Essentials #9: THE ORDINANCES(Romans 6:1-4; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34)| 11/7/2021
Romans 6:1-4; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 | 11/7/21 | Will DuVal
This morning is week 9 of 11 in our series covering the “Essentials” of Christianity, as reflected in our church’s statement of faith. And our topic for the morning is “The Ordinances”. And immediately some of you are wondering, “The Ordinances? What in the world is an “ordinance”? You’re telling me there are only 11 core doctrines in the Christian faith, and I’ve never even HEARD of one of them?” Well, you may have grown up referring to them as the “sacraments”, but that sounded too “Catholic” for some folks in evangelical circles, so we use the term “ordinance” instead.
But indeed, the IDEA of “the ordinances” in Protestant Christianity grew out of the Roman Catholic tradition of recognizing 7 sacraments, or “outward and visible means of an inward and invisible grace”. But 500 years ago, Luther and Calvin and Zwingli and the other Reformers came along and said, “Wait a minute: God’s grace doesn’t come to us through a ritual; it already CAME to us through a PERSON - JESUS! - and moreover: 5 of these 7 so-called “sacraments” weren’t even established or “ordained” by Jesus himself. So the Reformers took the Catholic list of 7, they got rid of Confirmation, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Marriage, and that left them with Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Matthew 28:19 - “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[b] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”
1 Corinthians 11:24-25 ““This is my body… my blood... which is for[f] you. Do this in remembrance of me.””
So an ordinance, then, is “a rite or ritual ordained by Christ for His Church”.
Now, with that definition in place, I need to make a few BIG disclaimers on this topic right up front:
For starters, I’ll just confess that this message was BY FAR the one that I LEAST looked forward to preaching, in this series. For two reasons: #1 - Because it is the core doctrine on which we have the most DISAGREEMENT, as a church, and #2 - because it is probably the doctrine around which I see the most DISOBEDIENCE, in the church. We disagree, as a church, about the nature and practice of BAPTISM, specifically. West Hills is a credo-baptist church (“credo” means “creed or belief”); we baptize upon a believer’s profession of faith here. By contrast, paedo-baptism (“paedo” = prefix meaning “child”) is the baptizing of infants. And we have MANY regulars here at West Hills, last I counted, probably 15-20 people, who agree with every other tenet in our church statement of faith EXCEPT this one: [*quote*] that “Christian baptism is the immersion in water of the one who professes faith in Jesus Christ.” We’ve got a good handful of people - brothers and sisters, active participants in THIS faith community - who do NOT believe that THAT is what baptism IS. We disagree on it.
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And then SECONDLY, we’ve got a whole OTHER category of folks here who DO believe that that’s what baptism is, and yet they have not been baptized! Some of you here this morning agree, biblically, that baptism IS “the immersion in water of the one who professes faith in Jesus”, and you’ve even personally professed faith in Jesus, but you have as of yet REFUSED to obey Jesus’ command to be baptized, as a declaration of your faith in Him.
Disclaimer #2: (And I don’t THINK this one is gonna get me fired, but here it goes…)
I, personally, do not believe that our church’s position on BAPTISM, should be one of our 11 most essential statements of faith.
Now let me be clear: I DO personally believe our church’s position on baptism. That it is “the immersion in water of the one who professes faith in Jesus Christ.” I believe that; I’m a Baptist. And I ALSO believe that baptism is incredibly important, as I will unapologetically preach and CALL you to in this sermon, if you’re not yet baptized.
But I also acknowledge those brothers and sisters here who understand baptism DIFFERENTLY than I do, and that many of you - not ALL of you, now; because SOME of you are really credo-baptists who are just too embarrassed to share your faith story and get wet in front of people, or you’re too scared of offending your paedo-baptist parents, who sprinkled you as an infant; you fear man more than you fear God - there are all sorts of BAD reasons, that SOME of you, have not been baptized.
But I also know that there are some of you who have diligently and prayerfully studied the Scriptures and you are convinced that the Church ought to baptize babies, and that your OWN baptism AS a baby was a true baptism. And while I disagree with your assessment, I do SYMPATHIZE with you. I can sit in my study, as I did this past week in preparing for this message, and listen to John MacArthur make an hour-long case for credo-baptism, and be personally convinced, but then turn around and listen to R.C. Sproul debate him at the very same conference, and make an hour-long case for PAEDO-baptism, and think to myself, “Well, he DOES make some good points…”. Because I’ve read both John Piper AND Tim Keller on it, and here’s the conclusion I’VE come to: they are ALL, INFINITELY smarter and more biblically literate and GODLIER men than I am, and they are ALL trying their best to be faithful to Scripture, and the ONLY thing that I’m completely certain of at the end of the day, is that this is a point on which intelligent, godly, biblical Christians can and DO disagree, and that’s okay with me. To ME, the “essentials” are the things that ALL true Christians - Piper, Keller, MacArthur, Sproul, me, you - the things we ALL agree on.
