MEMORY VERSE: ‘For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.’ Acts 4:12.
LESSON AIM: To show that the ministry of Jesus, our great High Priest in the Sanctuary in heaven, is central to the Gospel of heaven, and that same Gospel is central to the separation work of the Three Angels’ Messages.
‘Time has continued a few years longer than they expected; therefore they think it may continue a few years more, and in this way their minds are being led from present truth, out after the world. In these things I saw great danger; for if the mind is filled with other things, present truth is shut out, and there is no place in our foreheads for the seal of the living God. I saw that the time for Jesus to be in the most holy place was nearly finished and that time can last but a very little longer. What leisure time we have should be spent in searching the Bible, which is to judge us in the last day. My dear brethren and sisters, let the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ be in your minds continually and let them crowd out worldly thoughts and cares. When you lie down and when you rise up, let them be your meditation. Live and act wholly in reference to the coming of the Son of man. The sealing time is very short, and will soon be over. Now is the time, while the four angels are holding the four winds, to make our calling and election sure.’ Early Writings, page 184.
1. On Patmos, how did John refer to the book he was writing, which we now call the Revelation? Revelation 1:2, first part.
NOTE: ‘The central theme of the Bible, the theme about which every other in the whole book clusters, is the redemption plan, the restoration in the human soul of the image of God. From the first intimation of hope in the sentence pronounced in Eden to that last glorious promise of the Revelation, “They shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads,” the burden of every book and every passage of the Bible is the unfolding of this wondrous theme, man’s uplifting, the power of God, “which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” He who grasps this thought has before him an infinite field for study. He has the key that will unlock to him the whole treasure house of God’s word.’ Education, page 126.
2. In John’s prophetic description of the Second Coming, by what name was the Rider coming forth on the white horse known? Revelation 19:13.
NOTE: ‘On His vesture and on His thigh was written, “King of kings, and Lord of lords”; but aside from these letters He had a name known only to Himself and the Father, a name expressing the depths of divine character which even eternity cannot interpret. As each redeemed one has an inner experience with Christ, which is a secret between two, so the Father and His Son know each other as none other can know Them. To His Father, Christ is the Word of God. The completest union is here signified. God has spoken through Christ in all His creation, and the name ‘Word of God’ is an eternal reminder of the everlasting covenant into which the Two entered when Christ received that name. It was the Word of God which was made flesh, and dwelt among us. It is the Word that saves, and it is this same Word that destroys. To the one who obeys the Word, it is a healing balm of all the ills to which human flesh is heir. When disregarded, it becomes the stone of stumbling, and rock of offence over which men fall and die.’ S. N. Haskell: The Story of the Seer of Patmos, page 319.