Sermon Notes

Matthew 3 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from the heavens said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 28 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
1 Corinthians 11 23 For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 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.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.28 Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For all who eat and drink without discerning the body eat and drink judgment against themselves. (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, NRSVue)
Matthew 3 3-14 Jesus then appeared, arriving at the Jordan River from Galilee. He wanted John to baptize him. John objected, “I’m the one who needs to be baptized, not you!” 15 But Jesus insisted. “Do it. God’s work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism.” So John did it. 16-17 The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God’s Spirit—it looked like a dove—descending and landing on him. And along with the Spirit, a voice: “This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.”
Matthew 28 19-20 Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”
1 Corinthians 11 23-26 Let me go over with you again exactly what goes on in the Lord’s Supper and why it is so centrally important. I received my instructions from the Master himself and passed them on to you. The Master, Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, took bread. Having given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, broken for you.
Do this to remember me.” After supper, he did the same thing with the cup: “This cup is my blood, my new covenant with you. Each time you drink this cup, remember me.” What you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and every time you drink this cup, you reenact in your words and actions the death of the Master. You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the Master returns. You must never let familiarity breed contempt. 27-28 Anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Master irreverently is like part of the crowd that jeered and spit on him at his death. Is that the kind of “remembrance” you want to be part of? Examine your motives, test your heart, come to this meal in holy awe. 29 If you give no thought (or worse, don’t care) about the broken body of the Master when you eat and drink, you’re running the risk of serious consequences. (The Message, MSG)

As Baptists, we uphold two ordinances of the Church: Baptism and The Lord’s Supper. Baptism—from which Baptists receive our distinctive denominational identity—comes from the Greek word, “baptizó," which means “to immerse in, or wash with, water.” In the New Testament, John the Baptist was the first individual that to baptize followers as part of his ministry. His baptism always accompanied a prophetic call to repentance for the forgiveness of sins to prepare people for God’s coming reign and the arrival of the Messiah. Thus, in John’s day and time, baptism was a ritual act that functioned as an outward sign of one’s purification in preparation for the impending kingdom/kin-dom of God. However, after Jesus’ baptism, death and resurrection, water baptism became a universally practiced rite which symbolized admission into Christian community. The second ordinance—The Lord’s Supper—is the last meal that Jesus shared with his disciples before he was arrested, tortured, and crucified. This ordinance draws its name from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians where he describes the events that occurred on that Maundy Thursday before Jesus was crucified.
When interpreted collectively, Baptism and The Lord’s Supper function as symbols of God’s amazing grace which reconciles us to God through Jesus Christ. Baptism represents the death of our old selves, the people we once were, before we were claimed, saved, and liberated by Jesus. Likewise the Lord’s Supper table represents the abundant life that we now experience because of the sacrificial body and blood of Jesus. Both of these ordinances—also called sacraments in other branches of Christendom (baptism, confirmation, communion, penance, anointing the sick, ordination, and matrimony)—are visible signs that were instituted by Jesus the Christ to symbolize Divine grace. These ordinances are theological convictions that Christians hold to be true about the intrinsic character of the Church. Jesus’ baptism, the great commission to baptize and teach followers about Jesus, and the continued celebration of the Lord’s Supper is what unifies every Christian.
These teachings are the foundation of the Christian Church as it is built upon the cornerstone of Jesus of Nazareth. Repentance, forgiveness, the broken body and shed blood of Jesus, these are the organizing ordinances; without which we do not have common experience, common purpose, and common story. These two ordinances distill the full meaning of the gospel into two symbolic acts: the birth of new life and the sustenance of resurrected life.

Matthew 3 13-14 Jesus then appeared, arriving at the Jordan River from Galilee. He wanted John to baptize him. John objected, “I’m the one who needs to be baptized, not you!” 15 But Jesus insisted. “Do it. God’s work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism.” So John did it. 16-17 The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God’s Spirit—it looked like a dove—descending and landing on him. And along with the Spirit, a voice: “This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.”
