19
THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NES S
January, 1942
APPROACH: Did you ever put the night, lock on your door and find that you had left the key inside? How did you get in? You couldn’t go in
BLACKBOARD LESSON
we give proof that is worth while. Others know not and care not about the forgiveness, but are forced to glo rify God when we arise and walk. By so doing we can silence the criticism of the forgiveness (cf. Eph,,4:l; Rom. 12:1; Heb. 12:1). The purpose of the forgiveness and the walking is revealed by the state ment that!“they . . . glorified God.” Unless God gets the glory, there is something amiss in every work, whether it is seemingly good or open ly evil. As a result of this healing, the peo ple confessed that God was present, even though they would not confess that Jesus was what He declared Him self to be, and would not accept Him and His claims. Their eyes Were blinded, their minds were closed, and their hearts were hard. The scribes and the crowd were guilty alike. They were in unbelief, and unbelief is that deadly thing that ruins souls. It does not matter whether the unbelief is set and determined as in the case of the scribes, or merely careless and unconcerned as with the multitude. It blocks the channel through which the blessing ;of God can flow, gives Satan his opportunity, and l e a d s souls away from God. We are to emulate the example of the four men, and whatever the ob stacles in our path may be, we are to bring souls into the'presence o f Jesus the Lord that they may be lieve on Him and receive from Him that which He sees they need. Points and Problems 1. "In the house" (Mk. 2:1) means here "at home" (see R.V. margin). It really was Peter’s home, one of the little touches which supports the Christian tradition that Mark pre sents Peter’s viewpoint. But the home had .also become the home of our Lord, 2. "He preached the word unto them" (v. 2). Not the ordinary word for “ preach” is used here, but one which means simijly to speak. So the American Revision translates, “He spake the word unto them.” But. we shall miss the vividness of the pic ture Mark draws of this incident un less we note the tense of the verb. ■It is an imperfect, which means He was speaking the word when the pal sied man was brought. The t h i n g - evidently happened right in the mid dle of the sermon. 3. “Uncovered the roof •. . and ••• had broken it up" (v. 4). Luke says they let him down through “the til ing” (5:19). Evidently the men broke through the tiles of the roof. 4. "When Jesus saw their faith" (v. 5). There is no need to restrict this “faith” to the four friends only,
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the front door be cause you had no key. Perhaps you tried the back door. Was that locked, too? Did you finally have to climb in a win dow? LESSON STORY: Today we have the
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as some have done, supposing that the man was healed for their faith and not for his own. All of them be lieved. 5. "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee" (v. 5). The Lord always puts first things first. Man’s physical need is never first in His sight. He may in deed feed the multitudes to satisfy their physical hunger, but it is only that He may speak to them about the Bread which comes down from above.' All the men who are trying to save the world by social and economic schemes are mere: "skin specialists." Christ deals with the cause 6f the trouble—sin. v 6. "Who can forgive sins but God only?" (v. 7). These scribes, blind as they were, knew some theological truths. They were not so dumb as our modern theologians who deny the deity of Christ and then call upon men to follow Him. E ith er,J esu s is God or He is not worthy of being followed. Only God can forgive sin. And the fact that Christ did forgive sin, and the forgiven found peace in Him, is one of the proofs that He is the eternal God, not merely the “ good” Jewish* Rabbi which modern religion describes Him as being. Golden Text Illustration M atthew 14:14 Near the entrance in the corridor of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the city of Baltimore stands a gigantic figure of the Christ in marble. There is a look of tender sympathy evep in the face of stone. The arms are extended and the hands outspread as if wel coming the multitudes. On the base of ,the pedestal are inscribed His own words, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” . . . That is a parable. Wherever the Christian church has been planted, hospitals for the sick, homes for the homeless, and a hun dred tender ministries to human need have sprung up.— The New Soul in China, by Bishop G. R. Grose. A Man with Four Friends M ark . 2:1-12; L uke 5:17-26 MEMORY VERSE: ■ ‘Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might” (Eccl. 9:10).
story of a door that was not locked, but blocked. The Lord Jesus was in a certain house, and so many peo ple came to Him that no one could get near the door. Finally four peo ple came carrying a man sick of the palsy. But they couldn’t get near Jesus on account of the crowd; What do you think they did? No, they didn’t try the back door. No, they didn’t go in the window. What do you think they did? I don’t believe you could guess. They took the roof off the house and let the sick man’s bed down that way! I wonder what Jesus thought when He looked up and saw a bed Coming down through the roof! Do you think He was dis pleased? Well, He wasn’t. He was glad that they had faith enough to remove every obstacle in order to get to Him. He forgave the sick man’s sins and healed him. How happy the poor man must have been! How happy the four friends who had car- Vif-rn in -m iict TlSlVP TlPPTl! Do you know .some one who.needs to come to Jesus? Try to think of some one. Maybe the boy or girl who lives next door to you needs Jesus. Perhaps you could bring that one. Would you be willing to tear the roof off to get him to come? Jesus won’t ask you to do that, but He does want you to be so anxious to bring others to Him that nothing will stand in your way. Four people got together to help this sick man to Jesus. Maybe some of you could get together and bring another child to Sunday-school so he could come to Jesus, too. If we Work together and are really ill earnest, the Lord Jesus will never’ dis appoint us. He will always meet our need. Object Lesson C arried or C arrying OBJECTS: A small celluloid comb, a piece of brown paper 4x6 inches, a small bottle of acetone, a medicine dropper, red ink, and four pieces of string about 18 inches long. (Break the comb in two. Color the acetone lightly with red ink. The acetone can be secured at a drug store. If it is un- [ Continued on Page 22]
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