April 10, 2022 – John’s Writings – Repent, Remember and Hold Fast

Repent, Remember and Hold Fast

Nehemiah 1:1-11 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah:

In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, ² Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.

³ They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

⁴ When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. ⁵ Then I said:

“Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, ⁶ let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. ⁷ We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

⁸ “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, ⁹ but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’

¹⁰ “They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. ¹¹ Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.”

Where was “Nehemiah son of Hakaliah” (verse 1)?

What did he question “Hanani” about (verse 2)?

Why were “those who survived the exile and are back in the province” in trouble and danger (verse 3)?

How did Nehemiah respond when he “heard these things” (verse 4)?

How does Nehemiah describe God at the beginning of his prayer (verse 5)?

Whose sins against God does Nehemiah confess (verse 6)?

How have they acted (verse 7)?

What was to happen to the Israelites if they were unfaithful (verse 8)?

What was to happen if, after they were unfaithful, they returned to God and obeyed God’s commands (verse 9)?

How had “they” been redeemed (verse 10)?

What success did Nehemiah pray for (verse 11)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how is the destruction of the devil’s work taking place in this passage?

John 4:27-38 - New International Version (NIV)

²⁷ Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ³⁰ They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

³³ Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. ³⁵ Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ³⁶ Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Why were the disciples surprised (verse 27)?

What did the disciples not ask (verse 27)?

In your opinion, why did the woman leave her water jar when she went back to town (verse 28)?

What did the woman tell the people in the town (verse 29)?

What did the woman ask the people in the town (verse 29)?

How did the townspeople respond (verse 30)?

What did the disciples urge Jesus to do (verse 31)?

How did Jesus respond to them (verse 32)?

What is Jesus’s food (verse 34)?

Why did Jesus want the disciples to open their “eyes and look at the fields” (verse 35)?

When does “the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life” (verse 36)?

What is true (verse 37)?

Who has reaped the benefits of others hard work (verse 38)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how is the destruction of the devil’s work taking place in this passage?

In your opinion, would you say that Nehemiah as he was investigating and then praying in Nehemiah 1:1-11 would be placed into the category of one who sows or of one who reaps from John 4:27-38?  Does the fact that he might fall into one of these categories limit what Nehemiah might do in the future to only that category?  Are we limited today to one or the other?   

1 John 3:1-10 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

⁴ Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. ⁵ But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. ⁶ No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

⁷ Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸ The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. ⁹ No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. ¹⁰ This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

What is the proof that God has lavished “great love” on us (verse 1)?

Why does the world “not know us” (verse 1)?

What are we (verse 2)?

What will we be (verse 2)?

Who will we be like (verse 2)?

What do those who hope in Christ do (verse 3)?

Who breaks the law (verse 4)?

Where is there no sin (verse 5)?

Who does not keep on sinning (verse 6)?

Who is righteous (verse 7)?

Why did the Son of God appear (verse 8)?

Who does not continue to sin (verse 9)?

How do we know “who the children of God are” (verse 10)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how is the destruction of the devil’s work taking place in this passage?

In your opinion, how is the redemption of the Israelite people in Nehemiah and the destruction of the devil’s work (the taking away of sins) in 1 John 3:1-10 similar?  How is the conflict between what we are called to be and what we are apparent in both Nehemiah 1:1-11 and in 1 John 3:1-10?  How can we who have been redeemed today learn from both the redemption and the conflict following redemption of the Israelites and the early Christians?

In your opinion, in John 4:27-38, where Jesus explained the concept of sowing and reaping, who was sowing, who was reaping, and how were they both destroying the work of the devil, as 1 John 3:1-10 indicates is the Son of God’s purpose?

Revelation 3:1-6 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ “To the angel of the church in Sardis write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. ² Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. ³ Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

⁴ Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. ⁵ The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. ⁶ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Who is John to write to (verse 1)?

Who are the words that John is to write from (verse 1)?

