WEBVTT 00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:03.680 Hello, welcome to session eight of our Foundation's class. 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:08.800 This session we'll be looking at water baptism and the Lord's Supper. 00:00:09.119 --> 00:00:16.559 And when we participate in these events in the life of our church, we follow the Lord and remember his death. 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:27.199 Matthew 28, 18 through 20 tells us in these words, Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:43.039 Go therefore to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 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. 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:43.759 Amen. 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:47.920 And so he is saying in those verses that this is a command. 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:53.600 He has commanded these uh activities or these uh sacraments in the life of the church. 00:00:53.840 --> 00:01:09.760 So water baptism and the Lord's Supper are called sacraments, or we we have heard the term maybe ordinances, but that those words simply mean that uh Christ established them and he or he authorized them to be an ongoing practice in the life of the church. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.799 So let's start with uh water baptism and uh consider it for a few moments. 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:20.319 When we decide to follow Christ, uh we're baptized according to Jesus' command. 00:01:20.560 --> 00:01:28.560 So this is one of the first steps of being a disciple, uh, the basic step of being obedient to what Christ has asked us to do. 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:45.040 And as an example, if we look in Acts chapter 16, uh there we find a story of Paul and Silas who were in prison, and after a great earthquake, Paul has an opportunity to share the truth about Jesus with the uh the jailer of that prison. 00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:56.719 So we see in those uh verses uh that says the jailer called for lights and rushed in after this earthquake, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. 00:01:56.879 --> 00:02:01.200 Then he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must by must I do to be saved? 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:06.719 And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. 00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:18.080 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and all who were in his house, and he took them that same hour of the night and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once. 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:21.120 And so you have these two parts in those verses. 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:27.520 Uh the first one is believing in the Lord Jesus, and then after that uh being baptized. 00:02:27.759 --> 00:02:30.639 So baptism again is an act of obedience. 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:38.719 Uh in those verses, circle the words I have commanded you, there uh in Matthew 2820 on your notes. 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:42.240 And what does this practice of baptism really mean? 00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:51.280 Because we've mu probably all seen, if we've been in church, we've seen uh people being baptized, and we might not have understood uh exactly what it what it means. 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:53.120 Why did Jesus tell us to do this? 00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:58.479 Well, baptism means that I have simply been united with Christ. 00:02:58.879 --> 00:03:22.159 Uh Romans six, three through four says, or do you not know that as many of us as has as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death, therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:34.080 So what the scripture there is saying is that as as we have been baptized into Christ at our salvation, uh, so we are baptized into and his death, it means that I have been united with Christ. 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:48.639 When I uh become I'm born again, I've come to know Christ, I am united with Christ at that moment, so that his death for the penalty of my sin became, in a sense, my my death and a spirit in a spiritual sense. 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:57.840 I've received forgiveness, and the penalty of uh my sin has been paid for, so that his life uh actually becomes my life. 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:01.039 I live through Jesus, Jesus lives through me. 00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:03.759 And so we say, Well, how can something like that happen? 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:09.120 Well, and the Bible says simply by faith, we believe when he died, we died. 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:20.639 When he rose again, we rose again with him to live a new life, because we're so closely in union with him, we're so closely connected in fellowship to him that his very life becomes our life. 00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:27.439 So the scriptures simply say it like this because of God you are in Christ, 1 Corinthians 1 30. 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:33.439 So because of our union with Christ, we're not the same person we were before salvation. 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:40.800 Uh that old self, that old man uh in Christ is uh now uh died. 00:04:40.959 --> 00:04:45.279 He's he's he's been buried, and that's the picture we have in bapt in baptism. 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:51.600 Physical death is no longer uh the horrible thing it would have been had Christ not died for us. 00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:57.759 So he died in our place, and so we can identify with him in his death because he took our place. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:00.480 O death, Paul says, Where is your victory? 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:02.879 O death, where is your staying? 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:10.959 So baptism is an outward expression that symbolizes what happened inwardly when we were born again. 