BD #11 - Baptism | 1 Timothy 4:6

BD #11 - Two Ordinances #1 | Hebrews 10:19-25 (2)

Turn to 1 Timothy 4:6

Opening Remarks:

Two Ordinances: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

A couple of weeks ago I jumped ahead and dealt with the Lord’s Supper in preparation for our Communion service, so we’ve already looked at one of the Two Ordinances.

But I’d like to discuss Ordinances as a concept before we dig too deeply into baptism.

Before we get into it, I’d like to remind you of some truths we looked at at the beginning of the series:

1 Timothy 4:6  If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.

We need to study doctrine because we’re commanded to. It nourishes us. It builds our faith.

1 Timothy 4:13  Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

This series is an attempt to give attention to Doctrine. And I know it’s not always popular, but it’s our foundation. Roots need to go deeper before trees can get taller. The deeper the roots the greater the fruit.

1 Timothy 4:16  Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

Good doctrine has transformational power. Truth sets us free in a supernatural way.

1 Timothy 5:17  Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.

The most important responsibility of a pastor is to labor in the Word and doctrine.

1 Timothy 6:1  Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.

Like I said Sunday night, belief impacts behavior.

I know I’ve labored on this at times in this series, but it’s good for us to understand what we believe. Don’t simply rely on this series to do so. Study for yourself. There’s an element of personal responsibility in this.

So that leads to our study of the Ordinances.

I.   Ordinance

“Ordinance” is a Latin word that signifies something which is ordered or commanded. The nature of the word means it comes from an authoritative source.

“Ordinance” is used twice in the NT, once by Paul in Romans and Peter in 1 Peter, and both times it refers to submission to governmental authority. 

Governments issue ordinances to provide order and protect citizens. Many ordinances have to do with public safety, health, or general well-being. They are there to remind citizens of certain things.

In our vernacular, Ordinances serve to keep us in memory or cause us to look to something significant. Ordinances are divinely instituted rituals that conveys truth through symbolism.

They aren’t sacraments. We don’t believe that anything is necessary for salvation except faith in Christ. But they do point our minds to Christ.

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the Ordinances Christ left to NT churches to observe until He returns.

Because they’re ordered commands, we want to do them as Scripturally as possible. Too many times, the Ordinances become so modified that they reflect tradition more than Scripture.

God is clear when it comes to these Ordinances.

H.G. Weston wrote: “In studying the New Testament account of the church, we find, besides moral duties, certain acts commanded by its Founder, significant of certain truths enjoined on the members of the church. Such acts are called ordinances.”

(The Constitution and Polity of the New Testament Church, pp. 27-28, in E.H. Johnson’s Outline of Systematic Theology.)

“An ordinance is an outward institution, appointed by Christ, by positive precept, to be observed by all His people to the end of the age, commemorating an essential gospel fact and declaring an essential gospel truth. Of these there are two, Baptism and the Communion—the initiation and consummation of the Christian life. These ordinances are the gospel in symbol: they commemorate, declare, and typically embody the whole Christian system (I Corinthians 15:1-5). They are the true symbols of Christianity, divinely appointed and all-sufficient.”

So if you think about a Christian’s responsibility to keep the Gospel in memory, we have a responsibility to keep the ordinances in a way that points to the Gospel.

II. The Bible Teaches Two Ordinances

Just to be clear, these two ordinances weren’t developed over time. Nor did the apostles and early church leaders come up with them. They were given by Jesus Christ Himself.

J.M. Pendleton said: “He [Christ] is the only Institutor of ordinances. Apostles had no discretion in the matter. They could only teach the baptized disciples ‘to observe all things’ commanded by Christ. His will was to them, as to His followers now, the supreme law. It was optional with Him to institute many ordinances or few. It was His pleasure to appoint only two, namely baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These appointments of Christ are the church ordinances in the sense that they pertain to His churches—not to the world; and are committed to the care of His churches, whom He holds responsible for their preservation in their original purity and integrity.”

