In Matthew 11:1–15, we read that after Jesus had finished instructing His twelve disciples He went to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee. While John the Baptist was in prison, his disciples visited him. They told him about “the works of Jesus” (Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 214; see also Matt. 11:2) and how the people flocked to Him. But John’s disciples “questioned why, if this new teacher was the Messiah, He did nothing to effect John’s release. . . .
These questions were not without effect. Doubts which otherwise would never have arisen were suggested to John.”—The Desire of Ages, pp. 214, 215.
John anticipated that Jesus would come to judge and liberate God’s people. But when Jesus did not do what John expected, John “became perplexed and troubled.”—Page 215. John sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus for clarification concerning His mission. John’s disciples said to Jesus, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” (Matt. 11:3). “Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Matt. 11:4, 5).
This lesson reminds us that, though most people, including John the Baptist, misunderstood the true nature of Jesus’ ministry, the Hebrew Scriptures anticipated it. Moreover, Jesus expressed His mission to the poor and oppressed as a fulfillment of prophecy in Isaiah 61.
Teacher’s Aims:
Explore with your class a comparison of Mary’s Joyful Song in Luke 1:46–55 and Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2:1–10.
Next, explore the implications of Jesus’ mission statement on your church’s mission statement.
Ask: What is the “spirit of victimization”?
Discuss: What is the role of the cross of Christ in the work we do for Him?
Explore with your class how the cross is the ultimate demonstration of the Godhead’s love for humanity.
Part II: Commentary
Scripture: After the angel announced the birth of Jesus to Mary, she went to visit her pregnant cousin Elizabeth. During that visit, Mary, Elizabeth, and her unborn baby rejoice. Read Luke 1:41–44. Mary then breaks out in a song (Luke 1:46–55). This song is filled with Old Testament concepts and phrases. It reveals Mary’s total surrender to the will of God, her grasp of Scripture, and gratitude for her Savior. Like the song of Hannah (1 Sam. 2:1–10), Mary’s song reveals a God who vindicates the downtrodden and ministers to the hungry. It also exhibits a Messianic element and shows Mary’s humble consciousness of her own exalted role as one chosen of God.
Read Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2:1–10. What parallels do you see between Mary’s song and Hannah’s song?
Scripture: In Luke 4:14–30, we read about the return of Jesus to His hometown to announce His mission statement, which is found in verses 18 and 19. Here Jesus quotes Isaiah 61:1, 2 and ends His reading just short of the last half of verse 2, omitting the words “and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.” Jesus wants to emphasize that the time had not yet come for a judgment of vengeance (see John 3:17). Instead, Jesus’ focus was on jubilee restoration. A genuine commitment to jubilee restoration would ultimately result in a transformation of community. Note what is promised in Isaiah 61:3, 4: The Lord desires “to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; . . . And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.”
There is little evidence of Israel’s full compliance with the jubilee mandates. But by the time of Jesus, leaders of the Sanhedrin devised a way of circumventing the mandates legally, which makes Jesus’ proclamation in Luke 4:19 of the year of the Lord’s favor (jubilee) even more remarkable.
Discuss: How does Jesus’ mission statement compare with your church’s mission statement? Review your church’s events and projects for last year and note the direction of your church.
Illustration: Sundar Singh (1889–1929) was a Christian missionary from India who spread God’s Word among the people of Tibet in the Himalayan mountain ranges.
One afternoon, as he and a companion traveled on foot along a hilly path in Tibet, they were caught in a severe snowstorm. During a brief lull in the storm, Singh happened to look down from the edge of a steep slope and saw the body of a traveler lying in the snow at the foot of the cliff, over 30 feet below the path. Obviously, the stranger had fallen from the path and needed urgent assistance. As Singh climbed down to rescue the man, his companion discouraged him from doing so. The companion warned Singh that if they lost time in the effort to save the stranger, all three of them would freeze to death in the snowstorm before they would reach their shelter. However, Singh was determined to save the helpless man and asked his companion to cooperate. But he refused to help and walked away to save his own life.