What does Jesus know (verse 1)?

What does Jesus command them to strengthen (verse 2)?

In your opinion, what does Jesus mean when He says “I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God” (verse 2)?

What are the Christians from Sardis to hold fast to (verse 3)?

When will Jesus come if they “do not wake up” (verse 3)?

Who will walk with Jesus “dressed in white” (verse 4)?

In your opinion, how are the “few people” who are mentioned in (verse 4) different from the “victorious” who also will be dressed in white in (verse 5)?

Who is to hear (verse 6)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how is the destruction of the devil’s work taking place in this passage?

In your opinion, how does Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah 1:1-11 serve as a model for those in Sardis, and for the rest of us who want the victory that Jesus talks about in Revelation 3:1-6? 

In your opinion, who in John 4:27-38 would be an example of the victorious who repent, remember, and hold fast in Revelation 3:1-6?

In your opinion, how does 1 John 3:1-10 help us understand how the members of the church in Sardis in Revelation 3:1-6 might have had a good reputation but be dead and need to “strengthen what remains and is about to die”? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Nehemiah, John, 1 John and Revelation teach all about the conflict that happens after redemption?

In your opinion, how is a Christian remembering and holding fast similar to a non-Christian repenting?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

April 3, 2022 – John’s Writings – From Weeping to Worship

 From Weeping to Worship

Ezra 10:1-11 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites—men, women and children—gathered around him. They too wept bitterly. ² Then Shekaniah son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel. ³ Now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all these women and their children, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law. ⁴ Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.”

⁵ So Ezra rose up and put the leading priests and Levites and all Israel under oath to do what had been suggested. And they took the oath. ⁶ Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he was there, he ate no food and drank no water, because he continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.

⁷ A proclamation was then issued throughout Judah and Jerusalem for all the exiles to assemble in Jerusalem. ⁸ Anyone who failed to appear within three days would forfeit all his property, in accordance with the decision of the officials and elders, and would himself be expelled from the assembly of the exiles.

⁹ Within the three days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem. And on the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people were sitting in the square before the house of God, greatly distressed by the occasion and because of the rain. ¹⁰ Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful; you have married foreign women, adding to Israel’s guilt. ¹¹ Now honor the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives.”

How did those who gathered around Ezra as he was “praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down” respond (verse 1)?

What is there “in spite of” the unfaithfulness displayed by the marrying of foreign women (verse 2)?

In your opinion, why would making “a covenant before our God” be an appropriate response to the situation (verse 3)?

Why was Ezra to “take courage and do it” (verse 4)?

What did Ezra put “the leading priests and Levites and all Israel” under (verse 5)?

Why did Ezra continue to eat no food and drink no water (verse 6)?

Who was the proclamation too (verse 7)?

What would happen to those who did not appear “within three days” (verse 8)?

Why were the people “greatly distressed” (verse 9)?

How had they added “to Israel’s guilt” (verse 10)?

How were the people to “honor the Lord . . . and do his will” (verse 11)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about how those who believe in Jesus are different from those in the world?

John 4:13-26 - New International Version (NIV)

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Who will “be thirsty again” (verse 13)?

What will the water that Jesus gives become (verse 14)?

Why did the woman want “this water” (verse 15)?

In your opinion, why would Jesus say “go, call your husband and come back” (verse 16)?

What did Jesus say when the woman said “I have no husband” (verses 17 and 18)?

What could the woman see about Jesus (verse 19)?

In your opinion, is the woman’s response to Jesus a question, a plea, or an attempt to start an argument (verse 20)?

What time is coming (verse 21)?

Who is salvation from (verse 22)?

How will “true worshipers” worship the Father (verse 23)?

Who is “spirit” (verse 24)?

According to the woman, what will the Messiah do “when he comes” (verse 25)?

Who does Jesus claim to be (verses 25 and 26)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about how those who believe in Jesus are different from those in the world?

