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T h e K i n g ’ s B ù s i k fe5 s
April 1928
TN the parable of the householder de- 4 manding fruit, our Lord sought to con vince the Jews o f the sinful state of then- nation, and t 6 ; wain them of the Judg
wonderful answer this was, for Jesus, cquld read their hearts, and He knew if they truly' loved Him, they would not try to trip Him up on hard questions. He could always answer the hardest question wisely, for He was God’s. Son. If we love Him with all our hearts, we will love to give o f our time, and money, or whatever we have. We will love to go io Sunday school and church. And if we truly love Him, we will want to tell others about- Him and bring them to Him tpo. (P rayer.):
perfect peace for that soul who has found Christ ,as. his personal Saviour, for he knows that there stands at the helm, One vyho,se word is .sure.
ments they were fast bringing upon them selves. It is an Old T e s t a m e n t theme worked up with new variations, and His hearers well k n e w what was signified. It is one of the few In
' JesuS Answers Some Hard Questions Mark 12:1-10, 28-31. Memory Verse. —“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” Mark 12:29. : Approach. — (The lesson committee sug gest verses, as above, but some teachers may find it easier to use verses 13-44.) Now, boys and girls, we all like to have
REl Mi • M ay 27, 1928 , The W icked Husbandmen . T ex t:’ Mark 12:1-12 —o—
stances in the New Testament in which an image of the Old Testament is almost exactly repeated in a discourse by Jesus. “A certain man planted a vineyard, and set a hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country” (v. 1). The words substantially follow those ' of Isaiah in chap. 5:1-7 where Israel long before had been char acterized as an enclosed vineyard. Lines of demarcation had been laid down by fjehovah, separating them from other na tions, and they had also been isolated by their geographical position. The “hedge” set about them, no doubt, refers to the law o f Moses (Rom. 9:4-5). This separating wall was finally broken . down through the sacrificial death o f Christ (Eph. 2:13-15). Within the vine yard of Israel, God had ‘ digged a place for the winefat”- —made every provision for their prosperity—and “built a tower, giving them a unique testimony among the nations. In other w o r d s , , everything had been done for Israel to make .it a nation o f sainte, and they were without excuse. " , '■ ; • “H e let it out to husbandmen andt went into a far country.” The Jews were made' the special stewards of Jehovah, while He withdrew and gave them every opportun ity to make good. All of this was now about to have a new fulfilment in the day of ,their special privilege, for Christ is presented in Luke 19:12 as a “ nobleman who Went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and return.” “ A t the season,” the owner is represent ed as sending “ o servant, that he might receive from thé husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard” (v. 2). The proprietor naturally has an eye to the fruit. If the keepers were mere triflers, after personal honor and graft, He will discover it. It was an .actual fact in Israel at that time that their leaders had completely lost sight of God’s purpose and were seeking only their own aggrandizement. • “ They caught him and beat him, and sent him away empty", (v. 3). He is rep resented ■as again and again sending other servants (vs. 4-5). Some were stoned ; some were beaten ; some were even killed. Here we have a picture of the constant opposition to the prophets referred to by Jesus in Matt. 23:29-32. But now a contrast. is drawn between the many prophets and the “ one son." The emphasis of the original for verse 6 is as follows C f There, was yet one He possessed, a Son beloved. He sent Him last to visit them, saying, They will feel ashamed o f themselves in the presence o f my Son." W e cannot fail to recognize here, the Son whose name was called ‘'Emmanuel” (Mt. 1 :23), also called the “beloved” (Mt. 17:5). The husbandmen said : " This is the Heir;, come let us kill Him, and the in heritance shall be ours" (v. 7). The very fact that Jesus called the Jews to repen tance with more authority than the proph-
