Content_church_rites_ordinances
Short answer: Church rites and ordinances are the practices Jesus gave his church to observe. The two most widely recognized are baptism and the Lord's Supper. In Matthew 28:16-20 the risen Jesus sends his apostles to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything he commanded. In 1 Corinthians 11:23-29 Paul repeats what he received from the Lord about the bread and the cup, and in Romans 6:1-4 baptism is described as being buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life. These are not ceremonies that earn salvation; they are visible, obedient signs that belong to people who already belong to Christ. Christians have differed for centuries about who may be baptized, how much water is used, and how often to take the Supper, but the practices themselves are not optional add-ons to the Christian life.
The Risen Jesus Gives the Church Its First Command About Baptism
Matthew's Gospel ends on a mountain in Galilee. Matthew 28:16-20 begins by noting that the eleven disciples went to the mountain where Jesus had sent them, and when they saw him they worshiped him, though some doubted. What follows is not a suggestion but a commission with a four-part structure: go, make disciples, baptize, and teach. The grammar matters. The main verb is make disciples, and baptizing and teaching are the means by which disciples are made. Baptism is not a side event tacked on after someone has already finished following Jesus; it is the ordinary, public way a new disciple is identified with him.
The authority behind the command is total. Jesus says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, which is why the church may call people of every nation to repentance and faith. The scope is equally total: all nations, not one ethnic group or one region. The promise that closes the passage is that Jesus will be with his people always, to the end of the age. That promise is the ground on which the church has baptized and taught for two thousand years, in seasons of revival and seasons of decline alike.
Notice what the passage does not do. It does not tell us the mode of baptism, the age of the recipient, or the exact words to use beyond the trinitarian formula. It does not say baptism saves anyone by itself. It says disciples are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Faithful Christians have drawn different conclusions from that silence about mode and recipients, and those differences should be discussed honestly rather than papered over. But the command itself stands: those who follow Jesus are baptized.
What Happened on the Day the Church First Baptized
If you want to see the Great Commission carried out, read Acts 2. Peter preaches to a crowd in Jerusalem, and when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked what they should do, as Acts 2:37-42 records. Peter tells them to repent and be baptized, and about three thousand are baptized that day. Then Luke gives a summary of the church's life: they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers. That short list has shaped Christian worship ever since.
Two of those four items are what we now call ordinances. The breaking of bread is the early church's regular meal of remembrance, the practice Paul later explains in detail. Baptism appears at the front door of the Christian life, not as an afterthought. The word devoted is significant. These were not occasional observances but habits that marked the community. The church did not merely believe certain things; it did certain things together, repeatedly, because Jesus had told it to.
Some traditions call these practices sacraments, meaning visible signs through which God conveys grace. Others prefer the word ordinances, meaning practices Jesus ordained that the church observes in obedience. The difference between those words is not trivial, and it has divided churches. But both sides agree on the basics: baptism and the Supper were given by Christ, practiced by the apostles, and are meant to be practiced still. They are acts of the church, done in the presence of God, not private spiritual exercises.
What the Lord's Supper Is and What It Is For
In 1 Corinthians 11:23-29, Paul does something unusual. He appeals not to his own authority but to what he received from the Lord and delivered to the church. On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and said it represents his body given for his followers. After supper he took the cup and spoke of the new covenant in his blood. Then he said to do this in remembrance of him, and he tied the practice to his coming again. The Supper looks backward to the cross and forward to Christ's return.
Because the Supper is about Christ's body and blood, Paul treats it with great seriousness. He warns that whoever eats and drinks unworthily is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, and he tells the Corinthians to examine themselves before eating and drinking. This is not a warning against weak faith or a demand for sinless perfection. It is a warning against treating the Supper casually, or treating it as a meal like any other, while ignoring the very body it proclaims. The self-examination Paul calls for is the ordinary work of a believer who takes sin seriously.
