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“Keep doing this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).
1, 2. Why do we attend the Memorial every year?
We attend the commemoration every year because it is a mandate from Jesus Christ, he gave his life for us, and thanks to that we have the opportunity to live forever. And by attending we are showing appreciation for this great gift.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
We Christians also obey that mandate of Jesus because we love him very much. And during the season of remembrance, we show how much we value his sacrifice, and we do so by taking time to pray and meditate on the meaning of his death.
Because it is a commandment of Jesus, he gave his life for us. Thanks to that sacrifice we have the opportunity to live forever, and the night before he died Jesus commanded his disciples to continue celebrating this event which is a great gesture of love.
We will be able to dedicate our time to pray and meditate and the meaning of why Jesus gave his death for all of us.
And also as it is such a special event, well of course we don't want to miss it but to attend and invite as many people as possible.
3. What will we see in this article?
In this article we will look at three facts that show that Jehovah's servants have tried very hard to remember the death of Christ. For example: We celebrate the commemoration as Jesus said. We invite others to attend and celebrate despite the difficulties.
Well, there are three things: the first is that we will celebrate the commemoration as Jesus said, the second is by inviting other people to attend this commemoration, and the third we celebrate despite the possible difficulties that may occur.
WE CELEBRATE THE COMMEMORATION AS JESUS SAID
4. (a) What truths are explained each year at the Memorial? (Luke 22:19, 20).
Truths that we find in Luke 22 19-20 are explained, from which we can extract questions such as the following: Why do we need the ransom? And how does the death of a single man achieve forgiveness of the sins of many people? And we are reminded who eats the bread and drinks the wine and what these symbols represent.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
We also reflect on the blessings that will be enjoyed by those who hope to live on earth.
Well, a truth that we managed to learn is that in that speech, we clearly learn some of those questions: Like why we need that rescue of Jesus Christ and how death entered into a single man, he achieves that, well, he forgives the number of sins of all humanity .
4.b) Why is understanding these truths so special?
Understanding these truths is something very special, we should not take it for granted. There are billions of people who do not understand them and who do not know how to give the sacrifice of Jesus the value it deserves. And that's why it doesn't commemorate the death of Jesus the way he said it would.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
Because although we do know them, there are people on the planet who do not know them, so we need to make them understand why they have to understand this issue, and why they have to give it the importance of the sacrifice of the death of Jesus Christ.
And of course we celebrate it every year but people don't know this, many don't know it and that's why we invite them. But as it says very well here in The Watchtower, we must not take it for granted, that is, ourselves. Although we do it every year, every year, we must increase our pressure by meditating and helping people to come to know the great value of the ransom. .
5. How did people begin to commemorate the death of Jesus after most of the apostles died?
Contrary to what the Bible says, they taught that Christ's sacrifice had to be offered over and over again. Today, many people who do not know the true value of the ransom believe this false teaching, and that is why they go to church every week or even every day, to celebrate what is known as the sacrifice of the mass.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
Others do so in confusion as they are unclear on what the ransom accomplishes.
Jesus is one who offered his body once to bear the sins of many people and that is the opposite of what the Bible says, since they believe the sacrifice of Christ must be offered over and over again.
And all this also happens because they do not clearly understand what is the meaning of the sacrifice of Jesus, that is why they relate the sacrifice of Jesus with daily sins and not with original sin. That is why they continue to do it every week, because he continues, the human being is imperfect and continues to sin continuously.
There are also religions that do not frequently use or remember the death of Christ. And this is so, because the people to whom they speak or do not understand the meaning of the death of Christ, and that is why it is the situation in which they find themselves.
In Hebrews 9:27-28 it says that just as a man dies only once, although he can be resurrected for judgment, Christ was also offered only once to bear our sins, and he speaks of coming a second time, but not to bear our sins again. But because he is going to judge all those who are anxiously waiting to be Saved. Which means that just as a man dies only once, Christ also had to die only once.
