Word of Salvation – March 2019
B.C.33 – Sacramental Religion
Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp
Scripture Readings: Genesis 17:1-14 & Romans 2:17-29
Introd: The next three articles of our Confession deal with the sacraments.
As we begin these studies of the sacraments I want to say two things at the outset:
First: the word ‘sacrament’ is not a word you’ll find in the Bible.
It’s just a useful term to describe the ordinances… the rituals Jesus established for His church.
So just because we don’t find the word in the Bible doesn’t mean we should reject it.
Second: The sacraments have always aroused controversy.
That has been a fact ever since the Reformation.
There is much disagreement between Catholics and Protestants about sacraments.
There is even disagreement over the number of the sacraments.
The church of Rome argues that there are seven sacraments.
We believe there are only two: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Rome include things such as marriage… religious orders and Confirmation.
But sadly, Protestants – already at the Reformation – couldn’t agree on the sacraments either.
Luther, Calvin and Zwingli argued about the precise meaning of the Lord’s Supper.
And the Anabaptists rejected infant baptism and had themselves rebaptised.
Sometimes the arguments were very bitter and long lasting.
Today we still experience division over the sacraments.
It is especially here that we become painfully aware of our dividedness as Christians.
Some of us have relatives and friends who reject infant baptism.
Some say the only valid baptism is by immersion.
Churches have split over whether to use grape juice or wine at the Lord’s Supper.
It’s sad that the very things Jesus gave to bless His church have caused such bitterness and hostility.
You could almost sympathise with William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army.
He rejected the sacraments altogether.
As far as he was concerned they only caused division anyway.
Of course we know that that isn’t the answer either.
We have a command of Jesus to make use of these things He has instituted.
He called us to baptise. He commanded the bread and wine in memory of Him.
So we must not be wiser than God.
Instead we must struggle with our brokenness in this area of our Christian life.
A] A VISIBLE/TANGIBLE GOSPEL.
- Tonight I want to stress the importance of the sacraments.
And I want to remind you that the Christian faith is a sacramental religion.
So to begin with please remember that the sacraments are not an optional extra for Christians.
We shouldn’t see them as something nice to have but that we can manage to do just as well without.
Of course that God can bless us just as well without the sacraments.
Many people in prisons and in institutions go without and yet God blesses them.
Ultimately… your salvation does not depend on your baptism or on the Lord’s Supper.
Yet these are God’s appointed means to bless His people.
So we may never regard the sacraments as something we can take or leave.
Why then are sacraments so important? Why does the Lord insist we use them?
Perhaps today we are in a far better position than ever to appreciate the reason for sacraments.
We live in a highly visual age.
We know that what we see with our eyes and touch with our hands
has far more impact than what we only hear with our ears.
What we see is remembered far more clearly than what we hear.
That is a principle well known to educators today.
Teachers use that principle as a basis for their teaching.
They tell a story in class…. but then they illustrate the story with pictures.
What we see is remembered with greater clarity than what we hear.
I know that from my own personal experience.
Some of us aren’t very good at remembering sermons. And we can’t take notes.
And while we do learn from them we also forget them quickly.
But I’ve been surprised how long people remembered my mouse-trap sermon.
Or the time I brought a brick into church as a sermon illustration.
We remember far more clearly what we see than what we hear.
There are some problems with that too of course.
One is that it isn’t easy to always come up with appropriate visual aids.
The other problem is that often we remember the mouse trap or the brick
but we don’t have a clue what the point of the exercise was.
Nevertheless the principle is valid:
When senses other than hearing are involved we understand much better.
That’s why we often say: A picture is worth a thousand words.
So we have audio-visuals in many areas of life today.
To make sure that we not only hear about something but that we also see it.
That’s why God gave the sacrament of circumcision to Abraham.
Abraham heard the promise that God would bless him and make him a great nation.
But then God reinforced that with a this tangible reminder of His covenant with Abraham.
The point is that human beings are creatures who live in a visible and sensory world.
That’s why television is such a powerful media.
We live in a world of things we can see and touch… a world of sensory perceptions.
And hearing is only one of our five senses.
There are also the senses of taste… smell… touch… and sight.
Today we realise as never before the importance of those other senses…. especially sight.
So the sacraments are God’s audio-visuals.