Singh carefully climbed down the slope and reached the helpless man. He was badly hurt and had broken a leg in the fall. Singh carried the stranger on his shoulders, covering him with his blanket as he climbed up the slippery and steep path with the heavy load. After hours of difficult travel with the heavy load in the terrible snowstorm, Singh approached the nearest village just before dark. He was soaked in sweat. Suddenly he stumbled over a human body, half-buried, “in the ice-covered road.” It was the frozen corpse of the companion who had deserted Singh and continued alone to save his own life.
Singh carried the stranger to the warmth and safety of a shelter in the village and provided him with all necessary assistance. He realized that by saving the stranger he had actually saved himself. The exertion of carrying the heavy load, the perspiration and the contact of their living bodies had heated them up and saved their lives. He remembered the words of Jesus, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:24).
One of Sundar Singh’s disciples once asked him, “What is life’s most difficult task?” Singh replied, “To have no burden to carry!” The gift of selfless service is that it also helps the one who serves.1
Scripture: Read John 5:1–15. Jesus takes a Sabbath stroll by the Sheep Gate near the Pool of Bethesda (house of mercy/grace) just north of the temple in Jerusalem. He sees a man who has been an invalid for 38 years. Jesus asks, “Do you want to get well?” Ostensibly, the invalid’s answer simply should have been “Yes, I want to be made whole!” Instead, the man focuses on the obstacles: “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me” (John 5:7).
When confronted with an obstacle, do you focus on the obstacle instead of on the grace offered to overcome it? If so, you will come to suspect that where you are is where you will end up. Focusing on obstacles causes you to believe that you do not have the power to do anything about your condition. Further, you will believe that everyone else wants to get ahead of you. You will believe that you cannot accomplish your goal because your mother did not affirm you as much as she should have when you were a child, or because your father abandoned you, or because your family is not around to help. You might not be able to control circumstances. You might even be victimized by them. But you do have a choice in how you respond to those circumstances. You do not need to let the spirit of victimization control your life or your choices. Victimization invalidates our personhood, turning the injured into invalids. We need to turn our eyes from the problem to the solution. Jesus is proactive in offering the man an instant solution: “Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed and walked” (John 5:8, 9).
Questions: Who, due to their negative response to unfortunate circumstances, has become “invalid” in your community? Are we, and if so, in what ways? Are some of those whom we serve enveloped in a spirit of victimization? How can we help them to rise above their situation?
Scripture: The apostle Paul declares, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14). Note in this passage three aspects of the cross: (1) the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the only object worthy of our praise; (2) the crucifixion of the world in the heart of the believer; and (3) the crucifixion of self to the world. What can these three aspects of the Cross signify in our daily walk with God? How do these aspects of dying to self and the world affect everything we do?
Part III: Life Application
“The world needs today what it needed nineteen hundred years ago—a revelation of Christ . . . and it is only through the grace of Christ that the work of restoration, physical, mental, and spiritual, can be accomplished.”—Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 143 (emphasis supplied).
“The object of the medical missionary work [wholistic ministry] is to point sin-sick men and women to the Man of Calvary.”—Page 144.
Invite your class to be alert for opportunities to point the people whom they serve to “the Man of Calvary.” Ask them to share ways they can do that. Follow up with them in the coming weeks, asking them to share with the class their experiences of success. To get you started, here are some ideas that others have tried:
Invite someone to a small-group study, using an annotated Bible specifically designed with small-group study in mind. Questions and issues brought up there may trigger opportunities for you to give more-in-depth doctrinal Bible studies to interested members.
Share your personal testimony with someone whom you feel God is leading you to share your conversion experience. See Acts 26:11–27 to read how Paul did it. Following Paul’s approach before King Agrippa, include in your testimony (1) your life before Christ, (2) how you met Christ, and (3) the result of meeting Christ. Then ask for a response. Invite class members to practice sharing their personal testimonies in groups of two.
