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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
never sends His people out alone; He ac companies them. The more fully Christ’s commission is observed, the more real will His presence become to the disciple. Fel lowship with the Lord means obedience to His Word. While it is true that the dis ciple sometimes leaves the Lord’s path, the Lord never leaves the disciple. The confidence of the church is gathered from the fact that all power is the Lord’s. Obedience is the path upon which His power is manifested. No one is weak, spiritually, who is walking in obedience to Christ; but every one is weak who is trav eling any other course. It is possible for every saint to say: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:13). Finally, the promise has continuity. There will never come a day in which the Lord will be absent from us. We have His as suring, comforting, and empowering word: “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the consummation of the age” (Matt. 28:20, R.V. margin). Points and Problems 1. This lesson contains what is often called our Lord’s “Great Commission." There are three important and distinct divi sions in i t : First, there is a Great Claim: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” Second, there is a Great Com mand: “Go ye therefore, and make dis ciples of all the nations, baptizing them . . teaching them” (R.V.). Third, there is a Great Covenant: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world [age].” 2. For a long time the destructive crit ics tried to get rid of this Great Commis sion by showing it was not in the original documents. The only result of their ef forts has been to establish its genuineness more firntly than ever. But a new effort to get rid of it is being made by denying that it has any authority for the church of the present age. The best answer to this theory is Acts 14 :21 in the American Re vised Version. Christ had commanded His followers to “make disciples.” •Paul and Barnabas went and “made many disciples.” The Greek word is exactly the same in both passages—■ matheteuo. The Apostle Paul is a safe guide to interpretation. Let us go on making disciples. That is the most im portant thing in the Great Commission. 3. When our Lord says, “All power [authority] is given unto me,” He is speak ing of Himself as Man. As the eternal Son of God, “all authority” had never ceased to be His inalienably. But now, as Man, He has bestowed upon Him the authority of the universe. There is a suggestion of this fact ill the use of the human name “Jesus” in verse 18. 4. Baptism is important, and should con stitute a clear recognition of the Triune God. But it is intended for disciples, not for unsaved men. Hence, to give the rite any saving value is to deny the word of the Lord in His original commission which es tablished this rite. Golden T ext Illustration Huber, the celebrated naturalist, tells us that if a wasp discovers a deposit of honey, or other food, it will return to the nest and impart the good news to its companions, who will then sally forth in great numbers to partake of the food which has been dis covered.— 1,000 Acts and Facts, by Pick ering. True faith can only rest on God’s esti mate of Christ, not on inward thoughts and feelings.—S elected .
the denials of the modernists can never shake the assurance of one who has faith in the written Word concerning this great event. The best attested fact in all history is the fact of the literal resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. In the same body that He took to the cross and that was buried in the tomb, He rose from the dead and as cended into heaven. It was the same body, yet it had undergone a change. The body in which He died had been maintained by the principle of the blood; the one in which He arose is maintained by the principle of eternal life; it is the ageless body, forever beyond the reach of change. II. T he R oyal M aster (16-20). In obedience to the word given them, the eleven apostles found their way to Galilee and there they met the Lord (vs. 16, 17). When they saw Him, they worshiped Him, and Jesus accepted their worship—an as cription of deity which neither the great Apostle Paul (Acts 14:8-18) nor even the glorious angel from heaven (Rev. 19:9, 10) would receive. Both the apostle and the angel declared that God alone should be worshiped. If Jesus had been less than God, He would have been a charlatan to accept the worship of these disciples. He announced that all authority in heaven and on earth had been committed to Him (v. 18). He is now the ruling One, the royal One, and the One to whom all saints are to look for instructions. And because of this fact—“therefore”—His fol lowers are to go to all nations with His message (vs. 19, 20). The work of the Lord’s followers is plainly declared to be to “teach all na tions.” They are never told to make con verts, nor to save souls, nor to right the wrongs of the world. They are to evan gelize the nations; and this is the present work of the church. The effort based on the teaching that the entire world is, to be converted, has brought the gospel message into disrepute and has caused,many to say that the gospel has lost its power. The church has not been told to proclaim the gospel to convert the world, but to convict the world. The new disciples ■were to be followers of a Person, the risen Lord, not of any particular church, or ideal, or doc trine. The method for the church is baptizing and teaching. The writer of these notes is not competent to tell either immersionists or others the correct mode for baptizing. A person may be baptized and not saved, and a person may not be baptized and yet be saved. We have examples of each of these circumstances in the Scriptures. The teaching is to be done by the Holy Spirit who is the great Teacher. The witness of the Holy Spirit will always be unto Christ, for the Spirit’s work is to reveal the things of Christ. The assurance of the church in all her service is found in the fact of the continued presence of the Lord (v. 20). The Lord BLACKBOARD LESSON
The resurrection manifested the defeat of the enemy (cf. Heb. 2:14-17). Death had lost its sting. The grave had been despoiled of its victim; it had lost its vic tory. The men who had been appointed to guard the tomb had been overwhelmed with fear and had lost their power. Satan was defeated in the hour of his triumph. As the Royal One, our Lord came forth from among the dead. The angel rolled back the stone and sat upon it (v. 2). The stone was rolled away, not in order to allow our Lord to come forth, but to allow the disciples to have ocular satisfaction of the actuality of the resurrection. The Lord’s body was su perior to all material obstacles ; it was a glorious body, fitted for the heavenlies, and it was the pattern for the future bodies of all the saints. It should be noticed that, for fear of the angel, the soldiers who had been appointed to guard the tomb became as dead men (v. 4). But no such fear was manifested on the part of the women. That which fright ens the man of the world can never cause dread to the one who is on the Lord’s side. The resurrection of our Lord was not a mere restoration, like the instances where some were brought back after death, as was Lazarus. All others were restorations, but Christ’s was a true resurrection, and a resurrection from among the dead. It is for such a resurrection that the bodies of the dead in Christ now wait; they will be raised from among the rest of the dead when the Lord comes to catch away His church. The angels announced Christ’s birth ; in this lesson they announced His resurrec tion (vs. 5-7), and later,they announced His coming again (Acts 1:11). At the tomb, they informed the women that there was nothing to fear, for the One they sought was risen, as He said. The angels certainly were not speaking of a spiritual resurrection; they surely meant that the same One who was crucified and buried was now alive again. The body was not there; it had not been dissolved into its elemental gases. But they could see “the place where the Lord lay.” This was as He had told His followers it would be. They should not have been surprised at the fulfillment of His promise. We, too, may see prophecy fulfilled before our eyes ; and we should never be surprised at the course of world events, for it has all been re vealed in the Word. The angels then gave the women instruc tions to go quickly to tell the other dis ciples of the resurrection, and to inform them that the Lord Would go before them into Galilee, and there they should see Him. The Lord had already told them these facts, but the darkness of the crucifixion had clouded their minds, and they had for gotten what had been told them. The pa tience of our Lord is wonderfully revealed in this incident. The women believed the angel’s word and ran to the other disciples to bring them the glad tidings (v. 8). They were not as modern men often are—filled with all sorts of questions concerning the resurrection—; but having simple faith, they were filled with joy, and immediately would impart that joy. to others. And as they went, Jesus met them (v. 9). Always, when we are in the path of doing the will of God, Jesus meets us. Now there could be no doubt in the minds of the women that Jesus was actually raised from the dead. They saw Him ; they heard Him speak ; they held Him with their hands. Their senses bore witness to the literal character of the resurrection. All
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