Communion of the Saints ~ 20240114 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

24/01/14 Communion of the Saints (Acts 2); Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20240114_church.mp3

Walk Rooted in Identity

Our walk as followers of Jesus is rooted in our identity. Paul instructs Christians in different walks of life on how to live, because:

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

How we live is rooted in who we are. Because of grace, because of salvation, because our great God and Savior Jesus Christ is coming again for us, because Jesus Christ gave himself to purchase us and to purify us to be his own prized possession. Our identity is defined by Jesus. When we know who we are, whose we are, it affects how we live.

1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

We need to know; we need to be reminded whose we are.

We have been purchased,

1 Peter 1:18 ...not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Identity matters. Identity is inextricably related to purpose. If we know who we are, it clarifies for us what we are to live for, what we exist for, what we are to be about, what defines us. You belong. You belong to God, you are his own prized possession, so, glorify God in your body. Or as Peter puts it:

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Chosen. Royal. Priests. Holy. A people for his own possession. God’s people. Those who have received mercy. Therefore, proclaim the excellencies of him. Glorify him. Whose we are affects how we live.

Plural People

Notice in Titus 2 it is ‘us’; a people. In 1 Corinthians 6 it is ‘you’ plural, ‘y’all’ are not your own. 1 Peter it is ‘you’ plural; ‘y’all’; a people for his own possession. We, together, as followers of Jesus, those who have been redeemed, those who have been bought with his blood, those who have become a a people for his own possession, have a corporate identity, a group identity; not just individual identities, but we are connected, linked together, we share a common identity. We are now part of something bigger than ourselves.

Immersed In The Spirit

In Acts 2, at the feast of Pentecost, some crazy new things are happening. The resurrected Jesus has been with his disciples for 40 days, teaching them, He commanded them to wait for the promised Holy Spirit;

Acts 1:5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” ...8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Before we go any further, we need to define our terms. ‘Baptize’ is a Greek word that means ‘to immerse’ or ‘submerge’, ‘to soak’. John submerged you in water. But there is another baptism coming; you will be submerged by Jesus in the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was taken up into heaven while his followers watched; they returned to Jerusalem and were gathered together praying,

Acts 2:2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

This was not just a localized thing; the whole city heard the sound and it drew a multi-national crowd. Peter connected what was happening to the prophecy in Joel that ‘in the last days’ God would ‘pour out his Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy’ . At the end of his quote from Joel, it says ‘

Acts 2:21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ (cf. Joel 2:28-32).

Peter connects this to Jesus;

Acts 2:22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Acts 2:32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

Acts 2:36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Peter proclaimed Jesus of Nazareth, the one who was crucified, as Lord, YHWH, God of the Old Testament, seated at the right hand of his Father in glory. This message demands a response.

Acts 2:37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

They were cut to the heart. Peter had accused them of crucifying God, come in the flesh. They began to understand who this Jesus is. They were convicted of their sin, they knew they were in trouble, they knew they must respond to this message, but how?

Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Repent, have a change of heart and mind about Jesus. You thought he was a blasphemer, some guy claiming to be God, a troublemaker. You manipulated the Roman government to have him removed, executed. Have a change of heart; believe he is who he claimed to be, and God attested to this by the supernatural works he did, and by raising him from the dead. Have a change of heart, acknowledge that you are a sinner in need of forgiveness. Receive this word, believe, ‘call on the name of the Lord Jesus and you will be saved’ and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will be poured out on you; Receive the word and then, in response be immersed in water.

Acts 2:41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Baptism the Outward Response to Spirit Transformation

I have heard different Christians encourage different outward responses to the gospel; raise your hand, stand up, walk the aisle, come to the altar, pray this prayer, kneel down, sign this card, write in your Bible the date you believed in Jesus. Not saying that any of those things are bad or wrong, but there is one outward response that the Bible specifies, and that Jesus commands.

The resurrected Jesus, in Matthew 28,

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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 Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

As followers of Jesus, you are commissioned to invite others to follow Jesus, and you are to immerse those followers into the name of the one triune God, and you are to teach them how to follow Jesus.

When the jail keeper in Philippi asked:

Acts 16:30 ...“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Paul and Silas responded;

Acts 16:31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.

This hardened jailer had the previous day thrown them, beaten and bloody with open wounds, into the inner prison and put their feet in the stocks. Now, this broken man on the verge of suicide, convicted of his sin, his need of rescue, put his trust in Jesus, along with his family, and his heart was transformed by the Spirit of God. He immediately saw these criminals as fellow humans; more than that, brothers, who were in need of physical care, and he cared for their wounds. Then he was baptized, immersed in water as a physical sign, an outward response to the heart transformation he had experienced.

