Welcome, friend, to our program of Bible study In Search of the Lord's Way to become and to be a Christian. For the past three weeks, just past, our messages have focused on the very heart of the Bible, the message-- death, the burial and the resurrection, and then the ascension of Christ into heaven. Today we will take a serious look at the memorial that Christ erected to His own memory. Thanks for joining us. We pray we'll both be blessed.
My friend, I count it a real joy and a personal blessing to be invited into your home today to search the word of God for a meaningful relationship with Him here in this world, and to enhance our mutual hope of life with Him in the world to come.
Memorials are important. They are not so important to the ones who are memorialized, but they are to others. What would you think of President Bush, for example, were he to erect a multi-million-dollar memorial to himself in our nation's capitol? Something like the Washington or Lincoln memorials? Well, whatever you think of him now, you would think a little less of him then wouldn't you?
But, today we're going to be studying about the memorial that Jesus Christ built to His own memory. If you think you might want a free printed copy, a CD or an audio cassette tape of it, get a pen and writing pad and stay tuned; and we'll tell you how you can have one free later on in the program. Ken Helterbrand's going to lead us now as we sing.
We are reading today from Luke, chapter 22; and we will begin reading at verse 14. “And when the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, with fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, this is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me. Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” Now let us go to God in prayer. Holy Father, we are so thankful to You for the Lord Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that He made that we might obtain a right relationship with You here, and enjoy life with You here and in the world to come. Father, we thank You for this memorial that we have to remind us every first day of the week that Jesus died for our sins, purchased our salvation, and made heaven possible for us. We are thankful for that and we are thankful for saints all around the world who would not for any cause escape or not be at this memorial table and observe this memorial of Jesus. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen!
It's been said, "He who controls the past, controls the future." You may not have thought of them as such, but memorials are a way of controlling the past; and they are absolute essentials to continuance of nations and civilizations, and even to religious faiths and institutions. It's important, too, to keep those memorials alive and esteemed. People who are proud of their history are loyal to it and want to maintain that course, respect and make a positive effort to keep their memorials alive. However, a society bent on change will hurry that change along by perverting or creating disrespect or even destroying memorials to historical persons or events. It was interesting to me when I visited East Germany right after the fall of Communism-- and the Berlin Wall (a piece of which I have on my desk for a paper weight), even before the reunification of Germany, that the people had already so quickly, overturned or broken down the monuments and memorials to Lenin and Stalin and other great communist leaders. In some instances the pieces still lay scattered in ruin on the lawns of public buildings as we passed along the streets and sidewalks. To change the national direction, it isn't only important to re-write the history books, it's also necessary to destroy the nation's memorials. Memorials can be destroyed either by breaking them down as I mentioned the people had done in East Germany, or by neglecting them.
Memorials are of two kinds: There are monuments, statues such as the Washington and Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials in our nation's capitol. There are also the moveable kind, such as Washington's Birthday and the Fourth of July, and so on. We don’t any longer observe Washington’s Birthday (we've combined it with Lincoln's birthday and we call it "President's Day"). Consequently, George Washington is not as respected by our children and our youth as he was by our parents and grandparents. All memorials are profoundly meaningful to the people who erect them. To them, it would be unthinkable that there would ever be a generation who would not value them just as they did-- or still do.
Religious memorials are also essential to the continuance of religious faith. For example, in the Old Testament when Joshua was about to lead the nation of Israel across the Jordan into conquest of the land of Canaan, he was told of God to choose twelve men, one out of each tribe, who would each take a stone from the river, water, bed and pile them up at the place where the priest's feet stood as they bore the Ark of the Covenant crossing over into the Promised Land. What a great day that was! They would have entered "the promised land," my friend! Oh, it was a type of our entrance into heaven! That's how important that event was to them! God said of those stones that, "That this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, what do these stones mean to you?” 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 and the waters were cut off. And these stones shall be a memorial to the children of Israel forever. You read about that in Joshua, chapter 4. And it was so. This is an example of a fixed monument trying, testifying I should say, to an important event in the nation's history. It didn't mean anything to anybody else. To others it was merely a pile of rocks.
