new covenant – Kanisa la Christadelphian huko Anderlecht

Participants bonded together into one body

avril 18, 2024 par Christadelphians, publié dans Behaviour or attitude towards others, Christadelphian, Faith, Jesus Christ - son of God, Thought for today

In the ecclesiae of Christadelphians, members meet regularly to pray with each other and share bread and wine together.
There is also an annual high day commemorating Jesus’ last supper. This year, that commemoration celebration will take place on Monday 22 April. That evening, 14 Nisan is commemorated in recognition of God’s acceptance of Jesus’ ransom offering, offering Himself as a Lamb before God and instituting the Last Supper as an event to be repeated regularly.

At the service of remembrance Jesus Christ initiated at the “last supper” on Nisan 14 he broke bread and asked his disciples to do that likewise in the future. Jesus commands us to do this (eat bread and drink wine) in remembrance of him, until he comes. For followers of Christ, it is an important message and an act of connection with the master teacher.

As Paul expounds later, doing this is a participation (communion, fellowship, partnership) in the body and blood of the lord. He also emphasises that this is a communal act, and the participants are bonded together into one body. (1 Corinthians 10:16-17)

“16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not [the] communion of the blood of the Christ? The bread which we break, is it not [the] communion of the body of the Christ? 17 Because we, [being] many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf.” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17 Darby)

As brothers and sisters, we want to go through life united and testify for the Nazarene teacher who declared himself willing to stand up for us and even die for us.

Before Jesus was betrayed, he had prayed that there could be unity among his followers. He said:

“20 And I do not demand for these only, but also for those who believe on me through their word; 21 that they may be all one, as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them, that they may be one, as we are one; 23 I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one [and] that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and [that] thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me.” (John 17:20-23 Darby)

Note in which directions this unity extends. There is unity between Jehovah God and His son Jesus Christ. Likewise, there is unity between Jesus and his followers. These followers should be one with Jesus and His heavenly Father as Jesus is one with His heavenly Father. Some wrongly see Jesus’ unity with God as a reason to assume that Jesus would then be God. They then forget the text that people should also be one with Jesus and with God as Jesus is one with his heavenly Father. Their way of thinking would then mean that people are also God and would even be God. (So that mindset is more likely to invalidate their Trinitarian thinking.)

We must even recognise that Jesus expects that « All » his followers should be one, not only those who lived then, but that it also concerns those who, by their word — that is, by the word of his disciples — in him would put faith, so that this unity extends into the future and includes all true Christians living today.
At the same time, that unity reaches into heaven to enclose Jesus Christ and Jehovah God, so that his followers could be — as Jesus put it — „in us be one”. And that being one is what will now be commemorated and highlighted next Monday on Nisan 14.

This memory is not merely a ritual, it is something to think about, and it is a time for self-reflection. It is a look back at what Jesus received from his heavenly Father, Jehovah God. But also what Jesus did with those received gifts, such as performing miracles. In addition, it is also a special commemoration of the Lord’s Supper, when Jesus and his apostles were together around the table and saw Jesus break bread and say a blessing over it. Then Jesus indicated that he would hand over his body and that blood would flow. But from then onwards, his blood would be a sign of a New Covenant between God and people.

We cannot imagine a stronger and closer unity than that which exists between Jehovah God and his son, Christ Jesus.

“23 For *I* received from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread, 24 and having given thanks broke [it], and said, This is my body, which [is] for you: this do in remembrance of me. 25 In like manner also the cup, after having supped, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye shall drink [it], in remembrance of me. 26 For as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye announce the death of the Lord, until he come. 27 So that whosoever shall eat the bread, or drink the cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty in respect of the body and of the blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man prove himself, and thus eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. 29 For [the] eater and drinker eats and drinks judgment to himself, not distinguishing the body. 30 On this account many among you [are] weak and infirm, and a good many are fallen asleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves, so were we not judged.” (1 Corinthians 11:23-31 Darby)

Jesus asked whether his disciples could be included in the closest family association of God, a privileged sonship. The apostles should have seen „the glory as of a Only Begotten of the Father”.

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth;” (John 1:14 Darby)

They learned how to be one with each other and with Christ. They also proclaimed that their followers should take care to be one. So they had to

„preserve the unity of the mind in the unifying bond of the peace”

and had to be aware that there is one body and one spirit, as those who call themselves followers of Christ were called

« in one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, by all and in all.

Given the many things they jointly possessed, what a closely connected and contiguous body its followers must have become!

