Key Thought : Worship has to do with the very nature and purpose of our existence. Not to worship God is to lose our reason for existence.
May 13, 2023

1. Have a volunteer read Revelation 1:9, Matthew 13:21, Acts 14:22.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What is the message here for all who seek to follow Christ in the world?
3. Personal Application: Have you suffered persecution for your faith, or have you just been inconvenienced at times? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “The message of many preachers is that God wants us to prosper and be the head and not the tail. So if the message is that we must enter through much tribulation, why aren’t many Christians suffering for their faith? Is it compromise with the world, a lack of living faith in all areas of our lives, or because the time isn’t right yet?” How would you respond to your relative?

2. Have a volunteer read 2 Corinthians 5:17, Acts 17:27, Colossians 1:17.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What does it mean to be made a new creation?
3. Personal Application: Do we draw hope and comfort from the closeness of God, or is it frightening because God knows your darkest thoughts and secrets? Does the gospel give you peace in that context? Share your thoughts
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “Have you ever had an experience where you saw the work of God in your life? You know, where God showed you His love, care, and concern for you in your life personally.” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Ephesians 3:9, Colossians 1:13-17, Romans 5:17-19.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. What is the mystery of God that was hidden and is now made manifest to the church mentioned in these verses?
3. Personal Application: Why is it a mystery and a stumbling block for people to know that Jesus created everything, including humans, and then became a human to die that we could have eternal life? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your neighbors states: “What’s wrong with the idea that God created through an evolutionary process, where man eventually developed and evolved into the top of the evolutionary cycle? God created, nature and man evolved naturally over time. This reconciles science and religion.” How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read Revelation 14:7.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. Why is there a call to worship the Creator of all things in the everlasting gospel of the first angel?
3. Personal Application: What are some ways God may have given us to worship His creation, His creative power, and His position as our Maker? 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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After His ascension to heaven (Acts 1:9), Jesus visited the last of the living apostles, John, on the island of Patmos, where John had been exiled by the ruthless Roman emperor Domitian.

Read Revelation 1:9. See also Matthew 13:21, Acts 14:22, and John 16:33. What’s the message here for all who seek to follow Jesus in this world?

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Separated from the support of his family, friends, and the Christian community, John was not left alone in the tribulations and trouble that he faced as a follower of Jesus. His ministry was not over. His witness was not complete. An angelic visitor of dazzling brightness visited John on that lonely isle and brought him a message directly from the throne of God. This message from Jesus was to echo down the corridors of time through the centuries. It was a message of hope for every generation, but especially a message to prepare God’s last-day people for the coming of Jesus. It is a serious message of warning as well as an end-time message of encouragement as we get ready to face the trials of the final days (or any trials that you might be facing now).

If you were to enter the cave where it is purported that John was visited by the heavenly angel with Revelation’s prophetic vision, you would immediately notice these words placed on a plaque at its entrance summarizing the entire book of Revelation: “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).

The central issue in the book of Revelation is worship. We were created as worshiping beings. Every one of us worships something or someone. True worship, the worship of the Creator, enables us to discover life’s true purpose. It gives us a reason for living. It gives us not only something to die for but, even more significantly, something to live for and, if need be, to endure tribulations for. And indeed, as the final crises arise, we will better understand the words that “we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22, NKJV).

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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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=FlMfsuNvUsk&w=560&h=315]

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Image © Pacific Press

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Revelation 1:9, Isaiah 40:26, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Colossians 1:17, Revelation 4:11, John 19:16-30.

Memory Text: “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:11, NKJV).

It’s easy to take things for granted, particularly things that we have always known or experienced. How easy, for instance, for young children to take their parents for granted, whom they have known all their short lives? How easy for us, too, to take for granted the sun, the sky, the air, or the ground beneath our feet.

However, have you ever stopped to think how much we take existence itself for granted? That is, how often do we stop and ask the famous philosophical question, Why is there something instead of nothing?

Why does our universe itself, and all the majesty and grandeur and astonishing things in it, exist to begin with? What great logical contradiction would occur were our universe, and we in it, not here? According to the latest scientific theory (they tend to change), our universe once did not exist. In other words, ours is a contingent existence, and it’s a miracle that we are here at all. And despite all sorts of myths about the universe arising from absolutely nothing, or from some kind of mathematical equation, our universe exists because God, the Creator, has made it and everything in it.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 13.

Sunday–>

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Ukrainian Miracle

By Andrew McChesney

Ten-year-old Anas struggled in his classes amid an ongoing torrent of bullying in public school in Odessa, Ukraine. His skin was darker than the other children’s, and his classmates made fun of him. He lived with his Ukrainian grandmother after being left at her home by his mother, a former Seventh-day Adventist. His father wasn’t a Christian and lived far away in Iran.

Image © Pacific Press

Grandmother didn’t like the way that Anas was being treated at school. Upset over the bullying, she finally transferred the boy to the local Seventh-day Adventist school.

At first, Anas was withdrawn and spoke little. But he loved the Bible classes so much that he tried to remember the teacher’s words by whispering them as he heard them in the classroom. As the days and weeks passed, he began to open up and make jokes. The other children enjoyed his wit, and he soon became the class clown. He received his very own Bible.

His mother was furious when she learned that Anas was attending the Adventist school, and she took him away from Grandmother to live with her. She refused to speak with Grandmother, and she taught Anas at home.

Grandmother prayed for God to intervene. She prayed every day for a year. After some time, Mother began speaking with her again. They became friends again.

One day, Mother agreed to Grandmother’s suggestion to meet with an Adventist pastor. Anas listened in on their conversation, and he learned to his surprise that three of his friends from the Adventist school were going to be baptized. “I also want to be baptized!” he exclaimed.

Mother was surprised. The pastor was surprised. They asked Anas some questions. It turned out that he had been studying his Bible on his own during the year that he had been living with Mother. More than anything, he wanted to be baptized. His fervent desire to give his life to Jesus touched Mother’s heart, She gave her consent. Two weeks later, Mother and Grandmother watched as the 11-year-old boy was baptized with his three friends from the Adventist school.

It was a miracle facilitated by God and Adventist education, said Ivan Riapolov (pictured), education director for the Euro-Asia Division, whose territory includes Ukraine.

“There was not only a reconciliation of the family, but also a reconciliation with God,” he said.

Thank you for your Sabbath School mission offerings that support Seventh-day Adventist education around the world.

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

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