money, and t h i s morning I am going to show you a pic ture of the penny mentioned in our story. (The Davis B i b l e Dictionary gives a good cut of the penny as shown in the time o f Christ here on earth. It
L esson ; in O utline Mk. 12:1-12; 13:1-37 I. Story o f the unfaithful husbandman. 1 2 : 1 - 12 . 1. The parable of the vineyard. Vs. 1-8 (cf, Isa. 5:1-7). a. Planting the vineyard. V. 1. b. Murder of first servant sent to re- ceive fruit. Vs. 2, 3. c. Ill treatment and murder of others. Vs. 4, 5. d. Murder of son of owner o f vine yard.^ Vs. 6 - 8 . , 2. Interpretation o f the parable. Vs.- 9-12. ‘ a. Judgment to come upon husband- . men. V . 9. b. The rejection o f the “ Only Begot ten Son” proved by an Old Testa-- ment Passage. Vs. 10, 11. c. Hostility o f people aroused by the parable. V. 12. II. The Olivet Discourse. 13 :l-37 (cf. Matt. 24:25). ’ ” J' ^The prophecy calling forth the dis course. Vs. 1, 2 . 2. The questions o f the disciples con cerning things connected with the “ End Time.’ffiVs. 3, 4 (cf. Matt. 24:3). 3. The answer to these questions in form of a discourse. Vs. 5-37. (Zech. 14, which associates siege o f Jeru salem, coming of Jehovah, and intro duction of New Age, furnishes back ground for discourse.) a. Warning against "false teachers. Vs. 5, 6 . b. Warning against the drawing of hasty conclusion concerning out break o f a local war. V. 7. c. A World War attended by famines and calamities, the sign o f the ap proaching “End o f Age.” V. 8 . d. Prediction that during the Church Age bonds a n d imprisonment await faithful ministers, and aid of Spirit promised. Vs. 9-13. e. The Tribulation Period. Vs. 14-23. (1) Beginning of tribulation. Vs. 14~16- W m (2) The sufferings o f tribulation the g r e a t e s t o f all times. Vs. 17-20. (3) Warning against false mes- siahs. Vs. 21-23. f. The Revelation (Second Coming in Glory) of Christ after the Trib ulation. Vs. 24-27. g. The Coming of the Lord, and end o f this age illustrated by parable of the fig tree. Vs. 28-32. Conclusion'. Exhortation to watchfulness, which fact will keep life clean (1 Jno. 3:3 ). Vs. 33-37.
was the denarius, a silver coin o f the Romans,, worth about 17 cents in the time of Christ. It was the. ordinary pay o f afi.agricultural laborer for a day. The value was reduced in 217 B.C, to one-six teenth of a denarius, or about one cent. Show one o f ■our own coins and tell something o f what our government does for them. Prayer.) , Lesson Story? —In our -story last week we saw Jesus piding on a burro, one He had borrowed to ride into Jerusalem.' Even on this great day, there Were some of the people finding fault with Jesus, but there were boys and girls in the tem ple praising Him. Are you praising Him for all He is doing for you? In our story today they are trying in another way to find some fault in Him. They ask Him some hard questions,, but first of all they say some nice things about Him to His/face. They asked Jesus if it was law ful to pay money to Caesar, who was the Roman Emperor. Now, boys and girls, this was a very hard question, for if Jesus said yes, it was right, he would offend some of the people who believed they should be free from paying this tax Jo the Roman government. Others o f the people thought it was right to pay the money to Caesar. Jesus knew the evil thoughts in their hearts and He asked them to bring Him a penny. Now, boys and girls, listen to this part o f the story very carefully, for it teaches us all a wonderful lesson.; On the penny was a picture of the Roman Emperor. Pointing to the image o f the Roman Emperor, he said: “ Give to the ruler whom you ac knowledge, whatever belongs to him, and to God whatever belongs to God.” There are certain honors and duties for us to perform toward teachers, officers of the law and all In authority. When boys and girls disobey and cause trouble at home or at School, or wherever they may be, they are dishonoring the Lord. The Lord has given us all we have and we owe a part o f our time and a part o f our money to Him.; You see, Jesus gave 'a very wise answer, and those who asked the question, were greatly surprised, and marveled. Then they asked Him which was the first commandment. They meant which He considered the most important. The answer Jesus gave them is our memory verse. Let us say it together. What a
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