What were the reactions of the disciples to Jesus’ predictions of His own sufferings and death, and what should their reactions teach us about the dangers of misunderstanding Scripture?

Matthew 16:21-23

Matthew 17:22-23; Mark 9:30-32; Luke 9:44-45, 

Luke 18:31-34

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Jesus was born to die, and He lived to die. Every step that He took brought Him closer to His great atoning sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. Fully conscious of His mission, He did not allow anyone or anything to distract Him from it. In reality, “His whole life was a preface to His death on the cross.” — Ellen G. White, Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 382.

In the last year of His earthly ministry, Jesus spoke more and more explicitly to His disciples about His forthcoming death. But they seemed unable and unwilling to accept the reality of His statements. Filled with false notions about the role of the Messiah, the last thing that they had expected was for Him, Jesus, especially as the Messiah, to die. In short, their false theology led them into needless pain and suffering.

Already to Nicodemus, Jesus had declared, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15, , NKJV). While in Caesarea Philippi, Jesus told His disciples that He had to “go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day” (Matthew 16:21, NKJV). Passing privately through Galilee (Mark 9:30-32) and during His final journey to Jerusalem (Luke 18:31-34), Jesus spoke again to His disciples about His death and resurrection. Because it was not what they wanted to hear, they didn’t listen. How easy it is for us to do the same.

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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Read Revelation 13:8, Acts 2:23, and 1 Peter 1:19-20. How could Christ be considered as “slain from the foundation of the world” (NKJV)?

“All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8, NKJV). What’s crucial here for us is the idea of Christ’s being “slain from the foundation of the world.” Obviously, we must understand this in a symbolic sense (the book of Revelation is full of symbols), because Christ wasn’t crucified until thousands of years after the earth’s Creation. What this text is saying is that the plan of salvation had been put in place before the creation of the world. And central to that plan would be the death of Jesus, the Lamb of God, on the cross.

Read Titus 1:2. What does this verse teach us about how long ago the plan of salvation, which centered on Christ’s death, had been in place?

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“The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. … It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God’s throne.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 22.

That plan was revealed first to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15, Genesis 3:21), and it was typified by every blood sacrifice throughout the Old Testament. For instance, while testing Abraham’s faith, God provided a ram to be sacrificed instead of Isaac (Genesis 22:11-13). This replacement typified even more clearly the substitutionary nature of Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross.

Thus, central to the whole plan of salvation is the substitutionary death of Jesus, symbolized for centuries by animal sacrifices, each one a symbol of Jesus’ death on the cross as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Revelation 13:8; Matthew 17:22-23; Mark 9:30-32; John 19:1-30; Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 1:18-24.

Memory Text: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15, , NKJV).

It has been said that we cannot avoid death and taxes. That’s not entirely true. People can avoid taxes, but not death. They might be able to put death off a few years, but sooner or later, death always comes. And because we know that the dead, both the righteous and the wicked, end up at first in the same place, our hope of the resurrection means everything to us. As Paul had said, without this hope, even “also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (1 Corinthians 15:18, NKJV), which is a rather strange thing to say if those who “have fallen asleep in Christ” are buzzing about heaven in the presence of God.

Thus, Christ’s resurrection is central to our faith, because in His resurrection we have the surety of our own. But before Christ was resurrected from the dead, He, of course, had to die. This is why, amid the agony of Gethsemane, in anticipation of His death, He prayed: “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” (John 12:27, NKJV). And that purpose was to die.

This week we will focus on Christ’s death and what it means for the promise of eternal life.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 5.

Sunday–>

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Support for the mission activities of the Seventh-day Adventist church has always been part of the Sabbath School program. This video is Mission Spotlight for this week.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSjG-tRJyp4&w=560&h=315]

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Christ’s Ambassador

By Benjie Leach

One of my goals as chaplain of Forest Lake Academy in Orlando, Florida, was to become acquainted with each student. It was a challenge in a school with 450 students in the mid-1970s.

Image © Pacific Press

At the beginning of the school year, a student came up to me and said, “Have you had a chance to become acquainted with Paul yet?” I had not.

“You need to get acquainted,” the student said. “Just ask where he is from.”

My curiosity was aroused, so I invited Paul to my office. He turned out to be a rather shy 16-year-old. “So, Paul,” I said, “where are you from?”

“I’m from a little town in Georgia called Plains,” he said.

My mouth dropped open. “What?” I said. “That is where the president of the United States — Jimmy Carter — lives!”

I had to ask. “Paul,” I said, “do you know the president?”

“Oh, yes,” he said.

Early that summer, he had needed a job to pay for his tuition at Forest Lake Academy, and he had gotten a job at a peanut warehouse, the main industry, in Plains. He was excited about finding work and thought that he had made it clear about taking Sabbaths off. But his work supervisor stopped him when he left on Friday with a promise to return on Monday.

“No,” the supervisor said. “You come tomorrow. We are open Saturday.”

“But, you see, I’m a Seventh-day Adventist,” Paul said.

“Come tomorrow, or you won’t have a job anymore,” the supervisor said.

Paul thought for a moment. “Can I speak to the owner?”

“But that’s the president!” the supervisor exclaimed.

“Is he in town?” Paul said.

“Yes, but I don’t think that it’s going to make any difference.”

Paul went to the Carter home. He had to go through the Secret Service, but he was able to sit down with the president. Jimmy Carter listened attentively as he explained the situation and his observance of the seventh-day Sabbath. “I respect any young person who has convictions and stands up for what he believes” the president said. “You can have your Sabbaths off.”

And the soft-spoken 16-year-old teen became Christ’s ambassador to the U.S. president.

You and I also are ambassadors for Christ. “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20, NKJV). Let us, with Christ’s help, be faithful ambassadors.

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

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