All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995 Ed. (NASB95), published by The Lockman Foundation

Today in the United States, many Americans celebrate the civic holiday of Memorial Day. It’s a day that the Federal Government set aside to encourage Americans to remember the American service men and women who died during our current and past conflicts. The reason it’s called “Memorial Day” is because it serves as a reminder of these people who gave their lives in service to their nation. Many American Christians celebrate this day in memory of these people. And yet there’s a far more important “memorial day” that most Christians fail to take full advantage of in their remembrance practices.

Setting aside time to remember important events and people should come naturally to believers in the Lord Jesus. Scripture calls us to remember many things countless times, the most important of which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul, as well as other New Testament writers, reminded the assemblies under his care of this most important of accounts, most notably in his first letter to the Corinthians as follows:

“Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand . . .” (1 Cor. 15:1)

The gospel is the most repeated message found in the New Testament, since it describes the most important events ever to take place in history – namely, the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And yet there are many other things that believers are called to remember by the apostles in the New Testament. Branching off from the gospel itself, the apostles also remind their assemblies of the other essentials of Christianity; of their past sinful and hopeless conditions; of the godly example of their leaders; of the promise of apostates as a prime sign of the imminence of the Lord’s return; of their brethren who were suffering severe persecution; and of the need to persevere in faithfulness under persecution. Despite the many truths that Christians are called to remember, they all culminate in, and find their basis in, the most important truths about the Lord Jesus and His work of redemption.

But the ultimate reminder of the gospel in Scripture isn’t simply found in its definitions and descriptions, but in the most profound memorial ever given to human beings. What is this memorial? Scripture calls it the Lord’s Supper, and sets it forth as the main activity that the early assemblies participated in when they gathered. And when did they usually gather together? Just as Christians do today, they gathered on “the first day of the week,” also known as “the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10). Hence, the early church remembered the Lord’s work through the Lord’s Supper on the Lord’s Day. So, what is the Christian memorial day? For the early church, it was Sunday, when they met together to celebrate the gospel primarily by celebrating the Lord’s Supper — the memorial meal. It was also on this day that they were most able to remember all the other things that the apostles reminded them of over and over again. To the many important truths Christians should remember we’ll now turn, climaxing with the memorial of the Lord’s Supper, the ultimate reminder.

Remember the Essentials of the Apostles’ Teaching

In his second preserved letter, Peter the apostle underlines the vital necessity of regular reminders of the essentials of Christianity. He does this first with his purpose statement found near the beginning of the letter, in which he says,

“Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder . . . And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.” (2 Pe. 1:12-13, 15)

So, what things did Peter remind the Christians under his care to think about? He sums them up near the end of the letter, reiterating his purpose in writing it:

“This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by  your apostles.” (2 Pe. 3:1-2)

There are two sources of the truth that was with these believers, to which Peter called their memories. First, it was “the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets.” Since these words were spoken beforehand, and these prophets are placed in sharp distinction from “the commandment of the Lord,” Peter must be referring to the Old Testament prophets. But, secondly, he wants his audience to remember “the commandment of the Lord . . . by your apostles.” This refers to the whole “commandment,” or “instruction” given to the apostles, who then delivered it to the assemblies they planted and established. Therefore, “the truth” that Peter wanted to remind his spiritual children of was the essential body of truth prophesied by the Old Testament, and commanded by the apostles, as received from the Lord Jesus Himself.

Among the essential truths taught by the Old Testament and the apostles, none could be remembered more often than the basics of the gospel. This is why in Paul’s second, and most likely final, letter to his spiritual son and pastoral representative, Timothy, he enjoined Timothy thus:

“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel . . .” (2 Ti. 2:8)

In this verse, we have the essentials of the gospel which all Christians should remember on a daily basis. First, it contains the truth that Jesus is the “Christ”, or Old Testament “anointed One,” who fulfills the offices of God’s ultimate King, Prophet, and sacrificial High Priest. Second, the gospel declares that He is “risen from the dead,” as the first and representative Man of the new creation, granting eternal life to all who yield allegiance and trust to Him. Third, Jesus is the promised “descendant of David,” who fulfills all the Old Testament promises for the King who would rule an eternal kingdom, which will establish perfect and everlasting peace and prosperity for all His subjects. And finally, Timothy was to remember that these truths were “according to [Paul’s] gospel,” affirming that such truths were known by an eyewitness of the resurrected Jesus, who both appeared to Paul, and told Him all the essential truths that he knew about Jesus.

Your Past Separation from God

In marked contrast to the gospel itself, the apostles also reminded specifically their non-Jewish assemblies of their past lost condition, so as to heighten their appreciation for the blessings of salvation that God had bestowed. Paul specifically urges Christians to remember this past state of life in his letter to the Ephesian assembly by writing,

“Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh . . . were at that time [when dead in trespasses and sins (vss. 1-3)] separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (Eph. 2:11-12)

Since this is a similar condition to most Christians today, it’s important that we too remember these realities about ourselves. The first disadvantage that pagans have is that they’re “apart from Christ,” and have no means of receiving any benefit from Him. Second, and only true of pagans before the destruction of the Jewish nation in 70 AD, is that they were cut off from Israel, with no way of receiving the revelation about Christ, and were completely separate from God’s Old Testament people. Third, such pagans have no part in “the covenants of promise,” or God’s covenants made directly to the Hebrews, namely Abraham, his descendants, and David. Finally, pagans are “hopeless and without God in the world,” having no hope of salvation or eternal life, and no access to the true God. These descriptions summarize the condition of all non-Jewish unbelievers before they are converted, and so describe most of our pasts.

