In the sermon on corporate worship, I mentioned that there were several elements of corporate worship that we weren’t going to discuss. We will look at some of these elements on the blog over the next few days. Today we will look at the ordinances.
The two ordinances of the church are: baptism and the Lord’s supper. These two elements are worship in that they are living dramas of the gospel. Both baptism and the Lord’s supper are visible demonstrations of the gospel. This is what makes them worship. They are not simply rituals that we practice out of obedience, but they are dramas that mean something. Too often we view these acts as something we are supposed to do, “we need to be obedient and be baptized.” While this is true, baptism is obedience, that is not all it is. When we practice an ordinance, we are not just exercising a duty. We should be worshiping. Worship will take place when our attention is directed to God and the gospel through these events.
In baptism, we are recognizing and worshiping God for what He has done in the life of an individual. In the Lord’s supper, we are recognizing and worshiping God for what he offered us through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.
The ordinances are not something that we practice out of dead obedience. They are means by which we can corporately reflect on the gospel and praise God for what he has done.
