We have seen in the early chapters of Acts how the first Christian believers established a different kind of community, caring for those in need among them, and together reaching out to those outside the community, offering them help where needed and inviting them to join in with what God was doing among them.

Community

Adding to Jesus’ descriptions of salt and light, Paul uses a number of metaphors to portray the church’s action in the world. Among others, he describes those who live as God’s people as a sacrifice (see Rom. 12:1), Christ’s body (see 1 Cor. 12:12-20), as ambassadors (see 2 Cor. 5:18-20), and as perfume (see 2 Cor. 2:14-16). Each of these images talks about a role as representatives or agents of God’s kingdom even now, even amid a world ravaged by the great controversy.

Review each of these “representative” descriptions above. Which best describes how you would like to represent God and His ways in your community, and why?

Each of these images has action associated with them, not as a means of being acceptable to God but as people already accepted by God through Christ’s sacrifice, who have responded to God’s love and grace by being His agents in a hurt and dying world.

But they can also be considered on a still deeper level: because God’s love and grace is what the kingdom of God is about, when we act in such a way, reflecting to others in love and grace, we enact and participate in that eternal kingdom, even now.

In international law, a national embassy is considered part of the nation it represents, even when physically located in a foreign country, perhaps a long distance from the home nation. In a similar way, enacting the ways of God’s kingdom offers glimpses of that eternal reality here and now and, as such, points to and is a foretaste of the final defeat of evil. And by so doing—as Christ’s ambassadors, as Christ’s agents—we can experience the reality of His love and justice in our own lives, in the church, and in the lives of those we seek to serve.

Read 2 Corinthians 2:16. What is the difference between the two aromas, and how can we know which one we are?

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Image © Pacific Press

Read for This Week’s Study: 2 Cor. 2:14-16, Exod. 32:1-14, 1 Pet. 2:12, Phil. 2:15, Eph. 2:19, Heb. 10:23-25.

Memory Text: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works” (Hebrews 10:23-24, NKJV).

In seeking to fulfil the Christian mission, we should not underestimate the potential of the church as an organized community of believers. We have already noted the challenges that we can face when seeking to deal with injustice and poverty. But by working with fellow believers in a community of faith, we can be a blessing to those around us.

The temptation is that when we get together as a church we become distracted with keeping the church itself going, forgetting that the church exists to serve the world in which God has placed it. As a church body, we must not ignore the suffering and evil that exists all around us. If Christ didn’t ignore it, we must not either. We must be faithful to our mandate to preach the gospel, and along with that preaching comes the work of helping the oppressed, the hungry, the naked, and the helpless.

Together as a church community and organization, we are the body of Christ (see 1 Cor. 12:12-20). As such, we as a community should walk as Jesus walked, reach out as Jesus did, and serve as the hands, feet, voice, and heart of Jesus in the world today.

Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, September 28.

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U.S. Biker Embraces Sabbath

By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission

The invitation startled Richard Smith as he stopped at a senior center to collect meals to deliver on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle to retirees in the U.S. state of West Virginia.

Image © Pacific Press

“Would you like to go to the Seventh-day Adventist church with me?” asked Ruth, who also worked at the senior center.

“I don’t know”, Richard said. “I don’t know anything about the Adventist Church”.

Richard, 72, had visited various Sunday churches during two marriages and two jobs. But he had never been baptized. He didn’t know which church to join, and he often thought, “If God wakes me up one day and says go to a different church, I want to be able to pack up and move”.

So, when Ruth invited him to church, he replied, “Let’s try my churches first”.

He asked Ruth, a divorced nurse six years his junior, for her opinion after visiting a first church together on Sunday.

“If I just wanted breakfast, it was good”, Ruth said about the church’s doughnuts and fruit juice.

In reply to his query after the second church, Ruth noted that the pastor had spent much more time on the announcements than the sermon.

Ruth’s observations gave Richard a new perspective, and he finally agreed to go with her to an Adventist church. Soon he began to ply its pastor, Bill Hunt, with questions about the Bible, and the answers amazed him.

“It was like I had this veil over my head”, Richard said. “I could see through it, but everything was kind of hazy. Bill yanked that veil off my head and I said, ‘Wow, things are as clear as a bell!’”

