The Gospel and the Ordinances
(or, The Ordinances: Seeing and Believing)
(Various Bible texts as noted below)
Introduction: Today I’ve decided to devote our Sunday Service to
the ordinances, as we’ll have a baptism and also celebrate the Lord’s Table
together. We will wait until July 29th to return to our series in
Mark. The next two weeks we’ll have messages from our missionary Paul B. and from
our deacon, Justin Fowley, who is pursuing licensing for the Gospel Ministry. I
want to focus the sermon time today on explaining the two ordinances we
observe: what we are doing and why. We call them “ordinances” and not “sacraments,”
because it is our understanding that they don’t impart grace, nor are they
necessary for salvation. However, there is a spiritual element, in that as an
act of obedience we are expressing our submission to Christ, and as we
participate in the ordinances the symbolism can deepen our faith. Faith comes
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. What we must have verbally
in the Gospel message can be reinforced visually in these ordinances
when they are explained according to Scripture. It is strange that these
ordinances, given by the Lord Himself to the church, which should symbolize the
unity of the body and our common faith, have become a great point of division
between believers. For this message, I only have time to emphasize what we
believe the Bible teaches about these ordinances.
Baptism
proclaims publicly that we are a part of the Covenant Community, the Church,
and illustrates our union with Christ in His death and resurrection. Communion
is a visual reminder of the substitutionary death of Jesus. We affirm the Reformation
doctrine, Sola Fide, “faith alone”
saves. Ordinances don’t save us. They don’t complete our salvation. We
are saved by grace through faith. But the ordinances can “stir up” our
faith as they visually invite us to consider the Gospel message. J.I. Packer
said, “As the preaching of the Word makes the Gospel audible, the sacraments [we would say the ordinances] make it
visible… Seeing is believing…” We see the ordinances of believer’s baptism and
the Lord’s Table referred to from the beginning of the New Testament church. There
are at least five purposes…
Obedience:
These are actions through which we obey Christ. In the Great Commission,
the call by Jesus to the church is to “make
disciples,” which includes a call to baptize those who believe. With respect to the Lord’s Table, Jesus
said “Do this…” We’ve seen that faith
and obedience go hand in hand in Scripture. “He who believes in the Son has eternal life. He who does not obey
the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on Him…” (John
3:35,36). What is faith? Believing God, taking Him at His Word God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
Word of Christ.
Remembrance: It is a commemoration, an act in which we remember
Christ. That is certainly true of the Lord’s Supper (N.B. the connection with
Passover). Baptism also invites us to remember the death and resurrection of
Jesus. Part of the reason for the ordinances seems to be to keep the Gospel
in front of our eyes, as symbolically it is worked out before us. The Bible
makes the Gospel audible, the ordinances make the Gospel visible. They help us
remember. That ties in with…
Instruction: The ordinances are an opportunity to preach
Christ. The alternative title for the message today is “The Gospel and the
Ordinances.” We start with the Gospel. The ordinances, as we’ll see, help us to
visualize the message. We are arguing that as New Testament believers we have
two ordinances. Israel, on the other hand, had many rituals that they were
commanded to carry out. The purpose of those rites was similar in some respects.
We read in Deuteronomy 6:20-24,
20 "When your son asks you… 'What is the meaning
of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has
commanded you?' 21 then you
shall say to your son, 'We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought
us out of Egypt with a mighty hand... 24
And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God,
for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day…”
In other words, when your child asks, “Daddy, why do we sacrifice these lambs?” or, “Why do we
build these booths?” you
have an opportunity to teach, to show them the significance behind the act, to
remind them of the deliverance that God has wrought and the promises He has
made. As we baptize believers as a public profession of their faith in
Christ, it is not just an ancient ritual. It is a testimony. As we take part in
the breaking of the bread, and drinking of the cup, it is not only a ceremony
that we have traditionally done. Both ordinances visually accompany the
preaching of the Word and illustrate the Gospel. They are divinely
ordained “object lessons” that can move our hearts and deepen our faith.
Worship: It is a participation in which we identify with
Christ, we celebrate His act of love on our behalf, in which we symbolically feed
on Christ (Jn 6:32-35, ff.). We don’t believe there is some mystical or literal
presence of Christ in the Bread and the wine, but our hearts are drawn to
Calvary, to the demonstration of the Love in His death and the assurance of
victory in His resurrection. We rejoice with those who are baptized, as we
recall our own experience of faith.
Anticipation: In the Lord’s Table, we proclaim the Lord’s death
until He comes. In baptism we remember His death and resurrection, and because
of Him we look forward to our own resurrection when He returns. It stirs our
faith and our hope!
The Maine* Idea: The Lord has given the
church two ordinances, as a visual representation of His saving work on our behalf.
I. The Gospel is “Good News”
because the Lord made it possible for sinners to be reconciled to God. We are
saved through the Word not through the ordinances.
Before we can understand the “Good News,”
we have to understand the bad news. Since the rebellion of Adam and Eve, since
the Fall, humans, apart from Christ, have been separated from God. Paul said in
Romans 5:12,
“Therefore,
just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so
death spread to all men because all sinned…”
There is
none righteous, no, not one (Rom 3:10). We were all born sinners (3:23),
separated from God, by nature children of wrath, without God and without hope (cf.
Eph 2:1-3). How then could anyone be saved? We needed to be rescued!
