HSS_2023_Q2_EP02

♪ theme music ♪

(Derek) Welcome to Hope Sabbath School,

an in-depth, interactive study

of the Word of God.

We're just getting started

with a brand new series,

Three Cosmic Messages.

We've noticed, in our first part

of the series, Jesus wins!

That's the most important lesson of all,

but today, A Moment of Destiny.

This is a vital series in these last days

of Earth's history,

so welcome to Hope Sabbath School.

Welcome to the team,

good to be together again.

I'm excited about this series,

and I believe God is going to bless

people around the world in amazing ways.

I'm also excited, by the way,

because Brittany is going

to be leading our study today.

In fact, folks, in this series,

we will have 12 different teachers

because we're wanting to inspire you

wherever you are around the world,

and I'm thankful I'm one of them.

But we're all working together

to share this powerful message.

We've also got some

remote team members with us.

I want to welcome Shaina,

good to see you, Shaina,

from up there in Maine, and, Travis,

good to see you again,

glad you're with us.

And Adison, good to see you,

glad you're with us for our study today.

But I just want to say

we're thankful that you're part

of our Hope Sabbath School family.

We're always so excited to hear from you.

In fact, I'd like to appeal to you

to write to us today: [e-mail].

Share how you're being blessed

through an interactive study

of the Word of God,

or maybe you're leading a group,

and God is blessing you.

So, we'd love to hear from you.

By the way, I've got a free gift for you,

so don't forget to remind me.

But right now, Albert writes from Malawi,

and Albert writes and says,

"I like Hope Sabbath School.

There is a unity in the group."

Now, we don't always have

exactly the same ideas, do we?

But we're united in our mission.

Albert says, "You even allow

team members to lead the study!"
here we go.

"That is pure Christianity," he says,

"training others to be leaders
just like Jesus."

Well, I'm so thankful that we're

able to do that, Albert,

and we're glad you wrote to us.

And I'm very excited in this series

on Three Cosmic Messages

that we'll have a great number

of our team teachers sharing

the Word of God with us.

Well, Barb writes from Wisconsin

in the United States of America.

She says, "I watch

Hope Sabbath School every Friday evening,

and I enjoy it very much.

God bless you all as you continue

to minister for Him. Amen."

Well, Barb, thanks for writing to us

from Wisconsin; we're glad you're part

of our Hope Sabbath School.

Here's a beautiful note

from a donor in Louisiana.

That's in the southern part

of the United States.

"Please accept this gift to be used

to continue Hope Sabbath School,"

the donor writes, actually a donor couple.

"We enjoy watching Hope Sabbath School

on Friday evenings

and on Sabbath mornings.

Keep up the good work.

God has blessed us this year,

and we are happy to send

some extra blessings

to Hope Sabbath School.

God is good, and we're thankful to Him.

Thanks for the work you're doing

to spread the Word of God,"

and a gift of 200 dollars to bless

the ministry of Hope Sabbath School.

I want to thank you, Donor Couple

in Louisiana, and each one of you.

We're all part of a great miracle of God.

You can go to hopetv.org/donate

or go to our website,

click on the Donate button,

and we're thankful for your support

and for your prayers.

One last short note from Tennessee

in the United States, "Thank you so much

for Hope Sabbath School

and for the Scripture song.

We listen every week,"

write Don and Cynthia.

Well, thanks for writing

to us, Don and Cynthia.

And, yes, we do have a new Scripture song.

You can download a free copy

from our website, and the sheet music.

We're going to sing

from Revelation, chapter 15:3-4,

but before we start singing,

remember, I told you we have

a free gift for you, and I'm so excited.

Pastor Mark Finley wrote a book

called Three Cosmic Messages,

and he has given us permission,

along with Hart Books, to provide

a free digital copy for you

as our Hope Sabbath School family.

You could go to Amazon and buy it

if you want to, but it's a gift to you,

and I want to thank Pastor Finley

and Hart Books for making that available.

Just go to our website, hopetv.org/hopess,

click on the Free Gift button

in the middle of the screen,

and you'll be able to receive

a free digital copy.

I really want to encourage you to do that.

It's wonderful extra reading as we're

studying about the Three Cosmic Messages.

But right now, we're going

to sing our theme song.

It's touching to my heart because it's

the song of Moses and the Lamb,

that we will sing.

I don't know what the tune will be,

but I want to thank my wife

for giving us a tune right now

that we can sing together.

Please sing with us.

♪ music ♪

(Derek) This series is so important;

we want to begin with prayer.

Brittany, we're excited you can

lead us in our study today.

(Brittany) Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we just want

to thank You so much that we can

call You our Father,

and it's all because of Jesus,

because Jesus, we thank You

for coming to this earth

and living and dying for us

so that we can be a part of Your family.

And we just pray for the Holy Spirit

to be with us now as we study Your Word,

that You would just guide us

closer and closer to You, dear Jesus.

In Your name we pray. Amen.

(Derek, Team) Amen.