And it is interesting what The Watchtower said that this is a dogma from 1,215 until 1,215 that a false idea of a papal decision that has no Biblical basis has passed.
6. What did a group of Bible students come to understand in 1872?
They understood with the help of the Bible that Jesus paid a ransom for all mankind. and they did not keep secret what they had discovered. On the contrary, they published it in books, newspapers and magazines. Soon after, they began to celebrate the commemoration only once a year, just as the first-century Christians did.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
For through an in-depth study of the Bible, they came to understand that Jesus did pay a ransom for all mankind.
After it was published and the whole world knew about it, they began to commemorate it once a year.
7. How does what the early Bible students investigated benefit us today?
It gives us Hope.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
Jehovah blessed the efforts of the early Bible students, and thanks to that the benefit that we came to obtain is that we now see clearly what the sacrifice of Jesus means and all that it will accomplish. We have also learned that the Bible offers two hopes for people who obey God: immortal life in heaven for some and eternal life on earth for millions. And we feel closer to Jehovah when we reflect on how much he loves us and how much he benefits us personally from Jesus' sacrifice.
And in first Peter 3:18 we see that the ransom leads us to God. So when we meditate on how much Jehovah loves us insofar as the sacrifice of his son benefits each of us, we feel much closer to Jehovah.
And today, thanks to the investigation of these brothers, it has been possible to eliminate all the falsehoods that we have seen in the previous paragraphs. It has come to clearly see how the death of Christ is to be celebrated and that is why, as it says now in this part, we are already happily celebrating it as Christ said.
And continuing with the idea of 1 John, it allows us to live with a good conscience. We are sinners, all humans are sinners and Jesus has made a sacrifice that allows us to get closer to Jehovah, both when we accidentally commit sins, and when we do things that offend Jehovah, that allows us to have a perspective of wonderful life to be able to be friends of Jehovah, and also live forever, that is why it is so important that we reflect a lot on all this work that these brothers did, and that Jehovah allowed us to get to know these truths that save our lives.
WE INVITE OTHERS TO THE COMMEMORATION
8. What have Jehovah's servants done to invite others to the Memorial? (See pictures).
Jehovah's servants have been inviting people to the commemoration of Jesus for many years.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
To invite others to the commemoration, Jehovah's servants have organized themselves, and we say this because in 1981, this magazine invited the brothers from the United States to meet in a house in Allegheny (Pennsylvania) with the aim of celebrating it. Later on individually each congregation began to celebrate its own commemoration. However, it was in March 1940 that the publishers were told that they could now invite anyone from their area who had shown interest.
And, in 1960, Bethel sent printed invitations to congregations for the first time. Since then, Jehovah's Witnesses have handed out billions of invitations to this important event.
I started participating from the second one, but I already saw the first one at home, because there are always some left in the campaigns. And yes, I did see some of the first ones and it has always been very, very special moments, because the entire congregation turned to be able to distribute this invitation and that everything and we were very worried that the entire territory would be covered. So it was a very, very nice moment.
I attended for the first time many years ago and what caught my attention was the great respect there was. I remember that during the prayer I raised my head and said what respect and of course I immediately lowered my head to continue praying.
9, 10. Who benefits from our efforts to invite others to the Memorial? (John 3:16).
The people of the territory, especially those who are rightly disposed for eternal life, sincere people and hungry for the truth and sheep of the lamb who are willing to listen to his voice and want to follow him.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
Our inactive brothers also benefit. We invite them to the commemoration with the aim of reminding them that God still loves them, and when they decide to accept this invitation it fills us with joy.
Our sister Monica says that after attending the 2021 commemoration during the pandemic, she says that later she became active again and she says that she was very happy, because after 20 years of not participating, she says that she started to participate and even if she doesn't listen , but that for her it was very gratifying to know that Jehovah remembered her.