The apostle Paul compares the community of followers of Christ to a human body. That body has several limbs, but they still belong to that one body.

Our religious community also consists of many people from different nations. Each ecclesia in turn, has many members, and all its members belong to the same body of that religious community. That body of Brothers and sisters in Christ, however many, form one body. Together they are connected to and in Christ, baptised with one Spirit soaked, absorbed into that one body.

This coming weekend and Monday to Tuesday, we remember, that through Christ and through one Spirit, we have all become one body in the name of Christ.
These special days we are thinking in particular that there should be no division in the body, but that we, as brothers and sisters, as the members of that one body, care for each other equally.

“12 For even as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also [is] the Christ. 13 For also in [the power of] one Spirit *we* have all been baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bondmen or free, and have all been given to drink of one Spirit. 14 For also the body is not one member but many. 15 If the foot say, Because I am not a hand I am not of the body, is it on account of this not indeed of the body? 16 And if the ear say, Because I am not an eye I am not of the body, is it on account of this not indeed of the body? 17 If the whole body [were] an eye, where the hearing? if all hearing, where the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them in the body, according as it has pleased [him]. 19 But if all were one member, where the body? 20 But now the members [are] many, and the body one. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, I have not need of thee; or again, the head to the feet, I have not need of you. 22 But much rather, the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; 23 and those [parts] of the body which we esteem to be the more void of honour, these we clothe with more abundant honour; and our uncomely [parts] have more abundant comeliness; 24 but our comely [parts] have not need. But God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to [the part] that lacked; 25 that there might be no division in the body, but that the members might have the same concern one for another.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-25 Darby)

Let us not lose sight of that message, of that last meeting of Jesus and his apostles around the table in the upper room in Jerusalem, and grow in love for each other with the truth, under the watchful eye of one shepherd, Christ Jesus our lord, so that we will not be ashamed when we have to appear before his judgment seat.

As brothers and sisters of each other, we listen to Jesus’ voice as we unite as one flock with one shepherd.

“15 but, holding the truth in love, we may grow up to him in all things, who is the head, the Christ: 16 from whom the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply, according to [the] working in [its] measure of each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love.” (Ephesians 4:15-16 Darby)

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep:” (John 10:11 Darby)

Preceding

Find also to read

Infant baptism versus baptism as an adult #2 The Teenage Baptism

mars 3, 2024février 28, 2024 par Marcus Ampe, publié dans Christadelphian, Faith, Questions & Answers, Reflection - Meditation

communion - baptism renewal — Photo by Wilson Pinto on Pexels.com

In certain Protestant churches, as with us, it is assumed that one must have acquired sufficient knowledge about God and His People, as well as about Scripture and faith, so that one must be at least in the teenage years to make a choice.

In the previous chapter, we saw that baptising a small child does nothing to help that child develops his or her faith. Even though infant baptism may have an „on joyfully long tradition”, we must realise that certain traditions have rendered the word of God powerless for the sake of their tradition. (Matthew 15:6)

When children grow up, they have many questions about God and commandments. During their search for God and faith, they may want to dedicate themselves to God. To this end, they sometimes make the choice to be baptized in the church community in which they grew up.

When they later get to know another church community and feel better at home there, they often wonder why they should be baptised again. They often forget what was asked of them at their first baptism, or what they had to comply with.

According to some churches, in the baptism of an infant, based on the living faith of the parents, is an advance, as it were, taken on the faith that the child will be handed over from father and mother. It is for this reason that when the Christian faith is completely absent from one of the parents or from both parents, or when the parents do not want to guarantee the development of their child’s faith, the Church, therefore, postpones baptism. If those children come to an age where they can make their own decisions, those churches are open to baptising them.

Reformed churchgoers regularly want to switch to a Baptist community and would like to become a full member there, but they do have difficulty ‘re-baptising’ or ‘overbaptising’. When people enter secondary school, they are even more confronted with all kinds of questions about their attitude to life and faith.

Over the centuries, infant baptism had become by far the most popular, but since the end of the last century there have been more questions about the value of such baptism and whether it would not be better to switch to baptism of faith. Opinions about this baptism of faith also vary widely. It is said that it is not only a personal choice, but that God would have chosen the baptismal candidate himself. The latter may give the baptismal candidate such an intense feeling that years later he or she is convinced that because God has chosen him or her and no new baptism should take place.

