Key Thought: It is clear that God is a God of judgment, and that judgment will come, as every one of us shall give an account of Himself to God.
April 29, 2023

1. Have a volunteer read Revelation 20:12.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What does the everlasting gospel have to do with God’s judgment?
3. Personal Application: What is the meaning and purpose of the judgment? Share your thoughts..
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “I don’t think Christians are judged. It’s only the non-believers who are judged for their evil deeds and not accepting Christ for their forgiveness.” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read Daniel 7:9,10,13,14,26,27.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What did Daniel see? What is the result of the final judgment?
3. Personal Application: Why is the judgment good news and not bad news? Share your thoughts
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “Why should I believe in an everlasting kingdom that shall never pass away as described in Daniel?” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Revelation 5:8-12

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. How does God’s judgment reveal the character of God?
3. Personal Application: How does the knowledge that the hour of God’s judgment has come affect our daily lives? How can we make sure it does? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “What do our good works have to do with our salvation as we are saved by grace through faith? The judgment seems to contradict a faith-based gospel?” How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read Revelation 4:2-4.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. Who are the 24 elders seated before the throne and what do the crowns on their heads represent?
   (Note: The crowns represent victory. They were redeemed from the earth. This is the jury of your peers. The angels were painted on the blue curtains around the Most Holy Place. These are the crowd of witnesses.)
3. Personal Application: If someone asked you if you thought you would be present for your case in the heavenly court, how would you respond to them? 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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The Bible’s last book, Revelation, focuses on the culmination of the age-long controversy between good and evil. Lucifer, a rebel angel, challenged the justice, fairness, and wisdom of God. He claimed that God was unfair and unjust in the way that He administered the universe. Revelation’s final judgment is at the very center of this conflict over the character of God.

Revelation 14:7, reads: “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water” (NKJV). Why is it significant that right after we are told about the “everlasting gospel,” the first angel’s message talks about God’s judgment? What does the “everlasting gospel” have to do with God’s judgment?

Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com

The gospel and the judgment, both parts of the first angel’s message, are inseparably intertwined. Were it not for the “everlasting gospel,” we would have no hope in the judgment. In fact, as we will see, the “everlasting gospel” is, indeed, our only hope in the judgment. There is no question that part of the content of the gospel is the announcement of judgment.

During this judgment, the unfallen worlds will see that God has done everything He can to save every human being. This judgment reveals God’s justice and mercy. It says something about His love and law. It speaks of His grace to save and His power to deliver.

The judgment is part of God’s ultimate solution to the sin problem. In the great controversy between good and evil in the universe, God answered Satan’s charges on the cross, but in the judgment, He reveals that He has done everything possible to save us and to lead us to the cross.

Heaven’s infinite, minute, exact, detailed records will be opened (see Daniel 7:10). We are so precious to God that the entire universe pauses to consider the choices we have made in light of the wooing of the Holy Spirit and the redemption so freely provided by Christ on Calvary’s cross.

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Image © Pacific Press

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Revelation 14:7; Psalm 51:1-4; Revelation 20:12; Daniel 7:9, Daniel 7:14, Daniel 7:26; Revelation 4:2-4; Revelation 5:1-12.

Memory Text: “Saying with a loud voice, ’Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water’ ” (Revelation 14:7, NKJV).

If the Bible was ever clear about anything, it’s clear that God is a God of judgment, and that sooner or later, in one way or another, judgment — the judgment so lacking here and now — is going to come and be administered by God Himself, “the Judge of all the earth” (Genesis 18:25; see also Psalm 58:11, Psalm 94:2, Psalm 98:9). Or, as Paul Himself had written: “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12).

Scary thought, isn’t it? Having to give an account of ourselves before God, the God who knows the deepest things, the God who will “bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:14, NKJV)?

Yet, ultimately the judgment reveals the goodness and the grace of God and that He is both just and merciful in how He deals with the saved, and even with the lost.

This week we will explore the deeper themes of the judgment in relation to the great controversy raging in the universe, and we will look especially about what happens when God’s faithful people themselves face the inevitable “judgment to come” (Acts 24:25).

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, April 29.

Sunday–>

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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=oO7WRtz6Ysg&w=560&h=315]

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Praying for New Friends

By Dmitry Bagal

Elena Bagal felt lonely in Kochel, Germany. Born in Siberia, she knew no one when they arrived, and her German was weak. As the days passed, she missed the life that she had enjoyed in Russia. One day, she cried out to the Lord for a new friend. “I really need a friend to spend time with,” she prayed.

Image © Pacific Press

Little did she realize that she was not the only Russian-speaking mother praying for friends. Snezhana had moved to the town a year earlier amid difficult family circumstances. On the same day that Elena prayed for a friend, Snezhana cried out to God, “Lord, I have no more strength! How can I go on living? Help me to meet someone to share my difficulties with.”

Snezhana had two children, ages 7 and 9, but they rarely went to the children’s playground. On that day, however, they went to the playground.

Elena, who had just prayed for a friend, took her baby girl to the same playground. She greeted Snezhana in German, but soon she realized that they both spoke Russian. She couldn’t believe it! She thought that the mother and children were visiting tourists, but it turned out that they lived in the town and were looking for new friends. The families have become close friends. “God let me meet you so that I would have a friend,” Snezhana told Elena recently. Elena sends encouraging songs and uplifting sermons to Snezhana. She is praying that Snezhana will agree to Bible studies.

After the meeting, Elena kept praying for new friends. One day she met Natasha, a Russian speaker in need of encouragement. The women became friends, and today Elena regularly sends Bible promises to Natasha.

Elena kept praying for new friends. While shopping, she met Irina, another Russian speaker, and invited her home for a visit. The two woman now meet every other week. Sometimes, Elena gives Irina massages and, each time, she prays. The last time she gave a massage, Irina prayed for the first time. Elena has learned that Irina sometimes visited an Adventist church before moving to Kochel. “God’s ways are wonderful!” Elena said.

She prays that Irina will want to study the Bible together and that she can start a small group for Russian speakers in her home. In the meantime, she keeps praying for new friends. Do you pray for new friends?

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

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