Sabbath: Receiving an Unshakeable Kingdom
Image © Pacific Press
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Hebrews 12:18–29; Exodus 32:32; Daniel 7:9-10, , Daniel 7:13-22; Haggai 2:6–9, Haggai 2:20-22; Psalm 15:5; Psalm 16:8; Hebrews 13:15-16.
Memory Text: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Hebrews 12:28, NKJV).
Hebrews 12:18-29, the passage for this week, is the climax of the letter, and it sums up its main concern by repeating the idea with which it started: God has spoken to us in the person of His Son, and we need to pay careful attention (Hebrews 1:1-2; Hebrews 12:25) to Him. The description of Jesus in Hebrews 12:22-24 epitomizes the letter’s assertions about Him: Jesus is the Mediator of the new covenant, and His blood provides salvation for believers. His priestly and royal ministry in our behalf is a cause for celebration for the heavenly hosts. And finally, Hebrews 12:25-29 contains the last and climactic exhortation: God’s judgment is coming. It will bring destruction to His enemies, but vindication and a kingdom to His people (Hebrews 12:28-29).
The ending reaffirms the importance of Jesus’ achievements at the cross and directs believers to the consummation of Jesus’ victory at the Second Coming. Paul used imagery from Daniel chapter 7 to remind the readers that Jesus has received a kingdom from God, the Judge (Daniel 7:9-14), and is going to share His kingdom with believers, “the saints of the Most High,” who will possess it forever and ever (Daniel 7:18).
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, March 19.
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Sunday's Lesson is especially timely. Hebrews 10:35,36
Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.
For you have need of endurance, so that after you done the will of God, you may receive the promise. NKJV
It was during "Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration",1898-1922 that Sir Ernest Shackleton headed an expedition to discover the south pole. That journey soon turned into a 770 mile trek to barely survive. With minimal food, minimal water, fighting bitter cold, and exerting extreme effort he saved himself and his entire crew. Not only did Shackleton fight the elements, but also an attempted mutiny by the ship's carpenter, Harry McNish. As HR Zone, "Mutiny on the ice: Earnest Shackleton and the Trust Equation"June 8,2016 puts it, his men trusted in his leadership-why? Because he had experienced disaster before and was one of the few to bring his men back alive.
Jesus, our great forerunner experienced everything that we are going through now,or will go through in the future. There are going to be times when, like McNish, we will be tempted to mutiny, to distrust, to question God's leadership. We know this because Jesus forewarned us. "For false Christ's, and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect" Matthew 24:24 NKJV
I am confident that we are living in the, "Heroic Age of Faith". It is that defining moment that in extreme adversity, hardship, and apparent loss of every physical asset that those who have cast their complete confidence on God's faithfulness will be revealed.
Oh? And the name of Shackleton's ship that was found this past Tuesday at the bottom of the Weddell Sea?
ENDURANCE
Hello Steven – I was touched by your comments sharing your thoughts about Shackleton’s expedition. As you noted, Heb.19:35-36 reminds us to continue to do the ‘Will of God’. I am concerned that this directive is not properly understood by the believer. What is this all important ‘Will of God’ on which our confidence rests; how are we to understand the 'Will of God' and the 'doing' of it?
Understanding your short depiction of Shackleton’s and the crew’s experience as a metaphor depicting our relationship with God, if I understand correctly, it depicts the trust-obedience-relationship between the crew and its captain; for the faith-based believer, the trust-faith-relationship between our maker and us - both are called upon to endure the waiting-time’s hardships.
I cannot even begin to imagine the hardships the crew experienced and thank God for His Mercy and Grace to have led them safely home; though the believer’s true ‘hardships’ are ever present by choice - they are experienced as challenges against the Spirit of Truth and Life.
I wonder if it is possible to compare the crew’s experience with that of the believer who has determined to live the ‘Will of God’ by choice; what did the crew do compared to that which we do to maintain ‘trust’ into being 'recued'?