(Brittany) Well, have you

ever found yourself

in a moment of destiny?

I read a story about a man

who found himself in just the right place

at just the right time.

It was in New York City,

and he was a construction worker

who had been in the navy, was a veteran,

and was going to work that day in 2007.

And as he was on the subway platform,

he was waiting for the train to come,

and he saw a young man suddenly fall

on the ground, having a seizure.

Well, he tried to help the young man

to keep him from causing

any harm to himself.

The young man got up,

and he fell down the platform

of the train and onto the tracks.

The man, named Wesley Autrey,

saw this young man on the tracks,

looked down the tracks

and saw a train coming.

And in a split second,

he dove over the man,

covered him on the tracks

and held him down as the train

passed just inches above their heads.

And the only thing that happened

to the two of them was that Autrey,

who saved the young man's life,

got a little grease on his cap.

But that was a moment of destiny, right?

A moment where, in a split second

you have to decide, "Am I going to risk

my life for the life of another,

or am I just going to stand here

and watch the inevitable take place?"

Well, that was a physical life
that was saved.

In our study today, we're going to learn

about our eternal destiny

and that moment that each of us

get to make a choice.

And we don't know

when our last moment may be,

so as we study today,

let's keep that in mind.

We may have the opportunity

in a split second

to save someone physically,

but how much more

can we share the gospel

to save someone's life eternally.

Let's open our Bibles today,

and we're going to look at two verses,

and we're going to compare them together

and then discuss them.

The first one is in Revelation,

chapter 14 and verse 6.

And I'm going to ask Lilica if she

would start us off with that passage,

Revelation 14, verse 6, please.

(Lilica) I'll be reading

from the New King James Version:

(Brittany) Thank you, Lilica.

We're going to compare this passage

with the gospel commission from Jesus

in Matthew 24 and verse 14,

and I'm going to ask Stephanie

if she would read that for us

in Matthew 24 and verse 14.

(Stephanie) And I'll be reading

from the New King James Version:

(Brittany) Thank you, Stephanie.

Now, I want to ask the question

what choice of eternal consequence

do we have to make

from these verses that we've just read?

What important decision

is being presented? Yes, Jason.

(Jason) The opportunity to accept

this gospel, the everlasting gospel

or the gospel that's being preached

to all the world as it says

in both Revelation and Matthew there.

(Brittany) Yes, so the gospel

is being preached, and we can choose

to accept it, like Jason mentioned,

or we can choose to reject it, right?

God has given us freedom,

as we studied about in our last lesson,

this freedom of choice, right?

And the gospel is going

throughout the world,

but we have to make a decision.

Adison, please share with us.

(Adison) Thank you, Brittany.

It just reminds me of, I believe, it's

a passage from Deuteronomy

where God says, "Look, I have

set before you life and death,

blessing and cursing,"

and this is really a matter

of eternal destiny.

As the gospel is going out with power,

this is an opportunity to choose life

in Jesus, choose the winning side,

because, again, there is no neutrality

in this Great Controversy.

(Brittany) Thank you so much

for sharing that, Adison.

Now, we're going back to Revelation 14,

because we're going to see

that even in the language that God uses

to convey this message to us,

there are some key words that help us

see some urgency in this message.

So, we're going to go Revelation 14 again,

and we're going to read verses 6 and 7

this time, and I'm going to ask Nicole

if she would read that for us,

Revelation 14, verses 6 and 7.

(Nicole) Sure, and I'll read

from the New International Version;
it says:

(Brittany) Thank you, Nicole.

So, anyone, who sees a sense

of urgency in these verses? Yes, Rodney.

(Rodney) Brittany, I see words or phrases

or terms like "flying

in the midst of heaven,"

so flying intimates speed,

like it has to go out very, very quickly,

"in the midst," meaning you can't miss it.

I see words like "to every nation,

tongue and people."

There are lots there.

There's just language of urgency

written all over those two verses.

(Brittany) Yes, thank you.

So, someone flying and going

to all the nations, tongues and peoples.

Shaina, would you like to add to that?

(Shaina) Yes, and the fact that the angel

is speaking with a loud voice;

that indicates a sense of urgency,

because if I'm whispering something

you can't really...It's, you know,

not as urgent as when I'm saying it

with a loud voice.

There is some action

that that loud voice should propel.

(Brittany) Definitely, so we see flying.

We see all the nations.

We see a loud voice.

Sabina, please share with us.

(Sabina) I think especially when it says

that, "The hour of His judgment has come,"

so the angel, the message most important

he has to announce is that the hour

of God's judgment has come.

(Brittany) Thank you, so there are words

saying, "Judgment has started,"

"Judgment has come," right?

So, if we're living in a judgment time,

you know, if we're brought before a judge,

that's kind of an intimidating experience

at times, right, something

that we don't look forward to.

But here, though, the Bible is telling us,

God is telling us through this message,

we're living in a judgment period.

There's this period

of judgment taking place,

and if we keep reading in Revelation 14,

we see the context is, this is

before Jesus comes back.

