Ordinances of the Church
Why we Believe what we Believe
(The Baptist Faith and Message)
(Message 7)
Introduction: There is a story about a young pastor in
the northern part of our country who was called to serve his first church as
Senior Pastor. After several months there he noticed that every time he
administered the Lord’s Supper, there were people who were noticeably upset
with him. Not willing to let the problem fester he approached one of the
members he knew would be honest with him and asked him what was wrong. The
older member proceeded to tell him that he and some of his friends were upset
with him because he was not administering the Lord’s Supper in the right
manner. The problem was that the former pastor, who had been there for several
decades, would usually go over to the side of the church and move his hands
over it in a ceremonial fashion before administering the Lord’s Supper. The
young pastor had failed to do this and thus had not been faithful to administer
the ordinance in the right way. This was somewhat puzzling to the younger
pastor so he called his retired predecessor to find out what he had done and
why he had done it. Seems the weather was often cold in that part of the
country and the pastor, not wanting to drop any of the plates or cups would go
to the heat radiator before the Lord’s Supper to make sure his hands were
warmed up before the service. But because he had never told anyone why he was
doing what he was doing, many of the people in the church had attached some
spiritual significance to his warming his hands.
As is so often the case, when things are
done in the church over and over and over again, and there is no ongoing
explanation for why they are done, people often assign their own meanings to
these activities and this leads to all manner of problems.
It is to that end we will address two of the
most important things we do here at
As we will see, these are two of the most
important things Jesus has commanded us to do. They are not merely ceremonies
we are to execute; they are holy ordinances, rich in spiritual significance and
are directly tied to our walk with God, at the deepest level.
Article 7 of The Baptist Faith and Message,
says: “Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing
the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried and risen Savior, the believer’s
death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in
newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final
resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is a prerequisite to the
privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.
“The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of
obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of bread and the
fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His
second coming.”
We find our scriptural mandate for these
ordinances in Matthew 28:19, which we also know as the great commission. Jesus
tells us, "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,”
And in Matthew 26:26-28 Jesus institutes the
Lord’s Supper. It says “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and
broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat;
this is My body." 27 Then He took the
cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it,
all of you. 28 "For this is My blood
of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”
Additionally we find teachings about both of
these ordinances throughout the rest of the New Testament.
From the outset it is important to note why
we call these ordinances and not sacraments. The word sacrament comes from the
Latin word, “sacramentum,” which described the oath
of loyalty a Roman legionnaire would swear to his commanding officer, and in
the sense that we observe baptism and the Lord’s Supper in allegiance to our
Master, Jesus, we could call these events sacraments. But over the years the
word has taken on a different meaning. According to the teachings of the Roman
Catholic Church, a sacrament is something which, by its very nature, is a means
whereby the grace of God is conveyed. In other words, they teach that when one
is baptized or takes communion, by that act itself their sins are forgiven.
As Baptists, we believe that grace comes by
faith alone and is given as a free gift by God. God’s grace is not ours to
control, to give out or to deny to someone else. Thus we refer to Baptism and
the Lord’s Supper as ordinances. An ordinance is a command which our Lord has
directed us to obey. It is symbolic in its nature and carries with it all of
the blessings which normally accompany obedience.
As we consider these two ordinances this
morning I want us to look first at what they are and how they are to be
observed, and then I want us to reflect on what they have to say about our
daily Christian walk.
Let’s begin by taking a look at Baptism.
I. The Ordinance of Baptism –
When I explain baptism to those who come to
me and wish to be baptized, I like to explain it in three ways, each of them
speak to a different aspect or element of this ordinance.
1) First of all baptism is a personal
step of obedience. If someone is truly a disciple of Jesus Christ, if in fact
they have chosen to surrender control of their life to Him, then the natural
thing which should follow is obedience. In the Great Commission, after
commanding His disciples to baptize He directs them to teach the new disciples
to observe or obey all that He has commanded. Baptism is the first step of
obedience in a lifelong journey with Jesus Christ.
Many Christians fail to get off to a good
start in their Christian walk because they have not been obedient to follow the
Lord in this area of Baptism. Baptism is a step of obedience. The idea of it
being a step of obedience is why we feel so strongly that people must be
baptized if they are to become members of our church. We only want church
members who are obedient followers of Jesus.
When we talk about baptism, as Baptists, we
are talking about believer’s baptism. Only believers, or disciples of Jesus,
are called to obey Him. We hold that scripture teaches us only to baptize those
people who have come to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
Some denominations practice infant baptism,
also known as pedo-baptism. But since babies
have not come to a personal faith in Christ, baptism is not for them. Again,
those churches which baptize babies teach either that by baptizing the baby
they are washing away its original sins or that they are initiating the child
into the community of faith, thus enabling it to get into heaven should it
somehow die before making a decision for Christ on its own.
As Baptists we don’t hold to infant baptism
because we cannot find anywhere in scripture where it was practiced or
prescribed. To the contrary we find that baptism is reserved for those who have
made a conscious decision to allow Jesus Christ to be the Lord of their lives.
