Symbols
Day One Why
Do Fools Fall In Love?
Why is the sky blue? What makes an airplane be able to fly? Why are Christmas and Thanksgiving so close
together? How does the earth turn upside
down and nobody falls off? Why do fools
fall in love?
Have you ever attempted to
explain something that you have always just accepted and never really
analyzed? It can be pretty tough! Sometimes it can be impossible. That might be where you are in regard to the
ordinances of the church.
While the Catholic Church
has what they call the seven sacraments, we feel that the New Testament only
documents two ordinances. Ordinances are
very different than a sacrament and we will look a little bit at some of those
differences when we take a specific look at the ordinances. But first, what is an ordinance?!
The word ordinance is never
actually used in the New Testament in regard to our named ordinances. Don’t get too confused just yet, there will
be plenty of time for that later. We do
see forms of the word “ordinance” in the Old and New Testament. There are six words in the Old Testament and
five words in the New Testament that are translated into various words such as
statute, decree, command, precept, arrangement, and even judicial appointment
to name a few. To make it simple, the
use of the word (or translated word to mean) ordinance in the Old and New
Testament basically means “a decree or a command.”
Read the following passages
and see how a meaning of command could be understood. What is the command?
Matthew 28:19
Luke 22:19
I Corinthians 11:24-25
Day Two Symbolic
Symbolism
On a few occasions I have
ventured into the rooms of my children in an attempt to encourage them to
clean. While a few of my children
welcome my intrusion and are more than happy to physically leave the room while
I end up doing the cleaning, the others are not quite so sure of my intent or
even my competence. I have many times
began to throw something away only to discover that this empty pop can, or
ticket stub, is not trash but indeed a treasured reminder of a significant
event. I discover this through the shriek
sound of “What are you doing?! I soon
am educated into the meaning behind these items that I once saw as meaningless
trash.
We all have significant
items that we keep around because they in some way remind us of a significant
event or experience in our life. I wear
a wedding ring on my fingers that is a symbol of the commitment I made to
Andrea when we got married. We actually
have many of the teeth that our children have lost as a reminder of those phases
of their childhood. In a baby book my
mother has clippings of my hair she swept up at my first haircut. Symbols are important, not because of the
item itself, but because of what they remind us of or what they proclaim.
Read Genesis 9:8-17, what was
the symbol in this passage and what is the significance?
What are some other symbols
throughout scripture? What is their
significance?
What makes a symbol
meaningful and significant?
Remember, a symbol is only
significant because of the experience or promise that is symbolizes. The significance is not absent if the symbol
is gone, the symbol is only there as a reminder or a proclamation of the
significance. Example: If I fail to wear
my wedding ring am I not still married. I someone else places my ring on their
finger then are they married instead of me?
Understanding the difference
between a symbol and the actual experience it symbolizes is central to
understanding our ordinances.
Day Three Picture
Proclamation
Last year on my birthday my
then six year old Isaiah made me a special gift. Most of our children had made their gifts for
me (if you ask them about this they will most likely proclaim that they have to
make gifts since I consistently fail to give them their allowance) this
year. When I opened up Isaiah’s gift I
had to think for a moment. It was the
letters “D” and “A” cut out of cardboard and colored to perfection. I couldn’t think of what “D” and “A” stood for
so I finally had to inquire.
“It stands for Dad Anthony,”
Isaiah quickly responded.
It was a perfect picture of
what he wanted to do. To have made me an
“R” and an “A” would not have said it as perfectly. Sometimes the right picture is far more
effective than anything we can say or describe.
Russian
writer Ivan Turgenev wrote, "A picture shows me
at a glance what it takes dozens of pages of a book to expound." This brings us to the first ordinance,
symbol, which is baptism.
Baptism
is a practice that predates the earthly physical existence of Jesus
Christ. It was a commonly used as a
ceremonial cleansing and is also seen when Naaman dipped himself seven times in
the
So,
you may ask, if Christ was without sin why was He baptized by John for a
baptism of repentance. This has been
thought out by many theologians who have come up with many conclusions. Most basically they say that Jesus was
baptized for three reasons; 1.) To authenticate the ministry of John; 2.) To
set an example for His own followers; 3.) To publicly dedicate His own
ministry. Whatever the reason it
definitely marked a transition of the act of baptism from being a proclamation
of repentance to one of acceptance.
Acceptance of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
Baptism
is the perfect picture of what we are proclaiming when we participate in
baptism. Even though it is symbolic, the
mode of full immersion is the most perfect picture of what has taken place in
our life. As we go under the water we
are proclaiming the death of Christ, the point of full immersion reflects His
burial, and as we come up out of the water we mirror His resurrection. This does not say that other modes of baptism
fail to reflect what has taken place in the life of the one being baptized only
to point out that this mode is a very accurate picture . The main point, however, is to always realize
that the act of baptism is not the act of salvation only the proclamation of
what has already taken place.