But God, who is holy and just, is rich
in mercy. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. The Apostle John
put it this way in 1 John 4:9-10…
“In
this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only
begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In
this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to
be the propitiation for our sins.”
How could a just God justify sinners? He
sent His Son, so that we might live through Him! He so loved us that He came to give himself on
the cross for our sins. God gave a priceless gift, He gave His only Son. He “sent” His Son to be the propitiation,
the atoning sacrifice, to reconcile us to God. John 3:16 says He “…gave His only begotten Son…” The
One who was without sin, took our sins in His body on the Cross. And so, we
urge men to be reconciled to God, and by God’s grace, all who turn to Him in
faith are forgiven. Think: Salvation is
free to us, received as a gift, but it came at a tremendous cost! Jesus paid it all. The Lord has given the church two ordinances, as a
visual representation of His saving work on our behalf. The Communion Table reminds us of what Christ has done for us. Baptism
symbolizes our unity with Christ who died for us and rose again. Let’s start
with…
The command to baptize
was given by Jesus in the context of the Great Commission. Jesus said in
Matthew 28:18-20…
“…All authority in heaven and on earth has
been given to me. 19 Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all
that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the
age."
So, Jesus commanded us to baptize as we carry out
His mission in the world. We see that practice implemented from the
beginning in the Book of Acts. This was the practice of the church from the
start. Referring to the response to Peter’s Pentecost sermon we read in Acts
2:37-42…
…they were cut to the
heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what
shall we do?" 38 And
Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the
name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit. 39
For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off,
everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." 40 And with many other words he
bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from
this crooked generation." 41
So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that
day about three thousand souls. 42
And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the
breaking of bread and the prayers.
Paul spoke
to the symbolism baptism when he said in Romans 6:3-5,
“Or
do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into
death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united
together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the
likeness of His resurrection…”
Baptism
as an ordinance is unique in that it happens once for each believer, at the
beginning of the Christian life. It publicly affirms our faith in Jesus, our
identification with Him in His death and resurrection. The public repetition of
the ordinance blesses the church. It was/is the expected and normal response
to believing in Jesus. In the Great Commission Jesus commanded it, on the
day of Pentecost, “As many as believed
were baptized…” That was the normal response of saving faith. Please
understand that baptism is symbolic, not salvific. Like the Eunuch
in the desert in Acts 8:37f., we believe and are saved by the grace through
faith, then confess Him and are baptized as a public affirmation that we are
followers of Jesus, identified with Him in his death and resurrection (Gal
2:20). Consider that symbolism as we end the service with today with baptism… It
symbolizes new life!
Jesus came to satisfy the righteousness
of God. To give himself as our sinless substitute. He took our sin, we receive
His righteousness. By faith. The Lord
has given the church two ordinances, as a visual representation of His saving
work on our behalf. Baptism indicates
our unity with Him in His atoning death and victorious resurrection…
“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; 24 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." 25 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." 26 For as often as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. 27
Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy
manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let
a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup…”
The Bread reminds us of His body: John said, the
Word was made flesh… The NLT says, “…this
is my body which is given for you…” That is the sense of what Jesus was
saying. The incarnation was purposeful, intentional. He came to be the
substitute, the atoning sacrifice for our sins. God’s wrath had to be
satisfied. He will be no means leave the guilty unpunished. He came to do
for us what we could not do for ourselves. M. Luther said “The mystery of the humanity of Christ, that He sunk Himself into our
flesh, is beyond all human understanding.” Paul refers to this in
Philippians 2:6-8 when he says:
“…though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a
thing to be grasped, 7 but
made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of
men. And being found in human form, 8
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a
cross..”
God
became a man, to save humans. He came to give himself so that fallen,
sinful people like us, could be reconciled to our holy God.
The
cup reminds us of His blood, shed for sinful humans: Paul speaks to the this when he said in Romans 5:8-9,
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were
still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been
justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
In
8:32-33 of Romans he says, “He who did
not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not
with Him also freely give us all things?” God Himself provided the Lamb.
His blood was shed for us. So, as we partake, we remember. We look back to
Calvary, to the love that was shown, the grace that was revealed. And we look
ahead, because we will continue the ordinance until Jesus returns. It also is
an invitation to pause, “…let a man
examine himself…” We look back, look ahead, and look within.
What
is God saying to me in these passages? Jesus
came to make possible the justification of sinful humans by a holy God. He gave the church two ordinances as a visual
representation of His saving work on our behalf. Baptism symbolizes our unity with Christ in His death and
resurrection. The Lord’s table reminds us of His coming in the
flesh and His dying for our sins; and invites us to look ahead to His return
and the culmination of God’s eternal plan.
What
would He have me to do in response to these texts? Have
you recognized your need and turned in faith to Jesus? If not, why not now?
Do you feel a prompting in your heart? Could it be that He is calling you to
faith? Call on His Name! Christian, do you
remember when you first believed? Do you
recall the step you took, by His grace, when He opened your heart and you put
your trust in Him? Have you publicly affirmed your faith in baptism? If
not, why not? Talk to me or one of the elders, we can schedule another baptism
in a few weeks! He calls us to believe
and be baptized! And as we celebrate
the Lord’s Table, let’s remember what it symbolizes. And as we look back on His
first coming, we look ahead, anticipating His return! Amen.
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