1. "As an assembly, we are a gathering that is fundamentally contrarian, even rebellious to the wisdom of this world and this age. We are not satisfied with the labels that this world gives us. Some are even misleading and destructive. Others are true but not that important."

2. "None of the divisions of this age are as significant as our unity in Christ."

3. "All of the authority exercised on the earth is a stewardship from Christ. Whether or not the person recognizes Christ as Lord, all of it is a stewardship from Christ. It is from Him and it is to be ultimately to Him."

4. "Among Christians, our partisan differences in a democracy are never ultimate. There is a strange calm that doesn't suggest nothing matters, but that what matters even more is secure beyond Satan's worst attempts to defeat us."

5. "Immersion is a great way to do it because it shows both that our confession of sin and our pledge of service is total. It's complete. It touches every part of us. It's not leaving out anything."

6. "When we identify ourselves with Christ, we identify ourselves with each other. Just like two children who both say, yeah, I'm their child. And they look at each other and they realize they have the same parents. They're part of the same family. They're acknowledging that they're siblings."

7. "Your place in the church has been purchased by the death of Christ. You are a member of the family, not for what you can do, not for what gifts or service you can give to us, but because of what God has done for you in Christ."

8. "Christians should be marked by service, no doubt, but only because we realize that even more fundamentally than we will ever serve each other, or the Lord, He has served us."

9. "Baptism is the obedience that pledges all other obediences to come. And the Lord's Supper is the reception that regularly and repeatedly renounces self and proclaims our utter reliance on being served by Christ. Either He feeds me with Himself or I starve. Forever."

10. "Everything we do today only makes sense finally because of what we know about tomorrow."

Observation Questions

1. In Matthew 28:18, what does Jesus claim has been given to Him, and what is the scope of this authority?

2. According to Matthew 28:19, what is the central command Jesus gives to His disciples, and what is the first action He mentions in carrying out this command?

3. In Matthew 28:19, into whose name does Jesus say disciples should be baptized?

4. What does Jesus instruct His disciples to teach in Matthew 28:20, and how comprehensive is this instruction?

5. What promise does Jesus make to His disciples at the end of Matthew 28:20, and what is the duration of this promise?

6. In Acts 10:47, what reasoning does Peter give for baptizing Cornelius and his household, and what does he then command?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that Jesus claims "all authority in heaven and on earth" before giving the Great Commission, and how does this relate to Daniel 7:14's prophecy about the Son of Man?

2. How does the sermon explain the relationship between Jesus' command to "make disciples" and the practice of baptism? Why is baptism described as the "initial marker" of entry into God's people?

3. According to the sermon, why does identifying with Christ through baptism necessarily mean identifying with other believers? What does this suggest about the nature of the church?

4. How does the sermon connect Jesus' command to observe "all that I have commanded" with the ongoing practice of the Lord's Supper, and why is the Lord's Supper described as both a remembrance and an anticipation?

5. What is the significance of Jesus' promise to be with His disciples "to the end of the age," and how does this promise shape the church's identity as a "hopeful church"?

Application Questions

1. The sermon emphasizes that worldly identity markers (race, politics, wealth, gender) are not as significant as our unity in Christ. In what specific relationships or situations this week might you be tempted to let these worldly categories divide you from other believers, and how can you actively pursue unity instead?

2. If baptism represents a total commitment that "touches every part of us," what area of your life have you been holding back from full surrender to Christ's lordship? What concrete step could you take this week to submit that area to Him?

3. The sermon states that our place in the church is "purchased by the death of Christ," not by our gifts or service. How might this truth change the way you view yourself or others who seem to contribute less visibly to the church community?

4. Considering that the Lord's Supper is meant to be a regular declaration of our "utter reliance on being served by Christ," what habits or attitudes in your daily life reveal self-reliance rather than dependence on Christ? How might you cultivate greater dependence on Him this week?

