Acts 18:21 But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that comes in Jerusalem: but I will return again to you… When our Lord came to be baptized He satisfied John by saying, "Suffer it to be so, for thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness" — i.e., it becomes us to observe every righteous ordinance of God. The same spirit that animated the Master directed the conduct of His disciples; everywhere they were distinguished by a reverence for the ordinances of religion. And if there be an instance in which this spirit was more strikingly exemplified, we see it in the case before us. Surrounded as he was by the people of Ephesus, who entreated him to remain among them for a longer period, he still felt the preponderating influence of the obligation to observe the feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem. I trust every heart here responds to the feeling of the apostle. A Christian will say, "I must by all means keep this feast," for — I. IT IS THE COMMANDMENT OF CHRIST. Were it a mere conventional ordinance, merely one of those outward circumstances which are not essential to the existence of Christianity, it might be left to our own discretion whether we should observe it or not. But it comes to us on the authority of the Saviour, who said, "Do this in remembrance of Me." There is not any precept more explicitly laid down, and we cannot refuse to observe it without setting aside the authority of Him to whom we are indebted for all that we now are or hope hereafter to enjoy. II. THAT I MAY BE THE BETTER WARNED OF THE EVIL OF SIN. There is in this ordinance a manifestation of the evil of sin that is not to be found elsewhere; for we commemorate that great sacrifice which the Father required: in order to render the exercise of mercy to the penitent consistent with the exercise of His justice, in the moral administration of the world. When, therefore, the believer sits down at the table of the Son of God, and has his eyes turned to the Cross of Christ, his heart is smitten with a sense of the evil nature and destroying tendency of sin, and he feels that the world is crucified unto him and he unto the world. III. BECAUSE IT IS ONE OF THE APPOINTED MEANS OF GRACE. There is no feeling to which the heart is more ready to respond than our need of strength greater than our own for the varied duties and trials and sorrows of our nature. And God has promised that His grace shall be sufficient for us — that His strength shall be perfect in our weakness. But we must wait upon Him for this strength and grace in the way of His appointing (Ezekiel 36:37). We are not, therefore, to expect the blessing unless we employ the means. And the Lord's Supper is one of the appointed means by which the Spirit of God meets the believer, to renew, to sanctify, to encourage, and to direct him. IV. BECAUSE IT IS ONE OF THE MOST DIRECT MEANS OF UNITING THE FAMILY OF GOD IN THE BONDS OF PEACE AND LOVE. At this table the rich and the poor meet together. There we learn to love mankind when we see that love which embraced the world. There we learn to forgive an enemy when we see Christ bleeding for His foes. V. BECAUSE WE KNOW NOT THAT WE SHALL HAVE ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY. We are all dying creatures, and we know not what a day may bring forth. (J. Johnston.) Parallel Verses KJV: But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus. |
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