Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Jill Morikone, Molly Steenson, Pr. Tom Ferguson, Pr. John Dinzey
Series Code: SSP
Program Code: SSP000020S
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00:01 The Bible tells us
00:31 Hello and welcome to 3ABN Sabbath School Panel 00:34 We encourage you to get your Bibles, get a pencil and paper 00:39 and follow along as we study the Adult Bible Study Guide 00:44 and this quarter we're looking at the First and Second Epistles 00:49 of Peter, it's called Feed My Sheep. Today we are going to 00:53 look at lesson 8, Jesus in the Writings of Peter. 00:57 One thing that I appreciate so much about the First Epistle 01:01 of Peter is that you see Christ throughout. Peter's focus is 01:07 on Jesus Christ and he does lift Him high. And if you 01:10 do not have one of these quarterlies, you can go to the 01:15 website of the General Conference of SDAs 01:18 and download these lessons. Their website is 01:23 absg - Adult Bible Study Guide absg.adventist.org 01:31 So that is absg.adventist.org and we encourage you to do that 01:37 and to follow along. I believe you will be blessed in what the 01:41 Lord will be sharing through us today. 01:44 Let me introduce our Panel, great friends of mine, each 01:49 and every one of them great people, great Christians and 01:52 first I have Molly Steenson and Molly is the Vice President and 01:57 General Manager of 3ABN. Thank you for being here. 02:00 We have Pr. Tom Ferguson from the Marion Illinois District 02:04 Pr. Tom, thank you for being here. And then my dear sister 02:08 Jill Morikone who is Assistant to the President. I can just 02:14 give you, I'm just going to give you 02:18 what am I giving you? Promotion. Promotion, I was trying to say 02:21 raise, but that wasn't right either. But that will work for 02:24 you Jill. Well the raise works but not the promotion. 02:29 Not my day. And then we have John Dinzey with us who is 02:33 the General Manager of our Latino channel. So thank you 02:36 so much, each and every one of you for joining 02:39 and to this panel and this study. What I'd like to do is 02:43 Tom please rescue me, we need some prayer, would you say 02:46 a prayer before we start. Heavenly Father, thank you 02:51 for the opportunity to break bread together. Thank you for 02:54 the opportunity to read an Epistle, a letter that was 02:58 written by a man that needed desperately to know the inner 03:03 mind of God. But as we watched his journey throughout the 03:08 New Testament we see him writing these letters which are 03:11 anointed with Your Holy Spirit. So Lord anoint a second time. 03:16 As we read these words may we hear from You. Speak through 03:20 the Panel, speak to each and every heart that is watching 03:23 or listening, in Jesus' name. Amen, Amen. 03:28 So our memory text for this week is 1 Peter 2:24. We're 03:33 going to be reading from the New King James Version 03:36 and we're going to say it together. Why don't you join us 03:41 Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree 03:47 that we having died to sin might live for righteousness 03:53 by whose stripes you were healed. 03:56 And that's one of my favorite verses in the entire New 04:00 Testament, I believe. As I said Peter's Epistle focuses on 04:04 Christ from first to last. He shows us Christ's great 04:08 suffering and speaks of that as an example for us. He speaks 04:14 about Christ's divine nature as being God Himself. And then 04:18 he speaks about His death, His substitutionary sacrifice 04:23 as God for us. He speaks of His resurrection, he presents 04:30 Christ as God who has come into human life so that He could die 04:35 for us so that we might have eternal life. So from Genesis 04:39 to Revelation the overarching theme of the Bible is God's 04:45 work to save fallen humanity. Luke 19:10 you don't have to 04:51 turn there, but Christ said For the Son of Man has come to 04:55 seek and to save what? That which was lost. That's the 05:00 theme in Peter's Epistles as well. So what we're gonna do 05:04 this week is go back to 1 Peter and look more closely at what 05:09 it reveals about Jesus. So let's start with Sunday 05:14 I have Sunday and that is Jesus Our Sacrifice 05:18 Our lesson asks us to read two passages of Scripture 05:21 And we will begin with 1 Peter 1:18 and 19. Molly you seem 05:30 to have that, you want to read that for us? 05:34 For as much as you know you that were not redeemed with 05:38 corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation 05:42 received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious 05:46 blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot 05:50 Alright so there are two key images in this. We see the 05:53 redemption and we see the sacrifice. 05:55 So what does redeemed mean? Redeemed means that you have 06:00 been released upon the receipt of a ransom. You know we think 06:05 about, during Jesus' days the slaves there was a certain 06:11 amount of money that could be paid to ransom them and they 06:16 would have their freedom. But we also think of today, we talk 06:20 about ransom for kidnapped victims. We think about ransom 06:24 for prisoners of war maybe. So what we have here is just 06:29 kind of a picture in my mind that the human race has been 06:33 kidnapped by Satan. That we are prisoners of war, of this 06:38 great controversy that's going on and we can't escape on our 06:42 own. So I need, Jill would you read John 8:34 and then John 06:47 I'm gonna ask you to read Romans6:16 06:51 So when we think about this, this ransom is what Jesus 06:57 paid for us, the price He paid to redeem us, to buy us back. 07:05 Jesus answered them, most assuredly I say to you 07:08 whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 07:12 Johnny Romans 6:16 Know ye not that to whom ye 07:17 yield yourselves servants to obey, His servants you are 07:21 to whom you obey. Whether of sin unto death or of obedience 07:25 unto righteousness. You know the reason I wanted to point 07:28 these two out is because Peter's actually talking mostly