Not knowing all the facts, I see one important distinction between the two; the crew was told to ‘sit tight through the ordeal of waiting in order to be save’ – trusting in the circumstances to play out in their favor - hopeful, blind trust?
We are called to participate with actions to assure our rescue; engaging in exactly that behavior which will bring about perils! Yes, I too am persuaded that ”we are living in the “Heroic Age of Faith”. The believer’s unwavering resolve to live by faith during this ‘time of testing of our faith’ will bring about the experience of our tribulation. As this happens, we are assured by the Father’s loving admonishment to remain faithful, trusting His Word as we endure the race to the end - our rescue.
Amen, Yes, Thank you Brigitte for your thoughtful reply. I am persuaded that it will take a supernatural fortitude, an almost insane persistence, ( at least as the world will see it) to follow God's will as plainly stated in His Word.
(Have a blessed Sabbath)
You make it sound like it is difficult to be lost. I agree. Because:
We have the birth, life, and death of Christ out of love.
We have the unwavering Love of God, long suffering and with unmatchable kindness.
We have the Holy Spirit proding, us forward, and/or lifting us upward, giving us advice, guidance, and comfort all the upward narrow path.
We have God's angels to protect us. More than once we have experienced protection, firming our confidence in Him.
We may have Christian family and friends. Even if we don't, we can garner them by going to church and presenting ourselves friendly. With our non-Christian friends and family we are ambassadors of Christ.
My son is a mathematician and a software engineer. For much of his working life he has worked on image processing. At one time he was working on Massive Multiplayer Online games (MMOG), Essentially the server constructed a virtual reality in which thousands of players could adopt roles to compete and collaborate. Such games are quite immersive and while playing them you feel as though you are actually there. The computers that run these programs are highly sophisticated and are typically persistent and designed with enough redundancy that failure is virtually impossible. However sophisticated the game is though, it has one inevitable property. Its existence is dependent on the "electrical switch". If someone turns off the electrical switch, the game and all its data can indeed collapse into non-existence.
Some cosmologists have postulated that our existence is an MMOG being played by cosmic players. I don't really agree with that particular perception. However, the notion that our reality is temporal and is subject to some form of "Off" switch has some similarities with the reality we experience.
Here is something to think about. We recognise that our visible universe will ultimately be destroyed and made new, but it exists within the reality of the Kingdom of God. That Kingdom is not just something that is in the future but exists now. and to use the MMOG illustration above: maybe, we need to get a life now and see beyond the game to the reality that is already here.
Now if you do not really understand realities within realities and all that high-powered cosmological stuff, there is no need to fear. There are plenty of other ways of thinking about where we are and where God wants us to be. That is our theme for the week.
Yes, where God wants us to be is found in Romans 5:1-5. He gives us peace through any storm, and storms give us endurance to follow Christ all the way from our every day walk of life as ambassadors for Him. Now our spiritual preception of the reality of what is in heaven for us to taste before for we sit face to face in physical reality gives us endurance through the storm encased in God's love, which brings us salvation, and peace of mind.
Of course asking for forgivness, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us into repentence, thus consecrate ourselves to Christ, puts us in a position to grow in Christ, bolstering our discipleship, which in turn squelches doubt. We then really need to rejoice in the Lord. Rejoicing in the Lord is contagious, keeping us from being stagnet. James 2:15-17. Rejoicing in the Lord is put into action by clothing our naked and hungry brother or sister.
Thank-you Maurice for your wounderful illustration of being in touch with God's unshakable kingdom. Let me tell you, coming from a gentleman who has experienced the virtual reality of piloting an airplane and the physical reality of piloting the same, virtual reality is not up to par with physical reality. I am looking forward to being face to face with Christ my Saviour, face to face oh blissful moment, when with rapture I behold Him. 😃
In our memory text it states “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have faith”
Other translations state “let us give thanks”
I like grace because it puts the focus back on Jesus