02
Sep '18
GATHER (Week 3): We Gather to Remember!
02
Sep '18
Key Verses: Acts 2:37-47 (NASB)
Why do we gather? God gathers His Church for His purposes and His glory! Remember the theme verse for this series of teachings called, “Gather!” Read Acts 2:37-47 (NASB).
In this primary witness of the early church, we learn what the Church is to do when we gather: 1) baptisms, 2) teaching time, 3) fellowship time, 4) breaking of bread, 5) prayer (worship), 6) witnessing & testifying to God’s work, 7) encouraging one another in the Christian lifestyle which included continued gatherings in their homes doing more of the same. The Church is not a complicated business, it is a lifestyle of friendship with God and people. The Church is not a once a week gathering, it is a gathering of people who do life together.
We gather to remember Jesus Christ and what He did for us! Today, we are going to focus on the 2 ordinances of the Church that we see in Acts 2—Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
What is an ordinance? An ordinance is something that has been established and set apart by God (ordained) as a sign or activity that demonstrates loyalty to Jesus Christ as King, that declares you are in His Kingdom now. It is a symbol, a sign, and a step toward. The ordinances symbolize (point to) something far greater than what it is in and of itself. The ordinances are outward signs of inward convictions; the ordinances brand us. Ordinances are steps of Christian discipleship that invite us deeper into a personal and growing relationship with Jesus. Ordinances are remembrances and times of celebration of Jesus Christ and what He has once and for all established for us through His life, death, and resurrection. They remember and point to Jesus, not to us!
You already witnessed the first of these two ordinances today when we experienced a baptism and we’ll end this message with an invitation for all who are gathered to participate in the Lord’s Supper.
Baptism: A Triumphal Entry!
In Acts 2:37-41, we read, “Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.’ And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation!’ So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.”
The people who are baptized are not baptized because of the command of Peter alone, but because Peter’s invitation to baptism agrees with the powerful command of Jesus Christ in the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20. As people are called by God to be gathered into the Church, they are not invited to religious activity that requires weekly attendance to show faithfulness, they are gathered to once and for all become a disciple/follower of Jesus Christ that requires a new way of faithfully living life. We demonstrate that faith conversion (the crossing of the line) through the ordinance of baptism. We are baptized once, but every time we see someone baptized we are to join with him/her and remember our baptism and what Christ has done for us.
Baptism reminds us of our call to faithfully follow Jesus Christ; that we are commissioned to a new life because we are now part of a new community that represents a heavenly kingdom that has come in us and is coming in its fullness. Baptism reminds us of the costliness of our gathering. The cost of the Church gathering is nothing less than the blood of Jesus Christ. No one can be gathered who has not come through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Many will visit church services, but the gathered are those who have been washed by the blood of Jesus. The cost was to the very last drop of blood from Jesus’s nail scared hands that now receive you to Himself.
Listen to Paul elevate the importance of what baptism symbolizes in Romans 6:3-7, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.”
Don’t forget this—our baptism impacts who we are and how we live! As Paul explains of who we are in Ephesians 4:4-6, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” I invite you today to be baptized as more than a symbol—it is a sign of your loyalty to the King of kings and a step of discipleship! This is who you are gathered to be, and this is what we remember when we gather!
The Lord’s Supper: When We Remember at What Cost!
Let us now remember the cost of this gathering as Jesus commanded and instituted. How costly is your privilege to be a member of the body of Christ? On the first Sunday of the month we remember at FBC, but in the early church they remembered every time they gathered—daily. Listen to Acts 2:42-47, “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
How the Church gathered together in the book of Acts directly impacted how the Church lived in the book of Acts. They reaped what they sowed! They gathered to remember, but they remembered for a purpose greater than their own security—they remembered so that they would live faithfully, generously, sacrificially. Are you missing out on the abundant life of Jesus Christ, on being a part of the great harvest of souls in these last days upon the earth? Are you choosing to sow into the Kingdom of God like they did in the Acts 2 Church?
We eat of Jesus’ body and we drink of Jesus’ blood. These elements are more than symbols! These are signs of the new covenant for which Jesus gave it all! And this is the call to take Jesus-like steps of discipleship in our own lives. As you remember what Christ has done for you today, as you ask Him once again to forgive you of your sins and to qualify you for this meal by His grace alone, may you also ask Him what steps of Christian lifestyle you must take to look more like the Acts 2 Church.
Paul taught us these words of institution. Please listen to these words closely as we prepare to receive the elements of communion and to take them into our bodies as His one body: “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
Gather Week 3: Listen to it here
The video series can be found by clicking HERE.