Lesson 7. Servant Leadership

Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic

"Feed My Sheep": First and Second Peter
Lesson 7. Servant Leadership

 

Jesus Christ is our premier example of what servant leadership in the church looks like. His self-denying love brought Him to this wicked world where He gave Himself unstintingly, holding back nothing, to the service of mankind. Jesus "humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:8).

If we possess that same attitude of humility and submission to God, Christian leaders from our local churches and all the way up to the General Conference, will exhibit the crucial characteristics vitally needed to carry the three angels' messages forward to completion. No matter how extensive or advanced, knowledge without appropriate self-denial builds pride and does not advance the work of God.

The apostle Paul's history provides much insight for this week's lesson. Paul was a talented theologian with plenty of advanced knowledge and abundant zeal for what he believed was truth, but these could not progress the work of God as he exercised them prior to his conversion.

Paul accepted the prevailing opinion that Jesus was crucified as a common criminal and therefore, according to the views of the leaders of the Jews, could not be the promised Messiah. Christianity was looked upon as a pernicious superstition. That someone could rise from the grave was considered to be utter foolishness. Faith in the risen Christ was viewed as obstinacy and a religious perversity. These pestilential ideas were deemed worthy of repression and persecution because they overturned the "tradition of the elders" and threatened the established religious order of things.

By the time of Christ, the truth of the everlasting covenant given to Adam, Noah, Abraham, and David had long been eclipsed by tradition and legalism that supplanted pure faith in God's power to deliver His people from sin. The Pharisees were preaching "the law until [they] were as dry as the hills of Gilboa that had neither dew nor rain" [1], while the Sadducees undermined God's word with their doubts concerning righteousness and life after death, leaving the laypeople famished for spiritual nourishment and hope of eternal life.

The leadership--priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees--of the Jewish church had become elevated to such an exalted position that they felt that no one could question their theological proclamations. Their word was law and ought to be obeyed simply because of the high position they held in the church and community. They remained unchallenged until Christ came to town.

Jesus was the premier example of a religious teacher and humble servant to those in need. For three and a half years, He met the Jewish theologians on their own ground, bringing glad tidings to those persons who were spiritually weary and heavily burdened by the many additions to God's Commandments that these "pious" church men had formulated and stipulated as being necessary for salvation.

These Jewish leaders hounded Jesus throughout Judea and in Jerusalem, continually challenging Him to debates in hopes of finding fault in His teachings that they might openly condemn Him before the people. As Jesus' earthly ministry was nearing its end, the high priest and Sanhedrin (comparable to a "general conference" of the Jewish faith) increased their plotting to kill Him. Jesus was a threat to their cherished doctrines and power over the people. Their political and religious positions, and reputations were in serious danger if the common people continued to follow this Man from Nazareth in ever increasing numbers.

Even after Christ was killed, the danger continued through the Spirit-led disciples who had been eyewitnesses to the power of Jesus' resurrection. An emissary of those legalistic theologians who were struggling to maintain their control of the people's thinking, was Saul [hereafter referred to as Paul]. By any standard, he was a terrorist who persecuted innocent Christians simply because they chose to believe a different message than the one taught in the Temple and synagogues by the Jewish leadership.

On his way to Damascus with orders from the high priest to arrest Christians living there, Paul was in reality headed for a divine appointment. It seemed impossible that someone like Paul--young, impetuous, and so full of theological fire and self-assurance--could be humbled in the dust and turned into a servant of the One he hated. But the Lord intended to turn Paul's theological knowledge and spiritual talents for good instead of evil.

Approaching the city, "suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven" and Paul had his pride adjusted when he was knocked from his horse to the ground (Acts 9:3, 4). Before and during that journey Paul was absolutely convinced of the correctness of his theological position. However, that confrontation with Jesus shook Paul to the foundation of his beliefs. He was confronted by his sin, and his need of Jesus as his Saviour was made clear to him. Paul had been "kicking against the pricks"--resisting the work of the Holy Spirit who was trying to convert Saul the fire-breathing legalist, into Paul the New Testament's humble servant leader, and foremost preacher of righteousness by faith in Christ.

