Introduction: Today marks the 60^th anniversary of the invasion of Europe by Allied forces on June 6, 1944. That invasion in less than nine months would bring an end to WWII, freeing it from the rule of Nazi Germany. That freedom, that we call WWII, would cost the lives of over 2 million people. The battle our nation remembers today was called D-Day and involved over 150,000 soldiers that invaded the shores of France at the coast of Normandy. By the end of that day 60 years ago 10,000 Allied soldiers would have died. The battle was the greatest gamble of modern warfare because it easily could have failed. There were so many things that on that day went right that could have just as well have gone wrong. We remember this day because it was a day that literally changed the course of human history. There are today 150,000 American soldiers who are fighting a war in Iraq that may equally change the course of human history. It is why we are there. It is why we remember.

Today we recall another day, another moment that changed the course of human history: the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus knew that his disciples and those who would come after them would have difficulty remembering His sacrifice. So to help us remember he established a meal: The Lord's Supper. The meal that He shared with his disciples was to begin a memorial tradition for all time. Yet like the battles of the past our remembrance can become neglected and forgotten. We can allow His death for us to become something we think we deserve rather than something undeserved. Just as the sacrifice of those who have served our nation in conflict over sixty years ago should be recalled on this day there are certain things that we are to remember whenever we share the Lord’s Supper. What are we to remember?

One of the reasons battles from the past lose their meaning for us is that we forget just how desperate our nation was at a certain time. The reason our nation remembers this day from sixty years ago is due to the sense of desperation that faced our world. Evil had literally encircled our globe. The world was in a desperate time. We can do the same thing with the sacrifice of Christ. We can forget how desperate we truly were without him. We can easily think that the death of Christ was something that God owed you and me.

Paul says, however that we are to remember how desperate we all really were. Have you forgotten? One of the strange gifts of our human personality is the ability to deny that things are as bad as they really are. It is our ability to deny reality that insulates us and allows us to go on living apart from God. Because if we did recognize just how desperate and forsaken we truly are then we would not be in the condition we find ourselves. Did you forget that you used to be like what Paul describes and you couldn't do anything about it? You have in verse 3 another one of those lists that Paul loves to give that defines the universal and comprehensive depth of our human condition. All of us were like that. Paul himself was like that.

Yet in spite of that God initiated our salvation. Why? Verse 4 says, "When the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared." The initiative is with God. He came into the world showing His kindness and His love in the very person of Jesus Christ. He saved us. Again it was at His initiation. Not on the basis of something which we had done and therefore something we had earned, but according to His mercy. Our salvation is rooted in the love of God. His kindness appeared and He saved us. It is God who is the rescuer. God came into our world and rescued us. All this is in spite of what I am apart from Christ. Apart from Him I would never be anything other than knowing total separation form Him because of my sin. He loved me in spite of what I could never be.

Verse 5 says simply, "He saved us..." Those three words take us to the cross and the resurrection. And He did it not on the basis of deeds that we have done. We didn't deserve our salvation. We didn't deserve our transformation. Our deliverance from sin, death and hell was purely the result of God's love and God's kindness alone, nothing in us was worthy, we made no contribution to His plan, we made no contribution to His choice, we made no contribution to His work of salvation. He looked at us in pity, compassion, love, mercy and saved us. We deserved His justice, anger and rejection. We received forgiveness. We are undeserving; we received what we did not earn. In fact, His mercy was not influenced by us and His grace was absolutely spontaneous toward us.

One of the great movies that I believe should be seen by everyone is "Saving Private Ryan". It is the story of the D-Day invasion and the rescue of a soldier who is the last surviving son of a family. Tom Hanks plays the role of the captain of a platoon who is sent to rescue Private Ryan played by Matt Damon. After great sacrifice and the critical wounding of Tom Hanks character with his dying words, Hanks tells Private Ryan, "Earn this!". Live your life in such a way that your deserve this. Make the sacrifice worthy on your part. Those are great words for us to remember for our nation but dangerous words for us to believe as Christians.

One of the hardest things for humans to give up is our feeling that somehow we can earn our way into God’s favor. That somehow at the end of things that the balance sheets will be tallied and because of all I have done that is good it will negate all that I’ve done that is bad. Grace doesn’t work that way. We are not the ones who get to decide the value of our actions that are good or the shades of the darkness of our sin. So God saves us knowing we could never earn or do enough to merit His salvation. In spite of what I could never do He has rescued me eternally.

We foolishly think that we can overcome any obstacle to our desires. If we decide to change our habits or our attitudes then we can simply make those adjustments. The truth is that we discover just how helpless we are to change. Still we think when it comes to my sin that if I want to quit doing something then I can just quit. I won’t be prideful anymore. I won’t allow jealousy to control me. I won’t be greedy or lust starting now. And we fail.

Paul says that even though we could never change ourselves, removing the stains of our sin and our shame: He washed us. The agent of washing is the Word, He regenerated us...that's speaking about the new birth, He renewed us. All of that really looks at the same event, we were washed, that's one way to look at salvation, it's the cleansing of sin. We were regenerated, that's another way to look at salvation, it's new birth, new life. Then we were renewed, that's another way to look at the same event. We came out of that experience in newness of life, now living life on a completely different level. What we could never change he has changed. I am clean. I am new. I am reborn. I am free.

The WWII generation was a generation that knew what poverty was because of the depression. They returned after the war to insure that their children would never face the hardships and struggles that they knew. The technology, economy and wealth that we are so accustomed to came as a result of their sacrifice and determination. Many of those of my generation are now inheriting the wealth of their parent’s generation. They didn’t earn it but it is theirs because they are the children of their parents.

Paul describes the riches that are ours because of our being the child of our heavenly Father. The words he uses describe it being done in a lavish fashion, "poured out upon us richly…". All of that speaks of radical transformation initiated by God not according to anything we've done, we were radically transformed and then we were infused with the Holy Spirit who was poured out on us richly. We were then given a new relationship with God through that relationship became the inheritors with Christ of the life that will last for all eternity. We were poverty stricken spiritually. Yet He has made us eternally wealthy and it is all because of His grace.

Conclusion: Ten years ago on the 50^th anniversary of the D-Day invasion our church had a moment of recognition. I asked the congregation if there were any there that had served in the invasion itself or had a relative who had served. Several hands went up and then one man stood, his name was Clyde Jaggers. I asked Clyde where he landed and he said, "Omaha Beach". You heard from the adults in the congregation a gasp because they recalled the horrendous cost of American lives that were lost on that beach. Over 2400 Americans died on that beach, most of them within the first minutes of the invasion due to the overwhelming fire power of the German forces at that location.

After Clyde stood and the congregation gathered itself they spontaneously stood in applause to honor this quite, rail thin, unassuming Texan who 50 years before had experienced one the most horrible moments of U.S. military history. We applauded because we remembered a man who was willing to sacrifice himself for those he would never know and for a future of freedom he might never experience himself

Today we remember those who have taken the responsibility for us and given their all. In this meal we remember the one who gave Himself for us while we were at the bottom of our sinfulness. Loved, saved, changed and rich- all of that we remember in a piece of bread and a small cup of juice-the Body and the Blood.

Who you could never be--He loved you.

What you could never do--He saved you.

What you could never change--He changed you.

What you could never gave--He gave all for you...

That’s why we remember!

Sunday, June 6, 2004

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas 72401

btippit@fbcjonesboro.com