Thursday, June 26, 2014
Lesson 1 Our Loving Heavenly Father June 28-July4
ADULT SABBATH SCHOOL BIBLE STUDY GUIDE STANDARD EDITION
The Teachings of Jesus
by: Carlos Steger
The Divine Teacher
Most of us probably remember a great teacher who made an impact on our lives, whom we admired and appreciated. Some teachers transcend their own times and continue to influence subsequent generations. Outstanding teachers have decisively impacted life and thought and are often universally recognized. Jesus, of course, was the greatest Teacher of all.
His contemporaries acknowledged Him as a Teacher, for He exhibited the general characteristics of a first-century rabbi. As was the practice, He would sit down to teach. He often quoted the Scriptures and then commented on them. Finally, Jesus had a group of disciples who attentively listened to His words and followed and served Him. These were the basic attributes of teachers in His time and place.
Fundamental differences between Jesus and the other teachers, however, did exist. While the latter concentrated mostly on the intellectual aspects of a subject, Jesus addressed the whole being of His audience and invited them to make a decision in favor of God. Besides, those who heard Jesus
were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes(Mark 1:22, NKJV). Christ’s authority gained credibility by the fact that He practiced what He taught. But above all, the source of His authority was His own Person. He taught the truth, because He is
the Truth.As God incarnated, He said,
Thus says the Lord,yet would then later add
but I say to you.
This quarter we will study some of the main teachings of Jesus, as recorded in the Gospels. Our Savior taught many things pertaining to our spiritual and practical lives. He presented His teachings to different audiences, being careful to adapt His method to each person. Sometimes He preached a sermon; other times He dialogued with individuals or with groups. Sometimes He spoke openly; other times He had to conceal the meaning of His words. In every case, however, He taught truth about God and salvation.
There could be many ways to organize and expound the teachings of Jesus. It would be possible, for example, to study His parables or to analyze His various sermons. Another approach would be to consider His dialogues with individuals or groups and His discussions with His opponents. Likewise, it would be interesting to focus on His deeds, His attitudes, and His miracles, which were ways He also used to teach important lessons. Each approach would be fruitful, but in order to grasp a comprehensive picture of Jesus’ teachings, this quarter’s lesson study will combine several approaches. It will come at His teachings more systematically, gathering how Jesus taught particular topics on different occasions and in different ways, which will give us a good understanding of most of His teachings.
When we open the Scriptures this quarter and read Jesus’ words, let us picture ourselves among His attentive listeners at the mountainside, by the sea, or in the synagogue. Let us pray for spiritual discernment to understand His message and to grasp His unfathomable love manifested on the cross. And as we hear His tender voice calling us to follow Him, let us renew our commitment to walk daily with Him by faith and in obedience. The more we spend time at His feet, the more we will say, as did the two disciples who were on their way to Emmaus:
'Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us . . . and while He opened the Scriptures to us?(Luke 24:32, NKJV).
Lesson 1*June 28-July 4
Our Loving Heavenly Father
Memory Text:
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him(1 John 3:1, NKJV).
Jesus delighted to speak of God as the Father.
According to the Gospels, Jesus applied the name Father to God more than one hundred thirty times. On various occasions, He added adjectives:
heavenly Father(Matt. 6:14, NKJV),
living Father(John 6:57, NKJV),
Holy Father(John 17:11, NKJV), and
righteous Father(John 17:25, NKJV). The name describes the intimate bond that should unite us to our Lord.
Traditionally, a
fathermeans love, protection, security, sustenance, and identity for a family. A father gives a name to the family and keeps its members together. We can enjoy these and many other benefits when we accept God as our heavenly Father.
Though it is so essential for us to know the Father, our aim should not be just intellectual and theoretical knowledge. In the Bible, to know someone means to have a personal, intimate relationship with him or her. How much more so with our heavenly Father?
This week we will explore what Jesus taught about our Father and about His infinite love for us. We will look, too, at the close relationship of the Father with the Son and with the Holy Spirit.
