Series “Welcome Home” – Sermon “Sacraments”

Sermon Notes – Sacraments
Oct. 2, 2022
Impact Church London 

Recap: Welcome Home – Jesus asked over 300 questions.  Why? We are a safe place to ask questions.

Intro: Sacraments 

What is a sacrament:  We have two in the apostolic church; Communion and Baptism.

What makes them powerful and repeatable is that they were ordained by Jesus, and by faith connect us to an experience of the reality they speak to.

Why do them? 

Jesus told us to! But beyond that, in the doing them something powerful happens, but its not magic. These are powerful actions because Jesus ordained them, and in so doing, ordained that whoever participates in these actions with faith, will in fact experience the powerful grace that they speak to.  

The early church practiced the sacraments:

Acts 2:41-42 (NKJV)
“Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

There are endless causes that we could champion, but the sacraments keep us rooted in the message, man, and ministry of Jesus Christ. 

Communion:

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (NKJV)
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is [e]broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.

His proclamation is powerful. Lots of things the church can talk about, but when we proclaim Christ that’s where the power is. 

Romans 1:16-17 (NKJV)
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel [c]of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (NKJV)
“18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” 20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a [i]stumbling block and to the [j]Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Communion keeps us grounded in the central reality of the Christian faith, Jesus died for our sins and was raised for our justification. 

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (NKJV)
“Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 

1 Timothy 1:15 (NKJV)
“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

Communion grounds in the proclamation that Jesus died, but not just to show us he loved us, but to free us from the root cause of all that binds us – sin. 

1 Peter 2:24 (NKJV)
“who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. 

He bore our sins in his body – and by his blood we have been redeemed by what that sin has created and allowed. 

Ephesians 1:7-8 (NKJV)
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace…” 

Baptism:

Unlike Communion, this is something that only needs happen once. Where as in Communion we proclaim what God has done for us, in baptism we identify what he has done to us, and that is a living reality that affects all that we are now. 

Romans 6:3-4
“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

All the sin, sickness, guilt, shame, curse that Jesus bore and took down into death — we too have died to all of that. 

Romans 6:6-8 (KNJV)
“…knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 

But there is more…

Romans 6:8-11 (NKJV)
“8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus was raised up, and just as we lift people up out from under the water, Jesus rose from the dead and burst out of the tomb alive, now no longer touched by sin. 

Ephesians 2:4-6 (NKJV)
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 

We too were raised up with him. Now we can reckon, do the math and consider we are alive with him. 

When Jesus came into you, the reality of his death took effect inside of you. The living reality of you having been put to death, your old man crucified with him, the reality of having died to sin, sickness, death, curse, devil, habit, hang-up became an actual reality for you,  but also to you when the One who was crucified and raised entered into you. 

Baptism reminds us, helps us identify with the fact this this is in fact what has happened, and in baptism the reality of your co-crucifixion and resurrection with Jesus becomes real and tangible to you in a powerful way, often times resulting in incredible power released in the moment, as the Holy Spirit attends quickly to confirm what’s is true. 

Sacraments powerfully and experientially root us in the reality of our faith!

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