with 07:33 people who when you talked about paying a ransom what they 07:36 were thinking of is redeeming a slave. And we are all slaves 07:43 to sin. That's what the Bible tells us. Whoever commits sin 07:46 is a slave to sin. So this fallen humanity of ours 07:49 I love how Paul writes it. We don't think of ourselves as 07:55 slaves, but he says you're slaves to whomever you obey 07:58 either you're slaves to the one of sin that's leading to death 08:03 or slaves of obedience leading to righteousness and we can go 08:08 into a whole teaching on that because righteousness, our only 08:14 righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus Christ 08:16 But when we're made righteous by Him, He will impart to us 08:21 the ability to walk in righteousness. And as John wrote 08:26 in 1 John, he said don't be deceived. Only those who 08:31 practice righteousness are righteous. So that Scripture 08:35 1 Peter 1:18 says that you were redeemed from your aimless 08:41 conduct. He was talking about the futile philosophy of 08:46 paganism. Their vain, fruitless, empty way of life. 08:50 They had no satisfaction, no satisfactory meaning or no hope 08:56 for the future. And although the Jews did make the wrong 09:00 use of tradition this reference seems to be mostly to the 09:03 Gentiles. So what was the price of redemption? 09:07 He says it's not with corruptible, what does that 09:10 word corruptible mean? It means it can decay, it can rust 09:15 it can be ruined. It's not with something that was perishable 09:19 The freedom for the slaves was bought with gold or silver 09:24 But he says, no no no. You were bought with the precious blood 09:29 our spiritual ransom required something infinitely more 09:34 precious than gold or silver. It actually took, it took God 09:42 the Father, as Romans 5:8 says He demonstrated His love for us 09:48 in that while we were yet sinners He sent Jesus to die 09:53 for us and I wanna tell you something. You may have heard 09:55 someone say to you, you are worthless. Maybe you grew up 09:58 and they said you'll never amount to anything. That is a 10:02 lie of Satan because you are worth nothing less than the 10:06 price that God paid for you. With the precious lifeblood of 10:10 His Son. That's the value that God puts on your life. 10:14 So he talks about here the Lamb that Jesus was as a lamb 10:20 without spot or blemish. It makes you think of the Old 10:25 Testament substitutionary system which all pointed to 10:29 Jesus Christ. You know what did John say when he first saw Jesus 10:32 John is baptizing at the Jordan, what did he say? 10:35 Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the earth 10:41 or the world. But then it makes you think of how in the day of 10:48 the Sanctuary, in the Temple, when someone sinned they had 10:53 to bring in a precious Lamb unless they were poor they 10:56 could bring a dove. But they would have to slice his throat 11:00 then they laid their hands on him to transfer their sin to 11:05 him and then that blood was sprinkled on the four altars 11:09 of the Altar of Burnt Offering which is a type of what? 11:13 The Altar of Burnt Offering is a type of the cross 11:16 in the Old Testament, you know the cross in the New Testament 11:20 is what it was showing, so Christ was burnt, if you will, 11:25 quote unquote on the Altar of Burnt Offering and then the 11:28 rest of the blood it says in Leviticus 4:34 was poured out 11:33 at the base of the altar. It also reminds us of the pascal 11:39 lamb, the Lamb of the Passover and remember in Exodus what 11:44 did they have to do 11:47 with the blood of the lamb? They had to apply it 11:51 to the doorpost and it was by faith then that the angel of 11:55 death, when they applied that they believed the angel of death 11:59 as God said, would pass over them. We have to by faith apply 12:06 the blood of the lamb to us as well. You know sometimes 12:09 people will say Why does God require sacrifices? Is He 12:15 just a God of blood and violence No. What the Old Testament 12:21 Sanctuary services what the temple services showed them 12:25 this was theology in physical form. So the wages of sin 12:32 is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus 12:40 was going to take our penalty for sin and He would redeem 12:48 all sinners who would accept Him as Savior. Now I need to 12:51 hurry. Colossians 1:13-14 is the next Scripture that we're 12:56 to look at. It says He has delivered us from the power 13:02 of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His 13:05 love in whom we have redemption through His blood, 13:10 the forgiveness of sins. So we've been delivered by the 13:14 person of Jesus Christ from Satan's kingdom, his bondage 13:18 of darkness and we've been redeemed and rescued being 13:24 justified freely, excuse me, by His grace through the redemption 13:29 that is in Christ Jesus. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 20 13:34 verse 28, Just as the Son of Man did not come to serve, come to 13:40 be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many 13:47 So Christ came to pay the debt that you owed, that debt which 13:56 is death. The wages of sin is death. He came to pay that 14:00 vicariously for you so that you could be justified before God 14:05 and He also wants to sanctify us and this is how God operates 14:12 So Shelley you looked at Christ as our sacrifice 14:16 Well on Monday we look at the Passion of Christ. 