Communion and Baptism
There are heaps of weird people out there and we think they’re weird for all sorts of reasons. Some people are weird cause they dress differently than what we might call ‘normal’. Other people might have a particularly crazy hair style or body piercing that we think is weird and some people do things that we think are weird. I guess the thing that is common in the realm of the weird, is that it’s different than something we would do, that is seen to be normal in our society.
So tonight we’re going to pick on two weird things that Christians do that pretty much, no one else does in our society. Now you might have seen these two things happening on TV or in movies or you might have even seen them for yourselves in church. And I think there will also be a fair amount of different ideas out there for what these things are all about. The first one is called Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, the second one is called Baptism.
Now you guys might be thinking ‘oh man, we’ve really come on the wrong night, these guys are going to force us to do something crazy’ or something like that. But stick with us on this one, because we might actually learn something together that by ourselves we don’t fully understand.
I think if I was someone looking in on some of the stuff that we do here at church, then I’d probably think it was a bit weird too. So I thought by getting to know some of this stuff, then you won’t be fully weirded out and might have a chance some time to actually get involved in some of these things in the future.
Background info for leaders
a quick background for anyone who wants to brush up a bit. Baptism is a public ritual washing that shows on the outside what’s already happened inside of us with our relationship with God and him washing away all the bad stuff that we’ve done against him. So we are dunked into the water to show that we are dying to our sins, then brought back out to identify with Jesus in his resurrection as people who are cleansed from sin. In our church it is done in an animal water trough, the water doesn’t have any magical qualities, nor does the person baptising. The big thing that happens is that as we are obedient with God in what he calls us to do, then his Holy Spirit is enabled to work through us in a powerful way to both encourage and grow his Kingdom. Some churches say that the Holy Spirit comes into you at baptism or that you need a second baptism of the Holy Spirit, but we would say that the Holy Spirit enters into us when we make a commitment to God to give our lives to him and accept his forgiveness. The other thing is that many denominations baptise as a baby. We believe that being baptised is a choice of someone who is a Christian, not their parents, but don’t downplay the act if people have been baptised at birth, these denominations usually have confirmation to do a similar thing that our believers baptism does, in that they give their testimony (public declaration) when they believe for themselves and make their decision to live for God with their whole lives. Also don’t get hung up on the amount of water, of course as Baptists we go the full dunk and of course that’s right!! But who really cares, it’s the person’s heart that matters most.
Communion is like a remembrance feast that we have to remind us of what Jesus did for us on the cross. His body was broken, just as we break the bread and his blood was shed, that’s what the wine (or grape and blackcurrant juice that we have) is there to signify. Using basic elements makes it easy for us to duplicate and in a lot of ways, Jesus probably meant for us to remember him every time we have a meal, not in a church service with little glasses. So that’s what saying grace before a meal is kind of for. But that’s not to take away from what we do in church. Because when we remember what Jesus has done for us, we can’t help but think of the stuff that we’ve done to put him on that cross. So communion is usually a reflective time for us and a time where we can ask God to forgive us for the stuff we’ve done, so we can be clean once more. Just like the water in baptism, the bread and juice don’t have any special qualities. I think you’re just as holy to do communion with coke and chips! Cause it’s not the elements that hold the most significance, it’s what they represent. So be aware of this when you speak with the young people, not that I think we should be down playing the bread and juice, but that what we’re remembering is more important. Some churches believe that the bread actually turns into Jesus body and the wine into his blood. Sounds a bit cannibalistic right? This is a translation thing from the Greek, don’t get hung up on it. The biggest thing for young people is probably whether they should take it or not. I think we should be saying here that it’s up to them (or their parents), but ultimately if they are taking the elements because they are aware of what Jesus has done for them and want to remember this, then that’s great. If they’re just taking it cause it’s a free feed, then they should probably let it pass and go out to the crèche where they can get some biscuits instead!! Will God zap them with a bolt of lightening if they take it with the wrong motives… I don’t think so, for many, they will take it so they don’t look left out and that’s fine. I’d rather they took it and were challenged to think about it, than let it pass by and feel like they’re the only people in the room who didn’t and everyone’s staring at them!
The key is that we get our young people to identify in their lives with the real event that happened 2000 years ago when Jesus was taken to the cross and it’s our sins that he went there to forgive and he did it cause he loves us. That’s awesome stuff and well worth sharing, even if your group is a bit ratty!
Weird things that Christians do … Communion
Tonight we’re talking about communion, what do you think communion means, otherwise known as the Lord’s Supper? Might come out that there is bread and wine, or crackers and grape juice. Try and get them to say what they think these things are all about. They might know the basic answers, but our aim is to challenge them to connect this with a real event.
