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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Alvin Cardona

Jesus Predicts His Death

I'm really happy to be here with you guys and I'm asking have you been blessed this week?

You know I think 1 of the blessings that we have received today is an opportunity to be here at Advent Hope where you can connect with opportunities to be involved.

And I personally think that's really a huge blessing.

So many times you find yourself in places wishing you could do something for God, wishing you can be involved in something.

And here we have a wonderful opportunity, restoration coming up in only a couple of weeks and it's something that I really want all of you guys to think about.

I want to be involved and be a part of it as well.

This morning, this Sabbath, as we begin, I'd like to share some thoughts from the Word of God.

And I'm going to begin with simply saying that to me there are very few things as tragic as when a warning goes unheeded and leads to tragedy.

That is something that really breaks my heart.

And this week I read this story that really stuck with me.

A bunch of wealthy industrial men get together.

And they decide they want to have a very special place outside of the hustle and bustle of the city where they can go have a retreat, spend time in nature in the hills of Western Pennsylvania.

And so they pool some money together and they buy this old dam.

So they buy this dam and they set up this fishing and hunting club where people like themselves can go and relax a little bit.

Instead of using their money to make the dam better, to fix it, to bring it up to where it should be, they instead invested in other things and when the dam starts leaking every once in a while, they simply get some mud and some straw and they patch it up.

And they have to do that very often, over and over again, because the dam really isn't in a very good condition.

Then 1 morning, May 31st, 1889, Pennsylvania, western Pennsylvania, has a record amount of rain falling.

And the dam begins to grow and grow and grow.

And the president of the hunting club gets up the next morning and he finds that the water is already lapping the very edge of this very stressed dam.

So he sends out all his workers to try to clear out all the different avenues by which the water could possibly try to escape and they're working and working but making no progress.

Pretty soon they decide it's hopeless so they start digging new avenues for the water to start going through and then the president of the hunting club says there is no hope and he sends out this man called John Park, sends him into the streets saying go to the telegraph office and warn all the cities downstream that this dam is about to break and they should find safety.

So this man rides as fast as he can and sure enough he makes it on time to be able to send out 2 telegraph messages, telegram messages to the cities down the stream.

They are received by the operators but it just so happens that because this dam is so old it's not the first time that warnings have been sent.

And so they decide that this time is just like every other and nothing is going to happen.

So they do not even notify the officials who had the ability to tell the people to find safety, to find a good spot.

Pretty soon, the water breaks, and this huge wall of water, some people estimate 20 million tons of water, is flowing through this little creek bed, just flooding its way through the brush and the trees and the rocks.

The first town on the way is able to hear the water coming.

Huge rumble making its way down so they are able to escape and only 4 people die.

A little bit later there's a the next town that's coming up and by this point the water is moving at 40 miles an hour and has a wall 60 feet high of water just careening, speeding towards this town and they are not able to listen to it, hear it in time.

And by the time everything's over an estimated 2, 209 people died And this is considered 1 of the worst disasters in the history of the United States at that time.

And it just brings home to me the fact that there are few things as sad and as tragic as when a warning goes unheeded and brings about tragedy.

In this warning, what I want to do with you today is look at the Bible and specifically study 1 warning, 1 prediction made by Jesus that went unheeded.

I'd like to ask you to join me as we pray.

Heavenly Father we thank you so much because you're a merciful God, you're a loving God, and you do not cease to warn to have patience with us, to try to prevent suffering and pain in our lives.

And I just want to pray that as we study your word this morning, that you would really impress upon our hearts the gravity of the times in which we live in and the blessing that we have to have such a merciful and loving God.

And I ask all these blessings in the name of your Son.

So as we start, I'd like to ask you once again, open your Bibles, and we're going to be reading this warning from Jesus.

It's found in the book of Mark, book of Mark chapter 8.

And this is a warning, a prediction rather maybe, that we have all heard and Jesus is not, Jesus thinks it's a very important thing to warn his disciples about.

A very important thing to warn his disciples about.

So he begins Mark 8, chapter 30, I mean verse 31.

Mark 8, verse 31, and he says, And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and after 3 days rise again." What is this warning about?

Jesus was beginning a process of trying to warn his disciples of his death.

So he's saying I am going to be given to the scribes.

I'm going to be given to the religious leaders.

I'm going to perish and he specifies that how long is he going to remain in a parish state?

And as we know this is the first time, the first time that Jesus makes this warning and It's not the only 1.

Jesus makes a total of 3 very specific warnings or predictions regarding his death.

He begins by saying these things and I'm going I want you to notice with me what is it that immediately follows this warning or this prediction.

Verse 32, and he spoke these words openly.

Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

But when he had turned around and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter saying, Get behind me, Satan, For you are not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of man.

You are not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of man.

Jesus begins by making a prediction of his death, making a warning of his death.

This is immediately followed by a mistake made by the disciples that is indicative of the fact that they do not understand what the warning really means.

This is the order in which things are happening.

What is the very next thing that happens?

Verse 34, when he had called the people to himself with his disciples also.

And I want you to notice that these words, calling people to himself, they're very, it's a teaching vocabulary.

He's calling people as if he's sitting them down, getting them ready.

He's about to say something that is educational.

So he keeps on saying, he said to them, Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

For whosoever desires to save his life will lose it.

But whosoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospels will save it.

He's going to remain in the ground for 3 days.

He rebukes Peter for having a heart for the things of the earth and not for the things of God And this is followed by a lesson, right?

A lesson in which God, Jesus specifically, is saying deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.

It's the lesson that he has in response to a misunderstanding of his warning.

A lesson in response to misunderstanding.

And this concept of carrying up the cross is a very interesting 1.

It's something that it's easy to read and we imagine that taking up our cross can probably mean taking up the Adventist name, you know, the identity of Adventism.

We are a different denomination, a different kind of people, you know, I'm really sacrificing here to take up this identity.

But in order to make this a little bit more practical for myself.

I found this quote in Adventist Home by Ellen G.

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Jesus Predicts His Death

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