September 1928
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T eaching P oints in E phesians V. 1. He who realizes his high calling cannot maintain a low character. V. 2. The loftiness o f our calling should manifest itself in the lowliness of our lives. Gentleness is an outstanding character istic o f the truly great (Mt. 11:29). V. 3. The Spirit is the author of unity; it is our part to keep the unity He makes. Vs. 4-6. The true basis of unity is the acknowledgment of Christ as Lord and being added to His Body by the Holy Spirit. Vs. 7-10. Paradise was originally a part o f hades, the waiting place o f all the dead before the atoning work of Christ (Lk. 23:43; Mt. 12:40). Since the resur rection it has been transferred to heaven above (2 Cor. 12:2, 4). V. 11. Christ’s gifts are MEN, not en ablements only ( “H e gave some” ). Cf. 1 Cor. 12:7-10, where gifts by the Holy Spirit to individuals are enablements. V. 12. The Body o f Christ looks to ward completion (Rom. 11:25; Eph. 1: 22-23). Our program for this age is to win souls for the Body of Christ. Vs. 13-16. Truth and love are the two most powerful forces in the world when linked together. The goal of all church life is unitedly to attain oneness of faith and knowledge. The great means to this end is “speaking the truth in love." G olden T ext I llustration W e are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afot;e prepared that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:10). Mr. McConkey ; tells the story o f the engineer o f Brooklyn bridge, who, be cause he had been injured, had the plans brought to him daily by his wife and gave his instructions. When at last the great bridge was completed, he was carried on his cot to view the structure. His critical eye scanned every girder, and as the joy o f achievement filled his soul, he exclaim ed: “It’s just like the plan!” What a joy it must be to our Lord who has a plan for every Christian’s life, when He can behold His followers and say : “ Their lives are j ust like the plan !” Paul’s Bravery Against A Crowd Acts 19:1-41 Memory Verse. —“ Be strong and of good courage.” Joshua 1 :9. Approach. —Who would like to be a sol dier? Show me how a soldier stands, how he salutes, how he holds his gun when marching and firing. It would be
could not say: “W e adjure thee in the name of Christ whom we know and love,” but merely: “in the name of the Christ Paul preaches.” When we preach or teach the Christ of another man, we make no headway. He must be born in our own hearts. The world will laugh, even at Fundamentalists, if they deal in mere abstract propositions, without love of Christ. Our fundamentals must be in carnated in personal likeness to Jesus Christ. When the inhabitants saw that it was dangerous to trifle with sacred things, “fear fell on them all and the name of the Lord was magnified’’ (v. 17). There were wholesale confessions of sin and one of the prettiest bonfires of history took place, when “many who used curious a r t s brought their books together and burned them before all men” (v. 19). The closing section of the chapter re cords the uproar made by “the idol- makers’ union.” Their business was to make little models of the shrine in which the great image o f Diana was preserved. It was said that the sun in its course shone upon nothing more beautiful than the temple of Diana, the pride of Ephesus. Paul’s preaching caused too many workmen to be laid off. Probably they were hanging about the parks and spit ting upon the sidewalks. Demetrius, a walking delegate, made a speech. Read it and you will see that it sounds strictly up-to-date. The modern objector also shakes his fist in the preacher’s face, wants him to preach abstract ideas and keep hands off of business interests that are not in line with the Gospel. Demetrius' knew how to hit the aver age mind. He waxed very religious as well as patriotic. It was a clever speech and for two hours the people cheered. The town clerk finally got tired of the noise and refused to stand for it (v. 36). The lesson is a very practical one. The opposition to Paul was based upon the fact that if the Gospel teachings pre vailed, no more shrines would be wanted. You have in your own town or city trades that would be wiped out if Christ’s teach ings prevailed. - Perhaps even some of my readers would change their occupations. Naturally those who fatten their purses through the things that are out o f keep ing with the Gospel, set up a howl like that o f the Ephesians. _ Our part as Christians is to face this crowd to the finish. W e are to keep wag ing the battle for righteousness and god liness in our communities. How shall we go about it? May we hope to force it through the introduction of bills into the legislature? If we take our lesson from Paul, we will not go about making speeches against the idol-makers’ union, but we will persistently teach-the Word o f God and back it up by consistent living. Surely we cannot call ourselves consistent unless we do everything pos sible to remove temptation from others, for we are to be “perfect in EVERY good work” (Heb. 13:21). As Annie Johnson Flint has said so beautifully: • “ Christ has no hands but our hands To do His work today. He has no feet but our feet To lead men in His way. He has no tongues but our tongues To tell men how He died.
FRED S. SHEPARD ’S BLACKBOARD OUTLINE P ERSUADING—Acts 19:8 REVAILING—Acts 19:20 ROGRESSING—Eph. 4:13 But grow in grace.—2 Pet. 3 :18.
Lesson Story%r Boys and girls, we have had such a good time getting well ac quainted with Paul in the last weeks! O f course we have all learned to love him. What a wonderful time we shall have when we gather around him in heaven and hear him tell us of the very 'things we are learning in our stories from the Bible. Today we are to spend another pleasant time with him. In our story Paul was in the city o f Ephesus, and he found the Christian people there knew very little o f the Christian truth. The city o f Ephesus in Lydia, was the largest city o f the Roman province of Asia, our Asia Minor. It was near the sea and on hilly ground, at the mouth of a river. Immense amounts of mud brought down by the river year after year, filled up the harbor and the great thriving city of Ephesus passed away. The chief glory of the city, and the source of much o f its prosperity, was the temple of Diana. Now the people o f Ephesus worshiped an image of a false goddess, named Diana, which they pretended had fallen down from heaven. The beautiful temple in which this idol was kept, was built of cedar and cypress wood, marble and gold. The people were 220 years in building it. It was known among all na tions as one of the most beautiful and wonderful things in the world. There were men at Ephesus who made little copies of this temple but o f silver, with an image o f Diana inside. These were called shrines. The men who made them sold them to the people, and in this way earned much money. One o f the men was named Demetrius. Now Paul was busy preaching Jesus to the people, and telling them the shrines or idols made with men’s hands were false gods and could not save or help them. O f course when the people believed in Jesus and were saved, they knew the idol of Diana could not help them. Now Deme trius called together all the men who made silver shrines and told them of Paul preaching in Ephesus and other cities, and if he kept on preaching Jesus, they could not sell their shrines, and people would not come to the beautiful temple any more to worship Diana. When the men heard this they were filled with rage and cried out saying, “Great is Diana o f the Ephesians!” The whole city was soon in great confusion, and they caught two of the men who came to Ephesus with Paul, and rushed all together into the theater. Paul wanted to go in and speak with them, but the disciples would not let him, fearing he might be harmed. Here we see again how brave Paul was, ready to face great dan ger for the cause of Christ. (Finish the story, emphasizing the truth o f the reality of Christ in the life making us brave to face ridicule and opposition in the school, on the playground, in ath letics, and so on. T e a c h M. V .) (Prayer.)
splendid to be a real soldier, I think; to w e a r a uniform, and carry a gun or beat a drum, and do the fine brave things a soldier is always ready to do. What kind o f men make good s o l d i e r s ? Strong, brave men
who are not afraid to face danger, and endure hardship. We are to hear about a man in our story today who was a brave s o l d i e r for the Lord Jesus Christ. (Prayer.)
He has no help but our help To bring men to His side.”
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