The Upper Room; The Centrality of Corporate Worship

The "upper room" in ancient Middle Eastern houses and palaces has special qualities, because of the element of seclusion and privacy.

1) When Ehud, a judge in Israel (Judges 3), went to Eglon, King of Moab, to pay tribute, the Scripture states that Eglon was "sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber." This room is described as the "upper room" three times in the context. In this room Eglon, the oppressor of Israel, was killed by Ehud, and Israel was delivered from oppression.

2) When Elijah went to Zarephath and prophesied the unending supply of flour and oil for the widow, he stayed in an "upper room." (I Kings 17) He laid that widow's dead son on his own bed in his upper room, before he raised him from the dead.

3) Likewise, the Shunemite woman had a small "upper room" made for Elisha to stay in when he was in town. In this room, he also raised her son from the dead.

4) Daniel, prayed from his "upper room" before being cast into the den of lions. (Dan 6). He was delivered from death and returned to his "upper room" from which he had always prayed to God.

5) When Tabitha of Joppa died (Acts 9), she was laid in an upper room, in which Peter raises her from the dead.

Our acquaintance with the nature of such rooms, where privacy, prayer, judicial death and glorious resurrections of grace occur, now informs our look at passages which speak of worship:

1) It is related in Mark 14 and Luke 22 that Jesus sent his disciples to discover the location of a "guest room," which was a "large, upper room" all furnished, where they would prepare and eat the Passover, prior to our Lord's exodus. He speaks of his "fervent desire" to eat this Passover with them before he suffers. And, in this "upper room" he institutes his Supper.

2) In Acts 1, we find the group of about 120 disciples gathering and praying in an "upper room" as they wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Spirit.

3) In Acts 20, the church is gathered in an "upper room" to hear Paul speak all night -- the night Eutychus fell from the window and was brought back from the dead by Paul.

We know from Daniel's example in his upper room, and Jesus' commands that we spend time in our own prayer closets, that individual worship plays a large part in the life of a Christian. But, the "upper room" gatherings are central and vital. It is where two are three are gathered in his name that Christ is specially "in the midst." In the "upper room" we meet our Lord as a body -- his body, and not just as individuals.

Corporate worship is not "individual worship in a group." It the worship of a group. It is there, especially, that we pray, as one, "Our Father, ... Give us this day our daily bread.  ... Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."  It is where the bread that we break is participation in the one body of Christ, and where the cup that we bless is participation in his blood (1 Cor 10).