14:21 And, let me just lay a foundation. Remember Peter 14:27 is talking to or writing his letters to people that are 14:33 under much persecution. They are suffering. I think Jill 14:37 you're the one, a few lessons ago, that pointed out about 14:42 Nero and he was the emperor of Rome at that time and the 14:46 horrendous things that he was doing to Christians under grave 14:51 persecution. And so Peter writes one of the things is on Christ's 14:59 sufferings in the books of Peter and the reason for that 15:03 would be to show the people that he's writing to, your 15:08 suffering but our Lord and Savior suffered also. 15:11 He's not above you in that suffering and he points out 15:17 how strongly he suffered. Now again the title today is the 15:21 Passion of Christ. And that word passion is strong or 15:27 barely controllable emotions. Synonyms are crucifixion 15:32 suffering, agony or martyrdom The Greek word for passion 15:38 means to suffer. And the phrase the Passion of Christ usually 15:43 refers to Jesus' suffering in the final period of His life 15:48 So that's what we're going to look at, I have two sections 15:53 of Scripture that I'm going to look at. The first one is 15:57 1 Peter 2:21-25. Then we're going to go over to Isaiah 53 16:05 But let's look first at Isaiah pardon me, 1 Peter 2:21-25 16:13 Pastor if you have that would you read it for me please? 16:18 For to this you were called for Christ also suffered for us 16:22 leaving us an example that you should follow His steps 16:25 who committed no sin nor was deceit found in His mouth. 16:28 Who when He was reviled did not revile in return, 16:31 When He suffered He did not threaten but committed Himself 16:34 to Him who judges righteously. Who Himself bore our sins 16:39 in His own body on the tree that we having died to sin 16:43 might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed 16:48 And verse 21 as Pr. Tom read He did this Peter says, leaving 16:57 us an example that we should follow His steps. 17:01 And I love 1 Peter 2:24, I think I quote this a lot. Shelley 17:06 I think you do too. Who Himself bore our sins in His own body 17:12 on the tree that we having died to sin might live to 17:16 righteousness, by whose stripes we were, look at that word were 17:21 that word were is past tense. By His stripes we were healed 17:27 He goes on to say in verse 25, For you were like sheep going 17:32 astray but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer 17:37 of your souls. Why is that? Because you were redeemed 17:40 Amen. As Shelley was saying we were redeemed. 17:43 Now I want to take you to Isaiah chapter 53. 17:47 And I want us to go through this maybe a little more closely 17:52 Isaiah 53 we're going to start reading in verse 3. 17:58 And the Scripture says, now this is talking about Jesus 18:01 He is despised and rejected of men 18:07 A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief 18:11 And we hid as it were, our faces from Him 18:14 He was despised and we did not esteem Him 18:18 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows 18:23 For we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted 18:29 Verse 5, but He was what? He was wounded. What was He 18:35 wounded for? Shelley you covered this beautifully 18:38 He was wounded for our transgression. What is a 18:42 transgression? That's presumptuous sin 18:46 It means to choose to intentionally disobey, willful 18:54 sin. He was wounded for us willfully sinning. He covered 19:01 that, He was wounded and I thought about whether or not I 19:07 should do this but I'm going to read an account of His 19:12 suffering, of His wounding's. Because sometimes I think 19:16 we see the pictures of Him and maybe there's barely a stripe 19:20 on Him, just a little blood, maybe the crown of thorns 19:23 Oh I want you to know, this wounding, He was barely 19:27 recognizable as a man. This wasn't a light thing 19:31 He was wounded for all of the willful sinning that we did 19:36 He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised 19:40 for our iniquities. What are iniquities? 19:43 Our immoralities. The chastisement, that's pain 19:48 inflicted for punishment and correction. The chastisement 19:53 for our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are 19:57 present tense, what was it in 1 Peter 2:24, past tense 20:01 Here we have in Isaiah 53:5 present tense, and by His 20:06 stripes we are healed. Although Scripture doesn't say how many 20:11 stripes Jesus received the practice at that time was for 20:17 those who were scourged to receive 40 stripes minus 1 20:23 And lashes were inflicted, I think I'll read that to you in 20:28 just a moment. Let me go on with verse 6. All we like sheep 20:34 have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own 20:38 way and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all 20:44 So how much of our iniquity was laid upon Him? All 20:47 Let me ask you, by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ 20:50 by this wounding, by these stripes, by this blood that He 20:55 shed how many of your sins were completely eradicated? 21:01 How many of your sins were covered, Johnny? 21:03 All our sins. All of them and think of this whole world 21:08 of everybody that ever was and ever will be, all of those sins 21:13 where were those sins placed? They were placed on our Lord 21:17 and Savior Jesus Christ. Romans 3:23, who can quote that? 21:23 For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. 21:28 Jesus died a horrible death in our stead and He wasn't 21:35 protected or some way immune to the pain, the anguish and the 21:40 suffering. He didn't have any chloroform. He didn't take a 21:44 pain pill beforehand. He received that pain, He felt that 21:50 pain. While in the Garden of Gethsemane, that's Matthew 26:39 21:56 Let me read this, the Scripture says, He went a little farther 22:00 and fell on His face and prayed saying, Oh Father if it is 22:06 possible let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless not as I will 22:11 but as You will. See He knew He was about to go through a 22:15 horrendous experience. He didn't know exactly what was gonna 22:21 happen. He knew it was gonna be horrible. It was gonna be 22:25 horrible, bitter cup but what did He say? Nevertheless 22:29 not as I will but as You will. Now let me read you the 22:33 suffering of Christ. Jesus suffers a severe physical 22:38 beating. During a flogging, a victim was tied to a post 22:43 leaving his back entirely exposed. The Romans used a whip 22:47 called a flagon which consisted of small pieces of bone 22:52 and metal attached to a number of leather strands. The number 22:57 again isn't given in the Gospel but we know that is probably was 23:01 39. The victim often died from the beating. 