It would do us well, especially if we’re Gentiles, to regularly remind ourselves of the depravity, misery, and hopelessness from which God rescued us. This will allow us to more greatly appreciate who the Lord has turned us into, and to remember that it’s not we who made us who and what we are, but Him.

The Godly Example of Your Leaders

A third reality to which the apostles call their assemblies to direct their memories is the past godly example of their leaders. Paul does this toward the Thessalonian assembly in his first letter to them by describing his and his fellow apostles’ hard work and loving service among them:

“For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers; just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children . . .” (1 Thess. 2:9-11)

Among the godly characteristics that Paul reminds the Thessalonians that he and his co-workers demonstrated among them are exhausting work, bold evangelism, reverence, blamelessness, and fatherly encouragement. In the case of this letter, Paul is reminding them of these behaviors in order to reassure them of his trustworthiness, as well as to give them more motivation to imitate him and the other apostles.

The author of Hebrews has a similar purpose in explicitly commanding his audience to remember their former leaders. This is his instruction:

“Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.” (Heb. 13:7)

Although very similar to Paul’s reminder of his godliness to the Thessalonians, this exhortation focuses on the perseverance of these Hebrew leaders. There are two main reasons for making this judgment. First, the purpose of the letter to the Hebrews is to motivate and instruct its hearers to persevere in following Jesus, despite challenging persecution. And second, the author here calls the Hebrews to consider “the result” of their leaders’ conduct, which can also be translated “end.” Adding to these points the fact that these leaders formerly led them, we can make a reasonable deduction that at least most of these leaders had died. Hence, the author is telling the audience to consider the end of their leaders’ godly lives. And what is the purpose of doing this? To compel them to “imitate their faith.”

Your Persecuted Brethren

Along similar lines of remembering godly leaders, the apostles also bring to the remembrance of assemblies the current persecution of their brethren. Returning again to Hebrews, the writer precedes his order for the remembrance of former leaders with a reminder Christians who are suffering severe persecution with these words:

“Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.” (Heb. 13:3)

Rather than simply being a remembrance of a past event, this of course is a reminder of a current condition, although based on a past experience. The author first calls attention to “prisoners,” who are evidently Christian prisoners, since he bases this remembrance on the ability to imagine themselves “as though in prison with them.” Second, they are to remember those who are generally “ill-treated” because they’re Christians. Like the first reason for remembering, he says that the reason they must remember these brethren is because they “also are in the body.” Following the same reasoning that he provides in the beginning, I take “the body” here to refer to the body of Christ. Therefore, they must remember their mistreated brethren, since they are members of the same body, and as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, “if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.”

Another example of the call to remember persecuted Christians is found in Paul’s request for himself in his letter to the Colossian assembly. He simply writes,

“Remember my imprisonment.” (Col. 4:18b)

Of course, we must understand that the purpose of remembering persecuted Christians isn’t simply to feel compassion for them, but to motivate us to help them. After we’ve remembered our brethren, we have two options to help them. We can either pray for them, or we can actually provide some help for them.

The Apostasy Signaling the Imminence of Christ’s Return

To add to the important teachings of the apostles that were repeatedly brought to the remembrance of the early church, we see apostate and perverted condition of former professing believers emphasized by the apostles in several of their letters. One such reminder is found in the letter of Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, which is a condemnatory warning of false teachers that were revealing themselves from among Christian assemblies. In his main explicit reminder, Jude explains to his audience that they,

“. . . ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, ‘In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.’” (Jude 17-18)

Notice that, like Peter, Jude calls his brethren to remember the words of “the apostles.” And the content of these words was that there would be “mockers” “in the last time.” By “mockers,” Jude means people who mock some of the essential teachings of the apostles, and who specifically have become familiar with Christianity by having close interactions with Christians, even to the point of being among them. This logically connects to the reality of apostasy, or denouncing one’s professed faith in Christ, which Paul explains is a pervasive state of affairs that must take place before the Lord returns.

Paul describes a specific chain of events that must precede the second coming in his second letter to the Thessalonians like this:

“Let no one in any way deceive you, for [the Day of the Lord will not come] unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?” (2 Thess. 2:3-5)

In this passage, there are two main events Paul says must take place before Christ returns. Regardless of one’s interpretation of this passage (and it’s possible to know what he means), the main point of this passage is that “apostasy” and idolatry mark the last days before the second coming. The word translated “apostasy” literally means “rebellion,” so in order to understand it, we have to use its context. And what is the context? The rise of a “lawless man” who makes himself look like “God” by sitting as ruler “in the temple of God.” In the New Testament, what is “the temple of God?” It’s the people of God, or the church. Hence, we can understood this man to be exalting himself as God over the church. The implication of this is that there will be professing Christians who recognize his authority, thus committing “rebellion,” or apostasy from the faith. Such apostasy and idolatry among professing Christians, Paul says, is a sign that the Lord could return at any moment. And this reality is something he stresses is important for the Thessalonians to remember, like Jude stressed the rise of mockers as a sign of “the last time.”

