The Pictures Which Tell One Word!
Sermon by
Rev. S. Bajema
on LORD’S DAY 25
of the Heidelberg Catechism
Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 1:17-2:3

Church of our Lord Jesus...

We come to an aspect of our faith which has historically been the source of much difficulty between believers. What Christians understand the sacraments to mean even today is so different.
Mind you, all Christians would agree that the sacraments bear some relation to faith. The trouble is - where?
Yet, before we go into the difference, most would agree that sacraments are part of the saving work of Christ. We confess this by having these Questions & Answers in the ‘Saved’ section of the Catechism, the second aspect we confess as being, “...how I am set free from all my sins and misery.”
In other words, this is in the part which has earlier explained how we need faith, what faith is, what makes up faith - that’s why the Apostles Creed was exposited - and what we get out of faith. Now we look at where faith comes from. Here the Catechism points us fairly and squarely to the work of the Holy Spirit.
In answering the question about where faith comes from, it begins, “The Holy Spirit produces it in our hearts...”. The Third Person of the Triune Godhead, He is the Author, Source, and Origin of our faith in God. As John 3 verse 6 tells us, the Holy Spirit gives the rebirth - that regeneration - which is needed for faith. It’s the Holy Spirit who makes us confess that “Jesus is Lord”; it’s the Holy Spirit who helps us understand the spiritual things.

At this point, though, some, like the Roman Catholics, would say that the sacraments produce this faith. Through the priests administering the sacraments people can be saved, they say. And without the sacraments, they say, you cannot be saved. You need their mystical magic wand.
As we lay down an outline for what the Bible teaches, however, this is not what comes first. And Answer 65 here summarises Scripture.
For, quite contrary to what they say... THERE IS SOMETHING BEFORE A SACRAMENT CAN BE. The first point to our sermon.

It is helpful, at this point, to understand the background before the Reformation. The Bible then was a closed book. Even if you could read, and few could, only the priests were able to have a copy.
But under their teaching, it didn’t matter. For if you received the sacraments of the church it pretty well saved you anyway! It could only confuse the simple superstition of the people to teach them any more.
Congregation, the situation was a tragedy! A deception of such epic proportions that many church leaders, even today, will have a lot to answer to the Lord for.
Why? Well, if they properly proclaimed the Word they would have known that THERE IS SOMETHING BEFORE A SACRAMENT CAN BE.
Martin Luther discovered this knowledge while preaching through Paul’s letter to the Romans. This was the letter which said in verse 17 of chapter 10, “faith comes from hearing the message,” and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
And what about our reading from the first letter of another apostle, Peter? After telling of Christ’s sacrifice and how through it we believe, the apostle states, in verse 25, “And this is the word that was preached to you.”
The Old Testament has a dramatic picture of this very thing where the prophet Ezekiel, in chapter 37, is led in a vision to see a valley of dry bones. He’s asked whether he can make those bones live. “0 Sovereign LORD,” Ezekiel replies in verse 3, “you alone know.”
There’s no way the prophet can do it. Then the LORD tells him, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!’”
It’s through preaching that new life comes to dead people. It’s the Spirit working through the Gospel that makes people live again.
Dear friends, that’s why everything in the public worship of God comes from the Word - whether it’s the reason for the praise, confession, supplication or offering; or it’s the sermon itself, where the Word is preached. No drama, dance, testimonies, performances, or puppet show is the same. No matter how meaningful people may say those things are, they actually start to put the sacrament first. Then we’ve forgotten... THERE IS SOMETHING BEFORE A SACRAMENT CAN BE.
You see, then we want to see before we hear; we return again to before the Reformation. And the effect is the same too; believers are kept ignorant, and their lives become very dark and dismal.

First - the Word. It happened there at creation; it happens too for our salvation. FOR THEN THE BELIEVER CAN SEE. Our second point.

Here we come to the opening words of Answer 66, “Sacraments are holy signs and seals for us to see.” For the sacraments are still very special, although we don’t give them the power to be able to save people.
Nor can we go to the extreme reaction of Zwingli, in his early reforming days, when the sacraments were dismissed altogether because only the Word itself mattered. That thinking was called “memorialism”, because the Lord’s Supper became only a remembering of what Jesus had done, and it was said that it had no strengthening or assurance whatsoever. And in Answer 65 we confessed differently than this when we said that it’s the Holy Spirit Himself who confirms faith in us through our use of the holy sacraments.

