Prepared by William Earnhardt, for Sabbath School class, December 7, 2024.
Main Theme: This week’s lesson will begin with the purpose of the farewell discourse and its introduction with the significant episode of Jesus’ washing His disciples’ feet. Then it will turn to the “I AM” statement in chapter 14 (“I am the way, the truth, and the life”).
Read in Class: John 13:1-20. Ask the class to define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What happened here, and why is this story so important? What lessons did Jesus seek to teach?
Apply: What does the Ordinance of Humility teach you about following in the footsteps of Jesus and how to humbly serve others?
Share: Your friend says the ordinance of humility, which we do every quarter is an illustration of how we are to serve each other, but what are some literal ways you have seen church members serving each other besides the ordinance of humility? What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class:John 14:1-3. Ask the class to define the main idea of this passage.
Study: In what context did Jesus say these words?
Apply: What does the Cross teach us about the certainty of Christ’s second coming? Without the Second Coming, what good did Jesus’ death do us at the first coming?
Share: Your friend says he is not sure he will make it to heaven. What do you tell your friend, and how might you use John 14:1-3 in the process?
Main Theme: Mark 1 gives us practical lessons for sharing the Gospel in day to day life.
Read in Class: Mark 1:16-28. Ask the class to summarize this passage.
Study: Who were the men Jesus called as disciples, and what was their response? What unforgettable experience happened in the Capernaum synagogue, and what spiritual truths can we take from this account?
Apply: What have you been called to give up in order to follow Jesus? (Think about the implications of your answer, especially if you can’t think of anything.)
Share: Your friend asks,”Why did Jesus tell the demons to be quiet when they were telling the truth? Is there a time for us to keep quiet even about things that are true?” What do you tell your friend? See, Why did Jesus Tell the Demons not to tell Everyone who He was?
Read in Class:Mark 1:29-34. Ask the class to identify the main idea of this passage.
Study: How did Jesus help Peter’s family, and what spiritual lessons can we draw from this account?
Apply: When and how has Jesus healed you, and how did it make you serve Him better?
Share: Your friend asks, “Just how sick should someone be before we ask Jesus to heal them? How sick should someone be before they call for the elders to anoint them?” What do you tell your frirend? See James 5:14-18.
Read in Class:Mark 1:35-39. Ask the class to summarize this passage.
Study: What important lessons can be taken from what Jesus did here?
Apply: Read Luke 6:12. Have you ever prayed all night? How big a part does prayer play in your daily living? Is it really even pracitical to think we can pray like Jesus did?
Share: Your friend asks, “Have you ever personally experienced a miracle that you credit directly to prayer? Can you tell us about it?” What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: Mark 1:40-45. Ask the class to summarize this passage.
Study: What does this teach us about Jesus and how He related to the marginalized in society?
Apply: How can we be careful not to do things that could hamper the spread of the gospel, no matter how good our intentions?
Share: Can you think of someone who may be feeling like an “outsider”? How can you reach out to that person this week and make them feel included?
Study: What do these passages teach us about our relationship with God, and what He wants us to do?
Apply: What are some things you are waiting for now from God? How do we learn to wait in faith and in trust, especially when what we are praying for hasn’t yet come?
Share: Your friend says that it souns like God wants us to be like a small child waiting and trusting Him all the time, but He also wants us to grow up in Christ. How can you be mature, indapendant and responsible while still being like a little child? What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: Pslam 126:1-6. Define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What gives strength and hope to God’s people? What is being said here, in this context, that we can apply to our own lives today?
Apply: Dwell on some times when you clearly and unmistakably saw the Lord working in your life or in the lives of others. How can you draw hope from those experiences for whatever you might be going through now?
Share: Your friend says he has so many unanswered prayers and is getting tired of “waithing” on the Lord. What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: Pslam 92:1-15. Define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What two aspects of the Sabbath day are highlighted in this song for the Sabbath day?
Apply: What great hope is offered to us in Psalm 92:1-5, and how can we, even right now, take comfort in what it says?
Share: Your friend says he has to take a job working on the Sabbath because he has a family to feed. He says its his God-given job to provide for his family, so he can’t be expected to just wait around for some miracle to put food on is family’s table. What do you tell your friend?
Study: What time of day is symbolically portrayed as the time of divine redemption and why?
Apply: What happened in the morning here in Mark 16:1-8 and why is that so important to us?
Share: Your friend says, “Since Ecclesiastes 9:5 says the dead know nothing, in one aspect thier wait for the resurection is over.” Do you agree or disagree with the idea your friend is sharing? Is so, how? If not why?
He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord. Pslam 40:3 NLT
My parents told me that one Sabbath morning when I was two years old, the elder kept praying and praying in church, and I got tired of kneeling on my two-year-old little knees, so I finally stood up on the pew and started shouting, “Amen! Amen! Amen!”