*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, July 5.
Our Father in Heaven
Father was not a new name for God. The Old Testament sometimes presented Him as our Father (Isa. 63:16; 64:8; Jer. 3:4, 19; Ps. 103:13). However, it was not the most used name for Him. For Israel, the personal name of God was YHWH (probably pronounced Yahweh), which appears more than six thousand eight hundred times in the Old Testament. Jesus did not come to reveal a different God than YHWH. Rather, His mission was to complete the revelation that God had made of Himself in the Old Testament. In doing so, He presented God as our heavenly Father.
Jesus made clear that the Father is
in heaven.It is important to remember this truth in order to have the right attitude toward God. We have a loving Father who is concerned with the needs of His children. At the same time, we recognize that this caring Father is
in heaven,where millions of angels worship Him because He is the only Sovereign of the universe, holy and omnipotent. The fact that He is our Father invites us to approach Him with the confidence of a child. On the other hand, the truth that He is in heaven reminds us of His transcendence and the need to worship Him with reverence. To emphasize one of these aspects at the expense of the other would lead us to a distorted concept of God, with far-reaching consequences for our practical, daily lives.
Read Matthew 7:9-11. What does it tell us about how a human father can reflect the character of our heavenly One?
Not everyone has had a loving, caring father. For different reasons, some may not even have known their father. Therefore, for them to call God my Father may have little, if any, meaning. However, all of us have an idea of what a good earthly father would be. Besides, we may have known some people who did portray the characteristics of a good father.
We know that human fathers are far from perfect, but we also know that we love our children and, in spite of our shortcomings, we try to give them the best we can. Imagine, then, what our Father in heaven can do for us.
What does it mean for you, personally, to address God as your heavenly Father? What should it mean to you?
Revealed by the Son
Talking about the Father, John says:No one has ever seen God(John 1:18, NIV). Since the Fall of Adam and Eve, sin has hindered us from knowing God. Moses wanted to see God, but the Lord explained to him:
You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live(Exod. 33:20, NKJV). Nevertheless, our priority should be to know God, because eternal life is to know the Father (John 17:3).
What do we especially need to know about God? See Jer. 9:23-24. Why are these things important for us to know?
In the great controversy, Satan’s main attack has been against the character of God. The devil made every effort to convince everyone that God is selfish, severe, and arbitrary. The best way to meet this accusation was for Him to live on this earth in order to demonstrate the falsehood of the charges. Jesus came to represent God’s nature and character and to correct the distorted concept that many had developed about the Godhead.
The only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known(John 1:18, RSV).
Read John 14:8-10. Notice how little the disciples knew about the Father after being with Jesus for more than three years. What can we learn for ourselves from their lack of comprehension?
Jesus was sad and astonished to hear Philip’s question. His gentle rebuke actually reveals His patient love toward His dull disciples. Jesus’ response implied something like this: Is it possible that after walking with Me, hearing My words, seeing My miracles of feeding the crowds, of healing the sick and of raising the dead, you do not know Me? Is it possible that you do not recognize the Father in the works that He does through Me? The disciples’ failure to know the Father through Jesus did not mean that Jesus had misrepresented the Father. On the contrary, Jesus was sure that He had fulfilled His mission of revealing the Father in a fuller way than had ever been seen before. Therefore, He could say to the disciples:
If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; . . . He who has seen Me has seen the Father(John 14:7-9, NKJV).
The Love of Our Heavenly Father
Jesus came to emphasize what the Old Testament had already affirmed: the Father looks at us with incomparable love (Jer. 31:3, Ps. 103:13).
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!(1 John 3:1, NKJV). It is amazing that the Almighty God, who rules the immense universe, would allow us insignificant and poor sinners living on a tiny planet in the midst of billions of galaxies to call Him Father. He does so because He loves us.
What supreme evidence did the Father give us to demonstrate His love? See John 3:16-17.