Furthermore, we don’t believe baptism has
anything to do with your salvation; it is merely a step of obedience for those
who have already been saved.
There are some who believe what is called “baptismal
regeneration,” that is, they hold to a belief that the act of baptism somehow
works hand in hand with our faith and is a necessary step to complete our
salvation. But scripture teaches in Ephesians 2:8-9 that we are saved by grace
through faith, and that it is a gift of God, not of works, so no one can boast
about having helped in their own salvation. Baptism does not save us; to the
contrary, it is an act of obedience on the part of those who are already saved.
Thus believer’s baptism is something which
is reserved for believers. Secondly,
2) Baptism is a public statement of
faith, that is, baptism is a public way of giving testimony to the fact that
you have chosen to follow Jesus Christ. While actions do speak louder than
words, truthful words are always followed up with faithful actions. If a person
is truly a follower of Jesus Christ they will not be ashamed of Him or of
identifying with Him and His body, the Church. Baptism is a public statement of
our faith in Christ.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:32-33, “Therefore whoever
confesses Me before men, him I will also confess
before My Father who is in heaven. 33 "But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is
in heaven.”
Many people in our country are afraid to
stand before the church and be baptized because they are shy or uncomfortable
in front of people. For Christians in many parts of the world the stakes are
much higher. Publicly professing Jesus in some countries can cost a person
their home, their job or even their life. As American Christians we should keep
this in mind when we find ourselves squeamish about taking a public stand for
Jesus.
I like to remind people that Jesus was
put to public shame and humiliation on the cross, His asking us to take a
public stand for Him in the baptismal waters is a small thing by comparison.
3) Finally, baptism is a perfect symbol
of death, burial and resurrection. It symbolizes our death to our self, our
burial or immersion in Christ, and our resurrection to walk in a new way of
life. That’s one of the reasons that baptism by immersion makes so much sense,
it symbolizes the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord.
Furthermore, the Greek word from which we
get our word Baptize, the word, baptizo, literally
means “to immerse.” And being people of the book we believe this to be the
proper method or mode of baptism.
Romans 6:4 says that, “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.”
That’s what Baptism is; it is a personal
step of obedience, a public statement of faith, and a perfect symbol of death,
burial and resurrection.
Now let’s turn our attention to the Lord’s
Supper, or Communion for a moment.
II. The Ordinance of the Lord’s Supper
-
In many Christian circles these days, the
Lord’s Supper has lost some of its significance. I recall going to a church
last year of a different denomination where it was their tradition to take the
Lord’s Supper each and every week. At the end of the service, right before the
announcements, they passed out the cup and the bread simultaneously and within
a couple of minutes it was over and done with. It seemed to have become just
another tradition they went through every week, like shaking hands or having a
donut in Sunday School. But that’s not what it is
intended to be.
But from a biblical point of view Lord’s
Supper has deep theological and spiritual meaning. In Luke 22:19 Jesus tells
His disciples that they are to observe this ordinance in remembrance of Him.
Thus the overarching truth is that it is a time to remember what Jesus did for
us, as 1 Corinthians 11 tells us that whenever we take it we proclaim the death
and return of our Lord.
By reading our Lord’s word we are told
of at least three things the Lord’s Supper memorializes or calls to our
remembrance.
First the bread is symbolic of the broken
body of our Lord. Like the Passover lamb, Jesus, the Lamb of God, laid down His
life as a sacrifice for sin. His body was broken, His hands and His feet, His
side and His brow were pierced for us. Each time we take the bread in the
Lord’s Supper we are reminded of the theological truth of substitutionary
atonement, Jesus gave His life for us. He laid His life down on the cross to
pay the price for our sins. He died in our place. His body was broken so our
broken souls could be healed.
As Isaiah 53:5 says, “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.”
Secondly, the cup is symbolic of the blood
of the covenant. You may remember back in Exodus 24 when Moses ratified the
covenant God made with Israel, he took the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkled
half of it on the alter and the other half he sprinkled on the people. It was
with the blood of the sacrifice that the covenant was ratified or sealed
between God and His people.
A covenant is the same thing as a
Testament. The Old Testament, or old covenant, was one which was based on the
blood of sheep and oxen whereby the High Priest would have to go to the temple
once each year and make atonement for the sins of the people. But when Jesus
died, He fulfilled the law and instituted a New Covenant, or New Testament, one
which was ratified or established on the strength of His shed blood. This is
why the Bible says in Hebrews 10 that it was impossible for the blood of bulls
and goats to take away sin, but Jesus, it says, took away the first covenant
and established the second, so that “by this we will have been sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all.”
His blood, shed on the cross, was poured out
for the forgiveness of sins. With His blood He became the sacrifice for our
sins, a sacrifice which was acceptable to God. When we take the cup we are
remembering His shed blood, we are reflecting on the sacrifice He made for us
and are being reminded of the covenant between us and God, a covenant sealed
with the blood of His only begotten Son. And being reminded of that covenant
should have a sobering effect on our lives.
