SDA Sabbath School Lesson 2--2nd Quarter 2024--Love or Selfishness?

[Richard Myers]

2nd   Quarter         Lesson 2                                                                                                                                                                    Apr 6-April 12

'The Central Issue: Love or Selfishness?'

Commentary in Navy                  Inspiration in Maroon

[Richard Myers]

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study

Luke 19:41-44; Matthew 23:37-38; Hebrews 11:35-38; Revelation 2:10; Acts 2:44-47; John 13:35.

    Memory Text:
    Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.  Isaiah 41:10

Suppose you are a herdsman tending your goats on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem. You hear voices. Immediately you recognize the voice of Jesus. As the setting sun gleams off the temple and reflects in snowy whiteness off its magnificent marble walls, Jesus emphatically states, “ ‘Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down’ ” (Matthew 24:2).

The disciples are confused, and so are you. What could Jesus possibly mean by these words? How do they relate to the end of the world that Jesus’ disciples asked about? You listen in rapt attention as Jesus masterfully blends events that would lead up to the destruction of Jerusalem with those that would take place just before His return.

In the destruction of Jerusalem, we discover a foreshadowing of Satan’s strategy both to deceive and destroy God’s people at the end time. Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 24:1-51 clearly outlines last-day events in the context of Jerusalem’s fall.

Amen! Jerusalem's fall came when Romans soldiers encircled Jerusalem in 70AD. It preshadows the destruction of the world.  By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near. As the approach of the Roman armies was a sign to the disciples of the impending destruction of Jerusalem, so may this apostasy be a sign to us that the limit of God’s forbearance is reached, that the measure of our nation’s iniquity is full, and that the angel of mercy is about to take her flight, never to return. 5T 451.   


We will study Satan’s twofold strategy both to deceive and destroy God’s people. What the evil one fails to accomplish through persecution, he hopes to achieve through compromise. God is never caught by surprise, and even in the most challenging times He preserves His people.

*Study this week’s lesson, based on The Great Controversy, chapters 1–2, to prepare for Sabbath, April 13.

[Richard Myers]

Sunday  April 7
A Brokenhearted Savior

As Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives overlooking the city of Jerusalem, His heart was broken. John’s Gospel says, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11). Jesus did everything He could to save His people from the coming destruction of their beloved city.

Jesus’ love for His people flowed from a heart of infinite love. He repeatedly appealed to them in love to repent and accept His gracious invitation of mercy.

Read Luke 19:41-44; Matthew 23:37-38; John 5:40.

41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.

What do these verses tell you about Jesus’ attitude toward His people and their response to His loving invitation of grace and mercy? What revelation of God’s character do you see?

Jesus loved Israel, as He loves His church today. He was longsuffering with them, but they were so deceived they did not recognize Him and put Him on the cross.

It is difficult to understand such an event as the destruction of Jerusalem in the light of God’s loving character.

Not really if we studied the Old Testament and understand God killed every living thing off the face of the Earth except what was in the ark.

History reveals that tens of thousands died as the Roman general Titus led his armies against the city. Jerusalem was devastated. Men, women, and children were slaughtered. Where was God when His people suffered so greatly? The answer is clear but not easy to grasp fully. God’s heart was broken. His eyes were filled with tears. For centuries He reached out to His people. By their rebellion against His loving-kindness, they forfeited His divine protection. God does not always intervene to limit the results of His people’s choices. He allows the natural consequences of rebellion to develop. God did not cause the slaughter of innocent children in the destruction of Jerusalem; the tragic death of the innocents was Satan’s act, not God’s.

He did in fact allow Rome to kill the sinners. But, does not God kill also. Did He not instruct Israel to kill men, women, and children? Let's not take away from God His character of justice. At the end, all will receive according to the works done in the flesh. How will unrepentant sinners be punished for their sins when brought up from the grave? Why did God bring them up when they were already dead? How will they die? For how long will they suffer? Did they bring this upon themselves? Whose justice is being done? Why hide the truth from sinners? One day, if you warn them not they will come to you and ask "why did you not tell us?" And what will you say?

Satan delights in war because it stirs the worst passions of the human heart. Down through the centuries, it has been his purpose to deceive and destroy and then blame his evil actions on God.

This is what is happening today. He wants all to believe that God is doing all of the wicked things because the sun day is not honored.