I’m ALSO completely convinced that we’ve got bigger fish to fry, as a Church, in 21st c America. That there are people literally dying and going to HELL, every day, all around us, and meanwhile we’re too busy debating whether to sprinkle or dunk each other to notice.
And I’ll just tell you: if R.C. Sproul (God rest his soul), or Tim Keller, wanted to join THIS church as a member, and we decided as elders, as we would HAVE to, under our current Constitution, that they had not been properly baptized and therefore could NOT join this church, I’ll tell you this much: it would have to be one of the other elders to have that conversation with them. To explain to RC, to Keller, why they couldn’t become a member of West Hills. Cuz I’m Baptist. But I ain’t THAT Baptist.
And as I’ve already mentioned, I don’t have to posit hypothetical examples; some of you here this morning are in that same boat. And I just want you to hear me say this morning: While I disagree with your understanding of baptism - I do NOT think it’s a covenant sign intended for babies of Christian parents - and yet, it’s also NOT an issue worth separating over, worth dividing the church over, in my opinion. And it honestly breaks my heart, as your pastor, that you cannot be members here at West Hills.
Now, since you haven’t pulled me off stage and sacked me yet, let me go even further:
Not ONLY do I believe that as BAPTISTS, we are often guilty of making too much of baptism, but I think that as Christians in GENERAL, we have made too much of the very IDEA of the “ordinances” in the first place!
My even more BASIC beef with this notion that we’ve elevated, as a church, our statement on “Baptism and the Lord’s Supper” to the status of “Essential Doctrine”, is that I think the identification of those two “ordinances” as such is actually a bit ARBITRARY.
Again, historically-speaking, we ended up with those 2 “ordinances” by process of elimination, from a completely arbitrary list of 7 sacraments made up by the Catholic church.
Please don’t mishear me: Again, I believe that Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are both VITALLY important “rites ordained by Christ for His Church”. So I DO accept them both as indispensable ordinances for the Church. But you know what ELSE Jesus explicitly ORDAINED for His Church?
Repentance and confession - Matt 4:17; and we’ve even ritualized it here at West Hills; we corporately confess sin every Sunday, in obedience to Christ’s command.
And how about “PRAYER”? Jesus COMMANDED it - Matt 5:44; 7:7; 9:38 - and we’ve ritualized prayer too; we pray no less than 3 times per Sunday worship service here.
And speaking of worship, Jesus ordained that too - John 4:24. So we do it together, ritually, every Sunday.
In the very same BREATH that he commanded us to baptize people - Matt 28:19-20, Jesus ordained two OTHER instructions as well: “Make disciples” and “teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
So here’s MY question: why aren’t discipleship, teaching, worship, prayer, confession… and ALL 49 of Jesus’ explicit COMMANDS in the four Gospel accounts - why don’t we equally elevate any of THOSE to the status of “ordinance” in the Church? And I’ve never heard a good answer to that question.
The historical observation about the ordinances’ roots in Catholicism is actually the most generous explanation. The more cynical explanation is that baptism and the Lord’s supper are EASY. It’s pretty easy to get dunked once, and then eat a cracker and drink some juice every week; it actually requires a lot MORE of us to go evangelize, make disciples, love our enemies, forgive those who’ve wronged us, sell all you have and give it to the poor - we could ritualize and elevate any NUMBER of Jesus’ explicit commands!
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are vitally important. But so is EVERY exhortation that came from Christ’s lips.
But because baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ALSO essential ordinances of Jesus for His Church, let’s spend the REMAINDER of our time together examining what God’s word has to say about them.
But first, let’s go to the Lord in prayer…
Alright, let’s look at the single most important passage of Scripture on each of these ordinances, in turn. First, BAPTISM. The most crucial passage is Romans 6:1-4. It outlines for us the WHAT, HOW, and WHY of baptism. What, how and why.
