YEA Lesson Library

The Lesson

Let’s pretend for a minute that God gave you a planet and said, “I want you to plan it and create intelligent life on it. When you put intelligent beings on your planet, they are going to mess up very badly. So you’ve got to provide a way to save them from the consequences of their mistakes.” Where would you start and what would be your plan?

At the very beginning of time, God gave this responsibility to Jesus Christ. We’re told about this in John 1:1-5 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

“Through him all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made. In him is life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it” (NIV).

Jesus is the Word of God. He created this world and everything in it. He put intelligent life on this earth – Adam and Eve. And they messed up badly when they ate the forbidden fruit. This carried the death penalty. Every person after Adam and Eve has messed up as well and all of us have been condemned to receive the penalty of eternal death. The only way to reverse this was for Jesus Himself to pay our penalty with His own life.

A plan was laid out from the foundation of the world that is pictured in the holy days. The Passover shows our forgiveness of sin through the death of Jesus Christ. We are commanded to put leavening out of our homes (which represents putting sin out of our lives), before the days of Unleavened Bread start. Then we are to eat unleavened bread for seven days. This unleavened bread pictures the Bread of Life, who is Jesus Christ. Eating unleavened bread for seven days pictures making Jesus Christ an intricate part of our lives. The purpose of this exercise is to change us into be- coming more like Him. Pentecost was the day the New Testament church was empowered with God’s Holy Spirit to do a work.

The Autumn festivals are ushered in with blowing the trumpet on the first day of the seventh month – the Feast of Trumpets. When the seventh trumpet sounds Jesus Christ will return to this earth. But remember, we’ve learned that we’re not to set dates. This festival is followed by the Day of Atonement when the Jubilee year begins. Slaves are set free and the land returns to its original owner. Our national sins are forgiven. Next we celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles by living in temporary housing for seven days showing this life is only temporary. This shows that we’re looking for a better world to come – the Kingdom of God on this earth.

There is yet one more day to celebrate. This day pictures God’s final plan for man – the day God closes everything out. “For seven days, present offerings made to the LORD by fire, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. It is the closing assembly; do no regular work (Leviticus 23:36 NIV).

Jesus celebrated this day as well. “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom they who believed in him were later to receive” (John 7:37-39 NIV).

As Jesus returns to this earth, the first resurrection takes place and He sets up His Kingdom and reigns for 1000 years. But the best is yet to come. The second resurrection takes place (Revelation 20:5). This is a time when all the babies and people who never had a chance to know Christ and be converted will be resurrected to physical life.

Ezekiel 37 tells the story of the “Valley of Dry Bones” when the “whole house of Israel” (verse 11) comes back to physical life and will be given God’s Spirit (becomes converted, verse 14).

Then God Himself comes down to live with us. Revelation 21:1-7 says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

“He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’

“He said to me; ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son” (NIV).

How absolutely awesome! The Last Great Day seems to picture the beginning of eternity! Eternity is a very long time. What will you do for all eternity? Will you be given a planet to create? Would you put intelligent life on it? What will be your plan if intelligent life messes up? Would you be willing to be their savior as Jesus Christ was for you?