p. 15 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 21. (5/25/1904)

Earlier text: Contentment in Honest Work

LESSON 10.—JUNE 5.—CHRIST'S TRIAL BEFORE PILATE.

Lesson Scripture, Mark 15:1-15, A. R. V.

(1) “And straightway in the morning the chief priests with the elders and scribes, and the whole council, held a consultation, and bound Jesus, and carried Him away, and delivered Him up to Pilate. (2) And Pilate asked Him, Art Thou the King of the Jews? And He answering saith unto him, Thou sayest. (3) And the chief priests accused Him of many things. (4) And Pilate again asked Him, saying, Answerest Thou nothing? behold how many things they accuse Thee of. (5) But Jesus no more answered anything; insomuch that Pilate marveled. (6) “Now at the feast he used to release unto them one prisoner, whom they asked of him. (7) And there was one called Barabbas, lying bound with them that had made insurrection, men who in the insurrection had committed murder. (8) And the multitude went up and began to ask him to do as he was wont to do unto them. (9) And Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews? (10) For he perceived that for envy the chief priests had delivered Him up. (11) But the chief priests stirred up the multitude, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. (12) And Pilate again answered and said unto them, What then shall I do unto Him whom ye call the King of the Jews? (13) And they cried out again, Crucify Him. (14) And Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath He done? But they cried out exceedingly, Crucify Him. (15) And Pilate, wishing to content the multitude, released unto them Barabbas, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged Him, to be crucified.”

Golden Text.—“Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this Man.” Luke 23:4.

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.

(1) In the morning, after it had been decided to condemn Jesus, what did the chief priests do? What was the result of their council? Verse 1. Note 1. (2) What question did Pilate ask Jesus? What was His reply? Verse 2. Note 2. (3) How did the chief priests further press their complaint? How did Jesus treat their accusations? Verse 3. Note 3. (4) What did Pilate say regarding the silence of the prisoner? Verse 4. (5) How did Jesus regard these words of the governor? How was Pilate affected by this continued indifference? Verse 5. Note 4. (6) What custom of the governor is noted in verse 6? (7) What noted man was under conviction of insurrection? What other crime had resulted from his insurrection? Verse 7. (8) For what did the people begin to clamor? Verse 8. (9) What did Pilate ask concerning this demand? Verse 9. (10) What had he discerned in the action of the chief priests? Verse 10. Note 5. (11) What did the priests suggest to the people? Verse 11. Note 6. (12) Then what further question did Pilate ask? Verse 12. (13) What answer did the multitude give? Verse 13. (14) How did Pilate endeavor to dissuade the people? What was the result of his effort? Verse 14. (15) What was apparently Pilate's greatest anxiety? To this end, whom did he release? And then what did he do with Jesus? Verse 15. Note 7.

NOTES.

1. Jesus was first taken before the high priests Annas and Caiaphas, who hastily assembled the Sanhedrim. It was not lawful to try a capital offense between sunset and sunrise; but there was haste to try Jesus, and turn Him over to the Roman authorities before His friends could rally for His defense. The charge against Jesus was blasphemy, for which the Jewish penalty was death. It was necessary to have two concurring witnesses, and they were obliged to accept the testimony of two false witnesses in order to condemn Him. Between the time of the condemnation and the morning, Jesus was subjected to insult and mocking. It was during this time that Peter, being fearful of like treatment and also of death, forgot his protestations of loyalty a few hours before, and denied his Lord. Jesus was hurried to Pilate's palace just as soon as it was possible to get the governor's attention.

2. Pilate's question, “Art Thou the King of the Jews?” was naturally a leading one, arising out of the charge. The Jews had said, “We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that He Himself is Christ a King.” Luke 23:2. Of course this was false, for Jesus had plainly taught them to give Caesar all that was due to him. Matt. 22:15-21. “Thou sayest.”—This is equivalent to an affirmative answer; yet He did not claim to be King in the sense which His accusers inferred. John (ch. 18:33-37) gives the conversation more fully. Jesus explained the nature of His kingdom, saying, “My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is My kingdom not from hence.” One whose kingdom was of this world would not have suffered himself to be put to death when it was in his power to prevent it.

