Celebrating the Ordinances of the Church

Sometimes we can lose sight of WHY we do some of the things we do in church.

For instance:

This past week we had prayer and fasting.

Most people understand prayer — it is the main way we connect to God.

But fasting is an unknown, unpracticed ritual that has no meaning to many.

And yet it is so important.

If you have questions about fasting you could start by going on YouTube and watching last Sunday night’s short devotion on the subject

But, thank you! Thank you all who fasted and prayed this week:

For the election — early voting started this week.

For an awakening and revival — for souls to be saved

For an increased number of those who attend New Life to understand the value of not only individual prayer, but corporate prayer as well.

For those who are being persecuted for accepting and giving witness to the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ.

For the parents of children here in the church — they need God’s wisdom for raising children in a world that is increasingly hostile to Jesus

For believers to be disciples and grow in their relationship with Him

For our missions emphasis service next week.

But then there are the two ordinances of the church of the chuurch.

The two things Jesus wanted us to do on a regular basis so that we can keep our relationship with Him fresh.

And remember the price paid for our salvation.

Remember the commitment we made to Him.

Dr. P.C. Nelson who founded Southwestern University of the AG tells us that celebrating the ordinances of the church accomplishes many things. Including:

Bringing us into closer relationship with Jesus AND closer relationship with one another.

AND

… help[ing] us to sense the reality of spiritual things. They picture the most fundamental truths of the gospel before our eyes.

In baptism, we go into a watery grave and feel it surging about us, and ourselves sinking beneath it and rising above it, indicating our own death and resurrection, as well as Christ’s.

The Lord’s Supper speaks to our hearts, to our eyes, and to our touch and taste. …

… in the Lord’s Supper we see the bread, indicating the body of our Lord, broken before our eyes; we take a morsel into our hands and then into our mouths; we see the fruit of the vine, typifying the blood of Jesus, poured forth before our eyes; we drink it, appropriate it.

All this gives us a sense of reality, which perhaps we could acquire in no other way, and signifies how absolutely necessary it is for our souls and bodies to be sustained by the life-giving Christ, who died and lives again, delivering us from sin and healing our bodies.

The more we see in the ordinances, the more they mean to us and the larger the measure of blessing conveyed.

May God give us grace ever to approach [His] holy ordinance[s] with a feeling of reverence and awe and love such as we have never known before.

One of the ordinances is that on a regular basis, at least once a month, we observe the Lord’s Supper.

Why do we do this?

Also, another ordinance of the church is that, as people accept Christ as the Savior and Lord, they are immersed or baptized in water.

Why do we do that?

Water Baptism

Well, let’s start with water baptism.

Right after we finish here in the sanctuary we will move to the Fellowship Hall, the Connect, and witness 3 people being baptized in water:

Katie Harkins

Jake Helstrom

and my granddaughter Abigail Parmely

Please plan to be a witness to their water baptism.

It is important!

It is not just important to those being baptized that we give witness to their testimony.

But it is important to US to remember what water baptism means in OUR lives.

The reason we baptize those who commit to Jesus is that it is part of obeying Jesus’ command in:

Matthew 28:19–20 (NASB95) “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Jesus tells us:

To make disciples

To baptize them

To teach them the commands of Jesus and to live in obedience to them.

To encourage believers that Jesus will never abandon us — He is with us ALWAYS — even to the end of the world.

So, let’s look at the part of Jesus’ command concerning water baptism.

Why would Jesus command us to do something that may seem, to some people, to be odd?

Others look at it as old-fashioned.

Still others look at it a dividing line — for some a Christian water baptism means the end of relationship.

For Muslims or Buddhists or Hindus someone being baptized because of their faith in Jesus means you are now an enemy — that is THEIR idea — NOT ours.

We love them and want them to find and embrace truth and freedom.

We don’t force them into relationship with Jesus — we love them, pray them into it.

But so many of that and other religions see water baptism as a declaration of war — their declaration of war on us.

But, even in the face of that opposition, we encourage those who are new to being a disciple of Jesus Christ to be obedient to His command to be baptized in water.

Sometimes this may be immediately and sometime it may be years before a person is baptized.

Sometimes a person is baptized in water at a young age and they feel the need to repeat it when they are older.

But in every case, being baptized in water makes a public statement. Actually it makes several public statements.

I’ve just talked about one.

Through water baptism we say:

I love Jesus.

I am not ashamed of Him.

I have decided to follow Him and I won’t turn back.

We join with them saying, “Yes! We know the VALUE of following Jesus.”

3 days ago, a devotion from Learn the Bible in a Year commented on:

2 Corinthians 7:4 [Where the Apostle Paul tells the Corinthian church] I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.

The commentary tells us: Trouble and joy were not mutually exclusive for Paul, and should not be for us. If we wait until our problems are solved before we have joy, we will never have joy this side of heaven.

[It goes on to tell of] A missionary who was thrown into prison with one of his converts who had lost everything for Christ.

His wife, children, house and reputation were gone as he sat in a cold dark cell with the missionary.

The missionary felt so sorry for the man that he apologized for leading him to Christ.

But the man replied, Having Jesus is more precious to me than any other happiness. 

All the trouble in the world cannot take away our joy, if we understand what we have in Christ.

Water baptism helps us do that —in a very public way.

Again, NOT just for the one being baptized, but for the rest of us too.