00:05:11.279 --> 00:05:20.399 Baptism, I mean make this point really clear because baptism doesn't produce the new birth, it is the expression of the new birth that has already occurred. 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:24.560 So we don't but we don't get baptized to get saved. 00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:33.279 We are already saved as a result of Christ coming into our life, and then we're baptized to show what Christ has done. 00:05:33.519 --> 00:05:39.120 So we we might compare it with an analogy maybe of uh if you think about a wedding ring. 00:05:39.279 --> 00:05:46.480 The ring doesn't uh make you married, it just symbolizes the fact that you are married, and the same is true with baptism. 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:53.360 Um since baptism is an expression of our faith, it is for believers only. 00:05:53.759 --> 00:06:03.360 As we read this in Acts 836 through eight, it kind of supports this idea, and it says, uh and the eunuch said, See, here is water, what hinders me from being baptized? 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:07.199 And then Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may. 00:06:07.439 --> 00:06:12.160 And he answered and said, I believe that that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:19.680 So he commanded the chariot to stand still, and both Philip and and he went down into the water and he baptized him. 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:34.240 So it's important to understand that although baptism is symbolic, it does picture what Jesus has done for us in being put under the in the gr into the ground and then resurrected. 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:42.079 We are picturing that through baptism, water baptism, by going under the water and then coming up out of the water. 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:45.360 And so it is it is but it's more than just a symbol. 00:06:45.519 --> 00:06:59.120 Uh at the very outset of our Christian journey, before we we understand the doctrinal issues regarding what has happened to us, Christ asks from us an act of faith or an act of obedience by faith. 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:08.639 So our obedience then becomes uh a means of grace through which we experience more of the blessedness of God in our life. 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:19.600 So uh God some some uh through through his uh grace toward us, when we obey him, he uh he actually I think blesses us and shows us more of himself. 00:07:19.839 --> 00:07:23.279 So John 323 is another verse that we might look at. 00:07:23.519 --> 00:07:33.040 Now John it says was also he was baptizing in Anon near Selim because there was much water there and they came and were baptized. 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:40.000 This kind of gives us an idea what baptism uh really is about and it pictures it more fully. 00:07:40.319 --> 00:07:44.399 The word baptism in Greek means to dip or immerse. 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:48.079 So you're basically putting someone all the way under the water. 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:48.560 Why? 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:51.360 Because it symbolizes being buried. 00:07:51.519 --> 00:08:00.160 Uh notice the phrase there was much water there, which implies uh that they needed a lot of water to properly baptize, to immerse people. 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:12.720 And so without immersion, the picture of baptism uh loses a lot of its powerful imagery, that that imagery of being buried and then resurrected, coming up out of death. 00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:23.519 And so uh in uh at Trinity, uh you may have been baptized by sprinkling, uh and a lot of denominations uh baptized that way by strength sprinkling. 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:25.759 Uh I don't think it's a legalistic thing. 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:41.679 If you want to get baptized again because you were uh you were sprinkled and you didn't really understand what what really all this was about, uh we we encourage you if if you feel like God's leading you to do that, we we would love to baptize you in the way that Scripture kind of talks about. 00:08:41.840 --> 00:08:48.159 Uh the act of baptism being, again, that picture of burial and a rising from the dead. 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:52.480 This is the biblical model of baptism uh by immersion. 00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:54.320 So that's baptism. 00:08:54.480 --> 00:09:04.080 Let's also talk about another ordinance or uh or sacrament that the church practices and it is for following Christ, and that's the Lord's Supper. 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:08.399 Uh 1 Corinthians 11, 23 through 26 says this. 00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:26.159 He says, For I receive, and this is Paul talking, I receive 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, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:28.240 Do this in remembrance of me. 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:35.200 In the same manner he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:38.799 This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:44.240 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. 00:09:44.320 --> 00:10:00.000 And so we have the basis there for the Lord's Supper, which Jesus uh instituted on the very night before he was crucified at the Lord's Supper, which which uh really was a replacement for the n for the believers as a replacement for the Passover. 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:05.440 It followed up on that and uh showed the new covenant through bath through uh through the Lord's Supper. 00:10:05.759 --> 00:10:21.519 So Jesus' words, this is my body, in those words, uh, doesn't mean his physical body, which is somehow in the bread or his blood somehow in the cup, they're again symbolic. 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:24.320 They represent his death and resurrection. 