Where Did the Apostle Peter Worship?
Peter, James, and John all walked with Jesus (Matt. 4:18-22). For three and a half years they listened to Him preach and teach, as well as watching Him heal and perform many miracles among the people. During His earthly ministry, it was these three who became His ‘inner circle’ so to speak (Mk. 5:37-42; Matt. 17:1-2, 26:36-38). They were there the night He was arrested to be crucified (Jn. 18). They were eyewitnesses of the fact that He was raised from the dead (Acts1:1-3), just as was the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 15:1-11).
What Church was it that existed during the time of the apostles?
Now, while James suffered martyrdom fairly early on thereafter, these other three apostles – Peter, John, and Paul – all lived on for several decades after Jesus’ ascension. Therefore, the critical question for all sincerely God-seeking folks today to consider, is this: In the decades that followed Jesus’ ascension back into heaven, which church did those who were His very own hand-picked apostles, assemble, study, work, and worship with? Which specific church, did those who best knew God’s Son in the flesh in the first century, seek to work and worship God with after His return to glory?
Was it the Baptist Church? No, it couldn’t have been. The Baptist Church is never seen or named anywhere in Scripture (largely due to the fact that it wasn’t even established until 1607, by its founder, John Smyth, in Holland). Was it the Lutheran Church? No. Martin Luther, the founder of the Lutheran Church, wouldn’t even be born for in excess of another fourteen centuries. Did they work, worship, and assemble with the Catholic Church? Once again, not a chance. They couldn’t have. The Emperor Constantine would not establish the Roman Catholic Church for well over two hundred years after the last living apostle of Christ – John – had died.
So how, and with which church, did the apostles worship then? Let us examine their own words to find our answer. It was a church that taught that a person must repent and be baptized specifically FOR the forgiveness of their sins in order to be saved (Acts 2:38; 1 Peter 3:21); a church which taught that baptism is indeed the act of faith in God by which one is saved (Col. 2:8-14), just as their Lord and Savior had said (Matt. 28:18-20; Mk. 16:15-16; John 3:3-5). It was a church which utilized neither choirs, soloists, or mechanical instruments of music in their praise and worship, all members joyfully singing to God and one another instead (Eph. 5:17-21; Col. 3:16-17); again, just as their Lord had done with, and hence taught them to do (Matt. 26:30).
Actually, it is very easy to know exactly which church they attended; not only because there was only one church in existence (Eph. 1:22-23, 4:4-6) just as God had always planned (Matt. 16:18-19; Eph. 3:8-11), but because they actually told us which one it was (See: Rom. 16:16)! After all, why would anyone who truly loves and knows the Lord, choose to worship with and within someone else’s church, other than His; the one He came in the flesh and shed His blood and died to establish (Acts 20:28)?