Key Thought: The three angels’ messages are the mission to the world, our identifying statement of faith, and our unique prophetic identity. This is our passion to proclaim the gospel.
April 15, 2023

1. Have a volunteer read Revelation 5:6-8, I Corinthians 15:1-4, Romans 3:24-26.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What does the seven eyes and seven horns represent on the Lamb?
   (Note: Christ has perfect power and perfect wisdom. Eyes are a symbol of wisdom. Horns are a symbol of power. Seven is the number of completeness or perfection. The seven spirits represent the one perfect Holy Spirit throughout the seven eras of Christian history.)
3. Personal Application: If the odors of incense are the prayers of the saints, how important is it for us to pray earnestly in every situation? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “Who is the Lamb and what book did He take from the right hand of God? What were the seven seals He opened from the book? How would you respond to your relative?
   (Note: The seven seals correspond to the seven churches – seven eras of church history from the early church to the end of the Christian era when Jesus comes.)

2. Have a volunteer read Revelation 13:8, I Peter 1:18-20.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. Jesus was the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world. Why does it say He was foreordained before the foundation of the world?
   (Note: The plan of salvation had been put in place before mankind was created in case they fell into sin and rebellion)
3. Personal Application: How do people’s choices influence their relationship with Christ and ultimately, their salvation? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “So we are called the chosen and we are preordained to be saved. Does that mean God chooses who’s saved and who’s lost? Or does it mean Christ died on the cross for everyone, so everyone will be saved? Or is it only those who accept Christ will be saved and everyone else will be lost?” How would you respond to your friend?
   (Note: Can one give the three angels’ messages clearly if they can’t answer this question correctly?)

3. Have a volunteer read Revelation 14:6, Matthew 28:19,20.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What is the extent of these messages? Why is it vital to be missionary minded globally?
3. Personal Application: What does your experience with being a part of something bigger or greater than yourself mean to you? Do you feel the urgency of your part in sharing this gospel with others? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “How is the everlasting gospel going to be preached when many of the countries of the world are anti-Christian – either Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Shintu, Communist, or Atheist? How cam God’s people share this gospel in antagonistic areas?” How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read Revelation 14:6, Acts 1:8, Matthew 24:14..

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. Do you believe that if we are willing to go into all the world, that signs and wonders will follow and God will bless their efforts?
3. Personal Application: What role can you play in bringing the three angels’ messages to the entire world? 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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Notice what Revelation 14:6, the beginning of the three angels’ messages, begins with: the “eternal” or “everlasting” gospel. If we fail to understand the depth of the gospel, we will miss the entire point of the three angels’ messages. We can never fully understand the issues in God’s judgment-hour message or the fall of Babylon or the mark of the beast if we fail to understand the gospel.

Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Romans 3:24-26, and Romans 5:6-8. How is the “everlasting gospel” presented in these texts? What great hope is presented here for us?

Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com

The gospel is the incredibly good news of Christ’s death for our sins, His glorious resurrection, and His ever-present love and concern for us. By faith in His shed blood and His resurrection power, we are delivered from both sin’s penalty and power. Christ absorbed the apostle Paul’s thoughts and was at the center of his teaching and preaching. The crucified Christ redeemed him from the condemnation and guilt of his past. The resurrected Christ gave him power for the present, and the returning Christ gave him hope for the future.

Notice four points in these passages in Romans:

   1. We are justified freely by grace.
   2. Grace is a declaration of God’s righteousness.
   3. Grace justifies those who by faith accept Jesus.
   4. God’s love was demonstrated for us while we were yet sinners.

Christ’s grace is unmerited, undeserved, and unearned. Jesus died the agonizing, painful death that lost sinners will die. He experienced the fullness of the Father’s wrath, or judgment, against sin. He was rejected so that we could be accepted. He died the death that was ours, so we could live the life that was His.

Any wonder, then, that salvation must be by faith, and without the deeds of the law? What could we possibly add, what could our works, even the best-intentioned, Holy Spirit-filled works, add to what Christ had done for us at the cross?

And this plan, the plan of salvation, had been put in place even before the beginning of time (2 Timothy 1:9, Titus 1:2, Ephesians 1:4), which helps explain why it is called “the everlasting” gospel. Before the world was created, God knew what would happen, and so He instituted the plan of salvation to meet the crisis when it, eventually, would come.

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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When most people think about the Bible’s last book, Revelation, they do not think about God’s grace. When they consider God’s last-day message, their thoughts often turn immediately to frightening beasts, mystic symbols, and strange images. The book of Revelation scares as many people as it reassures, which is unfortunate because it is, indeed, saturated with grace and filled with hope. That is, even amid the scary beasts and warnings of persecution and the hard times ahead, God still gives us reasons to rejoice in His salvation.