Christians have disagreed sharply about what happens at the Supper. Some hold that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. Some hold that Christ is truly present in a spiritual way. Others hold that the elements remain bread and wine and the meal is a memorial and proclamation. This study will not settle that debate, and readers should know it exists. What all sides share is the conviction that this meal belongs to Christ, that it proclaims his death, and that it must be received with reverence rather than carelessness.
Baptism as a Picture of Burial and Resurrection With Christ
Romans 6:1-4 explains what baptism signifies. Paul asks whether Christians should continue in sin so that grace may abound, and answers with an emphatic no. Those who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death, and were buried with him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead, they too might walk in newness of life. Baptism is a picture, and the picture is death, burial, and resurrection. It says that the old life is finished and a new life has begun.
This is why the New Testament consistently treats baptism as the doorway into a changed life rather than a ritual to be filed away and forgotten. The point of going down into the water and coming up again is not the water itself but the union with Christ that the water portrays. Paul's concern in Romans 6 is ethical: if you have been raised with Christ, act like it. Baptism is not a license to sin; it is a public declaration that sin's rule over you has been broken.
Colossians 2:11-12 uses similar language, speaking of a circumcision not made with hands, a putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, and of being buried with Christ in baptism and raised with him through faith. The imagery is drawn from the Old Testament and applied to the new covenant community. What Israel's circumcision marked in the flesh, baptism now marks in a visible, initiatory way for all who belong to Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free.
The Ethiopian Official and the Shape of New Testament Baptism
Acts 8:26-39 tells the story of Philip and an Ethiopian official reading Isaiah on a desert road. Philip explains the passage as being about Jesus, and the man believes. Then he asks a simple question: what prevents me from being baptized? They stop the chariot, both go down into the water, and Philip baptizes him. The scene is striking for its speed and simplicity. There is no long probationary period, no elaborate ceremony, no delay for another occasion. Faith in Christ is followed immediately by baptism.
The passage also shows that baptism is for those who hear and believe the gospel. The official heard the Scripture explained, believed it concerned Jesus, and was baptized. This pattern has led many churches to practice believer's baptism, arguing that the New Testament consistently connects baptism to personal faith. Other churches, noting that Scripture also records household baptisms and the deep continuity between the old and new covenants, practice infant baptism. Both groups read this narrative and draw different conclusions about who else should be baptized.
What is not in dispute is the centrality of the act. The Ethiopian did not ask whether baptism was important; he asked what could possibly keep him from it. That is the New Testament posture. When someone comes to faith in Christ, the natural next question is not whether to be baptized but when. The church's task, following Matthew 28, is to make disciples by baptizing and teaching them, not to make baptism so complicated that it becomes a project rather than a beginning.
Why Churches Differ on Baptism and the Supper
Honest readers must acknowledge that Christians do not agree about these practices. On baptism, the main questions concern mode and recipient. Some churches pour or sprinkle; others immerse. Some baptize infants as a sign of covenant inclusion; others baptize only those who can profess faith for themselves. On the Lord's Supper, the questions concern the meaning of the elements, who may participate, and how often it should be observed. Some churches celebrate it weekly, others monthly, others quarterly.
These are not minor matters, and the disagreements have caused real division. But it is worth distinguishing between the practices themselves and the interpretations of them. Every major Christian tradition baptizes and celebrates the Supper. Every tradition reads the same passages: Matthew 28, Acts 2, Romans 6, 1 Corinthians 11. The differences arise from how those passages are weighed and connected, and from how much weight is given to church history and practice. A reader who wants to understand the topic should learn the arguments on more than one side.
What should not happen is contempt for those who differ. Paul's warning in 1 Corinthians 11 is against eating and drinking in an unworthy manner, not against holding a different view of the elements. A church that practices believer's baptism by immersion and a church that baptizes infants both claim to follow the same Lord. They may not be able to share the same communion table, but they can recognize one another as brothers and sisters, and they can study these passages together without pretending the differences do not exist.
How Ordinances Relate to Discipleship and Church Life
The Great Commission does not end with baptism. Jesus says to teach them to observe all things that he commanded. Baptism is the beginning of a life of learning and obedience, not the finish line. This is why churches pair baptism with teaching, membership, and ongoing discipleship. A person who is baptized and then abandoned is not what Jesus commissioned. The same Lord who said baptize also said teach, and the second command is just as binding as the first.
