GYC 2015: Called. Chosen. Faithful.

Remnant Identity: Who We Are and Why It Matters

Mark Finley

Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

4. The Remnant & A Final Generation of Spirit-filled Witnesses

This message was presented at the GYC 2015 conference called Chosen Faithful in Louisville, Kentucky.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

We just looked at a subject called the shaking.

We've looked at the identity of the remnant through this seminar.

In our first session, we took a look at, very specifically, remnant in the Old Testament, remnant in the New Testament, and God's raising up an end time remnant.

In our second session, we looked at the message of the 3 angels as it is relevant to contemporary society.

And in the third presentation, we looked a little bit at the idea of the shaking and in the session between, somebody brought out an interesting point.

You know, I was bringing out the point that in every generation, God has called out a movement.

The Ekklesia, Ekk out of Klesia, called out.

And we talked about Protestantism called out of the apostasy and the Advent movement called out.

And we raised the question, will God call out an end time movement?

And we pointed out that God has raised up the Adventist church, it's the remnant.

We looked at the concept of the shaking, that it's not a shaking out, it is not a calling out at the end, it's a shaking out.

And the remnant remain faithful, loyal, and true to God.

Somebody brought out, and I thought it was a good point, in Revelation 3, God says, I'll spew you out of my mouth.

In Revelation 3, those that are spewed out leave, but the remnant who remain open the door of their heart to Christ and they receive the gold, which is that new heart faith experience with Him.

Their lives are transformed so the acts and deeds of their lives based on that faith in transforming power of God are righteous.

And they have the eyesalve in which they see the world as He sees it and go out to witness for Him.

So Revelation 3 is not a message of condemnation, but it's an appeal by the Amen, the 1 who speaks to his last church Laodicea.

It is an invitation to life transformed holiness.

Well, let's pray, and then we're gonna talk in this session about a last day movement that'll sweep the world in the glory of God and the destiny to which every 1 of us have been called.

Father in heaven, I praise you and thank you for everything that you have done for us as a people, as a church.

Lord, we think of the fact that this church is not everything you want it to be, but neither are we.

Just as the church has human frailty and failures, we reflect those in our own lives.

We thank you for your creative life changing power.

And we thank you for what Jesus has done for us, is doing for us in heaven's sanctuary, and will yet do for us.

We thank you that as young people we are called to a destiny, A destiny in which this world will be lit with your glory and your work on earth will soon be finished.

May that be a reality in this generation, in our lives, in Christ's name, Amen.

When Jesus was about ready to ascend to heaven, he made this statement to his disciples.

He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

That statement seemed to be well nigh impossible.

But the great commission was accompanied by the great promise.

See if you have the great commission without the great promise, your witness will fall powerless.

So the Great Commission is go preach the gospel to the whole world.

But here in Acts chapter 1 is the great promise.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

So the great commission is go preach the gospel.

The great promise is you shall be witnesses to me where?

Judea and Samaria, the neighboring communities.

Jerusalem, your city, Judea, your province, Samaria, the neighboring province, and of course, to the ends of the earth.

Now the disciples waited, they confessed their sins, they prayed, they believed and heaven answered.

The Holy Spirit was poured out in abundant measure on the day of Pentecost.

Now the mighty outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost was heaven's gift confirming the Father's acceptance of the magnificent sacrifice of Christ on Calvary's cross.

I want you to see something quite interesting.

If you have your Bible, take it and turn to Acts, the second chapter.

This is something that is often overlooked when 1 discusses the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

My question is, where did the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost come from and what did the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost signify?

The Holy Spirit is poured out, Peter is speaking.

Now it's interesting as well when you look at this because if you look at Acts 2, verse 5, now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews devout men from every nation under heaven.

And when this sound occurred, the multitude came, everyone heard them speak in his own language, that is because they were speaking in the language, it was the gift of tongues not the gift of ears.

Verse 8, how is it that we hear in each our own language in which we are born.

Then it names all those nations, the people that were there, Parthenians, Medes, Elamites, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia.

Here it speaks about people from Libya, that's northern Africa, Cyrene, Rome, Europe, Cretans and Arabs.

You have Europe, you have Asia, you have Africa.

The known world, present, Jews came to worship at Jerusalem on the Feast of Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit was poured out upon them and they went back to their countries communicating the Gospel.

1 of the reasons that God has brought immigrants to these shores, And 1 of the reasons God is bringing now, I believe, scores of Muslims into Europe.

You see, many people are really concerned about this immigration problem.

And I realize there are social concerns, there are economic concerns, and there are political concerns and terrorist concerns, but we as a church have a different concern and our concern is reaching people from these countries with the gospel that we could never reach if they're in their own countries.

Did you notice it said they came from Rome?

These were lay people from Rome that heard the gospel in Jerusalem.

They were Jews, they were converted to Christ, they went back to Rome and started a church.

So the church at Rome was lay initiative.

The Apostle Paul started churches in various places.

Rome was a church raised up by lay people.

I praise God for lay people that have a passion for Christ in the Gospel to raise up His people, His mission.

