V7
March, 1944
he could loye Jesus with all his heart, and serve Him. When Saul was ready to obey, a wonderful thing happened. He could see again! He began right away to tell others about the Lord Jesus, and it was not long before he told kings about Him, just as Jesus said he would. Object Lesson T he C an C ousins OBJECTS: A large red cross, a globe o f ' the world, a mirror, two cans of vegetables, two empty vegetable cans, and a glass of water discolored with black ink. (Solder insets of tin in the two empty cans, on the inside, running obliquely from the top of one side to within 2% inches of the bottom, and reaching two-thirds of the way across the cans. When the cans are turned toward the inset,•"the water runs back of the inset and does not come out. Paste'the labels wrong side up on the empty cans. Place the globe at one end of the table, and the cross at the other end. Near the cross place the two full cans, and the empty cans near the world.) LESSQN: I would like to introduce you to the Can cousins. Here they are, Carrot Can, Beet Can, Corn Can, and Soup Can. The two near the cross re mind me of Christians. Those near the world are like the unsaved. Watch what happens to the cans near the world when sin comes along. Corn Can accepts it immediately. He then tries to get his cousin, Soup Can, to sin. (Turn the can away from the inset and the water will run out.) Being worldly, Soup Can receives the sin. The two sinful Cans decide they will visit their Christian cousins,, and see whether they will sin with them. When Corn Can tries to give his cousin, Beet Can, soifie of his sin, Beet refuses. (Pour it on the top of the beet can and then back into the corn can.) Soup Can tries to do the same with his cousin, Carrot Can, and finds that the Christian refuses sin. Listen as Carrot Can talks to his cousin Soup Can. “You are hot happy. Look in this mirror and you will see that you are wrong side up. You need to go to the cross, and let Jesus take your sin away and change your life.” Soup decides that this is good ad vice. He comes to the cross and gets rid of his sin. (Tilt the can slowly to ward the inset, and set at the foot of the cross, right side up. The water ap parently disappears.) Soup Can now wants his cousin, Corn, to have the same experience. Finally Corn Can is persuaded to come to the cross, and he, too, is free from sin. These cans remind me of Saul of Tarsus. He was a sinner, but when he met Christ on the Damascus road hie whole life was changed.
the world’s idea of getting the world’s respect. Why? A leper may put on new clothes, but he is a leper still. Mere profession doesn’t transform a man. It is the new nature spoken of in our Golden Text.—Dwight L. Moody. After Saul' Met Jesus A cts 9:1-19 ' MEMORY VERSE: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart” (Prov. 3:5). AIM: To show that everybody—the worst people and the best people— heed to trust the Lord Jesus. APPROACH: Ted exclaimed, “I don’t see how Ben’s teacher can be so good to him when he’s just about the worst boy in this town.” “Maybe she sees long, long ago, and one who could also have been called the worst one in bis town. Saul thought he was doing right, but he went around quarreling with Christian people, and whenever he found any, he would “bring them bound into Jerusalem,” the chief city in that day. But even while he was doing these wicked things, the Lord Jesus saw what Saul could be. He is “ to bear my name be fore . . . kings,” the Lord Jesus said. Imagine that—when he was such a bad man at first!. It began this way. LESSON STORY: Saul was taking a trip. “As he journeyed . . . suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven,” so bright that it made Saul blind. Then a voice tailed his name—twice. Saul must- have thought about the mean things he had done to Jesus’ ’ friends, because he knew, right away, that this was Jesus Him self speaking to him. “Lord,” he answered, "what wilt thou have me to do?” The Lord said, “Arifee, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.” Saul was blind for three whole days, and he didn’t eat or drink anything. In the city, a friend of the Lord Jesus was kind to him. He called him “Brother Saul,” and showed him how something in him that we don’t see,” T e d ’ s m o t h e r answered. They began, then, to talk of someone e l s e—o f a m a n n a m e d Sau l , or P a u l — who lived
Points and Problems 1/ "Desired of him letters to Damas cus" (Acts 9:2). Saul in his hot anger against the Christians approached the high priest, who was the head of the Jewish Sanhedrin, for letters of author ization to arrest any that he might find in the synagogues of Damascus who had become Christians» Thus Saul had authority to persecute believers as he went to Damascus. One wonders what Paul did with those letters after his 'conversion! 2. "And suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven" (v, 3). Many critics have supposed this light to have been a flash of lightning. But against this supposition there are some unanswerable objections. For one thing, it was declared by Barnabas to have been an appearance of the Lor.d Jesus (v. 27). Paul himself later said he had seen the Lord (1 Cor. 15:8). With the appearance of this light there was a definite message given to Saul of Tarsus which was so clear and convincing that it changed the whole course of his life, and the'history of the world. No flash of lightning will explain such a . transformation. We believe Jesus Christ appeared to Paul in His glory. Ofttimes in days of old, God had appeared to the Jews in a glory cloud. What is more likely than that God should manifest himself again in like fashion on such an im portant occasion? He was saving*a man who was to have a world-wide mission. 3. "I am Jesus whom thou persecut- est" (v. 5): In this wonderful state ment we have expressed the amazing truth that Christ and the church are one. In persecuting Christians, Saul was persecuting Christ. The stones that tortured the body of Stephen brought a throb of pain to the heart of our Lord. 4. "It is hard for thee to kick' against the pricks" (v. 5). THe writer has Witnessed many Palestinian farm ers using the pricks or the goad to prod their lazy oxen along while plow ing. The goad is a. stick about six- feet long having a sharp metal or bone point. For an animal to kick against the goad brings greater pain and discomfort. For Saul to "kick” against the will of God could only bring sorrow and disaster to himself. Golden Text Illustration - 2 C orinthians 5:17 ! A man got up in one of our meetings in New York some years ago . . . and he said he hardly knew himself. He said the fact was, he was a new man in his old clothes. -That was just it: not a man in new clothes, but a new man in old clothes! I saw an advertisement which read like this: “If you want people to re spect you, wear good clothes.” This is
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