In our water baptism we are making public statements just like Jesus’ did in HIS water baptism. Listen to:

John 1:31–34 (NASB95) “I [John the Baptist] did not recognize Him [Jesus], but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.” 32 John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. 33 “I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ 34 “I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

Did you catch all the public statements made at Jesus’ water baptism?

First of all, John said, God called me to baptize people in water.

Yes, it was a baptism of repentance for the people of Israel who wanted to show everyone they wanted to serve God.

The Apostle Paul said in: Acts 19:4 (NASB95) … “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”

But God also called John to baptize in water for OTHER reasons.

First, God used John’s water baptism to publicly introduce Israel to their Messiah.

The One for whom they had been crying.

As John said in verse 31: John baptized Jesus so “that He [Jesus] might be manifested to Israel.”

Not only was Jesus manifested to Israel as Messiah, but He was publicly manifested as the One who would pour out the Holy Spirit:

As vs. 33 says: “He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’”

Finally, John says that when he baptized Jesus, he KNEW that Jesus was not just:

The prophesied Messiah

Not just the One who Baptizes in the Holy Spirit.

But above all, Jesus was and is the Son of God.

In our lives God uses baptism to allow us to publicly tell the world some important truths.

Whether a new believer or someone repeating their water baptism, everyone who gets Baptized in Water is saying:

I want everyone to know I have decided to follow Jesus.

I want everyone to know that MY life is included in:

2 Corinthians 5:17 (TPT) Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new creation. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new.

As the footnote in TPT says about “the old things that have passed away” :

This [public statement of getting rid of the “old things”]… includes getting rid of our old identity, our life of sin, the power of Satan, the religious works of trying to please God, our old relationship with the world, and our old mind-sets. We are not reformed or simply refurbished, we are made completely new by our union with Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

So water baptism is a public statement that says:

Through a supernatural work of God, the old me has died and I am a new creation.

As Romans 6:6–7 (NASB95) says: knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

So water baptism also publicly tells the world I am no longer a slave to sin.

Finally, water baptism publicly tells the world that I am looking forward to being resurrected with Jesus.

I don’t live as if this world is all there is.

I live for the greater reality — that one day I’m going to receive a new body.

A body that never gets tired, sick, or old.

It is a glorious body that never dies.

A body that allows me to be in the very presence of God.

Water baptism publicly says that I believe that though my body may die, it WILL be resurrected, just like Jesus’ body was resurrected into a glorified body.

Romans 6:4 (NASB95) Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

As reminds us: 1 Corinthians 15:50–53 (NASB95) Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Praise God for the public statements of water baptism.

When we move to the Fellowship Hall for the water baptism, may we remember this as each person is baptized!

The Lord’s Supper

The whole purpose of water baptism is to identify with what Jesus did.

He died and then He rose from the dead.

The grave is empty.

He is NOT dead — Jesus is risen!

John’s baptism of repentance was great.

It was a public statement of repentance.

But the symbolism of being baptized into the death of Jesus and then raised in newness of life in Jesus is SO MUCH BETTER!

Even before Jesus gave the command concerning water baptism He gave a way for us to remember His death and what it purchased for us.

Water baptism is not something we do every month or more.

But the Lord’s Supper is.

We need to constantly remind ourselves that it is not our good works, but rather it is the death of Jesus that purchases our salvation.

That purchases eternal life for each of us.

All of the Gospel accounts give us details about The Lord’s Supper. But, let’s look at:

Luke 22:14–20 (NASB95) When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. 15 And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16 for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.

In a few minutes, let’s do what the disciples of Jesus did on that night.

Let’s do what the first church did right after Pentecost:

Acts 2:42 (NASB95) They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread [the Lord’s Supper]and to prayer.

Let’s do what the Apostle Paul encouraged the Corinthian church to do in:

1 Corinthians 10:16–17 (NASB95) Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.

The Apostle Paul is encouraging a church with a lot of divisions and schisms to come together AS ONE BODY through the Lord’s Supper.

Folks, we are one Body, the Body of Jesus on the earth.

We partake of the Lord’s Supper together to help us remember that.

We partake to remember what salvation cost.

We partake to remember that Jesus is coming back just as He said.

Before we partake, let’s do what the disciples did in preparation for the Lord’s Last Supper.

In typical Jewish fashion for the Passover, they searched the house for leaven — the symbol for sin.

If they found any they got rid of it.

WE are the Lord’s house, His temple — let’s ask the Lord to cleanse us from all leaven, all sin, and make us worthy to partake together.

Prayer for cleansing from sin.

You don’t have to be a member of this church.

I just urge you to have prepared yourself to partake.

1 Corinthians 11:27–28 (NASB95) … whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Worship Team would you come receive the elements as you come to the platform to help us partake this morning.

As they come, would you all stand?

As we sing about the Blood of Jesus — come take the elements and hold them until we can all partake at one time.

Sing: O The Blood

Let’s copy what we just read that Jesus did at the Last Supper:

Bread:

Luke 22:19 (NASB95) And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

Prayer

End prayer with prayer from Seder: Blessed are you, O Lord our God, who brings forth bread from the earth.

Cup:

Luke 22:20 (NASB95) And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.

Prayer

End prayer with prayer from Seder: Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.

Jesus is Coming Back:

1 Corinthians 11:26 For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are [symbolically] proclaiming [the fact of] the Lord's death until He comes [again].

Sing: I’ll Fly Away