3. Fearing that the main charge against the prisoner might not hold, seeing that Pilate was not disposed to wholly credit their word, the chief priests became vehement in their accusations.

4. “Pilate marveled.”—He never had seen a prisoner maintain such a wholly indifferent attitude under such threatening circumstances. Like the Jews, the governor did not understand that the success of Messiah's kingdom depended upon the death of the King, and that Jesus was simply trusting in the fulfilment of the Father's purpose, regardless of what man could do to Him. In this patient attitude He set an example for all His followers.

5. Pilate's appeal to the people was in hope that they would choose to have Jesus released. He was aware of the envy of the chief priests, but had reason to believe that Jesus was popular with the common people. Pilate wanted to release Him, but he did not want to incur the enmity of the leading Jews; so he thought to throw the responsibility upon the people. But he had not reckoned on the fickleness of the masses in the face of Christ's apparent lapse of power to free Himself. But by this appeal Pilate compromised his own authority. Having made the appeal, he was in a measure bound to abide by the people's decision.

6. In choosing Barabbas, the rulers and people virtually indorsed the insurrection of which he had been convicted, the very crime with which they had charged Jesus, and for which they were demanding His life. Barabbas had not only been guilty of outward insurrection, but he had committed murder in attempting to carry it out.

7. Pilate's subserviency was emphasized when, on learning that both the rulers and the masses wanted Jesus crucified, he, of his own volition, added the humiliation of a cruel scourging. And he did this after formally declaring his own innocence of the blood of Jesus. Matt. 27:24-26. Having placed himself in the hands of the people, he was constrained, for the time, to do all in his power to please them. Pilate's experience is an apt illustration of the result of fearing man, and compromising with error.

LESSON X.—THE SEVEN TRUMPETS (Continued)—THE FALL OF THE EASTERN EMPIRE OF ROME.

(Study for Sabbath, June 4.)

QUESTIONS.

1. To what point did the close of the fourth trumpet bring us?—To the extinction of Western Rome. Henceforward the empire was perpetuated only in the eastern division, to which our attention is now turned.

2. Calamitous as were the times under the first four trumpets, what is said of those to follow? Rev. 8:13.

3. Shortly after the closing events of the fourth trumpet, what power began to gather strength as a scourge upon the remaining or eastern portion of the empire?—Mohammedanism. Note .

4. Describe the view as the fifth trumpet sounded. Rev. 9:1–3. Note .

5. What was the command to these forces? Verse 4. Note .

6. What development was seen in the organization of Mohammedanism? Verse 11, first part. What foreboding of doom to the remaining, or eastern, empire of Rome is implied in the name given this organized force? Verse 11, last part. See margin, “a destroyer.” Note .

7. What definite prophetic period is here assigned to this power? Verse 10, last part. What literal time?—The five months—150 days; prophetic—150 years.

8. Dating from the invasion of Roman territory by Othman, to what time and event does the period reach? Note .

9. What word is spoken at the close of the sounding of this fifth trumpet? Verse 12.

10. What was let loose when the sixth trumpet began to sound? Verses 13, 14. Note .

11. What general view of the conflict was given the prophet? Verses 16–19. Note .

12. How long a period of supremacy was assigned to this power? Verse 15. “An hour” (one-twenty-fourth of a prophetic day, or literal year)=15 days literal time; “a day”=1 year; “a month”=30 years; “a year”=360 years; total, 391 years and 15 days, time of Turkish supremacy, from 1449, when that supremacy was acknowledged.

13. To what date are we brought by the two prophetic periods of this chapter? Ans.— Date of Othman’s invasion (accurately preserved), July 27, 1299. 1st Period. Verse 10. “Five months,” 150 years, July 27, 1449. “An hour,” 15 days “A day,” 1 year “A month,” 30 years “A year,” 360 years } 2d Period. Verse 15. Total, 391 years, 15 days, added to July 27, 1449—August 11, 1840. Supremacy lost.

14. What occurred at the ending of the period?—Ottoman supremacy and independence ceased. Note .

15. Has the world learned the lesson of history? Verses 20, 21.

16. What follows after the closing of the sixth trumpet on Aug. 11, 1840. Rev. 11:14.

NOTES.

