August, 1936
306
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
of these crayons are wise and part are foolish? At least they are like people who are wise and foolish. The difference be tween the two kinds is in the way they act when this large magnet comes near them. Let us remember the words o f Jesus: “ I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto mdsjj Our crucified, living Saviour is seeking to draw all men to Himself for salvation. The magnet comes to one o f the white crayons, but it does not respond to the magnet’s drawing power. The magnet then turns to the other white crayon, and it quickly jumps to meet the magnet. This reminds me of the people mentioned in the book of Acts. Paul, Christ’s messenger, had to turn from some people and go to others who would respond to the drawing power of Christ. Watch these three foolish crayons—the black, the red, and the yellow. They are not moved in the least by the magnet. They do not feel its drawing power, and there fore the magnet turns to the others which jump to meet it. Look at these wise cray ons}!» They have followed the magnet, and are like those who have accepted Christ as Saviour. Perhaps there are those here this morn ing, who, like the foolish crayons, have often refused to accept Christ as Saviour and follow Him. I wish you would take Christ this morning. The time may come when Christ will no longer be drawing you. believers must “be circumcised, and keep the law.” On the question of circumcision the whole matter hinged. Thislwas the first step under the law. Christ was the fulfillment of all the law. And the truth was that if any oh'e took that first step to gain salvation, that person became respon sible to do the whole law ; hence, that first step made Christ and His work valueless (cf. Gal. 5:2-4). The council also decided that Paul and Barnabas were accepted as having author ity and the acknowledgment o f the breth ren at Jerusalem (vs. 25, 26). To let this be known, the council sent two o f their number, Judas and Silas, to speak these things by word of mouth as well as to de liver the written findings of the council. Thus we can see how at the very begin ning there was set up a community of in terest in the truth of God. The council presented the decision force fully: “It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us . . . ” (vs. 28, 29). The Lord’s followers had waited upon H im ; they had fully discussed the question under consid eration; they had examined the matter from every angle; and they were assured they were speaking the mind of the Holy Spirit in their decision. It would be well in the church today if personalities could be laid aside in a similar way, so that ques tions now troubling the church could be settled as they were in the early church (cf. Jas. 4:1). But brethren today are often so positive that they know the truth, and all the truth, that they are ready to fight with and to separate from all who do not see eye to eye with them. They for get that “now we see through a glass, darkly,” and that each one of us must say, “Now I know in part” (cf. 1 Cor. 13:12). The great principle established was fun damental to the progress o f the gospel, and
up and walked. Then the people crowded around. And when they saw what Paul and Barnabas had done, they wanted to worship them as gods. Before Paul and Barnabas had time to tell them it was wrong, the people brought flowers to dec orate these two disciples, and animals to sacrifice before them. This was the way that the Gentiles.received the gospel! They were ready to believe anything that Paul and Barnabas should tell them. They knew very little about the true God. They had not had the Old Testament to read as had the Jews, but they were eager to know. It was to be the Gentiles’ tutn to hear now. Object Lesson W ise and F oolish C rayons Objects: Eight crayons and a magnet. (The crayons should be red, yellow, black, and white—two of each. Put a thumb tack in the head of one crayon of each color.) Lesson: Would yo.u believe that part
were “gods” and proceeded to pay them divine worship. Sir Robert Anderson, in his remarkable work, The Silence of God, suggests that we have here one of the reasons that great public miracles gradually cease as the gospel messengers turn to the Gentile world. The Jew had been trained for centuries to distinguish between the Deity and man His creature, and even in the presence of miracles wrought through men, the Jew was in no danger of attributing to man what really belongs to God. But this danger was real in the Gentile world, as evidenced by the Lystra, case, and also by the situation in our more modern days. Note in the case of the so-called modern “healers,” how the Gentile world concentrates its atten tion upon the “healer” instead of upon God (cf. also Acts 28:6). 4. “ Supposing he had been dead” (v. 19). It has been suggested that Paul’s re markable experience recorded in 2 Corin thians 12:1-4 took place when he was stoned. Its date, “above fourteen years ago,” however, puts the experience before his stoning at Lystra. Golden Text Illustration At the annual meeting of the Bible So ciety, Dan Crawford said: “We have a Bantu proverb which says, ‘You can count the number of apples on a tree, but you cannot count the number of trees in one apple.’ I was working away at a difficult translation, and the devil came to me and said, ‘Drop it; it is not translatable.’ I thought awhile, then went back to it, and my Bible opened at Daniel 7:14: ‘And there was given him . . . that all . . . lan guages, should serve him.’ W e have four hundred arid forty translations. That is not enough. I went on and succeeded.” All nations and peoples shall come into the kingdom of God .—Missionary Echo. What Happened in Lystra A cts 14:1-18 Memory Verse: “He sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick” (Lk. 9 :2). Approach: Paul and Barnabas sailed away from Antioch and landed first on an island. Here they visited two cities and
SEPTEMBER 13, 1936 THE COUNCIL IN JERUSALEM A cts 15:1-35; G ala tian s , C hapter 2
Lesson T ext: Acts 15:22-29; Gal. 2:1, 2, 9, 10. Golden T ext: “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not lib erty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another” (Gal. 5 :13). Outline and Exposition I. T he D ecision of the C ouncil (Acts 15:22-29). U p to the time of the meeting o f the group mentioned in this lesson, the gospel had been preached to Jews only, with one or two exceptions. But in these exceptions, as well as on other occa sions, souls had been saved and the Lord had placed the stamp of His approval on the universal preaching of the gospel of grace. However, so great was the inherent legalism of the early Christians that they could not believe that God would show pure grace to sinners. Hence they con tended that the law given through Moses must be applied to all who would be saved. Finally the question attained such propor tions that a council—the first ever held by the church—was called to decide what should be done concerning the whole matter. After much discussion, in which the en tire question was thoroughly examined, the council unanimously came to the conclu sion set forth in the verses composing this part of our lesson. “ The apostles and elders, with the whole church” announced both by letter and word of mouth that grace alone was sufficient and that faith in Christ was all that was necessary for the salvation of souls. In answer to legal istic teachers, the council very definitely said that none of the brethren had given any commandment requiring that Gentile
preached to the peo- pl e. B u t t h e y couldn’t stay long, for there were so many more places to go. Back they sail ed a c r o s s the sea again. T h i s t i m e they didn’t stay near the coast, but start ed inland through the rough a n d moun tainous country. It
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was dangerous. There were rough roads and there were robbers. John Mark left them. He was not ready to make this hard journey for the Lord. But Paul and Bar nabas went on. They reached a large city, and once more they preached in the syna gogue. Once more the Jews grew angry when the disciples accused them of hav ing killed Jesus, the Son of God, who had come to lead them back to God. Then it was that Paul and Barnabas, like Peter, decided to turn to the Gentiles and preach to them. Lesson Story: While they were in the city of Lystra, they came upon a man who had been lame from his birth. God had given His disciples the power to heal diss ease. So Paul’ looked at the man and said: “ Stand upright on thy feet,” for he knew that the man believed. And the man rose
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