In the opening verses of the lesson, Matthew introduces the adult Jesus onto his narrative stage for the very first time so readers can grasp his particular theological understanding of Jesus’ identity and relationship to God. By comparing the four gospel accounts of Jesus’ baptism, we are able to glean Matthew’s perspective through discerning how he narrates this incident differently than Mark, Luke and John (see Mark 1.9–11; Luke 3.21–22; John 1.29–34.) Matthew tells his gospel in this way so we can understand his Christology—how he understands Jesus to be the Christ.
As Matthew tells the story, Jesus “appears,” presenting himself in the midst of the repentant people who are waiting to be baptized by John. He does not journey from Galilee, or send word that he is on his way. He just appears, joining the others who humble themselves before God, submitting to the confessional nature of baptism. John immediately recognizes Jesus as the Messiah and objects to baptizing him. However, Jesus—who speaks for the first time in Matthew—contextualizes his baptism as a continuation of the work God has already performed throughout history and overcomes John’s objections. When Matthew writes, “fulfilling all righteousness,” as translated in the NRSVue, or “putting things right,” as translated in the MSG, he means doing the will of God. In the Gospel of Matthew righteousness and fulfilling scripture are important themes. Righteousness and fulfillment center on both John and Jesus doing God’s will. Together, both men will play a role in God bringing forth the salvation of the world.
Matthew presents Jesus’ baptism as the revelation of Divine will. The skies opening up, God’s Spirit descends in the form of a dove, and God’s voice ringing out from heaven, reveal Jesus as God’s son and human agent on earth. Matthew’s audience—1st century Palestinian hearers and readers—would have recognized “sonship” as an indication of a human representative which carried out God’s will.
Further, the appearance of the dove invokes Genesis 1 and the fluttering of “ruah”—literally, the breathe or “Spirit” of God—over the chaotic waters of creation. For Matthew, the inauguration of the kingdom of God/heaven is a second creation or “genesis” in Greek (the same word that Matthew employs to describe Jesus’ genealogy.) Jesus’ baptism provides Matthew a vehicle for publicly announcing that Jesus is indeed the Son of God.
Matthew 28 19-20 Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”
In Matthew 28:19-20, prominent themes that the Matthean writer has emphasized throughout his gospel resurface: the importance of baptism and teaching. While baptism was a practice of the entire early Church, the threefold Trinitarian formula is rarely found in the rest of the New Testament. Biblical scholars believe it comes from worship practices that the Matthew Church developed and kept alive. In the seventh chapter of The Didache—an early Christian handbook on early Church doctrine, rituals, and ethics—says disciples were to baptize in the three-fold name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Baptism is the act that marks the transition from outside the Christian community to discipleship within it. While up until this point, baptism has only been associated with John the Baptist or Jesus, now the act of baptism becomes the primary mark of Jesus’ disciples—those who will now make, mark, and mature disciples through baptism and teaching. While Matthew only presents Jesus as the supreme teacher/rabbi, now the disciples are given the authority to both baptize and teach. By extension all early Christians are expected to live out the Great Commission by baptizing and teaching people to observe everything that Jesus taught. This includes all of his sermons, the five major discourses, and the parable object lessons within the Gospel of Matthew. Likewise, contemporary Christians are expected to also live out the Great Commission’s mandate to make, baptize and teach new disciples.
1 Corinthians 11 23-26 Let me go over with you again exactly what goes on in the Lord’s Supper and why it is so centrally important. I received my instructions from the Master himself and passed them on to you. The Master, Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, took bread. Having given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, broken for you. Do this to remember me.” After supper, he did the same thing with the cup: “This cup is my blood, my new covenant with you. Each time you drink this cup, remember me.” What you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and every time you drink this cup, you reenact in your words and actions the death of the Master. You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the Master returns. You must never let familiarity breed contempt.