ILLUSTRATION
And here we see the image of how the different formats of the invitations were through the years, some filled them out on a typewriter because there were no printers or there were no printers like today, others in their reach was a pencil and so on. they filled it, but they were different dynamic methodologies formats to invite people to the most important meeting of the year. Before in Spanish it was called the Memorial, but now it is called commemoration, that is the updated expression.
A man receives the Memorial invitation in the mail and reads it while holding it in his hand. Image series: 1. Publishers from different parts of the world presenting the Memorial invitation. 2. Invitations to the Memorial in multiple languages, including sign language. The invitations, digital or printed, date from the 1960s to the present. What can we do to fully support the Memorial campaign? (See paragraphs 8 to 10).
11. How has Jehovah blessed all that we do to invite people to the Memorial? (Haggai 2:7).
Here we see how this prophecy has been fulfilled, Jehovah has been attracting the desirable things of the nations to the Congregation, and this is seen at the Memorial, and here are millions that exceed the current number of publishers worldwide who attend.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
For example, in 2021, despite the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic, we had a record attendance of 21,367,603 people. This is more than twice the number of Jehovah's Witnesses in the world. Of course, for Jehovah the most important thing is not numbers but people.
I am very struck by the last sentence of the paragraph, that Jehovah uses the commemoration campaign to help us find good-hearted people. In other words, what matters to Jehovah are people, he sees hearts and it is not surprising that we find someone with a good heart because Jehovah will use a campaign for that.
WE CELEBRATE THE COMMEMORATION DESPITE THE DIFFICULTIES
12. What situations might prevent us from celebrating the Memorial? (See picture).
Well, different situations Jesus predicted that there would be situations of family opposition, government persecution, internal wars, wars between countries, and epidemics, and any of these situations could become an obstacle for us to celebrate the commemoration.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
For example, and some obstacles are those mentioned in Luke 21:18, that there will also be wars, there are persecutions or even epidemics and sometimes opposition.
I did look at the clothes the brothers are wearing and that made me wonder if those riots could include religious opposition against us. So on this occasion, wearing more informal clothing does not mean a lack of respect, but simply an element of prudence when holding the meeting.
And we are used to a table with a tablecloth and beautiful glasses of wine and dishes that are also somewhat special, but here we see that they have a normal glass, with wine or something similar, and bread. Then Jehovah looks at what we can do and does not look at external things, but these have made a real effort to celebrate the commemoration and Jehovah appreciates it.
ILLUSTRATION
In the image we see a group of brothers who are celebrating the Commemoration despite the riots in the area, we see that their clothes are not the formal clothes we wear for meetings, they are in casual clothes or with home clothes, but their heart is there and that is what is important.
A group of brothers and sisters celebrate the Memorial in the basement of a home. Jehovah blesses our efforts to celebrate the Memorial. (See paragraph 12).
13. How did Jehovah bless Artem's courage and determination in celebrating the Memorial in jail?
Experience mentions that he was locked up in a 17-square-meter cell, where up to five prisoners were kept at a time. Still, he managed to get the emblems for the commemoration and made plans to present the speech himself. But there was a problem, his classmates smoked and said a lot of bad words. He asked them if they could go an hour without using that language or smoking. To his surprise they said yes. He tells that he told them that he could explain to them what the commemoration consisted of. Although they told him that they were not interested in him, after listening to him and seeing that he celebrated it, in the end they asked him for more details.
It would have been easy to reason in a situation like this, because I can't celebrate it and Jehovah will understand it, but he found ways to do it.
14. What did Jehovah's people do to celebrate the Memorial despite the COVID-19 pandemic?
Well, the congregations that had internet enjoyed the occasion by videoconference, and those that did not have internet broadcast it on radio and television. There were branches that recorded the speech in more than 500 languages, so that even those who lived in isolation could celebrate the commemoration. They gave instructions to get the emblems and be able to distribute them with enough time to each family and there were brothers who were in charge of sending those recordings.
