WORD & SACRAMENT

Marks of the Church ---Word & Sacrament

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

“For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:26

Today we continue our series on “The Marks of the Church”. It is my hope and prayer that as we look at the Marks of the Church, we will see our church and the mission we have been called to in this corner of the world. God has planted The Seed for such a time as this.

The Greek word for church is “ekklesia.” It is used 110 times in the new Testament with only 2 of those times in the Gospels. It is used twice in the Gospel of Matthew. The most references to the word. “ekklesia or church” are found in the Book of Acts. The meaning of “ekklesia” is an assembly of gathered or called out ones to or for a purpose. The purpose of the called-out ones is to hear and respond to God’s Word.

For the past five weeks, we have looked at the Marks of the Church. Week one: we learned from Acts 2:42 through 47 that the early Church was:

Ø A Learning Church

Ø A Fellowshipping Church

Ø A Praying Church

Ø A Worshiping Church

Ø A Happening Church

Ø A Sharing Church

Ø A Happy Church

Ø A Worshipping Church

V The early church was devoted to the apostle’s teaching --- they were a learning church.

V They were devoted to fellowship which included the breaking of bread and sharing what they had in common.

V They were a worshipping church with prayer, awe, wonders and signs.

V They were a joyful, attractive and growing church through their witness.

V They were a teaching and learning church that was devoted to fellowship, worship and witness.

Week two: we learned from the Gospel of John that worship is not about a place, but about a person. Worship is all about Jesus. The early church had the sign of the fish to remind them of their purpose. The Greek word for fish is “ichthys” and each letter stood for one word. Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior. What a beautiful and powerful Mark of the church, the sign of the fish --- Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior.

Week three: we learned another Mark of the church is that we are a living letter of Christ that is read by all. Week four: that we are the aroma of Christ—and that forgiveness is one of Christ’s aromas. Last week, we dove deep into the Love of the church. I know that last week was broad and wide. It was a hard message to give, let alone comprehend and take in. I am sorry about that. What I learned last week is that we will need to do a whole sermon series on the deep, deep love of God that is found in Christ Jesus. Love is a wonderful mark of the church.

This week, we turn to two different words that describe The Marks of the church. These words have been around since the beginning of creation. The Marks of the church that we will look at today are “Word” and “Sacrament.”

Before we turn to study God’s living Word, let us turn our hearts to our Living Lord in a moment of prayer. “Lord, God of all creation, create in us a new heart. Cleanse our hearts with Your Living Words of life. I pray that we will truly experience a sacred moment today as we hear Your Words of life and share in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Amen. “

I Corinthians 11:23-26

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night 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, 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.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.[i]

Another mark of the Church: The living WORD!

Just this past week people all around the world celebrated Halloween. Now I need to tell you something, I am not much of a Halloween person. I am not opposed to it and I’m not afraid of it. I also know that God is not afraid of Halloween. But, I like to think of this holiday as Reformation Day. It was on October 31st in 1517 that a man by the name of Martin Luther went to the Wittenberg Castle and nailed 95 theses on the door of the castle. He did this to ensure that there would be a debate and discussion of the 95 statements he posted to the door. Martin Luther never set out to start a new church, all he wanted to do was reform the Roman Catholic Church of his day. The Roman Catholic Church did not want reform. They brought Luther up for trial and wanted to martyr (that is kill) him. They demanded that for him to recant. You know what he said? “Here I stand. I can do no other.” Yes! Don’t give me a day to celebrate Halloween! Give me Martin Luther and Reformation Day! What a saint! “Recant or we will martyr you.” “Here I am. I can do no other.” Martin Luther totally stood his truth, unafraid. Yes, give me Reformation Day every October 31st!

Do you know that the cry of the reformation had five “sola” statements? These statements became Marks of the Protestant church. The reformation church was called the Protestant Church because the Latin word for Protestant is “protestari” and it means “to stand for something not stand against something.”

The protestant Church stood for:

V Sola Scriptura --- Scripture Alone

V Sola Fide --- Faith Alone

V Sola Gratia --- Grace Alone

V Sola Christus --- Christ Alone

V Sola Deo Gloria --- Glory to God Alone

What a powerful first statement --- Scripture Alone. For the early reformers, one of the Marks of the Church was when the “Word” was rightly preached and heard, and the “Sacraments” were rightly shared.

I am history buff. I went to college to become a history teacher. But God had other plans. I love museums, history books and biographies. I am currently reading a book about Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans.

