Key Thought: The coming conflict is over worship. Satan will challenge God’s authority by attempting to undermine God’s law. He hates the Sabbath because he hates the Creator.
June 15, 2024

1. Have a volunteer read John 16:2, Matt. 10:22; 2 Tim 3:12; I Peter 4:12.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on the most important point in this passage.
2. What did the New Testament church experience and how does that apply to Christ’s end-time church?
3. Personal Application: How quickly do you allow economic considerations to compromise your Sabbath-keeping? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “How can we help ourselves and others face the future with confidence and not with fear – knowing things are going to get worse in government, society, and the economy?” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Revelation 13:1-6.

1. Ask class members to share the most important point in this text.
2. Where does the beast rise from and who gives it authority?
3. Personal Application: How do we live in expectation of the second coming without becoming alarmists every time something happens? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “What keyword is used to identify the beast power? How is this word described in Scripture?.” How would you respond to your friend?
   (Note – Blasphemy – Jesus was accused of blasphemy by forgiving sin and claiming to be God)

3. Have a volunteer read Revelation 13:11-18.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. How does this second beast differ from the first beast in Revelation 13?
3. Personal Application: What practical difference does understanding last-day events make in our lives today? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “With the political instability in America today, and in many other parts of the world, how might that one day lead to fulfilling this prophecy? Do we see signs that it could could happen?” How would you respond to your neighbor?

4. Have a volunteer read Revelation 13:11,12.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What changes do you see in this beast, and how does it speak? Why are both important?
3. Personal Application: What does our daily life, and our daily routine tell us about who or what we worship? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Consider 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).

(0)

The post 11: The Impending Conflict – Teaching Plan appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/11-the-impending-conflict-teaching-plan/

Daily Lesson for Sunday 9th of June 2024

The message of Revelation is much more than cryptic symbols, strange beasts, and odd images. It speaks of eternal truths given by a loving God to an end-time generation. The conflict between Christ and Satan began in heaven over worship. It will come to its final climax over worship.

Image © Review & Herald Publishing at Goodsalt.com

Throughout Revelation, worship and creation are indissolubly linked. Revelation 14:7 calls us to worship the Lord of all creation. Against the backdrop of evolution, which has taken the world by storm during the past two centuries, the Sabbath is an eternal reminder of our identity. It constantly reinforces that we are created beings and our Creator is worthy of our allegiance and worship. This is one reason the devil hates the Sabbath so much.

Worshiping the Creator through keeping the commandments of God stands in direct opposition to worshiping the beast. God will have an end-time people who are loyal to Him despite the greatest opposition and fiercest persecution in history.

“While the observance of the false sabbath in compliance with the law of the state, contrary to the fourth commandment, will be an avowal of allegiance to a power that is in opposition to God, the keeping of the true Sabbath, in obedience to God’s law, is an evidence of loyalty to the Creator.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 605.

Revelation 14:12 states that these committed followers of the Savior will have “the faith of Jesus.” The faith of Jesus is a faith so deep that it trusts when it cannot see. It perseveres when it cannot understand. It is a gift from Jesus that we receive by faith and will carry us through the impending conflict.

(0)

The post Sunday: Revelation’s Final Conflict appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24b-11-revelations-final-conflict/

Daily Lesson for Sabbath 8th of June 2024

Read for This Week’s Study

Revelation 14:7,9,12; Revelation 4:11; Revelation 13:1-2; Revelation 12:3-5,17; Revelation 13:11-18.

Memory Text:

“ ‘Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth’ ” (John 17:17, NKJV).

There is a relatively new medical device called a biochip or VeriChip, about the size of a grain of rice, that can be implanted in a patient. The biochip contains information about the patient’s medical history, which can then be obtained by passing an external scanner across the area where the biochip or VeriChip has been inserted. Some Christians see this as part of a conspiracy to enforce the mark of the beast. For others, the mark of the beast has to do with the bar codes on cans of food, or it is a mysterious number on dollar bills that supposedly adds up to 666. For some it has to do with the Masonic order, the Illuminati, black U.N. helicopters, or the United Nations.

The aim of this week’s lesson is to reveal the coming conflict over worship. Satan will challenge God’s authority by attempting to undermine God’s law. Specifically, the Sabbath will become the center of a global conflict over worship. Satan hates the Sabbath because he hates the Creator. He will use coercion, pressure, and force to break our commitment to Christ. There will be a collision of beliefs over the true and false day of worship. God’s final appeal is an appeal to faithfulness to Christ despite persecution, an economic boycott, imprisonment, and a death decree. This week’s study emphasizes Jesus’ strength to take us through earth’s final conflict.

*Study this week’s lesson, based on chapters 35 and 36 of The Great Controversy, to prepare for Sabbath, June 15.

(0)

The post Sabbath: The Impending Conflict appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24b-11-the-impending-conflict/

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:

(0)

The post Mission Spotlight for June 8 appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/mission-spotlight-for-june-8/

Inside Story for Friday 7th of June 2024

By Andrew McChesney

The Nigerian town of Umuacha is located at a strategic crossroads. The town boasts a big market that attracts daily crowds from neighboring towns. But it lacked a Seventh-day Adventist church.

The absence of an Adventist church was astonishing because Adventist churches had been established more than 70 years earlier in all of the surrounding towns. Even the headquarters of the Adventist Church’s Aba North Conference was located nearby. But Umuacha had no church.

Why?

The first church opened in Umuacha more than 80 years earlier, and it resolved to be the only church in town. As the years passed, however, townspeople sold their land to outsiders who, in turn, constructed their own churches. The oldest church accepted the newcomers, but all declared that Adventists, who worshiped on a different day, would never be welcome.

Adventist churches in the neighboring towns struggled to reach Umuacha. When they sought to organize evangelistic meetings, no one would give them a meeting place. Hopes were raised when the church in nearby Mba conducted a two-week evangelistic meeting outside the town and afterward opened a branch Sabbath School. But the Sabbath School closed after only three months. Later, Mba young people held Bible studies that brought several Umuacha families to the Mba church on Sabbaths. But the families stopped attending when their neighbors threw stones at them.

In 2021, the Aba North Conference laid new plans for evangelistic meetings in Umuacha but again struggled to find a site. One landowner agreed to host tent meetings but then abruptly changed his mind. Additional attempts provided unsuccessful that year and in 2022. It seemed hopeless.

Then a church member, Christian, made a new attempt to find a site. While searching, he met Chilaka, the owner of a school.

“You who are running around, what are you looking for?” the school owner asked.

“It seems that I am looking for you,” Christian replied.

After a discussion, the school owner offered the property for the meetings. Christian gratefully accepted.

For a month, Adventist preachers proclaimed the Word of God in Umuacha. They were joined by a medical team that cared for the sick. In the end, 29 precious souls were baptized. Then someone donated land, and an Adventist church opened in Umuacha.

“Today, the church is progressing to the glory of God,” said Caleb Uchenna Onyendi, evangelism director for the Aba North Conference.

God’s timing is perfect, he added, pointing to Exodus 9:5, which says, “Then the Lord appointed a set time, saying, ‘Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land’ ” (NKJV). The Lord did just that in the town of Umuacha.

(4)

The post Inside Story: Unreached Town in Nigeria appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24b-10-inside-story-unreached-town-in-nigeria/