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Advent – John Study Guide

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For believers Advent is the Christmas season where we celebrate the arrival of Christ the first time as well as looking forward to his coming in the future for a second time.

Advent season is when the Church has historically looked back to his first arrival and looked ahead to his second arrival and then looked around with those two views in mind to remember how to live now.

So advent is a time to reflect on time…past, present, future… and what God is doing in time.

What exactly is time?

Objective:

To understand that all of time is centered on the advents of Christ, His coming and his future return, and its application for all of life. Advent should focus us on what is most valuable now—Christ Advents has an impact on how we’re to live in space and time.

Read:

Gal. 4:4, But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son.

Eccl. 3:11, He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Gen. 1:1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Is. 46:10, I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.

John 1:1-14, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 14:21, Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

Study

What do we learn from these verses about God and time?

What is the prevailing view of the cosmos?

How are the previous two answers different?

Why does it matter in my own personal time line that the Advent of Christ is real?

How does “time”, as God created it, influence our actions—the things we do in a typical day?

Apply:

Understand that every part of a “single-story” life (a life lived fully for God in all life circumstances) would be a life of application. In other words, the Advent of Christ Jesus brings meaning to all of life.

Take some time and consider your own life.

Here are a few areas to think about:

  • Moral purity
  • Forgive an offense
  • Take the appropriate risks and sacrifices of faith
  • Be faithful to your friends, your family, you job, God.
  • Suffering, sickness and loss
  • Promotion, recognition, and success

Pray through these and other areas that come to mind and ask God to reveal

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