Baptism and Communion

Hello, and welcome to The Grove Church podcast. I'm Charlie Loften, the lead pastor there, and we are so glad that you're joining us. Whether you are a member and you're just catching up on a sermon that you missed or you're someone who's brand new, we are really glad that you are joining us. And if you are new in some way, and I know that a lot of people will do that, we'll listen to sermons first before they visit. I want you to know that we would love to meet you at any point.

You can join us live in our services on Sunday, nine and 10:30 or our streaming service at 10:30. Either way, we would love to be able to get to know you. And regardless of why you are here listening to this sermon today, thank you so much for joining us. Hey, good morning. If you are new, I'm Charlie.

I'm the lead pastor here and really glad you're here with us. And I do know, I can tell we've got a lot of brand new people here today. Kudos to you, visit a brand new church, holiday weekend. We're really glad that you are here, and we are doing something. I guess I could not say we're doing something different today, and you wouldn't know, but everybody else does.

There's something a little bit different today. We're gonna take Communion together as a body, and we've tried to make it obvious for you to grab one, but I know sometimes it's dark, you come in here, maybe you didn't see it, but you did not get one of these kind of Communion cups.

You just kind of give a little.

We got some people back here that would love to help you have one. We are in the middle of a series called Ancient Paths, where we're just kind of talking about some historical practices, disciplines, kind of responses to God that just historically over two thousand years have been the kinds of things that Christians everywhere have done to deepen and focus their relationship with Christ. And Mark kicked it off a couple of weeks ago and just really kind of talked about what it means to really kind of meditate on God's word. Scripture meditation, scripture memory, not just reading or listening, but really meditating and memorizing. And last week, we talked about these two kind of connected, but also very different sorts of practices that when things are going really well, we celebrate.

We are celebrators with God. But then also, when we are when we sin, the importance of personal confession. And today, we are talking about Communion and Baptism. These two practices and ceremonies that have been a part of the church absolutely from the beginning, and probably more than anything else, have defined what makes someone a Christian and what Christians do, and this very sacred practice that has gone on for, again, from the very beginning, for two thousand years, Christians all over the world have participated in these two very serious, powerful, meaningful spiritual ceremonies. And by and large, here at The Grove, we have, and I've been thinking about this a lot as we've been preparing for the series and this week in particular, and to my own regret, I feel like that we have undersold.

I'm

not talking to you. Good grief.

I don't know what that was. Jesus, Communion people, make regret. Yes, I am kind of not undersold, maybe just kind of minimized it a little bit more than I should have. I think because in my heart, if you know this about us, we really kind of shy away from things that just feel like lightning rod kind of controversies, and so didn't really want to step into that because no matter, we really want you to believe that no matter what tradition you come from, we were raised in a lot of different places, a lot of different types of churches, or maybe not in church at all, that it feels like that it is fine, whoever you are, that you can come

and find a place here. But for some

of you, if you have not really been connected with church or very many types of churches, you maybe think of all the things in the world, like how could baptism and communion, how could that be controversial? Like, on what planet are those things controversial?

And the answer is very simple. This planet.

It is this planet where those things, honestly, especially over the last, say, five hundred to six hundred years, are probably the most controversial things. So we can just go back we'll just go back six hundred years or so to the time of what's called the Protestant Reformation, where there were a handful of leaders at the time that were really wanting to reform some things from the Catholic church, and were not particularly well received, and ultimately they got excommunicated out of the church. And then ultimately, all of the non Catholic Christian traditions that you may be familiar with have some sort of origin story there in that moment called Protestant what we call now the Protestant Reformation. So we'll just start with Baptism. There was a group of people amongst kind of there were kind of these major factions that were developing.

There was another group that was called the Anabaptist, A N A, and then Baptist. And Anna is the word for is like the prefix for again. So they were the baptize againers. At that season, everyone baptism was exclusively really something that was done for you when you were a baby, but if you were born outside the Christian tradition and you came to faith, you would get baptized then. But it was primarily done for babies inside the Christian community.

