Never Forget
We are a forgetful people, aren’t we? I'm finding that the older I get, the more forgetful I'm becoming. I forget where I put my reading glasses all the time. I forget where my keys are. I forget where the dog is. And we don't even have a dog anymore. We forget anniversaries. We forget birthdays. Many of you, some of you who are retired, forget what day it is because you don't care. It doesn't matter anymore what day it is, right?
So, we are very forgetful. I think God knew this. And sometimes, oftentimes, we need someone or something to jog our memories. In the Christian walk and the Christian faith, it is the same. Throughout the Bible, God gives us reminders of certain events that happened in history in order to jog our memories to never forget. For example, God set a rainbow in the sky. It's a reminder that he would never destroy the earth again through a flood.
There are three events in the Bible I want to call our attention to that are designed to help us never forget.
1. Festival of Passover
Not many of us celebrate Passover, but it has significance in our lives. In the book of Exodus, in the Old Testament, we read that the people of Israel had been enslaved in Egypt for over 400 years. They had started crying out to God, “Lord, please save us. Deliver us from this slavery. Come and help us.” And they were crying out over and over again. So, God calls Moses, and God tells Moses, “Here's what I need you to do. I need you to go back to Egypt with a message to Pharaoh and tell him, ‘Let my people go.’”
Now, you know, Moses is reluctant. He's like, “Are you sure? Like, you got the wrong guy. I stutter. I'm a nobody. Send someone else.” But reluctantly, Moses eventually obeys God.
But from the very beginning, every time Moses goes to see Pharaoh, Pharaoh refuses to listen. He refuses to listen to Moses. He refuses really to listen to God. And so God sends 10 plagues on the land of Egypt. And at the height of each plague, Pharaoh says, “Okay, I've had enough. Tell God to relent on this plague, and I'll let the people go.” But as soon as Pharaoh feels relief from each plague, he reneges on his promise.
In Exodus chapter 11, we get to the 10th plague, and it says, 4 So Moses said, “This is what the LORD says: About midnight I will go throughout Egypt, 5 and every firstborn male in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the servant girl who is at the grindstones, as well as every firstborn of the livestock. 6 Then there will be a great cry of anguish through all the land of Egypt such as never was before or ever will be again. 7 But against all the Israelites, whether people or animals, not even a dog will snarl, so that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.
So in the next chapter, God instructs each family of the Israelites to select from their flocks a year-old lamb that has no defect. It must be the best from their flocks. It’s a reminder for us Christians that when we come to God, we ought to give our best to him. So, God tells the Israelites, here's what you're going to do. You're going to take your year-old male lamb without a defect, and you're going to kill it. And you're going to drain its blood into a basin, take a cluster of hyssops, dip it into the blood, and then brush the blood on the tops and the sides of your door frames of your house on the outside. And then God tells them this. He says, 12 “I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I am the Lord; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. 13 The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”
And that's exactly what happened. The Jews follow God's commands. God follows through on his promise there. And with the plague and everything like that, and after 400 years of slavery, the Jewish people are finally free.
Verse 14…14 “This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the LORD. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute.”
Now, folks, that was over 3,500 years ago. And every year, faithful Jews still celebrate and remember Passover. God saved them out of slavery and into freedom by the blood of a lamb. There's the significance for us today. We'll come back to that in a moment. But through the blood of a lamb. And they will never forget.
2. The Day of Worship
We go way back to the beginning of time when God created the heavens and the earth. He worked for six days, and on the seventh day he rested. Genesis chapter 2, verse 3 says that God blessed the seventh day and called it holy. So, it's a special day. It's a day set aside. It's a separate day that we ought to worship and call our attention to God.
When God gave the Jewish people the Ten Commandments several years later, he instructed them, “Remember the seventh day as the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” So again, you need this to be a day of rest and a day of worship. Sabbath literally means stop. It means to cease what we're doing and stop. And so God has called them to this, that we take a moment to stop for a whole day and worship and set aside this day as a time of worship, reflection on God and who he is and what he does.
Now, what about today? What's that look like for us? Today?
We don't really have a Sabbath, if you will. But the question is, why do we worship on the first day of the week rather than the last day of the week? Why do we worship on Sunday rather than Saturday? Why do we have church and worship on Sunday instead of Saturday? You probably know this, but let me review very quickly.
It's because Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday. In fact, Jesus, his first six recorded resurrection appearances occurred on a Sunday. It's kind of significant. So there's importance there.
We know Jesus ascended into heaven 40 days later, but 50 days after his resurrection, we know it as the day Pentecost, which is a Sunday, the first day of the week. The Holy Spirit on that day comes upon the apostles and they're able to teach the people who have gathered there in Jerusalem. In Acts, chapter two, on a Sunday, the day of Pentecost, Peter preaches the first gospel message, and 3,000 men, plus women and children, respond to the gospel message that Peter preaches that day. And they're baptized or immersed into the name of Jesus Christ. So, we call this the birthday of the church. And it happened on a Sunday. So, here's what happens. The first-century Christians realized Sunday's pretty important. And so they begin meeting on Sundays as a special day of the week. They actually meet every day in the temple courts and in each other's homes. But on Sundays, they gather together as a special day. And so the early church began meeting on Sundays and still continues today. In Revelation, chapter one, even the apostle John is worshiping on the Lord's Day, which is a Sunday.
So it's very significant for us today. We shouldn't just treat it as another day off. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, 24 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.
So the Lord's Day, Sunday, is more than just this day off over the weekend. It's a day for us to never forget. Never forget that Jesus, the perfect lamb of sacrifice, rose from the dead to free us from slavery to sin and death. Our worship services here at The Hill are a celebration of that.
3. The Meal of Remembrance
The night before his crucifixion, Jesus meets with his disciples in the upper room to celebrate what? Now we're back to Passover. And this is going to be an evening of remembrance that God had commanded long ago. And as they're eating together, Jesus gives them something new. Jesus gives them something greater to remember.
The apostle Paul relates the story in First Corinthians, chapter 11. He says, 23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is[b] for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Jesus calls the cup a new covenant in his blood. In his blood. No longer was it the lamb of sacrifice that freed people from Egyptian slavery, if you will. Now, this is new in Jesus’ blood. There is a new covenant in this. He's fulfilling a prophecy God had given centuries prior to this event through the Prophet Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 31 says, 31 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the LORD’S declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the LORD’S declaration. 33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the LORD’S declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the LORD’S declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.”
That could not happen without Jesus dying on a cross and rising from the grave. No longer were the ingredients of the Passover meant to be a reminder of their release from Egyptian slavery. Now the bread and the cup were to be eternal reminders of Jesus’ sacrifice and forgiveness, and our freedom from slavery to sin and death and hell. So when we take the Lord's Supper, we're proclaiming, I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe in his life, death, burial, and resurrection, that he is alive again today. That's what we do in the Lord's Supper together.
In 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, Paul says in verses 16 and 17, 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, since all of us share the one bread.
Here's the bad news. We've all sinned. The bad news is we've all done wrong. And the bad news is, none of us is worthy.
But we don't partake because we're worthy. We partake of the Lord's Supper because God is holy, and he makes us worthy through the blood of Jesus Christ. And he invites us every week. I pray we don't miss this. Every week, he invites us to come to the table, to come into his presence, and to be a part of his memorial service, so that we never forget the Lamb who was slain.
Never forget.
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.