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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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/sunday-grace-filled-book-of-hope/

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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Further Thought:

 “It is a law both of the intellectual and the spiritual nature that by beholding we become changed. The mind gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is allowed to dwell. It becomes assimilated to that which it is accustomed to love and reverence.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

Man will never rise higher than his standard of purity or goodness or truth. If self is his loftiest ideal, he will never attain to anything more exalted. Rather, he will constantly sink lower and lower. The grace of God alone has power to exalt man. Left to himself, his course must inevitably be downward.” — Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 555.

Subtly, imperceptibly, almost unnoticed at first, our characters and our personalities change based on the seeds that we are sowing in our minds. Sow good seeds, and you will produce good fruit. Sow the evil seeds of this world, and you will produce the fruit of this world in your character. If we sow indifference to God and spiritual values and priorities, we reap the fruit of indifference — apathy, spiritual complacency, and frustration in our spiritual lives. This is why those who think, Well, I know that one day final persecution will come, the ”mark of the beast” and so forth, but when it does, then I will get it together, are choosing a very dangerous path. God calls us now, at this moment, to surrender our lives to Him. The longer one delays responding to the Holy Spirit, the harder and harder one’s soul becomes to the promptings of God and more susceptible to fall for, and believe in, the lies of the evil one.

Discussion Questions:

<–Thursday

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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:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MasPkjVZKOE&w=560&h=315]

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