In Remembrance Of ME

Delivered on 5/28/17

 
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat: this is My body which is broken[b] for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
 
The Lord’s Supper not only looks back at Christ’s sacrifice and gives Him praise for His willing obedience to the Father, but also looks ahead to the day when we will see Him again and reign with Him in power.
 
We set aside time in America each year to remember some of the important dates of our history. Tomorrow is one of those days: Memorial Day. On May 30, 1868, our country observed the first day memorializing those who had fallen in battle during the Civil War. It was called “Decoration Day” at that time. In the few short years following the Civil War dozens of local observances honoring fallen Civil War soldiers had sprung up in communities across the country. Most were done by decorating gravesites with flowers.
 
The term “Memorial Day” was first used in 1882 and the observances were expanded to include all who had been lost in the time of war. The day became more widely observed following World War II and was declared a national holiday in 1967. The National Holiday Act of 1971 moved the official observance of Memorial Day to the last Monday in May.
 
So, today… tomorrow in particular, thousands of Americans will make pilgrimages to cemeteries to remember loved ones lost and decorate graves with flowers. There are those who say that remembering should be a common spiritual exercise in the Christian life and in looking to the Word of God I would have to agree.
 
Time and again the people of God are exhorted and commanded to remember. More than once God has instituted memorials so His people would remember Him and what He has done. For example…
 
 
 
 
 
The Rainbow:
Genesis 9:16-17
16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
 
The Passover:
Exodus 12:13-14
13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14 ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.
 
The Stones From the Jordan River:
Joshua 4:2-3 to 7
2 “Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from every tribe, 3 and command them, saying, ‘Take for yourselves twelve stones from here, out of the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood firm. You shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you lodge tonight.’”
7 Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.”
 
And of course, the Lords Supper, from our text. Numerous rituals and sacrifices, all given with the element of remembrance.
 
Memorial Day is a day that we set aside to remember the price that was paid for our Freedom here in the United States. It has been set aside for those men and women who have given their lives for this country. It’s a day for us to remember the price that these men and women paid for our freedom. They died for our country so that we can have the freedom to live, freedom to make our own decisions, and most importantly, freedom to worship.
 
Tomorrow as we celebrate Memorial Day I want us to remember more than just those soldiers I want tomorrow to also be a reminder of what Jesus did for us. The Greatest Hero, who made the ultimate sacrifice. I want it tomorrow to be a reminder to us of the cost of freedom for our Christian life. If you are free from sin today it’s because a Man named Jesus became one of us and gave His life so we could have ours spared.
 
If you are saved, you owe it to your Lord to give Him glory and praise for what He did for you. If you are not, cry out to God for mercy, and be saved. Make today, a day you will remember.
Don’t take for granted the great salvation that we have today!
 
John 8:36
36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
 
If you were to look up the word Memorial we would see that it means, an object being placed to serve as a memory of something, usually a person or an event.  Church this afternoon, I would like for us to leave here, understanding… when God sent His son Jesus.  Jesus became that Memorial for us.  “This do in remembrance of Me”
 
Jesus’ life here, on this earth serves as a memory to us of how much God loved us and that memory of the life of Jesus does 3 things that we should never forget.
 
The life of Jesus, reminds us of the past. This Memorial Day you and I need to remember what Jesus did for us over 2000 years ago. He left His home in heaven to come and live on this earth just so He could suffer and die a cruel death on the cross so that you and I could have eternal life. So that you and I could have a way to get into heaven. Because without Him there is no other way into the gates of Heaven. This Memorial Day should remind us what Jesus did for us in the past, which was dying in our place. He took upon Himself our punishment.
 
It’s a shame how many live their lives today when it comes to God. Sadly…many have forgotten about God. As if He never existed. Many often live their lives, as if He is not worthy to be praised. This is one of the main reasons why the lost have no need for our God. Many don’t want to go to hell…they want to be saved, and that has become the main focus. Many has forgotten the One who made the sacrifice. The Father, who gave His only begotten Son.
 
Take the Israelites for example, remember what God had done for them by delivering them from Pharoah. However, later… on the Israelites had forgotten what God had done for them and they began to live as if God was dead.
 
The Israelites began to live as the gentiles and when they began to forget how great their God was and what He had done for them they began serving false gods. Often just as we do. Many of us have begun to live like the world and for the world and we have forgotten what Jesus Christ did for us.  No different from the Israelites.
 
