WE REMEMBER

Introduction

-[Joshua 4]

-A running joke in my family is that my memory isn’t always the sharpest. We’d be sitting around the dinner table and the family would start talking about someone, and I’d be like WHO? And they’d say, don’t you remember we talked about so and so doing such and such a thing. And then I nod and just pretend I know who they’re talking about, when I really I have no clue.

~You know your memory is bad when you start calling your family members by the wrong name. You start yelling for someone to get their attention and your like: Ky…I mean Kenz…I mean…you know who you are!

-It might be humorous when a man doesn’t remember conversations or names, but it’s not funny when a Christian doesn’t remember the great things God has done in their lives. In the busyness of life, the memories of God’s grace and goodness get pushed to the back-burner of the mind and no longer move us. But God, knowing fallen humanity’s tendency to forget, established memorials or places of remembrance to bring back to the forefront of our minds all that He is and has done. As we read about one particular memorial that was given to Israel it brings to mind another memorial that Jesus gave to the church. We learn that God gave us memorials so that we remember God’s love and mighty deeds that He has done on our behalf.

-As we read an entire chapter, we find the Israelites are on the cusp of crossing the Jordan River to enter into the Promised Land, and God calls them to do something so that they and the generations that follow would remember Him and His mighty deeds. And may we see the memorial that we participate in in the same light.

Joshua 4 NET 2nd ed.

1 When the entire nation was on the other side, the Lord told Joshua, 2 “Select for yourselves twelve men from the people, one per tribe. 3 Instruct them, ‘Pick up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests stand firmly, and carry them over with you and put them in the place where you camp tonight.’ ” 4 Joshua summoned the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one per tribe. 5 Joshua told them, “Go in front of the ark of the Lord your God to the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to put a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the Israelite tribes. 6 The stones will be a reminder to you. When your children ask someday, ‘Why are these stones important to you?’ 7 tell them how the water of the Jordan stopped flowing before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the water of the Jordan stopped flowing. These stones will be a lasting memorial for the Israelites.” 8 The Israelites did just as Joshua commanded. They picked up twelve stones, according to the number of the Israelite tribes, from the middle of the Jordan as the Lord had instructed Joshua. They carried them over with them to the camp and put them there. 9 Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan in the very place where the priests carrying the ark of the covenant stood. They remain there to this very day. 10 Now the priests carrying the ark of the covenant were standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the Lord had commanded Joshua to tell the people was accomplished, in accordance with all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people went across quickly, 11 and when all the people had finished crossing, the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed as the people looked on. 12 The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed for battle ahead of the Israelites, just as Moses had instructed them. 13 About 40,000 battle-ready troops marched past the Lord to fight on the rift valley plains of Jericho. 14 That day the Lord brought honor to Joshua before all Israel. They respected him all his life, just as they had respected Moses. 15 The Lord told Joshua, 16 “Instruct the priests carrying the ark of the covenantal laws to come up from the Jordan.” 17 So Joshua instructed the priests, “Come up from the Jordan!” 18 The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the middle of the Jordan, and as soon as they set foot on dry land, the water of the Jordan flowed again and returned to flood stage. 19 The people went up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and camped in Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. 20 Now Joshua set up in Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan. 21 He told the Israelites, “When your children someday ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones represent?’ 22 explain to your children, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan River on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the water of the Jordan before you while you crossed over. It was just like when the Lord your God dried up the Red Sea before us while we crossed it. 24 He has done this so all the nations of the earth might recognize the Lord’s power and so you might always obey the Lord your God.”

-[pray]

-Joshua and the Israelites set up a memorial of stones. The church has been given the Lord’s Supper. These are memorials that bring to remembrance the person and acts of God on our behalf. There are three aspects of these memorials we want to touch on today:

1) The act of remembering

-God calls for these memorials so that His people will actively remember how great He is and how wonderful His works toward us truly are. And there are three features in the act of remembering that we see demonstrated here.

a) Remembrance is corporate

-God commanded Joshua to pick 12 men who represented all 12 tribes of Israel to get 12 large stones to make the memorial that would bring to remembrance God’s act of bringing them in the Promised Land. The fact that all the tribes of the nation were involved showed an essential unity among God’s covenant people in the act of remembrance, because what God had done encapsulated all members of the covenant people. So, it was fitting that together the covenant people spur one another on to remember the common work God had done.

