The Rainbow, The Lord’s Supper, And Baptism (Genesis 9:8-17)
Here is the video of the sermon if you’d like to watch it. But if you’d rather just keep on scrolling and read it, then please do so.
Human beings are creatures with different senses. And God knows that because He created us that way. When you were a child, you likely learned that there were 5 senses: smell, hearing, sight, taste, and touch. And God has provided means to engage all of them to tell you of His grace.
Every Sunday, faithful churches across the globe come together to declare the message of God’s grace. They come together and a pastor declares the message of God’s salvation through the finished work of Christ over them. And many of them will also partake of the Lord’s Supper. They will hear God’s Word declared and hear the grace of God proclaimed to them in their ears. And they will see, feel, touch, and taste the message of God’s grace in the bread and the cup of the Lord’s Supper. When you were baptized it was also a multisensory declaration of your union with Christ, the death and resurrection of Christ, and your own death to sin and new life in Christ. As the water enveloped you, it marked your union with Christ and His death and your death to this world.
This sermon will be a bit different, for we will look at the promise God gave to Noah and the sign of the rainbow and see what it can teach us about the signs of the New Covenant: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
We will see that God gave us these signs so that we would remember and proclaim His grace and have it proclaimed to us.
The Covenant Is Gracious (Genesis 8:21-22)
God’s covenants with His creatures are gracious. The covenants that God makes in Scripture are agreements that God makes with us in which He guarantees to keep His promise. And in the covenant with Noah, God promised that He would never again flood the whole Earth.
But man did not deserve this treatment. Noah and his family were the only people that survived the flood, and the wickedness of mankind was still a huge problem.
“And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”” – Gen 8:21-22 ESV
The people were still sinful, but God’s attitude toward sinners had changed.
As Christians we understand this well because God’s attitude toward us was changed because of the finished work of Christ. God’s wrath rested upon us. But He gave us grace by pouring His wrath out upon His Son in our place.
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” Romans 3:23-25 ESV
We fell short of God’s standard. And God put His Son forward as a “propitiation”, or a “wrath-bearing sacrifice”. The wrath and justice of God that we owed was poured out upon His Son in our place. And we receive this “by faith”, not anything that we do. Those who receive Christ by faith are brought into covenant fellowship with God based completely on the life, death, and resurrection of Christ on our behalf.
The first thing to notice is that both covenants are acts of God’s grace. God not flooding the Earth again was and continues to be an act of grace. And our salvation in Christ is an act of God’s grace and mercy.
We have not done and will not do anything to earn God’s favor. All we have done in this transaction is bring upon ourselves God’s wrath and justice. God the Son took on human flesh and dwelt among us. He lived a perfect life on our behalf and fulfilled all righteousness. And He died on the cross on behalf of sinners. He paid the debt that all who would ever believe owed. And He rose from the grave three days later. Jesus accomplished the salvation of sinners completely. Christ did all of it. We did none of it. And because of this the one who trusts in Christ is brought into fellowship with God.
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,” (1 Peter 3:18 ESV)
Christ died to bring us to God. His death brought those who believe into fellowship with God, who without the work of Christ would stand outside of fellowship with God completely.
The first thing to notice this morning is that the covenant fellowship we have with God is completely an act of grace.
God Declares His Grace To Us With Words (Genesis 8:9-11)
God told Noah what He was going to do, or rather what He would not do. Even though mankind earned for itself another flood of God’s wrath, He would not give it. Humanity was still wicked, sinful, and in rebellion against God which is a condition that still continues today. But God has called a truce of sorts, and He declared that to Noah. And it is declared to us today here in Genesis 8.
God’s grace is declared to us. It was declared to you or you never would have come to faith in Christ.
“For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:11-17 ESV)
We intuitively understand this because it is how we were brought to faith in Christ. The message of God’s grace in Christ was given to us using words. If you are a believer today, God the Holy Spirit used that message to bring you to Christ. You heard about your sin, God’s judgment, and the salvation that God gave to us through the finished work of Christ.
But this is not the only time that you should hear about God’s grace. Your conversion should only be the beginning of hearing this in your life. As the hymn “I Love To Tell The Story” so beautifully states,
“I love to tell the story, for those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it, like the rest.
And when, in scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song,
‘twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.”
This message should be proclaimed to God’s Word over and over again. The sermon should publish Christ to you in some way. It is the message that you should receive from Scripture Sunday after Sunday.
“Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1Corinthians 1:20-24 ESV)
And this is not an outlandish task. It is getting to the heart of the Scriptures. Ultimately, as we discussed last week, all the Scriptures are about Jesus in some way (John 5:39-40, Luke 24:25-27).
God Declares His Grace To Us With Signs
We read over and over in this text that the rainbow is a sign of the covenant God made with Noah. It is a picture that symbolizes the covenant so closely that to see a rainbow is to see a picture of God’s promise.
When you see a rainbow, you are to think of God’s promise and rest in that promise given. And God sees the rainbow and will not flood the entire Earth again (Genesis 9:16). If you will recall from last week, the word “remember” when used of God is a call to action. When God “remembers” things get done. In this case, God’s wrath being poured out via a worldwide flood does not happen.
When we think about the Lord’s Supper and consider that it is also a sign, we begin to realize that the Lord’s Supper is more than a memorial. I want to emphasize right now that it is a memorial. Jesus said it was.
“And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:19-20 ESV)
It is not simply a memorial though. It is much more than that. It is not just remembrance like what a statue or a monument does. It is more than that.