And so, this message

needs to go to the whole world,

and there's this urgency.

Why is there an urgency in this message?

We've identified the key words there

that help us understand this is

very urgent, this is very important,

but why is it so important? Yes, Travis.

(Travis) As we read those verses,

I'm just thinking how many times

I've been reading the Gospels

and how many times I've read the words,

"And Jesus cried out,"

and almost all the time

when you hear those words

in the Gospels or read them,

it's because the people He's addressing

have the misunderstanding

of His love towards them.

And so, I just feel like this message

of this urgent cry, this loud cry,

is God crying out to the world

and letting them know that He loves them

and to take away the cloud

of misunderstanding that the world has

about their Creator God.

(Brittany) Beautiful, thank you, Travis.
Derek.

(Derek) I just want to really affirm

what Travis said, because sometimes

people think that God

is out to get us, you know.

But, back to Jesus, He cries

in a loud voice, "If anyone thirsts,

come to Me and drink."

And here the loud voice is saying,

"This conflict is almost over,

and I want you to make a choice,

of eternal consequence,

to spend eternity with Me."

So, I think that's really important;

this loud voice is a loving call

and not an angry call.

(Brittany) Yes, thank you so much, Travis

and Derek, for emphasizing that for us.

Now, the next question

that I have for the team is,

are we saved by our choices

or by the gift of Jesus

and His sacrifice for us?

It's kind of a trick question. Nicole?

(Nicole) I would say both, honestly,

because we could not have eternal life

without the gift of salvation

that Jesus gives us,

but Jesus is not going to force us

to make that choice.

So, we have to, on our own,

make that choice to choose Him

and to choose His gift that He gives us

in order for us to be saved...

(Brittany) Yes, so it is both, definitely.

Without Jesus' sacrifice,

there would be no choice.

We would have no opportunity

to choose life, right?

And so, without Christ

there is nothing for us, no hope.

But because of Him, now we can choose.

Do we want to accept Him?

Do we want to spend eternity with Him?

Or, do we want to be with Satan?

Do we want to have death, right,

like we talked about last time.

Jesus is the winner;

whose side are we going to choose?

Thank you for sharing.

Now, I want to hear from the team.

When did you first make that choice

or that decision to accept this gospel,

to accept that Jesus actually died

for you personally?

Anyone willing to share when they first

made that decision? Yes, Harold.

(Harold) Well, I mean, let's see here.

I got baptized twice.

The first time, I did not

understand God's love.

The second time, in 2009,

that's when I really appreciated it

and understood, like, wow,

how amazing God's love is.

But the other thing is that I have

to make a daily commitment,

and I think there is a verse in Hebrews

that says don't harden your heart

if you hear His voice,

I mean, the Holy Spirit convicting you

or leading you or wooing you.

Like, always be attentive to the leading

of the Holy Spirit and accept every day.

So, that's my goal, is every day
to accept Jesus.

(Brittany) Thank you, Harold,

for sharing your story.

Yes, Rodney, please share.

(Rodney) Adison used the word earlier

"neutrality," there is no neutrality

in God's government, and I can

relate to that a hundred percent.

To answer your specific question,

the year was 1997, and prior to that,

Brittany, I was brought up in the church,

and as Adison said, neutrality.

I was trying to be neutral,

one foot in, one foot out,

and clearly that didn't work,

but in the year 1997,

I will never forget it,

that was the year that God impressed

upon my mind that, "You need

to make a decision for Me," and I did.

And from then until now,

clearly I'm not perfect, far away from it.

Please pray for me, Brittany.

But from that point on, I decided that I

will make my calling and election sure.

I will follow Jesus all the way,

and He has been helping me

along that journey.

(Brittany) Thank you so much, Rodney.

What a beautiful testimony,

that we can be raised in the church,

and we can become complacent,

and we need to make a decision.

The Holy Spirit is working on our hearts.

Are you going to choose

what you've learned and grown up with,

or are you going to reject it,

and we have to decide.

Thank you for sharing.

Yes, Shaina, please share with us.

(Shaina) So, like Rodney, I was

born and raised into this faith,

but as in Rodney's story,

I kind of had a similar experience

where it was going through the motions.

Yes, if anyone asked me, I would say

I'm Seventh-day Adventist.

Did I really know what it means?

No, but as I was prompted

through seeing my mom's faith,

I was kind of urged

to explore it for myself.

And in studying and getting

to know Christ for myself and realizing

the extent of His sacrifice

that He made for me,

and even in studying His Law,

I'm like, there's nothing that's bad

about choosing the right way.

There's nothing, and the only things

that come from it are good

and positive things for my life.

So, why would I choose anything else?

This just makes sense,

and so that's when I decided

to choose Jesus for myself.

(Derek, Team) Amen!

(Brittany) Thank you, Shaina,

a beautiful testimony.

Sabina, please share

your experience with us.

(Sabina) So, my story

is a little bit different than Shaina's

and Rodney's because I did not

grow up in our church.

