THIRD QUARTER 2024
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #7
AUGUST 17, 2024
"TEACHING DISCIPLES: PART I."

 

In this week’s lesson we arrive at the essence of the two fundamental premises of the 1888 message. One, the love of God manifested in Jesus Christ at Calvary, and, two, our response to the demonstration of that love in taking up our cross and following Jesus.

Notice these two fundamental points in this very familiar statement of Ellen White about the 1888 message and messengers:

 “The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones. This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. Many had lost sight of Jesus. They needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, His merits, and His changeless love for the human family. All power is given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent. 

“This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel’s message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure.” —Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers, p. 91.

Notice the vital 1888 element #1 – the love of Jesus manifested at Calvary.

1. This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world…. [We] needed to have [our] eyes directed to His…changeless love for the human family.

Notice the vital 1888 element #2 – we take up our cross and follow/respond to His cross.

2. It… invited [us] to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God ….imparting the priceless gift of his own righteousness to the helpless human agent.

Now notice that in our lesson for this week in Mark chapters 8 and 9 these same two important elements are found:

1. “And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31).
2. “And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34).

As one takes the time to review the aspects that have come to be included in the 1888 message brought by Waggoner and Jones, and endorsed by Ellen White, they essentially fall into two categories – what God has done for us, and our response to what He has done for us.

1888 MESSAGE – WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR US:

1. Agape.
2. Savior of ALL humanity.
3. God’s New Covenant promises to us.
4. The seeking Savior.
5. The cross is drawing ALL humanity.
6. The Faith of Jesus.

1888 MESSAGE – OUR RESPONSE:

1. The gospel is so powerful it’s easy to be saved and hard to be lost when we believe.
2. Jesus took our fallen human nature and condemned sin in our flesh, ensuring us of victory.
3. Our New Covenant faith in His promises gives victory.
4. The Faith of Jesus can be our faith and give us freedom from sin.
5. The Cross of Christ gives us a higher unselfish motivation for taking up our cross.
6. Righteousness is by faith alone – which works by love.
7. The 1888 Gospel ensures a final cleansing of the Heavenly Sanctuary and the sanctuary of our hearts.

Our lesson this week, in the middle of the book of Mark, is the transition point from Christ’s ministry from His identity, power, and miracles, to His rapid journey to the Cross and a call for us to take up our cross and follow Him.

In Mark chapter 8 Jesus heals a blind man in two stages – something He never does at any other time in His ministry! Why would He do this? Immediately following this He has two interactions with Peter that unlock the purpose of Jesus’ healing of the blind man in two stages.

After touching the blind man’s eyes the first time, Jesus asked the blind man what he saw. The blind man stated that he sees things, but they are very blurry – “men walking as trees.” Jesus touches Him again, and then the blind man says that now he can see clearly.

Immediately after this Jesus asks the disciples who people think He is. Peter rightly responds that he believes that Jesus is the Messiah. Then Jesus begins to tell the disciples that the Messiah will suffer many things and die. Peter sees things regarding the Messiah in a very blurry fashion just as the blind man after Jesus first touch, and essentially says, “no cross for the Messiah!”

In the two-phased healing of the blind man, Jesus is illustrating, just like the blind man after the first touch, that the disciples – AND US – currently see things in a very blurry fashion. The principles of the cross and the kingdom of God are poorly understand in our hearts and minds, and even more poorly experienced in our lives and characters.

We need the second touch of Jesus – to help us see His cross and our cross clearly. 

Notice how A.T. Jones articulates this vital point:

“This is precisely the course which Christ took. He denied himself, he emptied himself, and took up the cross, holding not back himself from death, even the death of the cross.

“And this is the way of the Christian. ‘For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.’ 2 Cor. 5:14, 15.

“This is the faith of Jesus; this is the way of the faith of Jesus, who is ‘the Way.’

“‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who . . . emptied himself.’” — A. T. Jones, Adventist Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 77, November 20, 1900 , p. 744.

I pray for myself, for you, and for our beloved Seventh-day Adventist church. May we allow Jesus to touch us the second time. May we be “born again” – AGAIN. May we see Jesus, ourselves, and the world, clearly, as Jesus sees.

 

~ Robert Hunsaker