The Sabbath School

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 28, 1897

The Sabbath School

International Series.

Lesson VII.—Sabbath, February 13, 1897.

LIFE THROUGH DEATH; THE ATTRACTION OF THE CROSS.

Lesson Scripture, John 12: 20-36, R. V.

20 “Now there were certain Greeks among those that went 21 up to worship at the feast; these therefore came to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, 22 Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew; 23 Andrew cometh, and Philip, and they tell Jesus. And Jesus answereth them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of 24 man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth 25 by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit. He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this 26 world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will the Father honor. 27 Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto 28 this hour. Father, glorify thy name. There came therefore a voice out of heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and 29 will glorify it again. The multitude therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it had thundered: others said, An 30 angel hath spoken to him. Jesus answered and said, This voice hath not come for my sake, but for your sakes. Now 31 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, 32 will draw all men unto myself. But this he said, signifying 33 by what manner of death he should die. The multitude therefore answered him, We have heard out of the law that the Christ abideth forever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man? 34 Jesus therefore said unto them, Yet a little while is the light among you. Walk while ye have the light, that darkness overtake you not; and he that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have the 35 light, believe on the light, that ye may become sons of light.”

QUESTIONS.

1. What nationality was represented among those at the Passover?

2. To whom did its representatives come? With what request?

3. How was this request made known to Jesus?

4. What statement did it lead him to make?

5. To what teaching of nature did he appeal?

6. What law of life did he then announce?

7. What command and promise did he give for his servants?

8. How will the Father recognize service rendered to Jesus?

9. How did the vision of his future suffering affect Jesus? How does he give expression to his feelings?

10. What petition does he offer? How was it answered?

11. How did some of the people interpret the answer? What did others say?

12. What reason did Jesus assign for this audible answer?

13. What is the death of Christ to the world? How does it affect the world’s prince?

14. How great is the attractive power of Christ’s death?

15. How did he foretell the manner of his death?

16. What answer and what inquiries did the people make?

17. What statement did Jesus make in reply? What exhortation did he address to them?

18. In what did he urge them to put faith? For what purpose?

19. What did Jesus then do?

NOTES.

1. “The request of the Greeks to see Jesus, brought the future before him. . . . He looked forward with joy to the period when the partition wall between Jew and Gentile would be thrown down, and the broad harvest-field would be the world. . . . He saw that the gathering of the Gentiles was to follow his approaching death. He therefore presented to his disciples and to the listening crowd the figure of the wheat, to represent how his death would be productive of a great harvest. . . . In the Gospel of the death and resurrection of Christ, and the resurrection of the dead, life and immortality are brought to light, and the kingdom of heaven is thrown open to all believers.”—Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 3, pp. 74, 75.

2. “Two points are here suggested: (1) That the life, the living force that was in Christ, reached its proper value and influence through his death; and (2) that the proper value of Christ’s life is that it propagates similar lives. . . . Year by year men sacrifice their choicest sample of grain, and are content to bury it in the earth instead of exposing it in the market, because they understand that except it die it abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit. . . . The law of the seed is the law of human life. . . . Your life is a seed now, not a developed plant, and it can become a developed plant only by your taking heart to cast it from you and sow it in the fertile soil of other men’s needs. . . . To use his own figure, he (Jesus) was a seed unsown so long as he lived, valuable in his own proper person; but by dying, his life obtained the value of seed sown, propagating its kind in everlasting increase. . . . A seed produces grain of its own kind, so Christ produces men like Christ. . . . Christ, having been sown, lives now in his people. . . . ‘He gave his life away for the good of men, and therefore prolongs his days and sees his seed eternally.’

Whoever will choose the same destiny as Christ, must take the same road that he took. . . . Self-seeking is self-destroying. . . . Every human life is under this law. There is no path to goodness or to happiness, save this one. Nature herself teaches us as much.”

3. “There are many lonely people about the world, who complain of desolate and solitary lives, . . . and have never learned that the cure for loneliness comes through the sowing of one’s self in a grave of daily self-sacrifice.” “The soul that dares to live this life, will find streams flowing from every smitten rock; honey in the carcass of every slain lion. . . . So it must be ever. Day out of night; spring out of winter; flowers out of frost; joy out of sorrow; fruitfulness out of pruning; Olivet out of Gethsemane; the ascension out of Calvary; life out of death; and the Christ that is to be, out of the pangs of a travailing creation.”

4. “The voice of God had been heard at the baptism of Jesus, at the commencement of his ministry, and again at his transfiguration on the mount; and now, at the close of his ministry, it was heard for the third time, and on this occasion by a larger number of persons and under peculiar circumstances. He had just uttered the most solemn truths concerning the condition of the Jews. He had made his last appeal, and pronounced their doom. The wall of partition between Jew and Gentile was tottering, and ready to fall at the death of Christ.”—Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 3, p. 79.

5. “In the act of Christ dying for the salvation of man, heaven was not only made accessible to man, but God and his Son were justified before all heaven in dealing with the rebellion of Satan, and in his expulsion. The blot which Satan had placed upon heaven itself was thus to be washed away, and no sin could evermore enter there to all eternity. The holy angels, and all created intelligences of the worlds where sin had not entered, responded in hallelujahs to the judicial sentence pronounced upon Satan, applauding the act of Christ which removed the mortgage Satan held upon the souls of men. The holy angels, as well as those who are washed by the blood of Christ, are drawn to him by this crowning act of giving his life for the sins of the world. Christ, in being lifted up upon the cross to die, opened the way of life to both Jews and Gentiles, to all nations, tongues, and people.”—Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 3, pp. 80, 81.

6. “The course of the Jewish people, so highly favored and so deeply fallen, should engrave upon the heart of us, the Christian Israel, with letters of fire, the words, ‘Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you,’ that we may take heed, with fear and trembling, to every spark of light which the word of God essays to cast into our hearts.”

7. “The period of great spiritual light, if that light is not sacredly cherished and acted upon, will be turned into a time of corresponding spiritual darkness.” “Delay is the ordinary expression of antagonism to Christ; infidelity the extraordinary.”

Suggestions for Further Study.

1. With the interpretation placed by some of the people upon the voice from heaven, compare Job 37:2–5.

2. Jesus had spoken to the Father for the sake of the people (John 11:42), and now the Father speaks to Jesus for the same reason (see 2 Cor. 12:15).

3. On what ground is Satan called the prince of this world? How did he obtain his power here? Is it an unlimited power? Notice the means used to overcome him. See Heb. 2:14.

4. How is life only in Christ taught in this lesson?