Lesson 13 December 22-28
Final Restoration of Unity Sabbath AfternoonRead for This Week’s Study: John 14:1-3, Isa. 11:1-10, Rev. 21:1-5, 1 Thess. 4:13-18, Rev. 22:1-5, Isa. 35:4-10.
Memory Text: “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13, NKJV).
One of the greatest promises of the Bible is Jesus’ promise to come again. Without it, we have nothing, because our hopes center in that promise and what it means for us. When Christ returns in the clouds of heaven, all that is earthly and human-made and thus temporary and at times meaningless will be swept away. After the millennium in heaven, this earth with its wars, famines, diseases, and tragedies will be made new and become the dwelling place of the redeemed, finally reunited with their Lord and with each other.
Hope in the second coming of Christ is a major theme of the New Testament, and for centuries Christians have longed for the fulfillment of this promise. We as Seventh-day Adventists also long for His return. Indeed, our name itself proclaims that hope.
In this final lesson, we look at this promise and what it means for Christian unity. Our oneness in Christ is often challenged by our human limitations and weaknesses. But we will no longer need to seek for solutions to our fragmentation, because there will be no fragmentation. At the Second Advent, we will be one with the Lord, finally reunited and forming one restored family.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, December 29.
Sunday ↥ December 23
The Certainty of Christ’s Return
John 14:1-3 is the best-known promise of Jesus’ second coming. What does this promise tell you about the kind of life the redeemed will live on the new earth?
Early Christians considered Christ’s return the “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13, NKJV). They expected all the prophecies and promises of Scripture to be fulfilled at the Second Advent, for it is the very goal of the Christian pilgrimage. All who love Christ look forward to the day they will be able to share face-to-face fellowship with Him. His words in those verses suggest a closeness and intimacy that we will share, not only with Jesus but with each other, as well.
Christians believe in this promise because the Bible assures us of its fulfillment. We have this assurance because we believe in the words of Jesus, “I will come again” (John 14:3, NKJV). Just as Christ’s first coming was prophesied, so His second coming also is foretold, even in the Old Testament. Before the Flood, God told the patriarch Enoch that the Messiah’s coming in glory would put an end to sin. He prophesied, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him” (Jude 14, 15, NKJV).
A thousand years before Jesus came to this earth, King David also prophesied of the Messiah’s coming to gather God’s people together. “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous all around Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people: ‘Gather My saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice” (Ps. 50:3-5, NKJV).
The second coming of Jesus is linked closely to His first advent. The prophecies that predicted His birth and ministry (for example, Gen. 3:15; Mic. 5:2; Isa. 11:1; Dan. 9:25, 26) are the foundation for our hope and trust in the promises about His second coming. Christ “has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. … So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation” (Heb. 9:26, 28, NKJV).
What are ways that you can even now draw hope and comfort from the promise of the Second Coming?
Monday ↥ December 24
The Promise of Restoration
Read Isaiah 11:1-10. What promise is given to Israel, and what does it say about the eternal dwelling place of the redeemed?
The Bible begins with the story of the Creation of the earth (Genesis 1, 2). It is a description of a beautiful and harmonious world entrusted to our first parents, Adam and Eve. A perfect world and home for the human race, whom God had created. The Bible’s last two chapters also speak of God’s creating a perfect and harmonious world for redeemed humanity (Revelation 21, 22), but this time it is more accurate to say re-creation, the restoration of the earth from the ravages of sin.
In many places the Bible declares that this eternal home of the redeemed will be a real place, not an imagined fantasy or dream. The redeemed will be able to see, hear, smell, touch, and feel a new experience, a new life. The prophecy of Isaiah 11 is a beautiful passage foretelling the coming of the Messiah, who will create a new era. He will end all violence and usher in an eternal peace. The reign of God on this new earth will establish universal harmony.
Read Revelation 21:1-5. What will disappear forever as a result of this new harmony?
Ellen White wrote of what awaits the redeemed: “As the years of eternity roll, they will bring richer and more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character. As Jesus opens before them the riches of redemption and the amazing achievements in the great controversy with Satan, the hearts of the ransomed beat with a stronger devotion, and they sweep the harps of gold with a firmer hand: and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise.” - Ellen G. White, The Story of Redemption, pp. 432, 433.
What are ways that we can understand even now the character of God? How does living in harmony and unity with others reveal even now something about the character and nature of God?