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THE K I N G ' S B US I NE S S
January, 1938
God’s Holy Day M ark 2:23 to 3:6 Memory Verse: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Ex. 20:8). Approach: The Pharisees never were friends of the Lord Jesus. They didn’t like the message that He brought. They weren’t willing to say that they were sinners, and
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for that reason they wouldn’t believe that they had need of a Saviour. There was another reason that they didn’t like Jesus. They had made up a g r e a t m an y rul es wh i c h th ey h ad added to the laws which God had given to Moses. They had
Object Lesson S t e a l in g A pples Objects: Seven apples. (Potatoes may be substituted if necessary.) Lesson: If I were to ask whether any of you boys and girls ever stole apples, some might say “ Yes,” and some might say “ No.” But before we are through with this lesson, I think you will all realize that you have been guilty o f stealing. Look at these seven beautiful apples! They remind me of the golden days of each week which God gives us. Let’s name them the days of the week. This largest one we will name “ Sunday,” and so on, naming this one “ Saturday.” God gives us six days in which to labor and do all our work, and He asks us to give Him the first day of the week— “ the Lord’s Day.” W e will separate the Sunday apple from the rest. It belongs to God in a special way. Let’s peel it, and see whether it is a good apple. Yes, it looks delicious. If we want to go on a picnic, shall we do it on God’s day or on one of the week days? Some boy says, “ I go on Sunday, because I can mow lawns on the other days and earn money.” He is stealing some of God’s day. W e will cut off a piece of this apple to remind us of how he is stealing a part of God’s day. Other people are guilty of working on Sunday, thinking that they do not have enough time through the week in which to work. W e will cut off another slice of God’s apple. I know o f a boy who goes fishing on Sunday. He is stealing a part of God’s day. There are' others who play when they should be studying during the week; then they get excited on Sunday, remem bering their Monday classes, and they study on Sunday, stealing part of God’s time. All there is left of this apple now is the peeling and core. This is the way God’s day is often treated. God has given us six days in which to work, and He wants us to worship Him on Sunday. -19, 31-35 11 And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, TTiou art the Son of God. 12 And he straitly charged them that they should not make him known. IS And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. 14 And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, 15 And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils: IS And Simon he sumamed Peter;
■garded the Old Testament law lightly and did not hesitate to break it as He pleased. On the contrary, He exalts the law. The law of the Sabbath had been given orig inally to permit both men and beasts to rest their tired bodies. Laying hold of this great central principle, our Lord extends it to cover both hunger and sickness. How could men rest when hungry or sick ? Therefore He defends the disciples as they pluck the wheat, and He also heals the withered hand. He does not abrogate the law, but shows how much greater it is than the Pharisees ever dreamed. 3. An ethical problem is sometimes raised in connection with the act of plucking the grain in the field. Were the disciples not guilty of breaking the law against stealing when they took the grain from the field which did not belong to them? Evidently there was some justification for what they did, because the lynx-eyed Pharisees said nothing about the matter. Certainly, had there been any possible occasion, these fault-finders would have laid hold on it. But the original Greek of verse 23 sug gests the probable solution. It may be read, “ The disciples began to make their way plucking the ears” (cf. R. V. footnote). There were regular paths through the fields, and evidently the disciples simply plucked the grain that had grown up in the path which the public had a right to use. (See Meyer’s Commentary for this view.) 4. “ Took counsel with the Herodians” (3:6). Ordinarily the Pharisees were dead ly enemies of the Herodians, but here the two groups make common cause against the Lord. This discovers the only real unity among sinful men. They may hate each other, but they hate the Truth most of all. Admiral Watson said in reference to Sab bath desecration: “ Admiral Farragut was a strict observer of the Sabbath, and de clared that the nonobservance of the day was the greatest peril of this country. I accompanied him to Italy after the war. When we were in Rome a reception was arranged for him on Sabbath evening by an American long resident in Rome, who had become foreignized. When the invita tion came, the Admiral sent her word that to invite an American to a reception on the Sabbath was an insult.” Would that more Christian people would stand for the observance o f the Lord’s Day with the sturdy and God-honoring spirit that characterized Admiral Farragut !—A Modern Cyclopedia of Illustrations, by Hal- lock. Golden Text Illustration M ark 2:27
made up so many of these rules that they put them in a book which they called the Talmud and which they expected all of the people to obey. These were not God- made rules; they were man-made. Jesus had to show the people that obeying these rules was -not the way to get to heaven. - Lesson Story: One Sabbath Day Jesus and His disciples were walking through a field of grain. The disciples were hun gry. Now in the Pharisees’ book it said that to pick a little grain in the field was the same as harvesting grain, and there fore it was forbidden on the Sabbath. When the Pharisees saw. what the disciples were doing, they said to Jesus, “Why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful ?” Jesus explained to them and tried to make them understand what God had meant when .He made the law for people to rest on the Sabbath Day. God knew that it was good for people to rest. He knew that they needed to be quiet and to spend the time worshiping God. Jesus ex plained that the Sabbath was made for man and that it was not a day on which they were to be kept busy remembering rules to be obeyed and being fearful all the time lest they forget one of the laws. But the Pharisees wouldn’t understand. They followed Jesus into the synagogue and watched Him as He healed a man with a withered hand. Jesus saw the man m need, and He healed him, even though the Pharisees who hated Him would claim that it was against the law to heal on the Sabbath. How little they understood how to keep the Sabbath holy I Do you know what God means when He says: “ Remem ber the sabbath day, to keep it holy” ?
FEBRUARY 20, 1938 CHOOSING COMPANIONS IN SERVICE M ark 3:'
Murk 3:7 But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judea, 8 And from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and from beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him. . ? And he spake to his disciples, that a small ship should wait on him because of the multi tude, lest they should throng him. 10 For he had healed many; insomuch that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as had plagues.
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