Death is not the end (Acts 20:31, 35)

Death is not the end

 

 

 

“So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.  …  In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' ” (Acts 20:31, 35)

 

 

 

                As I meditate on the word of God, I have a view of life that God the Holy Spirit is planting in my heart.  One of those views on life is that people come to dust and return to dust.  In other words, the perspective that God the Holy Spirit instills in my heart through the word of God is the perspective of death.  Look at the Bible Ecclesiastes 7:2 – “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart.”  So, even though I am alive now, I am praying, pondering, and working hard on how to live a life worthy of God’s view of life on this earth given the death perspective while thinking about my coming death.  In the midst of this, after I preached the words of Acts 20:17-38 at the Morning Prayer meeting, I kept thinking during the prayer that ‘Death is not the end’.  Of course, I know that death is not the end, because I believe there is a world after death.  I didn’t think that death isn’t the end just thinking about the afterlife.  But I thought that death is not the end because there are memories that we plant and leave to our loved ones and church members who remain on this earth even after we die.  In other words, death isn’t the end because we leave memories to all the people in the encounters the Lord has allowed on this earth, such as family, relatives, church members, friends, neighbors, etc.  Although we leave this world after death and go to the other world, heaven, our death isn’t the end because the loved ones who remain on this earth will live on this earth with the memories about us in their hearts.  When I came to this view that death was not the end, I was compelled to kneel before the Lord and think again about how I should live the rest of my life on this earth.

 

Another view of life that God is instilling in me with the word of God is that “A life is making memories.”  While living on this earth, our life is a series of encounters and partings.  In these encounters and partings, we make memories in our relationships with each other during the given meeting period.  Sometimes we make good memories.  But we also make bad memories that we don't want.  Therefore, we should think about what kind of memories we are planting in the other person’s memories in the encounters that God allows in His sovereignty.  The reason is because the memories that are planted will affect the other person even when we die.  For example, when we think of our family, we can instill both good and bad memories in our family members.  If we leave this world with good memories in the Lord rather than the bad memories we don't want, our family members will have a good influence on their lives even after we die.  On the other hand, if we leave this world with more bad memories in our family members, we will have a bad influence on their lives even after we die.  That's why I thought, “Death is not the end” this morning.

 

                At the early Morning Prayer meeting today, I preached and prayed the words of Acts 20:17-38.  And now after the Morning Prayer, I want to meditate on the text again like this.  In particular, I want to focus on verses 31 and 35.  The reason is that in these two verses there are words “remember” (v. 31) and “remembering” (v. 35).  I would like to meditate on why apostle Paul told the Ephesian church elders to remember him in 2 ways when he was with in Ephesus for 3 years (v. 31), how he lived the whole time he was with them (v. 18) and what kind of memories he planted in their hearts.

 

                First, the apostle Paul planted the word of God in the Ephesian church members.

 

                Look at Acts 20:31 – “So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.”  From Miletus, Apostle Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church (v. 17).  While giving a farewell sermon before them, he exhorted them to remember that he had been warning each one day and night with tears for 3 years (v. 31).  Why did the Apostle Paul exhort the Ephesian elders to remember the warning?  The reason is because he knew that after he left Ephesus, savage wolves would come in among them (v. 29), and would distort the truth in order to draw away the disciples after them (v. 30), and eventually would try to deceive the flock and lead them from the faith.  In other words, Paul knew that heretics would come in and deceive the church members of the Ephesian church by distorting the truth, so that some of them would fall away from the faith.  That was why Paul exhorted them to remember that he never stopped warning each of them night and day with tears.  Do we really understand Paul's heart?

 

                I applied this to my family to understand Paul's heart.  As the head of the family, I thought for a moment what I would say to my wife at the crossroads of life and death if I had to leave first, leaving my beloved wife and three children in this world.  As I leave my three children with my beloved wife, I ask myself if I can exhort my wife as Paul did to the elders of the Ephesian church.  Perhaps I should say to my beloved wife: ‘Remember, dear wife.  Remember what I've been trying to instill in you and our children until this time.  I have tried to instill in you and our three children the commandment to love Jesus.  Please remember that.  And I hope you can love Jesus twice more when I'm gone.  And I hope that your love for Jesus can be planted in the hearts of these three children.’  The reason I think I can say this to my beloved wife before death is because one of the two prayer topics that I have been praying for the family that the Lord will establish in the future is 'Love your spouse with God's love'.  This is because I pray that my future spouse will also love me with the love of God.  What is it that I love my wife or my three children with the love of God?  It is keeping the commandments of God (Jn. 14:21).  And in order to keep the commandments of God, I must diligently plant His word in my heart.  It is my responsibility to teach my wife and my children to love the Bible and to read, hear, learn, and obey the word of God as I show first my devotion to His word.  Is it really that I am faithfully bearing this responsibility to my beloved wife and children and to the members of Victory Presbyterian Church from the death perspective?  I feel again the weight of this responsibility in this morning.  I wonder if, after I left like Paul, I could earnestly exhort my family and church members to remember the word of God that I diligently taught to them after knowing the infiltration and delusion of heresy, which is the temptation of Satan, among my family and members of the church.  I am asking myself if I am warning them day and night with tears unceasingly like Paul so that my family members and the church members may stand firm in the word of God, so no matter what Satan's delusions may come, and do well until the day we meet the Lord faithfully without turning our back on Jesus.  Even if I die, if my children and church members remember the words of God that I have taught, and if they can win the spiritual battle with those words and live their lives faithfully, what a blessing it is.  Even if they forget the existence of “James”, if they can keep their faith by remembering the word of God that God told them through me as my wife’s husband, my children’s father, and my church members’ pastor, and can obey the word, and can fight spiritual battle with the assurance of victory, I wonder how happy I am as a husband, father, and pastor.  What must I do to enjoy this blessing and happiness?  Just as Paul taught the Ephesian church members when he was in Ephesus for three years, just as he preached and taught without hesitation in public or in each house whatever was beneficial to the Ephesian church members (v. 20), the lesson that I am learning is that I must teach them the word of God diligently and faithfully that is beneficial to them during the time I have with them in this earth.  And just as Paul committed them to God and to the word of His grace, which can build the elders of the Ephesus church up and give them an inheritance among all those who are sanctified (v. 32), I also commit my beloved church members and my family to the Lord and the word of His grace.  I believe that the Lord will build up God's children with His word.  Therefore, this morning I again devote myself to the Lord and His word.  I devote myself to planting God's word diligently in the church members, and in my family.

