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"Look Back & Remember"

Messages from Sunday mornings

 

Introduction

•  this morning we have been looking back and remembering the past.
•  there is no virtue in war but remembering is the least we can do.

    

1. Bad Memories:     

     

•  Memory is a key part of living
  • when we lose it, we lose a significant experience
•  Favourite quote; “The one thing history teaches us is that history teaches us nothing”
•  The Times: Sept 08: “Those who think that there is such a thing as progress in international affairs - that we are capable of learning the lessons of history - have been brutally disabused by the Georgian crisis.”
•  The older among us can remember going to get something in another room but then forgetting what we came in for - how can we remember that experience?????
•  We, all of us, have a tendency to forget the truth.
•  God understands this and helps us through the Scriptures.

 

2. God sets 'markers' to remind us

As we look through Scripture we find a number of instances where God established something to act as a reminder to his people:

2.1 Passover:

Ex 12:2-27 “ When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, `What does this ceremony mean to you?' then tell them, `It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.' "

•  The Exodus was a critical part of the life of Israel.
•  It was how God delivered them from slavery in Egypt to make them a nation.
•  The Passover was a crucial part of that.
•  The Lord instituted the annual remembrance of that to remind Israel of their divinely supernatural origins.

 

2.2   Crossing the Jordan:

Josh 4:2,3,6.7 Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight…. to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, `What do these stones mean?' tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan , the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."

•  After their wilderness wanderings this became the next big feature in their life
•  The stones would act as a reminder
•  The memorial reminded them of their divinely supernatural entry to the Promised Land

 

2.3  Communion

Lk 22:19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

•  Prior to his death Jesus instigated this regular reminder for us.
•  It reminds us of our divinely supernatural origins, the work of Christ on the Cross. 

 

3. Christianity is based in History

3.1 Illustrations of the Old Testament reveal the importance of history / testimony

Isa 8:19  When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony!

•  Isaiah was saying, look to the Law that God gave you but also the testimony you have about God.

Ex 20:2 “ I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt , out of the land of slavery.”

•  'The Testimony' more often than not referred to the Ten Commandments.
•  The Ten Commandments start with a relational reminder.
•  The Lord is able to give them these 'design rules' because He has first delivered them out of the world and created them as a new unique nation.

Ex 3:14,15   God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: `I AM has sent me to you.' " God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, `The LORD, the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob--has sent me to you.'

•   At the burning bush Moses asks God His name.
•   The Lord gives two aspects to it.
•   'I Am' = the everlasting One.
•   'the God of...' says He was the One they already knew about, the same One who had already had dealings with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
•   Their knowledge of Him is founded in history already.

        3.2 The Unity of the Old & New

•  The Old Testament reveals God's ongoing dealing with Israel.
•  The New Testament continues that historical setting into which Jesus, the unique Son of God, came.
•  The New is founded on the Old.
•  We can only fully understand the New in the light of the Old.

  

4. Application

•  As we considered previously, we are to know who we are – where we ‘fit' in history – we are to remind ourselves of these things.
•  Christianity is based in history!
•  This is vital in the light of ‘modern spirituality'.
•  Modern spirituality speaks of:
  • god within us
  • an inner power
  • god within self, the inner being
  • a power many people look to rather than God
  • of personal renewal
  • we are divine

• To this debate we bring:
  • historical evidence, evidence of a Supreme Being
  • a Being who is:
    • personal and interacts with us
    • all-wise and all-knowing
    • who knows better than us
    • who loves us
    • who loves us so much He saves us
• i.e. He does what is needed to deal with our conscience,
• He transforms our perspective on Him and on life,
• He empowers us to change,
• He guides us so we know how to change,
• And all this comes from the evidence of history - and there is lots of it!