Eighteen hundred and fifty years later, on a dismal rainy afternoon in 1882, young Ellet J. Waggoner sat in a gospel tent in Healdsburg, California, listening to a boring sermon. Suddenly he felt that a light illuminated the area around him, and he caught a vision of the reality of the cross of Christ, not as a dry historical event of eighteen hundred years before, but as present truth. Waggoner suddenly realized that Christ loved him and died for him personally. That singular event stirred Waggoner's heart and mind, sending him on a lifelong study of the Bible's foundational principle of the everlasting covenant.

Four years later, Waggoner began to publish his views on the two covenants in the Signs of the Times magazine. In these articles, he introduced ideas that were contrary to the established opinions of a large portion of the church leaders. At the 1886 General Conference session, Waggoner presented his view that the law in Galatians was the moral law. G. I. Butler and Uriah Smith (then General Conference president, and Review and Herald editor, respectively) took umbrage to Waggoner's position. It directly challenged their cherished view that the law in Galatians was the ceremonial law. They felt that Waggoner's view threatened the foundational teachings of the church and would seriously hinder evangelism work on the Sabbath truth.

The resulting conflict has not been much different than what occurred at the time Christ was crucified. Under the power of the early rain Peter, God's humbled servant leader, stood up and preached the risen Saviour to a doubting crowd, declaring Him to be the only means of salvation from sin. The established, prideful theologians in A.D. 34 and in 1888 attempted to stonewall the work God was completing in His remnant people. The early rain proceeded under the work of the faithful apostles, but in 1888 the beginning of the latter rain was stymied by persistent unbelief.

In 1888 two young men preached more fully the meaning of Christ's sacrifice and work of redemption. "Great truths that had lain unheeded and unseen since the day of Pentecost" were presented "in their native purity." [2] Had the church leadership in 1888 humbly and prayerfully listened to the Holy Spirit's message sent to them through A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner (and endorsed by Ellen White), then as God's servant leaders, they would have been prepared to proclaim the three angels' messages to the world under the power of the latter rain. But "an unwillingness to yield up preconceived opinions," and "because of insubordination" we have had to remain in this dark world "many more years" than God intended. [3]

It remains for us to receive this latter rain power and finish the work entrusted to us as God's remnant people. We have been cautioned to "be careful, every one of you, what position you take, whether you enshroud yourselves in the clouds of unbelief because you see imperfections [in Waggoner and Jones's characters]; you see a word or a little item, perhaps, that may take place, and judge them from that. You are to see what God is doing with them, ... and then you are to acknowledge the Spirit of God that is revealed in them. And if you choose to resist it you will be acting just as the Jews acted." [4]

--Ann Walper

Endnotes:
[1] Ellen G. White, "Christ Prayed for Unity Among His Disciples," Review and Herald, March 11, 1890.
[2] Ellen G. White, Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 473.
[3] Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 234, 235; Evangelism, pp. 695, 696.
[4] The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, vol. 2, pp. 608, 609.

Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: https://youtu.be/M7GdCijnNlI

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: 1888message.org/sst.htm

RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

Lesson 6. Suffering for Christ

Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic

"Feed My Sheep": First and Second Peter
Lesson 6. Suffering for Christ

 

Have you ever been persecuted for Christ? If honesty forces you to say No, then you have never been fully "blessed." You are deprived! The word "persecution" has come to mean primarily suffering unjust opposition or affliction from religious authorities. When people who are openly godless attack you, it is easier to bear than when those who profess to be servants of God do it. Jesus says, "Blessed are ye, when [people] shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad ... for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you" (Matt. 5:11, 12).

Why is such persecution so painful for sincere people to endure? Church fellowship is like family fellowship, often more intimately so. It's like yanking a plant out of the ground by its roots; it soon withers. Where is Jesus when that happens to you? We can find the answer in John 9: Jesus had healed the man born blind; the Jewish clergy harassed him, persecuted him, finally "cast him out" of his "church fellowship," the synagogue. "Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and ... He ... found him" (vs. 35). For Jesus to find him and be with him was part of the "blessing" that He promised to those who are persecuted for His sake.