-There is a reason why we, as a church body, a local manifestation of God’s covenant people, share in the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper together. It is because you and I, as recipients of God’s covenant, share in the common work of God’s grace obtained by faith in Jesus Christ. We are all saved by the same means of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. I was not saved one way and you another. Therefore, it is only fitting that having shared together in God’s work of grace, we share together in the memorial that brings that work to our remembrance.

b) Remembrance is personal

-This is not a contradiction to what I just said. We share corporately the common salvation for us all. But at the same time, the memorial brings to our remembrance that we personally had to believe in order to obtain and experience the work of salvation in Christ. It is a reminder that no other human brought about my salvation, and I didn’t bring about anybody else’s salvation. No one brought about my repentance. Neither can anyone else realign my heart when I start to stray. This has to happen at a personal level.

-In v. 6, Joshua says that future generations would ask, “Why are these stones important to YOU?” You, as an individual, what does this memorial mean to you personally. When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, what does it mean to YOU? What does it stir in YOUR heart and bring to YOUR remembrance?

c) Remembrance is repeated

-It says in v. 8 that they picked up the stones from the Jordan and carried them to the camp and put them there. The stones for the memorial were placed in an area somewhat centralized for Israel, so that any person of any tribe would come upon them more than just once. Meaning, they would constantly pass by them in their life and remember what God had done. God knew that this memorial would need to be in a place so that it would be looked upon over and over again, knowing that over time Israel’s memories would grow dull and they’d forget.

-That’s why we celebrate the Lord’s Supper several times a year (quarterly) to remember what Jesus has done to secure our pardon for sin. It’s not that we never hear sermons about salvation or hear a gospel message; it’s not that we somehow forget how we were saved and need to be reminded that Christ died on a cross. Rather, we need the remembrance because quite often our hearts grow dull and the gospel message doesn’t have a full impact on our hearts and minds like it should. So, this memorial gives us pause to spend time in deep reflection on the true significance of Christ’s death, burial & resurrection. That is why it needs to be repeated. So, this passage has a lot to say about the act of remembering, but it also has something to say about:

2) The purpose of remembering

-Why is it so important to remember these events?

a) So that future generations may know

-In vv. 6 & 21 Joshua says those stones were made a memorial so that when their children ask them about the importance of the stones, they can tell them what God had done in stopping the waters of the Jordan River so the Israelites could cross over into the Promised Land. Those stones were there so their children could know what great things God had done, so then in turn when their children would ask about the stones they could tell them, and so on and so forth so that the future generations would know God’s works.

-Today is no different. I guess in our day and age we like to call them teachable moments. When our children see us partake of the Lord’s Supper, if they have not believed and been baptized, they may wonder why they can’t join in on the action and they may ask parents what the meaning of it all is. There is an open door of opportunity to share what God did in our lives through Jesus Christ, and open up an opportunity to share the gospel with our own children, so they too will know and believe, and then they will share with their children, who will then share with their children, and so it will go with the future generations.

b) So that unbelievers may understand

-In the beginning of v. 24 Joshua told the Israelites that another purpose of the memorial is so that all the nations of the earth might recognize the Lord’s power. Here, God sets up memorials to show those who are outside of His covenant people His power and might and glory. The memorial reveals something to them about God that they may not have had an opportunity to know otherwise.

-When foreigners came into the land of Israel through a way that would take them past the stones that were set up, it would cause them to ask about them when they would stop in a town or village. And then the Israelites would be able to tell that foreigner all about their God. And having given the answer, there was a chance that that person would begin to follow the God of Israel.

-But what about a memorial like the Lord’s Supper? The Lord’s Supper isn’t necessarily out in the open like the stones were, but rather it is done usually within a worship service in the building. One thing we can say is that this is a good reason for you to invite all your unbelieving friends and family to church. When they see the bread and the juice and the hear the meaning behind it, they begin to wonder and it opens up a door of opportunity where later they may ask you WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT? Then you have an opportunity to tell them that the bread represents Christ’s body that was given up in death on our behalf and the wine/juice represents the blood that He spilt to create a new covenant between God and man. It gives you an opportunity to share your own testimony, how God saved you out of the clutches of sin, death, and hell, and how He offers free forgiveness based upon the sacrifice of His Son.

