See the Word
As human beings, we are naturally visual creatures. We long to see things. We want to see evidence of things, we want to see the things we love. As believers, our ultimate hope when Christ returns is to see God face to face. But until then, we do not always get to see. We long to see our Savior, but we cannot. As Peter says in 1 Peter 1:8, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy.”
We long to see our Savior and we feel that longing on Sunday mornings, but we simply cannot see him until he returns. Perhaps that is why we are drawn to things like videos or performances or movies depicting biblical truth, because we long to see what we have heard and believe.
God, in His grace, has given us two important signs (“things we see”) in our worship service that remind us of important truth and encourage our hearts in faith. Those two signs are The Lord’s Supper and Baptism. These two signs are how we see the Word when we gather. Mark Dever says it like this,
“They [baptism and the Lord’s Supper] are the moving pictures that represent the spiritual realities of the gospel, written and directed by Jesus himself.”
Because Jesus commanded these things for the benefit of our faith, we, as a church, want to be sure that we carefully and faithfully carry them out as God has commanded in His Word. One of the distinguishing marks of a true church is the practice of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Let’s start with baptism. Baptism is the visible sign that someone has passed from death to life. Baptism is the picture that someone’s old life of sin has died and been buried with Christ in the water and that he/she has been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life. Baptism is also the sign or picture that the church believes and affirms the reality of that new life in Christ for that individual. Baptism is a beautiful picture that we get to see in our service of the salvation that Jesus has accomplished and the Spirit has applied in the hearts of people. I am thankful we have a few baptisms coming up!
The second sign is the Lord’s Supper. In the Lord’s Supper, we see a picture of what Christ has done for us on the cross and the benefits of his work. We are reminded of his sacrifice for us. We look around and realize that Christ’s death has brought us together as a church. And we look forward to when we share a heavenly meal with our Savior and see him face to face.
These two ordinances are great gifts to us because they serve as visual and physical reminders of spiritual realities. They allow us to peek behind the curtain to see what God has done and is doing. One day, that curtain will be opened and we will see the fullness of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ. I look forward to that day!