May 1928
T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
309
Jesus Died For Us Mark 15:22-26* 33-39.
FRED S. SHEPARD ’S BLACKBOARD OUTLINE
o f His incarnation. Calvary was the main point in His coming. Other men have come into the world to live. Jesus came to die as “the Lamb of God.” Attention should' be called to the fact that the very center of the Gospels' is not a teaching Christ, but a Christ uplifted on a cross, whose death is the mighty magnet designed to draw men to God (Jn, 12:32; 10:11-15). The chief characteris tic o f Christ was not His moral teach ings, although these are absolutely vital to those who know Him as a personal Samour, but the tremendous assertions He made as to His own Person and the purpose for which He had come into the world. Make it dear that Jesus did not die as a martyr, because death was preferable to apostasy. From the very first He de clared that "as Moses lifted up the ser pent in the wilderness, so MUST the Son o f man be lifted up, that whosoever be- liepeth might have everlasting life" (Jn. 3:14-15). ' M That His death was not the result o f circumstances that were too strong for Him is proved by His resurrection and the fact that He never foretold the ’ cross without adding that after three days He would be raised from the dead (Mt. 16: 21 ). W o man taketh my life from me,” He declared. ‘‘I lay it down o f myself and I will take it up again*ty (Jn. 10:17- 18). He died as a victor, not a victim. There is no value attached to the death o f any other Bible character. No writer attributes any ethical importance to the shedding o f their blood. Men think ,of death as the terminus of life, and rarely allude to it. Jesus constantly affirmed that H e' "came to give H is life a ransom ” (Mk. 10:45), and when He approached the hour of the cross;, said: “For this cause came I unto this hour" (Jn. 12:27). Religions are many, yet after all, there are but two,- —manis; and God’s. Man’s religions, whatever they may be called, are always based on self-righteousness, avoiding the idoctrihe of divine atone ment. God’s religion, the one revealed by the inspired Word, is built upon the necessity of divine righteousness, and atonement for 'sin, •: \ - ■ Man’s religions talk of attainment , God’s religion tells of atonement. Men try to bring God down to their levels.: God’s way takes -men exceeding sinful, provides a divine substitute to bear the sins of the world, and by the Holy Spirit, lifts men up to Himself. Thi§ is a good time to impress it upon Sunday-school pupils that a scarlet stream runs all through the Bible. Go back to the Old Testament and show that under the Mosaic law there was no access to God’s presence except by the shedding o f blood. A lamb without blemish, typical of Jesus, the Lamb of God (Jn. 1 :29), was offered as the representative of the worshiper. The victim’s death was the acknowledg ment of the guilt o f sin and o f the need of a divine Saviour. The whole Old Testament system was to show that man could do nothing to get into God’s presence other than to accept God’s grace. He must accept God’s plan. “ The blood maketh an atonement fo r the soul ” (Lev. 17:11). Note that the word translated atonement in the Bible, does not mean, as our English word indicates, “at-one-ment." The word means “ to cover over.” The blood o f the sacrifices made no soul at one with God, but, as the book of Hebrews shows, covered over
Memory Fer.?e.fg“ Christ died for our sins, according- to the scriptures.”- 1 Cor. 15:3. Approach ,—A man was seen standing in a cemetery by a mound o f earth, with a headstone above; it. Another man asked him why he visited the place where a sol
|\ eath for . A 111—Rom. 5 :6 1 lELIVERANCE from \ n f l—Rom. 6 :14 1 / estruction OF U 111—1 Jno. 3 :8
dier was laid. The man said, “He gave his life for me. He went in my place to the war and lost his life. I set up this stone in his memory. I will never forget this man who died in my place.” Lesson S t o r y .—
