We Must Not Do Nothing
Remembering the Sacrifice • Sermon • Submitted
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· 6 viewsWe must remember the sacrfices that have been made for us.
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Remembrance Produces Gratitude, Gratitude Produces Action
Remembrance Produces Gratitude, Gratitude Produces Action
This weekend Americans will commemorate Memorial Day, a holiday of collective national remembrance. Many will gather in cemeteries and civic parks for grateful and sometimes tearful ceremonies. This will be a good and appropriate kind of remembering. It is important that we remember the immense price hundreds of thousands of soldiers have paid with the currency of their life-blood so that we can enjoy our political and religious freedoms.
If you have served in the Armed Forces in defense of this country and our freedom to gather here today, please stand up.
It is important to remember sacrifice.
It is important to remember sacrifice.
But this kind of remembering will not demand much of us beyond renewing our grateful resolve to not take for granted our freedoms. There will be a brief recollection, hopefully a prayer, and then, if we are not careful, we’ll move on with our leisurely plans.
Remembrance Needs To Produce Something In Us
Remembrance Needs To Produce Something In Us
The American Soldier does not just sacrifice for our lives today. He sacrifices for our lives tomorrow.
He doesn’t just secure today’s life with his sacrifice.
He doesn’t just secure today’s life with his sacrifice.
He secures all of today’s dreams and tomorrow’s aspirations.
He secures all of today’s dreams and tomorrow’s aspirations.
Our Savior Jesus Christ secured so much more than that.
Our Savior Jesus Christ secured so much more than that.
He secured our eternity.
He secured our eternity.
Far beyond just today and tomorrow.
Both sacrifices need to produce something in us.
We owe it to our soldiers to
Teach our kids what it means to be free and how much it cost.
Teach our kids what it means to be free and how much it cost.
If we don’t do that, we cheapen their sacrifice.
When it comes to Christ and His sacrifice, we must not do nothing.
When it comes to Christ and His sacrifice, we must not do nothing.
Christ so loved us.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say,
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”
Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
CSB Study Bible: Notes Chapter 13
Under the general theme of allowing brotherly love to reign within the church, the author addressed five specific activities in which Christians should engage: (1) show hospitality toward strangers, (2) visit those in prison, (3) minister to the mistreated, (4) honor marriage, and (5) free themselves from the love of money.
A Demanding Remembering
A Demanding Remembering
But a Memorial Day kind of remembering will not suffice for our suffering Christian brothers and sisters. The remembering that God requires of us demands sustained action:
Show Hospitality To Strangers
Show Hospitality To Strangers
Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. ()
Remember Those In Prison
Remember Those In Prison
When the author of Hebrews tells us to “remember,” he isn’t talking about a fond, grateful private reflection.
Honor Marriage
Honor Marriage
What he means is, “go help them,” and the original Greek conveys the sense, “keep helping them.”
What he means is, “go help them,” and the original Greek conveys the sense, “keep helping them.”
When we remember our war dead, we don’t remember them as though we were dead with them. But we are to remember the imprisoned Christians “as though in prison with them.” That is a demanding remembering.
We are to remember mistreated Christians as though we were sharing mistreatment.
We are to react to our brothers’ and sisters’ affliction just like our entire body reacts to the pain when one member of our body is afflicted.
We are to react to our brothers’ and sisters’ affliction just like our entire body reacts to the pain when one member of our body is afflicted.
That is a demanding remembering.
Where the Body Is Hurting
Where the Body Is Hurting
Is it here? Is it locally? Or is it in China, Iran, India, and many other places in the world where it is not so safe to be a christian.
We Must Act
We Must Act
“Remembering” in is an imperative. Involvement at some level is not optional. Remembering our suffering brothers and sisters in Christ must move us to action.
It seems clear from
But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For,
“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
, that the author was speaking into a local context of suffering when he wrote verse . The readers likely knew the sufferers personally. Thus, from this text and others, we know that Christians bear a unique responsibility to care for suffering Christians in their local church and region.
But the New Testament ethic for actively remembering (i.e. helping) suffering fellow Christians reaches far beyond our local communities. Perhaps the clearest example is when Paul collected funds from churches throughout the Roman Empire for the relief of the suffering saints in Palestine (; ). The famine in Judea was a concern for all Christians everywhere who knew about it.
The suffering of millions of Christians in the world is a concern for Christians everywhere.
The suffering of millions of Christians in the world is a concern for Christians everywhere.
And due to the ubiquitous media reports, most of us know about it.
We Must Not Do Nothing
We Must Not Do Nothing
Let Us Remember In A Way That Produces Action.
Let Us Remember In A Way That Produces Action.
Let’s do the same as we celebrate communion this morning.
1 Corinthians
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
1 Corinthians
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
1 Corinthians 11:23
Let Our Remembrance Of Christ Provoke Action In Our Lives
Let Our Remembrance Of Christ Provoke Action In Our Lives