Read Matthew 24:15-20. What instruction did Jesus give to His people to save them from the coming destruction of Jerusalem?

It is well to remember that the vast majority of Christians living in Jerusalem in a.d. 70 came from a Jewish background. A loving God desired to preserve as many of His people as possible. That is why He gave the instruction that when the Roman armies approached, they were to flee the city.

Reflect on the following statement: we do not judge God’s character by events we see around us; rather, we filter all the events we see through the prism of His loving character as revealed in the Bible. Why is this such good counsel?
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It lacks a full understanding of His character. It is Satan's work to separate His love from His justice. He cares not which direction we go as long as we separate the two.

How important is His justice?  Look at what Jesus suffered when He trod the winepress alone on this wicked planet. Why did Jesus have to suffer? It was God's justice that demanded the price be paid for all of our sins if we were to be forgiven and live for eternity. Do not leave this out of our teaching.

[Richard Myers]

Monday  April 8
Christians Providentially Preserved

God’s mercy, grace, providence, and foreknowledge are clearly revealed in the events leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem. Cestius Gallus and the Roman armies surrounded the city. In an unexpected move, when their attack seemed imminent, they withdrew. The Jewish armies pursued them and won a great victory.

With the Romans fleeing and the Jews pursuing, the Christians in Jerusalem fled to Pella in Perea, beyond the Jordan River. “The promised sign had been given to the waiting Christians, and now an opportunity was offered for all who would, to obey the Saviour’s warning. Events were so overruled that neither Jews nor Romans should hinder the flight of the Christians.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 30.

Read Psalms 46:1; Isaiah 41:10. What do these passages tell us about God’s providential care?

God is sovereign and overrules events on earth for the ultimate accomplishment of His divine purposes. Although at times God alters His original plans based on our human choices, His ultimate plan for this planet will be fulfilled. There will be times when the people of God experience hardship, persecution, imprisonment, and death itself for the cause of Christ. But even in the most challenging of times with Satan’s most vicious attacks, God sustains and preserves His church.

Read Hebrews 11:35-38; Revelation 2:10. What reality do these texts reveal about our battle with the forces of evil? How do these passages harmonize with the idea of God’s protection in the previous question? Is there a contradiction in the idea of God’s protection and God allowing some to face painful suffering and even a martyr’s death for the cause of Christ?

“In vain were Satan’s efforts to destroy the church of Christ by violence. The great controversy in which the disciples of Jesus yielded up their lives did not cease when these faithful standard-bearers fell at their post. By defeat they conquered. God’s workmen were slain, but His work went steadily forward.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 41.

What should it mean to us that the Bible writers, who certainly knew pain and suffering, could nevertheless, again and again, write about the reality of God’s love? How can we experience that same love for ourselves?

God did not promise us a life free from persecution. To the contrary, we would have trials and tribulation. We will experience persecution when we are seen to be living and teaching the truth. So persecuted the prophets before us. Why do we glory in our tribulation?  Why do we tell others of His love while experiencing pain? We love and trust our Savior with the whole heart. We ought to spend a thoughtful hour each day contemplating the life of Jesus, then we will experience the same love for ourselves.

[Richard Myers]

Tuesday  April 9
Faithful Amid Persecution

Throughout the early centuries of Christianity, the Christian church grew rapidly, despite imprisonment, torture, and persecution. Faithful believers, totally committed to Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaimed His Word with power; lives were changed, and tens of thousands were converted.

Read Acts 2:41; Acts 4:4; Acts 4:31; Acts 5:42; Acts 8:1-8. What do these verses teach us about the challenges the New Testament church faced and also why it grew so rapidly?

The disciples faced threats (Acts 4:17), imprisonment (Acts 5:17-18), persecution (Acts 8:1), and death itself (Acts 7:59; Acts 12:2), yet, in the power of the Holy Spirit, courageously proclaimed the resurrected Christ, and churches multiplied throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria (Acts 9:31).

The bastions of hell were shaken. The shackles of Satan were broken. Pagan superstition crumbled before the power of the resurrected Christ. The gospel triumphed in the face of overwhelming odds. The disciples no longer cowered in the upper room. Fear danced away like a fading shadow.

