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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Norman McNulty

The Hour is Come

Well it's great to see so many of you here today.

I remember the time when we started Advent Hope 4 years ago that we had 20 or 30 people coming.

And now we have close to 200 people here every Sabbath and that makes me very happy to see young people And people of all ages coming to hear messages and to study the Bible that will prepare us to be ready for Jesus to come.

Our fourth restoration series is starting and I can hardly believe that.

I can hardly believe that we have come to our fourth evangelistic series on this campus.

I remember when we had our first series back in 2003 with Peter Gregory, and It's been a wonderful experience every year.

To be honest with you, that first year, I didn't think we would have a fourth restoration.

And I still believe that Jesus is coming very soon.

As I recall what happened back around the time that Advent Hope started, Restoration started, very definitely the events of September 11 really woke many of us up.

And it was shortly after that time that we started planning to start Advent Hope Sabbath School.

It was a year later that we had our first restoration, our first general youth conference up at Pine Springs Ranch.

Clearly, something is definitely happening among God's young people.

And the people that we see here today, you, are evidence that God is moving in the hearts and minds of His young people and in people of all ages.

Because 4 years ago, this group didn't exist.

Those of you who are new to this area, you don't realize what it was like in this area 5 years ago.

And you don't realize the blessing it is to be able to come every Sabbath and hear messages that will turn your heart to Jesus and help you to set your mind on the things of heaven in preparation for eternity.

The greatest evidence to me that Jesus is coming soon is the revival taking place among God's young people.

And as adamant hope is growing, as restoration is growing, as we see God moving His people to a climax point, let us never get complacent.

There's always a higher plane to grow to.

And, you know, I think of the quote that Ellen White says in Life Sketches, page 196, where she says, We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us and his teaching in our past history.

And So many times we say, the Lord has led our church.

But at the same time, we decidedly forget God's teachings.

You have to remember the way God has led, and at the same time, remember the teachings of God.

And brothers and sisters, the message of the Advent movement is built solidly on the teachings of God and the Bible.

And if we remember God's teachings, We have nothing to fear for the future.

And I truly believe we are living in the very last moments of Earth's history.

And if that's the case, we need to know how to live our lives.

And today, what I want to do is to look at the finest example of someone who knew how to live his life based on the time in which he was living in.

And that example is none other than Jesus Christ Himself.

Many of you are familiar with this chapter, and I pray that you will be challenged and that you will see new things about this chapter that you have never seen before.

And in Testimonies 8, page 239, Ellen White says, The instruction given me by 1 of authority is that we are to learn to answer the prayer recorded in the 17th chapter of John.

We are to make this prayer our first study.

Every gospel minister, every medical missionary is to learn the science of this prayer.

And I always appreciate how the writings of Ellen White point us back to the Bible.

And so today, we are going to uplift the life of Jesus in John 17.

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

Glorify thy Father, that thy Son also may glorify thee.

When did Jesus give this prayer of John 17?

This was the night before He died on the cross.

Well how did Jesus know that he was going to die the next day?

Do we have other examples in the Gospels where Jesus knew what time it was?

If you look at Mark chapter 1 verses 14 and 15, it says, Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Jesus says as he starts the 3 and a half years of his ministry, the time is fulfilled.

Scholars will point you back to the prophecies, the prophecy of Daniel chapter 9 verses 24 through 27, and Jesus knew that the end of the 69 weeks had been fulfilled until the Messiah, the Prince, now it's time for him to start his ministry.

So as he starts his ministry, he reminds the people of the Jewish nation the time is fulfilled.

So Jesus knew the prophecy of Daniel about his ministry.

And so when you come to John chapter 17 verse 1, Jesus says, the hour is come.

Now we know the next day was Passover Friday, and that was the day that Jesus, the Lamb of God, was slain.

Now how did Jesus know that that was exactly the time that he would die?

Because it was exactly 3 and a half years after the beginning of his ministry based on the time prophecy again of Daniel chapter 9 that in the midst of the week Messiah would be cut off.

Jesus knew how to live his life, and he lived his life accordingly based on Bible prophecy.

And brothers and sisters, we have Bible prophecy that points us to the time we are living in as well.

Therefore we need to be students of Bible prophecy.

If you haven't studied the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation and learned how to apply them to your life, This is the time to learn that because those prophecies will point you exactly to where we are in Earth's history So Jesus Knew how to live his life based on Bible prophecy and he gives us an example Now notice some other interesting points from this verse.

Glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee.

And Jesus answered them saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified, just like John chapter 17.

Notice verse 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.

But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." What's Jesus talking about here?

Jesus is talking about his death, And Jesus is saying that he will glorify the Father by dying, and by so doing, much fruit will be brought to the Kingdom of God.

So therefore, we learn something more about Jesus in this prayer of John 17.

He knows that His hour has come to be crucified, and He knows that by so doing, He will bring glory to the Father.

And do you think it's possible that there's a lesson for us in that?

Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Now notice there's something very interesting in this verse.

Jesus was crucified on the cross, and if you remember Jesus on the cross, he relied on faith to get him through the experience of the cross because he couldn't see past that experience.

When we are crucified with Christ, we have to live by faith because when we're crucified our natural human nature dies.

And so we don't know what's going to happen next, but we see how we are to live.

We are to live by faith, but notice what kind of faith.

It says we live by the faith of the Son of God, or the faith of Jesus.

The Hour is Come

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