Baptism
and communion!
Why we do
what we do!!
Baptism!
Jesus gave us our orders!!
Matthew
28:18–20 (NIV)
18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20and teaching
them to obey everything I have commanded
you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
·
Jesus tells us
to! That’s why!!
·
But why are
church in America only worried about the one thing in this verse??
·
What about
disciples??
·
What about the
teaching!!
·
Why do we pick
and chose what we want to do?
·
We need to
baptize and make disciple and teach and mentor new Christians about what god
commands
Why we baptize the way we do??
·
The Catholics
do it when you’re a baby with a drop or two of water!
·
Some sprinkle
water, some splash ya!
·
So why do we go
to the trouble of filling that old horse tank and dunk ya in that cold water??
Matthew 3:5–17
(NIV)
5People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea
and the whole region of the Jordan.
6Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was
baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from
the coming wrath?
8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.
9And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our
father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for
Abraham.
10The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not
produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
11“I baptize
you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful
than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor,
gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable
fire.”
13Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.
14But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be
baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill
all righteousness.” Then John
consented.
16As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and
he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.
17And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom
I love; with him I am well pleased.”
·
We dunk you
because that is the way Jesus did it
·
It represents
the death, burial and resurrection of our savior who conquered Satan, sin and
death!!
Communion
Know it get confusing!!
The Lord’s Supper is not
as cut and dry, in every other instance in the bible for a ceremony there are
specific instructions as to when, where and how. Not so much for the Lord’s
Supper!
Feast of Passover (Erev Pesah or Ta'anit Bechorim)
The 14th day of the 1st
month
The Day of First Fruits (The Omer)
The 16th day of the 1st
month
5. Trumpets (Rosh Ha-shanah)
The 1st day of the 7th
month
6. Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)
The 10th day of the 7th
month
7. Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth) - An eight day
feast of ingathering.
The first day was the
15th day of the 7th month
So as you can see God
was very specific about when his feast and festivals were to occur, so why did
God leave the Lords Supper so vague???
·
So
we could screw it up??
·
Because
he forgot??
I don’t think so! I think it has a simpler answer
than we think it does!
·
But again we
have over complicated it and we see it in the bible
1 Corinthians
11:17–22 (NIV)
17In the following directives I have no praise for
you, for your meetings do more harm than good.
18In the first place, I hear that when you come
together as a church, there are
divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it.
19No doubt there have to be differences among you to
show which of you have God’s approval.
20So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat,
21for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with
your own private suppers. As a
result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk.
22Don’t you have homes
to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I
say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!
·
The
only time there was a problem with the Lords Supper was when they come together
corporately
·
Go
figure, like a family reunion, some is getting fat, some get nothing, and
someone is always getting twisted off!!
·
I
don’t think Jesus designed it this way
·
I
don’t think this what he had in mind
So when was it right??
Acts 2:42–47
(NLT)
42All the believers devoted themselves to the
apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and
to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.
43A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the
apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders.
44And all the believers met together in one place and
shared everything they had.
45They sold their property and possessions and shared
the money with those in need.
46They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and
shared their meals with great joy and generosity—
47all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord
added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
Luke 22:14–20
(NLT)
14When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down
together at the table.
15Jesus said, “I have been
very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins.
16For I tell you now that I won’t eat this
meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”
17Then he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God
for it. Then he said, “Take this and share it among
yourselves.
18For I will not drink wine again until the
Kingdom of God has come.”
19He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it.
Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember
me.”
20After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an
agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.
Matthew Henry:
The Lord’s supper is
instituted to be a memorial of Jesus Christ, that has by dying delivered us; and it is his death that is in a special
manner set before us in that ordinance.
1.
The breaking
of Christ’s body as a sacrifice for
us is here
commemorated by the breaking of bread This
bread that was given for us is to be food for our souls, for nothing can be
more nourishing and satisfying to our souls than the
doctrine of Christ’s making atonement for sin, and the assurance of our
interest in that atonement; this bread that was broken and given for us,
to satisfy for the guilt of our sins, is broken
and given to us, to satisfy the
desire of our souls.
2.
And this we do in remembrance of what he did for us, when he died for us, by doing this we are joining
ourselves to him in an everlasting covenant.
3.
The shedding
of Christ’s blood, by which the atonement was made, as
represented by the wine in the cup; and that cup of wine is a sign and token of
the New Testament, or new covenant, made with us. It commemorates the purchase of the covenant by the blood of Christ,
and confirms the promises of the
covenant. This will be reviving and refreshing to our souls, as wine that makes glad the heart. In all our
commemorations of the shedding of Christ’s blood, we must have an eye to it as
shed for us; we needed it, we take hold of it, we hope to have benefit by it; who loved me, and gave himself for me.
And in all our regards to the New Testament we must have an eye to the blood of Christ, which gave life and
being to it, and seals to us all the promises of it. Had it not been for the
blood of Christ, we had never had the New Testament; and, had it not been for
the New Testament, we had never know the meaning of Christ’s blood shed.
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