Often in sacred history, God's faithful servants have labored unselfishly and yet have either been rejected outright or have suffered at the hands of God's true people being unappreciated. An example is the story of the message brought by two young men (A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner) at a great General Conference Session in 1888 when Ellen White was almost the only person present who expressed appreciation for their work and their message. Solomon said, "The poor man's wisdom is despised" (Eccl. 9:16), the very word Ellen White used repeatedly to describe the reception this heaven-sent message received among "us" well over a century ago.

But there's another way to look at "suffering for Christ." There's a reverse to this "coin"--instead of our downtrodden suffering it can be a cause for rejoicing.

When Jesus said that those who mourn are happy people (Matt. 5:4), He shocked everybody. As Luke reports the statement, he has Jesus saying, "Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh" (Luke 6:21).

It may not appear on the surface to be true, but like many things that Jesus says, there is a profound reality involved. When you shed tears in morning, if you believe the gospel, you are in fact realizing a point of intimate contact with Christ, the Son of God. The secret is revealed in 1 Peter 4:13 which says, "Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy."

Have you ever felt that your life has been a failure? Some who have lost a love or suffered divorce feel pained to their roots; some have suffered the loss of good health and pray and nothing happens. In sober moments they think of the final Judgment and wonder how they will fare. Burdens can be heavy. And it's not just those far along in life who wrestle thus; teenagers can know what depression is. You are overwhelmed that there is nobody anywhere who really understands you. You are alone.

And then the Holy Spirit reminds you of Jesus. Did He sail through life laughing, always on top? Did He ever wake up at night unable to sleep, feeling a failure? Yes! There is a passage in Isaiah that can be authored by no one else than Jesus: "Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent My strength for nought, and in vain" (49:4). Isaiah actually wrote the words but he did so as a prophecy of Jesus (see verses 1-3). You'd think such a person would never be tempted to feel His life is a failure! But He was "in all points tempted like as we are" (Heb. 4:15).

He took all that is ours upon Himself, carrying the burden of feeling a failure further than we could: He felt that even His Father had "forsaken" Him in the darkest moment any human has ever known. The very thing your whole soul longs for--to live for a purpose--requires that you get acquainted with Jesus, to "taste" His experience, to know at least a little something of what it means to be "despised and rejected of men" (53:3). True, you'll be different forever after. You can't join in the laughter of the social scene; you'll feel driven to "pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly" (Matt. 6:6).

It will be a rich experience. You'll find you can't live without praying to Him "in secret." You'll forget about setting your alarm clock to wake up and "have your devotions"; the Father will wake you up because He is hungry for fellowship with you! You'll know the Savior as Someone you never dreamed of--who loves you differently than how you pity your dog: He actually honors you as one of the princes or princesses in His realm, He even invites you to "sit down with [Him] in His throne" (Rev. 3:21). Don't despise being "a partaker of Christ's sufferings" (1 Peter 4:12, 13). Life is not ending; it's just begun.

What does it mean to be "a partaker of Christ's sufferings," and how is it cause for rejoicing?

Paul's (and Christ's) oft-repeated theme is "identity." As the "second" or "last Adam" Christ entered the stream of our fallen humanity, became one with us so truly that as we are all "in Adam" by birth, so we "all" are "in Christ" by virtue of His redemption of the entire human race (1 Cor. 15:22). So truly does He identify with us that Isaiah says, "In all their affliction He was afflicted" (Isa. 63:9). This is why He tells everybody at last, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren [good or ill], ye have done it unto Me" (Matt. 25:40). He truly feels the woe of the world!

This identity is reciprocated when we appreciate how He has identified with us--we believe, "abide, remain in Him." Our appreciation of His suffering now ennobles and sanctifies our suffering so that, as Peter says, we become "partakers of His sufferings." The principle is all-inclusive: "If we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him" (2 Tim. 2:11, 12).

The resulting comfort is enormous. The believer sees how important he or she is in the infrastructure of God's universe: "For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ [we do something for Him!], not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake" (Phil. 1:29), and (amazing thought!) we make a contribution to the great controversy between Christ and Satan in that we "fill up that which is behind [something is lacking which must be supplied!] of the afflictions of Christ in [our] flesh for His body's sake, which is the church" (Col. 1:24).