I admit that certain young people are truly convinced that they made the right choice in their teenage baptism, and that they did understand everything they were talking about. It may therefore be safe that a baptised person actually believed in a Only God during teenage baptism, but did not think further about whether his or her church community also thought that way about an Only True God. Often their thoughts were so intertwined with the doctrines of the church where they belonged. They therefore did not consider the existence or otherwise of three different entities of their deity that also spoke of « we », so according to them it was also about Christ Jesus.

Adherents of infant baptism see in that act a resemblance to the former circumcision. In the Old Testament, on the eighth day after his birth, each Jewish boy was made a sign of the covenant between God and Israel, in accordance with Gen. 17:10-12 and Lev. 12:3 a circumcision was performed on babies, in which a small circle of flesh is then cut away from the foreskin (the loose sliding covering) of the penis. In many Christian communities, they see baptism as the sign of the new covenant. According to those churches, the promises of the new covenant are greater than those of the old covenant, and that is why they say so

it would be strange to think that the promises in the Old Testament relate to the children, but not those of the New Testament.

Mennonites or Baptists, such as the Brethren and Brothers in Christ of Brethren in Christ (or Christadelphians) like to talk about baptism as a testimony of personal faith, and point out to child baptisms that the Bible never cites the idea of baptising newborns.

While non-Trinitarians view baptism as an active event in which the baptismal candidate indicates that he is entering into a personal relationship with God and that he is becoming a participant in the community of followers of Christ, the followers of infant baptism believe that one is not active in baptism, but passive. According to them, baptism is received and baptism is administered by the church in the name of God. Therefore, Anabaptists see baptism as an act of God in which He gives His promises to the person being baptised.

Of course, God can give his promises to both children and adults, but the institution of baptism is an act that was already performed for Jesus’ public life among adult people, as a sign of their surrender to God. Likewise, Jesus allowed himself to be completely immersed in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, as a sign of surrender to his Heavenly Father.

Among the Christadelphians, the baptismal candidate is also expected to perform a sign of complete surrender to God in the community. The baptismal ritual then becomes a confirmation of that covenant with God, but also of a union of the community of Brothers and sisters in Christ.

We can understand that if someone was baptised in a Pentecostal community and was only asked the following questions

Do you believe in God the Father, our Creator and Saviour?
Will you follow Jesus Christ, His Son, our crucified and resurrected Lord?
Do you entrust yourself to the Holy Spirit, who renews our lives?
Do you desire and promise to serve the Lord faithfully with the church, united around Scripture and Table, in the building of His church and the coming of His Kingdom?

that one could safely answer « Yes » if one really believed in the Only True God, the Heavenly Father of Jesus Christ. In this way, that baptismal ritual could be a real surrender to God.

For such baptised people, baptism will really have been a surrender and union with God. Their action is then actually a union with That Only True God who is only one.

But because their baptism was performed in a Trinitarian Church, it may be unclear to others whether they actually surrendered to the True Faith. Especially if they stayed in that community for a long time after that baptism and sang songs with it that glorify Jesus as God.

In several Pentecostal churches, after baptism, people sing a song in which they say they kneel before Jesus, whom they see as their Lord (God). Such a worship of Jesus is not possible at all and if an earlier member of a Trinitarian church wants to become a member of our Christadelphian movement, that person will have to conclude that old life and enter the new life through complete immersion in the water and confession of keeping only one True God, the God of Abraham, God of Isaac and Jacob, who is also the God of Jesus Christ.

The teenage years are a period of religious research and development that should not be underestimated. It is an important phase in life: a time of intense emotions and creativity, a phase in which social contacts are very important.
It is also a time of ‘weigh up’ and where the child wants to make a personal choice, free from the will of the parents. This means that in terms of faith, children during adolescence can take a completely different path than their parents.

We are convinced that children of teenage age want to deepen their friendship with Jehovah. To this end, it will certainly happen that they want to make it clear to their heavenly father what they stand with a baptism. We must respect that choice.

However, when transferring to another church community, it also comes down to whether the thoughts of the baptismal ritual correspond with the thoughts of the newly elected church community.

The biggest question is whether, during their teenage baptism, they really went for the God of the Bible, which we as Brothers in Christ want to carry high in our hearts.

It can be difficult if one feels that the baptism that has been entered has not been recognised. But one must rather see that when re-doping, one now also indicates that one wants to go through life as a Brother or Sister in Christ, at the service of Jehovah, the only True God.

To indulge in a re-doping is modest, and it is that humble surrender to God that can be admired. By now switching to an adult baptism, it is made clear that people want to dedicate their lives to God.

The preparation time for that baptism can then be a beautiful time in which they grow spiritually, just as it was for Jesus. (Read Luke 2:52.)