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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Richard Walton

The Legacy of Greatness

While you're thinking about that, come with me far from this place, across time and space, to the city of Jerusalem.

The city is a wonderland of lights, and from all over the world, Jews have converged on the city for Pesach, Passover.

The city is lit by torchlight and lamplight, and the happy voices of thousands of pilgrims coming home.

To this day, the blessing is used to close the Passover Seder, the prayer for Messiah, next year in Jerusalem.

But on this Passover, the Lord of creation is praying a very different prayer.

Our message today is entitled, The Legacy of Greatness.

And as you think about who you are and why you're here, I would like to share with you 5 vignettes, 5 glimpses into the legacy each of us shares today.

Our first vignette starts where every Christian the Lord.

These words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come.

Glorify thy son that thy son also may do what?

How did Jesus glorify God while He was on this earth?

How did Jesus glorify the Lord while He was on this earth?

What specifically was it about His life that glorified His Father in heaven?

He obeyed God in all things, and he attributed that to God in all things.

Again, how did He reveal God's character?

Well, the best way to find an answer that Scripture poses to us is usually the same way that we answer questions in tax law, as my old tax professor liked to say, if you have a question about the tax laws, you read the statute and you read on.

Well, reading the statute, let's continue reading on to verse 4, and the Lord Himself will give us the answer.

As has been said, I have glorified thee on the earth.

I have, as has been said, finished the work which what?

2 points about what specifically it was in Jesus' life that finished the work God had given Him to do.

We'll come back to that point in just a few minutes.

It is very, very important if you are going to do work to glorify God that you do His will, not yours.

You have to do the mission you are given, not the mission you think you are given.

I have finished the work which thou gave me to do.

Anybody notice something unique about that passage, particularly given the point at which Jesus is praying this prayer?

Before Gethsemane, but Christ speaks in what, English folks?

The proclamation of victory, I have, as of this moment, present victorious tense, I have finished the work you gave me to do.

Is there any other place in Scripture where the Bible uses the present tense to describe something that has not yet happened, something that has occurred before the actual event?

I run the race, I have finished my course.

Of course, at that point, Paul was very close to the end of his life, and in many ways echoes the sentiments of the good Lord.

Where else in Scripture, specifically where is a group of God's people stated in the present victorious tense to have completed and done the work that God gave them to do.

I'll give you a hint, it's in the second half of the Bible.

I just chopped off 33 books for you, that should narrow the scope.

Specifically, let's go to the book of Revelation.

Passage, it should be very, very familiar to Adventist believers on a Sabbath morning in Loma Linda, California.

The commandments, all 10 of them, keep the commandments of God and have the What?

The only time I believe you will find in Scripture where God's people are referred to in the present victorious sense as having actually done something no other generation of God's people has ever done, That is to keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.

That is the other place in Scripture where I can find a victorious proclamation and you know what?

It happens right before the second coming, right before the time of trouble, right before they are tested.

There is a group of people who God can say in the present tense have overcome, have lived a victorious Christian life, and when they do that, only 2 verses later in Revelation 14, 14, you see the Lord return.

A legacy of greatness and a prophecy of victory.

Who are these people who do God's work and achieve what no other generation of God's people has ever done?

What is the message they have to give the world?

If you look back, again, read the statute and read on, if you look back in Revelation, just 6 verses, you will see a perfect stair step of 7 steps that leads directly to the second coming.

If you want to know how to get the Lord here sooner, read these 6 verses of Revelation 14, starting with verse 6, and you will see, leading upwards like a perfect stair step, All the way to the second coming, the 7 things God's people must accomplish just before He returns.

Let's start with the first 1, Revelation 14, verse 6, an everlasting gospel.

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth." The everlasting gospel.

And a blanket of silence descends upon the room.

Unfortunately, unlike my law school classes, I don't have a seating chart, so I can't cold call someone and subject 1 of you to 30 minutes worth of badgering questions.

It says that how Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and was buried, rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

1 Corinthians, Christ died, was buried, rose again after 3 days in accordance with the Scriptures.

That is certainly a wonderful summary of Christ's life.

For God so loved the world, John 3, 16, that He gave His only begotten Son.

John 17 3, just keep your finger in John 17, we'll be returning to it.

Christ himself puts it this way, this is life eternal that they might know Thee, the only true God, and whom?

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The Legacy of Greatness

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