Even at two years old I must have realized that public prayers are supposed to be brief. Well, let me tell you something, I have felt like doing that a few times since then.
In recent years I have been kneeling in congregational prayer for what felt like an eternity, and have thought to myself during the long drawn-out prayer, “Why doesn’t the elder praying just ask if he can preach sometime instead of turning his prayer into a sermon?”
Jesus mentored His disciples to pray longer prayers in private. In Gethsemane the night of His arrest, in Matthew 26:36-46, He even asked them to pray for Him. Jesus led by example, in long personal prayers, sometimes lasting all night (Luke 6:12). He also taught that prayers should be genuine and not rehearsed.
“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.” Matthew 6:7 NLT
When we pray we are to talk to God as to a friend. I heard of an elderly Bible worker, who when driving to Bible studies, would make sure nothing was in the passenger seat, because He pictured God sitting there, riding with Him to the Bible study as he prayed and drove. (I hope he kept his eyes open as he prayed and drove!)
Many times in my Bible studies I ask people to have the opening prayer, and many are shy and say they don’t know how. I never pressure anyone to do anything they don’t feel comfortable doing, but several have been surprised how easy it is when I tell them how. One man, who had already heard me pray many times, told me he wanted to pray but did not know what to say. I told him, “Just say “Dear heavenly Father, please send your Holy Spirit to be with us in this Bible study. In Jesus’ name, amen.” His eyes opened wide and he smiled when he realized how easy it was.
God wants us to talk to Him as a friend. He does not wanting us just babbling the same words over and over. He wants to have a real conversation with us. The psalmist talks about singing a new song (Psalm 40:3) and a song is like a prayer, since songs and prayers are stories of our experiences. Just as God enjoys new songs, He also enjoys new prayers.
While Jesus mentored His disciples to pray in private, He also mentored them to pray in public. He gave them a model prayer, not to be repeated over and over word for word, but as a model for us to form our own prayer. God loves creativity. Not every song has to be sung the same way and neither does every prayer have to be prayed the same way. While Jesus prayed long private prayers, notice how short His public prayer is.
Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. Matthew 6:9 NLT
Jesus starts by addressing His Father and setting a tone for reverence and awe. Our prayers may also be prayed with confidence knowing our requests are reaching the throne of the universe.
May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:10 NLT
I have a friend who was taught long ago by his parents to always ask people how their day was, and listen to them, before going on about yourself and your day. You may think you had a tough day, but before you dive into your prayer, telling God all about your heartaches, have you ever asked God how His day went? God sees way more heartaches in one day than we will see in a lifetime. We want God’s will to be done and His kingdom to come soon, not just to end our suffering, but to end God’s suffering, as He suffers not just with you and me, but with everyone in the world who suffers.
When Daniel asked for God to reveal the king’s dream to him, Daniel did not save himself only, he saved the lives of all the king’s men (Daniel 2:24). In Mark 4:39 Jesus calms the storm at the disciples’ request, but the sea was not only calmed for their tiny boat. All the other boats on the water benefited from the calmness. Jesus does not pray for Himself alone to have food. He prays for everyone to have the food they need. There is no selfishness in Jesus’ prayer. There is no selfishness in any genuine prayer.
“and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.” Matthew 6:12 NLT
Jesus could have prayed, “Father forgive everyone else for their sins, but as you know, I have never sinned,” but again there is neither self nor pride in Jesus’ prayer.
And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Matthew 6:13 NLT
Jesus overcame by asking for the Father’s help along with everyone else. We can ask for His help and overcome as well. Jesus ends His prayer the way He began, by exalting the Father, Who gives us the confidence we need in our personal lives and ministry when we worship and follow Him.
May His will be done, and may it begin with us.
You may study this week’s Sabbath School Lesson here.
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Psalm 136:1 NKJV
Psalm 136 goes on to describe all the many ways that God’s mercy has endured forever, but my favorite illustration of God’s incredible mercy comes from Joshua chapters 9 and 10.
The Gibeonites used deceit to trick Israel into letting them in on the covenant God had made with them. Even though Israel was not supposed to make a covenant with anyone living as close as the Gibeonites, they did. Later when the Gibeonites were under attack, they called upon Israel to save them, and even though the Gibeonites had used deceit to secure this covenant, God was so relentless in keeping His promise of love, that He caused the sun to stand still until the Gibeonites were all rescued! God fought for Israel as Israel fought for the mischievous Gibeonites. Let that soak in. The Gibeonites were in no way worthy of any of God’s blessings, but God was still so loving and faithful to His promise that He made the sun stand still until they were all rescued! Talk about a love that moves heaven and earth! And this powerful love was given to the most undeserving people! So, scientifically speaking, the greatest power in the universe is not gravity or the suctioning power of the black hole. God’s love overruled all those powers and made the earth stand still. Imagine what this love can do in your heart!
