Pelajaran Sekolah Sabat 06, Selasa 07 Ogos 2018

Pelajaran Sekolah Sabat 06
Selasa, 07 Ogos 2018

Kurnia Roh Kudus

Dalam Kisah 10:44-48 mendedahkan masa kritikal dalam sejarah gereja awal. Injil telah diberitakan buat kali pertama keada orang-orang bukan Yahudi yang tidak bersunat oleh salah seorang daripada rasul. Berlainan dengan orang-orang percaya Yunani, para rasul dan orang-orang percaya Judea lainnya, mereka tidak bersedia untuk menerima orang-orang bukan Yahudi di dalam gereja. Oleh kerana Yesus adalah Mesias bagi orang-orang Israel, mereka berfikir bahawa injil dikongsikan hanya dengan orang-orang Yahudi sahaja baik jauh mahupun dekat. Orang-orang bukan Yahudi harus pertama-tama mengikut agama Yahudi. Pendapat sebeginilah yang perlu diubah diantara orang-orang percaya Yahudi yang mula-mula ini.

Kurnia lidah telah diberikan kepada Kornelius dan jirannya telah ditambah sebagai tanda yang jelas, suatu tanda yang dapat dilihat bahawa konsep sedemikian adalah salah, bahawa Tuhan tidak berat sebelah. Dalam hal keselamatan, kedua-dua orang Yahudi dan bukan orang Yahudi berdiri sama rata di hadapanNya.

Sila baca Kisah 11:1-18. Bagaimanakah gereja di Jerusalem bertindak ke atas pengalaman Petrus di Kaiseria?

Prasangka orang Yahudi sekian lama bertapak mengenai orang-orang bukan Yahudi menuntun orang-orang percaya di Jerusalem untuk mengkritik Petrus oleh kerana telah makan bersama dengan mereka yang tidak bersunat. Seolah-olah bahawa mereka lebih mempedulikan dengan teragak-agak upacara orang Yahudi daripada dengan keselamatan Kornelius dan keluarganya. Mereka mungkin takut bahawa jika gereja memutuskan amalan sedemikian ia akan mewakili penolakan keimanan orang-orang Israel; mereka akan kehilangan sokongan Tuhan dan menjadi bertanggungjawab terhadap tuduhan – daripada orang-orang Yahudi sendiri – bahawa telah menuntun kepada kematian Stefanus.

Masa telah tiba untuk fasa kerja yang baru untuk dimasuki oleh gereja Kristus. Pintu yang kebanyakan telah ditutup oleh penganut-penganut baharu orang Yahudi ke atas bangsa Yunani kini telah dibuka seluas-luasnya. Sementera orang-orang Yunani yang telah menerima injil telah dianggap sebagai setanding dengan murid-murid bangsa Yahudi, tanpa memerhatikan rukun sunat.”-Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, ms. 136.

Seperti pada Pentakosta, di sini juga mereka bercakap dalam bahasa yang mereka tahu sebelumnya, bukannya sangat ghairah atau bahasa syurgawi. Hanya tujuan yang berlainan: sedangkan untuk para rasul kurnia itu ditujukan kepada misi gereja sedunia, untuk Kornelius berfungsi sebagai pengesahan bahawa rahmat Tuhan beroperasi di kalangan orang-orang bukan Yahudi.

Sabbath School Lesson 6
Tuesday  August 7

The Gift of the Spirit

Acts 10:44-48 reveals a critical moment in the early church’s history. It was the first time that the gospel was being preached to uncircumcised Gentiles by one of the apostles. Unlike the Hellenistic believers, the apostles and other Judean believers were not ready to receive Gentiles in the church. Since Jesus was the Messiah of Israel, they thought that the gospel was to be shared only with Jews from near and far. The Gentiles would first have to be converted to Judaism and then be accepted into the community of faith. In other words, before Gentiles could become Christians, they first had to become Jews. That was the thinking that needed to be changed among these early Jewish believers.

The gift of tongues given to Cornelius and his household was added as a clear, observable sign that such a concept was mistaken, that God has no favorites, and that in terms of salvation both Jews and Gentiles stand on equal footing before Him.

Read Acts 11:1-18. How did the church in Jerusalem react to Peter’s experience at Caesarea?

The long-established Jewish prejudice concerning Gentiles led the believers in Jerusalem to criticize Peter for having eaten with uncircumcised people. It seems that they were more concerned with Jewish ceremonial scruples than with the salvation of Cornelius and his family. They might have feared that if the church broke with such practices it would represent a denial of Israel’s faith; they would lose God’s favor, and become liable themselves to the same accusations—from their fellow Jews—that had led to Stephen’s death.

“The time had come for an entirely new phase of work to be entered upon by the church of Christ. The door that many of the Jewish converts had closed against the Gentiles was now to be thrown open. And the Gentiles who accepted the gospel were to be regarded as on an equality with the Jewish disciples, without the necessity of observing the rite of circumcision.”—Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 136.

As at Pentecost, here, too, they spoke in languages previously unknown to them, rather than in ecstatic or heavenly languages. Only the purpose was different: while for the apostles the gift aimed at the church’s world mission, for Cornelius it functioned as a confirmation that God’s grace was operating even among the Gentiles.

Disalin semula oleh : A. A. Pondili