But there is a third thing which this calls
us to remember, and that is that He is coming again to take us home. In 1
Corinthians 11:26 the scripture says, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this
cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.”
The Lord’s Supper reminds us not only that
Jesus died for us, but that He will come again for us some day. It calls us to
live each day in light of that final day.
But both of these ordinances, Baptism and
the Lord’s Supper are much more than symbolic. Both of them call us to specific
action, not only in terms of going through the actions of observing them, but
to being the people these ordinances signify we are: They call us to concrete
action. Each of these ordinances is like the tip of an iceberg, with the lion’s
share of significance lying just beneath the surface.
And that’s the final thing I want you to
consider this morning, to what kind of action these ordinances call us to.
III. Called to a Different Way of Life
–
There are at least five things these
ordinances call us to do.…..
1. The Lord’s Supper calls us to Reflect
– The ordinance of Baptism
calls us to reflect on whether or not we are truly disciples of Jesus Christ.
You see Baptism calls us to give an external
testimony to the internal realty that we have come to faith in Jesus Christ and
all that that entails. By going into the water we are testifying that Jesus has
come to be Lord or Master of our lives. We are giving public witness to the
reality that we have been changed. Things are not like they used to be. We are
not merely joining a religious organization; we are not simply saying that we
agree with the doctrines of a specific church or that we will lend our physical
and financial support to a particular church. When we enter the baptismal
waters we are publicly stating that we have repented of our sins; we have
turned from our old way of life and have begun to live a different way. We are
testifying to the truth that God has changed our hearts, where there used to be
the works of the flesh, now there is the sweet fruit of the Spirit. Where we
used to be driven by the same things which drive the world;
In Galatians 5:19, scripture says, “Now the works of the
flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,”
Behind the act of baptism is the reality of
a changed life. You can get baptized every week from now till Jesus comes back,
but if you don’t have a changed life you’ve just gone swimming. True believer’s
baptism is only valid if it gives testimony to an authentic change.
And if Baptism calls us to identify with the
body of Christ, the Lord’s Supper calls us to be in right fellowship as members
of the body of Christ.
2. The Lord’s Supper calls us to
Remember – To remember what
it is Jesus did for us and why it was necessary for Him to die for us.
1 Peter 1:18-19 says, “knowing that you were
not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your
aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot.”
Each time we take the cup and the bread we
are to remember whose we are and the price He paid to redeem or buy us back
from the penalty of our sin. It should call us back to the cross.
The old Hymn writer put it this way, “I saw
the cross of Jesus, when burdened with my sin; I sought the cross of Jesus, to
give me peace within; I brought my soul to Jesus, He cleansed it in His blood;
and in the cross of Jesus I found my peace with God.”
The bread and the cup call us to remember.
But not only are we to remember, we are to realize.
3. The Lord’s Supper calls us to
Repentance –
When we take the cup and bread and we
remember all that Jesus has done for us and allow His Spirit to show us the
things in our life which are inconsistent with our profession, we should
repent. That is, we should stop doing what is displeasing to God and begin to
do what is pleasing in His sight.
This was why God had judged some of the
believers at
1 Corinthians 11:27-31 says, “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. 31
For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.”
The Lord’s Supper calls us to repent of the
attitudes of our hearts and the actions of our hands which are displeasing to
God.
There is a fourth thing these ordinances
call us to.
4. The Lord’s Supper calls us to
Reconcile -
This was the big problem at the church at
It’s passages like this which shed light on
how seriously we are to take God’s word and how serious God is about our hearts
being right with Him above all else.
One of the great problems in the lives of
many Christians today is that they have somehow become so desensitized to the
Holy Spirit of God that they can go through the motions of church, week after
week, they can take the Lord’s Supper time after time, and never come to terms
with the truth that their relationship with God is always and ever connected to
their relationship with one another. That’s why we call it communion, it is a
time when we examine and rectify our communion with God and with one another.
That’s why we must use the Lord’s Supper as a time to reconcile with one
another. That’s why we are to take it regularly, because it seems we are always
in need of getting right with one another.
Finally, the Lord’s Supper calls us to
recommitment.
5. The Lord’s Supper calls us to
recommitment –
After reflecting on the authenticity of our
walk with God, and after remembering what it is Jesus has done for us,
remembering whose we are and who we are in Jesus, and after having the
opportunity to repent of our sins and reconcile with one another, each time we take
the cup and eat of the bread we are called to recommit ourselves once again to
the Lordship of Jesus Christ and to allow His Spirit to have absolute,
unreserved control of our lives.
Conclusion:
What about you, what is God
saying to you about the condition of your heart? What kind of public witness
are you giving for Jesus? Has He spoken to you about something in your life
which you need to get right? Is there someone with whom you need to reconcile?
Is today the day you need to recommit yourself to the Lordship of Jesus?