March, 1944
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generation of believers living when Christ comes, however, will not experi ence this “sleep.” •4. "We shall all be changed" (v. 51). This change wrought instantaneously will affect all believers, both living and dead. As far as the living believ ers are concerned, this change will be reckoned as equivalent to death which has been appointed unto all men (Heb. 9:27). This passage presents the gen eral rule, but in God’s gracious p,lan there is to be f wonderful exception. Golden Text Illustration * 1 C orinthians 15 :57 . The saintly A. J. Gordon, as he lay dying in Boston, looked up and with one radiant burst of joy, cried, “Vic tory! VICTORY!” and he went home to be with the Lord. Moody’s last words are historic. The golden ladder came to his pillow as he lay waiting the call, and almost in an ecstasy of happiness he cried, “Earth is receding and heaven is opening.” Grace for living belongs to the days of life, just as certainly as the grace for dying belongs to the time of death. —Bottle? of Heaven. A Glad Day M ark 16:1-8; 1 C orinthians 15 MEMORY VERSE: “Jesus died and rose again” (1 Thess. 4:14). AIM: To show the wonder of the res Jesus, their lovely Friend and Saviour, had died, and they thought they never would see Him again. His body had been placed in a cave in a beautiful garden, and some of the people who loved Him wanted to take sweet per fumes there, as we would take flowers to a cemetery. But they said, “Who will roll . . . away the stone from the door?” LESSON STORY: It was very early in the morning. First one and then another tiptoed out into the darkness, going to the garden. Mary Magdalene went, and Peter, and another disciple, and a group of women. They did not all meet there at once, but there was a wonderful surprise for each one. They saw that the heavy stone had been rolled away! Quietly, some of them slipped inside the cave. To their surprise, they “saw a young man sit ting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment.” They did not know who he was. “Don’t be afraid,” he called to them /I: urrection a n d the p r o m i s e that it holds. APPROACH: The. very happiest of all days had come. But the friends of the Lord Jesus were not glad at all; they were w o r r y i n g ! T h e y knew t h a t
kindly. (Read aloud verses 6b and 7.) This was wonderful news! It meant that the Lord Jesus was alive. It meant that He was able to do anything: able to save people’s sins and to take care of all their troubles. It meant that those who love Him will some day have bodies just like His new body:— the kind that will never die. This was the first Easter day—and friends of Jesus have been happy ever since. Object Lesson T he P in T\yNS OBJECTS: A magnet, two spring clothespins, and a jewel box. (Remove the spring from one of the clothespins, and glue the two pieces together. Cover the magnet with white paper. Put sev eral ink marks on the clothespin that has no. spring, and a red cross on the other.) LESSON: Here are Clara and Carrie Clothespin. While these twins look alike, they are very different. Clara looks as unsaved people appear in the sight of God. Her life is black with sin. Carrie is clean. She has the red cross which speaks of Christ’s death to save Sinners. When people accept Christ as Saviour, their lives are al ways cleansed. These twins are like people who have died and have been buried. We shall put them in this little box which represents a casket. We are reminded Acts 9:19b Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. 20 And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he Is the Son of God. 21 But all that heard him were amazed, and said; is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests? 22 But Saul Increased the more In strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ. 23 And after that many days were ful filled, the Jews took counsel to kill him: 24 But their laying wait was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him. 25 Then the disciples took him by ni&htf and let him down by the wall in a basket. 26 And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple. ^ 27 But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. 28 And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem. 29 And he spa-ke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Gre cians: but they went about to slay him. 30 Which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus.
of the words of Paul: “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.” We shall let this large, white mag net remind us of Jesus at His coming for His church. As the magnet comes near the box in which the twins are, Carrie arises to meet it. Clara Clothes pin remains in the grave. Something like this will occur when Jesus comes. At that time, the bodies of those who have not “been cleansed from sin by the Lord Jesus Christ will remain in the grave, while the men, women, boys, and girls who have been cleansed by the blood of Christ “ shall rise first,” , and will be joined by living believers, “ caught uf> together . . . to meet thè Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:17). Later,,, the bodies of unbelievers will be raised, too, but these people will face sorrow and judgment (cf. Rev. 20:5-■ 15). In which company will you be? 11:25 Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul: 26 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people, and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. LESSO N T E X T : Acts 9:19b-30; 11:25, 26. GO LD EN T E X T : "Fo r I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it Is the power of God unto salvation to every one that be- lieveth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (Rom, 1:16). D EV O TIO N A L R EA D IN G : 1 Tim . 6:11-16. Outline and Exposition I. I ts S ubject (9:19b-22) A FTER SAUL received his sight / \ and the Holy Spirit came upon 1 \ him, he remained at Damascus lor some time among the brethren, who evidently ".ccepted him as one of their number, just as Ananias ' had done. To the Jews in the synagogues he preached “Christ. . . that he is the Son of God.” This was the truth over which Saul had stumbled until, on the way to Damascus, he learned that Jesus, who was crucified, was now ex alted to the right hand of God.
APRIL 16, 1944 SAUL’S EARLY PREACHING A cts 9:19b-30; 11:19-26
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