May 14, 2023 – John’s Writings – Come Out of the World

 Come Out of the World

Jeremiah 51:6-10 - New International Version (NIV)

⁶ “Flee from Babylon!
    Run for your lives!
    Do not be destroyed because of her sins.
It is time for the Lord’s vengeance;
    he will repay her what she deserves.
⁷ Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord’s hand;
    she made the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
    therefore they have now gone mad.
⁸ Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken.
    Wail over her!
Get balm for her pain;
    perhaps she can be healed.

⁹ “‘We would have healed Babylon,
    but she cannot be healed;
let us leave her and each go to our own land,
    for her judgment reaches to the skies,
    it rises as high as the heavens.’

¹⁰ “‘The Lord has vindicated us;
    come, let us tell in Zion
    what the Lord our God has done.’

 

How are the Israelites to avoid being destroyed because of Babylon’s sins (verse 6)?

What is it time for (verse 6)?

Where was the gold cup of Babylon (verse 7)?

Why have the nations gone mad (verse 7)?

What will happen to Babylon (verse 8)?

Why will Babylon not be healed (verse 9)?

How high does Babylon’s judgment reach (verse 9)?

What will the Israelites “tell in Zion” (verse 10)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about living in a fallen world?

John 11:28-37 - New International Version (NIV)

²⁸ After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” ²⁹ When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

³² When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ³⁴ “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

³⁵ Jesus wept.

³⁶ Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

What did Martha tell Mary (verse 28)?

How did Mary respond (verse 29)?

Where was Jesus (verse 30)?

Where did the Jews who had been comforting Mary think she was going (verse 31)?

What did Mary tell Jesus (verse 32)?

How did Jesus respond to Mary’s and the Jews’ weeping (verse 33)?

In your opinion, what is the significance of the Jews telling Jesus “come and see” (verse 34)?

What did Jesus do (verse 35)?

Who said “see how he loved him” (verse 36)?

What did “some of them say” (verse 37)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about living in a fallen world?

In your opinion, how is the running out of Babylon in Jeremiah 51:6-10 different from Mary’s going quickly to Jesus in John 11:28-37?  How could they be similar?

1 John 4:7-15 – New International Version (NIV)

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

¹³ This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 

Where does love come from (verse 7)?

Who “has been born of God and knows God” (verse 7)?

Who does not love (verse 8)?

How did God show “his love among us” (verse 9)?

What is love (verse 10)?

How should Christians respond to God loving us (verse 11)?

Where does God live (verse 12)?

How can we know that “we live in him and he in us” (verse 13)?

What does John testify that the Father did (verse 14)?

Who does God live in (verse 15)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about living in a fallen world?

In your opinion, what is similar between the vengeance of Jeremiah 51:6-10 and the love of 1 John 4:7-15? 

In your opinion, how is the love of God that is described in 1 John 4:7-15 demonstrated in John 11:28-27?

Revelation 18:1-8 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. ² With a mighty voice he shouted:

“‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’
    She has become a dwelling for demons
and a haunt for every impure spirit,
    a haunt for every unclean bird,
    a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal.
³ For all the nations have drunk
    the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
    and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”

⁴ Then I heard another voice from heaven say:

“‘Come out of her, my people,’
    so that you will not share in her sins,
    so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
⁵ for her sins are piled up to heaven,
    and God has remembered her crimes.
⁶ Give back to her as she has given;
    pay her back double for what she has done.
    Pour her a double portion from her own cup.
⁷ Give her as much torment and grief
    as the glory and luxury she gave herself.
In her heart she boasts,
    ‘I sit enthroned as queen.
I am not a widow;
    I will never mourn.’
⁸ Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her:
    death, mourning and famine.
She will be consumed by fire,
    for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.

How was the earth affected by the angel who came down from heaven (verse 1)?

What did the angel shout (verse 2)?

Who has “drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries” (verse 3)?

What said “come out of her, my people” (verse 4)?

Why were the people to come out (verse 4)?

What has God remembered (verse 5)?

How is Babylon to be paid back (verse 6)?

What is the relationship between the torment and grief she will be given and the glory and luxury she gave herself (verse 7)?

How quickly will “her plagues” overtake her (verse 8)?

What will consume Babylon (verse 8)?

How is “the Lord God who judges her” described (verse 8)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about living in a fallen world?

In your opinion, how is Jeremiah 51:6-10’s statement to “Run for your lives! Do not be destroyed because of her sins.” different from Revelation 18:1-8’s statement to “Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins”?

In your opinion, how might Mary’s getting up and going to Jesus in John 11:28-37 serve as an example of how the people in Revelation 18:1-8 should “Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins”?

In your opinion, how is the love of God that is proclaimed in 1 John 4:7-15 shown even in the destruction of Babylon as predicted in Revelation 18:1-8? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Jeremiah, John, 1 John and Revelation teach us about how someone can “come out” of the world?

In your opinion, how do those who have “come out” of the world live in the world of today?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)