This "partaking" in no way contributes to our salvation, but it enables us to be happy when we meet Him at last, knowing that we have something intimate in common with Him! He actually invites those who suffer in these last days to "sup with Him," inasmuch as they have "overcome even as [He] overcame."

Therefore don't be surprised if He permits a little suffering to come your way! These thoughts only scratch the surface of glorious Good News.

--From the writings of Robert J. Wieland

Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: https://youtu.be/R4JsLX80jBE

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: 1888message.org/sst.htm

RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

Lesson 5. Living for God

Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic

"Feed My Sheep": First and Second Peter
Lesson 5. Living for God

 

Why do some people have an easy time through life, and others have sorrow and pain? Or, to ask the question in a more pointed way, Why do good people have to suffer?

There is a phenomenon that it seems every sincere believer in Christ must experience. You must learn what to do when it seems that God is against you. Many in the Bible had to wrestle with that problem. Take Peter, for example, he writes: "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin" (1 Peter 4:1).

As Jesus hung on His cross, everything was against Him: His friends had all forsaken Him, one had betrayed Him, another had denied Him, and His own people were crucifying Him, and it appeared as though the Father in heaven had turned a deaf ear against Him.

And there have been others, all through history: Abel served God faithfully, yet had to endure murder for it by his own brother; Noah had to endure 120 years of unrelenting sunshine without a cloud in the sky because he believed what God had said--a rain flood was coming. Finally in that last week as he and his family were inside the ark, his faith was severely tried as the people outside were laughing and ridiculing him--"where's the rain, you fool?"

Abraham waits 25 long years for the fulfillment of God's promise to give him a son through whom "all families of the earth [shall] be blessed" (Gen. 12:3), and then when the lad grows up a bit, Abraham is told to offer him as a sacrifice.

David, anointed by the prophet Samuel to be king of Israel, for ten years is driven into the wilderness by an insane king Saul, David apparently forsaken by God; on one occasion his own loyal followers threatened to stone him.

Jeremiah has to endure 40 plus years of continual rejection, only at the end to see his beloved Jerusalem and the Temple destroyed; more than once he was tempted to give up in despair.

Paul has a "thorn in the flesh" that troubles him; three times he begs the Lord to deliver him from it, and He says, No, Paul, don't pray about it any more; "My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:8, 9).

And let's not forget Stephen: he realized the blessing of the Holy Spirit as he preached his last sermon only to have to kneel down and feel those stones pelting him.

And there are the Waldenses and other faithful Christians in the Dark Ages who served God and had to die as martyrs. What do you do when it seems God has forsaken you? You still believe Him.

We conservative Christians are steeped in the idea that we must be punished for our sins, we must pay the price. But the Bible teaches an idea known as the gospel, a concept of good news that says that Christ has already endured the punishment for our sins. He has paid the price, "exhausted the penalty" Ellen White has said [1], because "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53:6). "His own self bare our sins in His own body ... by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Peter 2:24). "Christ ... hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (3:18).

The suffering that Jesus endured was for our sins, the just for the unjust. His suffering included not only verbal and physical abuse, but death. The New Testament includes the concept that those who accept Jesus as their Saviour enter into His suffering and death. This concept can be described as solidarity on the part of the repentant sinner and his Lord--a shared identity, a corporate experience--a beautiful idea embedded in the 1888 message.

Peter says, "Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind" (1 Peter 4:1). The apostle Paul gives a similar admonition: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:5-8). That death is our death.

Having described the believer as having entered into the experience of suffering and death to sin in solidarity with Jesus, Peter then says, "He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin" (1 Peter 4:1). Peter is not saying that physical suffering for the cause of Christ automatically absolves us from all sin. Rather, he suggests that we suffer corporately in Christ's suffering and that we die corporately in Christ's death. Because Jesus died once for all for sins (3:18), when we accept Him, we die to sin in solidarity with Him.