Now, there are some factions that practice foot-washing as a third ordinance.

They take as their authority to do so John 13:1-17, “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.”

But foot-washing was cultural. It was a common act of hospitality toward guests that entered your home. Most travel was by foot over dusty roads, so washing feet was necessary and a common courtesy. If a host failed to provide it for a guest it was considered rude. The washing was typically done by a servant of the house. For the host himself to do this was considered an act of great humility and showed immense respect for the guest.

Christ’s instruction seems to be much more a cultural way of showing humility than an official church ordinance.

Luke 7:36-44 gives the account of the woman washing Christ’s feet with her hair. But she was doing that of her own accord because she came from a sinful lifestyle. She was showing Christ humility and love, and we know that she wasn’t saved until the end of the chapter, and we’ll learn as we go that Ordinances are to be practiced after salvation.

Foot-washing was not associated with religious service in any way, and after the mention of it in John 13, it is not again mentioned in the New Testament except in 1 Timothy 5:10 that speaks of the character of a widow and it says she ought to be… “Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.”

That’s not instruction as a church Ordinance. It’s listing the kinds of things a servant minded Christian ought to do in order to show love to others.

So Christ’s example of foot-washing and His challenge to do it for others was less about being an official ritual and more about an an attitude of humility that every disciple needs to have to show love to others.

We’re not above any act of service. Whether it’s washing feet, or cleaning toilets, or painting walls, or taking out the trash. That’s Jesus’ message.

 III.  Three logical requirements to be an Ordinance.

#1 - An Ordinance was instituted or introduced in the Gospels.

Baptism

Matthew 3 — John was baptizing

Matthew 3:13-17 –- Even Jesus Christ Himself submitted to baptism. He walked 70 miles to be baptized by John because the authority of the baptizer was important to Him. It wasn’t about John, it was about the authority God gave John to baptize.

John 4:1-2 – More disciples of Jesus were made and baptized than even John the Baptist, although Jesus didn’t actually do the baptizing but authorized His disciples to do it. Once again, the authority of baptism is more important the individual doing the baptizing.

Lord’s Supper

Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper at the Last Supper the night before He was crucified. It’s found in all four Gospels.

Matthew 26:26-30 – They ate bread, which represented His body, and drank fruit of the grapevine, which represented His blood.

Mark 14:22-26, Luke 22:17-20, and John 13 all give very similar accounts.

The Ordinances were instituted in the Gospels by Jesus Christ.

#2 - An Ordinance was practiced in the book of Acts.

The early church would have known what the Ordinances were and would have practiced them.

Baptism

When you read the book of Acts, it’s clear that individuals who got saved almost immediately got baptized.

Acts 2:41, 8:5, 12, 37-38, 9:18, 10:48, 16:30-33

In every case, the word for baptism always means immersion under water.

Lord’s Table

Acts 2:42, 20:7 refer to “the breaking of bread.”

The Lord’s Supper is never represented in the Bible as being partaken by anyone except those saved and baptized.

#3 - An Ordinance is instructed in the Epistles.

Baptism

1 Cor. 1:10-17

This is a roundabout way to make the point, but the church in Corinth were having division based on whose disciple was who. “I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas.”

He’s making the point that we’re all unified in Christ. And in doing so he says in vs. 14-16 that he hadn’t actually baptized many of them, and he’s glad about that, because they were claiming to become disciples of the one that baptized them.

Vs. 17 – Paul isn’t saying, “Baptism shouldn’t happen.” He’s saying, “Preaching the Gospel and seeing souls saved is the most important thing. Baptism matters but it’s done in the name of the Jesus, not the name of Paul.”

This further emphasizes the point that salvation is by faith, not baptism.

But for our purposes, we’re seeing that baptism was practiced in the epistles, therefore we know it’s an ordinance.

Lord’s Supper

I Corinthians 11:18-34 is the clearest instruction we have on the Lord’s Supper.