39 hits were 23:07 believed to bring the criminal to one from death. During the 23:11 flogging the skin was stripped from the back exposing a bloody 23:16 mass of muscle and bone. Extreme blood loss occurred from this 23:21 beating, weakening the victim perhaps to the point of being 23:26 unconscious. So I felt it important for us to realize 23:33 how horrendous this was. And now the reason He did it, 23:37 Ellen White says in the Desire of Ages, page 25, Christ was 23:45 treated as we deserved. We deserved those stripes, that we 23:50 might be treated as He deserves He was condemned for our sins 23:54 in which He had no share that we might be justified by His 23:59 righteousness in which we had no share. He suffered the death 24:04 which was whose? which was ours that we might receive the life 24:08 which was His. With His stripes we are healed. Praise God 24:14 for our Lord and Savior that suffered for us 24:18 that we don't have to suffer. Amen. 24:24 Thank you for sharing that. You know I'm to talk about 24:30 the Resurrection of Jesus and every time I think about 24:34 His resurrection, I think about where He came from 24:41 He's a God that cannot die. He actually tells us in 24:48 1 Timothy 6:16 that He has immortality dwelling in 24:52 unapproachable light in His being. Well this is what He did 24:58 for me. Let's turn to Philippians 2 25:03 We'll look at verses 6-8. 25:12 Philippians 2 beginning with verse 6, it says, who being 25:15 in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal 25:19 with God but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form 25:23 of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men and being 25:26 found in the appearance of men He humbled Himself and became 25:29 obedient to the point of death even the death of the cross 25:35 I, it just always has been overwhelming for me to think of 25:40 the level of, how far God reached out for me because it is 25:45 my sin that caused Him to do this and I think about the fact 25:51 that He, because of His perfect character, everything about Him 25:56 is life and brings life and when He became sin for me He actually 26:02 became the very thing He abhors 26:05 He hated sin but He loves the sinner so much that He was 26:11 moved with such compassion that He came and dwelt among us 26:15 and hung out with the wretched refuse of the universe. 26:21 Those who had bought into the lie that the highest of all 26:24 angels had sold and, but the fact that He came to save 26:30 and rescue me and to rescue you and to rescue everyone around 26:34 this table by paying that penalty for breaking His own law 26:39 See, someone had to pay the penalty. And the only one that 26:45 really could for Jesus to win, to be righteous, just and 26:50 to justify us was to do what He did for us in condescending 26:54 to the point of the death of the cross. He gave all to do 26:57 this. He emptied Himself out completely. We know that when 27:01 we see Jesus, we see whom? We see the Father. We see the 27:06 character of God being demonstrated before our very 27:09 eyes. You know it's my sin, it's our sin that separated Him 27:13 from us because His, that unapproachable light would 27:17 devour us if we did, so He wraps Himself in flesh, the veil 27:22 so that He can actually dwell with me. 27:26 He had victory over sin so that I can have eternal life 27:31 with Him. He's wanting to retrieve, you know you think 27:35 about what was lost by sin what did humanity have 27:38 what we had before and what Adam and Eve gave away 27:42 we all are under the curse by that choice 27:46 and to know that, you know sometimes when you look at the 27:51 universe you feel pretty insignificant 27:53 Uh you feel real small when you see how big this universe is 27:57 And to know that He spoke things into existence, that He has 28:00 that kind of power. What would motivate Him to care so much 28:05 so much for us? Well the thing that He wanted to give us 28:08 is victory over the grave. The wage of sin is death 28:13 When you unplug from the light source the wage of that 28:15 is death. So He decided to pay that price. Let's turn together 28:20 to John chapter 11 28:27 and we're gonna look at verses 23-25 28:31 Shelley would you be so kind as to read that? 28:37 John 11:23, Jesus said to her your brother will rise again 28:42 He is speaking to Martha of Mary, Martha and Lazarus 28:47 Mary and Martha were Lazarus' sisters. 28:50 Lazarus was their brother. Yeah I said that right. 28:53 Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said 28:57 to Him, I know that He will rise again in the resurrection 29:00 of the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection 29:05 and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die 29:11 he shall live. And I think about this that Martha had an 29:16 expression of faith in verse 24 when she said I know that 29:19 he will rise in the resurrection at the last day. She wasn't 29:22 confused. You know the church leaders were confused as to 29:25 whether or not there even was a resurrection. 29:27 And here you could tell that she wasn't listening to the 29:30 confused leaders, she was listening to Jesus. She was 29:32 actually having faith in His own words. But then He corrects 29:37 her, instructs her and tells her that He is the resurrection 29:40 and the life. And He also says here in verse 26, whoever 29:44 lives and believes in me shall never die, do you believe this? 29:47 Now sometimes Christians take this to think that when you die 29:51 you're going straight to heaven, there's your evidence. 29:53 But what He's talking about, cause He talks about our first 29:56 death as a sleep, He's talking about the second death, 29:59 eternally separated from God, it will never happen for you 30:02 Second death is mentioned several times in Revelation 30:05 Absolutely! Lots of people don't know about it 30:08 Absolutely, Let's turn to Revelation chapter 5 30:12 And I like this chapter because 30:16 we're looking at a special scene here. This is the coronation of 30:20 Jesus and I'm going to start with verse 1. 