Memorials
Many people view
Memorial day weekend as the beginning of camping season. I think many have
forgotten what Memorial day is for and even fewer could tell you when it
started.
In 1966, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson declared
By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day ceremonies were
being held on May 30 throughout the nation. State legislatures passed
proclamations designating the day, and the Army and Navy adopted regulations
for proper observance at their facilities.
It was not until after World War I, however, that the day
was expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars. In 1971,
Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress, though it
is still often called Decoration Day. It was then also placed on the last
Monday in May, as were some other federal holidays.
I think that its
important that we as Americans take just few moments to remember that our
freedom was won by many soldiers who gave their lives. We need to continue to
pray to God for our troops that we have in foreign fields today as they
continue to fight for democracy.
I personally think
that memorials are a good thing, because it helps us to remember the past
events and it can help us to remember to look to future events. So this morning
what I would like to do is to look a several different memorials that are found
within the Bible. Before, we get to our first one I just want to point out that
man did not come up with the concept of memorials God did. When you read in the
OT especially you see all kind of memorials that God had the children of
Our first memorial
comes from,
Exodus 12:11And thus
you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and
your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's
Passover. 12 'For I will pass through
the
So our first memorial is the Passover. God wanted the
children of
Exodus 13:6-9 6 "Seven days you shall eat
unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the
LORD. 7 "Unleavened
bread shall be eaten seven days. And no leavened bread shall be seen among you,
nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters. 8 "And you shall tell your
son in that day, saying, 'This is done because of what the LORD did for me when
I came up from
God wanted to ensure that
the Passover want forgotten so that all the generations to follow would remember
what God had done for them. In a very similar manner the Lords Supper is a
memorial for every Christian today to remind us what God did for us through his
son Jesus Christ. Notice what Paul tells us in
1 Corinthians 5: 7
Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly
are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast,
not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Paul
is using the OT Passover as a spiritual example for the NT Christian today. The
phrase purge out the old leaven is exactly what the children of
1 Corinthians 11:23
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 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."
One
of the things we are to remember is the great sacrifice that Christ made for us
on the cross. When we eat of the unleavened bread we are to remember his body
and when we drink of the fruit of the vine we should think upon his precious
blood that he shed for our sakes and how that blood ushered in the new covenant
of grace which we now have.
26 For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.
Not
only is the Lord supper used to remind us of the sacrifice that Jesus made it
also used as a teaching tool to proclaim Jesus death until he come again.
27 Therefore whoever eats this
bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of
the body and blood of the Lord. 28
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the
cup. 29 For he who eats and
drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not
discerning the Lord's body.
Some
have been confused on this passage thinking that a person themselves has to be worthy
to partake of the Lords Super but I can tell none of is worthy to partake of it
was only by the grace of that we have the honor and privilege to partake of it.
What this passage is teaching is that when we partake of the Lords Supper we
need to make sure that we are partaking of it for the purpose of remembering
what Christ did for us. You see some in the first century were turning the Lord
Super into a Pagan ritual and doing things they ought not to be doing. So there
was a great need for them to be taught that there is a right way and a wrong
way to observer the Lords Supper. We also need to remember that when we partake
of the Lord’s Supper we are in fellowship with him. As we remember this
memorial it will encourage us to live more Christ like lives on a daily basis.
Our
next memorial comes from
Joshua 4: 4
Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the children of
Israel, one man from every tribe; 5
and Joshua said to them: "Cross over before the ark of the LORD your God
into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his
shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, 6 "that this may be a sign
among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, 'What do these stones
mean to you?' 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
You
see these stones would be a visual reminder of how God guided his people into
the promise land. Joshua set up to memorials the first one marked where the
priest stood in the middle of the river and the second was where the children
of
Joshua 4:21 Then he
spoke to the children of Israel, saying: "When your children ask their
fathers in time to come, saying, 'What are these stones?' 22 "then you shall let your
children know, saying, 'Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land'; 23 "for the LORD your God
dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the
LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had
crossed over, 24 "that
all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty,
that you may fear the LORD your God forever."
Again, we see this idea
of where these memorials were to be taught from generation to generation.
Without memorials it would be easy for events that took in the past to be
forgotten forever. So far in this lesson we have examined memorials that are
used to remind us about what God has done for us. But now I want to us to
examine how individuals write their own memorials by they way they live their
lives and by the things that they do. Let’s look at some Biblical examples.
Our first example comes
from
Mark 14: 3
And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a
woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she
broke the flask and poured it on His head. 4 But there were some who were
indignant among themselves, and said, "Why was this fragrant oil
wasted? 5 "For it might
have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor."