The rainbow proclaims something in a picture. It proclaims God’s grace not to flood the earth again. Another way of saying this is that God proclaims His grace to the world by not flooding the Earth again.
In the Lord’s Supper, God proclaims to us His promises that are fulfilled in Christ. We eat the bread and see a memorial of Christ’s broken body. But we also have God telling us something as we eat the bread and take the cup. He is telling us of the love, grace, and mercy that He has provided to us in Christ. God has given us a picture of the pardon that we received. Forgiveness in Christ is proclaimed to us. You eat the bread and drink the cup and God shows us in that picture that we are forgiven in Christ.
In the Lord’s Supper, forgiveness in Christ is proclaimed to us. You eat the bread and drink the cup and as you do so, God shows you in that picture that you are forgiven in Christ.
The Sign Is Not About You Or What You’ve Done, It’s About The Salvation God Gave
What was the rainbow about?
The rainbow was about God’s promise and how He would behave toward mankind in the future. It was not about anything that Noah was going to do.
There are differences between the Lord’s Supper and the Rainbow at this point. A rainbow is created without humans doing anything at all. And so, there is a warning given in Paul’s description concerning the Lord’s Supper. But as you read it, notice that the Lord’s Supper is about the remembrance and proclamation of the forgiveness that is found in Christ.
“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” (1Corinthians 11:23-32 ESV)
The Lord’s Supper is about what God has done and all the promises that He gives to us in Christ. Like fools we attempt to make it about ourselves and about our own repentance. That’s not what it is about. It is about the remembrance and proclamation of Christ and the salvation he gives.
But beware if you are living in sin. You do have reason to fear. And you do have things to repent of.
I have known people that are too scared to partake of the Lord’s Supper. The fear they had was for good reason. God does not take lightly the wrong partaking of the Lord’s Supper. As was read in the text above, some of those who were sick and died in the church at Corinth were undergoing God’s discipline. And when we read this in context, we understand that this was primarily about the way they treated their brothers and sisters in Christ.
I want to give this warning clearly to you today. Even though the Lord’s Supper is not primarily about you or your repentance, if you despise someone in this room and partake of the Lord’s Supper anyway then it may be the thing that sends you to the hospital or the grave. And it will be for your good that God brings that about. As Paul said above, it will be the Lord’s discipline in your life. And if you are sitting in your seat right now unable to forgive your brother or sister in Christ then you have reason to fear that you are yourself not forgiven (Matthew 6:15). The person who is unable to forgive their brother or sister in Christ is still living in their sin and has not been transformed by the grace of God.
If there exists strife between you and your brother or sister in Christ, then heed the direction of Jesus and make things right between you and them.
“So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24 ESV)
If you despise someone in this room and partake anyway then it may be the thing that sends you to a hospital or the grave. And even more troubling is the final destination of someone who will not forgive their brother or sister in Christ. Because if you cannot forgive then you are not forgiven (Matthew 6:15). So, before partaking go to your brother or sister and make things right (Matthew 5:23-24).
We need to heed this warning. I am not going to ever say that we should ignore it. But that is not what the Lord’s Supper is about. It is about the forgiveness given to you in Christ.
In the Lord’s Supper, God has given to us means to remember what Christ has done for us.
In the Lord’s Supper, God has given us means to tell us that we have forgiveness in Christ.
The Lord’s Supper is about remembrance and proclamation of Christ’s sacrifice and the forgiveness that He has given us.
In the Lord’s Supper God delivers a message to us. It’s a message of His love, His grace, and His mercy toward us that was accomplished in the perfect life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That’s what makes the Lord’s Supper special. It’s not frequency. It’s not a special way of doing the Lord’s Supper. It’s not special because you repent. It is special because it is a memorial and proclamation of what Christ has done.
In their book, “The Lord’s Supper”, Dr. Schreiner and Matthew R. Crawford state this about the Lord’s Supper that I believe sums this up very well.
“Yes, the Table proclaims Christ’s death, but not simply—or even primarily—the tragedy of His death. The point is that this is “proclamation”. Elsewhere in the New Testament what is being proclaimed when Christ’s death is in view? It is the fact that the death of Christ has made possible the forgiveness of sin, reconciliation with God, transference from being enemies of God to being children of God! What is proclaimed is good news, the gospel. We do wrong when our participation in Communion is a self-flagellating focus on tragedy. We do not gather merely to tell God we’re sorry He had to go through this. We are reminded of our sin and how far God in His love went to reach us, but the focus is on celebrating and giving thanks for God’s amazing grace. The taking of the elements is the tangible proclamation of the forgiveness of sins. It is one of God’s prescribed means of reminding His people that He has forgiven their sins. This is good news which should bring great joy to all God’s people.”[1] (Thomas R. Schreiner, Matthew R. Crawford Pp. 367-368.)
Conclusion
As we come to the Lord’s Supper this morning, let it be a time of joy and celebration of God’s grace and mercy in your life. Only those who have been saved by the grace of God and baptized may partake in the Lord’s Supper. And if you are in Christ and there is animosity between you and your brother or sister in Christ, make things right before you partake of the Lord’s Supper or you may face the discipline of the Lord in your life. But partake of the Lord’s Supper as it was intended to be taken, as a memorial and a proclamation of God’s grace to you.
R. Dwain Minor
[1] Thomas R. Schreiner, Matthew R. Crawford, The Lord’s Supper: Remembering And Proclaiming Christ Until He Comes, B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, TN, 2010, Pp. 367-368.