Devoted to the Breaking of Bread

Why Baptism and the Lord’s Supper Still Matter

When we started this series on the Four Priorities of the Early Church in Acts 2:42, I didn’t expect it would take this long to preach four sermons. We’ve had a lot take place between the first sermon and this final one. We’ve seen the priority of the Apostles’ teaching. We’ve seen the fellowship. We even had an ice storm that kept us at home for a little while and spent time looking at the prayers.

And now, finally, we come to the last priority:

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” — Acts 2:42

The early church devoted themselves to the breaking of bread.

That’s an interesting phrase. We’re used to sliced bread. But before bread was ever sliced, it was broken. Torn into pieces and distributed among those who ate together. Breaking bread is something done in community. No one breaks bread alone.

In Acts 2, this wasn’t just about enjoying a meal. The early church was observing the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. And they did so having already observed the ordinance of baptism.

Here’s the main idea:

Devote yourself to faithfully observing the ordinances.

Jesus gave two ordinances to His church: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These ordinances display the gospel. They don’t replace the gospel. They don’t accomplish the gospel. They represent the gospel.

So how do we devote ourselves to them?

1) Profess Faith in the Gospel

Before anything else, we must believe the gospel the ordinances represent.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. That’s the gospel.

We are sinners. We deserve punishment. But God loved us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for us. Jesus took our punishment. He rose from the grave so we could have eternal life.

Baptism represents that gospel. When you go under the water, it shows you have died to sin. When you come up, it shows you have been raised to walk in newness of life. Baptism doesn’t save you. It shows that Jesus has saved you.

The Lord’s Supper represents that same gospel. The bread represents His body broken for us. The cup represents His blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

If you have not professed faith in Jesus, these ordinances do not accomplish anything for you. You would be putting your trust in a ritual, not the resurrection. In a tradition, not the crucifixion.

The first step is to believe.

2) Be Baptized by Immersion

On the Day of Pentecost, when the crowd asked Peter what to do, he said, “Repent and be baptized.”

Baptism comes after repentance and faith. It doesn’t save you. It shows that you are saved.

What makes me married is not my wedding ring. It’s the vows that were spoken. The ring is a message to the world that I belong to my wife. Baptism is like that. It shows that you belong to Jesus.

In the New Testament, believers were baptized by immersion. The word itself means to dip, immerse, or submerge. We are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus commanded in the Great Commission.

When you are baptized, you are publicly identifying with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. You are saying to the church and to the world: “I belong to Him.”

3) Take the Lord’s Supper in a Worthy Manner

The Lord’s Supper is not casual.

Not because the elements are sacred in themselves, but because of what they symbolize. The body and blood of Jesus are sacred. So we take the Lord’s Supper with reverence and introspection.

The Apostle Paul warned the church in Corinth about taking the meal in an unworthy manner. He called them to examine themselves.

When we take the Lord’s Supper, there is a corporate component. We break bread together. But there is also an individual component. We examine ourselves.

We reflect on our sin—not in a generic way, but specifically. We confess how we have lied, hated, slandered, gossiped, coveted, lusted, and rebelled. We take our sin seriously because God takes our sin seriously.

If you are not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, do not take the Lord’s Supper. If you have not been biblically baptized, wait until you have been. And if you are entertaining sin you have no intention of repenting from, either repent or abstain.

The only one worthy to take the Lord’s Supper is the Lord Jesus. We become worthy only by turning from our sin and entrusting ourselves to Him again and again.

4) Encourage Others to Take These Steps

Jesus commanded us to make disciples. As we go, we are to help others repent, believe, be baptized, and observe all that He commanded—including the Lord’s Supper.

Sometimes encouragement looks like celebration. Sometimes it looks like correction.

There will be moments when someone needs help understanding the gospel. There will be moments when someone is not quite ready for baptism. There will be times when correction is necessary.

Correction is its own form of encouragement. We take these steps seriously because the gospel is displayed through the ordinances.

The Gospel on Display

Every time we see someone baptized, we see the gospel displayed.

Every time we break bread together, we see the gospel displayed.

In the feeding of the five thousand, there were twelve baskets of broken bread left over. One for each disciple. It’s as if Jesus was saying, “You feed them.”

We are blessed in Jesus’ name. And then we are broken to be distributed for the spread of the gospel.

When we devote ourselves to the breaking of bread, we aren’t just remembering what Jesus has done. We are committing ourselves to the ministry He has given us—to make disciples, to expand the table, and to see the gospel on the move in and through the church.

Let’s devote ourselves to faithfully observing the ordinances. Let’s see the gospel displayed as often as we can manage.

You can view this sermon in its entirety on our YouTube page.