What is a Sacrament?
A sacrament is an acting out of a special spiritual truth, much like a drama. By God's enabling grace, the Free Methodist Church offers two sacraments--Holy Communion and Holy Baptism. Everyone who responds in faith and obedience to Christ may receive both sacraments.

Holy Communion
Holy Communion (the Lord's Supper) is a regular reenactment of the spilled blood and broken body of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It represents our dying with Christ and rising to new life.

Some have found forgiveness and saving grace for the first time at Holy Communion.

A young man sat in church listening to the short sermon and the invitation to Holy Communion. As he heard the prayer of confession, God's voice spoke to him, "Confess your sins; let Me live in your heart."

Right there--on the spot, he responded and experienced personal salvation. As he took bread and grape juice representing the body and blood of Jesus, he understood for the first time the grandest of all truths: Jesus died for me and set me free.

Yes, free. For, you see, the cross of Christ makes for real Christians what Jews in the Old Testament felt with the Exodus. Slavery no more! Chains gone! Imprisonment a thing of the past! For them, that exciting sense of outward freedom found expression in the Jewish Passover, a feast celebrating their escape from a death-dealing plague in Egypt.

Jesus' last supper with His disciples was also a passover meal. It took place just before His sacrificial death on the cross. But He rose from the dead, leaving the tomb empty. By this we know that the cross is more than a mere symbol. It stands as a sign of our liberation, our freedom. Maundy Thursday (Jesus' last supper with His disciples), Good Friday (the day of the Crucifixion), Easter morning (the day He left the grave)--that's the sequence.

The Good News, then, is this: When we go in faith to the table of the Lord, The sacrament of the Lord's Supper (Holy Communion), we do it as He said, "In rememberance of me." And God gives us His Spirit to know afresh His offer of freedom.

Holy Baptism
Jesus included in His call for Christians to win others to Christ (the Great Commission), which reads,,
"Therefore go and make disciples of all antions, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20).

This sacrament began in the early church as Christians followed Jesus' command, "Go... baptize.." (Matthew 28:19).

Jesus identified with the call to baptism when He asked John to baptize Him in the River Jordan. Thus He set the pattern.

John Wesley, father of the Methodist movement, believed in infant baptism as do we, but he also practiced adult baptism on profession of faith, The Free Methodist Church practices both infant and adult baptism.

The mode of baptism has varied through the years since the early church. Generally, Free Methodists sprinkle babies and often adults, but we also baptize adults by immersion. Some denominations believe pouring water over individuals, the method used by the earliest Christians. (Pictures in the catacombs suggest this.) The Free Methodist Church does not prescribe any particular mode, but does require baptism for its members.

I remember a sacred and beautiful occasion for our family when Kathleen (my wife) and I broght our own children to the altar of the church for baptism. The minister, my father, read the ritual. It was a promise between God, those baptised, ourselves as parents and the people of our church to nurture and teach our children to become followers of Christ.

Conclusion
The leaders of the early church called the sacraments a mystery; by that they meant something holy. They sensed that when we take the Lord's Supper or experience baptism, we receive a very special blessing and a fresh touch of God's Spirit.

Take the Lord's Supper as often as you can. God will meet your open and sincere heart as you do.

Have you been baptized? Have your children? Baptism identifies you as a follower of Jesus Christ and signifies His covering for sin.

These sacraments (holy symbols) are free to all in the Free Methodist Church. Accept them with thanksgiving!