And even though I had had

some sort of Christian upbringing,

I never really understood

what the Bible meant when it was saying

that Jesus was the Lamb of God

that takes the sin away from the world.

And when I was 14 years old,

my father got very sick,

and one day I entered inside my bedroom,

and I made a prayer asking

that the one true God, whoever He was,

would show up to me.

And I committed, on that, day my life

to the God of truth.

And it was a long prayer, about one hour.

I said I was going to give my life to Him,

to follow Him, and also wanted Him

to give meaning to me,

committed to, you know, I will

follow even as a priest

of whatever it was, His religion,

whatever it looked like.

And then after a year or so,

after many people that God used

to bless me and to guide me to Jesus,

I understood that the one true God

I had committed my life to already

was Jesus, and then I made

a prayer of confession to Jesus.

And by then, I was 15 years old

and never regretted, never looked back,

just progressing, looking forward

to seeing Jesus coming again.

(Derek, Team) Amen.

(Brittany) A beautiful testimony.

Thank you, each one.

You can see, each one of us

has a unique testimony, right?

We didn't all come

to know Jesus the same way,

but we'd love to hear from you.

Please share with us.

Write to us your testimony

of when you first made that decision

to follow Jesus and how your journey
is going today.

Well, as we continue our study,

we want to look at how Jesus

refers to Himself in the Scriptures.

Sometimes we see Him referred to

as Jesus the Son of God.

Other times we seem Him

referred to as Jesus the Son of Man.

And we want to look at this

and what this means for us personally.

Let's go to Revelation 14

and verse 14 together, and I'm going

to ask if Adison would read that for us,

Revelation, chapter 14, verse 14.

(Adison) And I am reading

from the King James Version,

Revelation 14, verse 14; the Bible says:

(Brittany) Thank you, Adison.

So, here we have a picture of Jesus

coming in His glory, and He's coming,

and we have Him holding a sickle.

He's coming to reap, right?

And we see Him wearing a crown.

And here it's mentioning not Jesus

the King of kings,

it doesn't even mention Jesus,

but it calls Him the Son of Man.

That's interesting, why does He

refer to Himself as the Son of Man?

And we're going to look at a quick scan

of some New Testament verses

to help us understand why He

may have used that terminology.

And as I was studying this lesson,

I learned that Jesus actually used

the term "Son of Man" to refer to Himself

about 78 times, so this is a phrase

that He felt was very important

for us to understand about Him.

So, let's look at a few of those times.

We're going to look at Matthew,

chapter 16, as we continue our study

about Jesus the Son of Man.

Matthew 16, and we're going to look

at verse 27, and I'm going to ask Travis

to read that for us, Matthew 16:27.

(Travis) And I'll be reading

from the New King James Version:

(Brittany) Thank you, Travis.

We're going to continue in Matthew,

chapter 24 now, and we're going to look

at verse 27 and verse 30,

and I'm going to ask Nancy

if she would read that for us.

(Nancy) Matthew 24, verses 27 and 30,
and I'm reading

from the New King James Version:

And 30:

(Brittany) Thank you, Nancy.

We're going to continue in Matthew

in chapter 25 now, and we're going

to look at verses 31 and 32.

I'm going to ask Jason

to read that for us.

(Jason) The New King James Version says,

Matthew, chapter 25, verses 31 and 32:

(Brittany) Thank you, Jason.

We have two more verses to read,

and then we're going to discuss

why we think Jesus

is referring to Himself as Son of Man.

We're going to go to Luke,

chapter 22 next, and verse 69, Luke 22:69.

And I'm going to ask Shaina

to read that for us.

(Shaina) And I will be reading

from the New King James Version:

(Brittany) Thank you, Shaina.

And our last passage on this thought

is in Acts, chapter 7, verses 55 and 56.

Acts 7:55,56, and I'm going

to ask Stephanie to read that for us.

(Stephanie) And the New King James
Version says:

(Brittany) Thank you, Stephanie.

Wow, this is just a sampling of passages

that talk about Jesus as the Son of Man.

But we read in Revelation

when He comes back in His glory,

He is referring to Himself

as the Son of Man.

Why do you think that is?

Why is Jesus using that phrase

to refer to Himself over and over again

in the Gospels, in Acts,

and now in Revelation

when He comes back for us? Adison.

(Adison) Brittany, these passages

are just full of richness of truth,

and I love the fact that Jesus

is referred to as the Son of Man

because it says that He fully identifies

with His creation.

It makes Jesus so relatable and tangible.

That's such a wonderful truth.

(Brittany) Such a personal God.

Thank you, Adison.

Travis, please share with us.

(Travis) I agree with Adison.

This is a beautiful concept

through this idea that Jesus

is the Son of Man.

It seems like most of the verses

that refer to Him are

about Jesus in Heaven,

so in Heaven Jesus is our representative.

Of course, He was on Earth as well,

but then on Earth

He's God's representative.

So, He's God's representative

on Earth as Son of God.

