Falling Short and Overcoming
Ezekiel
20:10-21 - New International Version (NIV)
10 Therefore I led them out of Egypt and brought them into the
wilderness. 11 I gave them my decrees and made known to
them my laws, by which the person who obeys them will live. 12 Also
I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know
that I the Lord made
them holy.
13 “‘Yet the people of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness.
They did not follow my decrees but rejected my laws—by which the person who
obeys them will live—and they utterly desecrated my Sabbaths. So I said I
would pour out my wrath on them and destroy them in the
wilderness. 14 But for the sake of my name I did what
would keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose
sight I had brought them out. 15 Also with uplifted hand I
swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land
I had given them—a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all
lands— 16 because they rejected my laws and did not
follow my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths. For their hearts were
devoted to their idols. 17 Yet I looked on them with pity
and did not destroy them or put an end to them in the wilderness. 18 I
said to their children in the wilderness, “Do not follow the statutes of your
parents or keep their laws or defile yourselves with their
idols. 19 I am the Lord your
God; follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 20 Keep
my Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us. Then you will
know that I am the Lord your
God.”
21 “‘But the children rebelled against me: They did not follow my
decrees, they were not careful to keep my laws, of which I said, “The
person who obeys them will live by them,” and they desecrated my Sabbaths. So I
said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger against them in
the wilderness.
Where did God take the Israelites when He led them out of Egypt (verse
10)?
What did God give the Israelites in the
wilderness that they could obey and live (verse 11)?
In your opinion, how would the Sabbaths show
the Israelites that “the Lord made them holy” (verse 12)?
What did the Israelites do in the wilderness
(verse 13)?
What did God swear (verse 15)?
How did the Israelites feel about their idols (verse
16)?
In your opinion, why did God look at the
Israelites “with pity” (verse 17)?
What did God tell the children of the
Israelites (verse 18)?
How did God identify Himself to the children
(verse 19)?
Why were the children to “keep my Sabbaths
holy” (verse 20)?
How did the children respond to God (verse 21)?
In
your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, what can we learn about falling
short and/or overcoming in this passage?
John 5:36-47 - New
International Version (NIV)
36 “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works
that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify
that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me
has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor
seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for
you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You
study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you
have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about
me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
41 “I do not accept glory from human beings, 42 but
I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I
have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else
comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you
believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that
comes from the only God?
45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your
accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If
you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But
since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I
say?”
What
testimony does Jesus have that is “weightier than that of John” (verse 36)?
What does this testimony testify to (verse
36)?
Why have those listening to Jesus “never
heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you” (verses
37 and 38)?
Why do those same people “study the
Scriptures diligently” (verse 39)?
What do those Scriptures do (verse 39)?
In your opinion, why do the people
listening to Jesus refuse to come to Him “to have life” (verse 40)?
What does Jesus know they not have in
their hearts (verse 42)?
Who will they accept (verse 43)?
Who will accuse these people “before
the Father” (verse 45)?
Who would these people believe if they “believed
Moses” (verse 46)?
In your opinion, what is the basic
message of this passage?
In your opinion, what
can we learn about falling short and/or overcoming in this passage?
In your opinion, what can we learn from the failure
of the Israelites that Ezekiel was speaking because “they were not careful to keep my laws, of which I said, “The
person who obeys them will live by them,” that
Ezekiel 20:10-21 and the failure of the people that Jesus was talking to in
John 5:36-47 who “study the Scriptures diligently” but were not able to
believe in Jesus?
1
John 5:5-13 –
New International Version (NIV)
5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that
Jesus is the Son of God.
6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did
not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who
testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there
are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water
and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9 We accept
human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the
testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. 10 Whoever
believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not
believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed
the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is
the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his
Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not
have the Son of God does not have life.
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of
God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
“Who is it that overcomes the world” (verse 5)?
How did Jesus come (verse 6)?
In your opinion, what does it mean to come “by
water and blood” (verse 6)?
Who is the truth who testifies (verse 6)?
Who are the three who testify in agreement (verses
7 and 8)?
Why is God’s testimony greater (verse 9)?
What
does “whoever believes in the Son of God” accept (verse 10)?
Who
makes God “out to be a liar” (verse 10)?
What
is the testimony (verse 11)?
Who
has life (verse 12)?
Who
does not have life (verse 12)?
Who
does John write these things to (verse 13)?
In
your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, what can we learn about
falling short and/or overcoming in this passage?
In your opinion, how
does 1 John 5:5-13’s discussion about overcoming the world help us understand why
the people that Jesus was talking to in John 5:36-47 did not find Jesus in the
writings of Moses?
Revelation
5:8-14 – New International Version (NIV)
8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four
elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were
holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s
people. 9 And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased for God
persons from every tribe and language and people and
nation.
10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve
our God,
and they will reign on the earth.”
11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many
angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten
thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the
elders. 12 In a loud voice they were saying:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”
13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on
earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the
Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”
14 The four living creatures said,
“Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
What did the
“four living creatures and the twenty-four elders” do when Jesus took the
scroll (verse 8)?
Where “are the prayers of God’s people” (verse
8)?
Why, according to the new song, was Jesus “worthy
to take the scroll and to open its seals” (verse 9)?
What have the “persons from every tribe and
language and people and nation” that Jesus purchased been made into (verses
9 and 10)?
Who “encircled the throne and the living creatures
and the elders” (verse 11)?
What did they say the “Lamb, who was slain” was
worthy to receive (verse 12)?
How did “every creature in heaven and on earth and
under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them” respond (verse 13)?
What did the four living creatures do (verse 14)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, what can we learn about
falling short and/or overcoming in this passage?
In your opinion, how are
the people that God had brought from slavery in Egypt into the wilderness who
could not keep the Sabbath in Ezekiel 20:10-21 and all the rest of us who have failed
at keeping ourselves holy and also deserve God’s wrath able to find hope in
Revelation 5:8-14?
In your opinion, what does
Revelation 5:8-14 reveal to us about Jesus’s works He was to finish that
He said in John 5:36-47 “testify that the Father has sent me”?
In
your opinion, what is the difference between what 1 John 5:5-13 and Revelation
5:8-14 reveal about what the blood of Jesus does? How are both important?
In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezekiel,
John, 1 John and Revelation teach us about how we, like the Israelites freed
from slavery in Egypt through mighty acts of God and the people who actually
saw Jesus perform miracles, might fall short today? And what do they teach us about how to
overcome today?
In your opinion, how would you describe overcoming
the world (this might be considered a trick question)?
(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)
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