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liefs of a lifetime. It meant a complete departure from all that had been the cus tom of the most devout for many cen turies. When Peter hesitated, a voice from heaven declared plainly: “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou com mon.” This was repeated three times, un til at last the apostle was satisfied that in God’s sight there were to be no national limitations. Try to imagine yourself one of the Jewish leaders to whom Peter made this explanation—an Israelite possessing pride of ancestry, pride of religion, pride of po sition. See how natural it was to resent any change, and how necessary it was for Peter to convince the Jerusalem leaders that his giving of the gospel to a Gentile was of God rather than of himself. II. T he L eading for P eter (11, 12) Immediately after Peter’s vision, three men came to him, asking that he go with them to Caesarea. The Spirit spoke to him and told him to accompany them without doubting. Perhaps if he had not been prepared by the vision, Peter would not have been in a condition to discern the voice of the Spirit. It is sometimes said that if believers today were granted visions, such as Peter had, or if the Spirit would speak definitely to us as He did to * him, that we could be more sure of the Lord’s leading. But we must remember that at the time of our lesson the New Testament had not been written, and the early Christians did not have this means of guidance. Now, having the full revela tion of God and the Holy Spirit to illu mine and interpret it, believers are infi nitely better equipped to withstand the subtlety of Satan and the flesh than were the early Christians. Peter did not go alone to the house of Cornelius, but he took with him a com mittee of six brethren. Later, these eye witnessed confirmed Peter’s statements made before the leaders in Jerusalem. III. T he P urpose of P eter in G oing to C ornelius (13, 14). When Peter arrived at the ^hohse of Cornelius, he found a company of people waiting for him. He was told that Cor nelius had had a vision, and that an angel had instructed him to send for Peter. The question is sometimes asked, Why was it necessary to send for a man, when an angel might have preached the gospel to the inquirers. The answer is that for some inscrutable reason God has ordained that only human lips shall tell forth the gospel of the grace of God. Blessed re sponsibility ! IV. T he R esults of P eter ’ s V isit to C ornej - ius (15-18). First, salvation came to Cornelius’ household. As Peter was speaking, the hearts of the hearers were opened to the gospel. Believing the message, they were at once baptized by the Holy Spirit, as the earlier believers had been. It aston ished the “children of the circumcision” to find that God had broken down age-old barriers and had come in blessing upon the Gentiles, as He had come upon His favored people. Cornelius and his house hold were saved because they believed what they heard; namely, that to Christ “give all the prophets witness that whoso-
BLACK-BOARD LESSON
Lesson Questions
V. 1. Is it a Christian or an unbeliever who is referred to as one “overtaken in a fault” ? What attitude is to be taken toward such a one? What is the literal meaning of the word “restore” ? What is to be the governing principle in the re storation of a fallen brother? Vs. 2-5. What are the “burdens” re ferred to in verse 2? How are they to be borne? How do they differ from the “burden” mentioned in verse 5? Is burden bearing largely an undeveloped art among Christians? 6-10. What is meant by the command to “communicate” ? How is the importance of sharing emphasized? Golden T ex t Illustration One day, the master of Lukman, an eastern wiseacre, said to him, “Go into such a field and sow barley.” Lukman sowed oats instead. Later, his master went to the place and, seeing the green oats springing up, asked him,V|Did I not tell you to sow barley here? Why, then, have you sown oats?” He answered, “I sowed oats in the hope that barley would grow up.” His master said, “What foolish idea is this? Have you ever heard of the like?” Lukman replied;, “You yourself are con stantly sowing.in the field of the world the seeds of evil, and yet you expect to reap in the resurrection day the fruits of virtue. Therefore, I thought I might also get barley by sowing oats.” “Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles” (Matt. 7 :16) ? “Whatso- soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” , (Gal. 6:7). Obeying th e Law G alatians 6:1-10. Memory Verse: “Obey them that have the rule over you” (Heb. 13:17). Approach : A few weeks ago, we talked about all of the things which we should do to keep our bodies healthy and strong. In order to do our best work for Jesus,
young, you will surely have trouble when you grow up.” He said that doing good deeds is just like sowing seed in the ground—when the seed' grows up, if it was good seed, the fruit will be good. I believe that when Paul was telling these things to the people, he was thinking that many years later, boys and girls would need to know them, too. AUGUST 23, 1931 A Gospel For All Men Lesson: Acts 10:1 to 11:18; 1 Cor. 1: 23-25. Lesson Text: Acts 11:5-18. Golden Text: “There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him” (Rom. 10:12). I ntroduction The whole story of Peter and Cornelius (chapters 10 and 11) must be read in order to get a proper perspective for the teaching of the portion assigned for to day’s study. Up to the opening of chap ter 10, there is no indication that the gos pel is to go beyond the limits of Jewry. But now it is clear that the good news is to pass beyond the confines of the Jew ish nation and is to be extended to the Gentiles. Peter was chosen by the Lord to open the door of salvation to the Gentiles. But he was so bound by Jewish traditions that he needed God’s special dealing before he was ready to go forth. Like him, his companions in the church at Jerusalem were so tradition-bound that they were ^ ready to excommunicate any one who as sociated with the Gentiles, even though his purpose in so doing was to give the gospel to the lost. The passage given for our study is Peter’s recital of the events which occurred prior to and during his stay in the house of Cornelius, the Gen tile. This report, which was in the nature of a defense of his action, was made to the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. I. T he V ision for P eter (4-10) Peter had a vision in which he saw a vessel descending from heaven containing all manner of beasts, both clean and un clean according to the Jewish standard of ceremonial cleanliness. Coming from heaven as it did, it implied that for be lievers in the Lord Jesus Christ the re strictions of the law were removed. With the command, “Arise . . . and eat,” the implication was plain that no nation was to be regarded as “unclean” in God’s sight or unapproachable with the gospel. But Peter was a Jew, and it was exceed ingly difficult .for him to set aside the be-
M i l l
we must be strong. Do you remember some of the things which we said we must do? And what were the things we said we mustn’t do? Besides taking care of our bodies, we must take care of our thoughts and our actions, too. L e s s o n Story:
Avisto*
The man that we learned about last week, Saul (who, after he became a Christian, was called Paul) became a great preacher. In the lesson story that we have today, he is telling the people some of the things that they must do, and some that they must not do. The things which he told those people are good for us to remem ber, too. Paul said, “If some one does wrong, don’t be angry with him ; tell him in a kindly way about it. If some one has something hard to do, help him.” And then he said, “If a man thinks himself clever, he may be mistaken. Perhaps he isn’t worth very much after all.” He told the people to preach the gospel, to tell to others the Bible stories that they knew. And he said, “Be careful what you do. If you do wrong things when you are
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