anything like that. They were having a meal together, and at the end of it, then he introduced the communion.
And the theory among most church historians is that perhaps because of the kind of abuses that Paul talks about, of the Eucharist being treated non-reverentially because it was right after or during the ordinary love feast, that the church changed that, split the service into two, having one in the early morning where the Eucharist was celebrated, and then the other in the evening where you had the love feast by itself without the Eucharist. And this split seems to have happened no later than the year 100.
So it's very likely it was a practice brought in by the apostles because it's already an established thing by the year 100. But before going to our next section, let's just briefly review what we've talked about so far. We've learned that the early Christians met on Sunday, that they had two services on Sunday, one in the early morning and one in the evening. In the early morning service, they read scriptures, they heard preaching, and they celebrated communion together.
In the evening, they came together for the love feast. And we've read a description from Tertullian about their love feast. Now let's talk about where did they meet. I want to begin in the New Testament about the meeting places of Christians. The first Christian meeting we know of, that is the first meeting after the death of Jesus, is described in Acts 1:12-13. Talking about the apostles, it says they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem.
And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying. And if you read the next chapter or two after that, the implication is that they were all meeting together in that upper room on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out. And it indicates that about 120 of them were meeting together. So it was a room large enough to hold a considerable number of people, but not thousands of people. Okay, we go a little further, Acts 2:46.
It says, talking about the newly converted Christians, "So they continued daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart." So it talks about them holding meetings in the temple. It's not clear if that was just exclusively Christian meetings or if these were more evangelistic meetings where the apostles preached in the temple and many of the Christians gathered to hear them preach, but also many Jews.
And it says they broke bread from house to house. Now, many historians, probably most, understand breaking bread to refer to either communion or at least the love feast. It doesn't have to mean that. It could just mean that they shared meals together often, but more than likely, the breaking bread from house to house does refer to some sort of formal meeting and probably sharing communion or at least having a love feast together.
And so the picture we get after these thousands were baptized there in Jerusalem, that they met in a lot of different houses across the city, maybe in fairly small groups. Okay, then we get to the letters of Paul. One of his earliest letters, 1 Corinthians, he writes, "The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord with the church that is in their house." That's 1 Corinthians 16:19. So we know that there was a church that met in the house of Aquila and Priscilla.
Now, 1 Corinthians was apparently written from Ephesus, and so we know that the church in Ephesus, or a church, was meeting in the home of Aquila and Priscilla. Now, Ephesus was a fairly large Roman city, and more than likely, there were other churches meeting in other homes in the city at that time, although we don't know that for a fact. Now, when Paul writes to the Colossians, he says, "Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and Nymphas and the church that is in his house," that's Colossians 4:14.
So there in Colossae, at least one church was meeting in a home. In fact, throughout the epistles, the only places of meeting that are mentioned are homes. When he writes to the Romans, he says at the end of his letter, "Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. Likewise, greet the church that is in their house." Now, at this time, Aquila and Priscilla were living back in Rome, where they had lived at one time before they moved to Ephesus, and Paul mentions a church meeting in their house.
Now, certainly, Rome being the largest city in the Western world at that time, we can be fairly certain that there would have been many different Christian congregations, and so the church meeting in their house would have been only one of them, and presumably, other congregations were meeting in other houses of Christians at that time.
Now, when we leave the New Testament and go into the writings of the early Christians in the second century, that is between the year 100 and 200 AD, we get more evidence of their places of worship. Justin Martyr was eventually arrested by the Roman authorities, and he was put to death, and we have a record of his appearance before the authorities, and they ask him about where he was meeting with other Christians. Let me read it to you.
It says, "Rusticus, the prefect, said, 'Where do you assemble?' Justin Martyr replied, 'Where each one chooses and is able.'" Do you imagine that we all meet in the very same place?
