Memorial Day, the official start of the summer season. A day for family outings, a gathering of friends, BBQs and cookouts. It is also a day of remembering. We remember those who have gone before, especially those who have served in the military and died on foreign fields of battle. We need especially to remember what they had died for.
If we don’t remembering the freedoms and rights we have as a nation of people, those things that these who died in battle to preserve, if we do not remember those things,
then they died in vain. This sermon is titled Memorial Stones. It is in reference our focal passage to the stones the Israelites placed to remember the works of God.
We have memorial stones also. We have a cemetery full of them. We choose to remember. We choose to have a day where we look back on the past. We see where we have been so we can know where to go in the future.
A philosopher in the past century, George Santayana, was quoted to say: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” A lot of truth in that statement. What is that we remember and our question this morning, “are we faithful is passing on the memories?”
Joshua 4:1–9 (NKJV) And it came to pass, when all the people had completely crossed over the Jordan, that the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying: 2 “Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from every tribe, 3 and command them, saying, ‘Take for yourselves twelve stones from here, out of the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood firm. You shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you lodge tonight.’ ”
4 Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe; 5 and Joshua said to them: “Cross over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, 6 that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ 7 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, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.”
8 And the children of Israel did so, just as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, as the LORD had spoken to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. 9 Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day.
As I think about these men and women who came before us and made it possible for us to enjoy the freedoms that we have, one thing stuck with me this week as I prepared this sermon. These people were simple people. While they did extraordinary things , there was nothing extraordinary about them. They were simple people just like you and me but driven by a love for God, Family and Country. Let me tell you about one of them.
Patrick Henry was a famous statesman and orator of colonial Virginia. In 1764 he was elected to the House of Burgesses where he became a champion of the frontier people, supporting their rights against the arrogant exercise of power by the aristocracy. In 1774 he was a delegate to the First Continental Congress. In 1775, before the Virginia Provincial Convention, which was deeply divided between those who supported England and those who desired freedom, he uttered his most famous words, "Give me liberty or give me death!"
During the Revolutionary War he became commander-in-chief of Virginia’s military forces, a member of the Second Continental Congress, helped draw up the first constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and was largely responsible for drawing up the amendments to our Constitution known as the Bill of Rights. He became Virginia’s first governor, and was re-elected four times. Then he retired from public life, but despite his strong objections the people went ahead and re-elected him Governor for the 5th time. But he meant what he said, so he refused to take the office. He was offered a seat in the U.S. Senate, and posts as ambassador to Spain and to France. President George Washington asked him to join his cabinet and become Secretary of State, and later wanted to appoint him the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. But he refused all such honors and recognitions.
Listen to these words from him: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians - not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
His Last Will & Testament was filed in the Brookneal County courthouse in Virginia. You can read his will and you’ll see that he bequeathed everything to his children, just as most people do. But the last paragraph in his will is especially interesting. He wrote, "I have now given everything I own to my children. There is one more thing I wish I could give them and that is Christ. Because if they have everything I gave them and don’t have Christ, they have nothing."
Patrick Henry was a simple man who loved first and foremost, Jesus, but this simple man loved and served his country and he loved his family.[1]
Our passage today is God directing His people to remember. The Israelites had just wondered in the desert for 40 years. All those who were adults at the time the initial exodus from slavery in Egypt had died. The memories of life in Egypt was fading. Moses had died and now Joshua was leading the people. Now, after all this time, the people were about to enter the promise land. But there was a huge obstacle, the Jordan River. It wasn’t the dry season where they could perhaps find a shallow area to cross over, but river at flood stage. As soon as the feet of the Priest, who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant touch the water of the river, the waters stopped flowing and gather in a heap upstream. And the people crossed on dry ground. This is no less miraculous the parting of the Red Sea.
Joshua 4:4–5 (NKJV) Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe; 5 and Joshua said to them: “Cross over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel
God commanded Joshua to gather those 12 stones and place them at their first encampment on the west side of the Jordan. That encampment was called Gilgal, which means “circle of stones.” From these stones they built a memorial and they would serve as a vivid reminder of God’s work of deliverance.
