I Still Remember
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Intro:
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
19 And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
Today, I want us to focus on the ordinances of the Church, water baptism and communion. The title of my message is, [I Still Remember].
I love looking at family pictures and watching home videos, especially when I am with my family. I have learned though, that not everyone shares my passion for this.
My sister made me laugh recently, as I went under the bed and pulled out the pictures when she got into town. She spent about five minutes looking through them, and said, I just don’t have it in me this time.
Bekah’s grandmother shares this favorite past time. Whenever we go to visit, she will have different photo albums sitting there. Eventually she will say, Daniel, I have some more pictures if you want to see them.
One of the reasons I love looking at the pictures or videos is that they tell a story. Each one can contain the past, present, and future.
For instance, one of my favorite videos is of my brother and me on a Sunday morning. We were ready for church in our suits and ties. Dad let us go outside and before long we were both climbing on the car. Dad hollered, get off of the car and we slowly got off, ran inside.
I see the past in that video. I remember getting in suits and ties on Sunday mornings and what life was like in the Tidmore house before church.
Lately though, I have noticed the present. I think of my dad, he was in his thirties when I was a baby, just like I am in my thirties while Davis is a baby. For some reason, I sympathize with my dad a little more.
Then, when I watch me do something ornery, like climbing on a car on Sunday, I see my future. I think, Lord help me, I have a son that seems to act a lot like I did.
Past—Present—Future
All of these in one picture.
We do not have pictures of the events of the New Testament. We have artist renditions, but since photography did not exist until the mid 1800s, there is not way to actually SEE what happened in the times of the bible.
BUT, Jesus wants us to REMEMBER what He did for us, so He left us two tools that will help us notice the past, present, and future.
We call these the ordinances of the Church. When we think ordinance, we should think order. Literally, it is something that was instituted by Christ. Something He commanded us to observe and obey in our lives.
These two ordinances are water baptism and communion.
We believe that the ordinance of baptism by immersion is commanded by the Scriptures. All who repent and believe on Christ as Saviour and Lord are to be baptized. Thus they declare to the world that they have died with Christ and that they also have been raised with Him to walk in newness of life.
We believe that the Lord's Supper, consisting of the elements --bread and the fruit of the vine-- is the symbol expressing our sharing the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ , a memorial of his suffering and death, and a prophecy of His second coming, and is enjoined on all believers "till He come!"
Every church in Christianity, has some teaching and place for these two commands of Jesus.
We read in our texts two of the commands of Jesus. First, He commanded His followers to go, make disciples and baptize people.
Second, He commanded them to take the bread and the cup in remembrance of Him.
Why did Jesus take time to institute these two ordinances in the church?
I find it interesting that it does not matter what church we go to:
from Roman Catholic, Easter Orthodox, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, or denominational
Every church in Christianity has some sort of teaching on the role of water baptism and communion.
What we must do is place these two ordinances in their proper place. If we are not careful, we can view these solely as religious duties that we fulfill.
Other view them as a right of passage, taking a first communion or being sprinkled or baptized into a church.
My aim this morning is to show WHY these two events in the body of Christ are relevant, important, and extremely powerful when we place them in proper perspective.
Jesus gave these two ordinances as a gift to help us remember the past, the present, and the future.
Every time we either see someone baptized or we receive communion, something should stir in our hearts as we celebrate what the Lord has done, is doing, and will do for us!
We should stand back and say, I STILL REMEMBER WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR ME.
Let’s unpack these two ordinances with two points, [Remember our Faith in Christ] and [Remember our Fellowship with Christ].
Let’s begin
1. Remember our Faith in Christ
1. Remember our Faith in Christ
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
I like reading what the Apostle Paul has to say about baptism. One reason is that Paul was not present at Jesus’s baptism. He was also not there when Jesus commanded the church to go and make disciples and baptize people.
But, he was baptized.
18 Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized.
As he wrote to the church in Rome, he addresses the importance of faith in Christ, specifically in regards to how we should deal with and handle sin.
Many thought, it is okay to sin because the more we sin the more we can testify of God’s grace.
Paul shut down that flawed thinking.
Then he makes a bold assertion— Since WE HAVE DIED TO SIN, how then can we continue to live in sins?
When did we die to sin?
The moment we accept Christ as our Savior, we have died to sin and are born again.
Very few of us have a picture of the moment we repented of our sins and accepted Christ as our Savior. But we do have an ordinance that tells the story.
Through water baptism, we remember the past.
We remember Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection.
His body took on our sins and He died on the cross. Then He was buried in a tomb. After three days He came up from the tomb, alive and victorious over death, hell, and the grave.
Therefore, when we enter the waters of baptism, we stand there, the a person who has died to sin. But the moment that we go DOWN into the water, we symbolically are buried WITH Christ.
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
When we come up from the water, we symbolically show that are raised to new life.
But remember, baptism is more than a symbolic gesture. It is a testimony of the the past, present, and future.
So when someone is baptized, we remember Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection. Likewise, we remember how salvation brought about our death, burial, and resurrection.