But they believed, as a lot of people now since then do, that baptism is something that you do after you come to faith. And so they were suggesting and telling people, you should get baptized again, Anabaptist. Well, were not well received, and even though there were a lot of factions fighting each other, and everybody seemed to be fighting the Catholic Church, what they all agreed on is we didn't like these guys. They were hated by everybody, and it became illegal in many countries and places. It was illegal to get baptized again or to tell somebody they should to the point to where if you did that and you got found out, you got arrested, and your punishment was, and

they called it, your third baptism. You got baptized

as a baby, you got baptized as an adult, and we're going to

baptize you, you get drowning. It would kill you. And you're like,

can you imagine? 600 later, it's like, I know people still beef about this, but an execution around it. I mean, it was that kind of weighty and significance. Flip to the other one, Communion. We can't do that with Communion.

You can't do that with

Communion. Well, two

of these guys, one of them, Martin Luther, a lot of people know, he's got whole denomination that's kind of named after him. He's kind of one of the primary guys. And there was another guy who doesn't get is not as well known, but has an infinitely more fun name to say. His name is Zwingli. Zwingli.

What's his first name, you might say? And I'd say, Huldrecht. Huldrecht Zwingli. He just love this guy. Anyways, so these two guys, they were kind of they had different ideas, and once they all got kicked out, the idea was, can we come together and kind of form one union?

So they got together, and there were 15 different points of theology that were of incredible importance to them. And they were 14 for 14, all the way to the very end, number 15. Is Jesus physically present in the elements of communion? When he says, this is my body, is he saying, no, this is my body? Or is he saying, well, it symbolizes my body?

And historically, there have been three answers to that. The Catholics are a hard yes. A lot of other churches are like, no, it's symbolic. Lutherans had something a little bit closer to the Catholic idea. He is present there, maybe not as in exactly the way, but it was of absolute importance to Luther.

Yes, he, it is his body. And Zwingli disagreed. And so that was enough to derail the whole situation, wouldn't shake hands at the end, would not come together, and in fact, I'm not trying to bad mouth either of the two traditions, won't tell you who. But essentially, one of them said to the other ones like, well, the devil's got you now, we'll see you in hell. Like, my word, like that's just significant.

I mean, that's a big deal. Fast forward several 100 years, it's necessarily all of that, but I was hosting some pastors here in our building. This has been a dozen or so years ago. And we're walking around, and they noticed that we have Communion in

the back. Like, what's this?

And so what we do, rather than passing the elements and doing it all together, we make sure we have the opportunity. It is available every week for anyone who wants to do it. People who want to do it every week can, or you can do it in your own way, at your own time, and it just kind of provides kind of maximum freedom, which again, I think incorporates a lot of different sorts of traditions and types of people. And he looks me in the eye and says, I would love at some point to hear your theological justification for that. I'm like, easy, Zwingli.

I cannot tell you, I've been waiting all week to tell that joke. It is such a good, well timed theology joke that only I think is absolutely hilarious, and thank you for laughing because it's a great... You don't even know how good a joke that is. I could tell you Zwingli's tradition and where this guy came from. I mean, it's beautiful.

But I've got to move on. I've got lots of lots of notes here. And again, because of our vibe, our energy, who we feel like God has called us to be. We have really wanted to not step into the muck of that and allow baptism and communion to kind of be the beautiful things that they are without feeling like we have

to always fight about it. But I'm afraid that one of

the consequences of that has been that it has felt we have not given it the proper attention that it deserves. And so we're going to do some of that today, kind of put some talk about it and kind of where we are in all of this, but I just assure you, I'm not trying to fight you. I'm not trying to fight your mom who taught you or the pastor that you grew up with. I'm but this is kind of who we are and how we express these things. But even if you walk away from this and you still kind

of hold on to a completely different tradition and belief around these things, which is fine, I hope that all of

us can elevate in our hearts and minds the power and the spiritual significance of these two sacred ceremonies. And we'll start here by saying this, that baptism and communion are two sacred acts that enrich us and connect us with Christ. K? Now here's the deal. I'm gonna use some...

