Baptism, Communion and Psalm 2
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This is one of those glorious Sundays in which we as a congregation celebrate both the Sacrament of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper on the same Sunday. However, the down side is the time available for my sermon very limited.
Rather than treating this as a liability, I am going to treat it as an opportunity this Sunday. I have entitled my sermon, Baptism, Communion and the Lord’s Supper. My text this morning is 2 Corinthians 1:21-22. I will be reading from the NIV translation rather than the ESV, which we have as our pew Bibles.
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
The first thing Paul does is he makes clear that his readers understand that they too share in the spiritual benefits he, Silvanus and Timothy share in. He writes, “Now it is God who makes both us AND you stand firm in Christ.” He then lists three spiritual blessing all believers receive from the Holy Spirit.
Being Anointed by the Holy Spirit
Being Sealed by the Holy Spirit
Receiving the Holy Spirit as a Deposit
What I am going to do this morning is show you briefly how each of these spiritual blessings relate to either baptism or the Lord’s Supper.
If you read your Bibles carefully, you will notice that the Holy Spirit is often associated with water. In the opening few verses on the Bible we find “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Gen 1:2) When Jesus was being baptized the Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove. (Mt 3:16) God used a dove to inform Noah that the waters of the flood subsided, and Peter teaches that the Ark that brought Noah and his family safely through water corresponds to baptism. (1 Pet 3:21)
Consequently, when we think about baptism, we should think about the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Baptism and the Anointing of the Holy Spirit
Baptism and the Anointing of the Holy Spirit
In last week’s sermon from Psalm 2, we learned that anointing in the Old Testament was the pouring on of oil to symbolize the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Christian baptism is directly related to this Old Covenant practice. Jesus contrasted His baptism to John’s saying...
for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Jesus was referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
The Holy Spirit had always been active in the lives of God’s people but starting at Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out upon God’s people in a new and more powerful way. Now not only a select few received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, but now all of God’s people were anointed for service. Paul writes of this truth in 1 Corinthians, saying:
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Jameson’s baptism today is a reminder to each and every one of us that part of God’s promise to us in Christ is to be anointed in power by the Holy Spirit. When we serve God, let us not imagine that we can do so by our own power, God empowers us to fulfill the calling He has given us. We also should not imagine that there are only a few ways to serve God. When we look at the lists of spiritual gifts we find in the New Testament, the variety is amazing. So boldly try out new ways of serving God, this is the best way of discovering your spiritual gifts.
Paul also mentions in our text, that the Holy Spirit seals us. This too is related to baptism.
Baptism and the Seal of the Holy Spirit
Baptism and the Seal of the Holy Spirit
What Paul has in mind is the ancient practice of placing an official seal upon an object or person to indicate ownership and the guaranteed of protection. God seals us, not with a physical seal of wax or clay, but with the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Paul writes of this twice in his letter to the Ephesians.
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Of course, we can’t see this inward seal, this is one of the reasons that Christ gave us the Sacrament of Baptism. It really doesn’t matter if you are from a Baptist tradition that practices only believer baptism or a tradition like ours that practices infant baptism, you need this reminder.
I can speak to this with authority, because I was baptized as an infant and later on in my teenage years my family attended an Evangelical Free Church that strongly pushed believer baptism. I made the decision at that time to be baptized. Can I remember that event? Honestly, I cannot remember much about it.
The Baptist argument that we should not be baptized as an infant because we can’t remember is not a very strong argument. Memories fad with time, no matter how old we are.
This is why I appreciate each and every baptism I witness. Just like the Lord’s Supper, we should participate in them by remembering that the promises given in baptism are ours. In a sense, each and every baptism should be something we participate in, so they become for us a “dry re-baptism”!
Today, we were all reminded that God promises to place His seal of ownership and protection upon us.
Finally, the Holy Spirit acts like a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. This promise is related to the Sacrament of Communion.
Communion and the Guarantee of Better Things
Communion and the Guarantee of Better Things
As we have been learning in Psalm 1 and Psalm 2, God promises us the holy and happy life. A life of prosperity and success. A life of blessing.
Of course, in this life we don’t enjoy these things perfectly. This is why the gift of the Holy Spirit is so precious. The Holy Spirit is not a force, but a person. He is the third member of the Trinity. Paul teaches us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. I don’t think we really fully appreciate what this means—God Himself is living in us! Not in the general sense that is true of the universe as a whole (for God is everywhere) but in the very special sense that was true of the Old Testament Tabernacle and Temple!
Communion is a reminder of this. When Jesus promised to “be with us, unto the very end of the age,” it is this indwelling of the Holy Spirit that He had in mind.
The Lord’s Supper goes by many names and one of them is Communion. It is called Communion because it reminds us that we are in communion with Jesus and all those who are united to Him in faith.
The reason Paul calls the Holy Spirit a “deposit’ is this: The Holy Spirit is acting like a deposit on a loan. When we take out a loan, our deposit acts like a guarantee of our promise to pay the loan back in full. The Holy Spirit, unlike our earthly deposits, is of infinite value—He is God Himself! This is why we can be so sure we will enjoy the perfectly blessed life.
The verse before our Scripture text this morning reads as follows:
For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
What Paul is saying is that all the good promises God makes to us in both the Old and New Testaments are not Yes and No, but in Christ they are always Yes!
Our daily experiences in this life may seem to be saying No. We suffer the loss of health, family, wealth and happiness. We are tempted and all too often we fall into sin. We don’t feel the thrill of victory, but all too often the agony of defeat! When times like these, happen in our life we need to remember that we have the deposit of the Holy Spirit guaranteeing better things.
The Christian religion is not opium, but a firm anchor fixed to reality. The sufferings and joys of this life are but a passing vapor, the true reality is Christ’s Eternal Kingdom! Communion is but a foretaste of the eternal feast we will someday enjoy. The smallness of the Communion bread and cup are a reminder of how small even the best things of this life are. The Best is Yet to Come!
Let us pray.