Understanding the Sacraments: Outward Signs of God’s Grace

The sacraments represent some of the most sacred moments in Christian faith – holy encounters where God’s invisible grace becomes tangible through simple elements like water, bread, and wine. These aren’t magical rituals, but meaningful practices that Jesus himself established for his followers.

What Makes a Sacrament a Sacrament?

A sacrament is fundamentally a sacred moment – a holy encounter with God. But what distinguishes a sacrament from other religious practices is that Jesus specifically instituted it, commanding his followers to continue the practice.

In the United Methodist tradition, two sacraments meet this criteria. At the Last Supper, Jesus broke bread and shared the cup, saying “do this in remembrance of me.” Later, in Matthew 28, Jesus commanded his disciples to “go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

The Definition That Changes Everything

Sacraments are “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.” This definition captures something profound about how God works in our lives. Grace – God’s unmerited, undeserved gift of love – is often invisible and intangible. We can talk about it and sometimes feel it, but the sacraments make it real and concrete.

The outward sign of baptism is water. The outward sign of Holy Communion is bread and wine. These simple elements become vehicles for experiencing God’s grace in tangible ways.

Why Do Sacraments Matter?

The sacraments serve three essential purposes in the life of faith:

They point us to Christ. Since Jesus established these practices, participating in them naturally draws our attention to him and his teachings.

They inform us of God’s love. When we remember the broken bread and poured wine, we’re reminded of Christ’s body and blood – the ultimate expression of God’s love through Jesus’ sacrifice.

They warn of danger and protect us from sin. By focusing our attention on the Lord, sacraments pull us away from worldly temptations and center us on what truly matters.

Understanding Baptism: More Than Just Water

In the United Methodist Church, baptism traditionally happens in infancy, but it’s important to understand what’s actually taking place. Baptism isn’t magic – it’s an acknowledgment of what God has already done through prevenient grace.

What Happens in Baptism?

Baptism accomplishes three things:

Cleansing from original sin. God’s grace cleanses the child from the sin inherited from Adam and Eve.

Incorporation into the body of Christ. The baptized person becomes part of the larger Christian community, not just a local church member.

Union with Christ. Whether through sprinkling, pouring, or immersion, baptism symbolizes our connection to Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Holy Communion: Remembering and Experiencing

Holy Communion carries deep meaning as both a remembrance of the Last Supper and an experience of Christ’s real presence. Understanding communion requires grasping what Jesus was doing at that final meal with his disciples.

Three Views of Communion

Christians have traditionally understood communion in three ways:

Memorial meal – A remembrance of the Last Supper where Jesus isn’t actually present in the elements.

Transubstantiation – The bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ.

Real presence (United Methodist view) – Christ is truly present in the elements, but they remain bread and wine. This is why leftover communion elements are treated with special respect and returned to the earth rather than simply discarded.

The Frequency Question

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, taught “constant communion” – that Christians should participate in the Lord’s Supper every time they gather as the body of Christ. This means not just every Sunday, but whenever believers come together for ministry, meetings, or mission work.

Essential Elements of Communion

Two elements are essential for proper celebration of Holy Communion:

Confession – A time to prepare hearts through acknowledging sin and emptying ourselves to be filled with Christ’s love.

Words of Institution – Recounting what happened at the Last Supper, typically using Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 11 about receiving from the Lord what he passed on.

The Passover Connection

To fully understand communion, we must recognize that Jesus was both observing the Jewish Passover meal and establishing something new. The Passover celebrated Israel’s liberation from Egyptian slavery – it was fundamentally about freedom.

Jesus took this ritual meal of liberation and gave it distinctly Christian meaning. The bread and cup were already part of the Passover, but Jesus transformed them into symbols of a new kind of freedom – freedom from sin, injustice, and anything that separates us from God’s love.

Grace Available to All

The story of the ten lepers in Luke 17 illustrates how sacraments work. All ten lepers received healing from Jesus – they did nothing to earn it except cry out for mercy. This represents prevenient grace, God’s grace that comes before any action on our part.

Nine of the lepers did the “orthodox” thing – they followed proper procedure and showed themselves to the priests as Jesus instructed. But one leper, a Samaritan, had a different response. When he “saw that he was healed” – not just with his eyes but with his heart – he returned to Jesus with gratitude and praise.

The Radical Response

This Samaritan’s response illustrates something crucial about sacraments. While God’s grace is available to all, sometimes receiving a sacrament creates a transformative change within us. The Samaritan didn’t just experience physical healing; he experienced spiritual transformation that compelled him to return to the source of his healing.

His focus wasn’t on the change itself, but on the one who brought about the change. This represents sanctifying grace – the ongoing work of God that transforms us from the inside out.

Life Application

The sacraments remind us that God’s grace is both freely given and potentially life-changing. This week, consider how you approach these sacred moments. Are you simply going through the motions, or are you opening yourself to the transformative power of God’s grace?

Like the Samaritan leper, we’re called to not just receive God’s gifts but to respond with gratitude and worship. The sacraments aren’t just rituals to observe – they’re opportunities to encounter the living Christ and be changed by that encounter.

Questions for Reflection:

• When you participate in communion or witness a baptism, are you truly opening your heart to God’s grace?
• How might your life be different if you approached the sacraments expecting transformation rather than just observing tradition?
• Like the grateful Samaritan, how can you better focus on the Giver rather than just the gifts you receive?
• What would it look like to live with the same radical gratitude that brought the healed leper back to Jesus?

Sermon video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVxEEOPsW7A

[Blog post created by Sermon Shots from original sermon content preached by Rev. Kent F. Jackson on October 26, 2025.]