I've already used some terms here and introduced you to some church history characters, and I'm going give you one more kind of sets of terms here, actually a handful more, not just one more, right? There's this thing called high church and low church, and I don't if you've ever heard of these terms before, but these are shorthand kind of expressions for different types of churches and church traditions. Sometimes people don't want

to use it because who would want to be low church? Nobody's trying

to be, I'm trying to be low church. I'm trying to be best church. I'm trying to be low church. But it's fine, low church is fine, doesn't matter. But it's talking about on a scale of how formal is your church, your structures, do you follow a liturgy, how ceremonial are your services, high church down to low church.

And so we can imagine your higher churches, your Catholics, Episcopalians up here, just have a lot more liturgical formality and structure. It is definitely more ceremonial and power, that kind of ceremonial power that comes from the service. And then Lo Church is kind of, I wonder what a Lo

Church is like. This is what this

is, right? We got a really cool guy playing acoustic guitar and singing, girl sitting next to him, and a guy who's wearing fake slacks and fake dress shoes. These are Skechers and stretchy pants. Right? And just we're just hanging out.

So it's low again, I'll tell you, so low church, high church, right? Just even around the idea of communion. I mean, the low church,

it's the Lord's Supper, all the way

up to communion, to what kind of at the tippy top here, now they have Eucharist. And even these words that you attach to them attach different sorts of things to them, the significance of it, or the way that different churches will refer to these two things as a group and possibly in a group with other things. They're sacraments, while another tradition will refer to them as ordinances. Ordinance has the idea of it is something that you do because it is... You're told to do it.

It is an order. You... It's an... I do it because I'm a... It's an

act of... He said do it, so I do it. So it's it's an

ordinance, something I do because I have to. The sacrament has

a much deeper, more spiritual kind of definition to it, and one of the phrases that is used, it is a means by which we receive God's grace. And to certain people, that can feel a little off putting because we come from a tradition that believes that really you only receive grace by believing and putting your faith and trust in Jesus. That's where grace comes. Grace is the gift that Jesus did on the cross. You don't get little bits of it by participating in sacraments, and so some people find kind of those terms a little off putting, and so we go a little bit lower on the scale, maybe down to Communion or all the way down here, where it's quite that, we kind of divide ourselves around some of these terms.

But the reality of it is I think there

is a way to undersell it if we just say I do it because I'm asked to do it. It's just something I do when I obey. And I think there is a way to think about it being, and it is a place where I receive God's favor. It is a place where

I receive God's goodness. It is a place where I can spiritually, relationally connect with the God of the universe. There's something significant and spiritual that happens. It is a sacred thing. And I think that it is okay for us to kind of exist in some place where, yeah, we believe that salvation is not received, and and the ultimate capital g grace is received not by these acts, these ceremonial acts that we

accomplish without having to minimize it?

Well, I do it because he

said I had to. Because over

the course of the last two thousand years, countless hundreds, if not hundreds of millions, if not billions of people have been celebrating these things together, and there's a reason why they have elevated to the highest level of spiritual significance, because historically, that's what they have been. They have been these incredible moments of just kind of relational and personal and spiritual connection with God and with one another. And we do not want to minimize them, even in our desire to kind of create a body of unity. I think it is important for us to elevate, and I'm the kind of guy that like, I really want to use illustrations to kind of say, well, baptism is kind of like this. It's kind of like your initiation ceremony.

It's like that undersells it a little bit. And then Communion is kind of like what you do behind closed doors with everybody in the group and kind of these practices that you do to kind of... It's so much deeper than that. It is not something, it's not simply something that we do to gain entry into a club, and it's not just something that members do because it's important. It's it's deeper than that.

I I really do believe that when our heart is in the right place and we perform one of these ceremonies,

God shows up. And there's

a there's a beauty in it for the person that is doing it and for all of us together collectively. So we're just gonna spend some time kind of looking at each one of these two a little bit more in-depth, and then we'll close together by taking communion together as as a group. So when we talk about baptism, probably one of the most significant passages is in Acts chapter two verses 38 to 41. Says this. This is...

Peter is giving a sermon right after Pentecost. They've received the Holy Spirit, and he's now speaking to a large group of people who are Jewish but have... Are not really following Christ. And he says this to them, verse 38, Peter replied, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.

