Part 12

The Doxology.--"For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen" (Matthew 6:13). This is an ascription of praise showing that in God is vested all power and glory, that there is no kingdom above His kingdom and that He is supreme over all. Before Him must come all things for judgment. He alone is to be worshipped, for in Him is all power and truth and goodness. "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all" (1 Chronicles 29:11,12; Psalm 115:1; Ephesians 3:20,21).

ANSWERS TO PRAYER

Nothing could indicate more plainly that God cares for and loves men, and is not indifferent to their wants, than the great stream of prayer flowing through the Bible. He is not a God afar off, neither has He wound up the universe as a great machine and left it to its fate. He is in touch with His people. He hears them when they cry to Him. He is long-suffering, merciful and righteous. Happy is the man who loves God with all his heart and who seeks constantly to commune with Him.

Notable Instances of Prayer, and the response of God, are shown in the following passages of Scripture. Abraham (Genesis 20:17), Jacob (Genesis 32:24-31), Moses (Numbers 11:2), Samuel (1 Samuel 12:18), Elijah (1 Kings 18:37-46), Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:2-6), Ezra (9:5-15), Daniel (9:3-27), Jesus Christ (Matthew 6:6-15; John 17), The Apostles (Acts 1:14; 4:31), Peter (Acts 12:5-11), Paul and Silas (Acts 16:25-32), Prophets and teachers at Antioch (Acts 13:1-3) and Paul and the elders at Ephesus (Acts 20:36).

QUESTIONS

The province of prayer; give a definition of prayer. What are the different kinds and places of prayer? What can be said of the approach of man to God? What is right knowledge of God? Right attitude of heart to God? Right subjects of prayer? What has persistency to do in praying to God? What can be said of the approach of God to man? How does the Bible and Christian experience testify of this approach of God to man? What is the great outside difficulty urged against God's approach to man and what can be said of it? What is the model prayer? Give the divisions of the model prayer and explain them. What can be said of answers to prayer?

STUDY VIII

THE CHRISTIAN SERVICE

Scripture references: Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 10:1-17; Matthew 25:14-30; 23; 13; John 13:4-17; Hebrews 12:1-3; Matthew 5:16; 1 Corinthians 3:13-15; James 2:14-26.

THE CALL TO SERVICE

All Christian belief must culminate in service or else the belief itself will wither away. Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16); again, in giving His parting instructions to His disciples, He commanded, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations" (Matthew 28:19,20). "Faith, if it hath not works, is dead" (James 2:17).

The New Testament rings with an optimistic trumpet call to service; there is not a single pessimistic note sounded. A man expresses his belief and he at once goes to work. To the fact that men were so willing to lead a strenuous Christian life in those early times is due in large measure the marvellous spread of the gospel faith.

The Object of the Call was not a cause but a Person (Acts 1:8; 2:22,36,38; 4:12; 10:43; 16:31); to set forth Jesus Christ as the Saviour of men. The world was full of evil. Society was corrupt. The state was bad. There were many giant wrongs crying out for the reformer. The apostles might have devoted themselves to the causes of social and political reform with splendid success. They might have bought only a gradual and purely friendly approach to the people whom they wished to influence, as we often do now, with some success, but the New Testament writings show that they believed that in the person of Jesus Christ they had a more powerful remedy for bad social and political conditions than any other which they could urge. In Christ they found a supreme object of service; for Him they were willing to give up houses, lands, position, even life itself (2 Timothy 4:6-8); for only through Him, they preached, could the world be truly reformed. Why then potter with temporary and minor remedies when the permanent and great remedy was at hand? Times have changed since the apostolic days, but for any lasting good in reform work Christ is still the great remedy. He must be at the centre of all social, political and temperance betterments or they are destined to fall short of the largest success.

The Place.--Where shall men serve the Christ?

1. In the heart; there is a goodness of conduct on the part of some men which has no relation to their heart's desire and is simply a cloak worn for appearance's sake. With this sort of goodness Jesus had no sympathy and denounced it as hypocrisy (Matthew 6:1-34; 23:27, 28). Christ's service must commence with an inward conformity to the law of God. This necessity for a new heart is very clearly brought out in His conversation with Nicodemus (John 3:1-21).

