Sermon Notes for Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Signed, Sealed, and Delivered – Part Two
Matthew 26:26-29; Matthew 28:18-20
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
June 28, 2009

We made an introductory exploration of the Bible’s teaching on what we refer to as ‘sacraments’, from the Latin sacramentum, a translation of the Greek word musterion (mystery). That aspect of mystery is foundational, for while we can grasp truly the necessity and efficacy of the sacraments, we cannot know fully the way in which God applies them to us.

We sought to make three key points last Sunday:

The sacraments are the means the Holy Spirit uses to give us Christ.
The sacraments are the normal means that the Holy Spirit employs to make disciples and nourish them in the Faith.
The sacraments are the means the Holy Spirit uses to create, identify, and sustain the Christian Church as a society distinct from the world.

All of these truths have at their core that the sacraments are the work of the Holy Spirit, clothing us with Christ in baptism and feeding us with the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist. Ah, but right there in that statement is a clue to how we proceed. We confess that the sacraments are first of all a work of God, gifts of his grace, rather than something we do alone. This is seen most clearly in the crucial bond which stands behind and unites the two sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, the Biblical revelation of God’s covenant.

I. Covenant Basics – Genesis 15-17; Deuteronomy 6-7
A. Bond in Blood, with blessing and curse, stipulations and promises, established by a sovereign with a subject, and secured by signs and seals.
· Suntheke and diatheke
· Guess which one is used of God’s action to us!
· It is God who ‘cuts covenant’ with us, not us with him

B. The Essential Structure of the Biblical Revelation
· Not a side issue, but at the core – Genealogies, and why we don’t read them anymore

C. Never Made with One Person Alone, but FEDERALLY, REPRESENTATIVELY, with the subject and all who proceed from him.
- Adam, Noah, Abraham, Israel, David, New Covenant
- One not obliterating the other but transforming it, glorifying and fulfilling it in Christ.
· BUT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO THINK BIBLICALLY ABOUT COVENANT AND NOT INCLUDE ‘SEED’.

II. Covenant Continuity and Solidarity – Colossians 2:11ff
A. Christ Commands Baptism and the Eucharist because they are the Objective Signs and Seals of the Objective and Subjective Work of the Spirit.
B. Christ, the last to be circumcised, and now, through baptism we enter into his circumcision, a rite that reached its fullness when he was crucified and shed his blood for our sins.
1. At his death – blood and water poured out, the order being supremely important
2. Now, water replaces blood, as the ‘sign’ of cleansing and covenant
C. Christ – Last Adam, Saving Ark, Seed of Abraham, Lamb of God, Son of David, Mediator of the New, creating a new Israel.
· Are you under the New Covenant or not? If so, then you are a citizen of Zion/Israel – grafted into the people of God
D. That ‘People’ includes children: 1 Corinthians 10:1-4
· How many of the Israelites were baptized at the Red Sea?
· How many ate from Christ in the wilderness?
- Acts 2:38-39; 1 Corinthians 7:14
- FOR A SIGN AND SEAL OF THE COVENANT TO DENIED TO A CHILD WOULD HAVE TAKEN A NEW DIVINE REVELATION AND WOULD HAVE BEEN AS SHOCKING TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE AS THE CROSS ITSELF. Peter would have had to have stood up an said, “The promise is for you, but NOT for your children…”
- Whole households were baptized because the evangelism of the early church was Covenant Evangelism rather than individual evangelism alone. Indeed, that practice, maligned by moderns shaped by radical individualism, continued across the world, with whole peoples and tribes being baptized because their ‘covenant head’ was baptized.
· Aim for the head!
· WDPW on Baptism of Children - That the promise is made to believers and their seed; and that the seed and posterity of the faithful, born within the church, have, by their birth, interest in the covenant, and right to the seal of it, and to the outward privileges of the church, under the gospel, no less than the children of Abraham in the time of the Old Testament; the covenant of grace, for substance, being the same; and the grace of God, and the consolation of believers, more plentiful than before: That the Son of God admitted little children into his presence, embracing and blessing them, saying, For of such is the kingdom of God: That children, by baptism, are solemnly received into the bosom of the visible church, distinguished from the world, and them that are without, and united with believers…That they are Christians, and federally holy before baptism, and therefore are they baptized: That the inward grace and virtue of baptism is not tied to that very moment of time wherein it is administered; and that the fruit and power thereof reacheth to the whole course of our life;