As we move next to the greatest Christian reminder, we’ll see that it too is meant to remind us of the imminence of the Lord’s return, as well as to remind us of the essential truths of the gospel.

The Mandated Christian Memorial

As I said in the beginning of this article, the ultimate Christian memorial is what Scripture calls “the Lord’s Supper.” And this was the early church’s main activity when they met together. Paul makes this clear in his most comprehensive set of instructions on the Supper. These are found in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34. But in the first few verses, we find the evidence that shows the Corinthians’ main purpose for meeting as an assembly was to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Paul writes,

“. . . when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you . . . Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk.” (1 Cor. 11:18, 20-21)

Paul begins this passage by telling us that he’s clearly speaking of the Corinthians gathering together “as a church” (v. 18). Then, he implies that one of the purposes for their gathering is to “eat” “the Lord’s Supper”, since he’s chastising them for failing to eat it (v. 20). Next, he calls this failed observance a “meal” by indicting them for “each one” eating their “own” meal (v. 21). Fourth, he again implies that this observance is a meal by telling them that “one goes hungry, another gets drunk”.

What can we learn about the Lord’s Supper from this passage? First, it was the main thing that the Corinthian assembly came together to observe. Both at the beginning and at the end of this passage, Paul implies that the Corinthians met together “as a church” for the purpose of “eating” the Lord’s Supper. Secondly, we see that the Lord’s Supper was celebrated in the context of a meal. Paul is clearly speaking of the Corinthians celebrating the Lord’s Supper while having a meal. In fact, it seems clear that he’s even equating the Lord’s Supper with the meal.

So, we see two key characteristics of the Lord’s Supper from this passage. First, it was the main activity of the early assembly. And secondly, it was celebrated during a meal. But how often did the early church celebrate the Supper? In addition to the fact that Paul in 1 Corinthians implies that the Corinthians gathered for the primary purpose of celebrating the Supper, there’s further evidence that the early church observed this rite at least weekly, and during their main gathering together. This is found in Luke’s account of Paul’s visit with an assembly during his final journey to Jerusalem in the Book of Acts. In this account, Luke recounts,

“On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them . . . and he prolonged his message until midnight . . . When he had gone back up [after resurrecting a young man who fell from the third floor] and had broken the bread and eaten, he talked with them a long while . . .” (Acts 20:7, 11)

In this passage, Luke tells us that this group of Christians was “gathered together” “on the first day of the week.” This is clearly Sunday, the day on which Jesus rose from the dead. And why were they gathered? “To break bread” (v. 7). Alluding to Jesus’s “breaking of the bread” in the Gospel of Luke (Lk. 22), this must be Luke’s way of referring to the meal during which they celebrated the Lord’s Supper. Further, we find that, during this meeting, Paul delivered a “message,” clearly referring to a lesson, or teaching session. Thus, we can conclude from this passage that this assembly was meeting for the main purpose of “breaking bread” in order to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

Having seen that the Lord’s Supper was the centerpiece of the early church’s meetings, we come now to its purpose. And that purpose is to serve as a memorial celebration. Paul reminds the Corinthians of the things they ought to remember during the Supper in that all-important passage in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, in which he explains the importance of this ordinance:

“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”

Paul gives this assembly several things to remember about the Lord’s Supper in this passage. First, He instituted it during His Last Supper, or “the night on which He was betrayed.” Secondly, the Lord broke the bread of the Passover, and called it His body, which was “for” His people. Third, He told His disciples to eat this bread as His body “in remembrance” of Him. The Greek phrase translated “in remembrance” could literally be rendered “as My reminder,” and so, could also refer to a reminder to Jesus of His death for His people. Regardless, in eating the bread as His body, His people remember His body that was broken on the cross. Fourth, Paul recounts that the Lord took the Passover cup of wine after the supper and called it “the new covenant in His blood,” referring to God’s new agreement with Israel in the Old Testament, promising the forgiveness of all their sins, and their knowledge of God. Fifth, Paul says that the Lord taught His followers to drink this cup “in remembrance” of Him, or “as My reminder.” Finally, Paul concludes at the end that the purpose of eating the bread and drinking the wine is to “proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (v. 26). Hence, the Lord’s Supper isn’t only a remembrance of His death, but an anticipation of His return.

When we understand the Lord’s Supper as the main event of the weekly gathering of saints, we can see how essential this memorial is to being reminded of what the Lord has done for us, and to us, through His death and resurrection. Do you consider the Lord’s Supper to be as important as the apostles and the early church did? If we’re honest, most of us fall far short of these practices of the apostolic church. And yet this wasn’t only the practice of the early church, but the instruction of the apostles, as we’ve seen from 1 Corinthians. Why would we want to neglect the most important weekly activity that the early church celebrated?