How did the new believers get their pattern for worship? Remember at this point, all of the Christians were also Jews. They had grown up in the synagogues. Many of them had gone up with their families to the major feasts of Israel, like Passover, Shavuot (Pentecost), and Sukkot (Tabernacles).
Synagogue services involved scripture reading and teaching. Early in his ministry, Jesus stood up and read from the scroll of Isaiah, then sat down and taught. Now as these early disciples continued to meet, they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. The word disciple means learner. Those who had apprenticed with Jesus studied the scriptures. As we saw, Peter, a former fisherman read three scripture texts in his Pentecost sermon.
I wish I could have been there. Don’t you? Just imagine Peter teaching on forgiveness, or John preaching on love, or Matthew explaining what it means to leave everything to follow Jesus. Wouldn’t it have been rich fare? The apostles had walked with Jesus for three years. They knew him so well. Here is the good news. They wrote it down. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote down the story of Jesus. Peter and John wrote letters to the churches. We have their teachings. Let’s devote ourselves to scripture reading. Let the scriptures have the first and last words in our hearts and minds every day.
