REMEMBRANCE DAY

 

     In 1918 on the 1th hour of the 11th month on the 11th hour they signed papers to end the great war.  Today we are remembering this event 100 years later.  They called it the war to end all wars.  Of course some 21 years later they fought another world war that claim the lives of 60 million people.  At any time in the World there is never less than 30 wars being fought.  Today we are rememnering the ulitmate sacrifice given by others.  Canada has had in all our modern wars 619,636 soldiers killed and 154,361 wounded.  Today I want to remind you of the greatest sacrfice ever offered for mankind.  That was the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on a cross on a hill called Golgotha.  He paid the ultimate price for the freedom of mankind.  Jesus said Himself the greatest gift of love with when you laid down yur life for a friend.  John 15:13.

Here are 10 reasons why Jesus died and paid the ulitmate price.

#10) To destroy hostility between races

 Paul said, "He “has broken down…the dividing wall of hostility…making peace…through the cross” (Ephesians 2:14-16).  God sent his Son into the world as the only means of saving sinners and reconciling races. Only as the races find this reconciliation will they love and enjoy each other.

#9) To give marriage its deepest meaning.  It says, Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church.  Eph 5:25. God's will marriage is for a husband to love his wife the way Christ loves his people, and for the wife to respond the way Christ’s people should. This kind of love is possible because Christ died for both husband and wife.

#8) To absorb the wrath of God

God’s law demanded, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). But we have all loved other things more.  Since our sin is against the Ruler of the Universe, “the wages of [our] sin is death” (Romans 6:23).  So God sent his own Son, Jesus, to divert sin’s punishment from us to himself.(1 John 4:10). God publicly endorsed Christ’s accomplishment by raising him from the dead, proving the success of his suffering and death.

 

#7) So that we would escape the curse of the law

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).The law’s demands have been fulfilled by Christ’s perfect law-keeping, its penalty fully paid by his death. “A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16). Our only hope is having the blood and righteousness of Christ credited to our account.

#6) To reconcile us to God

The reconciliation that needs to happen between man and God goes both ways. God’s first act in reconciling us to himself was to remove the obstacle that separated him from us—the guilt of our sin. He took the steps we could not take to remove his own judgment by sending Jesus to suffer in our place: “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). Reconciliation from our side is simply to receive what God has already done, the way we receive an infinitely valuable gift.

#5) To show God’s love for sinners

The measure of God’s love is shown by the degree of his sacrifice in saving us he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). The measure of his love increases still more when we consider the degree of our unworthiness. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Our debt is so great, only a divine sacrifice could pay it.

 

#4) To show Jesus’ own love for us

The death of Christ is also the supreme expression that he “loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). It is my sin that cuts me off from God. All I can do is plead for mercy.Jesus paid the highest price possible to give me—personally—the greatest gift possible.

#3) To take away our condemnation

The great conclusion to the suffering and death of Christ is this: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). To be “in Christ” means to be in relationship to him by faith.The death of Christ secures freedom from condemnation for those who believe that Christ has served their death sentence.

#2) To bring us to God

“Gospel” means “good news,” and it all ends in one thing: God himself. The gospel is the good news that at the cost of his Son’s life, God has done everything necessary to captivate us with what will make us eternally and ever-increasingly happy—namely, himself. “Christ…suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

#1) To give eternal life to all who believe on Him

Jesus made it plain that rejecting the eternal life he offered would result in the misery of eternity in hell: “Whoever does not believe is condemned already....the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:18, 36).But for those who trust Christ, the best is yet to come. “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). We will see the all-satisfying glory of God. “This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).For all these reasons and more, Christ suffered and died. Why would you not embrace him as your Savior from sin and judgment, and live with God eternally?

There are many stories of personal sacrifice from all the wars Canadians have fought.  In WW1 we had Billy Bishop in two years as a airplane pilot shot down 72 enemy planes.  There was Tommy Prince the most decorated Aborginal soldier who won 11 medals in WW2 and the Korean War.   There is Leo Major who liberated the Dutch town of Zwolle a community of 50,000 from the Germans by himself.  All people who made great sacirfices on behalf of others.  They should be remembered.  As we close today let us remember the words of as he closed his eys to die.Its Finished, Jesus Christ gave His life so we could have eternal and abundant life.  He destroyed the power of death, hell and the grace.  He came to destroy the works of the devil.