God also gave those people a moveable memorial in observance of the Sabbath Day. In the Decalog, He said, "And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out from, by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath Day.” That is Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 15. So, wherever the Jews would be, they could remember the day of their deliverance from the slavery in Egypt by keeping the Sabbath Day. It wouldn't mean anything to anybody else, of course it wouldn’t; it wouldn’t be any more than a pile of rocks, that pile of rocks that we just spoke about. But it would be a constant reminder to every Israelite of a very important event in their history.
These memorials are important, even essential, to the continuance of Israel as a nation. Not only did they have the written documents of the law which they were to teach to their children, but they could teach them by the use of these memorials. There were times in the history of Israel when they did not keep the Sabbath. The people forgot that they were once delivered by the hand of God out of slavery to Egypt. Every time they did so, they lost their identity and went into slavery and bondage to other nations.
Christianity also has its memorial. The night before His agonizing crucifixion, Jesus, being Deity and knowing beforehand the events of the night and the coming day, He met with His disciples to observe the Passover feast of the Jews. The Passover was another annual memorial of that dreadful night in Egypt when the Lord passed over Israel, and the first-born in every family in Egypt died on whose door post the blood of the Passover lamb was not found. Read about that in Exodus, chapter 12.
But, after they had eaten this Passover meal together, Jesus took some of the bread and some of the fruit of the vine of which they had eaten, and He instituted a memorial by which Christians could always remember Him. Our text says, "He took bread, and gave thanks, broke it, and gave to them saying, this is my body which is given for you: do this in remembrance of me. Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you."
Well, with these two simple elements, not beautifully sculptured and costly stone, but a piece of bread and a cup of wine, this humble Galilean carpenter, itinerant preacher erected a memorial to Himself (mind you) that still lives-- today-- many centuries later! It has outlived many beautifully graven stone monuments erected to the memory of great men and events in the intervening years. Over the centuries there have been billions of people who would rather die than to forsake this memorial. Isn't that fantastic? What a powerful testimony to the Deity of Jesus of Nazareth! Well, we have the written documents in the New Testament which affirm His deity, of course, but in addition to that, we have the Lord's Supper that stands today as credible proof that Jesus Christ was more than a mere man, He was indeed the Son of God, the sacrifice for our sins.
Well, there have always been those people who demand some evidence outside of the written word, the Bible, which will confirm their faith. They want a miracle. They say that the word of God is not enough for them, that the miracles recorded in it are no longer observable, hence we stand in need of some other confirmation. And it is true that miracles, in the biblical meaning of the word, are no longer occurring. The Bible plainly says that the miracles Jesus did were to confirm His claims to Deity (John 20:30-31). And the miracles that were done by the Apostles were done to confirm the gospel message revealed to them by the Holy Spirit (Mark 16:20; and Hebrews 2, verses 1 to 3). But some people want a modern-day miracle; something they can see with their own eyes.
Well, the very presence of the Lord's Supper, if not a miracle in the twenty-first Century church, so closely borders on one, that it would be very difficult to distinguish it from one. It still proclaims the Deity of Jesus Christ and His death for the sins of the world. If He were not the Son of God, how do you account for the beautiful, persistent observance of so simple a memorial -- the Lord's Supper in the twenty-first Century church?
As soon as the church began, the disciples began keeping this memorial with persistence and promptness (Acts chapter 2, verse 42). And in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, the Holy Spirit instructing the church of God which is at Corinth in the manner of its observance, says, "As often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes." Thus He established frequency, as often. He doesn't say how frequent, whether it was an annual observance, semi-annual, quarterly or at their own discretion. He simply says, "As often." But, the New Testament isn't like an encyclopedia in which all the information on a given subject is under one heading or on one page. We must look elsewhere to learn when and how frequently they observed the Lord’s Supper.
The book of Acts is a Holy Spirit inspired historical account of the early days of the church of Jesus Christ. In the twentieth chapter, Paul is seen traveling with his friends. Luke, the historian was with them at that time, and he says in verse six and seven, "We sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread and in five days joined them (meaning the co-workers mentioned in the preceding verses) at Troas, where we stayed seven days. Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight."
Study it my friend. The use of the word "when" in this passage indicates that the assembly of the disciples for the purpose of observing the Lord's Supper was anticipated by these brethren on the first day of the week. Paul and his company had stayed in Troas for seven days awaiting an assembly of the church, which they knew would be upon the first day of the week. It was the common practice of the early Christians to do so.