What does that mean for the suffering Christian? Christ has already borne our fate. The punishment is over. There is now no fearful looking for judgment; if only you can hear and believe this good news. According to John 3:16-19, the only thing you have to be afraid of, is your own unbelief.

We may think that our sorrows are not a fellowship with Christ in His sufferings; but they are. We can claim His participation. "God never leads His children otherwise than they would choose to be led, if they could see the end from the beginning, and discern the glory of the purpose which they are fulfilling as coworkers with Him. Not Enoch, who was translated to heaven, not Elijah, who ascended in a chariot of fire, was greater or more honored than John the Baptist, who perished alone in the dungeon. ... Of all the gifts that Heaven can bestow upon men, fellowship with Christ in His sufferings is the most weighty trust and the highest honor." [2]

The secret is to discern wherein our sufferings are like His for us to share His sufferings, to sense how His heart is touched with the tremendous weight of grief around the world. Oh that we could long for Christ's coming for His sake, not ours.

--Paul E. Penno

Endnotes:
[1] Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book 1, p. 340; God's Amazing Grace, p. 139.
[2] Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, pp. 224, 225.

Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: https://youtu.be/WjoySwbWHMU

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: 1888message.org/sst.htm

RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

Lesson 4. Social Relationships

Sabbath School Today With the 1888 Message Dynamic "Feed My Sheep": First and Second Peter Lesson 4. Social Relationships   The lesson this week concerns social relationships. Peter is generally considered the most gregarious and impulsive of all the twelve disciples. That impulsiveness is something most of us can relate to, and like Peter, most of us have suffered the consequences of speaking or acting in haste. Our lesson looks at several different kinds of relationships and uses Peter's instruction to guide us in relating to others. Rather than thinking of Peter's letters as manuals of conduct, let's examine the underlying principles that Peter is trying to illustrate. It is impossible to appreciate the value heaven places on another human being without an understanding of what Jesus accomplished for everyone on His cross, and what it cost Him to do that: 1. He "poured out His soul unto death" (Isa. 53:12). 2. He could not have emptied Himself more. Like when one turns a glass upside down to drain it to its last drop, He made a commitment to drain Himself of everything dear to Him, even life (Phil. 2:5-8). 3. He endured the curse of God, which is Heaven's total condemnation (Gal. 3:13). 4. He tasted (the second or final) death for everyone (Heb. 2:9). 5. He gave Himself for our sins, holding nothing back (Gal. 1:4). 6. He went to hell in our behalf in order to save us (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:25-27). 7. He showed us genuine love, the self-emptying agape, so that it could be manifested in us, so we could demonstrate God's love to the world (1 John 4:9-14). The question remains, was this sacrifice sufficient to redeem the human race? Simply showing how unselfish God is does nothing for the human race, because without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sin. In a sense, a demonstration of God's agape love is a collateral effect of the cross. The real purpose of the cross was to redeem the human race from the consequences of our choice to rebel against God's love. All of the self-sacrifice described above was required in order to qualify Jesus to become our Savior and Redeemer. There are those who seek to limit the atonement that Christ accomplished. They teach that Christ did not intend to die for all people. They go so far as to say God didn't mean what Jesus told Nicodemus, "for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son ... (John 3:16), but what was really meant was God loved a certain portion of people. Those people have to be lucky enough to be born into an "elect" class, or have done something special to gain God's attention. But, does the Bible support these ideas? Is the gospel good news to those who are not born into the "elect," or can't manage to do something notable enough to get God's attention in order to gain His favor? Let's look at what the Bible says. The very last page of the Bible contradicts this distorted view: "The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who thirsts come. And whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17). That "whoever" includes you and me! The only condition is that we must "hear" the Spirit and the Bride. The saddest choice on earth is when someone deliberately chooses not to simply hear. Jesus promised: "The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37). God has actually chosen every human being to be saved, but some are unwilling to receive His incredible gift. Isaiah 45:22 tells us, "Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth!" That means everyone on earth who is willing to look to Jesus will be saved. Does this sound too good to be true? It sounds like everybody will be saved. We know the Bible doesn't teach that, so who will be lost? "He who does not believe is condemned ... And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light" (John 3:17-19). Paul tells us some of the best news in Ephesians chapter 1: "The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ... chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, ... having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, ... in [whom] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence" (vss. 3-8). What does all this fabulous good news have to do with social relationships? Everything. Only when we understand that the gospel, full and complete, is freely given to all, can we understand the value of all human beings. Our relationships with everyone from strangers to our most intimate family members must be guided by that knowledge. If heaven values all of us that much, that is the only standard by which we should relate to others. When Paul used the word "love" in the famous "love chapter" in 1 Corinthians 13, he was using the Greek word agape. When we understand the great demonstration of this word that Christ gave to us at His Cross, we understand it is a very specific concept, not to be confused with the general all-purpose English word "love." We must also realize that agape is far too unselfish a concept for us to muster up on our own, because we are born with a self-centered nature that can be overcome only by the power of the Holy Spirit. That applies to the nicest, most unselfish person you have ever known. All good gifts come from above, and greatest of those gifts is genuine agape. No matter how hopeless you might think your case is, the beautiful message given to the church in the 1888 period was that God through His Spirit is able to change a stony heart into softness, tenderness, and love. Once that happens, it will pour out freely as Christ has given to you into all your social relationships, be they government, social, church, or family. God can heal everything. If we remember that, we can be patient and humble in working with those who haven't yet discovered this wonderful truth. --Arlene Hill Notes: Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: https://youtu.be/JZjTpMW_ECg "Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: 1888message.org/sst.htm  RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