God’s powerful promises and love are also for you and me. In Hebrews 13:5 God promises to never leave us or forsake us, but the Amplified Bible is the only English version that even begins to grasp what God is actually promising.
for He has said, “I will never under any circumstances desert you nor give you up nor leave you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless, nor will I forsake or let you down or relax My hold on you- assuredly not!” Hebrews 13:5 Amp version.
Friends, God does not love the Gibeonites any more than He loves you. He mercy did not stop with the Gibeonites.
For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations. Psalm 100:4 NKJV
God’s mercy and truth endures throughout all generations. If God loved naughty Gibeonites enough to make the earth stand still for them, you know God’s love and mercy will do everything supernaturally possible to save you as well.
Friends, let’s not spurn or take God’s great mercy for granted.
how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will? Hebrews 2:3-4 NKJV
Let’s talk of God’s enduring mercy, Exercise our faith in His enduring mercy, and contemplate His enduring mercy until we are changed into His image or mercy and truth.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV
You may study this week’s Sabbath School lesson here.
For my days are consumed like smoke, And my bones are burned like a hearth.My heart is stricken and withered like grass, So that I forget to eat my bread. Because of the sound of my groaning My bones cling to my skin. Psalm 102:3-5 NKJV
Do all our prayers have to be upbeat, cheerful, and positive? No! Do we show a lack of faith when we lament? No! Cynicism doubts God’s existence and love. Lamenting is when we grieve knowing God exists and loves us. There is an entire book in the Bible about lamenting, its called Lamentations. A great portion of the Psalms and other portions of Scripture include prayers of lamentations. As a matter of fact, in the end of the book of Job, God rebukes Job’s friends for not allowing Job to lament.
To me, lamenting is clinging to God like Jacob did to the angel until He blesses us, or until things get better. God wants us to be real with him and pray real prayers. This includes praying prayers of lamentations when our hearts are grieving. Talk to God when you are joyful. Talk to God when you have complaints about the pain and grief He is allowing in your life. Bottom line is talk to God!
Main Theme: The Psalms have been written in Hebrew poetry by different authors from ancient Israel, and so, the Psalms reflect their particular world, however universal their messages. Accepting the Psalms as God’s Word and paying close attention to the Psalms’ poetic features, as well as their historical, theological, and liturgical contexts, is fundamental for understanding their messages, which reach across thousands of years to our time today.
Study: What were the occasions that prompted the writing of some psalms? When did God’s people use the Psalms?
Apply: Though we, of course, do not worship God in an earthly sanctuary like the temple, how can we use the Psalms in our own worship, whether in a private or in a corporate setting?
Share: Your friend says that the Psalms were written so long ago, and mostly about the authors own experiences about war and so forth. We are not warriors from ancient times so what do the Psalms have to do with us today? What do you tell your friend?
Study: What different facets of human experience do these psalms convey?
Apply: What kind of psalms would you most likely be apt to use or write in your references to God in your life?
Share: One of your friends says, “Why does David write so many psalms that seem to focus on destroying his enemies and bringing judgment on others? Where is Crist’s love for the erring and sinners in his heart?” What do you tell your friend?
Apply: Jesus quoted the Psalms like Luke 20:42-43 for example. What should Jesus’ use of the Psalms tell us about the importance that they could play in our own faith experience?
Share: Your friend asks what it means that the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered? What do you tell your friend?
Study: What place does God occupy in the psalmist’s life?
Apply: How can the Psalms help us understand that we cannot limit God to certain aspects of our existence only? What might be parts of your life in which you are seeking to keep the Lord at a distance?
Share: Can you share a time when Psalm 46:1 or one of the other passages in this section was a particular comfort to you?
Main Theme: God’s mission will be fruitful and have much success.
Read in Class: Revelation 14:6-7. Summarize the first angel’s message.
Study: What do these verses have to do with our last day message and mission?
Apply: Do you have a plan for sharing the everlasting Gospel? If a friend asked you how they can know if they are saved what would you tell them? See Salvation in Light of the Cross. How does this everlasting Gospel help you prepare for the judgment?
Share: Your friend asks how the Seventh-day Adventist Gospel is different from any other Gospel preached in protestant churches? Don’t we all preach the same cross? Is the Gospel preached by Adventists any different? What do you tell your friend? See the God-forsaken God.
Share: Your friend says that instead of preaching the Three Angel’s message in the last days we should be Preaching the cross instead. What do you tell your friend? See The Three Angel’s Message in Light of the Cross.