2. In the home. Jesus said to a man whom He had healed, "Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee" (Mark 5:19). Anything that strengthens the home strengthens society and the state. Good homes are essential for the bringing up of children and the making of right characters. But it is in the home that the real testing often comes of a professed Christianity; if a Christian life can be lived and manifested here it is quite sure to stand the outward strain.

3. In the community. The disciples of Christ were commanded to begin their first service in Jerusalem (Acts 1:4,8), where Jesus had been the most persecuted and was finally crucified. It was no easy task for them to begin to preach Jesus, where they were the most looked down upon. But the command was justified when the day of Pentecost came with the marvellous moving power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). There can be no clearer teaching from this than that a Christian man should begin to serve Christ, testify for Him and work for Him in the community in which he resides no matter what the adverse conditions are. Here is the sanction for home missions.

4. Abroad. "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:18-20). The field of service broadens out from the heart until it takes in the whole world and every class and condition of men. Man under the guidance of Christ is led not only to think of saving himself, his home, his community, but all homes and communities however remote they may be from his own. Here is the sanction for foreign missions.

The urgency of the call is everywhere manifest in the New Testament. In the three years of His ministry Jesus Christ is incessant in His labours, calling upon men to turn to Him (Matthew 11:28-30). He urges watchfulness, prayerfulness, and earnestness in seeking to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 11:12; 25:13; 26:41; Mark 14:38; Luke 11:9,10). Paul declared, "Woe is me, if I preach not the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:16), and he urges Timothy to "preach the word" and to be "instant in season and out of season" (2 Timothy 4:1,2).

A conflict is going on in the world and those who believe in Christ are besought to take every possible opportunity and every means to advance His gospel and cause men to accept Him as their Saviour (Ephesians 6:10-18).

THE PATTERN OF SERVICE

The world of men is frequently more easily moved by the force of example than by precept.

Christ declared Himself to be the great exemplar of the Christian life. He said, "I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you" (John 13:15; 12:32; 1 Peter 2:21). He practiced what He preached.

Personal Work.--In winning persons to the new life there is an admitted need of a work of the individual for the individual, but it is a task from which many draw back. Yet it is right here that the most effective service may be accomplished. Every man who receives Christ becomes in a certain sense a trustee to enlist others in His service and to give to them the light of life. Christ said to His followers, "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me" (Acts 1:8).

Jesus was no recluse, He went out amongst men and sought them (Mark 10:45) in the market-place, in the fields and by the lakeside. Everywhere He entered into personal conversation, with those whom He met, about the kingdom of God; now it was with Nicodemus (John 3:1-21), then again with the woman of Samaria (John 4:4-26) and others. This personal work of Christ with individuals shows the importance He attached to the winning of persons one by one to Himself. Many of the most important teachings are brought out in His personal conversations.

"The win one movement" which has been inaugurated in certain churches is very important. It had its incentive in the narrative of John (1:40-51), who tells us how Andrew won Peter and Philip won Nathanael by personal appeals to follow Christ. If all the followers of Christ in all the churches would each win one soul for Christ every year there would be no more complaints about decadent churches.

Training Others for Service.--Personal work has its limitations in the time and strength of the individual who does it. Jesus thoroughly understood this fact and at the outset of His ministry began to train a band of followers who would carry on His work after His resurrection. Not only did He train a select company of twelve but also other men. We read in Luke, the ninth chapter, that He sent out His twelve disciples to do the work which He had been doing, and in the tenth chapter we are told that "other seventy" were also appointed to carry on a similar work. Careful instructions were given the seventy as to what they should do. The need (Luke 10:2) and the danger (v. 3) of the work were impressed upon them. They were instructed how they were to approach the people, what they were to teach and what they were to do in case they were rejected (vs. 4-11). They returned from their journey with great joy over its success (v. 17).

This multiplication of self through the inciting and training of others to do work in which the individual is interested often leads to far-reaching results. There are many people who desire to advance a cause and are willing to devote themselves to it, but they have no power to set about it themselves. There is any quantity of this usable and helpful material, in our churches, ready to be made of service for the Master. Here is the waste that every professing Christian is not set to advance the kingdom of God. It is not only what a Christian may do himself, but what he can get others to do, which counts.