-But there’s also a possibility that the Holy Spirit will nudge an unbeliever to come into our sanctuary on a day that we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, and the gospel is given to them not only in Word but also in a visual reminder. And the Spirit will lead them to believe the good news of Jesus Christ.

c) So that believers may obey

-At the end of v. 24, Joshua says another reason for the memorial is so that YOU MIGHT ALWAYS OBEY THE LORD YOUR GOD. Again, it’s not that we believers completely forget God, but over time the spirit within us is dulled, and the cares of the world cause us to think less and less about God in a right manner. The memorials are a way to remind us that our God is a God to be feared and followed. God is to be completely respected and revered, and we are to be in a place of constant awe of His grandeur and remember His authority. We remember and we realign our life with His Word.

-To get a little more specific, let me talk about the last facet of our remembering brought about by these memorials:

3) The content of remembering

-The memorial stones for the Israelites, and the Lord’s Supper for the church—what are some specific points of remembrance that they should bring up in our heart and mind?

a) Remember God’s saving acts

-These memorials bring to remembrance specific ways that God did a great act of deliverance, be it spiritual and/or physical. For the Israelites, the stones were to remind them how God brought them out of Egypt, sustained them in the desert, and then (more specifically) stopped the waters of the Jordan river so the entire nation could cross over into the land God had promised them, so that they could inhabit it. Look again at vv. 22-23

Joshua 4:22–23 NET 2nd ed.

22 explain to your children, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan River on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the water of the Jordan before you while you crossed over. It was just like when the Lord your God dried up the Red Sea before us while we crossed it.

-Now, for us, the Lord’s Supper is a reminder that we were sinners eternally separated from God, but God by grace saved us from the power and penalty of sin, and delivered us into His eternal kingdom to live with Him for all eternity. It is a reminder that without Jesus there is no salvation. Maybe, if you are like me, it makes you think about who you were before you had Jesus, and the numerous times you could have died and spent eternity in hell were it not for His mercy and grace. And this hopefully will lead you to a renewed love for Christ, whereas before you may have left your first love, but now you are recommitted to Christ because you remembered the pit from which Christ saved you. Another part of the content of remembering is to:

b) Remember God’s holy nature

-The Israelites were brought into the land not only because that is what God had promised their ancestors so long before; another reason was because the Israelites were to be God’s means of judgment upon the wicked people groups that inhabited the land. As the Israelites would come upon the cities of the Canaanites, God instructed them to completely destroy everyone because the sin of the people was so bad.

-The memorial was a reminder that God is a holy God and He takes sin seriously. God does not wink at sin, nor does He overlook sin. Because of His holy nature He cannot ignore sin, but His justice against all that does not meet His standard must be satisfied. As the stones were a reminder to the Israelites that God used them to judge sin, the Lord’s Supper reminds us that God takes sin so seriously that He poured out His just wrath upon His own Son because of our sin. And then finally:

c) Remember God’s ultimate worth

-These memorials bring to remembrance that God is not Who He is and God has not done the works that He has done so that He comes in second place in our lives. God is not a God to fit into another slot in our busy lives, HE IS OUR LIFE. If your God is just a Sunday and Wednesday God, then you must be worshipping the wrong God. The God to whom those stones pointed, and the God to whom the Lord’s Supper points, is a limitless, eternal, sovereign, holy, merciful God Who is worthy of so much more than anything we can offer. If your God is worth only remembering a little bit, you must have a little god; but if your God is worth remembering a great amount of your life, then that must be THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE GOD.

Conclusion

-These memorials are interesting in that they touch every point in time. They point us to the past to give us hope in the future so that we have meaning in the present. These memorials are also interesting in that, as one person put it, they are enduring sermons, not of the ears but for the eyes. They are a reminder that whatever happened in our lives did not come about by our own abilities or strengths or wisdom, but because of God. The stones showed God stopped the river to get them across, not they themselves. The Lord’s Supper shows we did not save our ourselves, but God did through Christ. Let’s have another sermon today, a visual. (Lord’s Supper for baptized believers)