Witnesses of Christ as the Messiah
FOURTH QUARTER 2024
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #4
OCTOBER 26, 2024
"WITNESSES OF CHRIST AS THE MESSIAH".
God’s purpose in raising up the Advent Movement in the middle of the 19th century is found in Daniel 8 and Revelation 14. In this special sense they are to bear witness to the work of God in Jesus as the Messiah.
According to Jesus, witnessing is led by the Father Himself through the Holy Spirit. When Jesus asked His disciples who they thought He was, “Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” Jesus responded, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:13-17). The Apostle Paul affirms, “no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3).
The Seventh-day Adventist Movement was raised and directed by the Father Himself to bear witness to the truth of the character of the Godhead revealed in the Messiahship of Jesus. “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). This witness overcomes the lie of the enemy, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). “When (the devil) speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44).
The Scriptures reveal, and Adventists have proclaimed, that there is a “great controversy” around the character of God as Creator and Redeemer, i.e., the Messiah. It began in the heavenly courts and found its way into the Garden of Eden. Since then, the great controversy theme has expressed itself in every detail happening in and around us. It is a day-to-day experience in our hearts and of those with whom we come in contact.
The primary charge against the Godhead is that they are unauthentic, restrictive and selfish, leading to self-protection. Now, in these last days, Heaven has called on the Advent Movement to bear witness to the truth regarding the character of God and in the process expose the accusations as false. In other words, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come…” (Revelation 14:7).
Although it is true God is the Judge of all the earth and His people, neither the earth nor His people are the main players in the Great Controversy. God Himself is the primary player. Satan, with and through his agents, accuses the saints, but more than that these accusations are directed toward God at a personal level.
Ellen White comments on the Ten Virgins in Christ’s Object Lessons:
“So the followers of Christ are to shed light into the darkness of the world. Through the Holy Spirit, God's word is a light as it becomes a transforming power in the life of the receiver. By implanting in their hearts the principles of His word, the Holy Spirit develops in men the attributes of God. The light of His glory—His character—is to shine forth in His followers. Thus they are to glorify God, to lighten the path to the Bridegroom's home, to the city of God, to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
“It is the darkness of misapprehension of God that is enshrouding the world. Men are losing their knowledge of His character. It has been misunderstood and misinterpreted. At this time a message from God is to be proclaimed, a message illuminating in its influence and saving in its power. His character is to be made known. Into the darkness of the world is to be shed the light of His glory, the light of His goodness, mercy, and truth.” pp. 414, 415.
Our study this week opens with a focus on John the Baptist. Specifically referencing Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). I have often wondered why the other gospel writers fail to mention this important, perhaps essential, part of the Baptist’s testimony. Perhaps it has something to do with his earlier experience as the Revelator at Patmos that allowed him to zero in on Messiah as “the Lamb.”
The Apostle Paul wrote that the gospel “is the power of God to salvation” (Romans 1:16). Not only a future salvation on streets of gold but salvation now! Salvation from the power of sin in our lives; salvation from selfishness, pettiness, all manner of abusiveness, etc. There is salvation and it is found in “the gospel.”
Something is to happen that has never happened before. On the cross, Jesus, as Messiah, made a perfect and complete sacrifice. Nothing can be said or done to improve on it. The atonement, from God’s point of view, is complete. But in another sense, we see there remains still more alienation from God and hostility toward Him that needs to be healed. A “final atonement” is necessary. As the lesson puts it, this is “to prepare the hearts of the people for Jesus.”
The devil has seemingly perfected his technique to get people into meshes, traps and addictions to the point where they can’t even begin to understand the message of those that witness Jesus as Messiah. But there is a gospel more powerful than all the demons of hell and that is this everlasting gospel message of which John writes in Revelation 14. The result is found in verse 12, “here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”
Paul also writes about it here in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” In Revelation, Jesus is referred to “the Lamb” at least 27 times, and John sees it coming together in chapter 5, beginning at verse 6, which made the Baptist’s statement amplify in his mind, “And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain…. the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb…. And they sang a new song, saying:
‘You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood’
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!’” (Revelation 5:6-12).
There must be a critical reason on heaven’s part for this repetition.
“The sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin is the great truth around which all other truths cluster. In order to be rightly understood and appreciated, every truth in the word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, must be studied in the light that streams from the cross of Calvary. I present before you the great, grand monument of mercy and regeneration, salvation and redemption,—the Son of God uplifted on the cross. This is to be the foundation of every discourse given by our ministers.”—Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers, p. 315.
“We want more of the Infinite workings, and far less of the wisdom of man. Our work is to prepare a people to stand in the great day of God. Our message, our argument, our doctrine, our warning to the impenitent, and our encouragement to the believer is “The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” [Revelation 14:12.] We are to strike a key note which will vibrate to the believer’s soul and bring joy to the heavenly intelligences. Presenting the cross of Calvary we are to cry, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” [John 1:29.] When men shall cease to trust in man and make God their efficiency, we shall see the earth filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” —Ellen G. White, Letters and Manuscripts, Vol 14, 1899.
Perhaps the most profound statement in Scripture is Galatians 3:13: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’).” Paul of course is quoting Moses in Deuteronomy 21, who said in essence, “If someone commits a capital offense and you put him to death by spear, stoning, or decapitation the guilty party can pray and ask God’s forgiveness and he/she can receive that cleansing power from God. But if the guilty is sentenced to be hung on a tree he’s done for. He cannot pray. God will not hear him. He has been thrown down the steps where there is only ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
“….For he who is hanged is accursed of God” (Deuteronomy 21:23, KJV).
But did Jesus know better? Was He disingenuous when cried “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:6, Mark 15:34; Psalm 22:1). He did not ask “why have disciples disappeared," or "why has the leadership rejected me,” or”why doesn’t anyone appreciate me." He wanted to know “why have YOU forsaken Me?”
Much of the balance of Psalm 22 poetically describes the anguish of Messiah in being “accursed of God.” How does this translate into the “power of God to salvation”? In a nutshell, it reveals the true character and personhood of the Godhead. “THEY did not love their lives to the death”! (Revelation 12:11). “[They] make the final decision. [They] will save man at any cost to [Themselves].” —Ellen G. White, Story of Jesus, p. 105.
“In the contemplation of Christ we linger on the shore of a love that is measureless. We endeavor to tell of this love, and language fails us. We consider His life on earth, His sacrifice for us, His work in heaven as our advocate, and the mansions He is preparing for those who love Him, and we can only exclaim, O the height and depth of the love of Christ! 'Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.’ ‘Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.’ 1 John 4:10; 3:1.
“In every true disciple this love, like sacred fire, burns on the altar of the heart. It was on the earth that the love of God was revealed through Christ. It is on the earth that His children are to reflect this love through blameless lives. Thus sinners will be led to the cross to behold the Lamb of God.” —Ellen G. White, Acts of the Apostles, pp. 333, 334.
“I present before you the great, grand monument of mercy and regeneration, salvation and redemption—the Son of God uplifted on the cross of Calvary. This is to be the theme of every discourse. Christ declares, ‘And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.’ [John 12:32].” —Ellen G. White, Manuscript 70, 1901.
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
~ Michael Clendenning