Instead, faith filled the disciples’ hearts. One glimpse of their resurrected Lord changed their lives. Jesus gave them a new reason for living. Our Lord had not only given them the Great Commission (Mark 16:15) but the great promise, “ ‘But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth’ ” (Acts 1:.

The gospel penetrated the remotest corners of the earth (Colossians 1:23). Although the last of the disciples, John, died at the end of the first century, others picked up the torch of truth and proclaimed the living Christ. Pliny the Younger, governor of the Roman province of Bithynia on the north coast of modern Turkey, wrote to Emperor Trajan around a.d. 110. Pliny’s statement is significant because it was nearly eighty years after the Crucifixion. Pliny described the official trials he was conducting to find and execute Christians. He stated, “For many persons of all ages, and classes and of both sexes are being put in peril by accusation, and this will go on. The contagion of this superstition [Christianity] has spread not only in the cities, but in the villages and rural districts as well.”—Henry Bettenson, Documents of the Christian Church (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 4.

Despite the devil’s most vicious attacks, the Christian church grew rapidly.

What can we learn from the early church that could help us, the end-time church?

God blessed His church even though they experienced great tribulation.

[Richard Myers]

Wednesday  April 10
Caring for the Community

The early Christian church grew not only because its members preached the gospel but also because they lived the gospel. Believers modeled the ministry of Christ who “went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people” (Matthew 4:23). Jesus deeply cared for people, and so did the New Testament church. It was this unselfish love and commitment to meeting human needs combined with sharing the good news of the gospel in the Holy Spirit’s power that made such an impact on the world in the early centuries of the Christian church.

Read Acts 2:44-47; Acts 3:6-9; Acts 6:1-7. Although circumstances vary, what principles can we learn from these passages about authentic Christianity?

These New Testament believers followed the model of Christ, who as Peter expressed was “ ‘anointed . . . with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him’ ” (Acts 10:38). Christ’s church was His body on earth, and it, too, in these early centuries, expressed Christ’s sacrificial love and concern for hurting, broken humanity. These believers were living examples of Christ’s compassion.

In the great controversy raging in the universe, the devil wants to deface the image of God in humanity. The purpose of the gospel is to restore the image of God in humanity. This restoration includes physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual healing.

In John 10:10, Jesus reveals His plan for each one of us.

“ ‘The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly’ ” (NKJV). He longs for us to be physically healthy, mentally alert, emotionally stable, and spiritually whole.

This is especially true in the light of His promised return. This world is facing an enormous crisis. Jesus’ own predictions in Matthew 24:1-51; Luke 21:1-38 foretell catastrophic conditions on the earth before His return. When Christ touches us with His healing grace, we long to touch others with the touch of Christ so that they can be made whole. Jesus sends us out into a broken world as ambassadors for Christ to touch others with His love. New Testament Christianity was characterized by the Christians’ love for one another and their communities.

Discuss: What role does the church have in cooperating with Christ in proving Satan’s charges wrong?

What charges did Satan bring against Christ? He said Christ was unfair in requiring us to keep His commandments.  The church is to obey Christ, to reflect His character.

[Richard Myers]

Thursday  April 11
A Legacy of Love

Read John 13:35; 1 John 4:21. What do these passages reveal about Satan’s challenge against the government of God in the great controversy? What do they tell us about the essence of genuine Christianity?

Love was the norm of Christian communities in the first few centuries. Tertullian, an early Christian theologian, claimed: “It is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another.”—“Chapter 39,” in Apology, trans. S. Thelwall, https://www.logoslibrary.org/tertullian/apology/39.html (accessed October 10, 2022).

One of the greatest revelations of God’s love was demonstrated when two devastating pandemics plagued the early centuries around a.d. 160 and a.d. 260. Christians stepped forward and ministered to the sick and dying. These plagues killed tens of thousands and left entire villages and towns with scarcely an inhabitant. The unselfish, sacrificial, caring, loving ministry of Christians made a huge impact on the population. Over time, thousands, and eventually hundreds of thousands, and then millions in the Roman Empire became believers in Jesus during these two epidemics. Love, outgoing concern, and organized, selfless care of the sick and dying created an admiration for these believers and the Christ they represented.