Christ was not nailed to the cross in order to create in the Father’s heart a love for humanity. Jesus’ atoning death was not the means to convince the Father to love us; it happened because the Father had already loved us, even before the foundation of the world. And what greater evidence do we have, could we have, of His love than the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross?
The Father loves us, not because of the great propitiation, but He provided the propitiation because He loves us.— Ellen G. White,Steps to Christ, p. 13.
Some tend to think that the Father is reluctant to love us. Nevertheless, the fact that Jesus is our Mediator does not mean that He has to persuade the Father to love us. Christ Himself dispelled this wrong idea when He said:
the Father Himself loves you(John 16:27, NKJV).
Read Luke 15:11-24 and meditate on the love of the father of the prodigal son. Make a list of the many evidences the son had of his father’s love.
How are we, each of us in our own way, like the prodigal son? In what ways have you experienced something similar to what he did?
The Compassionate Care of our Heavenly Father
It is important to know that we are cared for. Even though some people may be indifferent and neglectful toward us, Jesus taught that our heavenly Father cares for us in every possible way. His mercy and tenderness are not subject to the ups and downs so common in human temperaments; His love is steadfast and unchanging, regardless of the circumstances.
Read Matthew 6:25-34. What encouraging words are found here? How can we learn to better trust in God, as He is revealed in these verses?
There is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel. No calamity can befall the least of His children, no anxiety harass the soul, no joy cheer, no sincere prayer escape the lips, of which our heavenly Father is unobservant, or in which He takes no immediate interest.— Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, p. 100.He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.Psalm 147:3. The relations between God and each soul are as distinct and full as though there were not another soul upon the earth to share His watchcare, not another soul for whom He gave His beloved Son.
Amid all the encouraging words here, we cannot ignore the fact that tragedy and suffering do strike us. Even in the texts for today, Jesus spoke of how
sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof(Matt. 6:34), implying that not everything is going to go well for us. We do have to live with evil and its doleful consequences. The point is, even amid all that, we are assured of the Father’s love for us, a love revealed to us in so many ways, most of all, by the Cross. How crucial, then, that we constantly keep the gifts and blessings of our heavenly Father before us; otherwise, we can easily become discouraged when evil strikes, which it inevitably does.
In what ways, during a time of crisis, were you able to see the reality of God’s love for you? What did you learn from that experience that you can share with someone else who might be struggling and, amid those struggles, questioning the reality of God’s love?
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
In different ways, Jesus taught and demonstrated that three divine Persons constitute the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Although we cannot explain this truth rationally, we accept it by faith (like many of the truths revealed in Scripture), and together with Paul we strive to attain a full
knowledge of the mystery of God(Col. 2:2, NKJV). That is, though there is much we don’t understand, we can seek by faith, obedience, prayer, and study to learn more and more.
The three Persons of the Godhead were active in the key moments of the life of Jesus. Summarize the role of each One in the following events:
Birth: Luke 1:26-35
Baptism: Luke 3:21-22
Crucifixion: Heb. 9:14
When Jesus’ earthly ministry was about to finish, He promised His distressed disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit. Here again we see the three Persons working together.
I will pray the Father,Jesus assured them,
and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, . . . the Spirit of truth(John 14:16-17, NKJV; see also John 14:26).
Jesus explained that there is complete harmony and cooperation between the three Divine Persons in the plan of salvation. As the Son glorified the Father, demonstrating His love (John 17:4), so the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son, revealing His grace (and love) to the world as well (John 16:14).
Think through some of the other revealed truths that are difficult to comprehend through rational thought alone. At the same time, think about many things in the natural world that are similarly difficult to comprehend. What should these mysteries tell us about the limits of our rational thought and the need to live by faith? Bring your answers to class on Sabbath.
Further Study: Ellen G. White, A Personal God,pp. 263-278, in Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8.