Then Rusticus, the prefect, said, "Tell me where you assemble, or into what place do you collect your followers?" Justin Martyr replied, "I live above one Martinus at the Timotinean Bath, and during the whole time, I am unaware of any other meeting than his." So it seems that there was a meeting there at the place where Justin Martyr lived in some sort of upper room near one of the baths in Rome. Now, he says that they don't all meet in the same place, which the evidence from the New Testament would indicate that.
Now, he says he's unaware of where the other meeting places are. This could be true. Since Christians were outlawed ever since around the year 90 AD, they had to be very careful in their meeting places. And so it could well be true that the members of one congregation didn't know where the other congregations met. In that manner, even if they were captured and tortured, the most they could reveal would be where their small congregation came together, and they couldn't turn in the information about the rest of them.
Now, while we're talking about Rome, let me clear up the misconception. The early Christians never met in the catacombs for worship. The catacombs were begun around the year 200, or shortly thereafter, and they were burial places for Christians. There's no evidence that Christians either hid there during persecution, and certainly no indication whatsoever that they held meetings there.
Now, after the persecution ended, after the time of Constantine, then Christians did actually have church services in the catacombs because at that point, they became a site of pilgrimage. But there's no indication from the early writings or from the catacombs themselves that Christians held worship services there during the days of persecution. Okay, now we read from Justin Martyr what was said at his trial. That was about the year 160. Now, we're going to move ahead about 50 years to the year 212.
And this is a writing of Tertullian. He was writing from Carthage, which was one of the largest cities in North Africa. He mentions this in one of his letters, "You say that the pagans are led to inquire about us, seeing that we assemble without order and assemble at the same time and flock in large numbers to the church.
You are alarmed that we may awaken their anxieties." So now, by this time, which was around the year 212, obviously the church in Carthage had grown quite large, and it sounds like they had built or were renting a rather large hall for a place of meeting. Again, I wouldn't think all the Christians in the city met in one place, as there were probably thousands of them by this date, and that would have been an extremely large assembly.
But apparently, it was large enough that Christians themselves were getting concerned. The authorities are probably taking note of this because they were always on guard against private assemblies because it might be people assembling together to revolt against the government or something like that. Now, in another letter written about the same time, Tertullian addresses the issue that had arisen of whether it would be right for the Christians to pay tribute so that they could continue to meet openly.
Apparently, now the authorities had decided to shut down their meetings unless they paid a tribute. And no doubt some viewed this as, "Okay, this is a fine. It's a punishment. It's all right to pay that." And others said, "No, this is sort of like saying we agree we're doing something wrong and we're going to pay the government money to allow us to meet." Anyway, Tertullian is against paying the tribute. He says this, "But you say, how will we assemble together if we do not pay this tribute?
To be sure, just as the apostles did, who were protected by faith, not by money. If you cannot assemble by day, you have the night, the light of Christ luminous against its darkness. Be content with the church of threes. It is better that you sometimes should not see the crowds of other Christians than to subject yourselves to paying this tribute." So Tertullian says, "Let's go back to the pattern of the New Testament then.
We meet in homes, even if it's just three or four of us meeting so that we don't arouse any suspicion. We can meet at night again where we're not going to be seen." It sounds like at this point, the Christians were no longer meeting before dawn for their Sunday morning service, but that it was later in the morning. So you can see sort of an evolution or progress or corruption, however you want to view it, from the days of the apostles.
The church has gotten much larger, and now, at least in the cities, they have actual meeting halls where perhaps most or many of them are meeting for their Sunday worship. Now, until the 20th century, all we knew about the meeting places of the early Christians before the Edict of Toleration was from these writings that I've just read to you. However, in the 1920s, some archaeologists were doing excavations in a city that lay in eastern Syria named Dura Europos. The city itself is not very well known.
It lay right at the edge of the Roman Empire, and so it was continually being raided by armies from Persia or from Rome. During the New Testament time, it was part of the Persian Empire, and then the Romans conquered it. It was part of the Roman Empire, and then the Persians conquered it back, and eventually, around the year 250, it was completely destroyed, and that was the end of the city. Well, in their excavations, the archaeologists, to their amazement, discovered an early Christian church.