As the Spirit leads, give a gospel presentation to someone who desires to follow Jesus. Include these elements: the sin problem (Rom. 3:23, Isa. 59:2); the sin solution (Rom. 6:23); personal acceptance of solution (Eph. 2:8, 9). Then invite the person to accept Christ as his or her personal Savior. Say a prayer, inviting him or her to repeat each sentence after you, as follows: “I realize I’m a sinner and deserve to die. I accept Your gift of eternal life. I want You to be my Lord and Savior. Thank You for Your gift.”2
In Matthew 11:1–15, we read that after Jesus had finished instructing His twelve disciples He went to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee. While John the Baptist was in prison, his disciples visited him. They told him about “the works of Jesus” (Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 214; see also Matt. 11:2) and how the people flocked to Him. But John’s disciples “questioned why, if this new teacher was the Messiah, He did nothing to effect John’s release. . . .
These questions were not without effect. Doubts which otherwise would never have arisen were suggested to John.”—The Desire of Ages, pp. 214, 215.
John anticipated that Jesus would come to judge and liberate God’s people. But when Jesus did not do what John expected, John “became perplexed and troubled.”—Page 215. John sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus for clarification concerning His mission. John’s disciples said to Jesus, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” (Matt. 11:3). “Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Matt. 11:4, 5).
This lesson reminds us that, though most people, including John the Baptist, misunderstood the true nature of Jesus’ ministry, the Hebrew Scriptures anticipated it. Moreover, Jesus expressed His mission to the poor and oppressed as a fulfillment of prophecy in Isaiah 61.
Teacher’s Aims:
Part II: Commentary
Scripture: After the angel announced the birth of Jesus to Mary, she went to visit her pregnant cousin Elizabeth. During that visit, Mary, Elizabeth, and her unborn baby rejoice. Read Luke 1:41–44. Mary then breaks out in a song (Luke 1:46–55). This song is filled with Old Testament concepts and phrases. It reveals Mary’s total surrender to the will of God, her grasp of Scripture, and gratitude for her Savior. Like the song of Hannah (1 Sam. 2:1–10), Mary’s song reveals a God who vindicates the downtrodden and ministers to the hungry. It also exhibits a Messianic element and shows Mary’s humble consciousness of her own exalted role as one chosen of God.
Read Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2:1–10. What parallels do you see between Mary’s song and Hannah’s song?
Scripture: In Luke 4:14–30, we read about the return of Jesus to His hometown to announce His mission statement, which is found in verses 18 and 19. Here Jesus quotes Isaiah 61:1, 2 and ends His reading just short of the last half of verse 2, omitting the words “and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.” Jesus wants to emphasize that the time had not yet come for a judgment of vengeance (see John 3:17). Instead, Jesus’ focus was on jubilee restoration. A genuine commitment to jubilee restoration would ultimately result in a transformation of community. Note what is promised in Isaiah 61:3, 4: The Lord desires “to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; . . . And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.”
There is little evidence of Israel’s full compliance with the jubilee mandates. But by the time of Jesus, leaders of the Sanhedrin devised a way of circumventing the mandates legally, which makes Jesus’ proclamation in Luke 4:19 of the year of the Lord’s favor (jubilee) even more remarkable.
Discuss: How does Jesus’ mission statement compare with your church’s mission statement? Review your church’s events and projects for last year and note the direction of your church.
Illustration: Sundar Singh (1889–1929) was a Christian missionary from India who spread God’s Word among the people of Tibet in the Himalayan mountain ranges.
One afternoon, as he and a companion traveled on foot along a hilly path in Tibet, they were caught in a severe snowstorm. During a brief lull in the storm, Singh happened to look down from the edge of a steep slope and saw the body of a traveler lying in the snow at the foot of the cliff, over 30 feet below the path. Obviously, the stranger had fallen from the path and needed urgent assistance. As Singh climbed down to rescue the man, his companion discouraged him from doing so. The companion warned Singh that if they lost time in the effort to save the stranger, all three of them would freeze to death in the snowstorm before they would reach their shelter. However, Singh was determined to save the helpless man and asked his companion to cooperate. But he refused to help and walked away to save his own life.
