Introductory N ote.-The lessons for 1916 will be from the New Testament Most of them will be from the Acts of the Apostles, with a few lessons^ from the Pauline Epistles, and three lessons from the Revelation of Jesus Christ. All the lessons for the year are of unusual importance and full of the teaching that we all need.
The Ascending Lord JAN/UARY 2; 1916. LESSON I. Acts 1:1-14. (Commit vs. 10, 11.) H H G olden T ext : “When lie ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”—Eph. 4 :8.
DA ILY BIBLE READINGS Mon., Dec. 27—Acts 1 :1-14. (The Lesson.)
Tues., Dec. 28—John 14:1-8. Wed., Dec. 29—John 16:1-7. Thurs., Dec. 30—John 20:11-18. Pri., Dec. 31—Luke 24 *.44-53. Sat, Jan. 1—Eph. 1 :15-23. Sun., Jan. 2—Eph. 4:1-12.-'-
EXPOSIT ION AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
Jesus “ began both to do and to teach;” i.e., what He did and taught during His earthly life : in the Acts of the Apostles he relates what Jesus continued to do and to teach after His ascension. The A cts o f the Apostles might, therefore, be more exactly entitled “the A c ts ' o f the Risen and Ascended Jesus.” These acts our Lord, after His ascension, did by the power of the Holy Spirit whom He sent operating through His disciples. But the acts were not their acts, but our Lord’s own acts. The book gains a new and richer signifi cance for us if we bear in mind that we are not reading so much the Acts of the Apostles as the Acts o f our Risen Lord. In his former treatise Luke has given us, according to his own word, not merely the teachings ,o f the Lord Jesus, but the acts
vs. 1, 2. “ The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus be? gan both to do and to teach, until the day in which he was received up, after that He had ‘given commandment through the Holy Ghost unto'the Apostles whom He had chosen.” The “ former treatise” to which the writer here refers is the Gospel of Luke. Luke the beloved physician and companion o f the Apostle Paul was undoubtedly the author o f both the Gospel .of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Even those erratic critics who áre disposed to question the authorship o f some o f the other books of the New Testament, usually Admit that Luke was the writer o f both the Gospel bearing - his name •and the Acts o f the Apostles. In the Gospel of Luke he himself here tells us that he had recorded all that
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