The Lord's Supper fits into that same life of discipleship. It is a recurring reminder that the Christian life is corporate, not solitary. Paul's instructions to the Corinthians were addressed to a gathered church, and he warned about divisions and factions in that church. To take the Supper is to declare that you belong to a body, that you are accountable to it, and that you share its faith. It is not a private ritual for isolated individuals, and it should not be practiced in a way that ignores the brothers and sisters sitting next to you.
Churches that take these practices seriously tend to order their life around them. Baptism marks entrance into the community; the Supper sustains the community; teaching shapes the community. None of these things saves anyone. Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ, and no amount of water or bread or correct doctrine adds to his finished work. But because Christ is trustworthy, his people do what he says, including the simple, visible acts he left them. Obedience is not the same as earning, and the ordinances are not the same as the gospel, but they are the gospel made visible.
Biblical fidelity check
Matthew 28:16-20 establishes that the risen Jesus commanded his apostles to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything he commanded. It establishes the authority of Christ, the scope of the mission, and the promise of his presence. It does not establish a particular mode of baptism, a particular age of recipients, or a particular liturgy. It does not say that baptism itself forgives sin or grants salvation. Those who claim Matthew 28 settles every later debate about baptism read more into the text than the text contains.
A common misreading treats the Great Commission as though it were primarily about baptism or primarily about missions, when the text holds them together. Another misreading treats baptism as a work that earns God's favor, which contradicts the rest of the New Testament's teaching that salvation is by grace through faith. A third misreading treats the ordinances as optional or purely symbolic in a way that makes obedience to a clear command unimportant. None of these readings does justice to the passage. The text commands baptism; it does not make baptism the savior. Christ is the savior, and baptism is the sign he gave.
Other passages that speak to Matthew 28:16-20
These related studies help set the Great Commission in its broader biblical context. What Does 1 Corinthians 1:10 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application examines Paul's call for unity in a divided church, which matters for how churches handle differences over baptism and the Supper. What Does 1 Corinthians 1:9 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application looks at God's faithfulness as the ground of the church's calling into fellowship with his Son. 1 Corinthians 1: Called, United, and Boasting in the Lord surveys the opening chapter of the letter that contains Paul's teaching on the Lord's Supper. 1 Corinthians 10: Warnings and Freedom treats the passages on Israel's wilderness experience that Paul uses to warn the Corinthians about presumption, which connects directly to his warnings about unworthy participation in the Supper.
Frequently asked questions
Are baptism and the Lord's Supper required for salvation?
No. The New Testament consistently teaches that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not by works or rituals. Baptism and the Supper are commanded practices for those who already belong to Christ, not conditions they must meet to be saved. This is why churches can differ on the details of these practices while still recognizing one another as Christian. At the same time, treating clear commands of Christ as irrelevant is a different error. A believer who loves Jesus will want to obey him, and these are things he plainly told his church to do.
Should infants be baptized or only believers?
Christians have answered this differently for centuries. Those who practice believer's baptism point to passages like Acts 8, where the Ethiopian official believed and was then baptized, and argue that the New Testament connects baptism to personal faith. Those who practice infant baptism point to household baptisms in Acts and to the continuity between circumcision in the old covenant and baptism in the new, arguing that children of believers are included in the covenant community. Both positions appeal to Scripture. The disagreement is real and should be discussed honestly rather than dismissed.
How often should a church celebrate the Lord's Supper?
The New Testament does not specify a frequency. Acts 2:42 says the early church devoted themselves to the breaking of bread, which suggests it was regular, and 1 Corinthians 11 assumes it was a repeated practice. Some churches celebrate weekly, treating it as a central part of every gathering. Others celebrate monthly or quarterly to prevent it from becoming routine. The New Testament does not command a schedule, so churches have freedom here. What matters is that the Supper is observed with reverence, self-examination, and a focus on Christ's death and return.
