Inside Story for Friday 20th of September 2024

By Andrew McChesney

While Anush was praying for her father, she also was praying for the other 4,000 residents of her town in Armenia. Then God began to touch hearts.

After her baptism, Anush met regularly with two other young women to pray for the town. Then they organized seminars that attracted several dozen young people. After that, with assistance from the Euro-Asia Division, they chartered buses and took groups of 50 young people on sightseeing tours around Armenia. Church members greeted and befriended the young people at every stop. Anush saw that the young people became more sincere and open in their questions about God when visiting places far from home.

As interest in the Adventist message grew, a pastor started to visit the town every other Sunday to hold talks about relationships, finances, and other practical issues. Many people attended the meetings over two years.

Father was influential and respected, so when he became a Seventh-day Adventist, the whole town took notice. People began to talk about faith and his decision to go to a church that was not the national church. His baptism broke the ice. The town’s Adventist church, which once consisted of seven faithful women meeting in a private home, has now moved into a rented hall where dozens of people gather every Sabbath. Church members and others also meet online to pray daily. Plans are under way to buy a church building.

Today, Father, whose name is Armen Safaryan, works together with his wife, Gayane Badalyan, and daughter, Anush Safaryan, to make three kinds of tofu at their company. As the only tofu company in Armenia, it has been featured on national television, and Father had an opportunity to share his faith when asked why he makes tofu.

Father is a church elder and leader of the family ministries department, and he and Mother, who runs the church’s health ministries department, are in high demand at other churches. Father is seen as a role model in a country where many mothers and children still go to church without their husbands and fathers. Father, Mother, and Anush want to change that.

“See, this normal Armenian man is an Adventist,” church leaders say in introducing Father at speaking engagements. “Men, you are not alone. This man goes to church on Sabbath.”

Anush shares her story at churches and youth camps, saying, “Do not be satisfied with your husbands and fathers just allowing you to go to church. Plead with God for them to go with you.”

Part of last quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering went to open a center of influence for families in Yerevan, Armenia. Thank you for helping spread the gospel with your offerings.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24c-12-inside-story-bringing-armenia-to-christ/

Daily Lesson for Friday 20th of September 2024

Read Ellen G. White, “In Pilate’s Judgment Hall,” Pages 723–740; “Calvary,” Pages 741–757; “ ‘It Is Finished,’ ” Pages 758–764, in The Desire of Ages.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

“Pilate longed to deliver Jesus. But he saw that he could not do this, and yet retain his own position and honor. Rather than lose his worldly power, he chose to sacrifice an innocent life. How many, to escape loss or suffering, in like manner sacrifice principle. Conscience and duty point one way, and self-interest points another. The current sets strongly in the wrong direction, and he who compromises with evil is swept away into the thick darkness of guilt.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 738.

“Upon Christ as our substitute and surety was laid the iniquity of us all. He was counted a transgressor, that He might redeem us from the condemnation of the law. The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart. The wrath of God against sin, the terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of iniquity, filled the soul of His Son with consternation. All His life Christ had been publishing to a fallen world the good news of the Father’s mercy and pardoning love. Salvation for the chief of sinners was His theme. But now with the terrible weight of guilt He bears, He cannot see the Father’s reconciling face. The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man. So great was this agony that His physical pain was hardly felt.”—The Desire of Ages, p. 753.

Discussion Questions

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24c-12-further-thought-tried-and-crucified/

As we near the end of studying the life of Christ in the book of Mark, we see how Jesus taught His disciples and told them to make disciples, but did it ever occur to us that Jesus was a disciple? Jesus was a disciple of His Father, and in Jesus’ public life and private life He modeled being a disciple. Peter and James and John were discipled by Jesus while He was here on earth. That is great, but since Jesus is not here on earth anymore, I learn more by how Jesus was a disciple of His Father, while He was here on earth, but His Father was up in heaven. After all, Jesus is up in heaven. So, I can’t follow the exact model of Peter, James and John, who were being discipled while Jesus was here on earth, but I can follow the model of Jesus as He was a disciple while His Father was in heaven. So let’s look at how Jesus modeled being a disciple.

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? John 14:9 NKJV

As a Disciple of the Father, Jesus showed us the image of His Father. There is a reason the second commandment tells us not to make graven images. God does not want His character reflected through things. He created us in His image so that we can reflect His character. The whole purpose of God’s last day Seventh-day Adventist Church is to do way more than just be a remnant of the New Testament church. The plan of Salvation and the great controversy go back even further. It’s God’s plan that the Seventh-day Adventist Church will help restore the image of God in mankind, from every tribe, nation, tongue and people to how it was before the fall. Just as Jesus showed us the Father, we are to show Jesus to the world.

The story goes of a group of pastors in a Romanian prison years before it opened up to the Gospel. Of course they were talking about Jesus, and the guards got tired of it. Finally one guard said, “I will let you say one more sentence about your God, and then you not be allowed to speak of Him again.” One prisoner, knowing the guards would be watching him, came up with the best sentence he could. He told the guards, “Jesus is like me.” When I read this I could not believe a human would say such a thing. But the more I thought about it, I thought this is exactly what Christianity should be. We should not be calling ourselves Christians in vain.