What do we have as reminders? The Bible is full of reminders and we have these reminders all around us.
We have the Cross, reminds us of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross for our sins. This Roman crude and torturous device of death has now become the symbol of all Christianity.
We have the Lord’s Supper, which we partake together. What does it say on the front of our Lord’s Supper Table? “This Do In Remembrance of Me"
We have Baptism which reminds us of the death and resurrection of Christ and likewise we died to self and are resurrected as new creations in Christ.
And we have the Pulpit, which reminds us of the centrality of God’s word in our lives.
Now here is the key verses I want to pay attention to:
Joshua 4:6–7 (NKJV) that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ 7 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, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.”
When their children ask:‘What do these stones mean to you?’ How are they to answer? In the Hebrew, translated literally, “What are these stones to you? The question is personal! We would ask, “and what is Jesus to you?” If Jesus does not mean anything to you, He won’t mean anything to your children as long as they are in your house. Skip down to verses 21-23. This question comes up again.
Joshua 4:21 (NKJV) Then he spoke to the children of Israel, saying: “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’
There is a Father’s Day message in this verse. Children will ask their fathers, “what does this all mean?”
Joshua 4:22–23 (NKJV) then you shall let your children know, saying, ‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land’; 23 for the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over
Fathers are to tell their children. Notice what it does not say.
It does not say, go ask your Sunday School Teach.
It does not say, go ask the preacher.
It does not say go ask your teacher at school.
It does not say go ask the neighbor.
The breakdown down of the family in this country is causing the breakdown of this nation. The fathers can’t tell their children because they don’t themselves. Their fathers never told them. We have failed to tell our children what has taken place in our spiritual lives and the lives of those who have gone before us in our country.
We as a nation have forgotten and have fail to teach our children to remember what we, as a nation, was founded upon. Consider just these following few things:
We also need to remember the people who put together the Mayflower Compact and it states; "… having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and the honor of our King and country, …"
We need to remember men like George Washington the first president who kept a prayer journal that he titled "daily sacrifice." One quote of GW concerning this nation:
“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”
Even in our Declaration of Independence, the document that declared us a nation, we have the following words:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
And we can go on and on. We as Christians and the church have failed in reminding and telling our children these truths. Consider the following:
Have we held the line? Should those who have died rest easy because we are holding to the values that they were willing to give their lives for?
Consider this timeline;
In 1954 churches began to grow silent;
by 1963 the Bible and prayer were removed from public schools;
by 1965 the sexual revolution was in full force;
by 1973 the Supreme Court found a solution for all the unwanted consequences of the sexual revolution had handed down the infamous Roe V. Wade, and
by 1980 the 10 Commandments were being removed from the public square.
Since then we have seen a continued teaching of evolution. We are no longer taught that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by a loving Creator God for a divine purpose; we are instead the accidental products of the random evolutionary process with no purpose in life except to get all we can and live for ourselves. It's no wonder that we have seen the explosion of teenage suicides and school shootings over the last generation."
Every mention of the Name of God and Jesus in the public place are being challenged in lawsuits.
Free practice of religion is being serious challenged in our courts.
On this Memorial Day we need to remember what people have done for us. They have given their time, energy and for many of them their very lives so that we might enjoy the wonderful grace of God in the land of the living. Let's not forget what it costs to give us this opportunity to live free and to worship the Lord Jesus Christ openly and without fear. [2]
We as the Church of Jesus Christ, must be more bold in our witness than ever before, or we will lose what has been gained by those who have gone before.
What are doing to remind the new generation? It starts and ends in Jesus Christ. There is no other way. Nothing but Jesus will save this nation from the moral slope that it is rushing down. Jesus said:
John 14:6 (NKJV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
When you children ask, or the neighbor asks, or your coworker ask, “what does all this mean to you?” What will you answer?
[1] https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/simple-man-horace-wimpey-sermon-on-action-167835?ref=SermonSerps
[2] https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/remembering-people-curtis-emerson-sermon-on-holidays-civic-147506?ref=SermonSerps
