The Sacraments: God’s Word Enacted

Note:  There was no formal sermon for this service, only commentary on the Scripture readings regarding the Sacraments.  Below are excerpts from previous sermons on the Sacraments that speak to the points presented in this commentary.


Baptism: Joining God’s Family
Gen 17:9-14, Col 2:9-15

Here is what Protestant Christians believe about baptism.  
•    Baptism enacts and seals what the Word of God proclaims.  That is why baptism must always follow the proclamation of the Word.  
•    Baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality.  
•    The inward reality it symbolizes includes all these blessings:
- Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ
- By the act of baptism, a person becomes a member of Christ’s visible Church
- As a sign it proclaims God’s forgiveness and our redemption in Jesus Christ
- As a seal, God marks us as adopted children of our heavenly Father
- It indicates our being made one with Christ
- It symbolizes our dying to our old sinful nature, and rising  to a new life in Christ filled and embowered by the Holy Spirit to walk in newness of life right now, and
- It symbolizes the promise of resurrection to eternal life  

As Presbyterians, we also believe that Holy Communion and Baptism are Sacramental, and so are not just symbolic.  Rather, they have been chosen by God to be unique and powerful means of encountering God’s grace; not in a manner that saves, but as a powerful source of nourishing our faith.

As Presbyterians, we also embrace a covenantal theology.  And so we believe that baptism is also a sign and a seal of the Covenant of Grace for believers and their children.  So what does this mean?  As Presbyterians, we are part of a long, rich heritage of Biblical interpretation that comes under this big umbrella called Reformed Theology meaning it has its roots in the Reformation.  Our Reformed heritage believes that after the fall in the Garden of Eden, God made one overarching covenant, or contract, with humanity called the Covenant of Grace.  

This covenant at its core declares that humans are given forgiveness of sins, bought back into right relationship with God, and granted eternal life by one way and one way only: by grace through faith found in a relationship with Jesus Christ.  

Now this one overarching Covenant of Grace has been divided into two ways it has been administered to us.  Under the Old Covenant, faith and grace to be saved was administered through the Jewish sacrificial system that pointed ahead to the cross of Christ.  And under the New Covenant, faith and grace is administered through the Holy Spirit who applies the life and cross of Jesus Christ to our life.

So where does baptism fit in with all this?  God has always given to humanity physical signs of His covenantal promises to give us something tangible, visible to remind us of these promises.  Under the Old Covenant, the two main signs and symbols of the covenant were circumcision and the Passover Meal.  Circumcision marked a child as being a child of the covenant, a member of God’s covenantal community and a participant in God’s covenantal promises.

Under the New Covenant, these two signs and symbols become Baptism and Holy Communion.  Just as circumcision marked a child as a child of the covenant, now baptism does the same for us.  This is why we embrace infant baptism.  Not because it saves a child, but because it marks that child as a participant in God’s covenantal community.   

We also believe it takes this whole covenantal community in the form of a local congregation to raise a child in the faith.  This is why we believe that infant baptism should always be done in the presence of the same group of people who are promising to help nurture that child’s faith, as opposed to just having godparents takes these vows of nurturing.  

We do so in the strong hope that this child will someday make a personal profession of faith, and surrender his or her life to Christ, and so become a born again, Spirit-filled, adopted child of God.  Not every baptized infant will do so!  Infant baptism does not guarantee salvation!  

You see, we do not believe that grace is a substance that is administered by the Church through the sacraments.  This is why we do not believe that baptism saves you.  Baptism is a sign and symbol of God’s salvation, but it is not the means of salvation.

So, if one is baptized after he or she has surrendered his or her life to Christ, than the sacrament of baptism symbolizes what has already occurred.  When we baptize an infant, we do so in faith claiming God’s power and promise that God will indeed bring that child to a place of personal surrender to Christ.  The beauty and power of infant baptism is that it strongly declares the truth that salvation is God’s act of grace toward us, not something we decide to accept or reject!  