It was understood that the Lord’s Supper would take place at certain times when a church came together.  

They were participating in the Lord’s Supper, which means it was an accepted Ordinance in the early churches.

So the three qualifications for an Ordinance:

#1 - Instituted or introduced in the Gospels

#2 - Practiced in the book of Acts

#3 - Instructed in the Epistles

So it seems like it should cut and dry. Two Ordinances, we have the details, let’s do them as Scripturally as possible, but I want to make an application, because…

IV.  Of all the Baptist Distinctives, the Ordinances seem to create the most controversy.

Everyone comes from different backgrounds and experiences and it creates a lot of questions:

How soon should we baptize?

Who should do the baptizing?

Who should get re-baptized?

What churches should we accept baptisms from?

Or, how often should we do the Lord’s Supper?

Who should be involved?

When should it be done?

How should it be done?

All important questions. They matter because we want to be Scriptural. But because the Bible doesn’t give every guideline, it’s up to how the Lord leads each Pastor and local church. This is where Autonomy of the Church comes into play.

But I recognize that every comes from a different experience and perspective:

That’s not how I did it growing up.

That’s not how I think it should be done.

Why should they have to get re-baptized?

Why shouldn’t everyone be involved in the Lord’s Table?

These questions can be divisive. We already saw it in 1 Cor. 1 with Paul and the contentions of who baptized who. And in 1 Cor. 11 with the way people were treating the Lord’s Supper.

These are divisive because it seems like in every denomination and even from church to church, everyone does it a little differently.

APPLICATION

But it’s good for us to remember, where the Bible isn’t explicit, we ought not be dogmatic.

It’s good to be passionate about the things of God like the Ordinances, but we must guard against having a divisive or critical spirit about them. It’s easy to get caught up in a stance and lose the spirit.

I’m thankful we’re Baptists and that we have distinctions, but let’s not embrace the distinctions that make us Baptists and, at the same time, forget the distinctions that make us Christians.

Love one another.

Pray without ceasing.

Abstain from all appearances of evil.

Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another.

We should be as passionate about those as we are about any of our stances.

Just be careful as we go through these teachings that we don’t get so lifted up about having what we consider to be the right stance that we forget to have the right spirit.

V. It’s just as important to be a Christian as it is to be a Baptist.

Be a “capital B” Baptist in your beliefs, but balance that by being a “capital C” Christian in your behavior.

Right position and Right disposition.

Because there’s a ditch on both sides of the road. We can be so strong about our positions that we lose our disposition. Or we can be so caught up in our disposition that we neglect our positions.

Let’s strive to be a balanced church, concerned both about the right stance and the right spirit.

I think most of us will be on the same page when it comes to these things, but if there’s an area of our distinctives that could cause some issues, it’s in these.

Now, I’m in no way saying these things aren’t important.

Our forefathers died for the issue of baptism.

The Lord’s Supper is so significant that it literally affected the physical well-being of those who took it unworthily.

These things matter. But let’s not make how they’re done, especially when the Scripture gives some license, let’s not make that a bigger issue than having a spirit that reflects our Savior.

 VI.  Conclusion – Final Questions

How’s your spirit?

Don’t be Baptist at the expense of being Christian. You can be both. Right positions and right disposition. It’s the perfect balance.

Our witness in our community will likely come down to how we treat that balance. It’s okay to be strong on your beliefs, but be as passionate about being Christlike as you are about being right.

The world needs to see someone with conservative beliefs and standards that also has a spirit of grace.

How’s your balance?

We also need the right stances. Can you articulate what you believe in the most important areas?

There must be some individual study and passion about knowing what we believe.

It’s not just someone else’s responsibility to know where you stand. It’s yours.

Can you articulate your beliefs?

I believe a church that is passionate about the balance between stand and spirit will leave a generational impact.

Let’s strive to be that kind of church.

How’s your stand? How’s your spirit?