Established By Jesus Series

INTRODUCTION

Good morning I'm so glad to see you all here today as we continue with our foundations for faith series using the Bible engagement project. If you're joining us for the first time today you can find my notes on you version Bible app under events or you can ask me at the end, and I would be happy to give you a printed copy.

And for those joining us online you can also find a link to the notes in the description of YouTube.

Last week it was so great to have pasture mill talk about the necessity of baptism of the Holy Spirit as a distinct separate act to the infilling of the Holy Spirit that we receive when we believe the baptism the Holy Spirit is here to equip us to do the work of ministry.

This morning we're going to talk about the two ordinances of the church. I grew up on the East Coast and many of my friends were Catholic I went to a Lutheran school from 1st through 3rd grade and these churches talk about 7 separate traditional sacraments or ordinances of the church, but we believe that Jesus himself established for us 2 specific ordinances.

WE BELIEVE that the Bible directs all believers to participate in water baptism by immersion and in Holy Communion (Matthew 28:19; Romans 6:4;

1 Corinthians 11:26).1

So, this morning we're going to talk about Holy Communion and water baptism as commands directly establish for the church to continue until he comes back as acts that we are to do.

The Catholic Church actually believes in seven separate sacraments and while these aren't bad in and of themselves we don't believe that these were things that were established specifically for the church to continue to do as ceremonies that were established by Jesus. So, these sacraments are first the Eucharist sacrifice of Christ body and blood we call that communion, water baptism, confirmation, penance which is now called reconciliation, anointing of the sick formerly called extreme unction, holy orders or ordination and then finally last marriage. In the assemblies we believe that Jesus directs us to follow 2 main things that we call ordinances or sacraments.

At the end of our service today we will celebrate communion which is the Lord's supper, and it is one of these sacraments that was established by Christ. Now before I go into either of these it is important to recognize that these ordinances are for believers for those that are already saved and I'll talk about that specifically as we discuss each one of them but the reason I'm mentioning this now is that both of these acts are acts of obedience for us to continue on as the church and not Rituals that bring about salvation.

1) Communion

During communion we take the time to remember the sacrifice that Christ did for us on the cross good in fact it was specifically his death on the cross that we are meant to remember: 1 Corinthians 11:25b-26

Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.”26 For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.

Jesus commands us to continue to take communion to remember what he did for us. Communion is commemorative, instructive, and inspirational; It promotes thanksgiving and fellowship; It proclaims the covenant sealed by Christ blood and it carries with it every responsibility to remember what he did for us.

Turn with me to Luke 22:1-20

History of Communion

The Passover meal was celebrated by the disciples in the upper room before Jesus was crucified on the cross. This meal was a reminder for the children of Israel when they were in Egypt, and they had to sacrifice a pure unblemished lamb and paint the doorposts with the blood of the lamb.

When the Angel of death saw the blood on the doorpost he passed over that house saving the first-born Sons. When the disciples celebrated this meal with Jesus they were taking part in the ritual to remember what their ancestors went through when God freed them from Egypt an ordinance if you will that was established by God to help Israel remember what he did for them.

In the same way it is the blood of Jesus That not only confirms the covenant that we have between God and man, but it is the blood that covers us and cleanses us from our sins it is the blood that redeems us. God met for us to draw the parallel between the Passover lamb that was sacrificed so that the first borns would be spared and the first born of God Jesus who was sacrificed who took our place so that we could be spared the price of our sin.