Daily Lesson for Thursday 12th of December 2024

John 17:1-26 is sometimes called the high priestly prayer of Jesus. It concludes the farewell discourse. Jesus came to this earth so that humanity might be restored, ultimately, to its original personal relationship with God. He faithfully performed the signs that God gave Him to do. In words and acts, He communicated God to the people.

Jesus would soon be leaving this earth. He desired to share once again His love for His disciples. He wanted them to understand the close relationship between Himself, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. And He wanted to bring them into the same personal relationship with God the Father and the Spirit that He Himself had.

Image © Pacific Press at Goodsalt.com

Many read John 17:1-26 to mean that the only thing that matters is unity and love. No question, God’s purpose is to restore us to a personal relationship with Him and with all people. But a more careful reading suggests a much more vital connection between love and truth.

“ ‘This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God’ ” (John 17:3, NKJV), not God, whoever we think He is. “ ‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me, . . . and they have kept your word . . . and know in truth that I came from you’ ” (John 17:6,8, NRSV). “ ‘Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth’ ” (John 17:17, NKJV).

Christ came to reveal the Father. This revelation was important because of the many misconceptions about God. The Gospel of John shows how seriously Jesus took this mission. He rightly represented God’s Word and actions. If truth did not matter, why go to such lengths?

Jesus lived a life of great difficulty ultimately to be rejected by the religious authorities. He suffered indifference from the people and even, at times, from His own disciples. One of His disciples betrayed Him, and another denied Him three times. He went through an unremitting trial and died on a cross at the hands of the very ones He came to save.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24d-11-the-prayer-of-jesus/

Daily Lesson for Wednesday 11th of December 2024

The Holy Spirit is not as prominent in the Gospel of John as the Father and the Son are. Yet, His role is crucial to the success of Jesus’ mission.

In the first chapter of John, we can see just how central the role of the Holy Spirit is. John tells us that as many as received the Word (that is, as many as believed in Him) became children of God, those “who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13, NKJV). This comes only from the work of the Holy Spirit.

image © Linda Lovett from GoodSalt.com

“In describing to His disciples the office work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus sought to inspire them with the joy and hope that inspired His own heart. He rejoiced because of the abundant help He had provided for His church. The Holy Spirit was the highest of all gifts that He could solicit from His Father for the exaltation of His people. The Spirit was to be given as a regenerating agent, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail. The power of evil had been strengthening for centuries, and the submission of men to this satanic captivity was amazing. Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the Third Person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 671.

What a blessing, then, to receive the Holy Spirit, who certifies that God is true (John 3:33). It is the Spirit that convicts of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8-11). Hence, the key for us to know what is right, what is true, and what is good is our submission of our reason and life experiences to the Word of God through the convicting and convincing power of the Holy Spirit.

<–Tuesday Thursday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24d-11-the-holy-spirit/

Join It Is Written Sabbath School host Eric Flickinger and one of this quarter’s authors, Dr. Thomas R. Shepherd, as they provide additional insights into this week’s Sabbath School lesson, “The Beginning of the Gospel.”

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/11-the-father-the-son-and-the-spirit-it-is-written-discussions-with-the-author/

View an in-depth discussion of TheFather, the Son, and the Spirit in the Hope Sabbath School class led by Pastor Derek Morris.
Click on the image below to view the video:

With thanks to Hope Channel – Television that will change your life.

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/11-the-father-the-son-and-the-spirit-hope-sabbath-school-video-discussion/

Daily Lesson for Tuesday 10th of December 2024

Throughout the Gospel of John, the apostle describes how Jesus, the Son, does activities that point to the Father. Jesus explains who the Father is and shows what His relationship to our world is. This is all in keeping with John 1:18, which says that He makes the Father known (Greek exēgeomai: to explain, interpret, exposit). Again and again Jesus does this. The word Father (patēr) appears 136 times in John and 18 times in 1–3 John, more than one-third of the entire uses in the New Testament. The farewell discourse is one of the prime locations in the Gospel where Jesus makes the Father known.

Image © Lifeway Collection at Goodsalt.com
with and teaches the people who are gathered around Him.

Jesus was the Father’s representative on earth, and He came to live out, in human flesh, the Father’s will. In fact, Jesus said that in all things He sought to do the Father’s will, and not His own (John 5:30). This may seem at first a startling statement, but it shows how totally surrendered Jesus, as a human being, was to the Father.

Jesus said, too, that He had been sent by the Father to finish His work—the salvation of humanity—and that the Father Himself bore witness to His work (John 5:36-38).

Jesus proclaimed that the Father sent Him to serve as the only one through whom humanity may come to the Father (John 6:40,44). The Father wants people to have the eternal life found in Jesus, who promises to raise them up in the resurrection.

Jesus’ claims about His relationship to the Father are astonishing. He asserts that all of His teachings are the teachings of the Father; that all He says He had personally heard from the Father; that belief in Him is the same as belief in the Father; that both His very words and His works are all of the Father; and that He and the Father are united in loving and working for the salvation of humanity. What a powerful testimony to the closeness of Jesus to His Father in heaven!

<–Monday Wednesday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24d-11-knowing-the-son-is-knowing-the-father/