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)

- The January 19, 2020 – Mark’s Good News about Jesus – Rejected and Accepted Lavish Love

Rejected and Accepted Lavish Love


2 Kings 1:1-8 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ After Ahab’s death, Moab rebelled against Israel. ² Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers, saying to them, “Go and consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if I will recover from this injury.”

³ But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’ ⁴ Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!’” So Elijah went.

⁵ When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, “Why have you come back?”

⁶ “A man came to meet us,” they replied. “And he said to us, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, “This is what the Lord says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!”’”

⁷ The king asked them, “What kind of man was it who came to meet you and told you this?”

⁸ They replied, “He had a garment of hair and had a leather belt around his waist.”

The king said, “That was Elijah the Tishbite.”

Who rebelled against Israel after Ahab dies (verse 1)?

Why did Ahaziah send messengers to “Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron” (verse 2)?

Who sent Elijah the Tishbite to meet the messengers (verse 3)?

How was Ahaziah’s question for Baal-Zebub answered by the Lord (verse 4)?

In your opinion, why did king Ahaziah ask the messengers “why have you come back” (verse 5)?

How did the messengers answer the king (verse 6)?

What did the king ask the messengers (verse 7)?

How did the king know it was “Elijah the Tishbite” (verse 8)?

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

Mark 3:20-35 - New International Version (NIV)

²⁰ Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. ²¹ When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

²² And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”

²³ So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? ²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵ If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. ²⁶ And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. ²⁷ In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house. ²⁸ Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, ²⁹ but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”

³⁰ He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.”

³¹ Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. ³² A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

³³ “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

³⁴ Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

How big was the crowd that gathered when Jesus entered the house (verse 20)?

Why did His family go “to take charge of him” (verse 21)?

Who said “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” (verse 22)?

How did Jesus begin to speak to them (verse 23)?

In your opinion, why can a kingdom that is divided against itself not stand (verse 24)?

What has come if “Satan opposes himself and is divided” (verse 26)?

When can a strong man’s house be plundered (verse 27)?

Who can be “forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter” (verse 28)?

Who will never be forgiven (verse 29)?

What were they saying about Jesus (verse 30)?

Who stood outside looking for Jesus (verse 32)?

In your opinion, why did Jesus ask “who are my mother and brothers” (verse 33)?

Who is Jesus “brother and sister and mother” (verse 35)?

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

In your opinion, how are Ahaziah from 2 Kings 1:1-8, Jesus’s mother and brothers, and the teacher of the law who came from Jerusalem in Mark 3:20-35 similar? 

Acts 5:27-42 – New International Version (NIV)

²⁷ The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. ²⁸ “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”

²⁹ Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! ³⁰ The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. ³¹ God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. ³² We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

³³ When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. ³⁴ But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. ³⁵ Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. ³⁶ Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. ³⁷ After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. ³⁸ Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. ³⁹ But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

⁴⁰ His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

⁴¹ The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. ⁴² Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.

Who were the apostles made to appear before (verse 27)?

In your opinion, why did the high priest say that the apostles were “determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood” (verse 28)?

Who said “we must obey God rather than human beings” (verse 29)?

Who “raised Jesus from the dead” (verse 30)?

Why did God exalt Jesus “to his own right hand as Prince and Savior” (verse 31)?

Who are the witnesses “of these things” (verse 32)?

How did the Sanhedrin react to what the apostles said (verse 33)?

What did Gamaliel order (verse 34)?

Why did Gamaliel say that the Sanhedrin should “consider carefully what you intend to do to these men” (verses 35, 36, 37, 38 and 39)?

What did the Sanhedrin order should happen the apostles (verse 40)?

Why did the apostles rejoice (verse 41)?

How did the apostles react to the Sanhedrin’s order in verse 40 to not “speak in the name of Jesus” (verse 42)?

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

In your opinion, how are Elijah in 2 Kings 1:1-8 and the apostles in Acts 5:27-42 similar?

In your opinion, what does the dispute between the Sanhedrin and the apostles in Acts 5:27-42 help us understand about Jesus statement about His mother and brothers in Mark 3:20-35?

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.

¹¹ For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

How can we understand that the Father has lavished great love on us (verse 1)?

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

What do the children of God not yet know (verse 2)?

When will we see Christ “as he is” (verse 2)?

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

Who breaks the law (verse 4)?

Why did Jesus appear (verse 5)?

In your opinion, what does James mean by “no one who lives in him keeps on sinning” (verse 6)?

Who is righteous (verse 7)?

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

Who is God’s seed in (verse 9)?

How can we tell “who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are” (verse 10)?

What is the message heard from the beginning (verse 11)?

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

In your opinion, how does John’s statement that “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work”  in 1 John 3:1-10 help us understand why Ahaziah, who reached out to the god of Ekron instead of the God of Israel was never able to leave his bed in 2 Kings 1:1-8?

