SABBATH AFTERNOON February 19

Read for This Week's Study: Matt. 28:9, John 11:1-46, 20:10-18, Rom. 6:4-6, 1 Cor. 15:3-8.


Memory Text: "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen?" (Luke 24:5, 6).

His name was Rebbe (for Rabbi) Menachem Schneerson, and at the time of his death in 1994, speculation was rife among thousands of Lubavitch Jews that the 92-year-old spiritual leader was the long-awaited Messiah. After all, they said, he claimed lineage to King David (and such a righteous man as the rebbe would not lie). His physical sufferings fulfilled, they said, the predictions of Isaiah 53; and the intravenous tubes in his body were a fulfillment of the predictions that the Messiah's hands and feet would be pierced. All that remains, they believe, is for him to be resurrected from the dead. So far, though, Rebbe Schneerson is still resting quietly.

Contrast this rebbe and his death to another Rebbe and His death, almost two thousand years ago. It's obvious which one is the real Messiah.



The Week at a Glance: What specific miracles did Jesus do that should have prepared people for His resurrection, were they open to it? How convincing is the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus? How does the resurrection of Christ form the foundation for our own? What happened at the Cross that has paved the way for our resurrection?


*Study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, February 26


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SUNDAY February 20

Precursors

Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus performed numerous miracles: healing those who were blind, feeding the 5,000, turning water into wine, curing leprosy, walking on water, casting out demons, mending deformities, stilling a storm, raising the dead, and so many other acts that, as John said, the world itself couldn't contain the books "that should be written" about what Jesus did (John 21:25).

Read the following texts. What miracles did Jesus perform here, and how do these acts fit in with the miracle of His own resurrection from the dead? See also Matt. 11:5.

Mark 5:35-43

Luke 7:11-17

John 11:1-46



What's so important about these accounts is they prove that the power attending Jesus and His ministry is so great that even the dead could be raised. Numerous times prior to the cross, Jesus talked about not just His death but His resurrection from that death (see Matt. 12:38-40; 17:22, 23; 20:19). Under normal circumstances, one could (and should) be a bit skeptical about someone who claimed that although he or she was going to die soon, three days after death he or she would be resurrected. Of course, Christ's situation was hardly "normal"; even more so, by doing what He did in raising the dead, Jesus gave His followers and all those who had heard about Him undeniable demonstrations of the power of God to raise the dead, thus making the promise of His own resurrection something that should have been easier for people to believe.

Read John 11:25. What's so important about what Jesus said here? Why, in the context it was given, were those words so powerful and so full of hope? Most household dust is composed, really, of us; it's dead skin. Run a finger across a counter, and you'll be staring at your future, at least in the short term. What, however, is your long-term hope, and how is that linked to the resurrection of Jesus?




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MONDAY February 21

The Resurrected Christ

Leo Tolstoy wrote his great novel War and Peace about a number of aristocratic Russian families during the time of Napoleon's war against Russia in the early 1800s. The story itself, the characters, their lives, were a fabrication. He made them all up.

Now, imagine Tolstoy insisting that these people were, in fact, real and that they actually lived and did what he said they did. Imagine, too, that he was told by the authorities to stop telling people that his characters were real or that the police would throw him in jail or even kill him. Unless Tolstoy were insane, he'd stop, would he not? Why die promoting as truth a story you made up and know is a lie?

In a sense, this is the dilemma that the critics of the resurrection of Jesus face: Why would the Bible writers make up the story that Jesus was raised from the dead when He wasn't? It's not as if they became wealthy, popular, or successful by promoting this story; on the contrary, they faced ostracism, persecution, torture, jail, and, in some cases, death. Why go through all that for a story that you purposely concocted?

Below are some accounts of Christ's postresurrection appearances: Matthew 28:9, Luke 24:33-49, John 20:10-23, John 21:1-14, Acts 1:4-9. What transpired at these meetings? What hope did Jesus give them? Why would it make no sense for these people to have made up this story?