Sabbath School Lesson # 3 |"A Royal Priesthood"

Lesson 3. A Royal Priesthood

Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic

"Feed My Sheep": First and Second Peter
Lesson 3. A Royal Priesthood

 

If you believe, like many evolutionists, that you are only an animal and not a "son of God," then you have no self-respect. Neither do you have any real hope. You will live in squalor and filth (as do millions of people) and instead of doing something about it to improve your life, you will "forget" about your "misery" by drinking. This is exactly what is happening to millions of people. They are content to drink themselves deeper into "poverty and unhappiness."

True Bible teaching shows that in Christ all men and women are "kings." Before his fall, Adam was the king of the earth and was called "the son of God" (Luke 3:38). But by his sin he lost his exalted honor and passed into a condition of servitude. All we, his descendants, have fallen "in Adam," through sin.

The important point is that God has not left us in that low position. Christ has redeemed what was lost and has recaptured that "first dominion; the kingdom" (Micah 4:8). He conquered Satan and wrested the lordship from him. In so doing, Christ had to become one of us, a man. He is thus our Brother and He shares the kingship with us. "In Christ," therefore, we are all kings. This immediately gives a tremendous sense of self-worth to anyone who will believe this truth.

This is why Peter says that we are "a royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9). The Lord promised every individual Israelite that each should share in this gift of royalty: "Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests" (Ex. 19:6). John says that Christ "hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father" (Rev. 1:6). Those who believe the good news will live and reign with Him (Rev. 20:4).

Especially helpful is His promise that if we who are so heavily tempted will overcome: we shall sit with Him on His throne, "even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father on His throne" (Rev. 3:21). It is not that we shall be "kings" someday; we are now kings and "joint-heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17). "If ye be Christ's, then are ye ... heirs according to the promise," that is, "heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him" (Gal. 3:29; James 2:5).

It doesn't matter how unworthy we feel, or how many mistakes we have made, God's glory is that He loves and honors worthless sinners. "Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16) and the "everlasting life" is not that of everlasting slavery or servitude, but that of kings sharing the lost "first dominion." "They shall inherit the earth" (Matt. 5:5).

As one of God's "royal priesthood," a "joint-heir" with Christ, you are important. Already, your exalted position gives you responsibility and influence. Someone is looking to you for guidance and example. Already, as a child of God, your word is "law" to Satan and his evil angels, for "in Christ" you have authority over the evil one. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7), because you are a "king" "in Christ." "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet" (Psalm 91:13). You can already exercise your kingship and royal priesthood by saving someone else through the word of Christ.