With many other words, he warned them and he pleaded with them, save yourselves from this corrupt generation. Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number that day. There's a lot of really cool things here. I mean, first, it kinda starts with this idea. Hey.

They ask him, hey. What what should we do? If this... If everything you're saying about Jesus is true, what should we do?

So you should repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.

And really, the idea is like, I repent so I can be forgiven, and then my first natural instinct, my first response to that is to be baptized. And too often, we have either overlinked or underlinked these two things. You do not have to be baptized to have your sins forgiven. I repent, so my sins will be forgiven, and then I am baptized to connect to this thing that he says here, to connect to this promise to... That is not only for you, but for your kids, and for people who don't know yet, and for everyone everywhere who was going to be...

Who who is going to hear this message. It unites you with Jesus. It unites you with everyone. And so we can over connect it and say, if you're not baptized, you're not baptized in the right way, you haven't had forgiveness. Not that, but it also is an immediate, powerful, spiritual response that connects us to God and ultimately connects us to everyone.

And so we'll

say it this way. When we are baptized, we celebrate the life changing power of the gospel.

Now I... There... I'm gonna tell you two stories, a story I don't remember and one that

I do. But the story that

I don't remember was told me by a very reliable source, and I'll tell it to you. Apparently, I was five years old. I was five years old, and I came to my mom,

and I was like, listen. I know about Jesus. I know about

his death on the cross and that you're supposed to put your faith in him, and then you're saved. And then after that, you're supposed to get baptized. But here's what I've

been thinking. Five years old is too young to get baptized. You should wait until you're seven. So I'm going

to wait, and when I'm seven, I'll come back to you, and then I want to get baptized. I can

only imagine. Like, what kind

of mom? Like, what is this thing? Like, I get I I get what what he looks just like me, so I guess he's mine.

Like, where what kind of kid is this? Anyway, whatever this is, that's what

that was all the way at five years old having these sort

of conversation with my mom. And sure enough, seven years old rolls around, and

I do remember this. I look at my mom and dad, and I say, I'm I'm

ready to get baptized. And so, well, before

you kinda go down front and talk to the pastor there, he wants to... He always likes to meet with kids in private first, and he wants to ask you some questions. And again, just to give you insight into what I was like even at seven, I was like, bring that on. What's he going to ask me? I don't know.

I'm going to win this. But if I got to answer it, I'll answer his questions. And I remember, I mean, being in his office, I remember this big booklet thing that he gave me. I remember a lot of it. And then I passed the test, and the following Sunday, I made the the statement that I wanted to to do this.

And then a month or so later, at a baptism ceremony, I got baptized. And it was the coolest thing for a seven year old because there was one other person getting baptized, an adult friend of my parents, and guess what his name was? Charlie. And it was so cool that two Charlie's got baptized on the same day. And it really kind of at that point is kind of your entry point into the church.

And it was very, very, very important. And I think it is of incredible importance for us, and I think on some level, I think we get it. If you if you have been here when we have celebrated baptism, we instinctively know, no one tells you,

We instinctively know to clap, to stand up, to cheer.

A lot of people cry. There's something very powerful about it, and we feel it in the room. We can feel it even if we can't put words to it. It is more than just an ordinance. There is something really awesome that happens when someone says, I have given my life to Jesus, and I want you all to

know about it. And we instinctively cheer and celebrate this together. And there's something really cool that happens to the person themselves. When

God is like, I am so glad that you've made this decision and that you are celebrating this with your family, and it unites us to everyone in the room. It unites you to everyone all over the world, and for generations past, I am here the next in a long line of people who recognize the overwhelming power of what Jesus Christ has done. Now we... Again, our our history is that if you come from a tradition where you have been baptized as a baby and you feel like that is significant, there has never been any pressure from us to... For you to do anything different than that.

If you come from that tradition, I think it would be good for you, healthy for you to process. Do you believe that it would

be beneficial for you to also celebrate in a way where you got

to make the decision? I'm deciding. I'm deciding that I I want to be baptized. I want to I want to celebrate the decisions that I've made. In addition to what was done for me that I really appreciate as a child, I want to do this.

