At the church where I serve, we have been looking at
what we believe as a church as it is contained in the doctrinal statement of
our church. This week, I would like for us to go back and look again at the
seventh statement that comprises our doctrinal statement as a church. This
seventh statement addresses what we believe as a church about the church. This
statement summarizes the answer to the question “What is the church? Who can be
a part of the church? And what is the church supposed to be doing?" So
let’s look at this seventh statement of our doctrinal statement together:
We believe
that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace
through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the
body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local
churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus
mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and
tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when
celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish
the believer.
Earlier, we looked at the first part of this
statement, where we discovered that what we believe about the church matters
because the church is the vehicle that God uses to reveal His Son Jesus to the
world and to advance His kingdom mission in the world. We talked about the reality that what we believe about
the church really matters because of the reality that even though God does not
need us to do anything, God chooses to use us and invites us as followers of
Jesus to be the vehicle that He uses to reveal His Son Jesus to the world and
to advance His kingdom mission in the world.
We talked about the reality
that when we gather together in genuine and
authentic community to worship the Lord and listen to the message and teachings
of Jesus; when we scatter into smaller groups throughout the week to grow in
our relationship with God while developing encouraging relationships that
foster accountability and spiritual growth in the community; when we serve the
Lord by serving others through the exercise of our spiritual gifts in ministry;
when we invest and invite others to explore the claims of Christ and the
message of gospel through evangelism; we are the church.
The church is not somewhere we go; the church is
something we are. And what we believe about the church matters because the
church is the vehicle that God uses to reveal His Son Jesus to the world and to
advance His kingdom mission in the world.
This week, I would like for us to look
at the second half of this statement, which refers to baptism and the Lord’s
Supper, or communion. This week we are going to focus on communion. Next week
we will focus on baptism.
As we have talked about throughout
this series, to fully understand what is being communicated in this statement,
we first need to understand what all the church mumbo jumbo talk words in this
statement mean. So, let’s take a few minutes and unpack the phrase “The
Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper,”
Now when we use the word ordinance,
this word refers to a specific authoritative decree or command that has been
given by someone. So with this sentence, we are saying that Jesus Christ, by an
authoritative decree, commanded that His followers celebrate the Lord’s Supper,
or communion. We see Jesus give this authoritative decree in a section of an
account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of
Luke. So let’s look at this decree together, beginning in Luke 22:14-20:
When the
hour had come, He reclined at the
table, and the apostles with Him. And He said to them, "I have
earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to
you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of
God." And when He had taken a cup and
given thanks, He said, "Take this and share it among yourselves;
for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until
the kingdom of God comes." And when He had taken some bread and given
thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is
given for you; do this in remembrance of Me." And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten,
saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My
blood."
Now to
fully understand what is happening here, we first need to understand the
context in which this event from history took place. On the night that Jesus
would be arrested, Jesus and His disciples gathered together to celebrate the
Passover. Now the Passover is the Jewish holiday that celebrates the Jewish
people’s deliverance from slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt.
If you
are not familiar with the story, God, through Moses, asked the Jewish people to
kill an unblemished lamb and mark their doorposts with its blood. Later that
evening the Lord went through the land of Egypt and struck down all of the
firstborn that lived in the land as a sign of judgment for their refusal to
free the Jewish people. But when the Lord came to the houses of the Jewish
people who had marked their doors with the blood of the lamb, He passed over
their houses, thus the name of the holiday.
And the
Jewish people, at the time of Jesus, found themselves in similar circumstances.
The Jewish people were under the control of the Roman Empire and greatly
desired to be freed from their control. The Jewish people also knew that God
had promised them a rescuer, a deliverer, a Messiah. So the Jewish people were looking for the descendant of
Abraham, from the line of David that would be the promised Messiah who would
bring the Jewish people back to God and back to prominence in the world.
And
now, Jesus, a descendant of King David, had entered into Jerusalem, on the
Passover, which marked their deliverance from a previous situation of
oppression. As Jesus entered into Jerusalem the crowds had shouted “Hosanna,
blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”. And it is in this context
that Luke brings us into this event from history.
As
Jesus and the disciples sat down to celebrate the Passover meal, Jesus did not
follow the script. Instead of
celebrating the Passover like it has always been done,
Jesus took the unleavened bread and said “this is my body, which is for you; do
this in remembrance of Me”. Then Jesus took the wine and went off the script
again. Jesus made an incredibly strange statement: "This cup is the new covenant in My blood." To
which the disciples probably thought to themselves “what is Jesus doing?” What
does all this mean?” After flipping the script of Passover, Jesus and His
disciples traveled to the garden of Gethsemene, where Jesus was arrested. Jesus
was then tried and killed at the hands of the Roman Empire by crucifixion.
However, three days after being killed, Jesus rose from the dead.
You see, unknown to the
disciples at the time that they celebrated the Passover, Jesus
was establishing what we know today as the Lord’s Supper or communion to reveal
the reality that He was the ultimate Passover lamb whose sacrifice on the cross
enables God to pass over the selfishness, sin, and rebellion of those who
believe, trust and follow Him as Lord and Leader.
That is what is meant by the next phrase, which
states that communion “which visibly and tangibly express the gospel.” And in a
section of a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible
called the book of 1 Corinthians, we see that Apostle Paul unpack this reality.
Tomorrow, we will look at this section of this
letter…
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