In order to strengthen our confidence in God, Christ teaches us to address Him by a new name, a name entwined with the dearest associations of the human heart. He gives us the privilege of calling the infinite God our Father. This name, spoken to Him and of Him, is a sign of our love and trust toward Him, and a pledge of His regard and relationship to us. Spoken when asking His favor or blessing, it is as music in His ears. That we might not think it presumption to call Him by this name, He has repeated it again and again. He desires us to become familiar with the appellation.
God regards us as His children. He has redeemed us out of the careless world and has chosen us to become members of the royal family, sons and daughters of the heavenly King. He invites us to trust in Him with a trust deeper and stronger than that of a child in his earthly father. Parents love their children, but the love of God is larger, broader, deeper, than human love can possibly be. It is immeasurable.— Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, pp. 141, 142.
Our heavenly Father has expressed his love for us individually in the cross of Calvary. The Father loves us, he is full of compassion and tender mercy.— Ellen G. White, The Signs of the Times®, September 30, 1889.
Discussion Questions:
- If someone tells you that he or she has difficulties in loving God and trusting in Him as a heavenly Father because of bad experiences with an earthly father, how could you help this person to love God and have confidence in Him?
- We know God loves us. Why, then, is there suffering?
- As a class, go over your answers to Thursday’s final question.
- Think about the incredible size of the universe. Think, too, that the One who created it, Jesus, was the same One who died for us on the cross. How do we wrap our minds around this incredibly hopeful news? How can we learn to rejoice, moment by moment, in this incredible revelation of God’s love?
On Our Way Rejoicing
I met the Savior while studying in a simple little Adventist school in my home village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. God gave me a burden to spread the message of the Adventist faith, and I began to share my faith in the neighborhood around my home church.
Then I learned about Global Mission and began working to plant a church in an impoverished suburb of Kinshasa. I found a few Adventists in the area and called them together to ask God for guidance to build up His church. These few Adventists brought their friends to study God’s word, and before long 17 more believers were baptized.
I was transferred to another area in Kinshasa, where I found three Adventist families who lived far from the nearest church. We began meeting in a member’s yard every morning at 5:00. The neighbors heard us singing and preaching, and some joined us. The members invited other friends as well. Soon 30 people worshipped together in that little yard.
We’ve continued to grow, and today we have more than 60 adults and children. We’ve outgrown the member’s yard, and we rent an unfinished building that has no roof. We’ve hung a tarp to protect us from the sun and the rain. In spite of the lack of shelter, we are not dismayed. People continue to come. We have begun a Bible study program, and we’re confident that we’ll continue to grow even more.
When the owner of the building in which we worship completes its construction, we will have to find another place to worship. Our members are poor; most don’t have money to feed and clothe their families and can’t help build a house of worship. But we have abundant faith, and we pray that God will provide a house of worship for us.
Recently we learned that Global Mission will help us find land and build a church. We rejoice that the world Church cares about us and will help us build a simple house of worship.
We don’t have Bibles to share with new believers, so it’s difficult to nurture them. Many members can’t afford to pay for public transportation to attend church every week. But our situation is not unique in Africa, and we don’t let our poor circumstances dismay us. We continue on our way rejoicing that the King of heaven is our Father, and He is preparing a heavenly mansion for us there. In the meantime, we thank God for His children everywhere who have not forgotten us and who faithfully give their mission offerings so that more of His children can be gathered in for the great harvest.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. email: info@adventistmission.org website: www.adventistmission.org
Friday, June 20, 2014
Christ's Kingdom and the Law Lesson 13 June 21-27
Lesson 13*June 21-27
Christ's Kingdom and the Law
Read for This Week's Study: Matt. 4:8-9; Dan. 2:44; 1 Pet. 2:11; 1 Cor. 6:9-11; Rev. 22:14-15; 1 Cor. 15:26.
Memory Text:
(Jeremiah 31:33, NKJV).But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people
In 2011 Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, died. He was 56. Years earlier, after a bout with cancer, Jobs called death
the single best invention of lifebecause it forced us to achieve the best we could here. In other words, because our time is so limited, we must try to be as successful as we can now.