In His words God made promises to Abraham.
But in the sacrament God confirmed and reinforced those promises tangibly/visibly.
Today in the Word of the gospel we HEAR about our salvation with our ears.
But in the sacrament God has also provided for our other senses.
We see the water applied to the head of the covenant child.
We see the bread broken… the wine poured out… we taste the bread and wine.
So in the sacraments we have a visible…
…tangible way in which God speaks to us. They are God’s audio-visuals.
I love the way the Belgic Confession says that in this way God stoops to our weakness.
He recognises we are creatures bound to this earthly and material.
So He speaks to us in these earthly and material things.
It is as if the Lord wants to use every means possible
to bring home to us the awesome mystery of salvation and of His great love.
- At the same time we must realise that in the sacrament God does not give us anything new.
The message that comes to us in the sacraments is exactly the same message we hear in the gospel.
Here we must understand the correct relationship between the word of God and the holy sacraments.
And that is that the Word of the gospel has priority.
Just imagine that you are a (Sunday School) teacher and you are about to take a class.
You have come prepared with heaps of drawings… lots of illustrations.
As you begin the lesson you hold up picture after picture. Illustration follows illustration.
But thru it all you do not say a single word.
The kids might find that interesting but they wouldn’t learn much.
And they probably wouldn’t see the point of the lesson at all.
All the visual aids in the world won’t help them with the lesson unless there is the spoken Word.
Now let’s just change that example a little.
Imagine that next time we have the Lord’s Supper I remain absolutely silent throughout.
I pick up bread, break it and pass it around.
I pour out the wine and hand out the beakers.
And all that time absolutely nothing is said.
Now YOU would know what was happening because you’ve seen it before.
But something would be lost.
And for those who are new to the Christian faith it would be utterly meaningless.
The same would be the case if we just went thru the actions at baptism and never spoke a single word.
The point is that the sacraments take their meaning from the Word.
Without the Word they become totally meaningless.
We cannot separate the sacrament from the Word.
Abraham’s circumcision was meaningless apart from the Promises it confirmed.
So today we have these two sacraments that Jesus has instituted.
Two holy ordinances for His church: Holy Baptism and Lord’s Supper.
Please turn to Romans 4:11 and notice two things said about the OT sacrament of circumcision.
Two things we could say about all sacraments.
That is that they are both signs and seals. <<< READ IT >>>
Let’s look a little more closely at sacraments in terms of those two things: signs and seals.
B] THE SACRAMENTS AS SIGNS.
- In the first place we should see the sacraments as SIGNS.
All of us know the importance of signs.
We are confronted by signs of one sort or another every day… in fact, almost every hour.
All kinds of signs surround us… and they play a vital role in life.
Just take all the road signs away and see what happens… chaos on our roads.
Signs are there to help people – they give directions.
They point us to our destination.
In the Bible too we often read of signs.
The miracles of Jesus are often spoken of as signs. They are signs that point out who He is.
The gospels speak of events before the return of Jesus as “the signs of the times”.
They are signs that point to the coming of the Lord Jesus on the clouds of heaven.
So too the sacraments are signs… signs that point us to something.
Abraham’s circumcision was a sign of God’s covenant with him.
For us the broken bread and the poured out wine point to the broken body
and remind of the shed blood of Jesus on the cross of Calvary.
The water of baptism points to the cleansing that comes thru Him.
- However we should remember that a sign is never anything in itself.
I suppose I could make up a sign that you had never seen before.
A totally new… a made up road sign.
It would be totally meaningless to all of us.
A sign is only relevant in relation to the reality that it stands for.
Signs don’t just exist for their own benefit.
They always point to realities beyond themselves.
So too these sacramental signs in themselves are nothing.
The Apostle Paul makes that quite clear in the verse we read from Romans 2.28
There Paul, speaking about the O.T. sacrament of circumcision, says:
“A man is not a Jew if he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.
No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart….”
We could take that text and simply read baptism where Paul has circumcision.
A man is not a Christian if he’s only one outwardly, nor is baptism merely outward and physical.
No a man is a Christian if he is one inwardly; and baptism is a baptism of the heart by the Spirit.
IOW just having the sign by itself is meaningless… it is not going to help us in any way.