And they criticized her sharply. 6
But Jesus said, "Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a
good work for Me. 7 "For
you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good;
but Me you do not have always. 8
"She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body
for burial. 9
"Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole
world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her."
What
a way to be remembered. Here Jesus has reached the point in his life where he
is about to be arrested and crucified and this women named Mary (Jn 12:3) poor
this very expensive oil Jesus head to anoint for his burial. Let give you an
idea of how much the oil was worth. It has been estimated it that it would have
taken a full year of work working all day to make enough money to purchase this
oil and Mary used to anoint Jesus. Because of Mary’s action Jesus makes it know
that that she would be remembered forever for what she had done for him. In
fact this story is found in all four gospels. The account in John 12 also informs
that Jesus forgives Mary of her sins and just Jesus promised what Mary did for
him then is still being taught today and it remains a memorial for us today.
When think about this story it teaches us several things.
1.
It teaches not to allow riches of this earth to become more valuable than
serving God. Mary didn’t care that the oil cost a whole year of wages she used
for the Lord and did so gladly. We can look at her and realize that we don’t
need to be stingy when it comes to giving of our selves or giving of our
physical blessing to God.
2.
Jesus says she had done what she could. You Mary wasn’t an apostle she wasn’t
going to be someone who would preach to thousands but though this act of love
that she did for Jesus she would be remembered forever. From this example we
learn that God doesn’t expect to do things that
we cannot do but he does expect us do what we can do. I think what Paul
says in.
2 Corinthians 8:10 And in
this I give advice: It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began
and were desiring to do a year ago; 11
but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a
readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion
out of what you have. 12
For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what
one has, and not according to what he does not have. 13 For I do not mean that
others should be eased and you burdened;
14 but by an equality, that now at this time your
abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply
your lack -- that there may be equality.
15 As it is written, "He who gathered much had
nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack."
I like what Paul
says in verse 12. He says there first must be a willing mind. We must be
willing to what we can. We must be willing to live our lives in such a way that
we leave behind a memorial that glorifies God.
Our next example
comes from,
Acts 9: 36
At Joppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated
Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and charitable deeds which she
did. 37 But it happened in
those days that she became sick and died. When they had washed her, they laid her
in an upper room. 38 And
since Lydda was near Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there,
they sent two men to him, imploring him not to delay in coming to
them. 39 Then Peter arose and
went with them. When he had come, they brought him to the upper room.
And all the widows stood by him weeping, showing the tunics and garments which
Dorcas had made while she was with them.
Here we have another
great example of how a person can leave behind a memorial that glorifies God.
Dorcas was women who used her abilities and talents to help those around here.
One of her good works that she did was making garments for those who needed
them. The people around her loved her and they couldn’t stand her dieing so
they call for Peter and Peter raises her
from the dead. No doubt this women continued on doing good works and serving
God for the rest of he life. This women sets
a good example for us to follow today as well. We should do our best to
good works for those around us as well.
Our next example comes
from,
Acts 10:1 There
was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called
the Italian Regiment, 2 a
devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms
generously to the people, and prayed to God always. 3 About the ninth hour of the day
he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, "Cornelius!" 4 And when he observed him, he was
afraid, and said, "What is it, lord?" So he said to him, "Your
prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.
Even though Cornelius was
a gentile he was living his life dedicated to serving God the best way he knew
how. He was man who feared God, gave alms and prayed to God always. Even though
he was not saved man at this time God recognized the sincerity of heart and his
alms and prayers were a memorial before God. Because of his sincere searching
for the truth God choose Cornelius and household to be the first gentiles that
the gospel would be preached to and to
show that God accepted all gentiles into his
plan of salvation. We can see this from
Acts
Since Cornelius and his
family had this sincere heart they obeyed the gospel call and were baptized
into Christ for the remission of their sins.
All these examples I have
mentioned so far are good examples of how we should live our lives to bring
about memorials that glorify God. However, we can also leave a negative
memorial. A good example of that Judas who betrayed Jesus over 30 silver coins.
In fact Jesus says this about him.
Matthew 26: 24
"The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that
man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if
he had not been born."
What
a way to be remembered that it would
have been better if you had never been born. That is not the kind of memorial
that you want to leave behind.
This
morning we have looked at several aspects about memorials. There is memorial
day where we remember the fallen soldiers. There are memorials set up for to
remember the things that God has done for us and there are the memorials that
we leave behind based on how we lived our lives.
But
now here are some crucial questions. What kind of memorial are you going to
leave behind? When you die what will people remember about you? Will they say
you did what you could or will they say it would have been better if you hadn’t
been born? We really think about how we live our lives and how we treat others
and make every effort to do it in such away
that we will leave behind a memorial that will glorify God.