It's fine if you don't. We're not gonna... Again, we're

not we're not we're not suddenly elevating the significance for which we wanna step into the controversy here. I don't think it would be

healthy for you and your own spiritual development to consider that. But certainly, if you have never been baptized at all and you are following Jesus, there's something really powerful and significant that happens when you make this decision and celebrate this. Sometimes we can get weird. It's been a year. It's been five years.

It's been ten years. It's been twenty years, and now let's do it now. Like, do it now. Do it. Do it.

It's an incredibly powerful thing that even though all the work that has been done to... For your forgiveness and for your restoration to God, all the work has been done by Jesus, and I have just repented and followed,

there is still something very significant in participating in this where we celebrate the life changing power of the gospel. And in a real significant way that you will experience, God shows up. Now let's continue on here in Matthew chapter 26. And this is way... The setup here, this is actually the night Jesus is gonna get arrested, and he's gonna be executed the following day.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

And they're celebrating the Passover, which is an important feast for the Jewish people, and they're celebrating this together, and Jesus is about to attach some different significance to some of the elements of this meal. Matthew chapter 26 starting in verse 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

While they were eating, Jesus took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, take and eat. This is my body. Then he took a cup, and when he

had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink from it, all

of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which

is poured out for many for the gift... For the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I

will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. So they're having this meal together, and the bread and the wine already plays a significant role in their ceremony. And he's like, I want you to think about this different. There's something really powerful that is about to happen over the course of this weekend. I'm gonna die, and I'm gonna come

back to life. But that death is not just some normal martyr's death.

It is going to be for you, and it is going to be through that that you can experience life with God through me forever. And this this piece of bread, this this this is me. This this is this is this is my body. And when you take this, I want you to remember that. I want you to remember that my body was broken.

I want you to remember that my blood was spilled. And I want you

to think about this a lot. I want you to remember me when you do this. I want I want this to be a way that you are constantly staying in connection with this deeply, powerful, life altering, universe altering event that is about to happen here in a few days. The very nature of this universe is about to be undone. Your lives are about to be undone, and the world is about to start to become reconciled to God through this sacrifice that I'm about to make.

And I want you to do this and remember this moment. I want you to do this

forever. And then there's gonna come a time when I'm gonna get to do it again with you. But between now and then,

I I I want you to do this. And we'll say it this way.

When we take communion, we deeply reflect upon and connect with

the one who sacrificed for us. So after that seven year old kid got baptized, he now got to participate in our church. Our churches, we called it

the Lord's Supper. Lord's Supper is kinda down here. Low church, but again, low church, not an insult. It's fine.

And we did it once a quarter. All right? Again, so you can just kinda tell as an ordinance it was Lord's Supper. We didn't do it a lot. We did it once a quarter, and I thought it was a huge deal.

I went to children's church, and so we met at a different place, but on the first Sunday of the quarter, the leaders knew, hey, if anybody here has been baptized, you can go upstairs here in a few minutes, and then you can go take communion at the end of the service. And I remember just thinking, this is the greatest thing

in the world. I mean, I felt big, for one. You have fun

in your children's church, right? But also, there was this kind of sense. It's like, kind of I get to do this. Find my mom or dad. I'm gonna sit with them, and I get to do this.

And I don't know that I could have theologically put my mind or words to what was happening. But here's what I knew. I knew this was important, and there was something, the sacredness with which our pastor talked about it, and the way the deacons passed out the stuff, and the way we were all connecting with each other and doing this at the same time, I could feel it. Even at seven, even though no one had really, at that point, really theologically deeply explained to me very well, you could just feel and experience the power of what was happening.

And after studying, learning, years of experience with it,

I mean, I think this is how, again, these are

the words I would put to it. It is a time where I get to deeply reflect on what Jesus Christ has already done for me.