30:31 And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne 30:33 a scroll, written inside and on the back, sealed with 7 seals 30:37 It's interesting that theologians say that could be 30:39 the Book of Life, it could be the Book of Covenant, 30:41 the title deed to the universe, the judgment scroll or record 30:45 of human history. In any case it's our hope for the future 30:49 that is sealed. Then I saw a strong angel, verse 2 30:52 proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll 30:56 and loose its seals. And no one in heaven or on earth or under 30:59 the earth was able to open the scroll or look at it. 31:01 So I wept much. John is in vision. He's seeing that this 31:05 scroll must be opened because no one was found worthy to open 31:09 and read the scroll or look at it. But one of the elders said 31:12 Do not weep. Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root 31:16 of David has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose it's 7 31:19 seals. And I looked and beheld in the midst of the throne 31:23 and the four living creatures, in the midst of the elders 31:25 stood a Lamb as though it had been slain having seven horns 31:29 seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out to all 31:33 the earth and there we have the day of Pentecost. Then He came 31:37 and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat 31:39 on the throne. Jesus was victorious over the grave 31:43 and that sacrifice was accepted in heaven. And as a matter 31:49 of fact it caused all of heaven to rejoice. because now there's 31:52 victory over the grave. And the evidence that this price had 31:58 been paid. You know you think about on resurrection morning 32:01 He said do not touch me for I have not yet ascended to my 32:04 Father but then later on He's saying touch me. 32:06 You know that this scene had been taking place. Amen. 32:10 So now, verse 8, when He had taken the scroll the four living 32:14 creatures and 24 elders fell down before the Lamb 32:16 we're here at the throne room of God. Each having a harp of 32:20 golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the 32:23 saints and they sang a new song saying, You are worthy to take 32:26 the scroll, to open its seals for you were slain, You've 32:29 redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and 32:32 tongue and people and nation and have made us kings and 32:35 priests to our God and we shall reign on the earth. Amen 32:38 So victory is because of the resurrection of Jesus. He had 32:41 victory over sin and the only reason why God was able to 32:45 raise from that grave is He was victorious against all 32:49 the wiles of the devil. Every thing that Eve and Adam fell 32:52 by He did not when He was at the tree and tempted, He did not 32:56 Um let's turn to 2 Corinthians 33:02 Chapter 5 33:08 2 Corinthians 5 and we're gonna look at verse 18 33:15 Oh I love this verse 33:18 I'm going to start with 17. 33:21 Therefore, this is 2 Corinthians 5:17, therefore if anyone is 33:25 in Christ he's a new creation. Old things have passed away 33:29 behold all things have become new and now all things are of 33:33 God who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ 33:38 God is in the reconciliation business. He has paid the price 33:43 for all to receive. He has predestined them, we are with 33:47 Him and we are redeemed and we are in His presence again. 33:51 He has given us the ministry of reconciliation. The good news 33:54 of the Gospel is that this world is not all there is 33:58 that there is hope beyond the grave. Only those that truly 34:03 believe what the Bible teaches about the resurrection of Jesus 34:06 and what it means for humanity have a hope that is beyond 34:10 the grave and it is life that God wants to give every one of 34:13 us and life eternal and that is the good news this world needs 34:17 to hear. Amen. Thank you Tom That's precious. 34:20 Thank you so much. I'm just so thankful for Jesus. 34:25 As Molly shared it just ministered to my heart what 34:28 He went through for me, for you for each one of us and He was 34:35 victorious, completely without sin, the perfect sacrifice 34:40 now seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession 34:47 for us. On Wednesday we look at Jesus as the Messiah 34:52 and let's go to Matthew chapter 16. This is the first time that 34:58 Peter, one of the 12 disciples apostles, identifies Jesus 35:04 as the Messiah and we're gonna take a look at that. 35:08 We discussed this, I think it was actually in our first 35:10 lesson on Peter. But we're gonna take another look at 35:13 this and then we're gonna look at some Old Testament passages 35:17 dealing with the promise of the Messiah. So Matthew 16 35:21 Now the setting for this, what took place here. It took place 35:26 in Caesarea, Philippi. That's a town about 25 miles north 35:30 of the Sea of Galilee. Now I know Shelley and Molly and 35:34 I don't know if Bro. Johnny you've been to Israel 35:37 the Holy Land? Yes. Ok. Have you been to Israel? No I haven't 35:40 Ok, so four of us have been, but if you go to Caesarea 35:43 Philippi and you see what is there, there is that huge wall 35:48 of rock like a massive wall of rock and then there's a cave 35:53 kind of at the base of it and in that time they had a temple 36:00 right there at the base of the rock to the god Pan 36:05 and it was a heathen temple, heathen sacrifices and just a 36:11 little ways away from where that took place, Jesus is with 36:15 His disciples and to me it's interesting that Peter would 36:18 identify Jesus as the Messiah, as the Christ where you can just 36:23 look over a stone's throw and you can see where they had that 36:26 idolatry, that heathen worship. So we're in verse 16 36:31 Matthew 16:16. Jesus had said who do you say I am? 36:38 And they said, well some say John the Baptist, or prophets or 36:40 whatever and then Peter makes his confession of faith 36:44 Verse 16. Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ 36:48 the Son of the Living God. Now that word for Christ in Greek 36:53 is Christos, it means Anointed One, the Messiah. That word 36:59 is used over 500 times in the New Testament. It comes from the 37:04 Hebrew word Anoint and we're gonna do just a little word 37:07 study here. Times in the past, times in the Old Testament 37:12 where this word was used because the disciples at that time, 37:15 they didn't have the New Testament. They had maybe a 37:19 faulty understanding of what the Messiah was going to do 37:22 um all they had was the Old Testament. And some of Paul's 37:27 writings they had, that's true but I'm talking of the time 37:30 when Peter made this declaration in Matthew. They didn't have 37:34 Paul's writings at that point. All they're looking at is just 37:37 looking previous the Old Testament. 37:39 So we're going to look at that. The Hebrew word that would be 37:43 translated as Christos in Greek, the Hebrew word, if I can 37:47 pronounce it, Mashiach. Is that correct, Mashiach. 37:50 And it literally means to anoint. It's used in the 37:53 Old Testament many different times and we're gonna go to 37:56 several of those references. Let's look at 1 Samuel 24 38:04 These are all references referring to using references 38:09 to this Mashiach - Messiah or anointed. 38:13 To be anointed, usually they were referring to a consecrated 38:19 person who is set apart as a king, or a priest 38:24 for a special prophetic function 38:26 some sort of special function. We're in 1 Samuel 24 verse 6 38:30 You wanna read that Shelley? Verse 6, And he said to his men 38:35 The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master 38:39 the Lord's anointed, to stretch out my hand against him seeing 38:44 he's the anointed of the Lord. So that word the Lord's anointed 38:49 is the use of that word and here it's referring to King Saul 38:52 David was not wanting to kill King Saul because he said 38:56 He is the Lord's anointed. So Peter, in his knowledge 39:00 of what was in the Old Testament he would've known that this word 39:03 refers to someone who would be coming as a king 39:06 someone who would be a king. Let's look at another reference 39:09 We're in Psalm chapter 2 39:13 Now Psalm talks about two ways for individuals. Psalm chapter 2 39:21 talks about two ways for nations. Or the rebellion of 39:26 the nations against the Messiah. It talks about how the nations 39:29 relate to the Messiah and how the Messiah relates to the 39:32 nations. Verse 1 says, why do the nations rage and the people 39:36 plot a vain thing. Or plot literally means meditate 39:40 So the righteous are meditating on God's law while the wicked 39:44 are meditating on ways that they can rebel against 39:49 the law of God. Then we look at verse 2 and we see this Hebrew 39:52 word come out again. The kings of the earth set themselves 39:56 and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord 40:00 and against His anointed. There's that word anointed 40:05 Here we see this religious conflict against God and His 40:09 anointed King and the people of the world, the wicked 40:13 the rebellious people. So Peter looking back, we're looking at 40:17 Old Testament references for this word. He would know that 40:21 this word meant someone anointed as King. This word was referring 40:26 to the coming Messiah who would be in conflict or controversy 40:32 against the forces of evil. Then we look at Isaiah 45 40:36 Now this is an interesting passage. Isaiah 45 verse 1 40:44 This is referring to Cyrus a pagan king but this is actually 40:49 a type of Christ. Isaiah 45:1 Molly, do you have that? 40:54 Thus saith the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus whose right 40:57 hand I have holden to subdue nations before him and I will 41:02 loose the loins of kings to open before him the two leaved 41:06 gates and the gates shall not be shut. 41:09 So Cyrus, this is this word His anointed. The Lord to His 41:14 anointed, to Cyrus, he was a pagan king. But this is still 41:18 a reference, he was a type of Christ. He was raised up by 41:22 God to release God's captives, the children of Israel 41:26 He did God's pleasure on the nation of Babylon 41:30 Now we're gonna look at a reference, the same Hebrew word 41:33 but instead of using it and translating it in English into 41:37 anointed, it's actually translated Messiah 41:39 This is the two times in Scripture in the Old Testament 41:42 this is translated Messiah. We're going to Daniel 41:45 Daniel chapter 9 41:49 verses 25 and 26 41:53 You have that Pr. Tom? 41:56 Yes. Know therefore and understand that from the going 41:59 forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until 42:01 Messiah the Prince there shall be 7 weeks, 62 weeks 42:04 the streets shall be built again and the wall even in 42:08 troublous times. And after 62 weeks the Messiah shall be 42:11 cut off, but not for Himself, and the people of the prince 42:14 who is to come shall destroy the city and the Sanctuary 42:17 and the end of it shall be with a flood unto the end of the war 42:19 desolations are determined. 42:21 So the word we're looking for this Mashiach in Hebrew 42:25 is translated in verse 25, until Messiah the Prince 42:30 That's the first time in Old Testament that word is 42:32 translated Messiah. And what was the purpose of the Messiah? 42:35 Verse 24, to make an end of sin to make reconciliation for 42:41 iniquity. To bring in righteousness. To confirm 42:45 prophecy. You notice it says verse 25, Messiah the Prince 42:51 The word for prince sometimes in the Old Testament is 42:54 translated as king. Sometimes it's translated as a priest 43:00 You think about Melchizedek that's another type of Christ 43:04 and he was not only a king but he was also a priest 43:09 a type of Christ, cause in the Old Testament times they were 43:13 either a king or a priest but not both. And Jesus fulfilled 43:18 both roles when he came as a King and as a Priest. 