That sign points to a deeper… a spiritual reality.
Sacraments are outward signs of inner realities.
The inner reality of God’s grace working in us because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.
That brings us to an all-important point.
Imagine driving in the country and you suddenly see a sign in the shape of an “S” with ‘45km’ above it.
You look at that sign and you say: “How interesting – there’s a road sign!”
But you keep the car going at 100 kph in a straight line.
You know and I know that the result is going to be a trip to the panel beaters – if nothing worse.
The point is that they could put up a hundred signs before that “S” bend.
But as long as you don’t believe that the sign points to a corresponding reality in the road
you are headed for disaster.
The sign is nothing in itself – it is what it points to that is important.
So in the same way you can go thru the motions of baptism.
You can participate in a hundred Lord’s Supper celebrations.
But unless you believe the deeper reality those sacraments point to…
…the reality of God’s forgiveness that comes thru the cross of Jesus
…then you are headed for disaster …despite all your participation in the sacraments.
C] THE SACRAMENT AS A SEAL.
- Paul not only spoke of the sacrament in terms of a SIGN… he also spoke of it as a seal.
Seals too are something we are familiar with in ordinary everyday life.
Seals have a number of different purposes.
And so too it means several things to us when Paul speaks of a seal.
In the ancient world a seal was used as a sign of ownership.
Just as today many companies have a trademark as their seal.
Tradesmen would put their seal on what belonged to them and what they made.
The seal really said: This is mine it belongs to me.
In Gen.17 in the sacrament of circumcision God was saying: Abraham belongs to me.
Similarly we could say that in baptism God’s seal is saying that we are His.
God claims us for Himself and puts His seal of ownership on us.
Or think of it another way.
Electric power meters used to have a small lead seal on them.
That seal is a guarantee….!
A guarantee that the meter hasn’t been tampered with and that the reading is reliable.
So too the sacraments are God’s seal – His guarantee.
They are a pledge on His part that what He says is really true and reliable.
In his circumcision God was saying: my covenant is genuine and this is my guarantee.
Another way in which seals are used today is on a legal document.
Or perhaps on a diploma or certificate.
That seal shows that this is a genuine document…. that it is the real thing.
So too in the sacraments God shows us the genuineness of His promises.
That what He promises in the gospel is absolutely real.
God seals these things to us in a visible, touchable way.
So in whatever way we think about it the idea of a seal is very meaningful.
- In a sense the idea of a seal goes further than that of a sign.
Signs are important – we have seen that.
But we also saw that signs in themselves don’t do anything.
They do nothing but point to something else.
And it is the reality they point to that is all-important.
But when we now speak of the sacraments as seals then we go little further.
Seals don’t just point to something… they really do something.
On a legal document the seal is important because it really does something to that document.
That seal confirms and guarantees the document.
However we should be aware that we still have to look beyond the seal.
You could have a totally blank document with a valid seal.
That would be less than useless. It would even be dangerous… like a blank cheque.
The seal may guarantee the document but what is written on the document gives it its meaning.
So too it is God’s Word in the gospel that is at stake in the sacrament.
It is the promises of God in Jesus Christ that God guarantees to us.
In the sacraments God confirms to you His precious and great promises.
That’s why for us as Christians the sacraments are never something optional.
We disagree with William Booth and the Salvation Army.
Your baptism…. your Lord’s Supper participation… are not unimportant.
They are actually a means whereby the grace of God flows into your lives.
As we partake of them in faith, God confirms us in the gospel of Christ.
Let us gratefully accept that God has stooped to our weakness.
Praise God, that He not only tells us in His Word that He loves us.
God also demonstrates that over and over in the sacraments.
Christianity is a sacramental religion that you might have greater certainty of your salvation.
Amen
BC stands for Basic Christianity. What are the fundamentals of the faith?
BC also stands for Belgic Confession – a document in which the Christian church (in a time of great persecution) spelled out the basics of what she believes.
When Christianity is a mile wide and an inch deep it needs to grasp again the basics of the faith and confess them in a world where the faith is increasingly under attack.
Those who drew up the BC declared that they were ready to obey the government in all lawful things, but that they would “offer their backs to stripes, their tongues to knives, their mouths to gags and their whole bodies to the fire” rather than deny the truth expressed in this confession.