Most of the world, however, has not seen the resurrected Jesus. Yet, we are asked to believe anyway. If someone were to ask you, Why do you believe in the resurrection of Christ, what would you answer?

Some additional study resources for our online SS students:

Quarterly Online with live links to Bible, EGW and other notes:
http://www.ssnet.org (click "Current Lesson" to the left)

GoBible.org Lessons (a refreshing parallel study to the topics of the quarterly):
http://gobible.org/study/334.php

Yep..glad you posted that..

Some really freaked out when Lazarus was raised.
Especially the Saducees.

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TUESDAY February 22

Witnesses From the Grave

"And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many" (Matt. 27:52, 53).

At the moment Christ died, Matthew records three events: (1) The veil in the temple was torn (Matt. 27:51), (2) the earth quaked and rocks split (vs. 51), (3) and graves were opened (vs. 52). It was, however, only after Jesus Himself had been resurrected early on the first day of the week that "many bodies of the saints which slept arose" (vss. 52, 53).

Why was it only after Christ's resurrection, and not before, that these saints rose?

How appropriate that only after Jesus was resurrected would some of these saints be resurrected, as well: His resurrection was the guarantee of theirs (and ours). Through this act, the Lord has given the world (not to mention those who saw these people) even more reasons to believe in the power of His resurrection.

What did Matthew say that these resurrected saints did after they arose?

Outside of Matthew's few verses, Scripture says nothing else explicitly about these saints. Who were they? What happened to them? What impact should they have made on those who saw them? (Remember what Jesus said in Luke 16:30, 31?) Ellen White writes that these were martyrs who had given their lives for the Lord and that they had been "raised to everlasting life" (unlike those whom Jesus had raised from the dead earlier, who were still subject to death) and that when He ascended to heaven He took them with Him: "They ascended with Him as trophies of His victory over death and the grave. These, said Christ, are no longer the captives of Satan; I have redeemed them. I have brought them from the grave as the first fruits of My power, to be with Me where I am, nevermore to see death or experience sorrow."—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 786.

"Nevermore to see death or experience sorrow." Dwell on what that means. Using your imagination (you're going to need it), write a paragraph on what life will be like without death or sorrow. (See Rev. 21:1-5 for some hints.)

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WEDNESDAY February 23

Paul and the Resurrection of Jesus

Though the apostle Paul speaks very little about the life of Christ, the death and resurrection of Jesus are constant themes in Paul's letters. These events are for him the foundation of the whole Christian hope.

Read 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 and then answer these questions:

• What did Paul consider of first importance?  




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• Paul said that both Christ's death and resurrection were "according
  to the Scriptures?' See also Acts 17:2, 3. Why is that so important? Who else tied these specific events to the Scriptures? See Luke 24:25-27.




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• In verses 5-7 Paul spends a lot of time on one subject. What is it, and why do you think he emphasizes it so much?




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In the rest of 1 Corinthians 15 Paul stresses one point: Our hope of the resurrection from the dead rests on Christ's resurrection from the dead. As humans, we have no natural immortality (1 Tim. 6:15, 16). Death is an unconscious sleep (John 11:11, 1 Thess. 4:13), not some ascent or descent into another existence. The Lord is the Lord of life; death, therefore, is the enemy (1 Cor 15:26), against which we, as humans, have, on our own, no hope of defeating. In the end, if death is not conquered, all for which we have lived ends in the grave. Paul says that without the resurrection, our faith is in "vain" (1 Cor 15:17), from a Greek word that means "useless" or "of no purpose?'

On the other hand, Christ was raised from death, He conquered death, and we can by faith become partakers of that same victory. He paid the penalty for our sin-which is death itself. Because that penalty has been paid, we don't have to face it ourselves; instead, as He was raised, we will be raised, too, and given the eternal life that was lost through sin but regained for us through Jesus. All we face now is a temporary sleep; the final punishment, the eternal punishment that sin already brings, has been taken care of for us at the Cross. The redeemed, either awake or asleep, are simply waiting for the consummation of what Christ has done for them. Our resurrection to eternal life is that final consummation.

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Jb,

More, more, I need more ...