00:10:24.639 --> 00:10:37.440 So just as baptism outwardly testifies of an inner experience of salvation, our participation in the Lord's Supper is a confession of our faith in the work of Christ. 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:43.360 So there are denominations who believe that it actually becomes the body and blood of Christ. 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:44.720 We don't teach that. 00:10:44.879 --> 00:10:51.600 We believe it does symbolically communicate what Jesus' body and blood represents. 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:57.279 John 6.35 says this, and Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:02.320 He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. 00:11:02.559 --> 00:11:05.360 Now we wouldn't say Jesus is literally bread. 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:15.039 We would kind of get the idea that Jesus is giving an analogy that like bread we feed on him. 00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:16.720 He is our nourishment. 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:18.399 And so this is the same way. 00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:34.000 When he says, This is my body, it means as you eat this bread or drink this cup, allow this remembrance of who I am and what I've done for you, awaken in you and bring you to a deeper relationship with me. 00:11:34.159 --> 00:11:37.279 That's the idea, and I think this is what the scripture teaches here. 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:49.840 Uh the Lord's Supper should never be an empty ritual, and so it could easily uh fall into that because we are told to do it as often as you uh eat it, drink. 00:11:50.080 --> 00:11:54.480 A lot of a lot of churches will practice the Lord's Supper every week. 00:11:54.879 --> 00:11:56.720 We try to do that about once a month. 00:11:56.879 --> 00:12:05.519 And uh the Lord's Supper uh should never, though, fall into this empty ritual where it just becomes a habit and we don't think too much about it. 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:07.600 It's just something we do that's religious. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:12.639 But it was instituted by Christ to feed us spiritually. 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:21.840 He is the bread of heaven, and as we partake of him, we are nourished and satisfied in him, and uh it is really a covenant meal. 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:26.320 Uh it is a meal that signifies covenant love. 00:12:26.480 --> 00:12:31.360 The early church called it even uh the love feast, because it was a fellowship meal. 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:38.559 And so when we do take the Lord's Supper, we should do so with seriousness and recognizing uh what we're doing. 00:12:38.720 --> 00:12:53.039 First Corinthians seven eleven twenty-seven and twenty eight uh says this it says, Therefore, who eat 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. 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:58.559 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:06.639 So every time we we uh share in the Lord's Supper together, we pause and uh ask God to examine our life. 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:24.480 And uh what Paul is doing specifically in these verses in this chapter, he is rebuking the Christian Corinthian church for their selfish and inconsiderate uh conduct when they when they come to church, because they were ignoring one another in the needs of the church. 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:36.000 And Paul is basically saying you need to recognize the rest of the church body, the rest of the members, and not be inconsiderate when you come to take come to take the Lord's Supper. 00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:45.360 Because uh in that that period of time it was a whole meal, and some people were being left out and not uh served and and served the food. 00:13:45.600 --> 00:13:57.360 So his comments are pertained to the drinking of the cup and eating of the bread in this unworthy way, without thinking of anybody else but ourselves, and they're directly related to their behavior. 00:13:57.519 --> 00:14:04.000 So uh we need to think about the rest of the the church body and what Christ has paid for by his uh body and his blood. 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:13.360 So the implication for them as well as us before we partake of the Lord's Supper is that we need to examine our relationships with others in the church. 00:14:13.519 --> 00:14:18.480 And so these are some basic things that are uh they're speaking about the Lord's Supper. 00:14:18.799 --> 00:14:40.639 Uh you know, every time we take it, it is a special time in the life of the church, and every time we see someone baptized, it's a really fun experience because we celebrate with uh the person who has just received Jesus, and they're basically telling us what is what Christ has done in them, and they are dying to their old life and living uh rising to live a new life. 00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:51.840 So both of these uh sacraments, both of these ordinance are uh very special in the life of the church, and they really do encourage uh the Christian who is participating in them. 00:14:52.080 --> 00:15:07.919 So let me just pray for us as we intercession and ask God to just uh give more insight into these uh ordinances and uh just encourage you uh just to consider how God has made through Christ this special connection to Him by His grace. 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:33.120 So, Father, we're so grateful for these two ordinances that you have put in place, these practices in the life of the church that remind us of who you are, that we actually proclaim your death till you come as we uh as we participate in uh in one of the the things that we ru want to focus on, which is that you loved us so much and you died for us, and your great love shows us that. 00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:44.000 We pray that these two things, as we consider them, will just become deeper for us and uh we would understand them better and better as we participate with in them in the life of the church. 00:15:44.159 --> 00:15:45.600 And we just give you thanks for that. 00:15:45.759 --> 00:15:47.759 In Jesus' name, Amen.