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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
April-May, 1933
spirit, and just as ready to take unfair ad vantage in securing that position. One’s own faults always look worse when seen in Others. All the disciples needed the in struction which the Lord now proceeded to give them. III. T he I nstruction from J esus (42-45). First, He told them of the two principles which govern in this world, and the two which govern in His kingdom. The great of the earth are served by the many; the great of the kingdom serve many. Hence, service becomes the law of greatness, and even the Lord Himself was not exempt from this law. Again, the great of the earth seek to get all they can; the great of the kingdom seek to give all they can. The great of the earth seek to be served; the great of the kingdom seek to serve. These disciples were thinking of the kingdom in terms of earth, and of places in that king dom as places in an earthly kingdom. Yet their hearts were right; it was ignorance which the Lord was here correcting. Second, He pointed out the pathway to true greatness (vs. 43, 44). In one word, this was service. He did not forbid the de sire to be great and to occupy high places, but He decried the desire to “lord it over” others. The desire to serve others cannot be too strong; it alone leads to true great ness. Every attempt at self-exaltation is Satanic. Satan exalted himself and is abased; Adam exalted himself and be came the sinner; Christ humbled Him self and was exalted (Phil. 2:5-11). Third, He gave the true pattern of greatness (v. 45). Here is the true ser vant’s person, the Son of Man; and the true servant’s work, not to be ministered unto but to minister and give his life a ransom for many. This point must be guarded carefully lest the impression be given that service to either God or man is a substitute for sav ing faith in Christ. Entrance into the king dom is by no other path than faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:3-6). But position in the kingdom is another matter altogether. We are Christians, not because we serve, but be cause we believe, and we serve because we do believe. These disciples to whom Jesus spoke were already His by faith (cf. Tit. 3:5). In verse 45, the Lord gave a full state ment of the atonement—He gave “his life a ranson for many.” There are many theories of the atonement, and all of them put together can not fully explain it. But at the heart of the Scriptural statement lies the truth that on the cross Christ did some thing for us which we could not do for ourselves, without which we would surely go to hell, but with which we are redeemed. D oing H a rd T hings M ark 10:32-45 Memory Verse: “The Lord is my helper” (Heb. 13:6). Approach: The time was fast coming when Jesus should go to Jerusalem, where His enemies were gathered together to find a way to kill Him. Jesus’ disciples knew that His life was in danger. They wanted
along on the road to Jerusalem, Jesus told them again what was going to take place. He said, “Behold, we go up to Jerusa lem ; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, to mock him, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.” So many times Jesus had told the dis ciples this. It was hard for them to under stand that He was to suffer and die for them and for all those who should believe in Him. They did not want Him to leave them, but if He was going away, they wanted to be sure that He would remember them; so two of the disciples asked if they might sit one on His right hand and one on His left hand, when He came into His glory. How, sad Jesus must have felt when He knew how selfish His disciples were! In stead of thinking about the hard things that were about to happen to Jesus, and get- Lesson Text: Mark 11:1-10, 15-18. Golden Text: “Behold thy king cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation” (Zech. 9:9). Jeru salem from O livet o sight in the Holy Land arouses the emotions more than the view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. The emotions which welled up from the heart of our Lord, when He stood upon this spot about nineteen hun dred years ago and wept over the city, can world. The emotions which that sight arouses in the human breast are prompted by the memories which it recalls. v As the prophet says,,the Mount of Olives is “before Jerusalem on the east.” As we stand upon the mount, we are separated from the city by the narrow and shallow Kidron valley. It is perhaps two hundred feet deep, and the eastern wall of the city is not more than half a mile distant from us. The summit of the hill upon which Jerusalem is located is slightly lower than that upon which we are standing. It slopes slightly toward the east, so that we can really look down upon the city. That which catches our attention first is the wall. It extends entirely around the city, which “lieth foursquare” behind these pro tecting battlements. Within the walls, rises a jumble of stone buildings, crowned by rounded domes or towering spires. The streets are visible only here and there, for the houses are closely packed together, in many cases being built entirely over the street. In the southeastern part of the city, lying just before us, is an onen space. Green grass is growing on the uncultivated ground, and numerous olive trees lend beauty to the scene. In the center of this open space is a beautiful, eight-sided build ing covered with gleaming, variegated tile mosaics, and crowned by a great green well be understood. The sacred and his toric events whi ch have t r ans pi r ed there for the past three thousand years have i nvest ed t h e Holy City with an •atmosphere which is p o s s e s s e d by no o t h er c i t y in the
ting ready to be His brave followers, they were thinking only of an easy thing for themselves. G olden T ex t Illustration Those who maintain that the crucifixion was an afterthought in the mind of Christ, that no vision of it clouded His pathway, and no place was assigned for it when He began to preach and to teach, have read those narratives to very little purpose. Holman Hunt, the modern “evan gelist of art,” was much nearer the truth on this matter when he painted his cele brated picture, The Shadow of Death, in which he clearly reveals his opinion that, while He was yet a horny-handed work man in the obscure carpenter’s shop at Nazareth, making yokes and ploughs for the husbandmen of Galilee, the shadow of the coming. cross fell upon the pathway of Christ and gave an unwonted solemnity to a young manhood, in all else so natural. —J. C uttell . dome. This is the Mosque of Omar. It stands upon the site of Solomon’s temple, and the temple of Herod from which Jesus cast forth the money changers. In the eastern wall of the temple enclosure is a gateway, sealed shut. It is the golden gate. It will remain shut until Messiah, the Prince, comes to ride in, in state. As we gaze with mingled emotions upon the view before us, we instinctively pray, “Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.” O u tlin e a n d E xposition Jesus was now entering the final period of His ministry which would be crowned shortly with crucifixion. In this connec tion, the teacher should read John 12 in order to get the sequence of events. The Lord reached Bethany in the evening and spent the next day there. In the evening of that day there was a feast spread in the home of Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus their brother was there. That night the Jews took counsel to put to death both Lazarus and Jesus. It would be well to consult the maps and have clearly in mind the relation of Jerusalem, Bethphage, Bethany, and the Mount of Olives. In this lesson we come to the so-called triumphant entry. The Lord knew, how ever, that the “triumph” would be short lived. But in fulfillment of prophecy, He must enter Jerusalem in this dramatic man ner, claiming kingly authority as the Mes siah of the Jews (cf. Zech. 9:9). I. T he C laim M a P e (1-6). 1. The royal request (2, 3). A colt “whereon never man sat” was to be brought. Unused animals were always procured for sacred purposes (cf. Num. 19:12; Deut. 21:3; 1 Sam. 6:7). The exhibition of the Lord’s omniscience may be seen in the minute detail given to the disciples. They were told that as soon as they entered the village, they would find the colt, it would be tied, it would be an unridden beast, there would be objec tions made to their taking it, but the ob jections would be withdrawn when the sim ple words, “the Lord hath need of him” were uttered. Here was authority, com mandeering the animal as being the Lord’s by right, as the absolute King promised by the prophets. The Revised Version
MAY 14, 1933 JESUS ASSERTS HIS KINGSHIP M ark 11 :l-33
Him to keep away f r o m Jeru salem . They could not un derstand that Jesus knew that He must suffer and die, and that still He should be willing to go to Jerusalem w h e r e this would happen. L e s s o n Story: As Jesus and His disciples w a l k e d
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