Dear Christian, there’s a phrase, which goes, “seeing is believing”. In this case this is right in a unique way. Because it’s through believing that there comes the seeing; so seeing is now part of believing.
Okay, though, we see things everyday; we taste and handle things all the time too. How much different are the sacraments?
Well, notice, brothers and sisters, both in Answer 65 & 66, the sacraments are called “holy. “Holy” means they’ve been set aside for special use in the service of the Lord. The Bible is clear about their abiding value in the life of Christ’s Body, the Church.

With the words “signs” the meaning is obvious. A sign pictures or symbolises something; it’s a visible representation of something we can’t see.
Boys and girls, think of the road sign warning of a hidden intersection or a winding road you can’t see. When you see the sign, you straight-away understand, and you haven’t even seen that intersection or winding road!

The word “seals” isn’t so familiar today. A seal meant that something was guaranteed. If you have a seal on a diploma or degree, it proves it is real and genuine. No one else but that particular seal-holder can emboss that kind of impression.
Just like the water in baptism, and the bread and wine with the Lord’s Supper, all testify that the benefits promised are true and dependable. Without actually sighting the thing itself there cannot be greater proof than signs and seals. And in the case of which authority is involved in placing the signs or embossing the seals, who could be more trustworthy and reliable than God Himself?

These two sacraments aren’t human inventions. They are not like the other five sacraments that the Roman church has added to them. God expressly commanded and ordained these two.

Just as what we said about our public worship needing to be from or upon the Word of God, this is, too. In fact, so much are they confirming the preaching of God’s Word, John Calvin at one stage wanted the Lord’s Supper celebrated each week. Later he came back on this thought, as the implications for supervision and keeping it special dawned more on him. But we should be able to share why he did want it each Lord’s Day.
Think of an aeroplane flight you have planned and paid to go on. It’s a trip around the world. Still, each time you make a stop you need to have the next flight confirmed. So you ring up, the details are checked, and it’s all go!
Not that you weren’t on that plane flight’s register details before. But now you’ve been assured; you even have which seat you’ll be on! FOR THEN THE BELIEVER CAN SEE... IT IS CHRIST’S SACRIFICE WHICH IS THE KEY! Our third point. 			
As Answer 66 goes on to say, the sacraments, “were instituted by God so that by our use of them He might make us understand more clearly the promise of the gospel, and put His seal on that promise. And this is God’s gospel promise: to forgive our sins and give us eternal life by grace alone because of Christ’s one sacrifice finished on the cross.”
If the sacraments don’t work to point us to the cross, they aren’t confirming the Word. This is the proclaiming of the Lord’s death the apostle Paul speaks of in 1st Corinthians 11 verse 26, which we do whenever we eat the bread and drink the wine.
If our focus with the sacraments is on tradition or superstition, we’ll get no comfort. Oh, we may have the warm feeling of something familiar, but only the cold cry on the cross satisfies. We may well feel our lives are altogether but we’ve forgotten the life which was torn apart.
If the sacraments don’t humble us, because we were the ones who sinned but were forgiven, they’re taking us away from faith. Then, using those words from 1st Peter, we are not living our lives as strangers here in reverent fear. We begin to depend on what we can do to make us right with God. It’s	exactly what a sacrament is not meant to be! Then you don’t see!

Dear friend, as you look on a baptism, as you participate in the Lord’s Supper, think about Christ’s death which both remember. As 1st Peter chapter 1, the verses 18 and 19, said, “it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life... but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
And don’t let that be just a memory, let it drive you spiritually on your knees. IT IS CHRIST’S SACRIFICE WHICH IS THE KEY!
We don’t only hear it, but all our created senses smell, touch and taste it as well. The sermon becomes seen. The sermon which today tells us, in the words of 1st Peter 2, the verses 1 till 3, “Therefore, rid yourselves of all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
Amen.

PRAYER:
Let’s pray...
0 Living Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, how gracious You are that by these sacraments all our senses meet with Your saving work on the cross. By the simple signs and seals we are strengthen within. In the sacrament which we have when we come into faith and the sacrament which shows our continuing on in the faith, You come to us by Your Holy Spirit.
And so it is in Your precious Name we pray, Amen.