5. Jesus commands His followers to make disciples of "all nations." Who is someone from a different cultural, ethnic, or social background in your neighborhood, workplace, or community that you could intentionally build a relationship with for the purpose of sharing the gospel?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Daniel 7:13–14 — This passage contains the prophecy of the Son of Man receiving universal dominion, which Jesus fulfills according to His claim of all authority in Matthew 28:18.

2. Acts 10:34–48 — This account of Peter's encounter with Cornelius demonstrates the early church's discovery that the gospel and baptism extend to all nations, not just Jews.

3. Romans 6:1–11 — Paul explains the spiritual reality pictured in baptism: our union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

4. 1 Corinthians 10:14–17 — This passage teaches that participation in the Lord's Supper signifies our unity as one body in Christ, reinforcing the sermon's emphasis on the communal nature of the meal.

5. 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 — Paul recounts Jesus' institution of the Lord's Supper and explains that we proclaim Christ's death "until he comes," connecting remembrance with hopeful anticipation of His return.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Opening: The Gospel Reaches All Nations Through Every Age

II. We Are a Christian Church (Matthew 28:18)

III. We Are a Baptist Church (Matthew 28:19)

IV. We Are a Hopeful Church (Matthew 28:20)

V. Conclusion: The Church Is Marked by Gospel, Baptism, and Lord's Supper

Detailed Sermon Outline

Well, that message reaches to all eternity and to the end of the age. It's also reached to all nations. For those of you who are new to Christianity, who are just looking into it, this was actually a confusing point for Jesus' first followers. They were all Jewish, and when they told the message about Jesus as the Messiah and the Savior, they were a little surprised when some non-Jewish people who hadn't been looking for the Messiah, got interested and even seemed, as Hannah was just sharing, convicted of their sins and saw Jesus as their Savior. So the early chapters of Acts give us some interesting accounts of what happens when these Jewish Christian evangelists, like the Apostle Peter, end up speaking to Gentiles, like the Roman Cornelius, and the Roman Cornelius ends up wanting to trust Christ.

And one of the things that we see in Acts 10 is Peter, you can tell he puzzles over this for a minute, but then he says in Acts 10:47, Peter declared, Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they ask Him to remain for some days. Friends, that's what we see as the gospel begins to expand even in the pages of the New Testament as it begins to go to all nations through every age. As we continue on in this time together, let's go to God and ask Him for His help.

Let's pray.

Dear God, our Heavenly Father, we thank youk for this ability to meet here together. We don't take it for granted. We thank youk for the sweet unity that yout've given to us as a congregation. Thank youk for giving us all to share together in Christ and His love. Thank youk for helping us pull together as a church.

Lord Jesus, help us to keep this unity of youf Spirit in the bond of peace. Help us to love each other so that all will know that we are your disciples. Thank you for your promise to be with us always to the end of the age. Thank you for your commitment to the beauty of your Church. Thank you for the holy discipline that you have worked among us as members of your body.

Lord, we ask that our Church's holiness will reflect your own.

Thank you for giving our congregation honor among our sister congregations. Thank you for the favor Del Rey Church has in letting us meet here. Thank you for giving our congregation peace. Thank you for giving our congregation comfort in the hope of the gospel that's regularly held out to us even from Hannah a few moments ago as we heard her own testimony to your saving work in her life. Thank you for working so many of these blessings to us through the faithful preaching of your Word.

Which you've brought about in this congregation and among her elders and her members. Thank you for the joyful freedom that you have given us with each other for so many years. Lord, give us wisdom for the many questions that we're facing in these days. Lord, we want to pray for others. We pray for our nation and our world.

We pray for the medical researchers working on a vaccine for COVID-19. Lord, bless them in their work. Lord, we pray for the sick, that you would make yourself known to them through the challenges of this life. Lord, teach them to trust in youn even through the uncertainties of this physical existence. We pray that yout'd give the government wisdom in the way they steward concerns for the public health and the public well-being in so many ways other than our physical health.