Just
like the symbol of the wedding ring, which does not make a person married
simply by wearing the ring, baptism does not make us a Christian. Baptism only proclaims that we have made a
decision to follow Christ and trust Him with our life.
There
are many forms of Christianity and groups indirectly related to Christianity
who have made baptism into something that it was never intended to be. Many believe that the actual act of baptism
is what saves a person and therefore do not believe that a person is actually a
true Christian until they have been baptized.
Others believe that the act of baptism is part of the salvation
process. Both of these interpretations
and any others that view baptism as anything other that being symbolic are
false. Also, since baptism is a
proclamation of a decision that a person has made then the practice of infant
baptism is not a true New Testament baptism.
An infant in incapable of making a decision such as a decision regarding
salvation, nor is any baptism done for
anther person, living or dead, a true baptism.
Baptism, is true baptism when, and only when, it is done as a symbolic
proclamation of a decision made by that individual to follow Christ.
In
Acts 16:25-34 we see a visual display of the act of salvation and baptism. The jailers heard the message from Paul and
Silas and received it as did their families. Then, after they had accepted
Christ, they were baptized as an act of public proclamation. When the jailers asked what they needed to do
to be saved, Paul and Silas said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be
saved.” Baptism was not listed as a
condition of salvation but was a natural act of obedience to proclaim the
decision they had made. It was the
perfect picture!
Day Four A Moment In Time
In her song sang for the
1988 Summer Olympics in
Each day I live I want to be a day to
give the best of me. I'm only one but
not alone, my finest day is yet unknown. I broke my heart, fought every gain,
to taste the sweet, I face the pain. I
rise and fall, yet through it all this much remains. I want one moment in time when I'm more than
I thought I could be. When all of my
dreams are a heartbeat away and the answers are all up to me. Give me one moment in time when I'm racing
with destiny. Then in that one moment of
time
I will feel eternity. I've lived to be
the very best. I want it all, no time
for less. I've laid the plans, now lay
the chance here in my hands.
The
emphasis on this song was, of course, athletes achieving what they had spent
their entire lives training and waiting for. The cry is to have that one moment
in time when they could look back and say, “There, I did it there!” An opportunity to allow oneself, in the
future, to look back and remember that moment of achievement. That glorious, never duplicated, moment.
This
is what our second ordinance is, a moment to look back and remember that
glorious, never to be duplicated achievement of Christ walking and eating with
men and then dying on the cross for those men.
Dying on the cross for us. The
Lord’s Supper is the second of the two ordinances only this ordinance is a time
of remembrance and reflection.
In
I Corinthians 11:24-26 we see a vivid description of the Lord’s Supper. What do you see going on and why?
As
you read further in verses 27-28 we see a warning regarding the taking of the
Lord’s Supper. What is this warning and
why do you think it is given?
When
we partake of the Lord’s Supper we are remembering that one moment in
time. The moment when Christ walked with
us and then died for us. We are
remembering the fact that death could not hold Him and that He lives now for
us. We are remembering that moment that
allowed us to be free from our sins and to have a relationship with God.
In
what attitude and spirit do you partake of the Lord’s Supper?
Note:
Just as with baptism, there are many groups that have misinterpreted the
symbolic nature of the Lord’s Supper.
There are those who believe in “Transubstantiation” which means that the
wine and the bread in the Lord’s Supper actually do become the blood and body
of Christ. Others believe in
“Consubstantiation” which means that, while the elements do not actually become
the blood and the body, they are nonetheless accompanied by the blood and the
body. These two beliefs are needed for
those who believe that Christ actually meant for us to physically partake of
His blood and body.
We
believe that He meant this as a symbol of remembrance and contemplation.
Day Five Now What?
One
evening, following one of my more useful and informative lectures to my
children, my oldest respectfully asked, “O.K. dad, just what do you want us to
do?” I had just spent a great deal of
time explaining and emphasizing the finer points of….well, something…..to my dear
children and in the end they just wanted to know “What do you want me to
do?” You may be at this point yourself.
We
have looked this week at the symbolic nature of our two ordinances. We have looked at the meaning of the public
proclamation of baptism and at the contemplative emphasis of the Lord’s Supper.
Now you may be asking, “Now What?” Well,
the answer is up to you. If you have
given your life to Christ but have never proclaimed it through the ordinance of
baptism then it is probably time for you to make that announcement. And, if you are about to partake of the
Lord’s Supper, which, if you will be at Grace Fellowship this Sunday you will,
then take a moment to prepare for that .
Read
Acts 2:41-42 and consider the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Remember,
that the emphasis on the ordinances from a New Testament is that of a command
to do these symbolic acts. A symbolic
act of obedience.
Now
what are you going to do?