Richard also shared a common interest with the pastor; they both are bikers.

Then the pastor invited Richard to attend an evangelistic series—one of 35 evangelistic series in West Virginia that were funded by a 2015 Thirteenth Sabbath Offering. Richard attended with Ruth and was baptized. In all, eight people were baptized after the 2016 meetings at the Huntington church.

Today, Richard, pictured left, is 72 and sharing his love for Jesus with anyone who will listen.

“The Lord takes such good care of me, and I think, ‘Why?’” he said. “I know He talks care of everybody, but why? It’s like I am sitting down at the table, looking at my plate, and everything on it I like to eat. What more can I ask for?”

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

All Rights Reserved. No part of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide may be edited, altered, modified, adapted, translated, reproduced, or published by any person or entity without prior written authorization from the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

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Further Thought:

Read Ellen G. White, “A Higher Experience”, pages 503-516, in The Ministry of Healing; “Duty to the Unfortunate”; and “Man’s Duty to His Fellow Men”, pages 511-526, in Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3; “Doing for Christ”, pages 24-37, in Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2.

“Search heaven and earth, and there is no truth revealed more powerful than that which is made manifest in works of mercy to those who need our sympathy and aid.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

This is the truth as it is in Jesus. When those who profess the name of Christ shall practice the principles of the golden rule, the same power will attend the gospel as in apostolic times”. – Ellen G. White, Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 137.

“Supreme love for God and unselfish love for one another—this is the best gift that our heavenly Father can bestow. This love is not an impulse, but a divine principle, a permanent power. The unconsecrated heart cannot originate or produce it. Only in the heart where Jesus reigns is it found … This love, cherished in the soul, sweetens the life and sheds a refining influence on all around”. – Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 551.

Discussion Questions:

Summary: 

Becoming a follower of Jesus will change our lives in many ways, including producing in us a passion to join in with God’s active concern for the poor and downtrodden. Never an easy task and rarely popular, this will change our priorities and motivate us to take active steps to heal the hurt in the world around us.

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Solomon wrote that there is “a time to be silent and a time to speak” (Eccl. 3:7, NIV). He was right, and finding that balance is not simple for any of us. However, when it comes to speaking for the oppressed and being a voice for the voiceless and seeking to overcome evil with good, is it possible that as a church we have erred on the side of too much silence when our voice should have been heard?

Justice

Christians have often talked about being the hands and feet of Jesus, referring to the call to practical service for others as Jesus would have us do. But in the prophetic role as demonstrated in the Bible, God’s first call is for men and women to be His voice—and in speaking on behalf of God, also speaking up on behalf of those God wants to defend (see Ps. 146:6-10).

Read Isaiah 58:1-10. What should this message, given in its specific time and place and context, say to us today in another time, place, and context? How much has really changed between the time Isaiah wrote this and our world today?

The prophets’ call to justice was never a path to popularity. But motivated by their commission from God, understanding God’s passion for justice, sympathizing with the plight of the poor and oppressed, and seeking the best for their society, these prophets dared to be a voice for the voiceless in their time and place, despite opposition, discomfort, and danger (see 1 Pet. 3:17).

Based on our understanding of the gospel and the call to reflect Jesus to the world, Seventh-day Adventists also have many good things to offer in regard to dealing with the evil in the world.

Such as: “Seventh-day Adventists believe that actions to reduce poverty and its attendant injustices are an important part of Christian social responsibility. The Bible clearly reveals God’s special interest in the poor and His expectations as to how His followers should respond to those who are unable to care for themselves. All human beings bear the image of God and are the recipients of God’s blessing (Luke 6:20). In working with the poor we follow the example and teaching of Jesus (Matthew 25:35-36). As a spiritual community Seventh-day Adventists advocate justice for the poor and ‘speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves’ (Proverbs 31:8 NIV) and against those who ‘deprive the poor of their rights’ (Isaiah 10:2 NIV). We participate with God who ‘secures justice for the poor’. (Psalm 140:12 NIV)”. Seventh-day Adventist Official Statement on Global Poverty, June 24, 2010.

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