He's our representative in Heaven

as the Son of Man.

He's the firstfruits of creation

sitting on the throne,

and it's just a really beautiful picture

of God's personal relationship,

becoming one of us to redeem mankind.

(Brittany) Thank you, Travis and Adison.

What beautiful testimony of what Jesus

is trying to portray to us

and how we can understand that.

Jason and then Lilica,

share your thoughts with us as well.

(Jason) Yes, building off
what Travis said,

I notice that every time

we see the "Son of Man," it seems

to be Him on His throne

in this very heavenly type thing,

which seems kind of odd.

Here He is in Heaven, why is He

being called the "Son of Man"?

That sounds kind of opposite,

but it almost shows

the centrality of salvation

as not just being something in Heaven

but also related to this earth, something

about us as His special creation.

There's something special here

that He identifies with

even when He's there

by the throne of God.

(Brittany) Amen. Thank you, Jason. Lilica.

(Lilica) I agree with all

the comments here.

I love this part: God became flesh.

Look at this in terms

of the whole universe, everybody seeing,

all the other beings,

and God Himself becomes flesh

and, therefore, forever identified

as one of us; it's wonderful.

(Brittany) It's so hard

to wrap our brains around that, right,

that the God of the universe

who created every little thing

and every huge thing,

that He would become one of us

and constrain Himself to a body like ours.

It's amazing love, right,

something that we're

going to spend eternity studying

about, His love, and seeing Him

physically face to face.

It's going to be the best day

of our lives, right? Nancy.

(Nancy) I wanted to say that it

also shows His humility.

I mean, He's the King of the universe,

and He's calling Himself the Son of Man.

I mean, you know, some people

get a lot of degrees, and they

like to list them all.

You know, it shows your accomplishments,

but Jesus, no, He's just the Son of Man.

He wants to identify with us.

(Brittany) That's right; He's so humble.

Derek, you wanted to add to that?

(Derek) And that point, Nancy,

about humility, that's the one thing

that Lucifer, who then led

the rebellion as Satan,

did not comprehend, and that was

the immeasurable, unfailing love of God

and the humility of God.

Because Satan is saying, "I will,"

"I will," "I will," and trying

to claim power that doesn't belong to him.

And God is the exact opposite.

He comes down, He humbles Himself.

It's astonishing.

I don't think, like you said,

we ever get used to it,

and it was His love that motivated Him

to make that sacrifice.

(Brittany) That's right.

Thank you all for sharing.

We're going to move on to another verse.

We could spend so long

just meditating on how the God

of the universe could become one of us.

But we're going to look at Hebrews,

which kind of sums up

what we've been talking about.

And we're going to Hebrews, chapter 2,

verses 14 [and] 18.

I'm going to ask Rodney

to read that for us when we get there.

Hebrews, chapter 2

and verses 14 [and] 18.

(Rodney) And I'm reading

from the New King James Version:

Verse 18:

(Brittany) So much encouragement
in this passage.

It sums up what we were talking about,

but here we see,

He took on our humanity, right?

And it says that He's also

our merciful and faithful High Priest
in Heaven

like Jason and others mentioned,

that He's representing us, Travis said,

in Heaven, and then on Earth

He's representing the Father, right?

So, we have this God that can

fully identify with our weaknesses.

He can fully identify with our struggles.

And when we see Him coming

in the clouds of glory,

we don't need to be afraid of Him, right,

because He is one with us.

He took on humanity.

I think that's one reason

why He keeps using that

in all those verses in the New Testament

when He's coming back.

It's not a stranger coming back for us.

It's not a distant God

that we've never known.

It's this same Jesus, the Son of Man,

who has forever identified Himself with us

that's coming back for us, right?

And that just gives me

so much encouragement

when thinking about His return.

Sabina, please share

your thoughts with us.

(Sabina) Yes, I love what you

were sharing about, this making Jesus

as Someone we are not supposed to fear,

and in fact I see Him making a step also

of making sure we feel loved and special

and that we can approach Him

without this fear.

And whenever, for instance,

if you have any experience

in which you feel ashamed

or you feel hurt or in a difficulty,

the first Person you want to look

to share about it, if you want some help,

is a Person that you are not

going to feel ashamed of

or not going to feel fearful about,

Someone that can identify

with your experience.

So, the very fact that God, knowing

our nature and our characteristics,

also among all the many things

He makes for us, one of them

is to make sure that we will

sense Him as a Person

with whom we can come together

and we share in confidence with no fear.

It just makes me feel very loved

and comforted in His arms

and willing to run to Him whenever I need.

(Brittany) Thank you, Sabina,

for that beautiful picture of our Savior.

We're going to continue in our lesson,

and the next part of our lesson

is talking about reaping

the harvest from the earth.

So, we saw in that picture

of Him coming in the clouds

that He was holding something

in His hand, right?

And there is some terminology, that we

often think of with farming, mentioned,

and so we're going to look

at this a little closer.

First, we're going to go to Acts,

chapter 1 and verses 9 to 11.

