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T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
January 1928
Friends Misunderstood Jesus Mark 3:19-21, 31-35.
should be united (Jno. 17:20, 21 ; 1 Cor. 1 : 10 ). V. 26. "And if Satan hath risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end." Satan is too very shrewd to cause' division in his ranks unnecessarily. It is evident that the fallen spirits cannot have the unity which is de sired among God’s people; but he is too shrewd to cause division. Often he trans forms himself into an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:13, 14). Satan’s kingdom will ul timately have an end when he, after the Millennium, is cast into the lake of fire (Rev: 20). but prior to the Millennium he will be very active, realizing that his time is short (Rev. 12:12). V. 27. “But no one can enter into the house of the strong man, and spoil his goods, except he • first bind the strong^ man; and then he will spoil his house. In this verse Christ stated a general truth which was acknowledged by all. ^ The ap plication of this truth, however, doubt less is a reference to the binding of Satan, who is mentioned in Rev. 20 where it is stated Satan shall be bound at the be ginning of the thousand years and his kingdom shall be overthrown, after which the kingdom of righteousness over which Christ shall reign shall be established upon the earth. Ms. 28-30. “Verily I say unto you, All their sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and their blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme : but whoso ever shall, blasphémé against the Holy: Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin : because they said, He hath an Unclean spirit..” They, misunderstanding Jesus as a man, might sin against Him and' be forgiven upon their genuine repentance and accepting Him as their personal Savior ; but for the blaspheming against the Holy Spirit there is no forgiveness. It seems to be the only unpardonable sin, of which mention is made in 1 John 5 :16. Hence to blas pheme is to speak disparagingly of, to defame or to belittle Him and His work. The clause “because they said, He hath an unclean spirit” throws light upon this difficult subject: Christ performed His miracles in such an open, manifest way that it was evident that by the power of the Holy Spirit He wrought His mir acles. His carping critics; refusing to ac knowledge the superiority of His miracles and the holiness with which they were at tended, wilfully.identified Jesus with the class of sorcerers such as Simon Magus (Acts 9) and Elymas (Acts 13) and the sons of Sceva (Acts 19). These sorcerers or dabblers into the occult were of a very low, degraded type o f humanity, and what work they did was done by the powers of evil spirits : hence to place Jesus in a class with these Jewish ex orcists was a wilful speaking against or speaking disparagingly of the Holy Spirit who really and evidently was working in and through Jesus. Today one may blaspheme thè Holy Spirit by wilfully at tributing the work of the Holy Spirit to that of human origin or of demonic power ; hence it behooves one to be very careful in his’judging and manifestation of supernatural power. One may be cer tain that when the fruit of “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control” are born in the light, that one is living in and bearing the fruit of the Spirit.
Memory Verse; He came unto his own, and they that were his own received him not.” John 1:11. Approach: Boys and girls, do you ever have any one accuse you of doing some thing wrong when you really did not do it? Ves, sometimes-the blame is laid upon
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us when we are per fectly innocent. Of c o u r s e when this happens we f e e l quite u p s e t and hurt, but did you k n o w , t h e Lord JesUs- was treated a great deal w o r s e than anybody else in all the world, for
He was often misunderstood and cruelly treated. He never complained and mur mured;, as you and I do, and yet He never did anything that was wrong, for He was God’s Son, and the only one who never sinned. (Prayer.) I-esson S tory; I wonder how you act in your own home, and in your play time ? We have been learning how the Lord Jesus spent much of His time when He lived here on this earth. He was always thoughtful of. others and was ever ready to help, comfort and heal. (Review.) In our story today we will learn that Jesus had many hard things to bear while liv ing on earth, and yet He was patient and gentle through it all. Many of the people spent their time watching to see if they could not find Some fault in Him. They would not have acted in this way if their hearts had been right, and the only thing that will make our hearts pure and clean, is. to have them filled with the love of Jesus. - In our story today Jesus is in the Syna gogue, or church, on the Sabbath day and a man with a withered, crippled hand was there. Jesus asked the man to stretch forth his hand, and when he did so it was made whole and well. Now, these peo ple found fault and said it was wrong to heal on the Sabbath, and they even planned to kill the Lord Jesus. Boys and girls, if you were sick oh the Lord’s day, would mother let you suffer and wait until Monday before she did something to make you well?, No, of course she would not. If our hospital nurses and doctors acted that way, many people would die and many others1suffer pain. When the Lord Jesus looked round about Him, He was grieved for the hard ness, of their hearts, and He asked them whether it was right to do good on the Sabbath day or to do evil. When Jesus knew they were planning to kill Him, He quietly slipped away with His disciples down to the seashore. Just think of our dear Lord Jesus being so cruelly misun derstood, when He was only helping peo ple because He loved them. You know when we love, we just want to help in every way we can. FRED s. SHEPARD ’S BLACKBOARD OUTLINE
6:1. “And He went out from thence; and He cometh into His own country; and His Disciples follow Him.” This statement refers to His going out from Capernaum where He had raised the daughter of Jairus; a ruler of the syna gogue. “ H e Cometh into His .own coun try" refers probably to Nazareth. His disciples were those who were His fol lowers, probably- the Twelve. A disciple ¡s a learner. Jesus had them in school during His personal ministry in order that they might carry on His work after His decease. V. 2. The Sabbath was Saturday, which the Jew was commanded to observe. The synagogue arose in exilic and post-exilic times and-has been the center of Judaism to the present day. Jesus usually taught in the synagogues, taking every, advan tage to preach the Word of God both in season and out of season.' His teaching was so very,different from that of the Scribes that the people were astonished at Him, marveling that He spoke with such wisdom and that He performed such mighty works. The well-known state ment, namely “that the world has yet to See what God will do with a man who is wholly consecrated to Him,” is true now, but it was not true in the case of Jesus, in that the people of Palestine saw what He, the God-Man, One Who was con secrated to God, could do. Oh, for men today who will consecrate their lives to God and permit Him to work mightily through them. V. 3. The neighbors with whom Jesus was reared, could not understand how one of their number could attain to such great wisdom and popularity. V. 4. Jesus said,“M prophet is not with out honor, save in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.’^-Tbis saying is true today. Some one has said that an expert is a common man away from home, which is but the same truth expressed in different words. V. 5. Jesus .was handicapped in His work by the unbelief of the people. He had the power to perform.any miracles; but God is a strict economist and does not waste power, either material, spiritual, moral or otherwise. He, however, was justified in some cases in healing the sick. V. 6. The hardness of the people’s ,hearts and their unbelief was of such a nature and such a degree that even the Son of man marveled. It is quite pos sible He would marvel at the unbelief of many people of today.
"priends JL o e s isunderstood J l VJL isrepresented But as many as received him. —John 1 :12
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