God With Us
God is not far away from us. He wants to be near us and came into this world to be Immanuel or “God with us.” There are three ways that He comes near to us in His church: Holy Baptism, the Office of the Keys, and Holy Communion.
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Our church looks the way it does and worships the way it does because we believe He is actually with us here – not far away, not waiting to come down if we get worked up enough, not wishing He could be with us but unable. No, He is with us and for us and blesses us Himself here.​​
​​Baptism
"Concerning Baptism, our churches teach that Baptism is necessary for salvation [Mark 16:16] and that God's grace is offered through Baptism [Titus 3:4-7]. They teach that children are to be baptized [Acts 2:38-39]. Being offered to God through Baptism, they are received into God's grace" (Augsburg Confession, Article IX: Baptism).
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Coming into the Christian church happens through Holy Baptism, a sacrament or ritual connected to God’s Word that Jesus Himself set up. He told His disciples to baptize everyone in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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Baptism means “washing,” and the Bible shows us only one baptism that you need: a baptism of water and the Spirit of God Who comes to you in Baptism. That’s why we call it “Holy Baptism” because God’s Spirit comes to us and fills us as the water is poured over us and the Word of God is spoken to us by the pastor, “I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
See what the Small Catechism says about Baptism.
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Who needs it?
Everyone needs to be baptized if he hasn’t already been baptized in God’s Triune Name and with water. A baptism without God’s Name is not a baptism. A baptism without water is not a baptism. There is only “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” in the Bible, and everyone needs the one Lord, needs to believe the one faith, and needs to receive the one baptism.
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If you have not yet been baptized or don’t know if you have, please email or call us as soon as you can.
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Infant Baptism:
At Immanuel we baptize people of any size, including the littlest ones. We do this because we believe what the Bible says about baptism: everyone needs it (“You must be born again of water and of the Spirit”) and “everyone” or “all nations” means “babies, too.”
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Think about it this way: only sinners die. If babies did not have the spiritual disease of sin, what we call “original” or “inherited” sin, they would not die. If someone can die, he should be baptized, no matter how old he is or how much he understands. If babies can die, babies should also be baptized to receive God’s salvation from death.
Think about this, too: babies are the model for faith in the Bible. Jesus said that no one could enter God’s kingdom unless he became like a little child.
Little ones are God’s model for faith. Far from not believing or not understanding, they are in fact the ones we need to imitate as we trust in God our Father. God only has children, not adults. So children, the littlest ones among us, are the model for faith and the model for every baptism.
No matter how old you are when you’re baptized, you’re baptized as God’s child, His little one for whom He cares and whom He carries in His everlasting arms.
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How we baptize:
Since baptism means “washing” in the original Greek, we like to use plenty of water at Immanuel when baptizing young and old, but the Bible does not say precisely how someone has to be baptized apart from the Triune Name and some amount of water. You could be immersed in water like in a river or big tub. You could have water sprinkled on top of your head. You could be washed like we wash a cup. What matters is not how much water but that we’re using water and God’s Word. That’s what Jesus commanded – water and the Word – so that’s what we absolutely must do. Other things can be left free.​​​​
Why Pastors?
In the church service you will see a man up front (in what’s called the “chancel”) who read God’s Word, preaches, and celebrates Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. This is our pastor, and he has been trained to do those things and to do them well. All that pastors do is what Lutherans call the “Office of the Holy Ministry,” the duties God has given to some men in the church for the benefit of the whole church. In God’s Name they speak His Word, celebrate His sacraments, and forgive the sins confessed to them so that the church can receive God’s care through His ministers whom He has chosen.
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See what the Small Catechism says about forgiveness and the ministry here.
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Confessing Our Sins:
We confess sins in three different ways:
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1. To God privately we confess all our sins, including the ones we don’t remember, and both the pastor and the Bible remind us constantly that for Christ’s sake we are forgiven.
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2. To one another we confess our sins against one another, as Christ commanded us to do in the Lord’s Prayer and in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. Both the pastor and the Bible remind us that if we have been forgiven by God for Christ’s sake, we also forgive for Christ’s sake those who have done and said evil against us.
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3. To the pastor we confess sins that trouble us. This is not absolutely commanded in Scripture, so it is not required of anyone. It is there for our comfort, not to burden us. If we confess a sin to the pastor, he cannot say anything about it to anyone. The sin dies in his ear. After we confess, he forgives that sin for the sake of Jesus Christ, and we are free of the burden of those sins that trouble us.
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You can find out more about that from the Small Catechism here.
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The Office of the Holy Ministry:
The Office of the Holy Ministry is also called the Office of the Keys. God gave two keys to His church, which are used by ministers in God’s Name. One key is the binding key, when the pastor proclaims to an unrepentant sinner that he is not forgiven as long as he does not repent. The other key is the loosing key, when the pastor proclaims to a repentant sinner that he is forgiven all his sin for the sake of Christ’s death and resurrection.
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Both keys are necessary to God’s church, which is why He gave us both of them for the ministers to use. They are also serious, as the minister must know clearly what is sin and what is not, what God says in Scripture and what He does not say. This is why we take the Office of the Holy Ministry so seriously, requiring our pastors to be well-schooled in Scripture and doctrine and to hold fast to the Bible and to our creeds and confessions in the Book of Concord.​
Communion
The focus and climax of every Sunday service and every festival service at Immanuel is Holy Communion, also called the Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist or the Sacrament of the Altar. In Communion the Lord Jesus Christ Himself comes to us through His Word in His Body and His Blood. He uses the earthly elements of bread and wine to become His Body and Blood as His minister speaks His Words of Institution.
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See what we teach about Holy Communion here.
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How Jesus is with us in Holy Communion:
Many churches do not believe Jesus is physically Himself present in Holy Communion. Other churches believe that He is present and have complex explanations of how that happens. Our teaching is that He is present in His Body and Blood in Holy Communion because He says so:
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"Take, eat, this is My Body.
Take, drink, this is My Blood."
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You may find Internet articles calling that teaching “consubstantiation.” We don’t call it that because what we teach is not an opinion or a philosophical idea. We teach simply what Scripture says, as we do in everything else. If He says it, that settles it.
Who should receive?
Anyone who trusts in these words of Christ and repents of his sin should receive Holy Communion. If you repent of your sin and trust in Christ, you are a Christian. If you are a Christian, you should be a member of a Christian congregation, accountable to it and its pastor(s).
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At Immanuel our pastor decides who receives the Lord’s Supper according to what’s usually called “closed communion." This simply means our pastor holds our people and everyone accountable to what our congregation believes and does. We don’t practice “open communion,” meaning anyone who shows up can take communion regardless of what he believes or how he lives, because we don’t believe Jesus’ Body and Blood should be treated as if what He says to us about our faith and our life doesn’t matter much.
We practice closed communion because we love you and want you to be connected to Christ through our congregation or another faithful congregation, where a solid pastor will care for what you believe and what your life is.
Membership:
If you have no church here in Osceola, join us. If you have not been baptized, be baptized here. If you have not received Holy Communion in a long time or perhaps ever, learn the faith here so that you can receive the Lord’s Body and Blood here. Call the church, email our pastor, and come to Christ’s altar here to be with Him now and always.
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More About the Christian Faith...
Who God is