We pray for those working in our intelligence services that yout would give them great wisdom with the sensitive responsibilities that they have. That they would have wisdom to act not for their own but only for the public good and in a way that honors yous. We pray, Lord, for those who serve as judges among us that yout would give them wisdom and that there would be evident justice.

Lord, we thank youk for helping us as a local church.

We pray, Lord, that we would be a blessing to our community and beyond. We do pray youy would preserve religious liberty in our nation. Expose those churches that teach that we only give to get. Lord forgive those that have tried to use Christian churches to gain private wealth. Correct them.

Lord find those churches that teach falsely about faith and the suffering that yout allow and teach them youm truth. Replace false teaching with true. Cause your words to echo more and more loudly in the minds and hearts of those who've read it and even those who claim to teach it. Lord, we pray for our own members. We pray again for Hannah, just baptized.

Lord, bless her, encourage her, help her testimony to be freshly shared with others. Lord, we thank you for our brother Todd Stevenson. We pray that you'd bless him and encourage him as he serves you. Thank you for Todd, bless him in his life and work. Lord, we pray for our sister Lee Tannhill.

Lord, bless her in her care for her children, her ministry at work. Lord, with her friends, provide for her in every way. Lord, we pray for those members of our church who are feeling most lonely or in danger right now. We pray, Lord, that you would show your kindness to them in marked ways even today.

Lord, convict us about those matters we should repent of. Be thorough in your loving work with us. Just as Hannah gave testimony you were to her, Lord, before she came to you. We do pray that your name would be spread to the nations and your message across the oceans. Use us as a church to that end.

Lord, bless Paul and Steph Billings as they love their family and friends and as Paul elders this congregation and as they pour themselves into reaching college students in our area with the gospel. Bless the ministry of Campus Outreach, we pray. Lord, bless Mark Minter as he leads First Baptist in Diana, Texas. Lord, bless Trent Jones as he works at Linworth Baptist in Columbus, Ohio. Lord, use the results of Bryce Rader's sermon earlier today at Midtown Baptist in Memphis, Tennessee.

Lord, bless fruit from Grant Borg's preaching in Sydney, Australia today on Psalm 110.

In His Church. Thank you for letting us partner with these friends and with so many others around the nation and around the world. Lord, help us to do better at reaching those from foreign nations who live here locally. Establish our relationships with them. Let us have the joy of seeing many more people come to know you from around the world.

Lord, we do want to pray especially for our Christian brothers and sisters in India today. We pray that you would protect their families.

Pray that you'd strengthen their marriages even in times of social pressure and persecution. We pray for the gospel preaching churches and their pastors that you would protect them and cause the police to protect all of India's citizens. Lord, we pray for our brothers and sisters who are wrongly imprisoned in local jails because of their faith. Lord, we ask that you would cause anti-conversion laws to be exposed. As oppressive and disrespectful of your image in each person.

Lord, prevent the government there from cultivating citizens' hypocrisy and lying by passing laws that effectively teach people not to say what they really think. And Lord, we pray for millions of Hindus to hear and believe the good news about the Savior that you've sent. Lord, bless the work of our brother Harshit Singh and his dear wife Malini. Lord, use Rob and Katie there in Lucknow. Increase and multiply their work, we pray.

Thank you for the many churches you've given us fellowship with here in our own nation and even in our area. Help us as a local church to be faithful to you, Lord. Help us to obey all that you've commanded us and to continue on in faithfulness until Christ returns. Instruct us, encourage and equip us to that end, we pray, in Christ's name. Amen.

Amen.

Friends, this whole series of messages that we've been doing since the regathering in June has been focusing on who we are as a congregation. In order to do this, we've turned to the Bible's teaching on those statements that we all agree on when we join the church. Many things we may and do disagree about. But there is a central core of what we understand to be true that we all share. You'll note if you look through our statement of faith that each of the articles begins with the same three words that begin the article we read a few minutes ago.

