Deceit and Triumph
Genesis 3:1-13 –
New International Version (NIV)
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild
animals the Lord God had made. He
said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the
garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the
trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit
from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it,
or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.
5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for
food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took
some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he
ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they
realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings
for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden
in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord
God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are
you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid
because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you
eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me
some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord
God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The
woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
How was the
serpent different from any of the wild animals (verse 1)?
What did the
serpent say to the woman (verse 1)?
How did the woman
answer (verses 2 and 3)?
How does the
serpent respond (verse 4)?
In your opinion,
why did the serpent say “and you will be
like God” (verse 5)?
What justification
did the woman use to justify eating the fruit (verse 6)?
Where was her
husband (verse 6)?
Why did they sew
fig leaves together (verse 7)?
What did the man
and his wife do when they heard the sound of God walking in the garden (verse
8)?
Why did the man
say he hid (verse 10)?
What did the man
say when God ask him if he ate fruit from the tree they were commanded not to
eat from (verses 11 and 12)?
Who did the woman
blame for her actions (verse 13)?
In your opinion, what is the basic
message of this passage?
John 8:42-47 - New
International Version (NIV)
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love
me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43 Why is my language
not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want
to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not
holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his
native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe
me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of
sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The
reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”
Why did Jesus say
that they would love Him (verse 42)?
Who sent Jesus (verse 42)?
In your opinion,
what did Jesus mean when He said “you are
unable to hear what I say” (verse 43)?
Who does Jesus say
they belong to (verse 44)?
What does Jesus
say the devil was from the beginning (verse 44)?
Why are lies the
devil’s native language (verse 44)?
Why do they not
believe Jesus (verse 45)?
In your opinion,
why does Jesus ask them if they can prove him guilty of sin (verse 46)?
Who hears what God
say (verse 47)?
Why don’t they
hear what Jesus says (verse 47)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message
of this passage?
In your opinion, what happened in Genesis
3:1-13 that would allow Jesus in John 8:42-47 to call the devil “a murderer from the beginning”?
2 Corinthians
11:1-15 - New International Version (NIV)
1 I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness.
Yes, please put up with me! 2 I am jealous for you with a godly
jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you
as a pure virgin to him. 3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was
deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from
your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone
comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you
receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel
from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
5 I do not think I am in the least inferior to those
“super-apostles.” 6 I may indeed be untrained as a speaker, but
I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way. 7 Was
it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel
of God to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches by
receiving support from them so as to serve you. 9 And when I
was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the
brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself
from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so. 10 As
surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will
stop this boasting of mine. 11 Why? Because I do not love you?
God knows I do!
12 And I will
keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who
want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast
about. 13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful
workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder,
for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is
not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of
righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
How
does Paul hope the Corinthians will relate to him (verse 1)?
In your opinion, what does Paul mean when
he tells the Corinthian Christians that he “promised
you to one husband, to Christ” (verse 2)?
What did the “serpent’s cunning” do to Eve
(verse 3)?
What was Paul’s fear that the “serpent’s cunning” would do to the
Corinthian Christians (verse 3)?
What do the Corinthian Christians put up
with easily enough (verse 4)?
Who does Paul not think he is inferior to (verse 5)?
What is Paul untrained as (verse 6)?
How did Paul preach the gospel to them (verse
7)?
In your opinion, what does Paul mean when
he says he “robbed other churches” (verse
8)?
Who supplied what Paul needed (verse 9)?
What does God know (verse 11)?
How will Paul “cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be
considered equal with us” (verse 12)?
What are such people (verse 13)?
How does Satan masquerade (verse 14)?
What will Satan’s servants end be (verse
15)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message
of this passage?
In your opinion, what does Paul reveal to
us in 2 Corinthians 11:1-15 about what the one Jesus calls the “father of lies” in John 8:42-47 wants
to use his lies to accomplish?
In
your opinion, how does the way that Satan approached Eve in Genesis 3:1-13 help
to understand about the methods he might use to lead Christian’s minds from a “sincere and pure devotion to Christ” as
Paul warns in 2 Corinthians 11:1-15?
Revelation 12:7-12
– New International Version (NIV)
7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But
he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The
great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan,
who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels
with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now
have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
11 They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens
and you who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury,
because he knows that his time is short.”
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
11 They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens
and you who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury,
because he knows that his time is short.”
Who was involved in the war that broke out in heaven (verse 7)?
Who was not strong enough and lost their
place in heaven (verse 8)?
Who “leads
the whole world astray” (verse 9)?
What has come (verse 10)?
In your opinion, what is the significance
saying that Satan is “the accuser of our
brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night” (verse
10)?
How did Christian brothers and sisters
triumph over Satan (verse 11)?
Who is to rejoice (verse 12)?
Why is there woe to the earth and the sea
(verse 12)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message
of this passage?
In your opinion, what
can we learn Paul’s discussion in 2 Corinthians 11:1-15 about how Satan might
try to lead “the whole world astray”
according to Revelation 12:7-12?
In your opinion, what does Revelation
12:7-12 reveal to us about the way that we can triumph over Satan and, as Jesus
expresses it in John 8:42-47, belong to God?
In your opinion, how
does the way that the serpent deceived Eve in Genesis 3:1-13 helps us to
understand about how, as prophesied in Revelation 12:7-12, he will bring woe to
the earth and sea in his fury?
In your opinion, what do these passages
from Genesis, John, 2 Corinthians and Revelation help us understand about Satan
and his methods and how to overcome?
In your opinion, how do these passages enable
us to be prepared for those who masquerade as servants of righteousness?
(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)
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