Sabbath School Study Hour

The central issue in the book of Revelation is worship. We were created as worshiping beings. Every one of us worships something or someone. True worship, the worship of the Creator, enables us to discover life's true purpose. It gives us a reason for living.

This week we will study some intriguing passages that people use to justify the natural immortality of the soul. These reflections should strengthen our own convictions and help us to answer kindly those who question this crucial teaching.

Every passing day brings us one day closer to the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds of heaven. Though we don't know when He will come, we can be certain that He will, and that is what really matters.

This week we will look at Christ's resurrection and all the convincing evidence He gave us to believe in it.

This week we will focus on Christ's death and what it means for the promise of eternal life.

This week we will reflect more closely on the resurrections that occurred before Christ's own death and resurrection.

This week we will reflect on how the notion of the final resurrection unfolded in Old Testament times, with special focus on the statements of Job, some psalmists, and the prophets Isaiah and Daniel.

Is there an immaterial soul or spirit that consciously survives physical death? This week we will consider how the Old Testament defines human nature and the condition of human beings at death.

This week we will reflect on the fall of Adam and Eve, on how sin and death took over our world, and on how God planted a seed of hope for humanity even back in Eden.

Christ speaks of God's unconditional love for all human beings as the pattern for all our own interactions. How can you reflect this pattern more closely within your family and church?

Though God intimately knows the future, we are still free in the choices we make. How do we reconcile these two ideas?

What are ways that others should be able to see, from the kind of lives that we live, the reality of our God? Though we can be forgiven and accept God's forgiveness, how do we learn to forgive ourselves, no matter how unworthy we are of that forgiveness?

How can we learn to trust God and cling to His promises when events don't appear providential at all, and indeed, God seems silent?

What are the idols of our culture, our civilization? How can we make sure we aren't worshiping anyone or anything other than the Lord?

How can we learn to trust God when we don't see “justice” being done, when we see people who do evil get away with it, or when we see the innocent suffer?

Why is it so comforting to know that while not all things are God's will, He is still in charge?

How can we learn to keep focused on Christ and His righteousness as our only hope of salvation? What happens if we try to start counting up our good works? Why is it important that we not give up, despite times of doubt?

What kind of influence do our actions have on others? What kind of message are we sending about our faith by our actions?

What example do we have from history, or even the present, of the trouble that can come from those who seek to make a name for themselves?

What lesson can we learn from the Noah story regarding our role in warning the world about coming judgment?

Why must we do all that we can in God's power to eradicate sin from our lives?

If Satan was able to deceive a sinless Eve in Eden, how much more vulnerable are we? What is our best defense against his deceptions?

Think about the vast power of God, who upholds the cosmos, and yet can be so near to each of us. Why is this amazing truth so amazing?

Why is it important to remember that God is leading us as a group? What are my responsibilities to the group? What are the best indicators that brotherly love is strong in a congregation?

The shaking of the heavens and the earth means, then, the destruction of the earthly powers that persecute God's people and, more importantly, the destruction of the evil powers (Satan and his angels) who stand behind the earthly powers and control them.

Why is it important to recognize that our faith results from and feeds on God's faithfulness? How can we learn more to trust in His faithfulness to us and to the promises He has made to us?

Why should the reality of what Christ has done, not only on the cross but what He is doing now in heaven, give us assurance of salvation?

The sanctuary sacrifices teach us that the experience of salvation is more than just accepting Jesus as our Substitute. We also need to “feed” on Him, share His benefits with others, and provide reparation to those whom we have wronged.

By living a perfect life, and then by dying in our place, Jesus mediated a new, better covenant between us and God. Through His death, Jesus canceled the penalty of death that our trespasses demanded and made possible the new covenant.

What do you feel when you think that God has made an oath to you? Why should that thought alone help give you assurance of salvation, even when you feel unworthy?

God is holy, and sin cannot exist in His presence; so, our own corrupted nature separated us from God. This week, we are going to study the amazing things the Father and the Son did to bridge that gulf.

What two things does the Sabbath rest commemorate, and how are they related?

What are ways that you can learn to experience more deeply that reality of just how close Christ can be to you? Why is having this experience so important to your faith?

Look at all the promises God fulfilled in the past. How should this help us to trust Him for the promises not yet fulfilled?

Paul wrote Hebrews to strengthen the faith of the believers amid their trials. He reminded them (and us) that the promises of God will be fulfilled through Jesus, who is seated at the right hand of the Father, and who will soon take us home. In the meantime, Jesus mediates the Father's blessings to us. So, we need to hold fast to our faith until the end.

Why is it good at times to remember how God first worked in your life to bring you to Him?

How does the story of Moses' death and later resurrection show us how the New Testament, though often based on the Old Testament, does take us further than the Old Testament and can indeed shed much new light upon it?

Whether using direct Old Testament quotations, or allusions, or references to stories or prophecies, the New Testament writers constantly used the Old Testament to buttress, even justify, their claims.

This week we will focus on how the book was used by later writers. What parts of Deuteronomy did they use, and what points were they making that have relevance for us today?

God often tells His people to remember all the things that He has done for them; to remember His grace for them and His goodness toward them. How easy it is to forget what God has done for us.

Because we are sinful, repentance should be a central part of our Christian existence. And, this week, we will see the idea of repentance as expressed in Deuteronomy.

Right from the start, the Bible presents us with just one of two options: eternal life, which is what we were originally supposed to have, and eternal death, which in a sense is merely going back to the nothingness out of which we first came.

Deuteronomy could be seen as one big object lesson in grace and law. By grace God redeems us, doing for us what we couldn't do for ourselves, and in response we live, by faith, a life of obedience to Him and to His law.

What does it mean to add or to take away from God's commands? Outside of the obvious, such as the attempted change of the Sabbath, how might something like that happen so subtly we don't even realize what is happening?

Loving your neighbor as yourself is the highest expression of God's law.

Loving God with all the heart and soul and strength means that our love for Him should be supreme over our love for everything and everyone else, because He is the foundation and ground of all our being and existence and everything else.

God out of His saving grace and love offers you a salvation that you do not deserve and cannot possibly earn; and you, in response, love Him back “with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30, NKJV), a love that is made manifest by obedience to His law: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments” (1 John 5:3, NKJV).

Just as the children of Israel are finally to enter Canaan, Moses gives them a history lesson, a theme that is repeated all through the Bible: remember what the Lord has done for you in the past.