We believe that. All 18 articles begin, We believe that. We've considered these great Bible truths about the Bible itself, about God and the fall of man, about the way of salvation, about our justification and our free salvation, about God's grace and regeneration and faith and repentance, and something about what God's purpose is in so pouring out on us His saving grace. We've considered what we agree that the Bible teaches on sanctification and the perseverance of the saints. That is the fact that we keep going.

And the harmony of the law and the gospel. And last Sunday, Ben led us in considering what the Bible teaches about a local gospel church. Now this is particularly important right now because some theories and isms are trying to define us as most fundamentally identified with other groups, with our generation, or with our race, or with our wealth. Or with our politics, or with our gender, or our status of oppressed victim or advantaged or privileged person. And friends, all of these things can be significant.

Christians have no dog in the fight of trying to prove that none of these things matter. That's not what we believe at all. But this world's distinctions can matter in many ways, and we all have ways of showing what we have in common with certain people. What sets us apart from those people and makes us a part of these people. So your last name will tell you something about your family's history or what you wear or what you eat or which kind of barbecue you eat or what sports teams you're for.

All of these are identity markers. They signal to other people who you are. Well friend, as an assembly, we are a gathering that is fundamentally contrarian, even rebellious to the wisdom of this world and this age. We are not satisfied with the labels that this world gives us. Some are even misleading and destructive.

Others are true but not that important. And still others are very significant. But they don't go to the absolute core of our being. None of the divisions of this age are as significant as our unity in Christ. We thought about this last week in Paul's words in Romans 12:5, so we though many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.

That's what it means to be a part of a church. And to help mark us off as his special people, Jesus gave us two markers: an initial marker of our entry into his people, and a continuing marker, kind of like the family dinner table. So today we come to these two emblems, the two symbols that Jesus commanded his followers to do and take on. We want to consider these two identity markers that Jesus gave us to mark off our identities both to others inside the church, sort of that nod we give to each other that, yeah, no, we're indwelt with the same Spirit, we're united to the same Christ, and to mark ourselves publicly to those outside the church, kind of, Hey, over here, I'm one of those. Yes.

I mean to identify myself as one of those. So baptism and the Lord's Supper are these two markers. And to consider this, we turn to those famous words of Jesus' final command in the book of Matthew before he ascends into heaven, Matthew 28:18-20. So let me invite you to turn there now, Matthew 28:18-20. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

This is how it begins, Jesus coming to these disciples and speaking to them, words they would not have known if He had not said them to them. And He begins by saying what has been given to Him, and that passive given suggests and implies it's God, God the Father who's given this to Him. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. That's a mirism. It's too extreme to show the inclusion of the whole, A to Z, everything, all authority in heaven or on earth.

So let me just make three points about these three verses. I'll make one point per verse. My verse 18 point, number one, is we are a Christian church. We are all about Jesus Christ. Note how much authority Jesus has here.

All of it, he says, it's the first of four alls, pas or pantas in these verses. The first one, all authority. Interesting, if you remember in Jesus' ministry when it began back at the beginning of Matthew's gospel in chapter four, the devil tempted him. He took him to a high place, he showed him all the kingdoms of the earth, and he said that he would give him the world and all of its glory if he would just worship him. But friends, like all of Satan's promises, That was a lie.

It was false. Jesus saw right through it. It's interesting, back in Jesus' earthly ministry, He specifically says in Matthew 15 that He had been sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But now, at the resurrection, Jesus begins to visibly fulfill that amazing prophecy in Daniel Chapter 7 about the Son of Man, who we read in Daniel 7:14 was described like this, To him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. Jesus fulfills this prophecy.

He has been given all authority. The spiritual realm is all under Christ. He's not just one of many gods, he's not just one of many ways to God. You know, people in the first and second centuries were staggered almost to the point of being incomprehending that Christianity was claiming to be the one religion for everyone, for all nations, all peoples. Well, that was very impolitic, was impolite.