Jobs, though, got it backward. What pushed him to seek a greater stake in this world, death (or at least the inevitably of it), should have been what revealed the futility of putting down roots too permanently here, in what's always shallow ground. Sure, Jobs accomplished a lot, but in contrast to a million years or to eternity, what does it matter?
Indeed, we have been promised that this world and all that's in it will be destroyed, and God will establish a new and eternal world where sin and death (all the result of the violation of God's law) will never exist.
This week we'll look at the question of God's eternal kingdom and the role of the law in relation to it.
*Study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, June 28.
The Kingdom of God
When God created the first human beings, He gave them dominion over all things. Adam was to rule the world. However, through violating God's law, he forfeited his right to earthly sovereignty, and ownership went to the archenemy, Satan. When the representatives from the other worlds gathered before God during the time of the patriarchs, it was Satan who appeared as the
delegatefrom earth (Job 1:6).
Read Ephesians 2:2; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Matthew 4:8-9. What do these verses tell us about Satan's power in this world?
What happened during the wilderness temptations is very revealing. Satan offered to give Jesus rulership over all the earthly kingdoms if Jesus would fall down and worship him (Matt. 4:8-9; see also Luke 4:5-7). Jesus came to take the world back from Satan, but He could do so only at the cost of His life. How strong, then, the temptation must have been when Satan stood there and offered to give the world to Him! However, in bowing to Satan, He would have fallen into the same trap as had Adam and, consequently, would also have been guilty of violating His Father's law. Had He done so, the plan of salvation would have been aborted, and we'd be dead in our sins.
Of course, we know that Jesus stayed victorious and, in His victory, we have the assurance and promise of our own, which is life in God's everlasting kingdom, the one depicted in Daniel 2, when the stone cut out without hands destroys all kingdoms of this world. And then, afterwards,
(Dan. 2:44, NKJV).the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever
All the kingdoms depicted in Daniel 2 did everything predicted about them, including the continued disunity in Europe, symbolized by the iron and clay in the toes of the statue. Why should these incredible facts help us trust in the promise of the last kingdom, the one that will
stand forever?
Citizens of the Kingdom
In many nations, those who move there from other countries have to surrender all allegiances to their land of birth if they want citizenship in their new country. However, some countries allow a person to hold dual citizenship; that is, they can pledge allegiance to both places.
There's no such thing as dual citizenship, however, in the great controversy. We are on one side or the other. The kingdom of evil has been battling the kingdom of righteousness for millennia, and it is impossible for a person to be faithful to both at the same time. We all have to make a choice about whose kingdom will have our allegiance.
Read 1 Peter 2:11, Hebrews 11:13, Ephesians 2:12, Colossians 1:13, Deuteronomy 30:19, and Matthew 6:24. What do these texts tell us about the impossibility of
dual citizenshipin the great controversy between Christ and Satan? What role does keeping the law have in helping to show where our citizenship truly resides? See Rev. 14:12.
Once people make a decision to follow Christ, they have chosen to turn their back on the devil's kingdom. He or she is now part of another commonwealth, that of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as a result the person now obeys His rules, His law, His commandments, not those of the devil. The person's obedience, however, isn't universally appreciated?certainly not by the devil, who is anxious to get these people back, and often not by other people as well, who tend to distrust the
strangers and pilgrimsamong them. Despite these obstacles, God has a people whose first allegiance is to Him, not to the
ruler of this world(John 12:31, NKJV).
So often foreigners in a country stand out because they are different. How should we, as Seventh-day Adventists, as
strangers and pilgrims here,stand out, as well? Or do we?
Faith and the Law
The dominant theme in Scripture is simple: God is love. God's love is most potently demonstrated in His grace. With His unlimited power, He could easily have wiped humanity from the face of the earth, but instead He chose to exercise patience and give all a chance to experience the fullness of life in His eternal kingdom. Even more so, His love is revealed in the price that He Himself paid at the Cross.