The one thing that needed to happen for me to have a relationship with God was done by Jesus. All the work, done, finished. He did it, and I put my faith and trust in that. And while that is a onetime event, it actually is a day to day, moment by moment reality for me. And when I take communion, it is an opportunity for me to slow everything else down in my heart and mind and brain and

life and to deeply reflect on what Jesus Christ did for me and to connect with him, to think about what he did and what that means for me, not just what it meant for me, what it means for me, what it is meaning for me, what it has meant for me, what it will mean for me, like in every possible way to deeply reflect and connect with this Jesus who sacrificed everything for me.

And I do believe it is possible to undersell that and to turn it into something, well, we just do it because he said to do it. He did it because it's tradition. But there's a reason why this tradition, above all other traditions, has remained so powerful and widespread all over everywhere all the time. Because when we are able to stop and reflect and remember what Jesus did and the power and the life that that has given, you can only be enriched by that. You can only connect with God in a deeper way through that.

And so, again, we may come from a long, diverse group of traditions, But I

think it is of an... Of paramount importance for all

of us that whatever significance this event had for us is just to raise it up a little bit, that we take this opportunity to do

it not because we, quote, have to,

because we we need something that we lack. There's nothing we lack. Jesus did it all. But there's something beautiful and powerful and deeply spiritual about connecting with him in a way that reminds us so much of the sacrifice that he made for us.

So we're gonna do that together right now. We have historically, because we do it there in the back, we focused really on the personal aspect of it, you individually connecting with God. But now in addition to that, the personal time that you're gonna have, there's also a community aspect to this. We are now about to connect all together with the awesome God of the universe by meditating on what Jesus Christ has done. So I encourage you right

now just to close your eyes and just take a little moment of personal reflection.

You think about the power of the gospel, that Jesus Christ sacrificed his life for yours so that you could be forgiven, so that you could be reunited with God? Just take some time and reflect on the significance of that for you. I encourage you to keep your head bowed and your eyes closed and just continue to reflect. Because everybody here, we brought something in here with us. Guilt, sin, fear, anxiety.

And the incredible thing about the gospel is God doesn't look at that and say, get all that fixed. Get all that cleaned up. Then let's talk. The power of the gospel is that Jesus says, come to me, everyone here. If you are burdened, then I will give you rest.

The cross shows that our sin is more serious than sometimes we want to admit but shows that his grace, his forgiveness, his love is deeper than we could ever imagine. Jesus went to the cross. He did so willingly. He took the sin. He took the punishment.

He gave his life for ours so that we could be forgiven and brought into relationship with the father. And that is what we are remembering, reflecting on. That is that is what we are communing with one another and with God about right now. Encourage you now to take the elements, take off the top the the bread. The apostle Paul tells us that on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread, gave thanks, and said, this is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. We remember that he... What he did for us, not because we we we deserved it, not because we earned it, but because of his love. Let's take the bread together. I'll take the cup.

Jesus said this, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. The blood of Jesus reminds us that forgiveness does not come cheaply. We needed a savior and Jesus was that savior. And when we take it, we don't remember just what Jesus did then, but what it means for us right now.

I have been forgiven, and I am forgiven, and I will be forgiven. I've put my trust in Christ. I don't have to spend any energy thinking about if I'm worthy, that I have to prove myself. He did for us what we could never do, and we take the cup and we thank him. Let's take it together.

God, we are so thankful for the sacrifice of your son Jesus and the life that it has given us and the beauty and the power of being able to celebrate that together today. And, God, whatever tradition we came from, wherever wherever our hearts and minds are, God, I pray in both of these areas. God, you would raise the level of our hearts and our appreciation of just the significance, the depth of what you've done, and the beauty and the power and the sacredness of celebrating it with you and together. And I pray that this time would not only elevate our thinking about those ceremonies, but that it would just keep us in communion with you this week, constantly keeping us aware of the beauty and power of what you did for us on the cross. And we're so thankful for what your son Jesus did and it's in his name we pray, amen.

Thanks again for And And And we're that we cover in our sermon podcast or just another issues of dealing with culture or theology, those kinds of things, you can check out our cultivate podcast, which is on the same feed. However, you found this particular podcast. So again, this is Charlie, the lead pastor at The Grove, and thank you so much for joining us.