Our lesson raises the question of the covenant--a key theme of the 1888 message. Did God's people in Old Testament times have to live under the old covenant? Was all that horrible apostasy in ancient Israel something necessary because the people were living at the wrong time? Did God withhold something from them that He later on relented about, and then gave them the new covenant? Poor people! Was He being fair to them?

These are questions stirring the Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Adventist churches. Never can the Christian Church lighten the earth with the glory of a final message of good news (like Rev. 18:1-4 speaks of) unless this problem of the old covenant with respect to the new covenant gets cleared up. Confusion paralyzes the finest church on earth.

Lukewarmness, apostasy, backsliding, are impossible to a church that is living in the knowledge and experience of the new covenant. Too strong to say? Unless this is true, the gospel is forced logically to become a contradiction in terms--confusion, a failure.

The reason is that the new covenant gospel is "the power of God unto salvation" (Rom. 1:16), not a program to failure or backsliding. Backsliding is due to the old covenant imported into the heart--9/10ths new covenant and 1/10th old covenant = failure.

No, ancient Israel were not programmed to failure. Their beginning was "the father of us all," Abraham (Rom. 4:16). God gave him the new covenant in those seven promises in Gen. 12:1-3. All his descendants should be "children of faith" as Isaac was. They would become the greatest nation on earth, always the head, never the tail (Deut. 28:13), always "a kingdom of priests," meaning, a nation of spiritual geniuses (Ex. 19:6). They were to be God's missionary nation through whom "all families of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen. 12:3).

They would evangelize the world! But they fastened themselves under the old covenant in Exodus 19:3-8. That thinking kept popping up in their up and down history.

True theology is the simple teaching of Jesus as found in the Bible. Take any sinful, selfish, worldly, lustful human being and add to him or her that pure, true teaching of Jesus, and the result is a pure, unselfish, kind, honest, loving person (provided of course that he believes that teaching; salvation is by grace through faith).

The church is many such believers forming a corporate body, which Jesus is pleased to acknowledge as His "body" on earth. It's His intention that His church "escape the corruption that is in the world through lust" (2 Peter 1:4), "kept by the power of God through faith" (1 Peter 1:5). Its members are to be "holy in all manner of conversation" [lifestyle] (vs. 15). The entire church, not just its clergy, are "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar [different] people. ... honest among the Gentiles" who will have no evil media "report" of any kind against them (2:9, 12). The clergy are to be "ensamples to the flock," totally loyal to "the chief Shepherd" (5:3, 4). True theology in a church produces that result.

--Paul E. Penno

Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: https://youtu.be/-zZKtixqhco