It would not help Roman society work well together. Well, one of the things that seemed typical of everybody is that every tribe had their own god or gods, even their specially protective patron god or goddess. And so for these Christians to come along and say that theirs was the one God for everyone, well that just seemed unbelievable that there would be only one God that created and will judge all was seen by many then, just as many today, as ridiculous. That the Scot and the Jew and the Indian and the Chinese could have one God. That the Greek and the Russians and the Arab and the Ethiopian and the Roman would worship the same God.

But that's exactly what Jesus teaches here. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. The earthly realm is all under Christ. That means that whatever authorities there are, all of the authority exercised on the earth is a stewardship from Christ. Whether or not the person recognizes Christ as Lord, all of it is a stewardship from Christ.

It is from Him and it is to be ultimately to Him. Friends, that's why among Christians, our partisan differences in a democracy are never ultimate. And you either agree with me about that or you will agree with me about that.

This is the perspective that we bring to even the most challenging political seasons. There is a strange calm that doesn't suggest nothing matters, but that what matters even more is secure beyond Satan's worst attempts to defeat us.

Christ is the authority that we have to preach and to live as we do. But let's go on to verse 19. Going therefore, or 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. So the one imperative verb, English teachers, in all of this is that make disciples. That's the imperative verb right there.

If you wanna underline it or put a square around it, that's the only command in the Greek. This discipling is fundamental to our mission. So if you wanna know more about how we're gonna reach the nations or evangelize the area, You need to begin by trying to help each other follow Christ. This kind of discipling is the kind of seedbed of it all. The question you may ask is, well, how does Jesus say that we're to do that?

Well, right here, he says, baptizing them. This is immersing them in water just like we just did in this little blow up pool here. It's a great way to do it immersion because it shows both that our confession of sin And our pledge of service is total. It's complete. It touches every part of us.

It's not leaving out anything. And this totality of commitment that's shown in baptism then fits with the totality of our mission because we are supposed to go and make disciples of all nations. And that's the second of the alls in these verses. All nations. And I love it because when Jesus there in this time right before he ascends to heaven, he's having his last sort of earthly meeting with his disciples, during the three and a half years of his earthly ministry, he was teaching them that he was there for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Some of them were feeling more anxious and were looking around for more and he was going, no, no, just this. But now. Now, after the crucifixion and the resurrection, when Jesus is standing there resurrected in his glory, he says to them that he's been given all authority in heaven and earth, and now he gives the commission, go and make disciples of all nations. And friends, when he makes that utterance of all nations, the disciples heard ringing in their ears those ancient promises of God.

To Abram about all the families of the earth being blessed through him. They heard ringing in their ears that ancient prophecy of the Lord through Isaiah picked up that his salvation would reach the end of the earth. The greatest of God's promises were now beginning to be fulfilled through this little band of Jesus' followers. Far less impressive looking than even you guys in your lawn chairs.

So, what do I see from verse 19, verse 18, we're a Christian church, verse 19, we're a Baptist church. Look at verse 19, we think that all disciples and only disciples are to be baptized. We baptize all Christians who haven't been baptized. This tends to be the initial step in making disciples. Notice here, it's the first thing that Jesus mentions in this summary.

He says to make disciples and the first thing he says to do, is baptizing them. So that's what we did here with Hannah. When Hannah made us aware of her testimony and that she'd not been baptized, first thing we tell her to do is to be baptized. Friend, if you're here and you're not a Christian, you're at a great meeting. And not only is the weather much better than it was in June and July, but it's also a meeting of people, hundreds of us, have known what it means to not be a Christian and now are Christians.

That is we've known what it means like Hannah was saying to be convicted of our sin, to know what we deserve and yet we've come to find that God has a grace and a mercy that exceeds our sins, our wrongs. We've come to understand that God came himself as he sent his only son to live a perfect life and then to die on the cross for all of us who would turn from our sins and trust in him. And God raised him from the dead. And he calls all of us, that's you too, to turn from your sins and to trust in him. And you can know what it means to be made new, to step into a new creation, to be united with Christ in his death and burial and resurrection, as is pictured in baptism.