God's love is also directly related to His justice. Having provided countless opportunities for people to choose their own destiny, the God of love will not force them into a kingdom that they have rejected. When the wicked stand before God's throne in the judgment, they are condemned by their own testimony. No one who stands before the throne can truthfully say that he was unaware of God's requirements. Whether through written or natural revelation, all have been exposed to the basic principles of the law of God (Rom. 1:19-20; 2:12-16).
Read 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and Revelation 22:14-15. Who gets into God's kingdom, who stays out, and why? What role does God's law play here? Also, notice the stark contrast between the two groups!
What's fascinating is that if you put 1 Corinthians 6:11 together with Revelation 22:14, you get faithful Christians who are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; that is, they are
justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law(Rom. 3:28, NKJV); yet, they also keep that law.
It is no arbitrary decree on the part of God that excludes the wicked from heaven: they are shut out by their own unfitness for its companionship. The glory of God would be to them a consuming fire. They would welcome destruction, that they might be hidden from the face of Him who died to redeem them.-Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, p. 18. How do these words better help us to understand the painful topic about the fate of the lost?
The Everlasting Kingdom
God created a perfect world. Sin entered, and that perfect world became severely marred. The story of redemption tells us that Jesus entered human history so that, among other things, the original perfection will be restored. The redeemed will live in a perfect world where love reigns supreme.
As we have seen, love can exist only in a moral universe, only in a universe with moral beings, and to be moral they must also be free. This prompts the question: could evil arise again?
How do Daniel 7:27, John 3:16, and Revelation 21:4 help to answer the question about whether evil will arise again? What is the significance of the term everlasting?
When God created the universe, there were conditions attached to its stability. This is most evident in Genesis 2:17, where Adam was warned that violation of God's expressed command would result in death. The very mention of death indicates that the concept of eternity from a human perspective was conditional. Adam would have experienced eternal life only if he maintained loyalty to God.
However, in the recreated earth, death will no longer be a reality, which means that we will live forever, a fulfillment of the many promises of Scripture. Whether rebellion could occur is really a moot point. The fact is, it won't.
Read Jeremiah 31:31-34. What principle do we see here that helps us to understand why evil won't rise again?
The Messianic kingdom will be comprised of people who maintained loyalty to God throughout their religious experience. In the face of persecution and personal struggles, they chose the path of obedience and demonstrated their willingness to live lives of divine service. God promises to inscribe His law in their hearts so that they will naturally do the things that are pleasing to Him. In the kingdom of Christ, sin is entirely vanquished, and righteousness reigns supreme.
The Law in the Kingdom
Of all the harsh consequences of sin, death has been the most persistent. Sin can be overcome, Satan can be resisted, but with just two known exceptions (Enoch, Elijah) out of billions, who has escaped the inevitability of death?
When it comes to death,wrote an ancient philosopher,
we human beings all live in an unwalled city.
With the power ascribed to death, it is no wonder that just before Christ establishes the Messianic kingdom on earth, He will first utterly destroy death.
There is no question that death is related to sin, which means it's related to God's law, as well; because sin is violation of God's law. Consequently, there can be no sin without the law. Although sin is dependent on the law, the law is independent of sin. That is, the law can exist without sin. In fact, it did so for all the ages until Lucifer rebelled in heaven.
When Satan rebelled against the law of Jehovah, the thought that there was a law came to the angels almost as an awakening to something unthought of. In their ministry the angels are not as servants, but as sons. There is perfect unity between them and their Creator.-Ellen G. White, Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 109.
With this in mind, the absence of death and sin in the kingdom of God does not require the absence of the law. Just as the law of gravity is necessary for the harmonious interaction between the physical elements of the universe, God's moral law is needed to govern the righteous interaction between the saints. When God inscribes His law in the hearts of the redeemed, His sole purpose is to seal their decision to walk in the way of righteousness for eternity. Consequently, His law becomes the very essence of His kingdom. So, we have every reason to believe that the principles of God's moral law will exist in God's eternal kingdom. The difference, of course, is that those principles will never be violated there as they have been here.
