Introducing the Anglican Church: 6. The Lord's Supper 6 July14
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Introducing the Anglican Church: 6. The Lord's Supper
We are looking at some of the key teachings of the Anglican Church as found in the 39 Articles, one of the foundation documents of the Anglican Church of Australia. This is a simple modern English version (the original 16th and 17th century version is in the Prayer Book).
Article 28. About the Lord's Supper
Simple English: The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have to one another; it is also a sacrament of our redemption by Christ’s death. If we receive the sacrament with faith and in a worthy manner, the bread which we break is a sharing in the body of Christ; and the cup of blessing is a sharing in the blood of Christ.
Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of bread and wine) in the Supper of the Lord cannot be proved by holy scripture but is rejected by the plain words of scripture, contradicts the nature of a sacrament, and has produced many superstitions.
The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the supper only in a spiritual manner. It is received and eaten by faith. The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was not ordered by Christ to be reserved, lifted up, carried about or worshipped.
The Book of Common Prayer titled this service “The Order of the Administration of the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion.” The Roman Catholic church calls it the Mass. Some Anglicans call it the Eucharist (from a Greek word meaning thanksgiving).
This Article, like the one about Baptism, refers to the sign. The Lord’s Supper is a sign of the love Christians have for one another. It is also a sign of our redemption. Another way to say this is that the bread and cup are a means by which we can have a share in the death of Jesus.
Read more: Introducing the Anglican Church: 6. The Lord's Supper 6 July14
Introducing the Anglican Church: 5. Baptism 29Jun14
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Introducing the Anglican Church: 5. Baptism
We are looking at some of the key teachings of the Anglican Church as found in the 39 Articles, one of the foundation documents of the Anglican Church of Australia. This is a simple modern English version (the original 16th and 17th century version is in the Prayer Book).
Article 27. About Baptism
Baptism is not only a sign that shows that a person is a Christian, and which distinguishes Christians from those who are not baptised. It is also a sign of regeneration, or new birth. The sign of baptism is like a letter of promise so that those who receive baptism rightly are grafted into the church. The promises of forgiveness of sin and our adoption to be children of God by the Holy Spirit are represented and made sure by the visible sign. Faith is confirmed. Grace is increased because of prayer to God. The baptism of young children is to continue because it agrees with the sacrament Christ ordained.
The Anglican church baptises both adults and children.
Baptism does not make a person a Christian because of the ceremony. Baptism is a sign of God’s promise of forgiveness and new birth. When it is received by faith it becomes the public means by which a person joins the church. It marks a person as a born again follower of Jesus.
Baptism strengthens our faith because it reminds us of the promises of the gospel. That is, it is about new birth, forgiveness, adoption, and being grafted into the church. God’s grace comes to us through this sacrament because it is like a letter of promise. When we believe what the sign promises (what Baptism represents) we receive the promises. Baptism does not work because of the outward form of the ceremony, or because the grace of God is connected with the water. It works because people believe the promises of the gospel.
The Anglican church teaches that the baptism of infants is consistent with the Bible’s teaching about baptism. The Article does not go so far as to say that children must be baptised, only that if they are, it is true baptism.
The faith exercised in infant baptism can be thought of as the faith of the child expressed through the faith of the parents.
Dale
Introducing the Anglican Church: 4. The Sacraments 22Jun14
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Introducing the Anglican Church: 4. The Sacraments
We are looking at some of the key teachings of the Anglican Church as found in the 39 Articles, one of the foundation documents of the Anglican Church of Australia. This is a simple modern English version (the original 16th and 17th century version is in the Prayer Book).
25. About the Sacraments
Sacraments ordained by Christ are not only badges or signs that a person claims to be a Christian. They are also reliable witnesses of God’s good will towards us, and signs which bring his grace to us. God works invisibly in us through the sacrament not only to bring life to our faith, but also to strengthen our faith in him.
There are two sacraments Christ our Lord has commanded in the gospel: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
The five which are commonly called sacraments are not to be counted as sacraments of the gospel. These are confirmation, penance, ordination, marriage, and extreme unction [anointing with oil at the time of death]. Some of these have developed because people have corrupted the teaching of the apostles. Some are just states of life allowed in the scriptures. They are not like the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper because they do not have any visible sign or ceremony appointed by God.
The sacraments were not given by Christ to be stared at or to be carried about. They were given so that we should use them. They only have a good effect for those who receive them in a worthy manner. Those who receive them in an unworthy way are buying judgment for themselves, as Paul said.
The term sacrament means something that represents something else. John Chrysostom said it was seeing one thing and believing another. Augustine said one thing is seen and another is understood. The Anglican Catechism says it is “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace”. In the Middle Ages many ceremonies were thought of as sacraments. Gradually only seven were considered as sacraments and these became the official sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent in 1547. The Article says there are only two sacraments of the gospel, ie sacraments ordained by Christ.
Read more: Introducing the Anglican Church: 4. The Sacraments 22Jun14
Introducing the Anglican Church: 3. The Church 15Jun14
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Introducing the Anglican Church: 3. The Church
We are looking at some of the key teachings of the Anglican Church as found in the 39 Articles, one of the foundation documents of the Anglican Church of Australia. Last week we looked at the place of Justification.Today we look at another in a simple modern English version (the original 16th and 17th century version is in the Prayer Book).
19. About the Church
The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful people, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the sacraments are rightly administered according to everything that Christ's ordinance requires. As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, have gone astray; so also the Church of Rome has gone astray, not only in their living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith.
The Anglican Church defines the church in a different way to that of the Roman Catholic Church.
Read more: Introducing the Anglican Church: 3. The Church 15Jun14
The Fellowship of the Spirit
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{podcast id=23}
The Fellowship of the Spirit
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on Pentecost Sunday 2014
Bible Readings: Acts 4.23-31; 20.22-24; 21.4,10-11; Philippians 1.5,27; 2.1-5; 2 Cor 8.4; 9.13
What is the relation between Pentecost and the modern church and how can the NT help the modern church follow the Spirit?
Introducing the Anglican Church: 2. Getting God's Approval 8June14
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Introducing the Anglican Church: 2. Getting God's Approval
We are looking at some of the key teachings of the Anglican Church as found in the 39 Articles, one of the foundation documents of the Anglican Church of Australia. Last week we looked at the place of Holy Scripture.Today we look at another in a simple modern English version (the original 16th and 17th century version is in the Prayer Book).
11. About the justification of Humans
We are accounted righteous before God, only because of the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not because of our own works or because of what we deserve. So the doctrine, that we are justified by faith only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and full of comfort, as is expressed more fully in the Homily of Justification.
The biblical doctrine of justification describes the grounds on which God justifies sinners: that is declares them to be righteous.
Read more: Introducing the Anglican Church: 2. Getting God's Approval 8June14
3. Finding a Blessing Ruth 4.1-22
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{podcast id=22}
3. Finding a Blessing Ruth 4.1-22
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on 1 June 2014
Whose story is this? The lovingkindness of Boaz, or Ruth, or that shown to Naomi, or the kindness of the Lord? And how this small story is like the big story of God's kindness to his race.
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