Every time we come to church to worship, or read our Bible or pray we need to remember how lost we were and how the Lord saved us.  And if we do that… then it won’t be so hard to praise Him and to live for Him, each and everyday. “This do in remembrance of Me”
 
Secondly… the life of Jesus reminds us of the reward for the present. If Jesus had not done what He did in the past we would have no present.
Without Jesus dying on the cross over 2000 years ago there would be no salvation for you & I today. There would be no forgiveness of sin for you & I today. Without any past there would be no present. When we begin to look back on what Jesus did for us, how Jesus died to set us free, it’s then that we begin to gain courage and faith to trust Him for today’s needs.
 
Church…it is now and has always been the time to believe that we serve the same God as Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Peter, James, Paul and John and just as God led, guided and directed them in their days He will do the same for us if we just seek and trust Him.
 
Our God isn’t some weakling that can’t come through for us. He is the I Am, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Savior, Author and finisher of our faith, the chief Cornerstone, the Almighty, the everlasting Father, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Anchor and last, but not least, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. God will now and always come through for us if you and I will just seek and trust in Him.
 
The reason so many of us live so defeated in the present, the here and now, is because we fail to remember the past. In our passage of scripture this ceremony, the Lord’s Supper, was set aside by God himself to remind us of how AWESOME our God is and How much God loved us.
 
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
 
In my opinion, there are too many “Just In Case Christians” in churches today. They go to church just in case the preacher is right so they will have something to tell God one day when they stand before the judgment seat. Church… listen to me it’s a privilege and an honor for you and I to worship and praise and serve our God and the day that it becomes a job and pain is the day you need to find a God you will serve. DON’T SERVE HIM BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO! SERVE HIM BECAUSE YOU LONG TO… BECAUSE YOU WANT TO, BECAUSE YOU WERE CHOSEN TO. Because of what Jesus has done for us in the past, it makes our present… the here and now worth  living.
 
Thirdly, His life reminds us of his promises. Need I remind you, that Jesus didn’t just go through all that suffering, nor did He die on the cross to save us, and just to leave us to fend for ourselves for the rest of our lives! The death and resurrection of Jesus was His promise to us that He will never leave us nor forsake us.
 
The death and resurrection of Jesus promised us that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins.  He is not a liar., His death, His forgiveness, is for all eternity.
 
 
Romans 8:29-30
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
 
Did we forget, to Whom we belong to?  “this do in remembrance of Me”. And the list of promises keeps going and going and going and because God has made so many promises to us we often need a memorial to remind us of those promises that God has made. That memorial is this book right here called The Bible. You want a Memorial Day? open the Bible everyday. “this do in remembrance of Me”. Remember Me, everyday!!! ( Jesus )
 
When you pray and read your Bible let it be a reminder to you of what your God did for you as well as what God can and will continue to do for you. Let it be a reminder to you of all the promises that God made for His children. Don’t take His pain for granted. Don’t take His sacrifice for granted. Don’t forget His promises. SERVE HIM WITH ALL YOU HAVE. HE IS WORTH SERVING, ESPECIALLY AFTER ALL HE HAS DONE!!!
 
In Conclusion:
 
Both freedom and life never comes without a price. The blood of many fine soldiers paid for the freedom that we have today, just as the blood of the tiny lamb of the Passover paid for the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israelites. A price has to be paid for freedom and life, and that price is the death of another. Jesus had to die, in order that we may live.
 
Our country’s soldiers died that we might have a life of freedom, and Jesus died that we might have life eternal. In the story of the Passover, the blood of a lamb was marked on the doorposts and this caused the destroyer to pass over the households that were marked, thus granting them life. This represented the cross of Jesus Christ upon which the very Lamb of God would give his own life that we might live forever in God’s kingdom.
 
Hebrews 9:13-15
13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
 
 
Jesus paid for our spiritual freedom and gave us a crown in heaven when he died on the cross. There is no freedom without the shedding of blood. We should never forget our many soldiers who died for our freedom here in America, and most importantly we must never forget our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave his own life on a cross that we might have eternal life.
 
“THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME”
 
Our  last verse for this evening…REMEMBER!!!
 
John 10:10-11
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.