Study: What exactly is the mark of the beast? How is accepting the mark of the beast not only rejecting the Bible Sabbath but also rejecting the cross of Christ and salvation by grace? For example what is wine of God’s wrath that is poured into the cup of His indignation? Is this the same cup Jesus asked to pass from him, but ended up drinking for us?
Apply: What assurance do you see in Revelation 7:9-14 and Revelation 15:1-4 that the call out of Babylon and the warnings not to take the mark of the beast will be successful? What other passages in the Bible assure you of the success of God’s mission in the last days?
Share: Your friend asks you if the 144,000 who are saved in the last days is a literal number or symbolic? What do you tell your friend?
Challenge: How are you hastening Christ’s return? Are you planting seeds of hope in the hearts of those who need to hear good news? Are you “watering” new believers by helping them learn what it means to live a life of loyal obedience to Christ? Pray for opportunities to communicate the promise of the earth made new with the people on your daily prayer list.
Challenge Up: Some of your “disciples” may be ready to accept Christ. This includes joining a church or group of believers. Put yourself in his or her place and imagine attending your church for the first time. What kind of experience would he or she have? How prepared is your church to welcome and disciple new people? Are you open to starting new groups of believers, not just building up your own existing church? Create a strategy to address weak areas. Share your thoughts with your church leaders, and work with them to implement a plan to become a more intentional disciple-making church.
Main Theme: God can and will use humble people to bring powerful people to Jesus.
Read in Class: Daniel 4:19-37. Define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What happened to the king here, and what does this tell us about salvation coming to one of the world’s most powerful men?
Apply: Even if we are not rich and powerful by the world’s standards, why must we be careful to avoid the kind of arrogance that this king had manifested? Why might that attitude be easier to have than we might think?
Share: Your friend says our political world is being so corrupt and polarized, there is no hope. Your friend says the leaders are so corrupt there is no hope for their eternal salvation. In light of Daniel 4, what do you say to your friend about the corrupt leaders today?
Read in Class:2 Kings 5:1-19. Discuss the main idea of this passage.
Study: What can we take from this story about reaching people for the Lord?
Apply: What lessons should we learn from this story about not pushing people too quickly, especially those who come from a non-Christian background?
Share: Your friend says if she had been the servant girl, she would never had told Naaman about the prophet who could heal him. Instead she would pray he would die so she could escape and be free to go back home. What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: John 3:1-12. Discuss the main idea of this passage.
Study: What does this story reveal about Nicodemus’s spiritual needs and how Jesus addressed them right away?
Apply: Why must we be careful of the trap of thinking that because “we have the truth” (which we do), then the knowledge of this truth alone is enough to save us? How many souls will be lost who had more than enough knowledge, even of the three angels’ messages, to be saved?
Share: Your friend asks if you think Nicodemus ever heeded Jesus’ invitation to be born again? How might John 7:43-52 and John 19:39 help you answer your friend?
Study: Talk about the contrasts between the stories in Matthew 19:16-22 and Luke 19:1-10. What do think made the differences? What does Mark 15:43-47 tell us about how God uses rich people?
Challenge: Add someone to your daily prayer list who is in a position of power, is not a believer, and is someone you could come in contact with from time to time. Remember Daniel 4. No one is so powerfully corrupt that they are beyond hope!
Challenge Up: Address a letter or email to someone in a position of power—even if it is someone you may never have met—and tell that person that you are praying for him or her.
Read in Class: Matthew 28:16-20. Define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What elements of discipleship can you identify in this passage?
Apply: The mission is to “make disciples.” How is this mandate of the Master affecting how you live and minister to others? What can you do to be more involved in what you have been called to do?
Share: Your friend says he does not understand why someone has to go through a whole series of Bible studies to be baptized? Didn’t Philip baptize the Ethiopian on the spot? What do you tell your friend? See also What is Worse Than Persecution?
Read in Class: Revelation 14:6-7. Define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What aspects of God’s mission can you identify in the “eternal gospel” (NRSV) presented by the first angel of the three angels’ messages?
Apply: How is the concept of judgment linked to the “everlasting gospel” in the first angel’s message? Why must the gospel be central to the idea of judgment?
Share: Your friend says she is not in good health and can’t get out of the house anymore. She asks how she can help spread the gospel to all the world while she is in her home? What do you tell your friend?
Read in Class: Revelation 7:9-10. Define the main idea of this passage.
Study: What does this text suggest about the far-reaching geographical scope of God’s mission?
Apply: Will you pray every day this week for the community where you live. God has placed you there for a reason.
Share: Will you research the demographics of your area (what kind of people live around you)—ethnic and religious background, old, young, poor, wealthy, languages spoken, and so on. Ask God to show you how you may be a channel of His love to them.
In Light of The Cross 
