Hebrews 9:24-28 Remembrance Day
1. OVER One hundred years ago, an armistice was signed. Called Remembrance Day
• On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11thmonth of 1918, hostilities ceased.
• World War I had been raging four long years, leaving 9 million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded. Germany, Russia, France and Great Britain each lost around a million soldiers. The United States suffered 116,000 losses, about twice the number killed in Vietnam.
• By the end of the war, Germany was running out of soldiers and supplies, and the country was facing an imminent invasion.
• On November 11, 1918, German leaders met with Allied leaders in a railroad car in France, and there they signed an armistice agreement — a temporary suspension of hostilities. World War I was over, and no more blood shed.
• Then the remembrances began. One year later, November 11 was declared in many countries to be Armistice Day. It became a federal holiday in the United States in 1938, and later, in the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, the name was changed to Veterans Day. In Canada, the holiday is called Remembrance Day, and red poppies are sold to raise money for veterans.
2. The poem “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae includes the lines:
• In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row …We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie ,In Flanders field
3. We never want to forget that Blood was required for Forgiveness of sins
• Animal Sacrifices Could Not Fully Atone for Sins In the Old Testament, animal sacrifices was a temporary covering for sins (Leviticus 4:1-5:13). Bulls, goats, lambs and doves were sacrificed on the altar to atone for the people’s sins.
• The writer of Hebrews explains that animal blood could never fully take away sins (Hebrews 10:4it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
• Jesus Christ, who is called “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Animal sacrifices could only provide ceremonial cleansing, but Jesus’ blood would cleanse consciences and hearts from sin and guilt (Hebrews 9:13-14). . 13The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death
• Jesus’ blood can make the “vilest sinner clean” and present us faultless before God’s throne.
4. Let us Never forget His Blood Sanctifies and Makes Us Holy or fixes us Before God
• Not only does Jesus’ shed blood provide forgiveness of sins, but it also sanctifies us and sets us apart as holy before God.
• The writer of Hebrews explains that through His own blood, Jesus secured our redemption and qualified us to enter God’s holy presence (Hebrews 9:12; 10:19-22).
• According to John Piper, noted Reformed theologian and pastor, “The blood of Jesus purchases not only the removal of sin’s guilt, but the removal of its presence.” Isn’t that incredible? The sanctifying power in Jesus’ blood sets us apart, cleanses our hearts, and enables us to serve God , Sin can’t hold us back
5. This remembrance day know this that Jesus’ Blood Brings Redemption and Restoration
• The blood of Jesus Christ is incredibly powerful for redeeming us from sin. When Jesus shed His blood on the cross, He paid the penalty for our sins so that we could be forgiven (Eph 1:7).
• His sacrificial death delivered us from slavery to sin, allowing us to be restored into right relationship with God (Romans 6:6-7).
• 1 Peter 1:18-19 says, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” Death Passes over as was in OT.
6. This Remembrance Day don’t forget Blood was required for forgiveness, his blood sanctifies us, and His blood brings redemption and His blood can save you, are you that one?
• But not every veteran is a fighter. Desmond Doss was a devout Christian who refused to touch a weapon or work on the Sabbath. He enlisted in the Army during World War II because he believed in the cause, offering to be a combat medic.
• At first, the Army wanted nothing to do with him. “He just didn’t fit into the Army’s model of what a good soldier would be,” said a documentary filmmaker to National Public Radio (November 4, 2016). Members of his battalion considered him a pest. They saw him as a slacker and threw shoes at him while he prayed.
• But at Okinawa in the spring of 1945, Doss and his company faced a grueling task: They had to climb a steep, jagged cliff and face thousands of heavily armed Japanese soldiers. Under heavy fire, Doss climbed the ridge and crawled from wounded soldier to wounded soldier, dragging them to safety. He was praying the whole time, “Lord, please help me get one more.”
• In the end, Doss saved 75 men over a 12-hour period. The soldiers who had shamed him now praised him, and his captain described him as “one of the bravest persons alive.” President Harry Truman awarded Doss the Medal of Honor in 1945, and more than 70 years later, he was the hero of the movie Hacksaw Ridge. He was, and is, an example of a veteran who gave up his own security for the security of others, both on the battlefield and back at home.
• Jesus died to save men and women Jesus wants to get one more for the kingdom, are you that one?”
