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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

P. Gerard Damsteegt

Jesus’ Message For Our Time

And what a privilege that we can come here together under the umbrella of the Holy Spirit, sensing that Jesus will be here.

Lord, may the words of my mouth and a meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight.

You know, When I was asked to present the title, there were so many things that were spinning in my mind.

And I said, you know, the message of Jesus for today, the bulletin says, Jesus of all our time, no matter what.

If he would be here among us and he would talk to us?

What would he tell the teenagers, the young adults, the The young adults, the middle-aged, the retired, the aged, the homeless, the poor, the middle-class, the well-to-do, the CEOs.

If Jesus would meet you, what would he say to you?

Now of course, you know, it is important to realize what Jesus' mission is.

For some of you it may be very familiar but let's go back to the first gospel of Matthew chapter 1 and here was the message of the angel to John and that was here in verse 21 chapter 1 Matthew, and she, Mary, will bring forth the Son and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins." So what is his task?

And you know, there's a good message, but how many people really are eager to be saved?

You know we are grown up, we're born with a natural tendencies, not towards divinity, not towards Lord, but towards the world.

We're all naturally going the wrong direction.

And so when Jesus began to preach, Very interesting what he said.

You know he was tempted in the wilderness in chapter 4 and now he started to preach.

Turn to chapter 4 and here this is the first thing Jesus would say.

417, from that time Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

You turn to the next gospel of Mark and you see here the urgency that Jesus has here.

Mark chapter 1 verse 14 and 15 and here you know you see that John had been put in prison.

He's went to Galilee and began to preach the gospel of the kingdom.

Verse 15, and saying the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the gospel.

Remember the 70 weeks there and the first part is from the going forth of the decree to restore and build Jerusalem until the Messiah, the promised 1 for 4, 000 years people have been looking forward to it, then he will come and so if you go from the decree 457 and you calculate 69 times 7 is 483 years you come to what?

The spiritual baptism by John, the literal baptism, and there he was.

And now Jesus says the time is fulfilled it's predicted now the Messiah has come has been launched and the good news is repent 1 amen Praise the Lord sister.

You know this is very important to realize and let us unpack this you know unpack it all completely.

Now here you have a small group in the Middle East and there you see the tremendous world with the millions and millions of people all over without God and he comes to those who know God.

His people who have the sacred word And what is his message?

Oh yes friends I'm so happy that I can be here I see that you have treated my word very well.

Can you imagine he comes here among all the 70 Adventists and now we are all here you know this would even be too small to keep the audience, Jesus coming here, and he preaches repent.

Jesus, I mean, you are from the wrong crowd, you have to go to the other churches, You may go to the Catholics, you may go to the Hindus and the Buddhists, but not to us, especially not to Advent Hope.

You know, we enjoy the sermons, we have all the stop sermons and whatever.

And of course, how successful was Jesus when he came to his own people?

Turn to the Gospel of John, and here in John 1 you see the record, the tragic account here.

John chapter 1 verse 9, talking about the true light of Jesus which gives light to every man who comes in the world.

What does it tell you about the character of God?

It's tremendous to everyone Whether you had an atheist or a Gentile and pagan or do no matter what church you belong everyone has received what?

Light very clearly everyone nobody has any excuse but if you go into Romans 1 you see what we do with the light.

And even if you have people of God, Jesus says here, what happened?

Verse 10, He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him he came to his own and his own did not receive him." Isn't it tragic?

Those who have the guideposts, the guidelines, the prophecies, All of this, when the wise men came, the scribes could tell them, yes, in Bethlehem there it is.

And yet nobody took the time to go except the Gentiles.

And we have been told if the lettering comes, a number of God's people will say it is fanaticism.

Isn't it tragic how we carrying the oracles of the Lord can be so deceived that the lettering power is being written off.

May the Lord prevent us from being in that category.

However, not everyone, friends, was in this category.

If you go back to the book of Matthew, it's really amazing, you know, because, I mean, you just read through the Gospels and you pick those things up, and every time you go through it, you pick up something new.

And now Jesus, verse 18, Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee and I saw 2 brothers Simon called Peter and Andrew drew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen.

And he said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

And they waited and discussed among them what they would do.

Immediately, quickly left their nets, left their profession and followed him.

And going from there he saw 2 other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother in the boat of Zebedee, their father, manning the net and he called them.

Immediately, straightforward, they left the boat, they left the father's business.

None of what happened to the business maybe went bankrupt, but they didn't care, immediately they followed it.

So Among God's people there were people who were sensitive.

And when the Lord called, no matter what they were planning for their career, no matter what they did, immediately they followed Him.

You know, God is looking for those people.

Now what happened to those fishermen that lost their profession and followed Jesus immediately?

Each 1 of them, except 1, died a martyr's death.

Some were skinned, some were crucified, some were connected with a rope to some horses and carried through the, you know, dragged through the town and beaten the clubs.

You know, I mean, very, you know, not very pleasant friends.

But friends, they became the heroes in God's kingdom.

Now what do you want to become in your life?

I have only a few more years but some of you, I mean you have 30, 40, 50 years.

And you can have just as experience of the disciples.

By immediately following Jesus, you will not be the majority.

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Jesus’ Message For Our Time

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