from the top to the bottom; the earth shook, the rocks were broken in pieces, and many o f the people were frightened. Then the. centurion, when he saw this, said, VSurely this man was the Son of God,” ' Let us learn our memory verse. This verse ¡tells us that the Bible .is. true. A long, long time before Jesus came to this earth, God had told in His Word and through His prophets, that Jesus was coming, and how He; would die. It hap pened just as God had said it would. Have you taken the Lord Jesus as your Saviour ? ü í J une 24, 1928 Review Jesus the Saviour Lesson I. Jesus the Suffering Messiah. Mk, 8:27-9:1; 9 :30-32j»10:32-34. II. The ^Resurrection. Mk. 16:1-20. III. Transfiguration a n d Service. Mk. 9 :2-29. IV. Jesus and the Home. Mk. 10: 1-16. V. The Cost o f Discipleship. Mk. 10:17-27; 12:41-44. VI. Greatness through ¡ se. rví cé, Mk. 9 :33-50; 10:35-45. VII. Jesus enters Jerusalem. Mk. 11: i-33. ; VIII. Jesus Teaching in the Temple. .rV-Mk.-12:13-44. IX. The W i c k e d Husbandmen ( T e mp e r a n c e Applications). Mk. 12:1-12; 13:1-37. X. Jesús F a c i n g Betrayal and Death. Mk. 14:1-42. XI. The Arrest and Trial. Mk. 14: 43-15 :15. • XII. The Crucifixion. Mk. 15:16-47. X III. Review: Jesus thé Saviour. Devotional Reading: Zeph. 3:14-17 There could be no more opportune time, to press home the claims o f Jesus Christ than just at the close of this series of studies o f His Person and work, and we call attention to the u n i q u e prominence given in the Gospels to t h e d e a t h of Christ. Here is a biography covering only threeand one-half years o f a life and one-third o f it is devoted to the last seven days of His life and His death and resurrection. This is unparalleled. More than 175 times in the New Testa ment the death of Christ is set forth as the heart of the Gospel. It becomes ap parent that the death was the very object suggest that this Re view S u n d a y be turned into a deci sion day. The teacher should
(Review, leading out the boys and girls by question, and inspire them to stand true to the Lord Jesus àt all times. Pilate knew Jesus was innocent, and said so, but was a coward and denied the Lord.) Now our story for this morning is the saddest story ever written, and we who love the Lord Jesus are very sorry He had to suffer so much and die on the cross, , but it will help us to understand better what an awful thing sin is. The Bible tells us that everybody in the world has sinned and come short of the glory o f God, and so the only way God could save us and take away our sin, was to let the Lord Jesus, His Son, die in our place. If He had not died, ali the people in the,.world would have died in sin and been lost forever. We. remember in our story for last week how cruelly wicked men tréated the Lord Jesus. After that the soldiers took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on Him, and led Him away to put Him to death. They brought him to a placé called Cal vary, which was a little way outside o f the gates of Jerusalem. There they nailed His hands and His feet to the cross and cru cified Him. While they were doing this the Lord Jesus prayed for them, saying, “ Father, forgive them, for they know, not what they do.” He meant that they did not know' how great their sin was in crucifying Him, the Son of God—or how fearful the punishment- would be. Now persons who were crucified did not die ,at once ; they - lived for many hours hanging on the cross, Jésus, al though He was crucified in the morning, hung there suffering until the afternoon. , The soldiers took His garments and di- yided them among themsélves ; but for His, coat they cast lots. Above His head upon the cross Pilate put up these words, THE KING OF THE JEWS. From twelve to three o’clock there was darkness over all the earth. God sent the darkness because His Son was being put to death by wicked men. About three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Do you know why God the Father turned away from Jesus for a little while? Because all our sins were resting upon Him. Yet Jésus had no sin and had never disobeyed God, but we have sinned, and Jesus was taking all the blame upon Himself. Therefore, God turned away from Him, as though Jesus had sinned Himself. This shows us what an awful thing sin is, and what God thinks of it. God cannot- even look at sin. After this Jesus died. Then the curtain which hung in the temple was torn in two
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