Now, this church was simply a house. It was located up next to the city wall, and from the outside, it looked no different from any other house. But inside, they had knocked out one of the interior walls, a wall that was not load-bearing, and so created an assembly place that would have held maybe 60 or 70 adults. And then one of the smaller rooms in the house, they turned into a baptistery. There was a small pool there where they performed baptisms.
Now, this Christian meeting place dates to somewhere between the year 200 and 250, so it's the oldest Christian church that has ever been found, and it gives us a more complete picture of their meeting places. It could well be that a lot of the houses they met in by this date had been modified to become places of worship, even though from the outside, they might still look like a house.
And possibly, the Christian community owned the house jointly, all the people together, or it may just have been in one person's name, maybe a wealthier person who owned the home and gave it to the church. Those are only things we can speculate about at this time. Now, I want to talk briefly about some of the worship customs of the early Christians. I think every church today has its particular worship customs, even though we may not think of them in those terms, and the early Christians did as well.
Let me read to you a few passages that speak of their customs. Eusebius, in his church history, cites Irenaeus, who was a disciple of Polycarp, who was a personal companion of John, and Eusebius says this: "This custom of not bending the knee on Sunday is a symbol of the resurrection to which we have been set free by the grace of Christ." Now, this custom took its rise from apostolic times as the blessed Irenaeus, the martyr and bishop of Lyon, declares in his treatise on Pascha.
Pascha is what we in the West know as Easter today. Tertullian writes, "Others believe that the Sun is our God. The idea no doubt has originated from our being known to turn to the East in prayer." Now, these two passages mention two different customs that are referred to in quite a few of the writings. They seem to be definitely universal practices of the early Christians, and therefore, it's very likely that they are customs that came down from the time of the apostles, but we can't prove that.
The first of these that Eusebius mentions is that Christians did not kneel to pray on Sunday. Instead, they stood, and the reason is because Sunday was a day to celebrate. Our Lord rose from the dead on this day. His victory over Satan, our redemption, all of this happened on Sunday. So Sunday is not the time to approach worship in a penitential frame of mind, but in a frame of mind of rejoicing and celebrating. The other custom that is mentioned there is that of praying towards the East.
Now, that may seem strange to us today, but you know the Jews, when they prayed, they turned and prayed towards Jerusalem. You probably remember from the book of Daniel that when Daniel was praying, it says he opened his window and prayed towards Jerusalem. That was a Jewish custom, and the first Christians were Jews, of course. But since our spiritual home isn't earthly Jerusalem, the Christians instead prayed towards the East. There were several reasons for this.
One, when Jesus spoke of the last days, he indicated that he would return from the East. The passage is Matthew 24:27, where Jesus said, "For as the lightning comes from the East and flashes to the West, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be." So the early Christians understood this to mean that Jesus would return from the East.
And so it was fitting that every time they prayed, and particularly as a congregation together, that they would be facing the East in a watchful position for the return of our risen Lord. There's also a passage from the Psalms, the 67th Psalm, verse 34, as it reads in the Septuagint, says, "Give glory to God who rides upon the heaven of heavens towards the East." Now, the Eastern churches today tend to maintain the custom of not kneeling when praying on Sunday. In the West, that custom disappeared.
But in the Catholic community, churches still are normally built so that the congregation is facing East when they pray. In fact, a hymn refers to this. One of my favorite communion hymns says, "Let us break bread together on our knees. Let us break bread together on our knees.
When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun, O Lord, have mercy on me." Now, there it differs from the early Christians because they're receiving communion on their knees, which was definitely not an early Christian practice, but it says, "When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun." This refers to that ancient custom of praying facing the East.