The final lesson pericope comes from a portion of 1st Corinthians that addresses how the Corinthians are inappropriately approaching the Lord’s Supper. As Paul explains how he learned of Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper, he recounts that he was sharing what had been handed down to him; he is essentially carrying the traditions of Jesus teaching forward to a new generation. All of the Gospels, preserve similar traditions of the first Lord’s Supper, which reveals its theological and ritual importance to the early Church.
What Paul passes on is Jesus’ emphasis on two remarkable symbols, the bread and the cup. Deliberately, after the Passover feast, Jesus took the bread, and said to them, “This is My body, broken for you.” The symbolism of the bread is two-fold—the body of Christ is first given to us, and second broken for us. The giving symbolizes the grace of God; the brokenness symbolizes the sacrificial love that this gift entails. The bread symbolizes that Jesus is the one who empowers us to obey the Word of God, love one another, forgive one another, and be tender, merciful, and kind to one another.
Following that, Jesus took the cup. The wine of the cup symbolizes His blood, which He said is the New Covenant, the new arrangement for living that God has made, by which the old life is ended. Thus, the blood symbolizes transition. We are no longer to live for ourselves. When we take the cup and drink it, we are publicly proclaiming that we agree to the death of our old life, and believe that the Christian life is a continual experience of life coming out of death.
Thus, every celebration of the Table involves the following: We are consenting to follow our Lord, to go to death as he went to death that we might rise again in the new life of the spirit. This is to go on through the whole age, from the first coming until He comes again. This is a constantly repeated feast by which we, in symbol, tell over and over the heart of our Christian faith, that the old life dies in order that the new life might live.
27-28 Anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Master irreverently is like part of the crowd that jeered and spit on him at his death. Is that the kind of “remembrance” you want to be part of? Examine your motives, test your heart, come to this meal in holy awe. 29 If you give no thought (or worse, don’t care) about the broken body of the Master when you eat and drink, you’re running the risk of serious consequences.
Here, Paul provides clues to the problematic way that the Corinthians are observing the Lord’s Supper. In 11:21 he says, “Each one takes his own supper and one is hungry while another is drunk,” indicating there are worshippers who fail to partake of this ordinance within the corporate worship setting. They do not wait for their fellow Christians to arrive before they eat and drink. Further, some Corinthians may be eating and drinking to excess, treating the Lord’s Supper as an occasion to get drunk and party as opposed to a solemn ritual that symbolizes Christ’s ultimate sacrifice. Other Christians would eat and drink up all of the bread and wine, greedily leaving nothing for those Christians who did not Have the opportunity to come to the gathering early.
Paul is rebukes these Corinthian Christians because they were partaking in an unworthy manner, evidenced by the fact that they were careless, selfish, and indifferent to the needs of others. They were coming to the Lord’s Table and treating it like it was a routine gathering, devoid of theological significance or spiritual gravity. Further, they failed to discern the community of God—the Church—as the physical and spiritual context for celebrating the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ. Paul teaches that it’s wrong to be careless or thoughtless about the Lord’s Supper. After all, the body of Jesus Christ is involved—his death on the cross for us, his life made available to us. But, beyond that, the Supper means that we must also have concern and care for each other, the fellow members of His body; we must always recognize those ties. When we don’t, we expose ourselves to dangerous consequences.
It is a perilous practice to act as though the death and the life of Jesus mean nothing to us. When we do that, we become sharers of the guilt of those who put Jesus to death. Thus, proper participation involves a careful self-examination. The word, examine, means “to prove,” or literally, “to qualify” oneself. How do we do that? First, we must handle our sin honestly, acknowledging that we are not perfect. Then, we should confess our sins before God and repent—change our minds about wanting to do the things that pull us away from the will of God. God will cleanse us. Finally, we should remember that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice is the ground of being for any discussion or observance of the Lord’s Supper. Our minds should be trained on what his sacrifice means for our salvation, our Christian witness, and our resurrected lives. When we do these things, we are qualified to meet God at the table and participate in the Lord’s Supper.

i. Go to the website, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0714.htm, to read The Didache.