July 8, 2018 – Kingdom Planting – Love and Rest

Love and Rest

Joshua 23:9-16 - New International Version (NIV)              

⁹ “The Lord has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you. ¹⁰ One of you routs a thousand, because the Lord your God fights for you, just as he promised. ¹¹ So be very careful to love the Lord your God.

¹² “But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, ¹³ then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you.

¹⁴ “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. ¹⁵ But just as all the good things the Lord your God has promised you have come to you, so he will bring on you all the evil things he has threatened, until the Lord your God has destroyed you from this good land he has given you. ¹⁶ If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.”

Who has driven out the “great and powerful nations” (verse 9)?

How could one Israelite rout a thousand (verse 10)?

What does Joshua tell the Israelites to “be very careful to” do (verse 11)?

In your opinion, why will the “survivors of these nations” become snares and traps for the Israelites if they intermarry and associate with them (verses 12 and 13)?

In your opinion, what does Joshua mean when he says he is “about to go the way of all the earth” (verse 14)?

What will the Lord bring on Israel just like “all the good things the Lord your God has promised have come to you” (verse 15)?

When will the Lord’s anger burn against the Israelites (verse 16)?

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

Mark 14:17-25 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁷ When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. ¹⁸ While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”

¹⁹ They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely you don’t mean me?”

²⁰ “It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me. ²¹ The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

²² While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”

²³ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.

²⁴ “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. ²⁵ “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

When did Jesus arrive with the Twelve (verse 17)?

Who did Jesus say would betray Him (verse 18)?

How did the Twelve feel about the idea that one of them would betray Jesus (verse 19)?

In your opinion, what is the significance of the statement “one who dips bread into the bowl with me” (verse 20)?

How will the Son of Man go (verse 21)?

What would have been better for the one who betrays Jesus (verse 21)?

When did Jeus say “take it; this is my body” (verse 22)?

When did Jesus give them the cup (verse 23)?

What is “poured out for many” (verse 24)?

When will Jesus drink “again from the fruit of the vine” (verse 24)?

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

In your opinion, what is the main difference between the departing message of Joshua to the people of Israel in Joshua 23:9-16 and the Last Supper message of Jesus to the Twelve in Mark 14:17-25?

Acts 17:22-34 – New International Version (NIV)

²² Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

²⁹ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. ³⁰ In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. ³¹ For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

³² When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” ³³ At that, Paul left the Council. ³⁴ Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

What did Paul see about the people of Athens (verse 22)?

Why did Paul say they were “ignorant of the very thing your worship” (verse 23)?

Who made “the world and everything in it” (verse 24)?

In your opinion, what does Paul mean by “he is not served by human hands” (verse 25)?

What did the Lord mark out (verse 26)?

In your opinion, what does Paul mean by “though he is not far from any one of us” (verse 27)?

Where do we “live and move and have our being” (verse 28)?

What should we not think that God is like (verse 29)?

What does God now command all people to do (verse 30)?

In your opinion, how is God raising Jesus from the dead proof that “he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed” (verse 31)?

How did the people react to Paul talking about resurrection of the dead (verse 32)?

What did some people do (verse 34)?

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

In your opinion, what is the difference between Joshua’s instruction of the Israelite people in Joshua 23:9-16 and Paul’s instruction to the people of Athens in Acts 17:22-34?

In your opinion, what is the a similarity between Jesus’s invitation to the Twelve in Mark 14:17-25 and Paul’s invitation the the people of Athens in Acts 17:22-34?

1 John 3:11-24 – New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. ¹² Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. ¹³ Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. ¹⁵ Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? ¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

¹⁹ This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: ²⁰ If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹ Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God ²² and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. ²³ And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. ²⁴ The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

What message have we heard from the beginning (verse 11)?

Why did Cain murder his brother (verse 12)?

What should not surprise Christians (verse 13)?

How do we “know that we have passed from death to life” (verse 14)?

In your opinion, why is anyone who hates a brother or sister” a murderer (verse 15)?

How do we know what love is (verse 16)?

What should we do for “our brothers and sisters” (verse 16)?

In your opinion, what is Paul saying in verse 17?

How should we love (verse 18)?

What do we know “if our hearts condemn us” (verse 20)?

When do we have “confidence before God” (verse 21)?

When do we “receive from him anything we ask” (verse 22)?

What is the command of God (verse 23)?

Where does  the one who keeps God’s command live (verse 24)?

How do we know that God lives in us (verse 24)?

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

In your opinion, how does Joshua’s instruction to “be very careful to love the Lord your God” in Joshua 23:9-16 become John’s messges that “we should love one another” in 1 John 3:11-24?

In your opinion, how is Jesus’s message to the Twelve in Mark 14:17-25 the foundation of John’s message to Christians in 1 John 3:11-24?

In your opinion, how does John’s statement that “we know it by the Spirit he gave us” in 1 John 3:11-24 help us understand Paul’s statement in Acts 17:22-34 that “in him we live and move and have our being”?

In your opinion, how do these passages from Joshua, Mark, Acts, and 1 John help us have confidence “that we belong to the truth”?

In your opinion, how does loving others “with actions and in truth” help us “set our hearts at rest in his presence”?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)