Read Revelation 1:1-3 and Revelation 14:6. How do these verses together tell us about not just the book of Revelation but about the “everlasting gospel,” as well?

Image © Lars Justinen Goodsalt.com

Revelation is all about Jesus. It is His message to His people and is especially applicable to His church in the last days. It is a grace-filled message of our end-time hope. Throughout the book, Christ is described as the slain Lamb, and a blessing is promised to those who read, under-stand, and act on the truths revealed.

According to Revelation 1:5-6, Jesus is the one who “loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father” (NKJV). In Christ we are forgiven. Grace pardons our past, empowers our present, and provides hope for our future. That is, in Christ we are delivered from sin’s penalty and power, and one day soon we will be delivered from sin’s presence. This is the message of the Bible’s last book, Revelation.

And it is also an urgent message, first pictured as an angel flying swiftly in midheaven having the “everlasting gospel.”

The gospel? Salvation by faith in Christ? Christ’s atoning death for us? The promise of eternal life, not because of what we can do but because of what Christ has done for us? All this is at the beginning of the three angels’ messages? Exactly!

No wonder, then, that they are grace-filled messages full of hope and promise for us as broken and suffering beings.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Image © Pacific Press

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Revelation 14:6-12; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Romans 3:24-26; 1 Peter 1:18-20; Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8.

Memory Text: “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth — to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people” (Revelation 14:6, NKJV).

In ancient Israel, when the heathen around them were polytheists, worshiping multiple “gods” of wood and stone, Israel’s clear, identifiable, powerful statement of faith was found in Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one“ (NKJV).

Throughout the centuries, the chanting of the Shema (the name of the prayer, based on the Hebrew word for “hear”) reminded the Jews of the spiritual vision that united them as a people and that strengthened their resolve to maintain their unique identity as worshipers of the one true God.

For Seventh-day Adventists, the three angels’ messages in Revelation 14:1-20 are our Shema. They are our identifying statement of faith. They define who we are as a people and describe our mission to the world. In short, our unique prophetic identity is outlined in Revelation 14:6-12, and it is here that we find our passion to proclaim the gospel to the world.

In this week’s lesson, we will begin a detailed study of Revelation 14:6-12, but will do so through the eyes of grace as we listen to God speaking to our hearts.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, April 15.

Sunday–>

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700 Former Rebels Baptized

By Andrew McChesney

The Philippines was mired in conflict with rebels on Mindoro Island for 52 years. Land and money were offered to the rebels in exchange for peace, but nothing seemed to work. A seemingly endless cycle of ambushes and counterattacks left 40,000 people dead.

Image © Pacific Press

In 2017, Adventist World Radio (AWR) began broadcasting in Mindoro as part of an Seventh-day Adventist world church initiative known as TMI evangelism. TMI stands for Total Member Involvement, a program that encourages every church member to bring someone to Jesus. AWR leased time on local radio stations, and local church members got involved by giving Bible studies and inviting neighbors to evangelistic meetings. About 1,400 people were baptized at the meetings, and the broadcasts continued.

In 2019, rebels holed up in the lush green mountains of Mindoro began to listen to AWR. As COVID-19 swept the world in 2020, a number of them decided to surrender to Jesus.

Rebel leader Ka Martin could not understand what was happening, and he started to listen to AWR.

“He was hiding in the jungle, watching and trying to figure out why his fighters were leaving him,“ said AWR president Duane McKey. ”So he started listening to the radio.”

Martin was responsible for the deaths of dozens of people, including 21 soldiers whom he ambushed while they slept and shot them dead with one of their own machine guns. But as he listened to AWR, he also decided to give his heart to Jesus.

A bloodstained chapter of Philippine history drew to a close when about 700 former rebels, including Martin and his wife, laid down their weapons and were baptized at AWR-led evangelistic meetings. In all, over 60,000 people were baptized during the “Earth’s Final Countdown” meetings across the Philippines about a year ago.

“What bullets couldn’t do, God has done,” McKey said.

The Philippine government has granted amnesty to the former rebels. AWR is working with the government and a nongovernmental organization, ASI-member Farm Stew, to help the former rebels earn a livelihood through farming.

“We won’t stop the AWR broadcasts,“ said McKey, who also serves at assistant to the General Conference president in charge of Total Member Involvement. ”The local churches are now running the broadcasts, and we provide the sermons. The laypeople make this happen. This is a perfect example of Total Member Involvement.”

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

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