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sometimes used her art for good purpose. AeSon, the father of her husband, was pre vented by age and infirmity from being present at the celebration over the recov ery o f the golden fleece. Calling her one day, her husband said,. “Wife, will you not take some of my years and add them to my father’s?” and she- replied that she would lengthen his fa ther’s life without abridging his own. She then addressed her incantations to- the stars and the moon, and to the gods and goddesses of the upper and lower worlds, and forthwith she prepared a huge caldron o f the strangest mixtures. Into it. went magic herbs, the wing of an owl, the liver of a stag, and a host of other weird ingredients. When all was ready and the caldron boiling, she opened the throat of the old man and let out all his blood. Then: into his mouth she poured the juices o f her caldron, and immediately the gray hairs, of Aeson became black, the pallor left his cheeks, and the bloom of youth came back, while through his veins flowed new blood of life and vigor, and Aeson remembered himself as the youth of forty years before, Aeson received a new life that made him young again, but how vastly better than, Aeson’s is the new life of the child of God 1 When he is born again, he is young indeed,, not in years, though an eternity o f them, has become his, but in soul and spirit, Aeson became such as he was in his youth ful days forty years before, but the Chris tian puts off the old man and puts on the- new in a far higher sense. He becomes par taker of a new nature, and better than liv ing forty years again with the old spirit: and the old disposition, he lives on forever with a new disposition, with “old things passed away” and “all things become new.’” —W . E. B iederwolf . fered a fruitful field for the preaching o f the gospel. It was a large city, full o f a. cosmopolitan people, and thus there was plenty o f opportunity to reach a great num ber. These in turn, being from every coun try under heaven, could go to their own- lands, and spread the glad tidings. The sec ond reason why Antioch was a good field in which to labor was because it was so- wicked that it needed the gospel more than many other places. W e do not know just how much immediate effect the preaching“ of the gospel by the apostles had, but we do know that within three centuries, the whole city was captured for Christ, and two of the great leaders of the church, Ignatius and Chrysostom, came from there. Outline and Exposition I. T he A wakening in A ntioch (19-21). Persecution is not always a calamity. The persecution which arose after the death o f Stephen drove the disciples from Jeru salem (8 :1 ), but they did not forget the word by which they were sustained. Some of these scattered ones, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, preached to the Grecian Jews, while others preached to Jews only. To the Jews, the Word was preached; and to the Greeks, Jesus as Lord was proclaimed. They “spake” the Word. They had only one message. But the reason for their speaking was threefold: First, their in stinct; they had life in Christ, and life de sires expression. Second, their pity; they had the love o f Christ, and love desires ex-
The trustfulness of Ananias is some thing all saints might copy (v. 17). When he had the Lord’s word that Saul was con verted, everything that Saul had done against the believers was erased from his mind, and he was ready to address this erstwhile vicious persecutor as “Brother Saul.” He made it clear to Saul that it was the Lord Jesus who sent him, the same Lord Jesus who “ appeared unto thee in the way as thou earnest.” And he was sent that Saul might be filled with the Holy Spirit, which would be his enduement with power for the work to which God called him. Saul’s sight was restored, he was bap tized, and then received meat and was strengthened (vs. 18, 19). From that time on he was the chosen servant of the Lord, spreading the gospel far and near among the Gentiles, walking in the fear o f the Lord, and establishing and strengthening the saints. His first preaching was in Da mascus and had as its theme, “Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God.” If all men are the sons of God by virtue of being born into this world, Saul certainly was wasting his time in preaching that Jesus was the Son o f God. But Saul knew through ex perience that men and women become the sons of God only by grace through faith, and that their sonship is known by their obedience to their new Father. Lesson Questions Vs. 1, 2. What was Saul’s motive in per secuting Christians? What did he do (Acts 8 :3 ; 9 :2 ; 22:4; 26:10)? Vs. 3-8. How many accounts o f Saul’s conversion are given in the Word of God (Acts 9, 22, 26) ? Why this emphasis? In what ways was Saul’s conversion different from all others? Did he actually see the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 9:1; 15:8; Acts 9 :27) ? When did he acknowledge the Lordship o f Christ? How did he manifest submission? O f what did he become a type (Zech. 12:10)? Vs. 9-12. For how long was Saul with out sight and food ? Who was sent to him ? Contrast this man with another by the same name (Acts 5). What message did the Lord give to Ananias that He had pre viously given to Saul? What evidence did the Lord give Ananias of Saul’s changed life? Vs. 17-19. By what title did Ananias ad dress Saul? What does this teach? When Saul’s sight was restored, what did he do ? Saul Learning to Love Jesus A cts 9:1-6, 17-20 Memory Verse: “W e love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Approach: You remember that Paul was trained to be a rabbi. And while he was training to be a Jewish leader, Jesus grew up and died and went to heaven, telling the
BLACKBOARD LESSON
As he traveled along, suddenly there was a light from heaven, so bright that Paul fell on his face to the earth. A voice called, “ Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” “Now the last person that Paul wanted to meet at that time was Jesus. He wanted to hurt Jesus’ disciples. And when you want to hurt people, you don’t want them to come around and speak kindly to you. But here was Jesus saying to Paul, “ Don’t do this. You are just hurting yourself when you are rushing around hurting my followers.’^ ! Jesus wanted Paul to think about this for a while, so He blinded Paul’s eyes. And as Paul sat in the dark for several days, he began to understand what a dread ful mistake he had made. W e can do things which hurt Jesus, too. If we do not love Him and believe in Him and follow Him, we hurt ourselves and we hurt Jesus, too, just as Paul did. He speaks to our hearts today and says, “Don’t hurt yourself. Just follow me.” Golden Text Illustration Medea, the enchantress, so the story goes, Golden T ext: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth: to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). Antioch in Syria here were two cities by the name o f Antioch, which were visited by the Apostle Paul on his journeys. One was in Pisidia, while the one mentioned in our lesson today was farther to the south, in Syria. Antioch in Syria was the third largest city in the world in the days of
OCTOBER 15, 1933 PAUL IN ANTIOCH A cts 11:19-30; 12:25
Paul, being exceeded in population o n l y by Rome and Alex andria. I t s m a i n street ran straight through the city for a d i s t a n c e o f five miles. It was paved with marble, and l i n e d w i t h a double row o f mar
people all the while that He was the Son o f God, the Saviour who was to bring people away f r o m their sins and back to God. Paul, like many o f the Jewish rabbis, did not be lieve in Jesus, and he started out to perse cute all those who did.
ble columns. At night it was very bril liantly lighted, because o f which it was called “ The Great White Way.” Not only was Antioch a very large and beautiful city, but it was also very wicked. Countless caravans from east, west, north, and south passed through it, bringing with the goods of other countries their sins, and wickedness as well. The shameless corrup tion of Antioch became a byword through out the world. There were two reasons why Antioch o f
Lesson Story: One time, he started out on a trip to the city of Damascus. He had heard that there were some believers there. He would go to that city and find these people and bind them and bring them to Jerusalem. But God had another plan for Paul.
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