#1 - First, the WHAT. What is baptism? According to verses 1 and 2 of Romans 6, baptism IS symbolically dying to sin. Here’s the passage in its entirety: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
Paul says that as believers, through our BAPTISM, we’ve now “died to our sin”, v2.
Now, that’s about all the evidence that I need as a credo-baptist, to be convinced that baptism is meant only for BELIEVERS, those who really have put their sin to death, by repenting and coming to Jesus for forgiveness, AND that the best MODE of baptism is by immersion - being fully submerged under water - because when you DIE, you don’t just get some dirt sprinkled on you, or poured over you. In fact, Romans 6:1-4 makes SUCH a strong case for credo-baptism, that in order to be a PAEDO-baptist, you have to read Paul’s words here as referring not to water-baptism, but to SPIRIT-baptism.
In the NT, there are 2 kinds of baptism: Spirit-baptism, when the Holy Spirit comes into a believer’s heart and cleanses her of all her sin, and subsequently, water-baptism, which is a visible, external symbol meant to represent that internal, spiritual reality. This much is clear from a text like 1 Peter 3:21 - “Baptism… SAVES you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”. Our Catholic and Church of Christ friends stop reading halfway through the verse, and say, “Ah ha! Peter declares plainly that Baptism SAVES you; Baptism must be necessary for salvation!” But they MISS Peter’s note that the KIND of baptism that saves us is NOT the kind that removes dirt from our bodies; in other words: NOT water baptism. That’s just the SIGN, the SYMBOL, of the internal, spiritual baptism that IS necessary for salvation, not by cleansing our body but by cleansing our conscience.
And according to Romans 6, baptism is ONLY fitting for those who have died to their sin, through faith in Christ. This is the NT pattern, over and over again in Scripture: we REPENT, and turn from, DIE to, our sin, in Christ, and THEN we are baptized in response, as a public declaration of our faith.
Acts 2:38, 41 “Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins… So those who received his word were baptized”. Not everyone who HEARD Peter’s sermon. But those who RECEIVED his word. Believers.
Acts 8:12 “when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, [THEN] they were baptized.”
Acts 18:8 “many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.”
Acts 22:16 “And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’” - That’s what baptism IS, what is SYMBOLIZES: dying to sin.
That’s why you don’t see a single baby get baptized anywhere in the NT. The strongest case for infant baptism is to connect it theologically with the OT covenant sign of circumcision, but that is NOT a connection made by Scripture itself, and even if it were, the Bible explicitly tells us - in both the New AND Old Testaments - that the New covenant is NOT like the old one - Jeremiah 31:32 AND Hebrews chs7-10 - so I don’t know why we would expect the new covenant SIGN - baptism - to function in the same way as circumcision did anyway.
So #2 - if that’s WHAT baptism is - a believer depicting externally, the spiritual DEATH that s/he has now DIED to sin - then HOW does it work? In what WAY does getting dunked under water portray my spiritual death? Paul answers in vv3-4a: “through [our] identification with Christ’s death”. He says, we’ve “been baptized into Christ JESUS… into HIS death”.
In other words, you could make up your mind this morning that you’re DONE with your sin; that you’re TIRED of living in your old ways, enslaved to your old habits - selfishness, greed, lust, pride, anger, gossip, addiction - you’re SICK of it; you want MORE out of life than that. And you’re finally ready to DIE to sin, and start afresh.
That’s great! The only problem is: you CAN’T. On your own, you are completely powerless to kill your own sin, and live in any other way BUT a life filled with sin. Ephesians 2:5 says you were “dead in your sins”; you know what a DEAD person can accomplish? They can STAY DEAD. That’s about it. And friends: that was YOU. And that was ME.
But Paul goes on and declares that WHILE we were dead in our trespasses, God made us ALIVE together with CHRIST. GOD did it, THROUGH Christ!
He says here in Romans 6:4 that “we were buried WITH Christ by baptism INTO [His] death”. And then he says in vv5 & 6: “we have been united with him in a death like his… We know that our old self[a] was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”
Galatians 2:20 - “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. ”
Galatians 3:27 - “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
So baptism is identifying - UNITING - yourself WITH Christ, in HIS death and resurrection, so as to claim HIS promised forgiveness for sin, and HIS promised resurrection power OVER sin, for yourself.