Now, an early Christian writing known as the Didascalia, which dates to the 3rd century, sometime in the 200s when it was written, talks about some of their other worship customs. It says this, "And in your congregations and the holy churches, hold your assemblies with all decent order and appoint the places for the brethren with care and seriousness. And for the elders, let there be assigned a place in the eastern part of the house, and let the bishop's chair be set in their midst, and let the elders sit with him.
And again, let the layman sit in another part of the house towards the East. For so it should be that in the eastern part of the house, the elders sit with the bishops and next the layman and then the women, that when you stand up to pray, the leaders may stand first, and after them the layman, and then the women also.
For it is required that you pray toward the East, as knowing that which is written, 'Give glory to God who rides upon the heaven of heavens towards the East.'" This work continues, "But of the deacons, let one stand always by the offering of the Eucharist, and let another stand outside by the door and observe those who come in. And afterwards, when you offer (referring to the Eucharist), let them minister together in the church.
And if anyone is found sitting out of his place, let the deacon who is inside reprove him and make him get up and sit in a place that is fitting for him. For our Lord likened the church to a fold. For as we see the animals, oxen and sheep and goats, lie down and rise up according to their families, and none of them separates itself from its kind. So likewise in the church, those who are young should sit apart if there is room, and if not, to stand up, and those who are advanced in years to sit apart.
And let the children stand on one side, or let their fathers and mothers take them to them, and let them stand up. And let the young girls also sit apart, but if there be no room, let them stand up behind the women. And let the young women who are married and have children stand apart, and the aged women and widows sit apart. And let the deacon see that each of them on entering goes to his place, that no one may sit out of his place.
And let the deacon also see that no one whispers or falls asleep or laughs or makes signs. For so it should be that with decency and decorum they watch in the church with ears attentive to the word of the Lord." So here we read again about the custom of praying towards the East and the congregation being seated in such a way that when they're facing the elders and worship leaders, that they are facing the East. Something else the Didascalia brings up is that there was segregated seating.
The church leaders sat in one place, the men sat in another, the women sat in another, and the young people sat in a different place than the older people. In fact, later on in that same work, it talks about if an older person comes in, then a young person should get up and give his place to someone who is older. This applied both to the girls giving their place to an older woman and the boys or young men giving their place to an older man. Now, I'm not sure in history when segregated seating disappeared.
It's still practiced in a few churches today, such as in the Amish and Mennonite churches, in some of the conservative brethren churches, but in most places it has disappeared. And as I said, I don't know when it disappeared, if that was during the 19th century or perhaps even in the 20th century. From the reading I've done, it seems like in the colonial times, many of the churches still practiced segregated seating with men on one side and women on the other side.
Before closing, I want to talk just a minute about what changed after Constantine. The pattern of worship actually remained unchanged for many, many centuries. That is, you continued to have prayers, Bible reading, a sermon, and communion in the Sunday morning service. But there were some alterations in how these were carried out. Liturgical prayers were certainly known in the early church. The Didache mentions some of them. The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus mentions some others.
But those early writings always mention that the leader can also pray extemporaneously, whatever he prefers. The early Christian services, however, with time became more and more fixed, at least as to the prayers, becoming what we would know today as more liturgical. And this pattern increased after Constantine, where very set liturgies came into place without any change. In fact, the liturgies that would be used today in various Eastern churches, for example, would date back to the period after Constantine.
Where they met also changed. As more and more of the public became at least nominally Christian, the small little houses that they had met in before no longer worked. And Constantine wanted Christians to meet in magnificent buildings that would rival the temples of the pagans. And so he used state money to rebuild the churches that had been destroyed in the last great persecution.
And in the major cities, he built in their place these large, magnificent structures with domed basilicas, fountains, marble colonnades, things like that. The practice of meeting before dawn seems to have disappeared after the time of Constantine, if not before. Christians could now meet openly in the day. Sunday became a holiday, so they didn't need to meet in the dark because of persecution, nor because of being free from work, because nobody worked any longer on Sunday.
