First Quarter 2004 Adult Sabbath School Lessons:
"The Gospel Of John"

Insights to Lesson 1
The Unique Purpose of John's Gospel
December 6, 2003 - January 2, 2004

(Produced by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)

Fresh from 13 weeks of studying the minutiae of four short chapters comprising the book of Jonah (sometimes bordering on being a bit wearisome), we turn now to the Fourth Gospel which proclaims powerful truth that must yet “lighten the earth with glory” as “the third angel’s message in verity” swells into the message of Revelation 18.

The gospel of John will reveal Jesus Christ so intimately that we will see Him (a) as “the Savior of the world” (not just of the saints, 4:24), and (b) as the One who will “draw all people unto [Himself]” if only we can humble our denominational heart to “believe” the truth about Him (12:32, 33).

In other words, the revelation of Jesus in this gospel of John will be the essence of the “most precious message” that Ellen White said will in a phenomenal way “carry the truth to the world as the apostles proclaimed it after the day of Pentecost.” She says it will be “the light that is to lighten the whole earth with its glory” (1 SM 234, 235). That’s far greater than all our evangelistic efforts combined thus far in our denominational history.

That final message that will bring to a glorious close the gospel proclamation to “every nation, kindred, tongue, and people” will transcend the fear-curdling impact that we have always assumed will scare people at last to “come out of Babylon.” That great and seemingly impossible “IF” of John 12:32, 33 which has for nearly 2000 years blocked the best efforts of the church of all ages to truthfully fulfill Christ’s commission, will at last be bridged in the repentance of the ages: “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, IF I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all [people] unto Me. This He said, signifying what death he should die.”

Thus the message of Revelation 18 will be a “lifting up” of Christ as crucified and dying for “the sins of the world,” as “the Saviour of all men” (4:42).

As the “remnant” church of Revelation 12:17 and 14:12 finally receives the “most precious message” which “the Lord in His great mercy sent” to us in 1888, every Seventh-day Adventist church in the world will be transformed and acquire the reputation of being the place to go to see Christ so “lifted up” in complete fulfillment of Jesus' great “IF.” It will be a new public image that replaces our old reputation of being the church where “we have preached the law, the law until we are as dry as the hills of Gilboa,” says Ellen White. Implicit in the next 13 weeks of Sabbath School study is a revelation of that heart-gripping truth.

It will create and establish for every one who “believes” the seemingly elusive “relationship” with the Lord that our Sabbath School Quarterly speaks of so often. That “relationship” is not something that we acquire by our “works” of “Bible study, prayer, and witnessing.” Rather, the “relationship” is given to us comes through “beholding” Him so “lifted up.” There is a corporate sense in which the world church “shall look upon [Him] whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him” until it can be said truthfully and in finality, “in that day there shall be a fountain opened . . . for sin and for uncleanness” (Zechariah 12:10-13:1).

One brief example of how the gospel of John will reveal to us that Savior so “lifted up”: in 5:30 and 6:38 Jesus speaks in His own words of how closely and intimately He has come to us in His incarnation—not “taking upon His sinless nature” the sinless nature of Adam before his fall, but taking our fallen, sinful nature but living therein a sinless life. There are these two statements: “I can of Mine own self do nothing. . . . I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father,” and “I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.” In this Fourth Gospel the Savior reveals Himself as burdened with a “self” that had to be denied in order to do anything beyond the “nothing” that we are helpless to do! In His incarnation into humanity, the Son of God must “seek not” His “own will.” This inward battle must be fought in order to do the “will” of the Father who has sent Him. Here Jesus bares His own soul, His own heart, in order to disclose to us the constant struggle that He knew. Here is revealed how He is “in all points tempted like [not unlike] as we are tempted, yet without sin”! Hebrews 4:15. And having “taken” that fallen nature which is ours, He has done something that the sinless Adam in the Garden never had to do—He has denied self, and He did it perfectly. All so that He might save us from continuing to be slaves of self.

Thank you, dear “beloved apostle” John, for bringing us this more intimate glimpse of Jesus!

Read the study notes for Lesson 2