Try to imagine the perfect environment of heaven: no fallen natures, no devil to tempt us, no sin, and no death. Now ask yourself: what things in your life and character would not fit very comfortably in such an environment?
"Satan had claimed that it was impossible for man to obey God's commandments; and in our own strength it is true that we cannot obey them. But Christ came in the form of humanity, and by His perfect obedience He proved that humanity and divinity combined can obey every one of God's precepts. . . .
The life of Christ on earth was a perfect expression of God's law, and when those who claim to be children of God become Christlike in character, they will be obedient to God's commandments. Then the Lord can trust them to be of the number who shall compose the family of heaven. Clothed in the glorious apparel of Christ's righteousness, they have a place at the King's feast. They have a right to join the blood washed throng.-Ellen G. White, Christ's Object Lessons, pp. 314, 315.
Discussion Questions:
- Read the Ellen G. White statement in Friday's further study. In what ways are both law and grace revealed in it? Why is it crucial that we always understand them both together? What happens when these concepts are taught apart from each other?
- The introduction to this week's lesson talked about the late Steve Jobs and his claim that the specter of death, our own death, should drive us to accomplish all that we can here. Though there's some truth to that idea, in and of itself it's not enough. It never solves the problem of death itself and what death does to the meaning of the lives that precede it. In fact, after Jobs' death, the cover of The New Yorker magazine depicted St. Peter, iPad in hand, checking Steve Jobs in at the pearly gates. Though that might be cute, what lesson can we learn from the fact that there probably won't be any iPads, or anything that Steve Jobs created here in heaven?
- What things are on the earth now that will last forever? What won't last past the final destruction of this world? Why is it crucial that we know the difference between them?
A Place to Share
When Stephanie found life difficult in her public school in Denmark, her parents enrolled her in the local Adventist school. The family wasn't Adventist, but Stephanie quickly made friends and settled in to her new school.
The school's religious teachings in Bible class seemed strange, but Stephanie's new friends talked to her about their faith, and she began to understand that the Adventist Church simply follows the Bible. Her friends invited her to Sabbath School and offered to take her to spend the entire day with them.
Stephanie found worship on Sabbath refreshing and vibrant. When she was 12, she gave her life to Christ. But her parents objected when she asked to be baptized. They wanted her to join their traditional church. Reluctantly, Stephanie attended her parents' church catechism classes, but her heart wasn't in it.
Stephanie was pleased when her parents allowed her to attend the Adventist boarding high school. The school provided a stable faith environment, and her friends and teachers became her family. Finally when she was 17, Stephanie convinced her mother to give her permission to be baptized. "My friends and my teachers nurtured my faith and helped me grow strong."
Stephanie is now studying in a nearby university. She joined an Adventist café church, a church plant focused on reaching young people. The café church meets in the afternoon in the basement they share with a traditional Adventist congregation. About 30 young people attend worship each week. The youth-oriented congregation has formed small groups that meet for Bible study and prayer. They also hold social meetings with refreshments to attract community members. Anyone is invited.
During the town's yearly festival, the café church provides activities to draw young people to their booth. "We serve homemade waffles, offer a bouncing castle for some fun, and have short singing times during which we invite visitors to come to the café church on Sabbath afternoon. And we get many interests," Stephanie adds.
While interest in religion in post-modern and secular Denmark is fading, outreach programs such as café churches and international church congregations, are drawing those wanting to know who God is.
Our mission offerings help fund Adventist schools such as the ones Stephanie attended, where she met her Savior. Recent Thirteenth Sabbath Offerings have helped support outreach in Denmark by providing less traditional worship services such as the café church for young adults and international churches that attract guest workers and international students who come to the country seeking a vibrant worship experience. Thank you for helping revive the Adventist Church in Denmark.
Stephanie Behrendt shares her faith in Denmark.
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. email: info@adventistmission.org website: www.adventistmission.org
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