"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: 1888message.org/sst.htm

RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz

"Feed My Sheep": First and Second Peter

Sabbath School Today With the 1888 Message Dynamic "Feed My Sheep": First and Second Peter Lesson 2. An Inheritance Incorruptible   Our lesson gives us a general outline of what we need to know regarding the objectives of a book in the Bible--who comprises the audience, who is the author, what is the historical context, and "what message ... can we take from it"? In the case of this essay we will focus on a "message," the message of Christ's righteousness given to us in the 1888 era. Ellet J. Waggoner, one of the 1888 "messengers," provides us with an in-depth meaning of our lesson title: "An Inheritance Incorruptible." He writes, "The word of the Lord is the seed by which the sinner is born again. We read that 'every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, ... In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits among His creatures' (James 1:17, 18). "And the apostle Peter says: 'Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God' (1 Peter 1:22, 23). So we learn that, while those who are Christ's are born of the Spirit, the word of God is the seed from which they are developed into new creatures in Christ. The word, then, has power to give life. "With the knowledge that the word of God is the seed by which men are begotten unto a new life, and that the hiding of the word in the heart keeps one from sin, we may easily understand 1 John 3:9: 'No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.' How simple!" [1] Our Monday's lesson topic is, "Elected." This perhaps is one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted themes of the 1888 message. Although we as Seventh-day Adventists have made little if any effort to tell the 1888 view to the Catholic and Protestant world, it resolves the centuries-old conflict between Calvinism and Arminianism. It agrees with Calvinism in that Christ's work of justification accomplished on His cross was effective, He accomplished what He set out to do. It disagrees with Calvinism's "limited atonement" confined only to the "elect." This "limited atonement" is a subtle denial of a "most precious" truth. It means that Christ did not die for every one of us, but only for those few who are "elect." In contrast, "1888" sees that Christ has purchased the gift of salvation for "all men" and has given the gift to them "in Himself." He wants all to be saved, and before the foundation of the world He predestined all to be saved. But some of us will allow only that the Savior has "offered" the gift to "all men," but has not given it, until they do something first to believe and accept it. In other words, our salvation is ultimately due to our own initiative. But "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them"--all this done at the cross before you and I came along (2 Cor. 5:19). Christ has "tasted death [the second] for every man" (Heb. 2:9), which can only mean that He has paid the full price to save "every man." This went beyond popular Adventism of its day and of ours, declaring that Christ has not only offered salvation to all, but has actually given the gift, placing it in every man's hand, as it were. He became "the Savior of the world" (John 4:42), "the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe" (1 Tim. 4:10). It's a breath-taking idea, and shocking, but it's Bible. Those who are lost at last have made their true name to be "Esau." He had the "birthright," he didn't need to do anything to obtain it, but he "despised" and "sold" what God had placed in his hands (Gen. 25:34; Heb. 12:16). This is a free, full atonement given in a legal sense to "all men." The only alternative is a "limited atonement." If Christ didn't truly save you when He "saved the world," then you have been short-changed by a limited atonement! Waggoner said it clearly: "'By the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life' [Rom. 5:18]. There is no exception here. As the condemnation came upon all, so the justification comes upon all. Christ has tasted death for every man. He has given Himself for all. Nay, He has given Himself to every man. The free gift has come upon all. The fact that it is a free gift is evidence that there is no exception. If it came only upon those who have some special qualification, then it would not be a free gift." [2] Waggoner also made it plain that the 1888 view of justification is not the heresy of Universalism: "'Do you mean to teach universal salvation?' someone may ask. We mean to teach just what the Word of God teaches--that 'the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men.' Titus 2:11, Revised Version [the Greek sustains this rendering]. God has wrought out salvation for every man, and has given it to him; but the majority spurn it and throw it away. The judgment will reveal the fact that full salvation was given to every man and that the lost have deliberately thrown away their birthright possession." [3] "The gift is ours to keep. If anyone has not this blessing, it is because he has not recognized the gift, or has deliberately thrown it away." [4] But why is this truth so important? By recovering the truths of both Calvinism and Arminianism while rejecting their errors, "1888" rediscovers the original truth of the cross of Christ in a way that none of the Reformers were able in their day to grasp, honest as they were. The conclusion: God has entrusted to Seventh-day Adventists a unique understanding of the cross that with His blessing is yet to lighten the earth with glory. This cannot be grasped except in the light of the cleansing of the sanctuary. When an honest heart recognizes this ultimate truth of what happened on the cross, "the love [agape] of Christ constrains" (motivates) the soul to live "henceforth" only for the One who died our second death for us. The results, in God's plan, are phenomenal: all old covenant, egocentric motivation is transcended. The joy that Jesus will know will be unbounded. The long delayed wedding of two who have dearly loved each other is an occasion of great joy here on earth; think of a cosmic wedding! Four grand Hallelujah choruses with heaven's symphony orchestras accompanying the massed choirs. "The angel said to me, 'Write, Blessed [happy] are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' And he said to me, 'These are true words of God'" (Rev. 19:9, NASB). You are invited; now "make your calling and election sure" (2 Peter 1:10). --From the writings of Ellet J. Waggoner and Robert J. Wieland Endnotes: [1] Ellet J. Waggoner, "The Indwelling Word," The Signs of the Times, July 14, 1890. Bible texts from the New American Standard Bible. [2] Waggoner on Romans, p. 5.101 (italics supplied). [3] Ellet J. Waggoner, The Glad Tidings, pp. 13, 14 (CFI ed., 2016). [4] Ibid., p. 66. Notes: Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: https://youtu.be/wESK0Vsc_Oc "Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: 1888message.org/sst.htm

RR

Raul Diaz

https://about.me/raul.diaz