But we also remember our present.
Now that we have died to sin we WALK in the newness of life in Christ.
Here is where we must be careful about baptism. Many people have been baptized, but they do not walk with Christ.
I have spoken to many people who were not living for the Lord. If I ask them about their personal relationship with Jesus, they will often answer, “I have been baptized.” Or, are you a follower of Christ, “I have been baptized.”
Baptism symbolizes the death to the old person, but it is also important that we view baptism as a NEW BEGINNING, a new way of living.
I head a song that explains this principle:
Verse 1:
If it wasn't for the Lord, where would I be?
My life was nothing until He set me free.
What a change He made in my life,
no more compromising the wrong for the right.
(He made the difference),
(He made the difference in my life).
Chorus:
I don't walk like I used to walk,
He made the difference.
I don't talk like I used to talk,
He made the difference.
I don't live like I used to live,
He made the difference.
I don't give like I used to give,
He made the difference.
He made the difference, He made the difference in my life
At baptism we remember the past, our death to sin, the present, walking in new life. But also the future.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
One day, we will rise from this earth and be like. We will be rasied to life as He was.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Baptism paints the picture of past, present, and future:
His death was our death
His burial was our burial
His resurrection is our resurrection
We should NEVER treat water baptism as a religious duty. Whenever I see someone get baptized, the Spirit stirs my heart and reminds me of my faith in Christ.
Everything changes the MOMENT that we place our faith in Christ.
If baptism reminds us of our faith in Christ, then communion helps us...
2. Remember our Fellowship with Christ
2. Remember our Fellowship with Christ
20 Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.
21 For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk.
22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.
As with water baptism, if we are not careful, receiving communion came become a ritual, void of its significance and power. Whenever we take the bread or drink the cup, the presence of Jesus is there.
We do ourselves a disservice if we rush past the holy moment and check the box on fulfilling another religious duty. This was one of the problems Paul had to address in the Church in Corinth.
In Corinth, every one brought their own food and drink for the Lord’s Supper. The problem was, the Corinthian church had very wealthy members and very impoverished members.
The wealth members brought the finest bread, the finest food, and the finest drink.
The poor members brought what they could, but it was not good at all.
Instead of the wealthy sharing with the poor, they used their food and drink as a symbol of their superiority.
Imagine the wealthy their bread and drink in gold cups while the poor used styrofoam. People would notice the difference.
Paul told them to refocus on the reason for communion— to remember their fellowship with Christ.
They can remember the past, present, and future.
Past— a life without Christ
Present— a life in Christ’s presence
Future— a life with Christ at His coming
Paul explains it this way:
23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
He wants them REMEMBER when Jesus was betrayed and how He took the bread and told them, this is my body which is given for you.
What did He mean?
When Jesus broke the bread, He looked to a time when His body would face the brokenness of death on the cross.
Jesus was beaten and broken for us. We deserved death, but He gave us life. Now we have fellowship with Christ because of what He did for us.
25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
Just as He referenced His body, He also spoke of His blood. From the moment humanity disobeyed God, sin entered the world. After that, God has used the blood of animals to cover people’s sins.
He started that with Adam and Eve, but killing an animal to make clothing for them to cover the shame of their nakedness.
He instructed Moses what type of animals were needed to cover various sins.
Now, Jesus came, as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, to shed His blood for us!
No longer are we under the old covenant, which made requirements no human could possibly keep. We are a new covenant of grace and we enter through the blood of Jesus.
Whenever we receive communion we remember what Jesus did, but we also remember what Jesus does.
His broken body heals our body.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
His shed blood forgives our sins
14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
But is not just about the past and the present, there is a future element to communion:
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
Every time we receive communion we remember the promise Jesus made to return to us! He will come again and we will fellowship with Him for eternity!
Close:
Past, present, and future. The ordinances of the church give us proper perspective on each of these parts of our lives.
At baptism we remember:
Our past life of sin
Our ability to walk in new life in Christ
Our hope of the resurrection
Through communion we remember:
What Jesus did for us on the cross
How Jesus forgives and heals us now
When Jesus will return and spend eternity with us
I love the genius of God. He gave us two events that help us REMEMBER!
We must stay vigilant to ensure that these ordinances NEVER become a ritual in our lives.
Today, when we have our baptismal service, we will celebrate with those getting baptized, but we will ALSO thank that Lord that we are saved.
We will recommit ourselves to live DEAD to sin and alive in Christ.
We will ask God to help us live out this new life in Christ
We will celebrate for He will return and we will rise and be like Him
And now, we will prepare our hearts to receive communion. But as we do this, I feel it is of utmost importance that we focus on the importance of this moment.
I thoroughly believe that Jesus is PRESENT when we do THIS in REMEMBRANCE of Him.
So we WILL remember what HE did
But I also want to remember He still works for us
He will forgive us and heal us
Then we will rejoice that one day soon we will spend eternity with Him
I still remember what Jesus has done
I still remember that Jesus still does great things
I still remember His promises to for our future
27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.