43:22 So Peter, there's many more verses, but Peter looking back 43:26 when he said to Christ, Thou art the Christ 43:30 his knowledge, now we don't know how much he had studied 43:33 the Old Testament but we know that Jewish leaders knew 43:37 many of these verses in the Old Testament, had studied the 43:40 Messiah. They had a faulty understanding. They knew He was 43:44 coming as a king. They thought he was coming to overthrow the 43:48 Romans. But they had this understanding He was going to 43:51 bring salvation and bring reconciliation and put 43:53 an end to sin, confirm that prophecy. 43:59 As we talk about, and I know Bro. John is going to talk about 44:03 the Divine Messiah, but as we talk about Christ, I just wanna 44:06 leave you with this. Who is Christ to you? 44:11 We can say who is Christ to Peter. Well that's good and 44:14 well. Who is Christ to the disciples or the apostles 44:17 or in 1st and 2nd Peter he had a fuller understanding 44:22 of Jesus as the Messiah as opposed to what he did when he 44:26 actually walked with Jesus. He knew more the sacrificial side 44:29 the sacrificial lamb, but who is Christ to you. I just want 44:33 to appeal to you at home. If you have not accepted the Lord 44:37 Jesus Christ as your Savior make a decision now. 44:40 Say God I want to give you my heart, I want to give you 44:44 my life. I want to make you Lord and Savior of my life 44:48 Amen, Amen, Amen. 44:50 Amen, praise the Lord. 44:52 We move to Thursday's lesson and that brings in another 44:56 wonderful and precious teaching and that is Jesus as the Divine 45:00 Messiah. And it is interesting when we look at this topic 45:05 how marvelously it is also presented to us in 1 Peter 45:11 chapter 5 as well. I would like to go at this time to 1 Peter 45:18 and we're going to look at a few Scriptures where we see 45:22 Peter identifying Christ in a wonderful way. 45:27 And I would like to ask Sister Molly to read 1 Peter 1:3 45:32 Pr. Tom, 2 Peter 1:8 and Sister Jill maybe you can read 2 Peter 45:39 chapter 1 verse 14 and 16. So if we're ready with 1 Peter 1:3 45:45 According as His divine power has given unto us all things 45:50 pertaining unto life and godliness through the knowledge 45:53 of Him that has called us to glory and virtue 45:57 You must be reading another 2 Peter, it's 1 Peter chapter 1 46:00 verse 3. If you'll go there please. 46:06 You know I was in 1 Peter 1:3 and I thought you said 2nd, ok 46:08 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which 46:12 according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a 46:16 lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 46:20 Thank you very much and Pr. Tom 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 8 46:25 For if these things are yours and abound you will be neither 46:28 barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus 46:31 Christ. Thank you. And Sister Jill. 46:34 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 14 and 16. 46:39 Knowing that shortly I must put off my tent just as our 46:43 Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Verse 16, for we did not follow 46:48 cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and 46:52 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eyewitnesses of His 46:56 majesty. Thank you very much. We see some references 46:59 here to Jesus being called Lord and even though in secular terms 47:05 in those days a Lord was somebody that was in charge 47:08 of things. And even today, in England, you hear them say 47:12 lord so and so and he's just a human being. 47:14 However, when we're talking about Jesus we have to 47:17 understand that he's not only talking about Him as Master 47:21 as Leader but also as divine. I would like to show 47:27 an interesting discussion that took place and this brings us 47:30 to Matthew, no Luke chapter 20 47:35 and we're going to read a few verses in Luke chapter 20 47:38 that's verses 41-44. Luke 20 verses 41-44 47:43 And we have Sister Shelley that didn't read yet. We'd like to 47:48 ask you, Luke 20:41-44. Luke 20 verse 41, Then He said to them 47:54 How can they say that the Christ is the Son of David? Now David 47:58 himself said in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord 48:02 sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool 48:06 Therefore David calls Him Lord 48:09 How many, Therefore David calls Him Lord, how is He then 48:16 his son? thank you very much. Here Jesus is quoting a Psalm 48:23 Psalm 110. And it is understood in the Jewish community that 48:28 this is talking about the Messiah. 48:30 And it's an interesting wording- The Lord said to my Lord 48:35 showing the divinity of Christ. And when Jesus talks to the 48:39 scribes and Pharisees, how is He his Son when David said 48:44 The Lord said to my Lord, they were alarmed at Jesus claiming 48:48 this. And even when Jesus spoke of His pre-existence 48:54 uh when He talked about Abraham and you say you're not even 48:57 50 years old and you've already seen and heard Abraham? 49:01 So it was a mystery to them that were in Jesus' time and it has 49:05 been somewhat of a mystery among Christians that even 49:08 today you have some religious bodies not understanding that 49:12 Jesus is God, the divine Son of God. So let's move to John 49:16 chapter 1. In John 1 you find one of the clearest revelation 49:23 if I say that, revelation of Jesus' divinity, that He is God 49:29 John 1:1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with 49:35 God and the Word was God. Very, very clear of course 49:41 you go to verse 14 of John chapter 1 and it says the Word 49:44 was made flesh and dwelt among us. Talking about the moment 49:48 when Jesus became flesh. Now prior to this He was not flesh 49:56 He was God. And you can, if you had the capacity, go to eternity 50:01 past to try to find a beginning for Christ and there is no 50:05 beginning because He has always existed. He is eternal 50:10 So in the beginning, wherever that beginning was known 50:13 we can go and keep going, trying to find a beginning 50:16 and there is no beginning for Christ because He is God 50:19 has always existed, has declared Him as God here in John, 50:23 chapter 1, verse 1. So there are other places we can go 50:28 and here is one that I'd like to point out in John 20:28 50:34 And Sister Jill if you help us with John chapter 20, verse 28 50:41 And Thomas answered and said unto Him, my Lord and my God 50:46 Wow! What a powerful message we have Thomas revealing. 