Remember The Cross: Memorial Day

“Remember the CROSS”

Memorial Day 2020

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Credit:

various sections were taken from K. Edward Skidmore on Dec 13, 2004

Background research from Tom Fuller

Memorial Day is a time when we remember a sobering fact:

• The Cost of Freedom is Blood.

• Once a year we observe Memorial Day.

Tomorrow is the official Memorial Holiday.

• Because men have died for this country,

• we have the right to preach God’s word freely.

• We have the right to live at peace in our own homes.

• We have the right to pursue peace, prosperity and happiness.

We remember those who cannot hear our “THANK YOU”’s

Memorial day is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service:

Tomorrow we remember and honor those who gave their lives for LIVES

Today we remember and honor Jesus for giving His life for our SOULS.

We are forgetful people, we forget:

- Names, faces, phone numbers

- We forget where we put our cell phones when they are in our hands

- We can’t find our purse, wallet and keys

We want to remember important things so:

- We set alarms to grab our attention

- We put things on our calendar

- We have to trip over it, or we’ll likely forget things that are important

- I have started to ask others to “help me remember” this or that.

God wants to make sure we don’t forget THE CROSS OF CROSS:

- The death of Jesus that buys us life

- The fact that Jesus loves us

- That we can have hope and a future in Christ ALONE

-

We NEED a REMINDER THAT WE OWE JESUS EVERYTHING,

and that He is our only need

“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.”

26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (NKJV)

This, of course, is the Last Supper:

• We find it in each of the Synoptic Gospels

• It was part of the Passover feast where Jesus

• took the piece of bread,

• broke it and had His disciples eat,

• then took the third cup and had them drink of it.

This was a reminder of what God had done:

• for the children of Israel in bringing them out of Egypt

• now became hugely significant of what Jesus was about to do

• To be nailed to the cross and suffer to death

• And on the 3rd day be raised from the dead

• to rescue ALL THE WILLING from the bondage sin

Paul here emphasizes two aspects of communion:

1. Jesus told us to do it “in remembrance” of Him.

a. It literally means “to bring to recollection”.

2. The second thing is that in doing this we “proclaim” the Lord’s death until He returns.

Proclaim reminds me of the town crier saying something like this “Hear ye, Hear ye, Jesus died for the sins of the WORLD!”

THERE IS NO BETTER NEW, THAT IS WHY THEY CALL IT THE GOOD NEWS!

Communion is nothing to be taken lightly:

• We need to RECALL the painful death and horror of

• Jesus being separated from the Father

• so that we would never have to be

Jesus said this was a “new” covenant.

• We are new,

• with a new character and new life,

• so WE MUST LIVE NEW, not act in the “old” way of competition and class?

“Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:4 (NKJV)

Praise God we NOW live under GRACE and NOT LAW!!

God is no debtor to man….

• Still He came to die on the cross for our sins

• He never owed us a thing, but now who is the debtor?

• God owes us nothing, but we owe Him everything (X2)

We have to admit our guilt:

• Jesus loved you enough to die VOLUNTARILY ON THE CROSS

• I am glad Jesus died for you and I, we needed that like we need air, but remember