Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic
The Book of Acts
Lesson 1. You Will Be My Witnesses
The "grandest" thing that ever happened in the Seventh-day Adventist Church is introduced to us in the next 13 weeks of Bible study. Wednesday's lesson "Preparing for Pentecost" alludes to it.
"Grandest"? Well, that depends on how you think of the Day of Pentecost in the Book of Acts. Heaven came down and the apostles "were all filled with the Holy Spirit." The great gospel commission to all the world began. That light has shown throughout the long centuries since. It was "the former rain" of the Holy Spirit.
Ellen White said the message "the Lord in His great mercy sent" in 1888 was Pentecost repeated. The message itself was the initial "showers from heaven of the latter rain," "the beginning" of the Loud Cry yet to "lighten the earth with glory," the fulfillment of Revelation 18. [1]
"Another angel" must come down from heaven having "great power."
If you had lived 2000 years ago, you wouldn't want to sleep through the great Day of Pentecost, would you? Our problem now is that "we" did not receive the Latter Rain when God tried to give it to us. We still await its coming.
But the message has been preserved in the archives, and thousands worldwide are discovering why Ellen White was overjoyed to hear it.
The intimate revelation of Jesus in Acts will be the essence of the "most precious message" that Ellen White said will in a phenomenal way "carry the truth to the world as the apostles proclaimed it after the day of Pentecost." She says it will be "the light that is to lighten the whole earth with its glory." [2] That's far greater than all our evangelistic efforts combined—thus far in our denominational history.
That final message that will bring to a glorious close the gospel proclamation to "every nation, kindred, tongue, and people," will transcend the fear-curdling impact that we have always assumed will scare people at last to "come out of Babylon." That great and seemingly impossible "if" of John 12:32, 33 which has for nearly 2000 years limited the best efforts of the church of all ages to truthfully fulfill Christ's commission, will at last be bridged in the repentance of the ages: "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all [people] unto Me. This He said, signifying what death he should die."
Thus the message of Revelation 18 will be a "lifting up" of Christ as crucified and dying. "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). This is what Ellen White says in direct context with the 1888 message: "The theme that attracts the heart of the sinner is Christ, and Him crucified. ... Present Him thus to the hungering multitudes, and the light of His love [agape] will win men from darkness to light, from transgression to obedience and true holiness." [3]
As the "remnant" church of Revelation 12:17 and 14:12 finally receives the "most precious message" which "the Lord in His great mercy sent" to us in 1888, every Seventh-day Adventist church in the world will be transformed and acquire the reputation of being the place to go to hear Christ uplifted. It will be a new public image that replaces our old reputation of being the church where "we have preached the law until we are as dry as the hills of Gilboa," says Ellen White. [4] Implicit in the next 13 weeks of Sabbath School study is a revelation of that heart-gripping truth.
In the "Disciples' Mission" (Monday) the early Christians did what the modern term calls "evangelize," that is, they told everybody they met about Jesus. That word is often misunderstood today—assumed to mean "get people to join your church, increase the numbers of its membership." No; the word actually means "tell good news." And the people already in church often need to hear and understand what the good news means, just as much as people outside. And people outside most of the time won't be interested in joining the church unless you can tell them what the good news is and why the Lord Jesus ever established a "church."
Jesus explained the "core message" they were to tell. "Thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things" (Luke 24:46-48).
The message will create and establish for every one who believes the seemingly elusive relationship ("fellowship" is a better word) with the Lord that our Sabbath School Quarterly speaks of so often. That relationship is not something that we acquire by our works of Bible study, prayer, and witnessing. Rather, the fellowship is given to us; it comes through beholding the Christ who suffered and rose again.
There is a corporate sense in which the world church "shall look upon [Him] whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him" until it can be said truthfully and in finality, "in that day there shall be a fountain opened ... for sin and for uncleanness" (Zech. 12:10-13:1).
Such repentance includes the actual "remission of sins," that is, sending them away (Luke 24:47). The New Testament word for forgiveness means a separation from sin, a deliverance from its power. True repentance thus actually makes it impossible for a believer in Christ to continue living in sin. The love of Christ supplies the grand motivation, a change in the life (2 Cor. 5:15).
You find a kind of joy in the experience: "The sadness that is used by God brings a change of heart that leads to salvation—and there is no regret in that! But sadness that is merely human causes death. See what God did with this sadness of yours: how earnest it has made you. ... Such indignation, such alarm, such feelings, such devotion" (2 Cor. 7:10, 11, Good News Bible).
Peter manifested genuine repentance. We can identify with him, for he failed miserably, yet he accepted the precious gift of repentance which Judas refused. After basely denying his Lord with cursing, Peter "went out and wept bitterly" (Mark 14:71; Luke 22:62).
Repentance is to never cease with us. Always afterward tears glisten in our eyes as we think of our sin in contrast to the Lord's kindness to us. In addition, tears of contrition are happy tears. The tempest of contrition always brings the rainbow of divine forgiveness. Even medical scientists recognize there is wholesome healing therapy in tears of contrition, for men as well as for women. We ruin our health and shorten our lives when we resist or suppress the tenderness, the melting influence of God's Spirit that tries to soften our hard hearts.
--Paul E. Penno
Endnotes:
[1] See The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, pp. 1336, 1337, and Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, pp. 91, 92; 1888 Materials, p. 1478; Review and Herald, Nov. 22, 1892.
[2] Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book one, pp. 234, 235.
[3] Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, Nov. 22, 1892.
[4] See for example, Review and Herald, March 11, 1890.
Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at:
https://youtu.be/FDU9WaAEwN0
"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888message.org/sst.htm
| RR |