In your opinion, why does Jesus invite the Samaritan woman, who would have been one of the people that Ezra was instructing the Israelites to separate themselves from in Ezra 10:1-11, to become a part of something that is neither of Israel nor Samaria?   

1 John 2:26-29 – New International Version (NIV)

²⁶ I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. ²⁷ As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

²⁸ And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

²⁹ If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

Who is John “writing these things” about (verse 26)?

What remains in the ones John is writing to (verse 27)?

Why do they “not need anyone to teach you” (verse 27)?

How are they to respond to the real anointing they had received (verse 27)?

How can the “dear children” be “confident and unashamed before him at his coming” (verse 28)?

What do we know if we “know that he is righteous” (verse 29)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about how those who believe in Jesus are different from those in the world?

In your opinion, how, though they are similar, is the decision that the people of Israel had to make concerning mingling with or separating from the people around them in Ezra 10:1-11 different from the decision that the “dear children” of 1 John 2:26-29 had to make about remaining in the anointing they had received or going astray? 

In your opinion, how does John 4:13-26 help us understand the anointing of 1 John 2:26-29?

Revelation 2:18-29 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁸ “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. ¹⁹ I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

²⁰ Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. ²¹ I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²² So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. ²³ I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

²⁴ Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, ²⁵ except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

²⁶ To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— ²⁷ that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸ I will also give that one the morning star. ²⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Who is John to write to (verse 18)?

Who are the words that John is to write from (verse 18)?

What does Jesus know (verse 19)?

What does Jesus have against them (verse 20)?

What does Jezebel call herself (verse 20)?

How does Jezebel mislead Jesus’s servants (verse 20)?

What had Jesus given Jezebel (verse 21)?

How can those who committed “adultery with her” avoid suffering intensely (verse 22)?

How will “each of you” be repaid (verse 23)?

Who will not have “any other burden” imposed (verse 24)?

In your opinion, what does it mean to “hold on to what you have until I come” (verse 25)?

How will the “one who is victorious” rule over the nations (verses 26 and 27)?

What else will the victorious receive (verse 28)?

Who is to hear (verse 29)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about how those who believe in Jesus are different from those in the world?

In your opinion, how does the “hope for Israel” in Ezra 10:1-11 help us understand what those who had committed adultery with Jezebel in Revelation 2:18-29 must do? 

In your opinion, how does Jesus’s discussion with the angel of the church in Thyatira in Revelation 2:18-29 help us understand what Jesus meant when He told the Samaritan women that a time was coming when “true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth” in John 4:13-26?

In your opinion, how does John’s instruction in 1 John 2:26-29 to “remain in him” help those who are exposed to the teachings of Jezebel and “Satan’s so-called deep secrets” to win the victory of Revelation 2:18-29? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezra, John, 1 John and Revelation teach all about how weeping is transformed to hope?

In your opinion, how are hope and anointing threatened by Jezebel’s teaching and Satan’s secrets?

In your opinion, what is crucial to success in remaining or holding on?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

March 27, 2022 – John’s Writings – Repenting and Believing

  

Repenting and Believing

Ezra 9:1-15 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. ² They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”

³ When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. ⁴ Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.

⁵ Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God ⁶ and prayed:

“I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. ⁷ From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.

⁸ “But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage. ⁹ Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁰ “But now, our God, what can we say after this? For we have forsaken the commands ¹¹ you gave through your servants the prophets when you said: ‘The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples. By their detestable practices they have filled it with their impurity from one end to the other. ¹² Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them at any time, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it to your children as an everlasting inheritance.’

¹³ “What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this. ¹⁴ Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor? ¹⁵ Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.”

Who had not “kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices” (verse 1)?

Who “led the way in this unfaithfulness” (verse 2)?

How long did Ezra sit “there appalled” (verses 3 and 4)?

What did Ezra do from his knees with his “hands spread out to the Lord” (verses 5 and 6)?

