Sacraments

Announcements

Serve at Mercy: Monday Oct 14th 1 - 5PM

Baptism Class: November 3rd Baptism on the 17th

Game

Bring Me A

Nail Clippers

Tube of Lipstick

Sing and make all the motions to im a little teapot

Comb

Pic of a Pet

7 shoes connected

two nose hairs

someone who can do an amazing impersonation

Intro

Good evening everyone, I hope you are having a wonderful week. Its been a rough week as I have been sick all week so hopefully I will be able to make it through tonight.

Tonight finishes up our series on Spiritual Habits, so far we have talked about Prayer, Accountable friendships, Studying the Bible, and being involved in church. This week we are going to be discussing a couple of things that don’t frequently get discussed in youth group. Tonight we will be talking about Baptism and Communion.

As we talk about these two things, its important to note that neither getting baptised or taking communion doesn’t save you. It will not effect your entry to heaven, and we can see this through the thief on the cross.

Luke 23:41–43 NIV

We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Here we see that the thief believed in Jesus and repented of his ways and that was all that was needed for him to enter into heaven. So then if they aren’t required for salvation then why do we do it? Im glad you asked, we are going to jump in and take a look at how these ideas started.

We can see where the idea of communion began by looking at the last supper right before Jesus died on the cross.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NIV

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Next lets take a look at where we get the command for baptism

Matthew 28:18–19 NIV

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

We are going to jump into these passages deeper but lets take a look at when these two comments were made from Jesus. The first one was made right before he was arrested and crucified, and the second passage was as He was leaving earth for the last time before He eventually returns. Both of these could be considered as what Jesus thought was important because He knew He was about to be leaving the disciples, and knew the struggle they were about to go through.

What is Communion

Now some of you to this point may be thinking what in the world is this guy talking about. I have no clue what Communion even is, Ive never really gone to church before, or my church doesnt regularly do it. Well communion is a time that the church as a whole normally during a Sunday service passes out little crackers, and little cups of juice. We do this to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made, the bread symbolizes Jesus body which was broken for us, and the juice represents Jesus blood that was shed to forgive our sins.

What is Baptism

So thats a very quick explanation of communion but what about Baptism. What is Baptism?

Basically Baptisms is simply when a follower of Jesus publicly proclaims their faith in Jesus. Here at Harvest many of you have been here when we baptized a few students this past spring and summer. We use a big hot tub looking thing, and as you sit in the tub we fully immerse you in the water which represents dying to our old self, old choices, and old life, and then bring you back up. This represents the new life that we have in Jesus.

So now that we have talked about what these are lets take a deeper look into them

Jesus led by example

First we see that Jesus led by example, these arent things that Jesus said hey you should do, just because I want you to, but im not willing to do them. I’m sure we all have either known or heard of leaders that do that, but thats not the way Jesus led.

Matthew 3:13–17 NIV

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Here we see Jesus getting baptized, and Jesus made clear that this was the expectation of all believers. Time and time again we see that Jesus didn’t just command us to do things but instead he led by example of what He expected us to do.

Communion and baptism are signs of obedience

Not only do we see that Jesus led by example, but we can also see that taking communion and being baptized are signs of obedience. We see in each of the passages that these are commands that Jesus gives us. These are expectations of the believers, now Salvation is by grace through faith alone which we learn in Ephesians 2:8-9

Ephesians 2:8–9 NIV

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

However we even though salvation is a free gift there are still expectations that we should strive to achieve. Similar to when your parents give you a present, You didnt have to do anything to earn that present, but they do expect you to treat that gift well, and not just destroy it because you can.

When we follow Jesus’ Commands there are at least two things we tell the world.

We tell them something about us, When we do these things we are telling the world that we decided to follow Jesus, and that we choose to put Jesus above ourselves.

We tell them something about Jesus, If we are telling the world that we decided to follow Jesus it means that we believe Jesus is worth following.

So we take part in these two activities to show our obedience to Christ

Communion and baptism are earthly experiences that point to heavenly realities

Not only did Jesus lead by example, and show that Communion and baptism are signs of obedience, but they also are earthly experiences that point to heavenly realities.

Have you ever wondered what God was doing around you, or in your life and been frustrated. Maybe you wanted to ask God for a sign like this

Play Bruce almighty clip

Ever had a day like that, asking God for help, and nothing seems to go right. Well if you notice in the clip, God sent exactly what he asked for, but he may not have recognized that was his answer to prayer.

See with Baptism and Communion these acts give us a glimpse of things we cannot see. lets take a look at how Paul describes baptism.

Colossians 2:12 NIV

having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Paul is telling us that when we go under the water its like we are experiencing Christs death and burial, and when we come back out, its like we are being raised from the dead with Christ.

Communion does something similar. As we said earlier the bread represents Jesus body which reminds us of the pain that he went through on the cross. The cup of juice points to the fact that only Jesus blood can forgive us of our sins. So communion is really a regular reminder of what Jesus has already done for us on the cross.

So what do we do now?

Get baptized

If you have already made Jesus the leader of your life, and havent been baptized since making that decision then there is no better time than the present to get baptized. We have a baptism coming up in November, and if that is something that you would like to be a part of please come and speak to me after we are done.

Celebrate when others get baptized

Not only should we get baptized but we should also celebrate when others do. That is part of the reason we held two different baptisms over the last 5 months here in the youth group. We wanted yall to be able to celebrate with each other. So I want to encourage you that if you hear that someone is going to get baptized, do your best to be there for them when they do. And when I find out that one of yall will be getting baptized, I will do my best to make sure yall know about it to help celebrate with each other.

Regularly share communion with each other

Not only should we get baptized and celebrate those who do, but we should also regularly take part in communion. This is one that we dont really do in youth group a whole lot so this one requires a little bit of last weeks lesson of being involved in the church. There isnt anything magical or special about the bread and juice. If im honest alot of times the bread is pretty stale, and there isnt enough juice to wash it down. But the special thing is what it represents, which we have already talked about. The most special time of worship I think I have ever had was a Wednesday night campus church at Liberty right after I got back from my trip to Israel. And what made that church service so special was the fact that everything I saw was so fresh in my memory of what Jesus did, where He walked, and how He sacrificed himself. That is why we should take communion regularly to continually remember those things.