Episode 2187 - Lesson 4 - Sabbath - October 19 - Witnesses of Christ as the Messiah

John 1:19–23, Isa. 40:1–5, John 1:29–37, Rom. 5:6, John 1:35–39, John 1:43–51, John 3:1–21. Memory Text: No question, Jesus provided people with powerful scriptural evidence to back up the claims that He had been making about Himself, including “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John 6:47). But there’s more: turning water into wine; feeding thousands with a few loaves of bread; healing the nobleman’s son; restoring the man at the pool of Bethesda; giving sight to the one blind from birth; raising Lazarus from the dead. The evangelist calls on a variety of events, and people—Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, male, female, rulers, commoners, educated, and uneducated—to bear witness to who Jesus is. John points even to the witness of the Father Himself, and to Scripture, all giving evidence of Jesus’ identity. This week begins with the powerful witness of John the Baptist. Other witnesses come on the stage as well: Andrew and Simon Peter, Philip and Nathanael, and a most unexpected witness, the Pharisee Nicodemus. But another witness stands back in the shadows (that other disciple with Andrew, in John 1:35, 40)—John himself. *Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, October 26. “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’ ” (John 3:3, NKJV).