We also do not believe that grace is something we earn by being good people or doing good deeds.  Rather, grace is the very person of Jesus Christ, and becoming an adopted child of God happens when one personally surrenders his or her life to Jesus asking Christ to be his or her Lord and Savior.  

It is at that moment of conversion to Christ that the Holy Spirit comes into a person, births a new spirit within him or her, and makes that person God’s child, not the act of baptism.  Thus, the baptism that saves is when we are baptized by Christ with the Holy Spirit of which water baptism is meant to be a sign and symbol.


The Lord’s Table: Celebrating the Family Meal
Mark 14:12-26; 1 Cor 11:23-26

The Lord’s Table is Connectional

The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper did not begin with the Christian Church.  All through salvation history, God has used the signs and symbols of bread and wine to be avenues of His covenantal grace.  

When the people of Israel were being set free by God’s mighty hand from slavery in Egypt, God told the people to sacrifice an unblemished lamb, and paint some its blood on their doorframes so that when God’s angel of death came to kill all the firstborn of Egypt, it would “pass over” their houses.  God told them to remember and reenact this deliverance each year by celebrating the Passover Meal.  It was this meal that Christ was eating with His disciples when He spoke the words that we are studying this morning.  It was this Passover meal that Christ used to establish what we now call the “Lord’s Supper or Table,” or the “Eucharist,” or “Holy Communion.”

So, one powerful aspect of celebrating the Lord’s Table is that it has historical and connectional significance.  The Lord’s Table ties together all God’s people, Jew and Gentile, throughout all salvation history.  This is why the Lord’s Supper must always be a communal act of worship, and never an individual act done in separation from the Body of Christ.


The Lord’s Table is Sacramental

Christ said “this is my body.”  During the Reformation, there were intense and ultimately divisive arguments about just what exactly did Christ mean when He used the word “is.”  These theological arguments are what gave rise to the major differences between Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, and Reformed churches.  

Calvin, and therefore the Reformed churches such as Presbyterian, believes that nothing supernaturally changes about the bread and wine.  However, Christ is present in the Sacrament through the Holy Spirit in a very unique and real way.  Christ is present in the Sacraments, not just in the same way that Christ is always present through the Holy Spirit.  But Christ has established the Lord’s Table as a unique means of His grace so that when we participate in Holy Communion something truly supernatural happens.  

The Holy Spirit lifts us up into Christ’s presence in heaven, and also manifests Christ presence among us on Earth, in a powerful, real, unique way that strengthens and nourishes our faith.  Calvin used the analogy that just as physical food strengthens and nourishes our physical body, the Lord’s Supper has the power to do the same for our individual and communal body, soul, spirit, and faith.

When we partake of the Lord’s Table we are entering into an intimate fellowship, a spiritual participation, a joining in union with Christ, in Christ’s very life, death, resurrection, reign, and Second Coming!  This is why the Lord’s Supper is such a powerful avenue of grace and spiritually nourishment.  This is why Calvin wanted it celebrated every Sunday.  Our faith and overall spiritual health is made stronger the more we partake of Holy Communion.


The Lord’s Table is Eschatological

The Lord’s Table not only proclaims our Lord’s life, death, and resurrection, but it does so “until Christ comes!”  This Sacrament is thus also eschatological, that is it reminds us that not only are we blessed with Christ’s presence and power right now in the midst of all our sorrow and struggles, but also that there is indeed a day coming soon when our Lord will return to put an end to all evil and injustice once and for all!  


We are commanded to examine ourselves when we participate in the Lord’s Table.  To examine means to look closely at.  When we partake of Communion, we are to look five different directions.  Because it is Connectional, we look around and remember that the Lord’s Table connects us to all God’s people.  Because it is Sacramental, we look up and remember our intimate union with Christ.  Because it is Covenantal, we look inward and confess all the ways we break the Father’s heart.  Because it is Eschatological, we look forward and remember that our Lord is coming back soon!  Because it is Proclamational, we look outward to be empowered once again to leave this Table to live, and proclaim the gospel to a dark and hurting world.