 

                Second and last, the Apostle Paul planted the image of Jesus in the Ephesian church members.

 

                Look at Acts 2:35 – “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  This verse is the Apostle Paul's farewell sermon to the elders of the Ephesus church, telling them that he set an example in everything while working with the Ephesian church members for three years, exhorting the elders to remember the word of Jesus.  What is that word of Jesus?  That word was “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  Paul, who exhorted them to remember this word, told the elders of the Ephesian church that he set an example for all the Ephesian church members in obeying this word of Jesus that it is more blessed to give than to receive.  For example, Paul didn’t covet anyone's silver or gold or clothing (v. 33).  In a word, he was not covetous.  The reason is because a covetous man cannot obey Jesus' words that it is more blessed to give than to receive.  Rather, the covetous man believes and obeys the exact opposite of the word of Jesus.  The opposite here is that ‘it is more blessed to receive than to give’.  Not only was Paul not covetous, but rather he worked with his own hands and supplied his own needs and the needs of his companions (v. 34).  Paul didn’t receive from the Ephesian church members.  Rather, he gave them.  What did he give them?  He didn’t hesitate to proclaim to the Ephesian church members the whole will of God (v. 27).  Paul didn’t hesitate to preach anything that would be helpful to them but taught them publicly and from house to house (v. 20).  In Ephesus he declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (v. 21).  Paul didn't just speak with his lips.  He proved his faith in Jesus Christ with his life.  He taught the will of God through his life.  The will of God was to serve the Lord.  That is why Paul told the elders of the church in Ephesus that he served the Lord with great humility and with tears, enduring trials (v. 19).  Although he was compelled by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem (v. 22), and knew that in every city the Holy Spirit warned him that prison and hardships are facing him (v. 23), he said this about his determination to bear witness to the gospel of grace: “…  I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace” (v. 24).  Paul considered the will of God more important than his own life to finish the work of testifying the gospel.  In other words, Paul didn’t consider his life worth anything in order to fulfill God's will.  After showing this example of life, Paul told the elders of the Ephesus church to ‘remember’.

 

                When I think of this example of Paul's life, I think of my father.  And it reminds me of the late Henry Nouwen's book titled “The Living Reminder”.  And I remember the Korean hymn “We Shall be Like Him” that I sang twice during the Morning Prayer meeting today.  And I prayed to God: ‘Lord, I want to imitate the heart of Jesus.  I want to be like Jesus.  Make me a reminder of Jesus.’  One of the two prayer topics that I personally pray for before getting married is, 'May my future spouse see the image of Jesus in me and I also see the image of Jesus in her'.  As I have been praying until now, praying and pursuing until the day the Lord calls me is to imitate the image of Jesus.  Therefore, if I can show my beloved wife and three children a little bit of Jesus before I die, I believe that is the best gift I can give to my family.  So, at the early Morning Prayer meeting today, I especially sang the hymn “Lord, I Want to be a Christian” verse 4: “Lord, I want to be like Jesus In a my heart, in a my heart, Lord, I want to be like Jesus In a my heart.  In a my heart, In a my heart, Lord, I want to be like Jesus In a my heart.”  This is my earnest prayer.  The reason I pray so earnestly is because I believe that the work of he who imitates Jesus will continue even after his death.  I believe that those who become like Jesus set the example of Jesus' life when they are alive, so the good memories planted in the hearts of our beloved brothers and sisters will work in their hearts even after they die.  We should treasure the beautiful memories that are planted in our hearts as we meet with those whom we have fellowship in the Lord when they were alive and who remind us of Jesus even after their death.  Those who have these beautiful memories planted in their hearts are truly blessed and truly rich.

 

                The time will come.  The time will surely come when we will have to leave this world and go to the Lord's side.  We should cherish the encounters that God allows in God's sovereignty while we live in this world with this death perspective.  And we must devote ourselves to making beautiful memories in the Lord through those encounters.  Although bad memories can be given to each other during our encounters due to our sinful nature, we should devote ourselves in making more and more good memories in the Lord, so that the good memories cover the bad memories.  In the midst of this, as the time of separation draws near, we must influence each other for good through the good memories the Lord has made for us.  As we influence each other for good, we must do the Lord's will on earth as it is in heaven.  In other words, we must serve the Lord with great humility, tears, and patience, and risk our lives to finish the work of bearing witness to the Lord's gospel.  With such a strong sense of duty, we must prepare to part with our loved ones.  We must prepare for a momentary separation on this earth.  I earnestly hope and pray that we can become a good influence on those we love even after we die by making many beautiful memories that bring out the fragrance of Jesus among the encounters the Lord allows with the death perspective.

 

  

 

 

 

As I want to be a reminder of Jesus who is a good influence on those I love even after death,

 

 

James Kim

(Thinking of my loving parents, both my parents and my wife’s parents, who have such a good influence on me)