And WATER baptism is simply, but substantively, proclaiming your identification with Christ, publicly. If you’re a believer, your union with Christ happened the very moment you first repented of your sins and surrendered your life to Jesus in faith. Kind of like, if you’re married, it was official the moment you both signed and said “I do” at the wedding. But what’d you do right after that? You gave each other RINGS, as a SYMBOL of your covenant commitment, right? The ring doesn’t MAKE you married. Any more than baptism MAKES you saved, united with Christ. But it’s an important, powerful symbol, that MARKS you, publicly identifies you, as now belonging to Christ.
Lastly on baptism: we’ve got the WHAT - symbolically dying to sin - and the HOW - by identifying oneself with CHRIST in HIS death - now Paul ends with the WHY: why is it essential to die to sin and live for Christ? Romans 6:4b: in order to be raised to new life in Him (v4b).
“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead… we too might walk in newness of life.” Paul continues in vv5-8: “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his… if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”
Jesus said that a seed has to fall to earth and DIE, in order to be REBORN as a giant tree that can bear much fruit. That’s what HIS death did for US. And that’s what OUR death to sin, accomplishes as well - it produces fruit, new life (Jn 12:24-25).
When you got baptized, you didn’t STAY underwater very long, did you? No, just as quickly as you were plunged down INTO the water to symbolize your DEATH with Christ, so too you were lifted back OUT of the water: NEW, washed, visibly changed.
And that water baptism symbolizes your internal SPIRIT-baptism; that “if anyone is in Christ, he is [INDEED, now] a new creation.[b] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17).
Colossians 2:12 puts it this way: “having been buried with him [with Christ] in baptism… you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.”
So baptism is dying to sin, by identifying with Christ’s substitutionary death in our place, in order that we might be raised to new life in Him. And Jesus ordained our ritual immersion in water as an imperative SYMBOL, and a powerful public WITNESS to our new life in him, to be practiced in His name until He returns.
So I’m gonna warn you right now - cuz I’m not trying to SPRING anything on anyone this morning, or emotionally manipulate you - I’m telling you now that I’m gonna END our worship this morning, by giving you a chance to be baptized. If you have not yet been baptized, or if you have become convinced and convicted this morning that what you THOUGHT was your baptism was actually just your dedication as a child, and you want - you NEED - to be baptized, in obedience to Christ’s command, I’m going to give you the opportunity to do that, about 10 minutes from now.
But first, how about our second ordinance?! We could and should spend WAY more than 10 minutes here - I actually preached separate messages on BOTH these ordinances back in the spring of 2019 when we walked through the Gospel of Mark.
But perhaps the most significant text on The Lord’s Supper is 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 where Paul outlines the WHO, WHAT and HOW of the Lord’s supper for us. Who, what and how.
First: the WHO - who is the Lord’s Supper FOR? It’s a meal for “the gathered, unified church”. Paul writes in vv17-22 & 33-34: “I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part,[e] 19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. 20 When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not… So then, my brothers,[k] when you come together to eat, wait for[l] one another— 34 if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. ”
3 stipulations on who eats there: the gathered, unified, church.
First, it’s for those GATHERED. Paul uses the phrase “when you come together” FIVE TIMES here - in vv17, 18; 20; 33; and 34.
That means if you’re joining us virtually from home this morning, you don’t pull out the Saltines and Welch’s here in a few minutes when the rest of us here take communion. Because you are not communing with us; communion isn’t just about communion with GOD; it’s about communion with one ANOTHER, as a spiritual FAMILY, as well. We have to be GATHERED, to “come together”. So I need to apologize, as your pastor, that I missed this, back in April of 2020, when we held a virtual, at home Good Friday service, and I ended it by encouraging you to take the Lord’s Supper at home, on your own. If you participated, it just felt WEIRD, and not at ALL the same, and rightfully so. Because God designed this meal specifically for his GATHERED people. And I hope we’ve ALL gained such a greater appreciation for the GIFT of the gathered church, these past 20 months.
Second, not only do we have to GATHER, but we’ve got to be UNIFIED. Why is Paul so mad here? Because v18, “there are DIVISIONS among [them]”. Specifically, v21, they’re being SELFISH. Some of them are stuffing their faces, hogging the wine bottle, to the total exclusion of others in the church; some are getting left out completely, “going hungry”, while others are “getting drunk”. But Paul admonishes them, in v33, to “WAIT for one another”. He goes so far in v20 as to claim that if they DON’T wait for one another, if they’re all just doing their own thing, NOT unified, then whatever they’re doing, it is NOT the Lord’s supper! You can eat a cracker and drink some grape juice and call it whatever you want, but if you’re not doing it in UNITY with the Lord’s people, it ain’t the Lord’s supper.
