FOURTH QUARTER 2024
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #10
DECEMBER 6, 2024
"THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE".

Our lesson for this week focuses on the third book or section of the gospel according to John, which is called The Book of Glory. This includes the many statements in which Jesus begins with the words "I am.” All of these statements serve to emphasize and underscore the central theme of the entire Bible which is the person and work of Jesus Christ. The centrality of the Son of God as the Savior of the world as foretold in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament is to be the focus and central theme of all Christian preaching and teaching, and anything that tends to undermine this theme or emphasize another as of equal or greater importance is a false gospel and a corruption of the fundamental message of the Bible. Our memory text (John 1:18) serves to emphasize the fact that the purpose of the Son of God in coming into the world was to reveal the character of God the Father, for in so doing he would win back the loyalty and devotion of humanity which was lost through deception in the garden of Eden.

Sunday's outline is appropriately titled "I Have Given You an Example” and takes us to the heart of the matter in focusing on the episode of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet at what is commonly known as the last supper.  The tragic part of the story as recorded in John 13 is that it should never have happened. It was common for a servant or slave (meaning someone of lower status) to wash the feet of guests arriving at dinner. Because none of the disciples deigned to perform such a menial task, Jesus girded Himself with a towel and washed ALL of the disciples' feet.  They should have been washing His feet instead. The lesson that Jesus sought to teach the disciples, He had been trying to teach them throughout His three and a half year ministry in which they walked and talked and ministered with Him daily.  The lesson was that the way up is down, that he who would be first must be last, that he who would be leader must be servant. The lesson was the cross. It is the same lesson that Christians today are slow to learn and quick to reject, dismiss or misunderstand.  

In Matthew 9:34 we find the disciples shortly before Jesus was crucified still arguing over who would be the greatest in the kingdom. Like so many other Israelites, they had embraced the popular misconception that the Messiah would appear to establish an earthly kingdom, and they hoped to secure positions of power and influence by connecting themselves with Jesus. They were looking for a Messiah who would perhaps make Israel great once again. A careful reading of Isaiah chapter 53 would have spared them the disappointment. Jesus did not align Himself with the interests of either the liberal or conservative factions of His day. He did the work of a true minister healing those who were oppressed by the devil and His fame spread throughout Galilee. He won the affections of the common people by ministering to their needs and representing the paternal love and tenderness of God the Father to all of humanity. Consequent to the loss of their influence, both the Sadducees and the Pharisees, who were bitter enemies, joined together to crucify Christ confirming the Machiavellian axiom, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Sacrifice and self-denial are the heart of the Christian gospel because sacrifice and self-denial are the meaning and essence of the cross. It is the means by which the length and depth and breadth and height of the love of God are fully demonstrated to human beings in modern secular society, regardless to background or demographic. The Christian church is powerless, hypocritical, poor, blind, wretched, miserable and naked to the extent that we avoid, dismiss, obscure, deny or minimize the necessity of emulating the founder of our faith in this regard.

Under Monday's outline the lesson refers to Jesus' discourse in John 13, which He closes by explaining that His purpose in telling His disciples in advance what would happen in the future is "that when it come to pass, ye may believe that I am He.” In other words, His predictions of the future were to reconfirm their confidence in His messiahship after the nuclear destruction of their faith which would come as a result of Calvary. We might take from this that the purpose of prophecy is not merely to satisfy our curiosity or distinguish us as special or unique for possessing superior theological knowledge. The purpose of prophecy is to increase our faith so that we may appropriate the righteousness of Christ. This is the only means by which we can be effective in our efforts to reach a lost and dying world, of which we are a part.

The lesson author here also references Peter's old covenant promise to be faithful to Jesus even unto death. We should not be too hard on Peter, as Matthew 26:35 records that “all the other disciples said the same." At the moment of test, in the Garden of Gethsemane, they all forsook Him and fled.  The lesson author also reminds us that John 14 properly translated does not say “[i]n my father's house are many mansions" but instead "many rooms.” Perhaps this is a bit less of an incentive for some to strive to enter in at the straight gate.  Truly there is something far more motivating than mansions or even streets of gold and gates of pearl—the cross of Christ. Heaven is to be where Jesus is. The promise of Jesus that He will return ends with the words, "that where I am, there ye may be also." The lesson author points out that as important as prophecy is in establishing our confidence in the Second Coming, we should have greater confidence in the Second Coming because of the One who made the promise.

When Jesus describes Himself as the way, the truth and the life, He appears to reference not only His role as Lord and Savior but also His divinity. When Philip asked to see God the Father, Jesus responds by making it clear that whoever has seen Him has already seen the Father.  I imagine this was not the answer Philip was looking for but perhaps Philip did not understand that it would be impossible for him to stand in the literal and physical presence of God the Father without being consumed.  Jesus clearly states that the character and essence of God the Father was expressed through Himself because of their oneness—their harmony of thought, feeling and action. “All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:16-17).

Our lesson author states that Jesus is not simply the embodiment of the truth; He is the Truth. Just as the gospel is not merely a concept, philosophy or set of theological propositions but a person, so also Truth is not a concept or a construct. It is a Person!

Ellen G. White writes, "Hanging upon the cross Christ was the gospel. Manuscript Releases, vol. 21 [Nos. 1501-1598], p. 37.

John records one of the most ironic statements in all of scripture when Jesus says, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are 

they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life"

(John 5:38-40). From multiple sources I am informed that the Pharisees memorized the first five books of the Old Testament. One would think that the effort expended to acquire such extensive scriptural knowledge would result in an accompanying deep understanding if not also extraordinary piety and spirituality. On the contrary, the example of the scribes and the Pharisees provide a stark reminder that extensive biblical knowledge can exist in a completely lost soul. Consider who has more extensive scriptural knowledge than the first apostate and the archdeceiver. It is not the quantity of knowledge that testifies to the fitness of any soul for heaven but the willingness in simple faith to submit to the wisdom and ways of God.

~Michael Duncan.