Today wherever we are traveling, in this country or abroad, we can know that churches of Christ will be coming together on the first day of the week to keep that memorial to Christ which He established in His own memory. Just like in our first century counterparts, we may be coming together at other times, even on the Sabbath, for other purposes, but on the first day of the week, we will assemble to break bread and drink the cup of the Lord. According to Acts chapter 5, verse 42 they met daily in the temple and in every house to preach and to teach the word of the Lord. And in Acts chapter 12, verse 12, it's said they came together to pray. So, we today may, and often do, meet every day of the week to teach and to preach the word of God; we may meet every day or on special days for prayer, but upon the first day of the week, we will be coming together to remember Christ, to keep the memorial of Christ.
Our Lord’s memorial is important, friend; it is even essential to the continuance of His church or the faith that we have in Him. The day of its observance, the first day of the week, and the place of its observance, in the assembly of Christians, are as essential to its observance as July Fourth is to the annual celebration of our nation's independence. If Christians should neglect His memorial or cease to observe it upon the first day of the week as we're taught in the Scriptures, it will be with us as it was with the children of Israel when they no longer kept the Sabbath Day. We will raise up a generation of our own children who do not know God, who will have little respect for the faith which we have held so dear, and who will forget the redemption that Christ procured for all of us on the cross of Calvary. By our continual keeping of this memorial, Christians proclaim their faith in Christ's death till He comes again.
Perhaps you have had the experience, or maybe had the same experience that I have had, that most of us have had actually, of visiting the cemetery where loved ones are buried on Memorial Day, or at some other time, and just wandering around among the graves to see where some friends are buried, you might have come upon a very unkept grave, all grown up with weeds and grass, with the marker sorta tilted to one side because of the erosion of the earth around it. And you push back the weeds where you can see the inscription on the marker that find the words, "Gone But Not Forgotten."
Well, maybe so! That's sort of the way that the Lord's memorial is neglected by some Christians and even most denominations. With the emphasis on entertainment in worship nowadays, the Lord's Supper is often omitted, and if it isn’t omitted altogether, it's so perverted that it is unrecognizable. It really isn't very entertaining; it's a rather solemn, well, very serious, and actually doesn't make any appeal to people who attend church to be amused or to be hyped-up in some form of worship. There isn't a lot of hilarity about the Lord’s Supper. It's actually a somewhat somber occasion, a moment of introspection or self-examination, so it just doesn't fit in with some modern forms of worship. Isn't it strange how we so freely and deliberately substitute our own likes and ways, for the Lord's wishes and His ways? Then we dare to call Him "Lord?" For the person who has repented-- and been baptized into the death of Christ-- truly washed in His blood according to Romans 6:3 and 4, Revelation 1 and 5, and other passages, it's extremely important, friend, every first day of the week. Many, many thousands of saints just don't miss it.
Our program is produced and presented, on this station and others like it by locally autonomous churches of Christ, because we love you and we care about your spiritual needs. We would really like to have you worship with us in a congregation near you. Would you do that? We observe the Lord's Supper every first day of the week just as the congregations of the Lord's church did in New Testament days. We're trying, not to be just another denomination, or even the only right denomination; we are trying to be just Christians and churches that you read about, like the churches you read about in the New Testament.
Well, a printed copy or an audio cassette tape or a CD of today's program can be had absolutely free by writing or calling and asking for it. Our address is In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our e-mail address is searchtv@searchtv.org. Our toll-free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633. Please request the program titled The Memorial of Christ. Well, you don't have to send money because we are not here to exploit you for your money. You may read or hear it or even see the program again on our website, searchtv.org. Let me remind you that in the past we have had a series, we began a series of sermons and messages and programs about Christ. We are focusing on the religion of Christ-- the death of Christ for our sins on the cross of Calvary, the resurrection of Christ-- we had another one, and then the ascension of Christ. You remember we had a program about that. And then we had one, this one on the memorial of Christ. And there will be others in this series later on. We don’t want you to miss a one of these. We would like to have you be with us next time, and the next time as we continue this series. God bless you now. We love you.
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