Singh carefully climbed down the slope and reached the helpless man. He was badly hurt and had broken a leg in the fall. Singh carried the stranger on his shoulders, covering him with his blanket as he climbed up the slippery and steep path with the heavy load. After hours of difficult travel with the heavy load in the terrible snowstorm, Singh approached the nearest village just before dark. He was soaked in sweat. Suddenly he stumbled over a human body, half-buried, “in the ice-covered road.” It was the frozen corpse of the companion who had deserted Singh and continued alone to save his own life.
Singh carried the stranger to the warmth and safety of a shelter in the village and provided him with all necessary assistance. He realized that by saving the stranger he had actually saved himself. The exertion of carrying the heavy load, the perspiration and the contact of their living bodies had heated them up and saved their lives. He remembered the words of Jesus, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:24).
One of Sundar Singh’s disciples once asked him, “What is life’s most difficult task?” Singh replied, “To have no burden to carry!” The gift of selfless service is that it also helps the one who serves.1
Scripture: Read John 5:1–15. Jesus takes a Sabbath stroll by the Sheep Gate near the Pool of Bethesda (house of mercy/grace) just north of the temple in Jerusalem. He sees a man who has been an invalid for 38 years. Jesus asks, “Do you want to get well?” Ostensibly, the invalid’s answer simply should have been “Yes, I want to be made whole!” Instead, the man focuses on the obstacles: “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me” (John 5:7).
When confronted with an obstacle, do you focus on the obstacle instead of on the grace offered to overcome it? If so, you will come to suspect that where you are is where you will end up. Focusing on obstacles causes you to believe that you do not have the power to do anything about your condition. Further, you will believe that everyone else wants to get ahead of you. You will believe that you cannot accomplish your goal because your mother did not affirm you as much as she should have when you were a child, or because your father abandoned you, or because your family is not around to help. You might not be able to control circumstances. You might even be victimized by them. But you do have a choice in how you respond to those circumstances. You do not need to let the spirit of victimization control your life or your choices. Victimization invalidates our personhood, turning the injured into invalids. We need to turn our eyes from the problem to the solution. Jesus is proactive in offering the man an instant solution: “Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed and walked” (John 5:8, 9).
Questions: Who, due to their negative response to unfortunate circumstances, has become “invalid” in your community? Are we, and if so, in what ways? Are some of those whom we serve enveloped in a spirit of victimization? How can we help them to rise above their situation?
Scripture: The apostle Paul declares, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14). Note in this passage three aspects of the cross: (1) the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the only object worthy of our praise; (2) the crucifixion of the world in the heart of the believer; and (3) the crucifixion of self to the world. What can these three aspects of the Cross signify in our daily walk with God? How do these aspects of dying to self and the world affect everything we do?
Part III: Life Application
“The world needs today what it needed nineteen hundred years ago—a revelation of Christ . . . and it is only through the grace of Christ that the work of restoration, physical, mental, and spiritual, can be accomplished.”—Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 143 (emphasis supplied).
“The object of the medical missionary work [wholistic ministry] is to point sin-sick men and women to the Man of Calvary.”—Page 144.
Invite your class to be alert for opportunities to point the people whom they serve to “the Man of Calvary.” Ask them to share ways they can do that. Follow up with them in the coming weeks, asking them to share with the class their experiences of success. To get you started, here are some ideas that others have tried:
As the Spirit leads, give a gospel presentation to someone who desires to follow Jesus. Include these elements: the sin problem (Rom. 3:23, Isa. 59:2); the sin solution (Rom. 6:23); personal acceptance of solution (Eph. 2:8, 9). Then invite the person to accept Christ as his or her personal Savior. Say a prayer, inviting him or her to repeat each sentence after you, as follows: “I realize I’m a sinner and deserve to die. I accept Your gift of eternal life. I want You to be my Lord and Savior. Thank You for Your gift.”2
Notes
``
1 Babu Philip, “Selfless Service,” Christian Moral Stories, August 2, 2012, http://christian.moral-stories.com/2012/08/selfless-service.html.
2 “Do You Know How to Be Right With God?,” Gospel Presentation Card, SabbathSchoolPersonalMinistries.org, date accessed March 5, 2019, https://www.sabbathschoolpersonalministries.org/cr-02-gospel-presentation-card.pdf