Key Thought: Jesus is the One who can calm a storm, cast out demons, heal a woman, feed with little resources, and walk on water. All this occurred around the Sea of Galilee.
August 3, 2024

1. Have a volunteer read Mark 4:35-41.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What happens here and what lessons can we take from it about who Jesus is?
3. Personal Application: Think about the power of God. How can we learn to lean on this power and to trust it in all things in your life? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “I can’t see how any person could have control of the weather or nature. And I can’t understand why anyone would believe in demon possession. People act crazy because they have something wrong in their brains caused by childhood or traumatic experiences they can’t cope with. To say a person is demon-possessed and evil is cruel and ignorant.” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Mark 5:21-34.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What characteristics stand out about Jesus here?
3. Personal Application: Why did Jesus heal by touch or in person by speaking to them, when here He heals her from afar with no outward manifestations? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “Why would the woman believe she could be healed by touching Jesus’ garment? Is this faith or presumption? What about these faith healers who claim to be able to heal others by touch or by their touching a cloth or item the minister has touched and prayed over?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Mark 6:1-6.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. Why did Jesus’ hometown people reject Him?
3. Personal Application: Have you ever been rejected or experienced some hard-to-understand crisis? What did you learn that could help you next time something like that happens? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “Why did Jesus allow John the Baptist to be thrown in prison and beheaded? What hope can we find despite the difficult things happening in our lives?” How would you respond to your neighbor?

4. Have a volunteer read Mark 6:34-52.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What was the problem they faced, and how was it solved?
3. Personal Application: How could a false understanding of Christ’s second coming lead to disaster for some Christians? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared.”Ministry of Healing, p. 148).

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/5-miracles-around-the-lake-teaching-plan/

Daily Lesson for Sunday 28th of July 2024

At the beginning of Mark 4:1-41, Jesus steps into a boat to teach the crowd on the shore. In Mark 4:10-12, it seems He may have gotten out of the boat and talked with the disciples privately. Now, after a long day of teaching, the disciples take Jesus in the boat “as He was,” in other words, very tired.

Image © Review & Herald Publishing at Goodsalt.com

He immediately falls asleep on the boat’s cushion, which would be in the stern of the boat. A great storm arises on the lake, and the boat is at risk of sinking when the disciples awake Him. Dramatically, Jesus commands the wind and waves to cease. A great calm settles over the lake. Understandably, the disciples are deeply afraid at the display of divine power.

The story in Mark 4:35-41 fits within a common biblical pattern: that of a “theophany”—the appearance of God or one of His angels. Five characteristics are common to these events: (1) the display of divine power, (2) human fear, (3) the command “Do not fear,” (4) the words of revelation for which God or the angel appeared, and (5) human response to the revelation. Four of the five are present in this story—the calming of the storm is the display of divine power, the disciples’ fear is the human fear. The question, “Why are you so afraid?” is the “Do not fear.” The disciples’ question, “Who then is this?” is the human response. What is missing is the words of revelation. This missing detail plays into the revelation/secrecy motif that runs through the entire book, where the truth about Jesus will come out. Here the disciples’ question, “Who then is this that the wind and the sea obey Him?” pushes the reader to fill in the answer of the missing words of revelation—He is the Son of God, the Lord Himself.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24c-05-calming-a-storm/

Daily Lesson for Sabbath 27th of July 2024

Image © Pacific Press

Read for This Week’s Study

Mark 4:35-41, Psalms 104:1-9, Mark 5:1-43, Numbers 27:17.

Memory Text:

“However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you’ ” (Mark 5:19, NKJV).

Jesus’ ministry was largely focused in Galilee, especially in and around the Sea of Galilee, a lake approximately 13 miles (21 kilometers) long and 8 miles (13 kilometers) wide. It is the largest body of water in the area and was the center of life for people living nearby.

Mark 4:1-41 ends with Jesus and His disciples traveling across the Sea of Galilee. A storm arises that Jesus calms by speaking to the wind and waves. Mark 6:1-56 ends with a similar scene, but this time with Jesus walking on the water toward His disciples in the boat. In between these scenes on the water are numerous miracles of Jesus that were done on land and His disciples’ first missionary activity. These stories are the subject of this week’s study.

The overarching characteristic of these dramatic stories is to let the reader see who Jesus is. He is the One able to calm a storm, cast out demons, heal a woman who simply touches His clothes, raise a dead girl, preach in His home town, send out His disciples on a preaching mission, feed with a few loaves and fish, and walk on water—incredible displays of power that are drawing the disciples closer to an understanding that He is the Son of God.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, August 3.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24c-05-miracles-around-the-lake/

The Mission program of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is an opportunity for us to understand the needs of others and share in supporting them. Please click on the image below to watch the Mission Spotlight presentation for this week:

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/mission-spotlight-for-july-27/

Inside Story for Friday 26th of July 2024

By Andrew McChesney

Father wasn’t worried when Mother got baptized after attending Seventh-day Adventist meetings at their town schoolhouse in Armenia.

Father wasn’t worried when his daughter, Anush, and her sister started going to Adventist summer camps. He even drove them to camp.

Father also wasn’t worried when Anush, as a 17-year-old university student, decided to get baptized and join the Adventist Church.

But he was furious when the university called to complain that Anush was skipping classes on Sabbath. Students missed classes for various reasons, and the university didn’t mind that Anush wanted to keep the Sabbath. The problem was that other students kept their reasons to themselves, but Anush unabashedly announced her absence as a matter of religious liberty.

“If she doesn’t want to go to class, then she doesn’t have to go to class,” a university administrator told Father. “But why does she have to make a big deal about it? She is hurting the university’s reputation.”

Father was appalled. He felt like his daughter’s faith was reflecting badly on the family. He reprimanded her when she came home.

“Why did you have to announce that at the university?” he asked. “If this is the way that things are going to be, I forbid you from going to church.”

He also prohibited her from getting baptized.

“I’m responsible for protecting you,” he said. “When you are older, you can make your own decisions. But for now, I’m your guardian.”

Anush didn’t argue. Armenia is a largely patriarchal society where a father’s word is law. But she wondered where the line was between the fourth and fifth commandments. Could she go to church and honor Father at the same time? She had decided before God to get baptized, but she worried that Father might forbid Mother from going to church if she insisted. Mother suggested that Anush wait. She found support for a delay in Numbers 30:3-5, which says if a daughter makes a vow while living in her father’s house, and her father approves, then God accepts it. But if the daughter makes a vow that the father overrules, then God releases the daughter from the vow.

“I think God supports the decision to wait to get baptized,” Mother said.

Anush waited. It was a difficult four years at the university. She believed that Father was a good man who only wanted the best for her. But she also longed to go to church and get baptized. She found joy in the baptism of a classmate, a woman who had learned about the Sabbath when Anush refused to study on that day. The classmate became Anush’s first soul for Christ.

Part of last quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering went to open a center of influence for families like Anush’s in Yerevan, Armenia. Thank you for helping spread the gospel with your offerings. Next week: Father changes his mind about Anush’s baptism.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24c-04-inside-story-sparks-over-the-sabbath/