When I got to thinking about the “Word” of God I did a quick research and found that the first written “Word” of God came from God’s own hand when he wrote the Ten Commandments. That was around 1400 BC. Around 500 BC the first complete Hebrew Bible was written with the 39 books we have in the Old Testament. It was in 315 AD that an early church Father by the name of Athanasius identified the 27 books we call the New Testament. It wasn’t until 382 that Jerome completed the Latin Vulgate which included the 80 books in the Bible at that time --- 39 Old Testament, 27 New testament and 14 called the Apocrypha. Almost 1000 years later in 1384, a man by the name of Wycliffe hand wrote the entire Bible from Latin into Anglo-Saxon, the language of his day. In 1455 Guttenberg invented the printing press and the making of books and literature became easier. Along comes Martin Luther in 1517 and one of his reformation thesis was that he thought the people should have the “Word of God” in their own language. From 1517 to 1522, five years after the famed Halloween Reformation day in 1517 at Wittenberg, the German people had a New Testament in their own language! God bless Martin Luther.

In those early years, many of the people who tried to print the Bible in another language beside Latin were hunted down and killed --- burned at the stake. Years after Wycliffe died, the Pope ordered that his body be raised out of the grave and all his bones be broken and thrown into the river. He then ordered that all of the Bibles that Wycliffe had hand written were burned. Here’s an interesting side note: The first Bible printed in America was printed in 1633 and the language was Algonquin, which was the language of the Native Americans. The first English Bible to be printed in America was in 1782, six years after the Declaration of Independence. We’ve come a long way in those 236 years!

The reformation brought the Bible or “The Word” into the center of the church. The Word was to be rightly preached. Faithful preaching was one of the first marks of the church. For the reformers, they would say that the “Word” takes on several forms.

1) The Eternal Word --- Jesus is the Word or Logos --- John 1:1-2 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.”

2) Incarnate Word --- John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

3) The Inscripturated Word – The Bible

4) The Preached Word

John Calvin said that in a true church a further dimension of this mark is that the Word must also be faithfully heard and received. Make a note—none of us are off the hook on this one! I must rightfully and faithfully preach the word of God and you must faithfully hear and receive the word of God! Reformed worship is called a dialogue between God and His people—God speaks, and His people respond. Calvin’s point was that if God speaks through the preaching of His Word and no one is listening and responding, then no church exists. But where the Word is faithfully preached and received, there the mark of the true church can be seen.

More marks of the Church: The Sacraments: Baptism and Communion

A Sacrament is a sacred moment when the invisible reality of Grace is manifested in our present world. In most protestant churches there are two sacraments, baptism and communion. In baptism the people who are baptized are united with Christ through the burying of us in the water and us coming back up from these waters into a new life. In Baptism the outward sign is of being washed clean of sin and then we are engrafted into the body of Christ, the family of God, called the church. Baptism is an outward sign of being filled with the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit in our baptism.

Our second sacrament in the Protestant church is communion. Communion is a visible sign of the invisible reality of God grace. The Lord’s Supper shows that Christians live only through the body and blood of Christ offered as a sacrifice on the cross. In the wilderness wanders of the Israelites, God provided manna …bread from heaven for them to eat daily. We say the Lord’s Prayer and one of the petitions is “Give us this day our daily bread.” For the Israelites, bread was life. One of the Great “I Am” statements of Jesus is found in the Gospel of John 6:35. Jesus said --- “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35)

In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells the people that He is the bread of life!

So What?

In verse 26 of our reading today it says … “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” There are three verbs in this sentence that Paul is writing to the church. The verbs are in present active tense, which means the action of eating, drinking and proclaiming are ongoing and never stop. The word that Paul uses for “proclaim” is a word that means to announce, tell, report, to speak out about, to make known openly with wide distribution and proclaim loudly. Do you see it? This is one of the marks of the church! We are called as a church body to announce, tell, report, to speak out about, to make known openly with wide distribution and proclaim loudly that Jesus is God’s son who died for our sins.

When the American army under the command of Gen. Washington lay camped in the environs of Morristown, N. J., the Lord’s Supper was to be administered in the Presbyterian Church of that village. In a morning in the previous week, the General visited the house of the Rev. Dr. Jones, pastor of that church, and approached him: “Doctor, I understand that the Lord’s Supper is to be celebrated with you next Sunday; I would learn if it accords with the canons of your church to admit communicants of another denomination?” The Doctor rejoined, “Most certainly; ours is not the Presbyterian table, General, but the Lord’s table; and hence we give the Lord’s invitation to all his followers, of whatever name.”[ii]

This is a good time to remind you of the Irish lass who felt she was too unworthy to receive communion. When the priest saw that she did come forward for communion, he brought communion to her. “Take it, Lassie. It’s for sinners.”

Let us pray.

“Lord, this is quite a series for us. Learning about the many marks of the church—your body. The list is long, kind of like Luther’s nailing of the 95 statements to the castle door! But, Lord, we want to be a church that hears the word rightly preached and we want to go out into our world right here in Cucamonga and we want to DO your word. Thank you for the gifts of baptism and communion. Thank you for cleansing us. Thank you for your forgiveness. We take a moment now and we ask you to forgive us for falling short. PAUSE. Amen.

The Seed Christian Fellowship

Rancho Cucamonga, California 91701

www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

November 4, 2018

Pastor Dave Peters

[i] The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (1 Co 11:23–26). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[ii] Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (p. 941). Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.