Acts 1, verses 9 to 11, and I'm going

to ask if Nicole would read that for us.

(Nicole) The New International Version

of Acts 1, verses 9 to 11, says:

(Brittany) What assurance

for the disciples, right?

We're going to look at our next verse

in Revelation 14 and verse 14.

We've read this before,

but we're going to especially focus

on what Jesus is carrying or wearing

when He's coming back in glory.

Revelation 14, verse 14,

and I'll ask Nancy to read that for us.

(Nancy) I'm reading

from the New King James Version:

(Brittany) Thank you, Nancy.

So, I want to ask the team,

why is Jesus portrayed

as carrying a sickle in His hand?

Can anyone, first of all, tell us

what a sickle is, and then why He's

portrayed as carrying a sickle? Rodney?

(Rodney) Well, I'm not a farmer,

Brittany, but a sickle

is a single-handed agricultural tool

that is used for harvesting

or reaping grains, and it's

an amazing symbolism because it

seems like God is coming back

for ripe, or a people who are

actually ready to see Him

and welcome His return.

So, it's an amazing symbolism for us.

(Brittany) Definitely. Jason.

(Jason) Yeah, when you harvest,

there's a right time to harvest,

and there's a wrong time to harvest.

If your grain is not ripe,

and you harvest it,

that's going to be unproductive.

So, you harvest at just the right moment

when your grain is at its perfect point

where then it can be utilized for food.

(Brittany) That's an important principle

to think about, as spiritually speaking,

God is coming for people

who are spiritually ripe, right,

who have made that decision. Sabina.

(Sabina) I think it's also beautiful

that God in His Word equates

the judgment with a harvest,

because harvest is such a beautiful time

and season in the universe and in nature.

It's that time of nurturing.

We celebrate because we have food,

because we have fruits, and we have

all that beauty that comes from the earth

spreading that gives us life.

So, for me, I see it

also as not just some sort of tool

that is something that can be aggressive,

right, like seen maybe as some sort
of knife.

But, no, that He's actually harvesting
that for life.

It's how I see it.

(Brittany) That's a beautiful picture,

a time of rejoicing.

Shaina, please share with us.

(Shaina) It's also consistent

with the rest of the Scripture

when Jesus talks about or when the Bible

talks about the pouring out

of the latter rain to reap

that final harvest that will happen

right before Jesus comes.

And the early rain when the disciples

or the early Church received

the Holy Spirit so that they could

go out and do and reach

so many people for Christ.

And so, it's very consistent

with the rest of the Scripturess, too.

And then, I just think

of even growing plants or fruit

or vegetables that are

ready for harvesting.

It goes through a process

that is sometimes very tedious,

as a human being, to watch,

and you're waiting, and you're waiting,

and you're waiting for the harvest.

But as Sabina mentioned,

when you finally do get to reap,

it's just such a great feeling and moment.

So, I can imagine, like, Jesus

cannot wait to reap His harvest.

(Brittany) Thank you

for that beautiful picture of God, Shaina.

Now, the next part of this passage

mentioned that Jesus was wearing

something on His head.

We're going to compare that

with another part of Revelation.

Let's go to Revelation, chapter 19,

and we're going to look

at verses 11 through 16

because it mentions more

about what Jesus is wearing on His head

when He comes to reap.

Revelation 19, and we're going

to look at verses 11 through 16,

and I'm going to ask Harold

to read that for us.

(Harold) And I'll be reading

from the New Living Translation:

(Brittany) Thank you, Harold.

There is a lot of symbolism

packed into this passage.

We could spend the rest of our study

looking at each part

and what that represents,

but we want to focus on the crowns.

In Revelation 14 it said He had

one golden crown on His head,

but in Revelation 19 it mentions

multiple crowns on His head, right?

What is this symbol trying

to help us understand about Jesus

when He's coming back for us?

(Jason) Well, we talked about how He's

coming for the whole earth,

and crowns represent, like, power

or persons or dominions, and so He's

not just taking one person or one country.

There are a lot of persons

from across the globe that He's taking.

These crowns symbolize

all these different people He's getting

to take with Him that He saved.

(Brittany) Beautiful. Yes, Rodney,
and then Harold.

(Rodney) I love this part of the Scripture

because it gives a contrast to a crown

that Jesus wore when He was here.

He wore a different crown.

He wore a crown of thorns,

meaning shame, being despised, rejected.

He did that for all of us;

so that was a contrast then.

But here now you see a different crown.

It's a crown that is one

that magnifies Him, that shows

who He really is, the King of kings,

Lord of lords, and this is the Savior

that we talk about at Hope Sabbath School
all the time.

It's amazing just to see

that very, very soon He will show Himself

for whom He really is.

(Brittany) Beautiful, Rodney.
Harold, please share.

(Harold) Going off of what Rodney

just shared, I mean, I guess in the Greek

it's like "stephanos," it's a type

of crown, of victory, actually.