Theology of Baptism; Buried and Raised

Here’s a brief overview of what baptism means; Romans 6 bases our desire to stop sinning on the fact that we who have died to sin should no longer live in it.

Romans 6:3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.

If you were immersed into Christ, you were immersed into his death. Being immersed in water pictures death, burial, resurrection. The sinner I once was is now dead, buried, gone. The power of sin over me is broken. I have now been resurrected to walk in newness of life. This is who we are in Christ.

Theology of Baptism; Immersed Into the Body

1 Corinthians 12 pictures individual believers as essential parts of a much larger organism.

1 Corinthians 12:12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

Having been immersed in the Holy Spirit, we were immersed into one body. The one Holy Spirit that lives inside of Jesus-followers immerses every believer into a much larger organism, the body of Christ. Remember, we began by saying that we have a corporate identity; we are a redeemed people, purchased and purified to be God’s prized possession. Baptism pictures our immersion into the body of Christ, his Church, which includes all true believers in the real Jesus around the world and throughout history. Christian baptism is not specific to one local church; those who are baptized here at Ephraim Church of the Bible are not baptized into this church, they are baptized into the one true church, the body of Christ, of which we are a small part.

Baptism is a reminder of who we are, what happened to us. It is not a requirement for salvation; it is the normal response to God’s salvation. It is an outward, physical sign of the inner spiritual reality that happens when we are born again. We have received the Holy Spirit, we have been united with Christ, the old me has died, and I am raised to a new kind of life. The Spirit who lives in me connects me, makes me part of the body of Christ.

Devoted to Remembering Together

Back in Acts chapter 2,

Acts 2:41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Those who received his word, who heard the good news of Jesus proclaimed and had a change of heart and mind, responded by being baptized, and this was the visible sign that they were now connected, no longer with Judaism, or whatever their background was, but with the church, followers of Jesus of Nazareth. Baptized believers in Jesus were doing these things; they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.

The apostles, having become followers of Jesus, taught others to obey and follow Jesus. We now have the apostles’ teaching in the word of God written, the Bible. Peter, knowing he would die soon, didn’t appoint a successor; he wrote a letter.

2 Peter 1:12 Therefore I intend always to remind you ... 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and the fellowship, the communion of the saints, the unity and community of the church family.

They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Matthew 26:26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus said ‘do this in remembrance of me’ (Lk.22:19). In Acts 20:7, we see believers gathered together on the first day of the week to break bread, and to listen to the apostle’s teaching. Paul calls this the ‘Lord’s supper’ (1Cor.11:20). He says that the cup is a participation or fellowship or communion in the blood of Christ, and the bread is a participation or fellowship or communion in the body of Christ (1Cor.10:16). Originally a Passover meal, where the blood of the lamb was a sign applied to the door, so judgment and death would pass over that house (Ex.12:12-13). The Passover celebration was designed for remembering and for teaching (Ex.12:14,24-27). The Lord’s supper is a means of reminding ourselves regularly that we are a redeemed people, bought with an infinite price, and that we belong to God. We are his own treasured possession.

Conclusion: Reminders of Identity

We need to be reminded of our identity. Baptism is an outward physical sign that the inward spiritual reality has taken place. Having been immersed in the Holy Spirit when we believed in Jesus, having been crucified with Christ, dead, buried, given new life, having been immersed into the body of Christ, we are then dunked in water publicly, to pledge our allegiance to Jesus Christ, to show visibly and physically what has happened to us really and spiritually.

Baptized believers devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. These are ways of regularly reminding ourselves and each other of our identity in Christ as a redeemed and purified people for his own possession.

***

2024.01.14 Sermon Notes

Communion of the Saints (Acts 2)

Our walk is rooted in our identity

Titus 2:11-14; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 1 Peter 1:18-19; 2:9-10

-this is a corporate (group) identity

Baptize; to immerse, submerge, or soak

Acts 1:5, 8; 2:2-4

The gospel: Jesus proclaimed as Lord

Acts 2:21-24, 32-33, 36

Respond to the gospel; repent (a change of mind)

Acts 2:37-39

Baptism the outward physical response to inner Spirit transformation

Acts 2:41; Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 16:30-34

Theology of baptism:

buried and raised; Romans 6:3-7

immersed into the body; 1 Corinthians 12:12-14

Baptized believers were devoted to:

the apostle’s teaching; 2 Peter 1:12-15

the fellowship; Acts 2:44-47

the breaking of bread and the prayers; Matthew 26:26-28; Luke 22:19; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 10:16; 11:20; Exodus 12:12-14, 24-27

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org