Peter is speaking in his sermon and he explains to the crowd what was going on in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

So Peter says in Acts 2 verse 35, therefore being exalted to the right hand of God that Jesus Christ ascended to the holy place of the sanctuary, appeared before God and having received from the Father the promise of the Spirit, he poured out this which you now see in here.

The outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost signaled Christ's acceptance by the Father.

So the disciples were told by Jesus, wait and look to the sanctuary.

And as you look to the sanctuary, when the sacrifice of Christ is accepted by the Father, the Holy Spirit will be poured out on the earthly church.

Just as, follow the pattern, the disciples thought that Christ was going to establish an earthly kingdom.

When Christ died on the cross, the disciples were bitterly disappointed.

They looked from their disappointment to the sanctuary above and seeing and sensing what was going on there when Jesus' sacrifice was accepted in the sanctuary, the Holy Spirit was poured out to launch the New Testament Christian Church.

3. The Remnant & the SDA Church: Will the Church Survive or Will there be a Remnant of the Remnant?

My favorite time to teach is after lunch because everybody's so wide awake.

You know, once I was looking at a preaching magazine and there was a little cartoon in the magazine.

And it was of a bishop in all of his pontifical robes and he was getting up to speak and people were falling asleep while he spoke.

But then the next cartoon showed up in the balcony there was a little boy.

And he had a bowl and he had a straw with peas in it.

He would blow through that straw and hit some guy in the face and wake him up.

And the caption on the bottom of the cartoon said, Dad, you keep preaching and I'll keep him awake.

So if you fall asleep, I'll have 1 of my kids up there with a little straw for you.

We are on a journey together and let's kind of summarize the first classes that we had this morning and then we will launch right into this afternoon while many others are still coming in.

We looked this morning at the Old Testament remnant and the New Testament remnant.

We pointed out that the word remnant is a very rich word in the Bible.

It means much more than the rest, much more than those that remain.

The whole idea in the Bible of the remnant is a DNA idea.

That the remnant have the same DNA as the original.

It's a word that really comes from a similar word to posterity and that the remnant are the posterity.

They are Those that have been pardoned, purged, and preserved down through the ages.

And we showed that in the Old Testament and the New Testament this morning.

We've shown also that God would have an end time remnant that would be characterized by their faithfulness to God, their obedience to God, and their keeping His commandments.

Then we looked at the idea of the 3 angels message as it relates to contemporary society.

And we saw this morning that God tailor-made, he shaped a message for this generation.

This afternoon, we're gonna look at the subject of the church.

Will God call a remnant out of the remnant?

And we have 2 presentations this afternoon.

1 is on the shaking and will the church survive?

And the other is on The whole idea of the revival of the church and God's last day message and movement of evangelism to finish his work.

So let's pray and then we'll launch right into our Bible study for this afternoon.

Father in heaven, We thank you so much for the mighty power of God.

We thank you that your spirit is moving through your people and that a mighty revival is coming.

We thank you for the promises of your word that you will preserve and protect your church.

Now grant to us wisdom as we study in Christ's name, amen.

There was a small congregation that was really rejoicing because that was the day their church would be dedicated.

There were some things that made them sorrowful though.

They had picked out a piece of property in the center of the community.

It was an absolutely beautiful piece of property.

The problem was that Sam Sadler, 1 of the wealthiest men in Swan Quarter, North Carolina, wouldn't sell the property.

He said, no, your church can't pay enough for the property.

I would never sell it to a church, I want to get as much money as I could for the property.

And so the disappointed congregation purchased another piece of land right off Pimlico Sound and this land wasn't as favorable but they could afford the land And it was on a lower terrain.

The day of their church dedication of this new church on this less than desirable land, a hurricane blew through the South of America.

And Pamilkosound flooded and their church was lifted up off its moorings and began to float away the night of its dedication.

It floated down Oyster Creek Road, blown by the wind." Now if you think that this is a fabricated preacher's tale, you should look up The church moved by the hand of God.

And you'll see, not while I'm preaching please, but you will see this story of the church Providence built.

The church floated down Oyster Creek road.

Church members were amazed as they watched it float.

It was blown by the wind and took a right down Main Street in the town until it settled on this high piece of ground that they wanted to build on in the first place.

Sam Sadler came out and he said, I will sell you the land at a reduced price because 1 cannot fight against God.

Although the winds may blow against God's church in the latter days of earth's history, the church will still be guided by the hand of God.

Matthew the 16th chapter and the 18th verse.

If you have your Bible, and I hope you do, either on the phone or on your iPad, Matthew 16, and we'll start there with Matthew 16 and verse 13.

We're studying the nature of the church, we're asking the question, will the church survive?

We're looking at the whole idea of the shaking and how God will purify his church at any time.

Jesus leads his disciples to the Galilee and surprisingly enough Jesus turns north.

Now a little history in geography of Israel will be helpful.

If you look at Palestine, it's divided into 3 parts.

South is Judea, in the middle is Samaria, and in the north is the Galilee.

In Judea is where Jerusalem was located, Nazareth of course was located in the Galilee, And that was quite a distance, about a week's journey south by donkey when Mary and Joseph came.

