The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1897-02-11
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON VII, FIRST QUARTER, INTER
NATIONAL SERIES, FEB. a.

II. Then the high priest rose up, and
all they that We're with him, and were fill
ed with indignation. - The preceding
verses tell of multitudes coming to .Jeru-
salem to be healed, and they were healed,
every one. 1t seems that blessing came
even from the shadow of Peter falling up
on them. Multitudes of men and women
believed and were added to the Lord, and
many signs and wonders were wrought by
the hands of the apostles, but it was all
the work of the risen Christ through them
by His Spirit. The same Christ lives to-
day, and the same Spirit is in every believ
err but where are the signs and wonders
to the glory of God? Is it because believ-
ers do not live to honor Christ as the apos-
ties did,
Is. And laid their hands on the apos-
ties and put them in the common prison.
The high priest and the Sadducees were
very religious people and professed to wor-
ship the one living and true God, yet they
thus manifested their anger against these
men because they honored Jesus Christ
risen from the dead and because of the
mighty works done in His name. The
margin of verse II says they were filled
with envy, and there are still many reii-
gious people whose strange and seemingly
hateful conduct to others can be accounted
for only on the ground of envy.
10. "But the angel of the Lord by night
opened the prison doors and brought them
forth. - When the Lord wants his people
all night in prison, that is the place for
them to be, in chapter ", 3, but when
He wants them out of prison He has an
gels enough to minister to them, and one
angel has more power than all the soldiers
earth, and prison doors or walls are
nothing to them.
20. $50, stand and speak In the temple
to the people all the words of this life. ;"
The words of God are Spirit and life (John
vi, 63). Christ is life and apart from
Him is no life (Col. iii, A. 1 John V, 12).
If we have life in Christ, it is that we may
pass it on to others by holding forth the
word of life (Phil. ii, 16) Ii we have the
bread of life and living water, it is that
may pass ON the same to those who
have them not. Five small loaves in the
hands of Christ fed over 5, 600 people. He
is the very same Jesus.
81 TIE apostles did as they were told
and taught the people in the temple The
Ligh priest, with the council and senate,
assembled in the morning and sent to the
prison to bring the prisoners. 1t was evil
IDENTIFY something very important that
these men, Peter and John, should be dealt
with severely, and hence the calling to-
gother of the whole senate as well as the
council, and now that they had them safe
~ in prison-as they supposed-was the
%, %. The prison shut safely, the keep
ers before the doors, but no prisoners in
the prison-this is what the officers came
and found and returned and told The
rulers We're taking counsel together against
the Lord and against His anointed, and
the Lord WAS having them in derision (Ps.
ii, 2. ~.
24. The high priest and chief priests
doubted whereunto these things would
ND 9 10,
people are made to walk and all manner
of sickness healed, and prison walls and
faithful guards set at naught, the rulers
may well ask, What next? We know
whereunto these things will grow-they
will keep growing until to Him every knee
shall bow, all kings fall down before Him,
and all nations serve Him, and the king
dom and dominion under the whole heav-
en- be given to the saints of the Most High.
25, 26. Hearing from some one that the
prisoners were teaching the people in the
temple, the captain and officers went and
brought them without violence. The same
power that took the apostles out of prison,
and that sent the soldiers to the ground
when they came to take the Lord Jesus in
Gethsemane might have arrested this cap
tain and his officers If the Lord had thought
best, but His plan for them now seemed
TO be that they should quietly go with the
stances, trusting God to arrange the cir
cumstances, is the way of peace for the be-
lever. L find great help in this word, ''Do
as occasion serve thee, for God Is with
thee q Sam. X, y.
81, %. Being set before the council, the
high priest accuses them of filling Jerusa-
lem with their doctrine and making the
council guilty of the death of Christ, and
this in spite of the command of the coun-
oil fn fhr1 iJ1rr I'M ha IF Nhric
There is no reference to their escape from
prison, perhaps because they felt compelled
TO acknowledge the hand of God in this
and dared say nothing against it, perhaps
for other reasons.
80. "Then Peter and the other apostles
answered and said, We ought to obey God
rather than men," In the presence of the
council that put Christ to death they fear
ed not the same treatment if such had been
the will of God for them. They had pray
ed not for deliverance from their enemies,
but for boldness in teaching whatever the
result might be (chapter iv, 29-3D. They
remind US of the friends of Daniel, who,
with the fiery furnace before them, feared
not to honor God and defy the king. The
fear of God delivers from all fear of men.
80 THE God of our fathers raised up
Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on
tree. The end of all their conversation
as well as the beginning is Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, today and forever
(Heb. xiii, Z, 81 They are not afraid to
insist upon the fact that the rulers of the
Jews crucifed Christ, and with triumph
they assert that God raised Him from the
dead.
81. Him hath God exalted with His
right hand to be Prince and Saviour
for TO give repentance to Israel and for
Riveness of sins Humbled unto death
and crucified by His enemies, God raised
Him from the dead and gave Him glory
and exalted Him to give repentance unto
Israel first if they would accept it, for up
to this time it looks as if Christ might
have returned to give the kingdom to Is
rael if only they had been willing to accept
Him See Acts iii, 1921 r. v, and re-
member that all the believers thus far.
though numbering many thousands, were
all Jews.
80. "And we are His witnesses of these
things, and so is also the Holy Ghost,
whom God hath given to them that obey
Him See the partnership of the Holy
Spirit and these, in themselves, weak and
unworthy vessels. See the Lords own
words in Acts i, s. and let us be willing
to be His witnesses; then we may be sure
that all our ways and words will be chosen
for us and our work will be in the pres
ence and power of God, according to Jer
i, z, 8.
STAGE. Gi INTS.