III. Covenant Reality in the Sacraments
A. Eat and Live, Eat and Die.
B. Can’t Come to the Table until You Have Washed
C. What the Spirit is Doing as he Hovers over the Baptismal Waters (and the grace being exhibited and applied is not confined to the moment of the administration of the rite and the promises: they continue through the whole of life).
1. In a Word, the Spirit is Making a Disciple of Christ and a Member of the Church
2. Not Every Disciple Proves True (A Judas can arise in the finest of flocks under the best of Pastors!). The secret things belong to the Lord – Deuteronomy 29:29.

WDPW on Baptism (Including Credo and Paedo): "That it is instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ: That it is a seal of the covenant of grace, of our ingrafting into Christ, and of our union with him, of remission of sins, regeneration, adoption, and life eternal: That the water, in baptism, representeth and signifieth both the blood of Christ, which taketh away all guilt of sin, original and actual; and the sanctifying virtue of the Spirit of Christ against the dominion of sin, and the corruption of our sinful nature: That baptizing, or sprinkling and washings with water, signifieth the cleansing from sin by the blood and for the merit of Christ, together with the mortification of sin, and rising from sin to newness of life, by virtue of the death and resurrection of Christ…This being done, prayer is also to be joined with the word of institution, for sanctifying the water to this spiritual use; and the minister is to pray to this or the like effect: "That the Lord, who hath not left us as strangers without the covenant of promise, but called us to the privileges of his ordinances, would graciously vouchsafe to sanctify and bless his own ordinance of baptism at this time: That he would join the inward baptism of his Spirit with the outward baptism of water; make this baptism to the infant a seal of adoption, remission of sin, regeneration, and eternal life, and all other promises of the covenant of grace: That the child may be planted into the likeness of the death and resurrection of Christ; and that, the body of sin being destroyed in him, he may serve God in newness of life all his days."
Then the minister is to demand the name of the child; which being told him, he is to say, (calling the child by his name,) I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
As he pronounceth these words, he is to baptize the child with water: which, for the manner of doing of it, is not only lawful but sufficient, and most expedient to be, by pouring or sprinkling of the water on the face of the child, without adding any other ceremony. This done, he is to give thanks and pray, to this or the like purpose: "Acknowledging with all thankfulness, that the Lord is true and faithful in keeping covenant and mercy: That he is good and gracious, not only in that he numbereth us among his saints, but is pleased also to bestow upon our children this singular token and badge of his love in Christ: That, in his truth and special providence, he daily bringeth some into the bosom of his church, to be partakers of his inestimable benefits, purchased by the blood of his dear Son, for the continuance and increase of his church. "
And praying, That the Lord would still continue, and daily confirm more and more this his unspeakable favour: That he would receive the infant now baptized, and solemnly entered into the household of faith, into his fatherly tuition and defence, and remember him with the favour that he sheweth to his people; that, if he shall be taken out of this life in his infancy, the Lord, who is rich in mercy, would be pleased to receive him up into glory; and if he live, and attain the years of discretion, that the Lord would so teach him by his word and Spirit, and make his baptism effectual to him, and so uphold him by his divine power and grace, that by faith he may prevail against the devil, the world, and the flesh, till in the end he obtain a full and final victory and so be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Because of God’s grace and tender mercy, we are covenant people, and we are obligated to live in covenant, worship according to the covenant, and maintain the signs and seals of the covenant throughout all generations. In both Baptism and the Eucharist we hear Christ say, ‘This is my blood of the covenant’, for it is his sacrifice which has ratified the new covenant, cleansed our sins, and sealed us with the Spirit.

Together with the ministry of the word of God, this is how Disciples are made; this is how the Church is built.