When we're united with Christ, we're all united with Christ, and that means we're united with each other. You see, when we identify ourselves with Christ, we identify ourselves with each other. Just like two children who both say, yeah, I'm their kids, I'm their child. And they look at each other and they realize they have the same parents. They're part of the same family.

They're acknowledging that they're siblings. That's us when we're baptized. We're saying, yeah, I have the same heavenly Father as all those others who've preceded me in these baptismal waters. Now friends, because that's what baptism is, that's why we as a church only baptize Christians. We do not baptize infants.

Being baptized in or into, Mark, wherever you are, into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit suggests that God's name being on us now is more fundamental to who we are than even our own name. We are owned by Him. He has made us His own. He has indwelt us with His Spirit. So in baptism we have a picture of Christ's own objective authority, all authority in heaven and on earth being met with our subjective recognition of Him and our submission to us.

It's only about us. Insofar as we are about Him. It's only about us insofar as we are about Him. And we baptized at a gathering of the congregation like this, not privately. When Hannah had her membership interview and she mentioned that she wanted to be baptized, Bobbi or Isaac didn't rush her off into the main hall and just dunk her in the pool right then.

But no, we wait until we gather because here the individual joins the community and the community is formally joining in the celebration of Christ and His salvation and our faith in Him that we hold jointly. So the gathering of the local church is the normal regular time for baptisms to take place. And normally we only baptize those that we're taking into membership. Therefore we don't baptize children because we don't take children into membership. We can talk to you about that more individually if you have questions.

Just talk to any of our elders. Friends, that's also why we don't re-baptize. Baptism is only happens once, like you're born once, you're baptized once. It's not intended to happen again. Now, it may be that you come to realize that you weren't really converted when you thought you were earlier baptized.

Well then we would tell you you were simply sprinkled or poured or dunked and you haven't been baptized and then we would baptize you. But if you're traveling in Israel and the tour guide said, Here's the Jordan River, don't you wanna climb in and just do baptism again? You can say, no, no. It's like redoing your marriage vows. You can have a recommittal ceremony when you've been married for 20 years, but that's not getting married.

You're already married. So go on and hop in the Jordan, but just call it a reaffirmation of your baptism. Your baptism happens once. We should go on to the last verse. Verse 20, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. Teaching them, that's what we're doing along with going and baptizing, we're teaching, and we're teaching them to observe or obey all that I've commanded you. Wow, that's an amazing statement. That's a comprehensive thing. And then Jesus gives this wonderful promise, Behold, I'm with you always to the very end of the age.

So I would say if number one, we're a Christian church, verse 18, number two, we're a Baptist church, verse 19, number three, we're a hopeful church. Verse 20, We're a hopeful church. We celebrate the Lord's Supper to remember what Christ has done, but also to anticipate what He's going to do. True living faith in Christ includes obeying and observing all He has commanded. When he says, Observe all that I have done, that's the third all in these verses, all that I have commanded.

From being born again and repenting, to having a better righteousness than the Pharisees, to making disciples of all nations, as Jesus says here in our text. Well, among these many other commands, this also includes Jesus' command at the Last Supper, Do this in remembrance of me. So friends, we come to celebrate the Lord's Supper to remember Christ's crucifixion for us. His death had a purpose. It was for us.

We see that in Galatians 2:20. We celebrate the Lord's Supper regularly. We who have been baptized and only those who have been baptized gather regularly and we keep celebrating the Lord's Supper every year, every month throughout all of our trials until He returns. The time marker in the New Testament is not a certain time that we're to observe it every three hours, or once a day, or once a week, or once a month, or once a quarter, or once a year. The New Testament doesn't teach anything on that.

Rather, we are to continue observing it regularly. That's left to our congregation's discretion. We continue to observe it regularly until Christ returns. And we celebrate this Lord's Supper together. You can read more about that if you want in 1 Corinthians 11.

But this is a family meal. So we only take it together. It's for all of us. There's no special seating. It's not a thing that can be done in private.