Read Matt 26:26-28. In it’s most basic form, communion is a remembrance ritual. It’s something that we do as Christians to remember what Jesus did for us on the cross by dying for our sins. The bread is about remembering how Jesus when he was going through his torture and crucifixion, had his body beaten up and spat on and nailed to a cross. The juice or wine is there to remind us of Jesus blood, because we need blood to live and before Jesus came, they had to sacrifice an animal and when it’s blood was shed and the animal died, God then allowed their sins to be forgiven. So Jesus became the sacrifice for us. It was like God allowed a piece of himself to be killed, so that if we want to have a relationship with him, then we can, by asking Jesus to take away our sins.
How regular do you think we should be having communion?
Do you think that anyone should take communion, or only those who believe in Jesus?
Just like when people have a minute’s silence on ANZAC day to remember those who fought for us in the war, so to in communion, we take time to reflect on what Jesus has done for us by dying.
Knowing this, do you think it’s fair enough that people are quiet and stuff in communion?
I guess then communion becomes a pretty personal thing, cause we’re thinking about what Jesus did for us personally. But also it’s meant to be more of a community thing that’s done all the time and the bread and juice are easy symbols to help us to remember.
Do you think that the way we do communion in our churches with little cups and small pieces of bread is what Jesus was talking about when he first did it?
What other times then do we eat and drink that can be a time of communion? Every time we eat a meal, that’s why we say grace before a meal, not as a ritual that we have to do, but as something where we can have kind of set times where we remember our relationship with Jesus. So that could be a good way to start thinking about Jesus, every time you eat.
If you were sitting in a church service and they started handing around bread and juice in communion, do you think you’d get involved, or just let it pass you by? Is communion something that many people would just do without fully thinking about it or just to fit in?
Do you think it’s wrong to have communion with anything else except for bread and juice? What are some of the issues either way?
Some denominations make people do classes before they are allowed to take communion, is this good or bad? Should we be doing this?
Why don’t we have wine or port for communion? Is it just that we’re cheap or worried about alcoholics? I’ve got no answers, just thought it could be an interesting question. People say that Jesus’ blood wasn’t fermented, so we drink juice… sounds a bid dodgy to me, cause Jesus would have drank wine, maybe it’s just cultural?
Weird things that Christians do … Baptism
Baptism is the other thing we’re talking about tonight. What do you guys think Baptism is all about?Might say it’s what your parents get done to you as a baby
Any of you guys been baptised?
Read Mark 1:9-11, Jesus baptism; Many people see the spirit coming on Jesus as a sign that that’s what happens to us, do you think the Holy Spirit comes on people when they’re baptised?
ReadMark 16:15, great commission. Seems like Baptism is a pretty strong thing for people to do to be saved, so do we have to be baptised to get into heaven? No we don’t, this is proven by the guy who died next to Jesus on the cross, but he did have special circumstances! Baptism is a submitting to authority thing, Jesus tells us to do it, so why wouldn’t we want to if we’re Christians?
One thing baptism has is water, no matter how it’s applied, what kind of things is water known as doing? When we take a bath, it cleans us
It’s exactly the same in baptism, except it’s not doing it to take a public bath, but instead it’s saying to people that we’ve had an internal bath when we asked Jesus to live in us and he’s washed us clean of all the stuff that we’ve done that God hates, which is called sin.
In our church, we do baptism’s up on stage in an animal’s drinking trough! (if you don’t believe me, have a look on stage after). Why do churches do baptism’s in such an obvious way and not in a private ceremony where it won’t be seen? Because baptism is a public thing, to tell others that you have been changed by your relationship with Jesus.
Most people when they get married don’t do it all secretive and hidden away, they want people to come along and witness what they’re doing. It’s the same with baptism, people want to share it with other people. Actually it’s quite similar to a wedding, cause the bride and groom don’t suddenly love each other more because the priest says that they’re married, they already love each other. But this is like the service that they show others that they love each other and are committed to each other for life. In a kind of similar way, people who get baptised are showing others their love for God and it’s what we’re called to do to show that to others.
As a part of our baptism services, we get people to tell everyone in the church a bit of a story about their life and how they came to become a Christian. Why do you think we’d do that? Just to embarrass them in front of hundreds of people! Not really, it’s to help other people to understand what being a Christian is all about and to encourage those people who already believe in Jesus.
Knowing all this about baptism, do you think it’s something that you’d ever do?
If you want to get baptised and are just waiting for someone to ask, then go and see Matt some time and he can work it out or talk to you further about it.