FOURTH QUARTER 2022
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #14
DECEMBER 31, 2022
“ALL THINGS NEW”

 

"Then He who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' And He said to me, 'Write, for these words are true and faithful' " (Revelation 21:5, NKJV).

        This week, many people around the world will be gathering with their families to celebrate the holiday season and new year. Though sometimes a source of pain and a reminder of loss and broken relationships, the desire in the human heart for love and acceptance is from above. People from all walks of life acknowledge that family ties are the most precious and enduring on earth. Love experienced and expressed in the family between mothers and fathers, children, grandchildren and dear friends is but a faint reflection of the love that our Heavenly Father has for us, His children.

        Before His ascension Jesus explained to His disciples that He was going to prepare a place for us in heaven. He spoke of the many rooms in His Father’s house, room enough for all. For 6,000 years the family of God on earth has been separated from the family of God in heaven. But the great reunion day is coming! For the first time we will see our Savior face to face. Loved ones long separated by death will be reunited. The Seventh-Day Adventist Church exists to proclaim this message of hope and comfort. Jesus is coming again! Praise God! Are we ready? Do we long to be home with Jesus in heaven?

        Recently, a friend of mine died from cancer. During a visit shortly before her death, our conversation turned to spiritual things. I described what it would be like to die (go to sleep) and awaken with the sound of a trumpet, to be brought forth from the grave and to see Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven with a multitude of angels. What a thrilling sight! And as far as I could tell, my friend would soon be witnessing this event since the dead have no sense of the passage of time. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, they will awaken from their dusty beds! I told her about heaven and the wonderful home God is preparing for all who believe. She replied, "It's really hard to imagine what heaven will be like or to even think about it while I am so sick."

        For many, heaven seems afar off. Yet most people on the planet, if they believe that heaven exists, are planning to be there. Among the Christian world today, the notion that people die and go straight to heaven is pervasive. But whether people believe that death is a sleep, an immediate transfer to heaven, or a step into purgatory before reaching heaven, almost everyone plans on living eternally in heaven. Even the devil and his angels want to be there (that’s why they fought back when they were asked to leave and that’s why they will try to storm the gates and force an entrance at the end of the millennium). No one wants to be lost.

        But many will be shocked to realize that they have been raised -- not in the first -- but in the second resurrection. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells three parables -- the ten virgins, the ten talents, and the sheep and the goats. Each story ends with an element of surprise. People who thought they were saved discover that they are lost.

        The five foolish virgins find out too late that they have no oil. The unfaithful servant’s one buried talent was not accepted. The goats believed they had serving the Lord.

        Not understanding our true condition is spiritual blindness, and it is endemic to humanity. We need help, because spiritual blindness threatens eternal life.

        John tells the story of Jesus healing the blind man in chapter 8 and 9 of his book. The consternation this miracle caused the Jews was beyond description.

        To the man that Jesus healed, He said, "For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth" (John 9:39-41).

        Are we blind also?

        "Because thou knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to . . . anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see" (Revelation 3:18).

        The Lord is not willing that any should perish. Spiritually, we are in great need. The Lord in His mercy sent a healing remedy to the church of Laodicea through His designated messengers, Elders A.T. Jones and E.J. Waggoner. Of this message Sister Ellen White writes:

The True Witness says of a cold, lifeless, Christless church, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:15, 16). Mark the following words: “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Here is represented a people who pride themselves in their possession of spiritual knowledge and advantages. But they have not responded to the unmerited blessings that God has bestowed upon them. They have been full of rebellion, ingratitude, and forgetfulness of God; and still He has dealt with them as a loving, forgiving father deals with an ungrateful, wayward son. They have resisted His grace, abused His privileges, slighted His opportunities, and have been satisfied to sink down in contentment, in lamentable ingratitude, hollow formalism, and hypocritical insincerity. With pharisaic pride they have vaunted themselves till it has been said of them, “Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing” (Verse 17).

Has not the Lord Jesus sent message after message of rebuke, of warning, of entreaty, to these self-satisfied ones? Have not His counsels been despised and rejected? Have not His delegated messengers [referring to Brothers Jones and Waggoner] been treated with scorn, and their words been received as idle tales? Christ sees that which man does not see. He sees the sins which, if not repented of, will exhaust the patience of a long-suffering God. Christ cannot take up the names of those who are satisfied in their own self-sufficiency. He cannot importune in behalf of a people who feel no need of His help, who claim to know and possess everything.

The great Redeemer represents Himself as a heavenly merchantman, laden with riches, calling from house to house, presenting His priceless goods, and saying, “I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:18-20).

Let us consider our condition before God; let us heed the counsel of the True Witness. Let none of us be filled with prejudice, as were the Jews, that light may not come into our hearts. Let it not be necessary for Christ to say of us as He did of them, “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life” (John 5:40).

In every meeting since the General Conference, souls have eagerly accepted the precious message of the righteousness of Christ. We thank God that there are souls who realize that they are in need of something which they do not possess—gold of faith and love, white raiment of Christ's righteousness, eyesalve of spiritual discernment. If you possess these precious gifts, the temple of the human soul will not be like a desecrated shrine. Brethren and sisters, I call upon you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to work where God works. Now is the day of gracious opportunity and privilege. — Faith and Works, pp. 83, 84.

More than a century has passed since these words were written. As I meditate on them now, I pray, Lord, please forgive us for our coldness, our lack of love, our ingratitude, formalism, and insincerity. Please forgive our pharisaic pride and neglect of your healing remedy. Please help us to appreciate that we are still living in a day of gracious opportunity and privilege. Please grant us a clearer view of the goodness of God which lead us to repentance. Thank you for not forsaking us. Thank you that you are still preparing a home for us in heaven, where both “the redeemed and the unfallen beings will find in the cross of Christ their science and their song.” Please help us to see "that the glory shining in the face of Jesus is the glory of self-sacrificing love.” —The Desire of Ages, p. 19. In the light streaming from Calvary, help us appreciate "that the law of self-renouncing love is the law of life for earth and heaven; that the love which ‘seeking not her own’ has its source in the heart of God; and that in the meek and lowly One is manifested the character of him who dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto.” — ibid.

Pray that we all will be there.

 

~Patti Guthrie