Word and Sacrament

Word and Sacrament | WSC 88–93

Q. 88. What are the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption?

A. The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption, are his ordinances, especially the word, sacraments, and prayer; all which are made effectual to the elect for salvation.

Q. 89. How is the word made effectual to salvation?

A. The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching, of the word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation.

Q. 90. How is the word to be read and heard, that it may become effectual to salvation?

A. That the word may become effectual to salvation, we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation and prayer; receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in our lives.

Q. 91. How do the sacraments become effectual means of salvation?

A. The sacraments become effectual means of salvation, not from any virtue in them, or in him that doth administer them; but only by the blessing of Christ, and the working of his Spirit in them that by faith receive them.

Q. 92. What is a sacrament?

A. A sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ; wherein, by sensible signs, Christ, and the benefits of the new covenant, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers.

Q. 93. Which are the sacraments of the New Testament?

A. The sacraments of the New Testament are baptism and the Lord’s supper.

Illustration: (by negative contrast) my first “girlfriend” in 6th grade. We were church friends, didn’t go to the same school, only saw each other in passing at church, never talked on the phone …

So the big idea of these sets of questions is that God doesn’t leave us to our own devices to grow in the faith. Imagine we hear the Gospel once and believe it, but then we never again hear from God about the gospel or about how he calls us to live. Do you think that strategy would work for helping us grow?

No. The way God saves us—through the preaching of the Gospel + sacraments + and the Holy Spirit working in our hearts to cause us to believe it—is how he grows us.

This has been called “the means of grace,” and these questions mention specifically the word, sacraments, and prayer.

Text: 1 Cor 11:23–26

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 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.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Now the main thing I want you to see in this paragraph, for our purposes, is that the Lord’s Supper really doesn’t make sense without a story behind it.

Suppose Jesus never went to the cross and delivered up his body for our salvation …

Suppose we didn’t know from the Old Testament that the shedding of blood made atonement for sins

Suppose Jesus didn’t die and rise again and ascend into heaven, so that this meal is done “in remembrance of him”

Without that story, the bread and wine wouldn’t have any meaning beyond sustenance. But because there is a story, and because Jesus himself creates a relationship between the sign and the story, or the sign and the thing signified (his death), now we know that the bread and the wine point beyond themselves to Jesus himself.

This is what we mean when we say “Word and Sacrament”—we mean a relationship between God’s word and the visible signs of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Sometimes theologians call it the “spoken” word and the “visible” word.

Now, the point of saying all of that, for our purposes tonight, is that we want to answer, “What does this matter for my relationship with God?” Well as I was saying before, these are called the means of grace—things God uses to give us grace and to grow us.

The way God saves us is the way God grows us:

The gospel spoken

The gospel signified

The gospel applied

1. The gospel spoken

The preaching of the Word reveals the gospel and its implications.

> The Bible is more than a collection of stories and poems and life advice …

> The Bible is telling one story: Jesus says in Luke 24 that the law and the psalms and the prophets are about him (Genesis 3:15, story of Joseph, Exodus, sacrificial system, David, the temple, etc.)

> The Bible is either looking forward to Jesus and his redemptive work or backward at it and drawing implications

But the Bible isn’t mere information. The Bible is not like your history textbook that’s just the word of man. The Bible is the word of God. The Holy Spirit is speaking through the word—the word written and that same word preached. And that’s why the word changes you. God’s word says “it does not return void”—that it has a powerful effect on us.

And so when we hear a sermon from God’s word, if it’s preached faithfully it is a proclamation of the gospel that strengthens us. And it’s a word we respond to with faith and repentance.

2. The gospel signified

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper signify and seal the work of Christ and its implications.

Baptism: our deliverance from slavery to sin and death, the cleansing of our consciences, our dying with Christ in his crucifixion and rising with him to new life

Lord’s Supper: his death for our sins, the redemption we have through his blood, our participation in the body of Christ, our eternal nourishment in him

Now you may ask, “Why do we need sacraments if we have the same message through the word?”

… you have a body.

… think of soldiers away at war; are letters sufficient? Don’t they long for a physical encounter, to be with their wife or girlfriend in person?

The sacraments are pictures of the gospel, but they are more than pictures … they are experiences of it. They are things in which we participate—the water runs down our foreheads, the bread and wine pass through our mouths, down our throats, into our stomachs. We are eating the gospel.

The sacraments are a mystery but the Scriptures are clear that God really does give grace through them and does meet with his people through them. It’s a tangible experience of the grace of God. We respond to our baptism as if we were really brought through the Red Sea and made to serve the living God. We respond to the Lord’s Supper as if we were at the foot of the cross watching the Son of God dying for our sins.

The sacraments are the visible gospel, we are to receive them just like we do the spoken gospel: in faith and repentance.

3. The gospel applied

The point of the preached word and the sacraments are that they strengthen us … for what? For faith and obedience!

If we have listened to the sermon and received the sacraments, but then we go and do nothing about them, as if they are empty words and empty signs, then they have fallen on deaf ears!

The shorter catechism says we are to “make diligent use of them.” Speaking of God’s word, it says “we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation and prayer; receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in our lives.”

So when we hear the word, here’s what we do:

We pray, before, during, and after, for ears to hear and hearts to believe and hands to obey

We pray for the Spirit’s help to help us apply the truths!

We respond with thanksgiving and love to God’s grace

We obey the word! We actually do what it says

We engage with one another as those who are saved by the same Christ, Spirit, baptism

Now if that sounds like hard work, you need to remember the Holy Spirit is strengthening us for the work in the very means themselves! All of this is the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Questions:

Matt made the point that God is speaking to us from his word during sermons. What are some practical ways you can diligently listen to God’s word during the sermon? What are wrong or prideful ways we may take in a sermon?

What would you say to someone who says they are a Christian but they haven’t been baptized (and therefore don’t take the Lord’s Supper) and don’t think it’s important? How would you challenge them?

The Bible says we are to take the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner. What does that mean? It may be easier to think of what it would mean to take it in an unworthy manner.

The Bible warns us to be doers of the word and not hearers only. Why is it so easy to only be a hearer? How can you get help being a doer?