Sabbath: Jesus, the Master Teacher
Read for This Week’s Study: Luke 8:22-25, Luke 4:31-37, Luke 6:20-49, Luke 8:19-21, Luke 10:25-37, Deut. 6:5.
Memory Text: And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority
(Luke 4:32, NKJV).
When Christ came to the earth, humanity seemed to be fast reaching its lowest point. The very foundations of society were undermined. Life had become false and artificial. . . . Disgusted with fable and falsehood, seeking to drown thought, men turned to infidelity and materialism. Leaving eternity out of their reckoning, they lived for the present.
“As they ceased to recognize the Divine, they ceased to regard the human. Truth, honor, integrity, confidence, compassion, were departing from the earth. Relentless greed and absorbing ambition gave birth to universal distrust. The idea of duty, of the obligation of strength to weakness, of human dignity and human rights, was cast aside as a dream or a fable. The common people were regarded as beasts of burden or as the tools and the steppingstones for ambition. Wealth and power, ease and self-indulgence, were sought as the highest good. Physical degeneracy, mental stupor, spiritual death, characterized the age.
-Ellen G. White, Education, pp. 74,75.
Against such a background we can better understand why Jesus taught the things that He did.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 30.
(27)
Our world today is in the exact same condition.
Our roots must go past the superficial, fleeting things of this life; all the way down to the rock of His Will.
When we gain this depth in our relationship with God, we will remain unmoved and upright when the winds of opposition, false accusation, and false doctrine howl.
In times of trouble, testing and trial; He wants us to remember, we are His trees, He planted us, He designed us to survive & succeed.
EGW’s description of life at the time of Christ’s first advent seems strikingly similar to the present generation. The people who came face to face with the Messiah found the teaching of Jesus quite radical and authoritative (Luke 4:32). Yet those living today, including some Christians may not see the teachings quite the same.
A major reason for the difference is a prevailing cultural Christianity which interprets scripture to suit the preferred agenda or fit preconceived opinions and puts a spin on that which is not aligned with modern social norms. It is thought and taught that the straight testimony and plain statements of the Bible present too sharp a contrast with the thinking of the common people and this will only offend them. Hence they need something more appealing and perhaps optional.
For example to turn the other cheek (Luke 6:29) has little meaning where rights are deeply cherished and so yielding and submission is played down and getting what one supposedly deserves gets highlighted.
Lukewarm attitudes manage to forge a merger of Christ’s teachings with common philosophical ideas such that they seem to be harmonious; and this it is hoped will win converts. Of course the church does not grow as a result of smooth messages, watered-down gospel and compromised truth. Still, even if membership increased the result would not be a bride ready for the bridegroom, Jesus, or a people fit to inherit the kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 25:6-12).
Jesus taught, “My Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). His teachings challenge common thinking. The Savior desires to change people and their mindset, not win their approval (Romans 12:2).
We need to remember, I agree! Also we must forget who we were and live in the reality of His provision now in this present moment where He dwells with us. My faith is built on an ever present hope.The practice of living a life dependant upon God now is the only assurance that we will stand for Him in future trials. Standing without a Mediator means that we have a developed a character that is sealed in the practice of doing everything for the glory of God.We wiil then have learned dependance upon God as our ever present help in time of need, Jesussimplywhen we need that dependence most.Eternity with Him begins here and ends with Him as well
We live in a world filled with sin, the men did set apart of God , they seek for everything that pleases his own desires and forgets the true fountain of happiness and freedom, Jesus Christ.
It must be understood, that when Jesus came into the world, He came as God in the body of man; “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). (Mathew 1: 23). As the Spirit Himself, He chose to be housed in a body of fallen man; in His determined Will to reconcile us back to God.
Being one of us, He knows our sufferings and our struggles and witnessed firsthand our lack of knowledge and understandings of the hidden purposes of God; and for these reason, He made it His sole purpose, to correct man's limited knowledge and understandings by becoming one of us. As God, He saw how perverted His so called leaders and teachers were, in adulterating the course of righteousness for a lie; and how His heart yearned for struggling misled followers trying to make sense of the teachings of deceitful men.
Thus when His appointed time came, He brought to light the very thoughts and purposes of God as intended by God. As the Redeemer of the world, He spoke to man as their Creator, their Restorer and the Author of Life; for He was the One that breathed Life from the beginning. As God, He brought before man the Heart and Will of God; and every uttered words merged Life and meanings right into the hearts of lost mankind.
Finally, man understood life, for the Author of Life touched and mended their lost broken lives. When He spoke, His Living Words filled the empty space in them, satisfied every longings of their so long scarred wounded hearts. Even nature bowed in reverence that He who created them trodden upon them; an honour they have longed for thousands of years. Even demons trembled in fear at His presence; a mystery never before witnessed among the kingdom of man.
The God who created the world, walked the surface of the world He created; awoken every fibre of life in every creations. That is the Authority of the God we serve; the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the One and Only, the Almighty God. This is how much God loves us; that He chose to descend among us to experience with us our lives; and then to direct us to Him Who is Life.
It seems to me that what this lesson is saying is that the first advent was for man a period of revival and reformation from a low point in human existence. I see in this a pattern that also took place during the reformation of the middle ages and again during the Millerite movement that ended in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
A truncated form of the cycle seems to have happened at the flood when Noah and his family were saved in hopes of a new start and I think it will again happen at the end of time when mankind will once again sink to a low point but Christ will not attempt a revival but like the flood will instead pull His people out of a terrible situation to start His everlasting kingdom elsewhere, at least for the first thousand years.
I think that cyclic spirituality that sees extreme up's and down's is also modeled to some extent in the book of Judges.
Before dawn,the night is always at its darkest,the first coming of the savior happened when the errors of the world was at its maximum,when people had no regard for their fellow human beings.They loved sin and hatted sinners-Mary. The world today is in the same state and this point us to the end times.Our only safe place is at the feet of Jesus. In the contaminated world Jesus never isolate Himself, cling to the Master and let your action directs the world to their most loving Father so that together we can celebrate the feast for it will be a great joy after finishing the work.
It's was shocking for me to read that when Christ came the world was in such chaos. It's unimaginable. If it was in utter chaos then, how would we describe the condition it's in today? I'm very anxious for this world to be done with. I really can't imagine it getting any worse than it already is.