It is concerning this subject, “Alive Again,” that I wish to speak. Let me read from the 20th chapter of John’s Gospel: “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre.” (Here is a little touch of her love for the Master. She cannot sleep—early, early while it was yet dark. You have gotten up many a time to get ready to go to a picnic, early, while it was yet dark. Her heart went out to Christ early while it was yet dark. Note this eagerness on Mary’s part that …
(Helpful to Sunday School Lesson of Easter 1920, Mark 16)
“And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.” This, and the occasion when Jesus spoke to Lazarus are the only records of Jesus using a loud voice. Both are in connection with death—one to bring a man from death, the other, in utter agony as He Himself enters into death.
We have, as a Sunday School lesson, the story of the resurrection, but I have purposely started with this agonizing cry of Jesus that we might go to the cross before we look at the open …
In the King James Version, this text reads, “Rejoice evermore,” but the Revised Version (a more accurate rendering), reads, “Rejoice always. “If I should ask you want the shortest verse in the Bible is, a great sea of hands would go and you would say, “John 11:35, ‘Jesus wept.’” Well, that is so in the English version, but in the Greek that verse has sixteen letters, while our text has only fourteen letters; so in the Greek this is a shorter verse than “Jesus wept.”
I want you to read the verse in its connection: “Rejoice …
“So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it (the end) is near, even at the doors.”—Matthew 24:33
I do not want to give you men’s words to start with, but God’s Word on this subject. If we make any deduction, if we draw any conclusion, we have no right to start with anything as a premise but the Word of God, Who alone holds the future in His hand. Man has been calling himself splendid names because he has been able to preserve something of the past. He points to the pyramids, swells his chest …
(Helpful to Sunday School Lesson of March 14, 1920, Revelation 1)
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ,”—not Revelations, but the REVELATION of that which God told the devil in the garden of Eden, “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” This is the record of the “bruising,” the record of the ascendancy of Jesus Christ and His Body, called “the church,” over all the works of the devil and over all the kingdoms of the earth.
There are many things out of place, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ shows how these things are to get back …
“Now there were in the Church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
“And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
“So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed.” —Acts 13:1–4.
(Helpful to Sunday School Lesson of March 7, 1920, 1 John 4:7–21)
“God is love.” We could also say “God is law”; for in another place in the Scripture God says, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Now the law was holy and was placed before men that they might see themselves as God sees them. It was as if a shabby tramp suddenly came upon the picture of a real clean and well-dressed man, and recognized the awful chasm between himself and this gentleman. God placed the law that men might see the chasm between the natural man …
(Helpful to Sunday School Lesson of February 29, 1920; 1 Peter 2:1–5, 11–12; 19–25)
“Laying aside.” How necessary is this first step in Christian living. Many people quote another part of the Scripture that says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you,” but they forget the words of that injunction, which are, “Submit yourselves to God.” Now before there can be Christian living there must be a laying aside. How few Christians consider this cleaning up that is necessary, this pruning that must take place, this going down before there comes the going up and the bearing of …
The Scripture which suggests this theme you will find in Matthew 24:14: “This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come,” and then shall the consummation come, for the word there means “the climaxing of things,” heading up of things. The Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations, and then shall the consummation come, just as we read in the prophecies of the Old Testament.
(Helpful to Sunday School Lesson of February 22, 1920, Acts 12:1–19)
“Was kept in prison.” How wonderful is the contrast between these words and the words in the 9th verse, “And he went out.”What a contrast of power is here. In the first place poor little puny government officials, needful as they are, honored as they must be by every Christian and obeyed as God has commanded them to be, yet how little is their power when God says, “Open the door and let them out.” It is so with every door that shuts against us. We are under …
