Sabbath: Upon Whom _the_ Ends Have Come
Daily Lesson for Sabbath 31st of May 2025
Image © Pacific Press
Read for This Week’s Study: Revelation 6:12-17; Matthew 24:36-44; Genesis 6:1-8; 2 Peter 2:4-11; Genesis 18:17-32; Daniel 7:9-10.
Memory Text:
“Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:11-12, NKJV).
The Bible is filled with accounts of God’s people that point to future events and that hold keys to helping us understand present truth. In fact, some of those accounts foreshadow last-day events with surprising detail, providing us a broader foundation for understanding the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation clearly.
Without violating an individual’s freedom of conscience, God can perfectly steer the events that will happen in the last days, events that He revealed to the prophets. Some of these important stories are obvious, because the New Testament refers to them specifically in describing last-day events: Sodom and Gomorrah, the Flood, and so on. Others require careful thought and exploration in order to mine from them the truths that have been given to us in the Word of God.
During the next couple of weeks, we will be searching through a number of key stories in order to see what they might have to say about events such as the Second Coming, the investigative judgment, the final crisis, and more. And, through it all, we find Christ as the center, for He must be the foundation as well as the end goal of all our prophetic endeavors.
*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, June 7.
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There is usually a smug sense of satisfaction when reach the end of a tiring journey. In the days when my in-laws lived on the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane we were driving up to care for them at least once a month. It was a 12 hour journey and the worst part of it was the drive through the heavy traffic of the Gold Coast and Brisbane. After driving on highways for 9 hours, the last thing you wanted was 3 hours of bumper-to-bumper with big heavy transport trucks. So, we would arrive at the end of our journey exhausted but with a sense of accomplishment as well. We must have been pretty good drivers to survive all that, eh!
In our spiritual journey we can be self-congratulatory too. We are Seventh-day Adventists and have all this prophetic mapping to help us end the journey. We sometimes think we have it all worked out. The issue for me is that some of my friends have decided we have been following the wrong map. It has not turned out as they expected - Jesus has not come - and they find themselves out of knowledge.
Here is something to think about this week, How many of us Seventh-day Adventists have put our faith in the knowledge of prophecy rather than in our relationship with Jesus? It is not about how much we know, but about who we know.
While on earth Jesus strongly admonished His followers to live their lives in the present as if the end has come and the eternal life has already begun. The promise of eternal life is not only a future promise but a present reality for those who are in Christ Jesus. The followers of Jesus Christ should manifest the values of the future kingdom of God in this life. Jesus consistently taught His followers to experience the kingdom of God now before it physically comes. Those who believe in Jesus Christ have already possessed the kingdom spiritually by faith. Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God in the present tense.
"Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life." (John 5:24).
This is our blessed hope. Even if we die, yet we are living in Christ Jesus because He is the resurrection and the life. Jesus does not simply promise future resurrection but the future eternal life is “earned” now by faith.
“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25–26)
We do live in a day and age where God does work every day. Therefore a need to be watchful. We are to be spiritually alert to what God is doing in our church, in our world, and in our personal lives.
We must be cautious about becoming spiritually lethargic because we don’t see active results of prayer or movement of God.
We may go through seasons where we feel that God is not watching, not hearing our prayers, being silent. We need to know that the promise that God is working is firm, not feelings. It is a war to keep from defaulting to feelings for reality over and against the Word. Watch for circumstantial indicators of how God is moving in our lives, even if we are not seeing them. We need to keep a journal as to how God has led us, even if we don’t feel led. Let us maintain our closeness to the Lord so that we may hear him well during end times.
In an age of distraction, disinformation, and spiritual confusion, now more than ever, we must be vigilant. The enemy desires to lull us into a spiritual sleep where apathy replaces alertness. But we are called to be like the wise virgins who kept their lamps trimmed and burning (Matthew 25:1–13). Let us encourage one another to remain spiritually sharp, to pray with expectation, and to live with urgency—not fearfully, but faithfully. God is moving, even when we cannot see. Let us be a people who live by faith, not by sight, watching and waiting with hope.