50:51 And Thomas before doubted that Jesus was resurrected. 50:55 But realizing that Jesus is standing right there in front 51:00 of him, he declared those powerful words 51:04 You are my Lord and my God 51:08 To Thomas there is no doubt now he knows this, You're the 51:15 understanding-the Messiah is God. Of course unfortunately 51:22 then they did not accept Him. He came unto His own but His 51:25 own received Him not. But we know that thousands and 51:28 thousands of Jews did. Accepted Him as the Messiah, accepted Him 51:32 as their Redeemer and Peter is one of them. So now we go to 51:35 Peter. In 1 Peter, 2 Peter actually. Now we go to 2 Peter 51:42 2 Peter chapter 1. We have Peter now making a 51:53 powerful declaration and I'm going in 2 Peter. Now we have 51:59 here in 2 Peter the following words. 52:03 Simon Peter a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to 52:07 them that have obtained like precious faith with us through 52:11 the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ 52:17 At first glance people may not see it here, but this is a 52:20 declaration by Peter because the Greek construction of the words 52:26 used here, it is talking about the same person. When it says 52:31 our God, of God and our Savior Jesus Christ, it is talking 52:36 about the same individual. Yes. And you can do research, you can 52:44 go from one scholar to another and they say the Greek 52:50 the Greek grammatical construction is talking about 52:54 one person, not two in this verse. So Peter is saying 52:59 that Jesus Christ is our God, our Savior and that is Jesus 53:08 Christ. And I could quote to you some sources but you know 53:12 um there is one Coshmeter, Winishmeter, Robertson, I mean 53:17 source after source of Greek scholars say that the divinity 53:21 of Jesus is unquestionable. So in Jesus Christ is life 53:26 in Him was life. So what it talks about in Him was life 53:29 in Jesus is life-original, unborrowed, underived 53:36 because He is God. Amen And to understand this, that He 53:43 became flesh and dwelt among us and as Molly described and 53:48 Jill and Pr. Tom and Sister Shelley, that this very God 53:53 in order to save us, became a man not giving up His divinity 53:58 but in order to save us became a man to die for us 54:01 speaks to us volumes of the wonderful, majestic and supreme 54:07 love of God. Amen. And in the little time that I have, 54:12 I have to say this 54:14 Only one as divine as the law because the law of God was 54:19 broken, could really offer the sacrifice that would meet the 54:25 specifications required to be able to forgive us for our sins 54:29 So only one as holy as the law that was broken when man sinned 54:34 could actually save us. So it's not the life of an angel that 54:38 could make it possible, it's not the life of a created being 54:41 only one divine being, the divine being Jesus Christ 54:45 came to die for us. And the Bible says that God so loved 54:48 the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever 54:51 believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life 54:54 I join Jill and say if you have not accepted Jesus Christ 54:57 as your personal Savior do it today. Amen. 55:00 Thank you so much Bro. Johnny. You know it is amazing to think 55:04 that He stepped out of eternity to this earth, that He took on 55:11 our form, that He became like us in every way and tempted 55:15 like us in every way, just, He came here to show us the Father 55:21 to pay our ransom. He came here to redeem us and He went through 55:30 all of the suffering that, it's just so mind boggling 55:35 when you really concentrate on that you know, Sister White said 55:38 that if you would spend one hour daily on the life of Christ 55:43 particularly the closing chapters it would change you 55:47 and I know for a Camp Meeting once I did this, Christ covering 55:51 the Sanctuary, on the suffering, the Passion of Christ and the 55:55 crucifixion and it was life changing. I need to go back 55:59 and I did it for a while but I haven't been doing it lately 56:02 So you think of how He paid the price, He suffered. But if He 56:07 had only suffered and died He would not be our Savior 56:12 it's because He came up out of that grave, hallelujah 56:17 So it's the resurrection of Jesus that really proves that 56:25 He is our Divine Messiah. And the root of it all 56:29 the reason He did it all, Johnny quoted the Scripture 56:33 For God so loved the world. He loves us. I think it's 56:37 incomprehendable, is that a word, that we can't comprehend 56:45 the breadth and height and depth of the love that the Lord Jesus 56:51 Christ has for us; God Himself has for us that He would suffer 56:55 such a horrendous death that we could be redeemed. 57:00 Amen, and you know I think of Peter's life before and as I 57:03 said before that he walked with Jesus the living Word 57:08 for three and a half years, but it didn't quite prepare him 57:14 to really appreciate Christ as his Messiah. I mean mentally 57:19 he knew it but it took the baptism of the Holy Spirit 57:21 and when the Holy Spirit came into his life then he could 57:25 really understand this and throughout 1 Peter you see 57:30 that Jesus is woven into every part of that epistle and it's 57:35 just beautiful. Well I hope you've enjoyed visiting 57:39 my tongue is tangled today I hope you've enjoyed studying 57:44 with us and our prayer for you is that the grace of our Lord 57:48 and Savior Jesus Christ, the love of the Father and the 57:51 fellowship of the Holy Spirit will be with you always. 57:55 Join us again next time, we are going to be doing Lesson 57:59 No. 9, Be Who You Are. God bless. |
Revised 2024-06-03