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For Family Worship

The American Standard Revised Bible is steadily growing in popular favor. One book-seller, who deals very largely in Bibles, told the writer recently that more than half his Bible sales the past year have been the Standard Revised. This is not strange. Read a few verses: note the beauty and clearness of expression; and then, if you are acquainted with the original, compare, and see how accurately its meaning is set forth in English; e. g., here are the opening verses of the 137th Psalm:—

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The Two Covenants

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Elihu on the Sabbath

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Sowing and Reaping

The Denver Times of May 10 gives an account of the adjournment at the opening of the May term of the Colorado district court by Judge Stevens. He declared that the presence of the military on his arrival was an insult to civil authority, while the military declared that the judge brought with him a dozen or so of the deported agitators. There seems to be but little question, as Ray Stannard Baker has shown, that the military has far transcended its proper function; and it seems to be equally patent that their actions were provoked by the utter powerlessness or perversity of the civil power to preserve law and order. A correspondent well states our own conclusions from the Colorado object-lesson:—

The worst part of the whole thing is the apparent indifference of nearly all to these things. Their whole heart is wrapped up in the things of this life, yet they fail to realize that the things they so lust after all depend on the law and order they must be able to preserve among themselves. The foundation of the present civilization is based on the confidence people have in one another. When once that is destroyed, the utmost anarchy and misery will result; all the evil passions will be turned loose. The unredressed wrongs of the human heart will be avenged by such violence as the world has never seen before. What will drag down one city and community will quickly infect and drag down another, and spread from nation to nation, for we are all one (worldly speaking), and anarchy once started, with the restraining hand of God removed, will spread with the speed of electricity.

Yours faithfully, Villa Grove, Colo. J. N. PARSONS.

Knowing God and Being Taught.

There is great danger to earnest Christians from a misunderstanding of one of the promises of the new covenant. That promise is: “I will put My laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people; and they shall not teach every man his fellow citizen, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest of them.” Heb. 8:10, 11. Now this may seem to teach that those who come into covenant relation with God will never more need to be taught. But the scripture does not state that. It tells in what particular way they will not need to be taught. No man shall say to his fellow citizen or brother, “Know the Lord.” They all know Him; all are in harmony with Him. They have no question as to their God, their Saviour. But some of them are babes; some learn more slowly than others; and each of these shall learn from others more and more of the glory of God in His Word and works. Take for illustration the children in a family. No one needs to teach his brother or sister, saying, “Know papa.” They all know him, from the least to the greatest. But that father can teach some of his children more of his character through the other children than he could directly, not because of his limitations, but theirs. Thus each is taught by all, all through life.

The Gifts of the Spirit.

There is another great side to this subject of teaching and being taught. “All the fulness” dwelt and dwells in Christ Jesus. All fulness can not dwell in any one human, else he were God. But in the church of Christ, which is His body, is “the fulness of Him that filleth all in all,” if she will but appropriate it. To that church the power of the Spirit operates through various gifts, divided not by man’s choice, but as the Lord will. Various gifts and their bestowal are especially mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12; Rom. 12:3-7; Eph. 4:8-16. But not to each or any one are distributed all the gifts, but to each man as he can use to profit. These are likened to parts of the human body. The eye has its use and function, the ear has its use, so also the hand, the foot, and every member. Some of these gifts are mentioned, as wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, discerning of spirits, helps, ministering, governments, etc., etc. Out of these grow various workers in the church, as for instance, apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists, teachers, to continue to the end. Now a man can give or minister only of what he has, and not of what he has not. This is the duty and the privilege of each: “According as each hath received a gift, ministering it among yourselves, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” 1 Peter 4:10. And as these graces differ, each must receive from others, each must impart to others. The business of the prophet is to prophesy, of the teacher to teach. Rom. 12:6-8. The eye can not say to the ear, I do not need thee; the foot can not say to the hand, I have no need of thee. Each one needs all the others; all need each one, in order to the fullest perfection. And as long as the imperfection in the church of Christ exists,—and it will exist till Christ comes,—so long will these gifts prove necessary; and the teaching of God’s people will go on. There are many other passages which teach the same thing. To be taught of God does not mean to ignore His church and His appointed agencies. To do this is to cut ourselves off from all guidance, and leave ourselves a dangerous derelict on the great ocean of life, without sail or chart or rudder or compass, a menace to the many ships that pass. God’s voice in His law, God’s truth in His Book, are needed now as never before.