In the West, at least, the love feast was eventually discontinued. I can't give you a precise date because it disappeared at different times in different places. But as we get past the year 400, the love feast seems to be diminishing, and it eventually is terminated altogether. In the West, the Sunday morning communion took on more of a penitential tone, as I talked about a few minutes ago. And so it became customary in the West to pray on your knees on Sunday or receive communion on your knees.
Also, eventually, again, this is just in the West, the laity were no longer allowed to drink from the cup because the church was concerned that the person might spill the contents. So the custom developed that only the clergy could drink from the cup. The laypeople were only able to partake of the bread. And this stayed this way in the West, at least in the Catholic Church, until the time of Vatican II in the 20th century.
Another change after Constantine, not an immediate change, but in the centuries later, was that preaching came to be neglected. In some places, you still had very good preachers, even up to the time of the Reformation. But in the church in general, good biblical teaching and preaching diminished. So much focus was put on the Eucharist that teaching wasn't considered nearly as important. And likewise, congregational singing disappeared, being replaced by formal choirs.
But surprisingly, the biggest change in the pattern of Christian worship came about with the Reformation. Now, liturgical Protestant churches like the Lutheran Church and churches within the Catholic community, such as the Orthodox and Anglican and churches like that, they still have Sunday morning services that are patterned after that of the early Christians, except perhaps with the preaching not being of the same quality.
Now, the theology in these churches and the character of the people has usually changed quite a bit from that of the early Christians. But like I say, the pattern of worship tends to still be the same. But in the nonliturgical evangelical churches, the pattern of service did eventually change considerably from that of the early Christians. The biggest change was doing away with weekly communion and instead celebrating communion maybe only once a month or even only once a year.
Now, this was due in part because of a reaction against the Roman Catholic mass and also because of a continuation of a Roman Catholic custom. That may sound rather strange and paradoxical that it could be partly rebelling against the Catholics and partly following their tradition, but actually it was both. The mass had become almost idolized in the Catholic Church.
And so many Protestants and evangelicals felt like if communion wasn't so often, it would help break this idolatrous practice or what they viewed as an idolatrous practice. But the other influence was from the Roman Catholic tradition that developed in the centuries after Constantine of people only receiving communion once a year. Now, laypeople were allowed to receive it once a day even, but very few Catholics did that, at least among the laity.
But the laws throughout Europe generally required everybody in the nation to receive communion at least once a year. And so that became the practice for most people. They might come to church every Sunday. In fact, usually the laws required them to do that, and they would observe the mass or Eucharist, but they wouldn't actually partake of it except once a year.
And so because that had become so customary, it didn't seem unnatural then for Protestants, evangelicals, Anabaptists, these different groups, for people to say, "Well, let's just celebrate it once a year." So what took the place of communion then in evangelical services? Well, in place of weekly communion, the sermon became the high point of the Sunday morning service. Now, this has been by no means all bad. Good solid preaching is actually a return to the early Christian practice.
And so has congregational singing, these things have been good, but I personally see no reason why we can't have all of it: good preaching and teaching, congregational singing, and weekly communion. Well, in conclusion, let's look at what we've talked about. We've learned that the early Christians worshiped on Sunday. We found out that they had two services every Sunday. One was in the morning when they met before dawn for prayer, singing, Bible reading, and preaching, and celebrating communion.
Then in the evening, they met back again for the love feast. We saw that originally Christians met in homes or perhaps rented buildings. Later, these homes were modified to serve as places of worship. And after Constantine, then they became large buildings the way most people think of churches today.
We talked a little bit about the early Christian worship customs, such as standing to pray on Sunday instead of kneeling, on praying to the east, and on segregated seating between men and women and between young and old. And I sincerely hope that all of you have learned at least some new things this evening from our discussion.
Now, I personally think it would be a great idea for Christians today to follow the pattern of the early Christians because it was such a well-balanced service featuring congregational singing, good biblical teaching, prayer, and the celebration of the Eucharist. However, the most important thing is not how we worship God, but the fact that we do worship Him.