How had the Lord been gracious to the people whose guilt was great (verses 7 and 8)?

What were the people to do with the “new life” they had been granted (verse 9)?

How have the people treated the commands (verse 10)?

Why were the Hebrew people not to marry with the people of the land, or even “seek a treaty of friendship with them” (verse 12)?

What has God done less of than the Hebrew people deserved (verse 13)?

Why can no one stand in the presence of God (verse 15)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about sin and salvation?

John 3:10-21 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁰ “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? ¹¹ Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. ¹² I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. ¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Who does not “understand these things” (verse 10)?

What do we testify to (verse 11)?

Who does not accept Jesus’s testimony (verse 11)?

In your opinion, why would “heavenly things” be harder to understand than “earthly things” (verse 12)?

Who has gone “into heaven” (verse 13)?

How must the “Son of Man” be lifted up (verse 14)?

Who “may have eternal life in him” (verse 15)?

Why did God give “his one and only Son” (verse 16)?

Why did God not “send his Son into the world” (verse 17)?

Why did God “send his Son into the world” (verse 17)?

Who “stands condemned” (verse 18)?

Why do people love “darkness instead of light” (verse 19)?

Why do people who do evil not come into the light (verse 20)?

Who comes into the light (verse 21)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about sin and salvation?

In your opinion, what does Ezra understand about his and the people of Israel’s standing before God in Ezra 9:1-15 that Nicodemus, Israel’s teacher, in John 3:10-21 apparently does not understand?   

1 John 2:20-25 – New International Version (NIV)

²⁰ But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. ²¹ I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. ²² Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. ²³ No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

²⁴ As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is what he promised us—eternal life.

What do the people John is writing to have (verse 20)?

What do they know (verse 20)?

Why does John write them (verse 21)?

What cannot come from the truth (verse 21)?

“Who is the liar” (verse 22)?

What does “the antichrist” do (verse 22)?

Who has the Father (verse 23)?

What happens to those who have what they heard from the beginning remaining in them (verse 24)?

What is “what he promised us” (verse 25)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about sin and salvation?

In your opinion, how are the people that John is writing in 1 John 2:20-25 similar to the people of Israel in Ezra 9:1-15 as they lived among “the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites”? 

In your opinion, how does John 3:10-21 help us understand what 1 John 2:20-25 says that those who have “an anointing from the Holy One” have “heard from the beginning”?

Revelation 2:12-17 – New International Version (NIV)

¹² “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:

These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. ¹³ I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.

¹⁴ Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. ¹⁵ Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶ Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

¹⁷ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.

Who is John to write to (verse 12)?

Who are the words that John is to write from (verse 12)?

Where do they live (verse 13)?

What happened to “Antipas, my faithful witness” (verse 13)?

Who “taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin”” (verse 14)?

What will happen if they don’t repent (verse 16)?

Who will receive “some of the hidden manna” (verse 17)?

What will be written on the white stone that the victorious will receive (verse 17)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does the warning of Jesus to the angel of the church of Pergamum teach us about the similarity of Christians and non-Christians?  What does it teach us about the differences between Christians and non-Christians?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about sin and salvation?

In your opinion, how does the fact that what the people of Israel did in Ezra 9:1-15 is similar to what “some among you” hold to in Revelation 2:12-17 demonstrate a consistent human weakness?  How do the actions of Ezra and the words of Jesus help us understand how to respond to that weakness? 

In your opinion, how does the hope that Jesus promised in John 3:10-21 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” also shine through in His message to the church in Pergamum in Revelation 2:12-17?

In your opinion, how are those who “hold to the teaching of Balaam” in Revelation 2:12-17 and those who deny “the Father and the Son” in 1 John 2:20-25 similar? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezra, John, 1 John and Revelation teach us about the difference between knowing about sin and repenting from sin?

In your opinion, how is believing in Jesus different from repenting from sin?

  

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)