Thirdly, the Lord’s supper is for the Gathered, Unified, CHURCH. It is a meal, specifically, for the CHURCH. Next April, we’re taking a group of folks down to the Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville, KY for the week. There’s gonna be THOUSANDS of church leaders gathered there from all over the WORLD; it’s amazing. But they won’t serve communion there. Why? Because that’s not a CHURCH. It’s a conference. That’s not my spiritual family, in the same way that YOU ALL are, here at West Hills. When Thad takes the youth group to summer camp at YM360 next June, they won’t take communion. That’s CAMP; it’s not church.
What’s CHURCH? Go back and listen to the sermon from LAST week!
But I will tell you the one MOST important, defining mark of the church: the church is made up, EXCLUSIVELY made up, of born-again believers in Jesus. Adopted children of God. If you haven’t been adopted, if you’re not yet a member of God’s FAMILY, then the Lord’s supper is not for you. Pre-Covid, when I tried to move us away from passing the communion trays, to coming FORWARD to receive the bread and cup instead, one of the objections I heard was that it might make people feel EXPOSED, or LEFT OUT, if they didn’t come forward; and I directed those objectors to 1 Corinthians 11:19 here, where Paul unequivocally states: “there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.” The Lord’s supper is inherently DIVISIVE; namely, it is meant to divide those who BELONG to the Lord from those who DON’T. Those are the only 2 “factions” in the world that REALLY matter, eternally. Not Republican or Democrat. It’s SAVED or UNSAVED. BELIEVER or UNbeliever. And the Lord’s table is intended, in part, to be a dividing line.
So Parents: do NOT let your unsaved kids take communion. If they haven’t been BAPTIZED, if they haven’t joined the family of faith yet, they do not belong at the table yet. The biblical order is clear: repent, believe, be baptized, observe the Lord’s supper.
That’s who the Lord’s Supper is FOR; but what IS it?
#2 - It is a meal for *remembering (vv23-25) and proclaiming Christ’s death (v26).
1 Cor 11:23-26; you know this text well: “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for[f] you. Do this in remembrance of me.”[g] 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26
The Lord’s supper is a visible remembrance of Jesus’ sacrificial death in our place on the cross. His body - torn to pieces, for us; His blood - poured out for the forgiveness of OUR sins. And we’re meant to be reminded of his sacrifice every single time we eat it; to feel the weight of our sin, so that we can feel the weight of HIS love and grace.
But not only is there a PAST dimension to the meal - remembrance; there’s a FUTURE importance as well; v26: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes [again].” Until Jesus RETURNS.
And UNTIL He returns, this meal is meant to SUSTAIN us, spiritually, symbolically. You can’t live off a tiny cracker and a shot glass of grape juice once a week. But by eating and drinking every Sunday we are PROCLAIMING that while we live out the days of our exile on this earth, until the Lord calls us home or He returns in glory, that CHRIST IS ENOUGH for us. That we can have HOPE for the future, because JESUS suffered the greatest horror imaginable, 2,000 years ago. So we look forward, even as we look back together, at the table.
Lastly: HOW do we eat and drink? Vv27-32: *with self-examination (vv27-31) and self-discipline (v32).
“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died… But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined[j] so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”
SO much there to unpack, but I’ll just leave it at this: because the Lord’s supper is a sacred meal - it’s the LORD’S meal! - we don’t eat it in an “unworthy manner”. What does that mean? I think it means to eat with unrepentant sin in your heart. The call to follow Christ is a call to die to our sins, not just ONCE, at our baptism, but DAILY. And the Lord’s supper provides us an opportunity at least WEEKLY, to “examine ourselves” to ensure there’s no hidden sin we’re holding on to in our flesh. And if there IS, then we’re called to discipline ourselves, to put that sin to DEATH, at the foot of the cross, so that we don’t have to be disciplined, judged by the LORD.
Maybe for you, that’s the sin of UNBELIEF…
Maybe you believe but for you, it’s the sin of disobedience concerning BAPTISM; you have refused to be BAPTIZED, as Christ’s ordained you should be, as a sign of your faith in Him.
Maybe it’s the sin of getting impatient and snapping at your kids in the car on the way here this morning.
I don’t know. But what I DO know, is that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but we are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” That’s the redemption that we ILLUSTRATE through baptism, and the Lord’s supper.