In your opinion, what does John’s statement that “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.” in 1 John 3:1-10 help us understand about the desire of Jesus for the teachers of the law and for His mother and brothers who were outside the circle of those He claimed as His mother and brothers in Mark 3:20-35?

In your opinion, how are the decisions and acts of the Apostles in Acts 5:27-42 an illustration of how Christians are to love one and other according to 1 John 3:1-10?

In your opinion, what do these passages from 2 Kings, Mark, Acts and 1 John teach us about the differences between those who accept the “great love the Father has lavished on us” and those who have not?

In your opinion, as recipients of the “great love the Father has lavished on us” how are we to be obedient to the command to “love one another”?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

May 3, 2015 – The Great Commission – A Study of Matthew – The Dead and the Living

  

Matthew 28:18-20 – New International Version (NIV) – The Great Commission

¹⁸ “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The Dead and the Living

Matthew 22:23-33 – New International Version (NIV)

²³ “That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. ²⁴ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. ²⁵ Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. ²⁶ The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. ²⁷ Finally, the woman died. ²⁸ Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

²⁹ Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. ³⁰ At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. ³¹ But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

³³ When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.”

What do the Sadducees say (verse 23)?

Who do the Sadducees reference in asking Jesus their question (verse 24)?

Why is the brother of a man who dies without children supposed to marry his brother’s widow (verse 24)?

How many brothers was the widow in the question supposed to have married (verses 25 and 26)?

In your opinion, why did the Sadducees ask Jesus this question (verse 28)?

Why does Jesus say the Sadducees are in error (verse 29)?

Who will people be like at the resurrection (verse 30)?

Who said something about the “resurrection of the dead” (verse 31)?

In your opinion, why is Jesus able to say that God is “not the God of the dead but of the living” (verse 32)?

How did the crowds respond to the teaching of Jesus (verse 33)?

In your opinion, what does this passage from Matthew 22:23-33 show us about the Great Commission?

Exodus 3:1-10 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ “Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

⁵ “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

⁷ The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. ⁸ So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ⁹ And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰ So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Where was Moses tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law (verse 1)?

How did the angel of the Lord appear to Moses (verse 2)?

Why did Moses go over to the bush (verse 3)?

How did Moses reply when God called “Moses! Moses!” (verse 4)?

In your opinion, why was the place where Moses was standing “holy ground” (verse 5)?

Why did Moses hide his face when God said “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (verse 6)?

What had God seen (verse 7)?

Where was God moving “his people” to (verse 8)?

How were the Egyptians treating the Israelites (verse 9)?

Why was God sending Moses to the Pharaoh (verse 10)?

In your opinion, why did the Sadducees who were trying to trap Jesus in Matthew 22:23-33 not remember the words of God in Exodus 3:1-10, which must have been one of their favorite stories?

In your opinion, what does this passage from Exodus show us about the Great Commission?

Philippians 3:15-21 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ “All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. ¹⁶ Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

¹⁷ Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. ¹⁸ For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

Who does Paul say should “take such a view of things” (verse 15)?

What will God do “if at some point you think differently” (verse 15)?

How should we live (verse 16)?

In your opinion, why should we follow Paul’s example and keep our “eyes on those who live as we do” (verse 17)?

Why does Paul have tears (verse 18)?

What is the destiny of the “enemies of the cross of Christ” (verse 19)?

In your opinion, why is the glory of the “enemies of the cross of Christ” “in their shame” (verse 19)?

Where is our citizenship (verse 20)?

How do we wait for “a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 20)?

What will Jesus do “by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control” (verse 21)?

In your opinion, how is knowledge that Jesus will “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” from Philippians 3:15-21 help us to understand how God is able to be “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” as it states in Exodus 3:1-10?

In your opinion, how does Paul’s discussion about the “power that enables him to bring everything under his control” in Philippians 3:15-21 help us to not make the error of the Sadducees in Matthew 22:23-33 of not knowing “the Scriptures or the power of God”?

In your opinion, what does this passage from Philippians show us about the Great Commission?

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 are we (verse 1)?

What will be “when Christ appears” (verse 2)?

In your opinion, why do those “who have this hope in him purify themselves” (verse 3)?

Who breaks the law (verse 4)?

Why did Christ appear (verse 5)?

What does the “one who lives in him” not do (verse 6)?

What are we not to let anyone do (verse 7)?

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

Why does the “one who is born of God” not go on sinning (verse 9)?

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

In your opinion, what can we learn about our “citizenship” “in heaven” that Paul talks about in Philippians 3:15-21 from the discussion of John in 1 John 3:1-10 about the change to those “born of God” because “God’s seed remains in them”?

In your opinion, how is it reassuring to us today that the God who said “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” in Exodus 3:1-10 is also the one who 1 John 3:1-10 says children we are because Christ appeared to take away our sins?

In your opinion, how does it make you feel that the one who said in Matthew 22:23-33 “He is not the God of the dead but of the living” is also the one who when He appears “we shall be like him” according to 1 John 3:1-10?

In your opinion, what does this passage from 1 John show us about the Great Commission?

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