And actually it was a crown

that was normally given in the Olympics

by the Greeks, that, once you won

the Olympics, it was like,

"Yeah, you're victorious."

And it is a crown of victory

because Jesus already defeated Satan,

and He will be always victorious.

(Brittany) Beautiful. Sabina.

(Sabina) I also want to call attention

to the fact that it says that He is

dressed with a robe

that is dipped in blood.

So, whenever you think of a king

or an authority, of a person

that is dressed in red, you will

think of power and authority

in the human aspect of the struggles

that they get through

just to maintain their status quo.

While for Jesus, even as you

were sharing before, the sign

of His kingship, His royalty,

is the blood that He drips for us.

And for me, that's powerful,

so to consider that the crown He carries,

that the robe He puts on,

is really His humility.

That's what grants Him

the true power that He has.

(Brittany) Wow, beautiful imagery there,

and thank you both

for sharing, all of you.

Now, we want to look at that judgment

that we read about,

how it's already taken place

by the time Jesus comes back.

And we're going to look at a couple

of verses that will help us

understand that concept,

so let's go to Revelation 22 and verse 12,

Revelation 22 and verse 12.

I'm going to ask Adison

to read that for us.

(Adison) And I'm reading

from the King James Version; it says:

(Brittany) And these are Jesus' words.

In some Bibles, they are written in red,

right, to represent Jesus speaking.

And He's saying, "My reward is with Me,"

and that helps us know that judgment

has already taken place, right?

You can't have a reward

until a decision has been made,

and so that's something

that we see in this Scripture.

And we also have

that heavenly judgment scene

that we looked at before.

We're going to go back to that

in Daniel, chapter 7, because we're

going to see that there's

a heavenly judgment that takes place

before Jesus comes.

We're looking at Daniel, chapter 7,

verses 9 and 10, and I'm going

to ask Shaina to read that for us.

(Shaina) I have Daniel, chapter 7,

verses 9 and 10, and I'm reading

from the New King James Version:

(Brittany) Thank you, Shaina.

So, from these two verses we can see

there's this judgment

that's taking place in Heaven.

We've already read that Jesus

is our great High Priest,

and there are many Scriptures

we could look at that talk

about how Jesus is also our Judge.

And because He is the Son of Man

we've have already identified,

we have hope in the judgment, right?

The verdict has already been made

"not guilty," if we accept Jesus

as our Savior in that moment of destiny.

Now, I want to know from each of you

what are your thoughts about living

in this time of judgment

before Jesus comes back.

How do you feel about that?

Or, what are your thoughts

about how we should live our lives

knowing this, that Jesus is doing

some kind of judgment work.

Decisions are being made

for or against the gospel,

and when He comes, that's it.

There is no more opportunity
to choose, right?

What are your thoughts about that? Adison.

(Adison) Brittany, it is solemn,

but yet it is exciting

when we choose Jesus

and surrender all to Him

because He's the winning side.

(Brittany) That's right, so we don't

have to be afraid; we can be excited

if we choose Christ. Yes, Jason.

(Jason) This makes me think

about my own time, I'm an attorney,

and when I was studying for the bar exam.

And as I was preparing for the bar exam,

which is kind of the ultimate judgment

for a law student, you know,

to become a lawyer,

there was a lot of intentionality I had

about my life, both in terms of studying

and even just in my sleep patterns,

my eating patterns.

So, basically it's important to have

a lot of intentionality in what we do

leading up to this time

of "decision," if we will.

(Brittany) Yeah, so in our own lives

we should examine how we are

living our life for Christ.

Are we focused on Him?

Are we spending time with Him?

And are we sharing Him with others, right,

because this is the moment of destiny

for someone that we may meet,

not just for ourselves. Lilica.

(Lilica) We can see in the Bible

the time compared to this time

with the Israelites was

the Day of Atonement where they would be

in a very solemn spirit, serene,

and confessing their sins.

When growing up, I had a church friend.

She said, "When I sin, I make sure

I don't sleep until I confess my sin."

So, Jesus is now interceding for us

in the heavenly sanctuary.

It's good for us to search our hearts

and confess the sins so that He will

make it right before the time

when He will pronounce that those

who are just stay just,

and those who are unjust stay unjust.

(Brittany) Yeah, so it's

a time of reflection, a time

of repentance and confession

and making sure that we're right with God.

That's exactly right.

Now, let's look at the next part

of our lesson, the last section,

which is talking about how we could

either be wheat or we could be chaff.

So, we want to look at how we can know

which one we are, right,

and there are a couple of verses

we're going to search together.

We're going to go to Revelation,

chapter 14 and verse 15 first

in which an angel gives

a proclamation there.

So, Revelation 14:15, I'm going

to ask Stephanie to read that for us.

(Stephanie) And I'll be reading

from the New King James Version:

(Brittany) So, here's this proclamation.

Judgment's done, right?

The harvest is ripe.

People have made their decisions,

and Jesus is coming back to claim

the wheat, which we're going to look at

in a parable, but the chaff

will not be gathered into His barn.

