Blessed Memories – Acts 20:17-38

I expect that we’ll wind-down our study of this chapter on the weekend.

When we started, I really didn’t expect this to develop into 20 messages.

But the fact is, it seems that every chapter produces more messages than the previous chapter.

And now I don’t know if I’ll be able to remember what to do if and when we complete the Book of Acts.

As Paul finished his ministry in Ephesus with this meeting among the elders of the church, it seems to me that the over-all theme was “remember.”

Verse 18 – “Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons.”

Then, as we have seen, he talked about the characteristics of his evangelism:

“I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you.”

“Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And beyond his evangelism:

“Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.

For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.”

After a word of warning about wolves in sheep’s clothing, he picked up his theme of “remembering.”

Verse 31 – “Therefore watch, and remember…”

Obviously, the right kind of memory is a good thing.

We need to remember WHO WE WERE without the Lord.

The chapters from Isaiah 51 to the end of that book are particularly wonderful to read and study.

Isaiah 53, Isaiah 55, Isaiah 61 – they are all great lessons.

And Isaiah 51 begins with a reference to God’s sovereign choice and call of Abraham.

But first actual verse says:

“Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD:

look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.”

Here is a very worthy exercise: Remember what you were before the Lord called you and saved you.

The Jews loved their relationship to Abraham and Sarah.

But those two people were originally nothing more than idolaters from Iraq, whom the Lord chose to save.

And you and I don’t even have those good people upon which to look back.

Most of us only come from Japheth of Noah.

And we are ALL children of the very first rebel against God.

The truth is every ancestor in our lineage has been as much a rebel as Adam with as murderous a heart as Cain.

Maybe, when we finish Acts, we should just keep on going into the Book of Romans.

The first three chapters are little more than an outline of who we really are without the grace of God.

And it doesn’t really matter if we claim a link to Abraham or not, the family tree isn’t very stately.

The spiritual version of that family tree is NOT the sort of thing to prepare in calligraphy, put in a mahogany frame and hang on the living room wall.

The way that I feel sin tugging at my heart, I can just imagine the sort of person that I would be if the Lord hadn’t interfered with my ancestral propensities.

I could probably share my guesses with you, but it probably wouldn’t be beneficial to either of us.

Because first, by the grace of God, I am not that person who I might have been.

Second, as my mother used to say, “If you can’t say any thing nice, don’t say anything at all.”

And third, some of you more observant folk can probably see some of those evil tendencies in me anyway.

But what about you?

Particularly those of you who are over 25 and with a little experience in life.

Sometime when you have a few quiet moments and you are in a seriously prayerful mood, go back to the direction that you were headed before your Damascus conversion.

Then extrapolate from that point to this moment without the input of the grace of God.

Oh, what awful people we would be today, if it hadn’t been for the Lord’s salvation.

We need to remember who we WERE and who we WOULD HAVE BECOME without the Lord.

And coupled to that, we need to remember who we ARE in the Lord.

First, we were DEAD, but now we have been given life.

In this way the Christian life is just the opposite of physical life.

Physically we come into this world alive, and we live our 70+ years, and then we are physically dead.

Spiritually we come into this world dead, but when the Lord saves us, we are given life for ever more.

Similarly, we were BLIND, but now we see.

We were incapable of thinking or grasping Biblical theology and the things of God,

but now we not only can think, we have access to genuine wisdom – the Lord Jesus Christ.

Before our salvation we were without strength, now we can do all sorts of things through Christ which strengtheneth us.

And like a decaying, grotesque cadaver, we were as ugly as sin, but now even our feet can be beautiful.

Those feet used to be quick – but only to shed blood.

And our throats were as open sepulchres.

But that was B.C. rather than A.D. – Before Christ.

Now, we are children of God.

We have been born again, and born into the family of the Lord.

Not only this, but we have been adopted by the Lord.

I am told that in the Roman culture, when a son was properly reared and finally educated, there was an official adoption ceremony.

That was when the nanny and the schoolmaster were retired, and the child was considered a full-fledged son.

We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

Through salvation we have been made citizens of the kingdom of the God.

We are servants of the Lord rather than slaves sin which we had been before our rescue.

We have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit and become temples of the Living God.

We can, through the grace of God, come boldly to the throne of that grace.

Whereas before, there were seraphim with fiery swords, to keep us out of Paradise, now that place is our earthly home.

And we are the sheep of the Lord.

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteous-ness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.”

We are the anointed of God.

We have an eternity of tables prepared before us, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

By the grace of we, who were nobodies, now are somebodies.

We are CHILDREN of God; we are SAINTS of God; we are HEIRS of God.

And these things should be constantly reinforced within our hearts.

These are things which make the Christian life worth living.

These are reasons to live for Christ and not for sin.

We should also remember those WHO helped us to reach these blessings.

Paul says here: “Remember me.”

We should remember their CHARACTER.

Of course, not every evangelist has the kind of character that he ought to have.

Some are egotistical and self-centered.

Some have lots of hidden sins, and some are even open sinners.

Some preach the gospel out of spite, and some preach it to bring reward to themselves.

But Paul could say – just as His Master had said – “Which of you can accuse me of sin?”

“I have coveted no man’s sliver, or gold, or apparel.”

“I kept back nothing that was profitable to you,” and I fed you no lies or presumptions.

I didn’t mislead you; I didn’t try to confuse you; I didn’t preach my personal agenda or theology.

I wasn’t lazy; I didn’t sleep until noon every day; I wasn’t a glutton; I wasn’t a trouble-maker.

Look and examine my character.

You know that my life means nothing to me, just so long as I’m able to finish it with joy.

“Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Just as it had been with the Lord Jesus, Paul’s life was above reproach.

We should also remember the MINISTRY of our ministers.

Paul said, I served “the Lord among you with humility of mind and with many tears.”

I kept back nothing that was profitable to you, and visited you in your homes.

You know that I’m pure from the blood of all men, because I carried out my commission as if I was an ambassador of the Lord.

The theme of my ministry was “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Then secondly,“I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.”

My ministry has been an open book for all the world to read.

This was a theme which Paul was not ashamed to bring up from time to time.

I Thessalonians 2 – “But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe: As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, tat ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.”

Paul also used the word “remember” in other contexts, but still as they related to him and his ministry.

What do you suppose that he meant as he closed Colossians with the words “remember my bonds”?

Wasn’t it a plea for them to pray for his release and his ministry?

And what did he mean in I Corinthians 11:2 – “Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.”

And what did he mean in Hebrews 13:3 and again in verse 7?

“Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.”

Doesn’t the word “remember” take on the sense of “remember to support” and assist?

We should remember WHO WE WERE before our salvation.

We should remember WHO WE ARE NOW that we have been saved by the grace of God.

And we should remember those who showed to us our need of the Lord’s grace.

And as Paul spoke to them – these men remembered.

“And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all.

And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him,

Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.”

When these men thought about what Paul’s coming to Ephesus had meant to them and to their families,

And as they realized that they would probably not see him again,

Those thoughts and memories came down chokingly upon them.

And yet, I still think that they would call them “blessed memories.”