The symbol only occurs when we are gathered. So just like I said a moment ago when talking about baptism, when we identify ourselves with Christ, we identify ourselves with each other, like two children belonging to the same parents. The Lord's Supper makes this affirmation of one another visible and ongoing. You mean you two are part of the same body? Yes, we are.

Through the cup and the bread, we participate in the blood and the one body of Christ. As Paul said to the Corinthian church, Because there is one bread, 1 Corinthians 10:17, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Friends, we celebrate the Lord's Supper spiritually. At the Lord's table, the objective love of Christ's provision for us is met by our individual repeated pledge to be fed by him, to depend on him and rely on him alone. Some Christians with the best of intentions treat church like a potluck supper.

You know, oh, I'll bring my service, 'cause I'm really good at that. I'll bring my musical gifts. I'll bring the fact that I'm great with kids. And this is, in a sense, what gives me a place here in the church. Friends, none of that is true.

Your place in the church has been purchased by the death of Christ. You are a member of the family, not for what you can do, not for what gifts or service you can give to us, but because of what God has done for you in Christ. Christians should be marked by service, no doubt, but only because we realize that even more fundamentally than we will ever serve each other, or the Lord, he has served us. And it had to be that way. There's no other way for people like you and me to be saved, but for God to serve us as he has in Christ, even at the expense of his own Son.

This is why as a local congregation we're so careful about the Lord's Supper. That's why we ex-Lord's Supper, we excommunicate. Those who do not give evidence of being born again, who do not show themselves to be marked by the fruit of repentance of sin. We do it with sorrow and we do it with hope that they'll repent. We depict in the meal that Christ is with us by his spirit.

I love how he promises here the last thing he says to his disciples here, I am with you always. What comforting final words. It's like the 23rd Psalm. I will fear no evil, for you are with me. He is Emmanuel, God with us, indwelt by His Spirit, never left.

We have Christ ever with us. Friends, this is the comfort that we have even in the most difficult days. When we celebrate the Lord's Supper to rejoice in that. As we anticipate Christ's return. Just as all the nations fall in the view of Christ's command here, so do all the generations.

That's the fourth all, the all, all the days. That is till the end of the age. So this is a church is not a thing that just quickly set up and there it is and kind of shallow and it may not last very long. No friends, in the New Testament, what we see about a church is a church is there for the ages. A church is there to witness to the truth of Christ until He returns.

And all the spiritual reality that we experience is just the very beginnings, the foretaste of what we have coming. The church is providing for us a preview of tomorrow. Maybe you've struggled to even know the holiness that you've come to know in your own life. Friend, the good news is more is coming. It's promised because it's fundamentally God's work.

We experience the suburbs of the heavenly city's joys in these gatherings, which we have here at the beginning of each of our weeks. Well, parents, you guys are doing great. So I should conclude before that's not the case.

A true church is marked by the right preaching of the gospel and the right administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper. The gospel is the message we call out with here. Dinner's served. Baptism is then the door into the kitchen. You know, here comes Junha.

Here's Rachel. Here's Trevor. Here's Caroline. Here's Lola. And then the Lord's Supper is the checklist just to make sure that everybody's present and accounted for and okay and getting fed.

Okay Beth, Graham, yep, Lisa's here, Danny's here, okay, good. So baptism is the obedience that pledges all other obediences to come. And the Lord's Supper is the reception that regularly and repeatedly renounces self and proclaims our utter reliance on being served by Christ. Either he feeds me with himself or I starve.

Forever. Brothers and sisters, this is who we are as a local church. We are the baptized, we are the communing. We're going to have the Lord's Supper again next Sunday, Lord willing. And we are those whose life defining hope stretches beyond the boundaries of this life of this age to the very return of Christ himself.

Everything we do today only makes sense finally because of what we know about tomorrow. Let's pray.

Lord God, we pray that you would teach us from these symbols that you've left in our midst, Lord, of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Help us to trust you and to rejoice in your reliability. Be honored, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.