In the stereo we see experiences and I liked one from Myanmar, it says that the previous weeks before the commemoration there was an armed conflict in different parts of the country and that on the night of the commemoration there were even intense shootings, but that the text of the year It was very encouraging and very consoling, because it said keep calm and show confidence so that night they took refuge in their houses they turned on the soft lights they spoke in a low voice and they managed to celebrate the commemoration without any setbacks, and despite the disturbances he says they had the highest attendance was even able to hear it over the phone.
In the stereo we also see that in washipati in the state of Bolívar they were only going to have the commemoration once at half past six in the afternoon, but by chance or design there was a technical problem and the speech was heard ten times in a row during the night, like this, it was heard ten times like that, great, it says that it was heard by at least 600.
15. What do we learn from a Bible student named Sue?
Well we learn that family opposition is a very big difficulty, complicated and difficult to bear. The advice that his Bible teacher gave him in Luke 22:44 teaches us that when we have problems as big, as gigantic as Goliath, it is best to follow Jesus' example and pray. And when we feel calm, pray again and continue praying, crying out and pleading with Jehovah with the confidence that he will help us, and we can use this same text to encourage one another in difficult situations.
ADDITIONAL COMMENT
The sister could not choose a better text, because of course no matter how many problems a person has, they say that Jesus in his agony was so great, that is, one can be in agony or in great anguish for not being able to do it, but Jesus and what did he do? he then prays So it's a good example to tell others your problem is big, but look, it was our teacher who had a bigger problem because he was dying and he made them pray and encourage him to do the same.
16. Why can we be sure that Jehovah will bless every effort we make to attend the Memorial? (Romans 8:31, 32).
We see here then that Jehovah highly values every effort we make to remain faithful, loyal, upright, holy, separated from sin and of course to be present at the commemoration. Just as the paragraph mentions, we can be sure that God will bless us if we show him gratitude for what he has done. As mentioned in Romans 8:31,32.
According to what we have just read, it is true that if deep down in our hearts and we really demonstrate and long for and the longing that we have to celebrate the commemoration despite any difficulties that we may have, as we have been analyzing, we can have full confidence, full faith and guarantee that Jehovah is going to help us so that we can celebrate it.
What truth about the ransom or Memorial do you personally value?
Personally, the text of John 3:16 calls my attention, where it shows that rescue is something that Jehovah did through his beloved son, they made it possible to save humanity that is willing to listen to his voice and that is something that is not we deserve, but he gives it to us because he loves us, without a doubt, we fail to understand how much Jehovah and Jesus love us.
Something that I value is knowing that the rescue not only benefits the Anointed, and that is precisely why the commemoration is not an exclusive occasion for them and Jehovah is inviting me, he wants me to be there and he is giving me the opportunity to show him my love in this way. my gratitude and my obedience
Whom do we invite to the Memorial, and why?
Those who benefit from our efforts to invite to the commemoration are the people who attend the commemoration for the first time and the goal is that they feel motivated to know Jehovah and be his servants. But they are not the only ones who benefit from this effort, also those who are inactive due to life circumstances, and we invite them to the commemoration because we want to remind them that God continues to love them.
Well, to the people of the territory and to the inactive ones, because to the people of the territory, because we believe that the same as we understand the benefit and love that Jehovah and Jesus have shown for us, we want them to understand it. And to the inactive people so that they know that Jehovah continues to love them and that he is looking forward to their return.
What difficulties have some faced in celebrating the Memorial?
Some of the difficulties are: family opposition, persecution, wars, epidemics. any of these can be an obstacle to celebrate the commemoration. The more local brothers can say that their boss did not want to give them the day to go to the commemoration or that he does not want to give it to them and the brothers have to reach an agreement with their bosses, others who had difficulties finding transportation that day.
After all, in the three situations of the brothers, we have seen that everyone has done their best to attend the commemoration and as we have seen in Romans, Jehovah has done the rest and has blessed them and they have been able to go.
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