King's Business - 1934-05

May, 1934

T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S

192

disciples say, ‘He is risen. He is the Son of God, even as He said.’” And they set the watch, a guard of sol­ diers, to make sure that the body of the Lord Jesus would not be taken.

were perishing, but his boat was too small; his power was limited. It is not so with Christ. He is the Life-Boat of perishing humanity, and in Him there is room for the whole race, for “He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”— R. B rewin ', in One Thousand Evangelistic Illustrations, by Webb. Jesus D ying for Us M atthew 27:33-66 Memory Verse: “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3). Approach: The time came when Jesus was to be crucified on the cross. All of His life He had been preparing for this

The former answered every question of justice dealing with sin; the latter an­ swered every requirement of the heart of God. The former was in view of God who is righteous; the latter was in view of God who is love. That which gave value to the cross and the work accomplished there was the value of the character of the Person who died on the cross. That Person was the holy, harmless, undefiled, and sinless God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Points and Problems The cry of our Lord, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” contains at least a fivefold revelation of His Person and work. 1. His self-consciousness of Messiahship. The horror of the moment is expressed in the exact words of Psalm 22:1, and this is the greatest of the Messianic Psalms. He knew that He was the Person of this prophecy. 2. The human limitations He had as­ sumed. He asks, “Why?” To ask “Why?” is human, and He was truly human. In the days of His flesh, there were some things which He voluntarily chose not to know. 3. The utter absence of any personal guilt. He cries, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” If any one of us had been hanging there forsaken of God, we would have known why, for we without exception are guilty of sin. But He had no conscious­ ness of personal sin or guilt. He was “made sin” for us, but He “knew np sin” (2 Cor. 5 :21). 4. The substitutionary nature of His suffering and death. In this cry we have the greatest moral paradox of the ages. God had forsaken One who had never sinned. Does a holy and just God ordinar­ ily forsake good men in the hour of suffer­ ing and death? And the answer is NO. For it is in just such hours that they ¿re most conscious of His presence. Therefore, no man can ever explain this cry of our Lord apart from the fact that on the cross He stood in the place of sinners and endured their doom—separation from the face of God. If the Lord Jesus did not bear our sin, and die in our stead, then you cannot explain His cry without assuming either that He Himself was a sinner, or that God is a monster. 5. His complete trust in the Father. God is “My God,” even in this awful hour, He says. Even as He goes out into the dark­ ness for sinners, where there is no vision of God, still He holds fast the great testi­ mony of the Twenty-second Psalm, “Thou art my God” (v. 10). Golden T ext Illustration In September, 1878, a dreadful accident happened on the Thames, when an excur­ sion steamer, named the “Princess Alice,” was cut down by the “Bywell Castle,” an outward-bound merchant steamship. More than seven hundred persons that day found a watery grave. Among the brave efforts that were made on that occasion to save the drowning people, one of the noblest was made by a man who was in charge of a small boat at some distance from the scene of the collision. Rowing with all his might into the midst of the struggling passengers, he pulled several of them, one after another, into his little boat, which was now full and in danger of sinking, and prepared to row away. But when he saw the white, upturned faces of many others, and heard their piteous cries: “Oh, save me, sir I” “Don’t leave me, sir!” it is said that in agony he threw up his arms and cried: “Oh, God, that I had a bigger boat! Oh, God, that I had a bigger boat!” His heart was large enough to save all who

great event to take place, when He should give His life in order to save sin­ ners. It was for this pu r pos e that God had sent Him into the world. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, t h a t whosoever believeth in him should not

Objects : An agate marble, a paper doll, a dime, a piece of currency, a check, a pic­ ture of a man at work, either a picture or a small model of a lamb, and a red cross. Lesson: Boys, how would you like to have this beautiful agate? I don’t blame you for wanting it, for it is a beauty. You would be glad to buy it with money or with marbles. If you were to trade for it, you would be buying it, even though you did not use money. Do you girls have something you would be willing to trade for this pretty paper doll? You could buy candy at the store with a dime such as I hold in my hand. This dollar could be used to help buy a pair of skates. A new coat could be bought with a check like this one. So you see, you do not always have to have money in order to buy. Here is a picture of a man who is working. He wants to have money, and he is really buying money with his time. This little lamb reminds us of the ani­ mals which were offered by many people who lived before the death of Christ. Be­ cause of their sins, these people brought the lambs to the altars and offered them. In the day in which we live, it is not neces­ sary for us to offer a lamb for our sins, because Jesus, the Lamb of God, has been offered on the cross. And as we learned in our Sunday-school lesson, Christ pur­ chased our salvation with His own blood. This little red cross will remind us of the cross on which He died, and the blood which He shed in order that He might buy our salvation. Peter tells us that we were not redeemed with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. The wealth of the world was not sufficient to buy our salvation. It cost Jesus Christ His life to save us. How thankful we should be to Him that He was willing to give His life—His precious blood—to purchase our salvation! had forgotten the Lord’s reiterated state­ ment that He would rise from the dead, the women seemed unable to stay away from the tomb. Resting over the Sabbath, on which day no work was to be done, the women hastened to the tomb early on the first day of the week. Since that resurrec­ tion day, the saints have been hastening to meet the Lord on each recurring first day of the week. One of the strongest proofs of the literal resurrection of our Lord is the fact that, throughout the world, the first day of the week is given first place as a day for rest and worship.

perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to con­ demn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3 :16, 17). Lesson Story: But many still did not understand; and some, if they did under­ stand, did not believe. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, they fastened a sign over His head. On this sign was written: “This is Jesus the King of the Jews.” Jesus was the King of the Jews, but the people hadn’t put the sign there because they believed it. They put it there so they could mock Him. They stood below Him and said: “He saved others: himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.” They didn’t understand that He was dying in order that He might save others, that He was dying in their place. So He died, and the earth quaked and darkness fell upon it. God’s face was hid­ den from His Son because Jesus was tak­ ing the sin of the world on Himself. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered death that we, believing that He was God’s Son who died for us, might be saved. But His enemies did not believe that He was the Son of God. They may have said among themselves: “Let us roll a stone in front of His tomb and fasten it and set a guard of soldiers to watch, so that no one can come and steal Jesus’ body and His Lesson Text: Matt. 28:1-10, 16-20. Golden Text: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28:19,20). Outline and Exposition £ T he R isen S aviour (1-10). I t is noteworthy that women were the first to learn of the resurrection of our Lord (v. 1). While all the disciples

JUNE 17, 1934 THE RISEN LORD AND THE GREAT COMMISSION M atthew 28:1-20

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