September, 1939
TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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stars. One time a very special star was put in the sky. These wise men camé all the way from their country to J eru- salem, and there they asked where the King of the Jews was to be bom. At once, the priests could tell them. “In Bethlehem,” they said. For the prophet Micah had said it. And the wise men came to Bethlehem and worshiped the Baby King. Object Lesson S t u d y in g a S t a r . OBJECTS: A telescope, a miniature college cap, i. e., a commencement mor tar board, a piece'of paper money, a l a r g e question mark, a small black heart, a large silver star, and a card with “Bible” printed on it. (An imi tation telescope can be made from stiff paper). . } LESSON: We are going to have a lesson in astronomy this morning. This .long thing is a telescope. We will let the telescope stand for the Bible, putting this “Bible” sign on it. In the book of Revelation, we read that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Bright and Morning Star. The bright star on the wall represents Christ. The only way for us to see Jesus is to look through the Bible. Astronomers, by using this telescope, can discover many facts about the stars. In the same way, the Bible shows us Christ’s true nature. He is the Sav iour, and we read this about Him: “They shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matt, 1:23). On the end of this telescope there is a piece of paper money. Many people do not see the Morning Star because money hides the view. The rich young ruler went away sorrowing, because he had great possessions which he was not willing to give up for Christ’s sake. This question mark covers the end of the telescope. Some people say they want to see the Lord Jesus in the Bible, but they come to the Bible with a great big question in their minds as to whether or not it is God’s Word. This is a college cap. It is a fine thing to have, because it indicates that the owner has been graduated from a college. But some people allow their learning to hinder their vision of Christ. They are so proud of their education that they are not willing to accept what the Bible says about Christ.
tion, but merely suggest it as a possi bility. Even if we reject this possibility, and hold that Matthew was quoting from Hosea, there is an explanation of the problem. It is a well known fact, at tested by our Lord Himself, that the Old Testament writings are filled with types of Christ (Lk. 24:44). The nation of Israel was typical in certain respects of Him. When Matthew went to Hosea’s prophecy¡' he undoubtedly treated the history of the nation as typical of Mes siah. The Old Testament is simply full of Christ, if we have eyes to see. Golden Text Illustration M a t t h e w 1:23 The story was told of a ladder run' up- against the Woolworth Building in New York. It reached to the fourth floor the fire was in the forty-third! It was only thirty-nine stories short! There is no other way of salvation from hell hereafter and from sin now than through the blood atonement of Jesus Christ.: Imitation of the sinlessness of the Son of God even cannot save. The Bishop of Durham used to say, “A Christ not quite God is a bridge broken at the farther end.” —Doran’s Minister’s Manual. The Wise Men’s Gifts M atthew 1 and 2 MEMORY VERSE: “And When they had opened their treasures, they pre sented unto him gifts” (Math 2:11). APPROACH: Let us take our Bibles and find the page where the Old Testa ment ends and the New Testament be gins. Yes, it is past the middle of the
of God were ever revealed. And His purpose was to manifest the presence and sufficiency of the living God among men. That purpose culminated in this true Nazarite’s becoming the Lamb of God, to take away the sin of the world,, and to open the door for the restora tion and exaltation of His people Israel. Alas! their eyes were holden; they knew not the Holy One in their midst, and they allowed their glory to pass in His crucifixion. Even so it is today: men miss their opportunity of redemp tion by refusing to recognize in this Jesus of Nazareth the true God and only Saviour. Like Israel of bid, they know not the day of their visitation. Points and Problems : 1. “The angel of tire Lord appeareth”; (Matt. 2:13). It is unfortunate that the Authorized Version has supplied the definite article before the word “angel,” for it does not occur in the Greek. It should be “an angel of the Lord.” The expression is exactly the same as in verse 19 where it has been rendered properly “an angel.” "Why. the transla tors should have supplied the ,definite article in the one verse and left it out of the other in the same context is hard to understand. The Holy Spirit had a very sound reason for leaving the article out of both verses. As all care ful students of the Old Testament un derstand, that great Angel of Old Testament history who is called “the Angel of the Lord” is none other than the Second Person of the Triune God,, and therefore to apply this title to any ordinary angelic being would be wholly inappropriate. It was “an angel of the Lord” who warned Joseph to flee into Egypt. “The Angel of the Lord” was in the arms of His mother Mary. Nowhere in the New Testament after the birth of Christ is any ordinary angel ever called by this significant title. 2. “That It might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son” (Matt. 2:15). The critics have ac cused Matthew of making a serious blunder-here because (they say) he mis applies-to Christ a passage which in its original context refers unmistakably to the nation of Israel. The passage is Hosea 11:1, which reads, “When 'Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.” What is the explanation of this seeming mistake of Matthew ? In the first place it should be noticed that Matthew nowhere says that he is quoting from the Book of Hosea. He does not name “the prophet” from whom he is quoting. Is it not pos sible therefore that some other prophet may have spoken a prophecy directly concerning our Lord and His sojourn in Egypt, a prophecy net recorded in the Old Testament writings ? I do not af firm that this is the correct explana
Bible because there are more books in the Old Testament than there are in the New. The Old Testament tells us of things that hap pened in this world before the coming of t h - L o r d J e s u s Christ, and the New Testament tells of
the things which came after that. Mat- • thew is the name of the first book in the New Testament. I wonder whether you can think of what those first chap ters in Matthew tell us? Yes, they tell us about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, LESSON STORY: Many, many years ago, God told the people about the com ing of the Saviour- He gave these mes sages to the prophets, to Isaiah and to Micah and others. They told these mes sages' to the people and wrote them down. All of the people of Israel were waiting for the coming of this Saviour King. There were also certain wise men in the East who found out about this King. These were men who studied the
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