Rodney Stark’s The Rise of Christianity is a modern historical narrative portraying these historic events in a new and improved light. In it he describes how during the second epidemic the whole Christian community, which was still heavily Judeo-Christian, became a virtual army of nurses, providing the basic needs for the suffering community to survive.

“At the height of the second great epidemic, around a.d. 260, . . . Dionysius wrote a lengthy tribute to the heroic nursing efforts of local Christians, many of whom lost their lives while caring for others.

“Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains.”—The Rise of Christianity (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), p. 82.

What is the obvious message for us here? How do we learn to die to self so that we, too, can manifest this same selfless spirit? It’s not easy, is it?

We are transformed from sinners to saints by God's grace, by beholding the glory of God we will be changed into His image (character).

[Richard Myers]

Friday   April 12
Further Thought

“The gospel continued to spread and the number of its adherents to increase. It penetrated into regions that were inaccessible even to the eagles of Rome. Said a Christian, expostulating with the heathen rulers who were urging forward the persecution: You may ‘kill us, torture us, condemn us. . . . Your injustice is the proof that we are innocent. . . . Nor does your cruelty . . . avail you.’ It was but a stronger invitation to bring others to their persuasion. ‘The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed.’—Tertullian, Apology, paragraph 50.”—Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 41, 42.

Amen! When Satan recognized he was losing the battle, he changed his method greatly. Instead of trying to kill all Christians, he began a work of deceptions bringing into the church a multitude of false gospels.

“The mysterious providence which permits the righteous to suffer persecution at the hand of the wicked has been a cause of great perplexity to many who are weak in faith. Some are even ready to cast away their confidence in God because He suffers the basest of men to prosper, while the best and purest are afflicted and tormented by their cruel power. How, it is asked, can One who is just and merciful, and who is also infinite in power, tolerate such injustice and oppression? This is a question with which we have nothing to do. God has given us sufficient evidence of His love, and we are not to doubt His goodness because we cannot understand the workings of His providence.”—The Great Controversy, p. 47.

Amen!! We do not need to understand all that God does or asks of us. We trust Him with all we have and all we are. But, as the lesson book of the universe, God has opened to our minds the answer to this question which is legitimate coming from those who do not know God. God has promised an end to sin in chapter one in Nahum. Yet, we all retain a free will. Then all must come to the conclusion that it is not something we want to do, to sin. And what is the motivation for not sinning? Then we have the answer to that important question. Then let us answer it for those who lack the wisdom God has given to His chosen ones.


Discussion Questions

    What value does persecution serve? Why do you think God allows His people to suffer at times? And though in some cases, such as in the early church, good was able to come of it, what about times when it appears that nothing good has come from it? Why in situations like this is the personal experience of God’s love so important in order to maintain faith?

Do we not glory in tribulation? What does Romans 5:3-5 tell us? Share with your Sabbath School class these verses and others that explain why we glory in our suffering which is the most weighty trust and highest honor God can give us.

    How would you respond if a friend asked you these questions: “Where is God in my suffering? If He loves me, why am I going through such a difficult time?”

Weight lifters have a saying that points out why we are allowed to suffer. No pain, no gain. When exercising causes pain, it also creates stronger muscles. So with suffering in Christ. Will not be tempted beyond what we can bear, but God does allow us to experience suffering as He allowed it with His innocent Son. In Hebrews are we not told Jesus learned obedience by the things which is suffered?

    How can your local church become a caring community to impact the world? Discuss practical ways to apply this week’s study.

The answer to these types of questions is always the same, we need to be a converted church. We need to be an example, a reflection of Jesus. Is this possible? And how can this happen? Prayerfully study and then share with your church the answer found in 2 Cor. 3:18.   "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord."
 

[Glen]

What charges did Satan bring against Christ?

...(Satan) began a work of deceptions bringing into the church a multitude of false gospels.

Hello Richard!
I just discovered, and am glad to see that the Forum is up and running again!

A retired Adventist Pastor led out in our Sabbath School Quarterly Class today. While we were talking about Lucifer's disaffection, where selfishness began, he stated that Lucifer and Michael (Christ) were the two Covering Cherubs represented by the the two Covering Cherub upon the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle in the wilderness, as on either side of God's throne.

Has anyone ever heard this idea that Michael was the other Covering Cherub? Are there any Scripture or EGW quotes stating or even suggesting it?