This is what the third commandment is all about. Disciples of Christ are to do more than believe in Christ. Notice Jesus never told His disciples to accept Him. He told them to pick up their cross and follow Him to death. As Jesus reflected the image of His Father, He modeled for us what we should be as disciples. We are to reflect the image of Jesus to the world.

All of the Gospels are excellent study material on how to be a disciple of Jesus, but Jesus gave some extra special instruction in the sermon on the mount on what being a disciple of Jesus is all about. In that sermon Jesus said,

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16 NKJV

Notice Jesus did not tell His disciples to merely make sure the world sees what they believe. Rather He told them to make sure the world sees their good works so their Father in heaven would be glorified. Romans 2:4 tells us it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. A church with a last day message to the world needs to make sure the world sees the goodness of God that will lead them to repentance and salvation.

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” Matthew 4:4 NKJV

When tempted, Jesus used no special powers. He didn’t even perform a miracle before Herod because He used only the powers available to every believer. He modeled for us how a disciple of God handles temptation. Every time Jesus was tempted or tried He referred to the Scriptures. The same Scriptures that Jesus used are available to us. Jesus showed us how to be a disciple just like He was a disciple of the Father.

 Before we can live like Jesus we need to pray like Jesus. Jesus modeled for us the balance we need between “the mountain and the multitude.” Jesus was the Model Disciple of the Father. Later in Matthew 14 Jesus walks on water, but so does Peter, until he takes his eyes off Jesus and looks at the waves. I wonder if Peter had continued praying like Jesus, if he would have been able to continue standing on the water like Jesus?

And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” Matthew 26:37-38 NKJV

Jesus asks His three closest friends to disciple with Him. He had to disciple in community. He could not disciple in isolation. Why? Remember, as disciples we are to reflect the image of God. In Genesis 1:26-27 God said, “Let us make man in our image.” And He made us male and female. What relevance does this have to us? First, God is speaking not as an isolated Being but as a community consisting of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is not an isolated Creature. He is community. When God created us to be in His image, He created us to be community. God is community so it is impossible for us to reflect His character of Community while in isolation. Jesus needed His three closest friends because He could not be the Model Disciple by Himself. The importance of this truth is seen by the fact that when His three closes friends fell asleep on Him, and angel had to come down from heaven to disciple with Him. See Luke 22:43. It was simply impossible for Jesus to disciple in isolation, and it is impossible for you to disciple in isolation as well. As isolated individuals we cannot reflect the character of a communal God. We also cannot reflect the character of God with just one gender. God created males and females to be in His image, One gender alone cannot reflect the image of God.

This reminds of a popular passage in the Adventist world,

Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.-Ellen White, Christ Object Lessons, Page 69,

Christ is not merely wanting His character reproduced in His church so that they can earn heaven by perfection. There is a great controversy going on regarding the character of God. Satan has misrepresented God’s character and so many people are rejecting Him. Christ wants to perfectly reproduce His character or image in the church so the church can give God proper representation in the great controversy. Jesus wants the church to reflect the image and goodness of God so the world will know God is love. One isolated person cannot reflect the character of God. 

God is love. Love is community. Together as a community of believers, we show God’s love and mercy by being patient and understanding of each other’s faults and weaknesses. We strengthen one another where the other one is weak. As a church community, we reflect the image of God. This is why Jesus had to model discipleship within a community of other disciples.

Next week we will see How Jesus modeled being a disciple, by mentoring the unchurched.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/jesus-the-model-disciple-part-1/

Join the Hit the Mark panel as they discuss Sabbath School Lesson 12 – Tried and Crucified, recorded live at the Hit the Mark Spiritual Summit III in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/tried-and-crucified-hit-the-mark-sabbath-school/

Daily Lesson for Thursday 19th of September 2024

After all that drama, the more “mundane” things happen next. For starters, dead people always have to be buried. But several factors in what follows are quite touching spiritually, and others are extremely important historically.

In this passage, Joseph of Arimathea appears for the first and last time in the Gospel of Mark. He was a respected member of the Sanhedrin and one of the “urban elites.” As a wealthy and respected man, he had standing with the governor, which explains how he could dare approach Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus. It is a touching detail that a member of the council took such interest in Jesus’ burial. Meanwhile, where were Jesus’ trusted disciples in all this?

Image © Review & Herald Publishing at Goodsalt.com

One historical detail of extreme importance here is the verification of the death of Jesus. Mark 15:43 tells of Joseph’s request for the body of Jesus. But Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus already was dead (Mark 15:44). He, therefore, summoned the centurion in charge of the crucifixion and asked if Jesus was dead already. The centurion confirmed that it was so.

This is important because of the later claim by some that Jesus did not die on the cross but only fainted. The testimony of the centurion to the Roman governor directly counters that assertion. The Romans did, after all, know how to execute criminals.

Joseph brought a linen shroud to wrap Jesus, and he laid His body in a tomb hewn from rock. This tomb was large enough to walk into (Mark 16:5). Along with Joseph, the Gospel writer notes two women who saw the location—Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses. These two, along with Salome, watched the Crucifixion from a distance; all three will go to the tomb on Sunday morning with the intention to complete their work of embalming Jesus (Mark 16:1).

Why the reference to these three women? They will be the witnesses to the empty tomb in Mark 16:1-20 and thus are important witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24c-12-laid-to-rest/