WOR-201
Worship & the Ordinances
The theology and practice behind water baptism, the Lord's Supper, and footwashing as practiced in Oneness Apostolic churches, plus the broader theology of corporate worship.
Topics: Baptism theology, Communion, Footwashing
Suggested resource: Your own church background and practice as a living case study, checked against Scripture.
Week 1: The Theology of Water Baptism, Revisited
Reading: Acts 2:38, 41 (revisit); Romans 6:1–11; Colossians 2:11–13; Acts 22:16 (revisit); Galatians 3:27
Soteriology (THE-102) already walked through the full case for baptism specifically in Jesus' name — Acts 2:38, 8:16, 10:48, 19:5, 22:16, and Peter's Pentecost crowd baptized the same day, about three thousand souls (Acts 2:41). This week asks a different question: not just why the name matters, but what baptism itself actually does, theologically, to the person going under the water.
Paul answers directly in Romans 6: “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (6:3–4). Baptism is not a symbolic add-on performed after salvation to publicly announce it — in Paul's language it is itself a burial and a resurrection, the moment a person is joined to Christ's own death and brought up into “newness of life.” Colossians 2:11–13 calls this “the circumcision of Christ,” buried with Him in baptism and “risen with him through the faith of the operation of God.” Galatians 3:27 states the result in one line: “as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” — a change of identity, not merely a change of record. And Ananias's instruction to Saul in Acts 22:16, “arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord,” ties this entire transaction to the specific act of calling on Jesus' name at that moment. Now consider your own congregation's practice: how baptism is explained beforehand, the words spoken at the moment of immersion, and how a new believer is prepared — each detail should trace back to one of these texts, not just tradition for its own sake.
Key terms: Romans 6:3–4 (buried and raised), Colossians 2:11–13's 'circumcision of Christ', Galatians 3:27 ('put on Christ'), Acts 22:16's calling on the name
Discussion Questions
- What is the difference between treating baptism as a symbolic announcement of a decision already made, versus Paul's language of actually being 'baptized into his death'?
- How does your congregation currently prepare someone for baptism, and what would you add or change based on this week's texts?
Challenge: Write out, in full sentences, a theologically grounded explanation of baptism — quoting Romans 6:3–4 and Acts 2:38 — that you could give someone right before baptizing them.
Week 2: The Lord's Supper (Communion)
Reading: Luke 22:14–20; John 6:53–58; 1 Corinthians 11:17–34
On the night of His betrayal, at the Passover meal, Jesus “took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:19–20). By tying the bread and cup to the Passover meal Israel had kept for over a thousand years, Jesus reframed the entire Exodus story — the lamb's blood that spared Israel from judgment — around His own body and blood, establishing a New Covenant sealed at the cost of His life.
Earlier, in John 6, Jesus had used similarly startling language: “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” (6:53) — language so difficult that “many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him” (6:66). Read in light of the Last Supper, this is not a call to literal cannibalism but to genuine, ongoing dependence on Christ's sacrifice for spiritual life, the same way physical bread sustains physical life. By the time Paul writes to Corinth, the church there had turned the Lord's Supper into something closer to a divided, self-indulgent meal, with some going hungry while others got drunk (11:21). Paul's correction is severe: “whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord… let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup” (11:27, 28). Some in Corinth, Paul says, had grown “weak and sickly” and some had even died because of how carelessly they approached the table (11:30) — a sober warning that this ordinance carries real spiritual weight, calling for honest self-examination rather than either casual routine on one side or anxious perfectionism on the other.
Key terms: Luke 22:19–20 and the New Covenant, John 6:53–58's hard saying, 1 Corinthians 11's warning against unworthy participation, Self-examination before communion
Discussion Questions
- What does it mean that Jesus deliberately tied the Lord's Supper to the Passover story Israel already knew?
- How would you explain 1 Corinthians 11:27–30's warning to someone taking communion for the first time, without making them afraid to participate at all?
Challenge: Read 1 Corinthians 11:17–34 in full and write out, step by step, what genuine self-examination before communion should actually involve.
Week 3: Footwashing and the Broader Theology of Worship
Reading: John 13:1–17; 1 Timothy 5:9–10; Hebrews 10:24–25
On the same night as the Last Supper, “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God… riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself” (John 13:3–4) — then washed His disciples' feet, a task normally reserved for the lowest household servant. When Peter objects, Jesus insists, and then draws the lesson out explicitly: “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” (13:14–15). Many Oneness Apostolic congregations, including the Apostolic Assembly and UPCI tradition, practice footwashing as a literal ordinance for exactly this reason — not merely as a nice illustration of humility, but as a direct, repeated obedience to Jesus' own command and example, often paired with communion services. Paul's mention of it in 1 Timothy 5:10 as a mark of a godly widow's reputation shows the early church already understood it as a recognizable, ongoing practice, not a one-time historical event.
Stepping back to worship as a whole, Hebrews 10:24–25 grounds the reason believers gather at all: “let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Corporate worship, singing, prayer, preaching, and the ordinances, exists to provoke love and good works in one another, not to produce a feeling or a performance. The test of whether worship is genuine is not its production value or emotional intensity, but whether it engages the whole person, mind, emotion, and will, in real response to God and real love toward the people sitting beside you.
Key terms: John 13:14–15's direct command, 1 Timothy 5:10's early church reference, Footwashing as ordinance, not mere illustration, Hebrews 10:24–25's purpose for gathering
Discussion Questions
- What does your congregation's practice of footwashing, if it has one, teach about servant leadership specifically?
- How does Hebrews 10:24–25 change what you look for when evaluating whether a worship service 'went well'?
Challenge: Read John 13:1–17 in full and write a short reflection on what Jesus' example there calls you personally to do, in a relationship where you would rather not serve.
Course Exam
Five questions for review or self-testing.
Q: What does Romans 6 connect baptism to?
Reveal Answer
Union with Christ's death and resurrection.
Q: What does 1 Corinthians 11 warn about taking communion?
Reveal Answer
Doing so 'unworthily,' calling for genuine self-examination.
Q: What ordinance is based on John 13, and what does it model?
Reveal Answer
Footwashing, modeling servant leadership and mutual humility.
Q: How should corporate worship be evaluated, according to this course?
Reveal Answer
By whether it genuinely engages the whole person, mind, emotion, and will, not by production value alone.
Q: What did Jesus instruct after washing the disciples' feet?
Reveal Answer
'Do as I have done to you.'