And so, we're going to look

at that a little further.

We're going to actually go to a parable

in the Gospel of Matthew.

We're going to Matthew,

chapter 3 together and verses 11 and 12.

Matthew, chapter 3, verses 11 and 12,

I'm going to ask Nicole

if she would read that for us.

(Nicole) Matthew, chapter 3,

verses 11 and 12,

from the New International Version says:

(Brittany) So here John the Baptist

is speaking, right, and we have

this differentiation between the chaff

and the wheat, right?

And what does it mean to be wheat,

and what does it mean to be chaff?

Can anyone explain that to me?

Travis, would you be willing

to explain that to us?

(Travis) Well, many times in the Bible

these words are used,

or basically this idea that there is

a threshing floor, so to speak,

where there are wheat and tares

or this harvesting of wheat or grain.

And wheat in the Bible is known as someone

who has given their heart to God.

It is something, a seed, that God

has planted and has grown up and matured.

And the chaff, that's

the stuff that's left over.

It's the stuff that's no good.

So, in other places it would be known

as a tare or somebody who hasn't given

or surrendered their heart to Jesus.

(Brittany) Yes, so thank you

for making that clear to us, Travis.

So, we get to choose right now

in this moment of destiny,

as we are living our lives day to day,

are we growing up to be wheat,

or are we growing up to be chaff, right?

And our daily choices can reflect

whose side we're choosing, right?

If we're choosing the winning side
with Christ,

or if we're choosing

the losing side with Satan.

And so, it's a time of reflection

as we've talked about, that we should

really take time to make sure

that we're right with God.

But also, not just ourselves;

we can be telling others

that they have an opportunity

to be right with God. Derek.

(Derek) I want to challenge us

with this thought: When it says

you are rewarded according to your work,

that work is that you chose Jesus,

that these other works are just evidence

of that living relationship with Jesus.

That's why Jesus said, "If you love Me,

you will keep My commandments."

So, the reason I mention that, Brittany,

is because there are people doing

religious works who are going to be lost

because they've never surrendered to Jesus

as their Savior and Lord.

He says, "I don't know who you are."

They said, "We did all these things."

So, I just want to emphasize for our class

that the vital work is to choose Jesus

as our personal Savior,

to surrender fully to Him.

And then those other works,

which will come, are just an evidence

of that living connection.

(Brittany) Right, thank you
so much, Derek.

Well, I want to look at two final passages

as we wrap up our lesson together.

One is a lament that we find in Jeremiah,

which is very heartbreaking

when we read it, but we're not going

to end on the sad note.

We're going to end on the positive note.

So, let's look at Jeremiah, chapter 8

and verse 20, Jeremiah 8:20.

I'm going to ask if Shaina

would read that for us.

(Shaina) And I will be reading

from the New King James Version; it says:

(Brittany) That's a very solemn

and sad proclamation, right?

But that does not have to be ours, right?

We're going to look at Isaiah

for our final passage today.

In Isaiah, chapter 55, verses 6 and 7,

we have an invitation

and a choice to make.

And so let's look at that together,

Isaiah 55, verses 6 and 7, and I'm going

to ask Jason to read that for us.

(Jason) The New King James Version says:

(Derek) Amen.

(Brittany) What a beautiful invitation,

and I just want to extend that to you,

wherever you are, whatever you've done,

we have a loving Father who recognizes

that we are sinful and sent Jesus

so that we could have One

to relate with us.

And He says, "Seek Me

while I may be found.

I will pardon you, and I am merciful."

And so, He's extending

that invitation to you today.

May you make that decision

that has eternal impact,

that moment of destiny,

may you choose Jesus today.

Derek, would you pray for us?

(Derek) Thank you so much.

What a powerful study.

We're so glad you joined us

for Hope Sabbath School today.

My heart is touched, and I realize

that lament doesn't need

to be said by any one of us.

You don't need to cry out,

"The summer has ended, the harvest

is past, and I am not saved."

Everyone, everyone who calls

on the name of the Lord will be saved.

So, accept that living, personal,

life-changing relationship with Jesus,

which will then be evidenced

in the way that we live

to the honor of His name.

Let's pray together.

Our Father in Heaven, our hearts

are touched as we see how much You love.

God so loved the world that You gave

Your one and only Son,

that the messiah came to provide

a perfect plan of salvation.

And, God, we believe it is Your desire

that everyone would be saved.

Tragically some will not make that choice,

that Moment of Destiny

they will turn away, but I pray

that no one listening to my voice

or those that we love would fail

to accept Your salvation

to spend eternity with You.

This is my prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.

(Team) Amen.

(Derek) Thanks for joining us

for Hope Sabbath School.

Don't forget that free gift,

that book by Pastor Mark Finley.

Go to our website;

it's a special gift to you.

Keep learning about these
end-time messages

which will bless your life.

And remember that Jesus wins.

Stand under His authority

as your Savior and Lord today.

And then go out and be a blessing

to those around you.

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