So get in your mind, and maybe I can help you understand it.

If you look at my finger here, and let's suppose this is the land of Palestine.

So Jesus began to walk with his disciples, came to the Galilee, but he kept going.

And he went to a place called Caesarea Philippi, which is in the far north of the land of Israel or Palestine.

And you'll find it there in Matthew 16 verse 13.

Then Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi.

Now when you see Caesarea, what name does Caesarea come from?

And Philippi comes from, of course, Philip.

So this is a city that is a Roman garrison.

It's an outpost for Roman military soldiers.

The Roman army spent a lot of time here in this city.

Caesarea Philippi was known for 3 primary reasons.

It was a military outpost, very protected that area coming down into Palestine from the northern front.

So the Romans had a very large fort there.

Second, it was the center of Pan-worship.

If I say Pan-theism, If we say theism, that is the study of what?

So pan-theism means God in everything, and where did, God's in the flower, God's in the tree, etc.

2. The Message of the Remnant & Postmodern Youth - How Revelation’s Message Resonates with Thinking Young People Today

Good morning and it's time to start our next session this morning.

We are in a class called Remnant Identity.

We studied who the remnant were in our last session.

Looking through, if you missed that session, we looked through the Old Testament, discovering who the remnant were, and the concept of the remnant is a concept of a DNA faithfulness, a posterity that's faithful to God.

Throughout the Old Testament, we looked at the fact that God pardons, preserves His remnant.

He's always had a remnant that He's preserved.

We looked at Revelation chapter 12 as well.

Last session was a Bible study where we looked at our Bibles.

This session will be, we'll use graphics and go to the screen.

Then this afternoon we talk about the shaking of Adventism and how to be sure that you're not shaken out.

We will go back to the Bible and then our last presentation back to graphics.

That gives us some variety in our presentation.

We'll keep the lights on because there will be many Bible texts and references you want to write down.

Remember, you do have in the back of your booklet, you have some excellent pages for notes for the seminar if you need to use them.

Father, as we approach 1 of the most significant chapters in all of the Bible, we pray that you would help us to have a deeper understanding of that chapter, and particularly as we think about the society that we live in, in the United States and many of us Western Europe, where post-modernism and secularism has gripped the mind, help us to see once again afresh and anew just how The message of the 3 angels speaks to this contemporary society and speaks to all humanity.

So I pray that you would bless in a very special, special way our presentation.

May your spirit be here, may we sense that.

4 chapters in the book of Revelation that talk about an end time people.

We have Revelation chapter 3 that describes the Laodicean condition of God's people.

We have Revelation chapter 10 that describes the historic rise of God's people as the result of studying the book of Daniel, the little book in the angel's hand that was sealed then opened and the disappointment, you know that chapter.

Revelation chapter 12 that describes the characteristics of the remnant.

And then Revelation chapter 14, hope's grace-filled end time message.

You know, in Deuteronomy 6 verse 4, The nation of Israel found their identity in this passage.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is 1 Lord.

The Israelites called this the great Shema.

This passage more than any other identified Israel.

When Hebrew mothers were rocking their babies to sleep at night, from the time that that child was, oh, 3 months old, 5 months old, the mother would rock the baby and sing to the baby.

Throughout the centuries of their exile, when the Israelites were exiled and they were no longer in Jerusalem, but they were in Babylon, the chanting of the Shema reminded the Jews of the spiritual vision and the path that united them as a people.

This Shema gave them the sense of vision, that God is still our God.

Jewish mothers continually taught their young children to chant the Shema before going to sleep.

So when the children were old enough to speak, some of their first words would be, the Lord, our God, is 1 Lord.

And Israel mothers and Jewish mothers would be rocking their babies, and as they rocked their babies, The baby, as soon as it could speak, would begin chanting back to its mother those very words.

Now during the Holocaust in the late 1930s, 39 to 45, some Jewish parents in Europe placed their children in Christian orphanages to save their lives.

The German Nazi forces were taking Jews by the tens of thousands and putting them in prison camps like Ravensbrück and Dachau, and these Jewish parents were concerned about their children.

So they put them in the orphanages, Christian orphanages.

After the war was over, many of the leading rabbis visited these Christian orphanages because they wanted to secure Jewish children.

See, the parents of these children had died.

If you were a Jewish-Polish child, you would have a Polish name, not a Jewish name necessarily.

The same was true with German Jews, the same was true with Swiss Jews.

So the rabbis would go to these Catholic orphanages and they would say, we want our Jewish children.

And the priest would say, there are no Jewish children here.

And because, of course, the records were destroyed, the rabbis couldn't do it.

And so they said, no, we're not going to give you any of these children.

1 day, 2 of the leading rabbis came to a major Catholic orphanage and said, We'd like to have the Jewish children." And the chief priest said, nothing doing, there are no Jewish kids here.

And the rabbi said, could I please come back in the evening?

During 1 visit, a leading rabbi asked the priest in charge of the orphanage to allow him to return in the evening when the children were going to sleep.

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4. The Remnant & A Final Generation of Spirit-filled Witnesses

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