What Think Ye of Christ?

“What Think Ye of Christ?”—There are some that have very narrow views of Him and His work. For instance, a “Christian” paper has said, in referring to that part of the Scriptures called the Old Testament, “It contained not a single command of Christ.” Now the simple fact is that all the Word of God came through Christ (1 Cor. 8:6; John 1:1–3); that He was the Angel, or Messenger, of God’s presence in the wilderness (Ex. 23:20, 21; Isa. 63:9), and that He gave to Moses the living oracles from Mount Sinai (Acts 7:38). It was the Spirit of Christ that preached through Noah (1 Peter 3:18–20), and which testified through the prophets (1 Peter 1:10, 11). In fact, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, of all that pertains to man’s salvation. What think ye of Christ? Is He merely the son of Joseph? or is He the Son of God?

The Anointing

There is another scripture which, perhaps, is more frequently perverted by the enemy, and is made a snare to overzealous souls; and that is 1 John 2:27, which thus reads: “But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things.” 1 John 2:27. And all this is true; the spirit-filled Christian will not accept the word of man for a doctrine. He must know that it is of God. He will not feel sufficient in himself; for the very epistle in which the above is found is careful to instruct that the spirit will not lead from obedience to God’s commandments. The Lord particularly teaches those to whom the above language is addressed in the following: (1) That they are not of themselves sinless; for “if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:8. (2) That to get rid of these sins, we must in faith in Jesus Christ confess them; for “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Verse 9. (3) That the proof of our knowing Him is not our “claim,” “profession,” or “testimony,” but the test of obedience to what He has commanded; for “hereby we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments,” while “he that saith I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” Ch. 2:3, 4. (4) That this service for God, the doing of His commandments, not in our way, will not be a hard, slavish duty, but a task of love; “for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous.” Ch. 5:3. (5) That there will be spirits abroad in the earth, teaching various things, which we are to test by what God has revealed to us in His Word concerning Jesus Christ. Ch. 4:1-3. Exalting one’s self, or one’s conception of the truth, will always turn one away from the written Word of God, and take from one the only balance which can hold a vacillating humanity.

“How Shall the Sabbath Be Kept?”

—“According to the commandment;” that is the way the holy women who followed Jesus observed the day. Luke 23:56. The Lord declares, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” This does not mean a lazy rest. The rest is from our own labor for our own profit, or pleasure. The best commentaries on the Sabbath law are those given through the prophet Isaiah and Jesus Christ. The former reads: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.” Self is not to be served, but God. “But are we to do no work, build no fire, cook no food?” asks one. That depends on the purpose, the object for which, and the spirit in which, these things are done. Our Saviour’s life is a guide in this. The raving demoniac stood before our Lord on the Sabbath day, and Jesus restored him. He saw, one Sabbath, an impotent man lying at the pool, and He bade him to rise, take up his mat and walk. He goes to the sick bed of Peter’s mother-in-law, touches her with divine power, and she rises on that Sabbath day and serves Him and His disciples. He places His holy hand on the bowed back of a daughter of Israel, on another Sabbath, and she is made whole. His disciples pluck the heads of wheat, shell out the grain, and eat it on another Sabbath day, and Jesus justifies the act. “It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days.” “The Sabbath was made for man.” Works of necessity, of worship, of direct labor for God, have ever been in harmony with the Sabbath law (Matt. 12:3-5); yet works not of necessity, but of presumption and defiant rebellion against God, will be as surely punished as were the same in the wilderness (Num. 15:30-36). He who delights in God will delight in God’s commandments.

The Golden Rule and Labor Troubles

The Golden Rule would help mightily in settling labor troubles, even in this perverted condition of things. But the Golden Rule must be in the heart. It can do no good in law.