Oh No! Not Status Quo
Nehemiah
2:11-20 - New International Version (NIV)
11 I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days 12 I
set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what my God
had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except
the one I was riding on.
13 By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the
Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem,
which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by
fire. 14 Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and
the King’s Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get
through; 15 so I went up the valley by night, examining
the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate. 16 The
officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I
had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any
others who would be doing the work.
17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem
lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us
rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in
disgrace.” 18 I also told them about the gracious hand of
my God on me and what the king had said to me.
They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good
work.
19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official
and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed
us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against
the king?”
20 I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us
success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have
no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.”
Where did Nehemiah go (verse 11)?
What had Nehemiah not told the people (verse 12)?
How did Nehemiah find the walls and the gates
of Jerusalem (verse 13)?
What was there not enough room for “toward
the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool” (verse 14)?
Where did Nehemiah reenter (verse 15)?
Why did the officials not know where Nehemiah
was going or what he was doing (verse 16)?
What did Nehemiah want to do about Jerusalem
being in ruins and the gates being burned (verse 17)?
What did they start to do after Nehemiah told
them about the “gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to
me” (verse 18)?
How did Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite
and Geshem the Arab react when they heard what was going on (verse 19)?
Who did Nehemiah say would give success (verse 20)?
In
your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, what can we learn from this
passage about how God can be opposed and followed?
John 5:1-16 - New
International Version (NIV)
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish
festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep
Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is
surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great
number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One
who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When
Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a
long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the
pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes
down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and
walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat
and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and
so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the
Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick
up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up
and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had
slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See,
you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to
you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish
leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the
Jewish leaders began to persecute him.
Why
did Jesus go “up to Jerusalem” (verse 1)?
What is the pool near the Sheep Gate
called in Aramaic (verse 2)?
Who would lie there (verse 3)?
How long had the “one who was there” been
an invalid (verse 5)?
In your opinion, why did Jesus ask the
man, “do you want to get well” (verse 6)?
How did the man answer Jesus’s question (verse
7)?
What did Jesus tell the man (verse 8)?
What happened to the man and what did he
do (verse 9)?
Who told the man “it is the Sabbath;
the law forbids you to carry your mat” (verse 10)?
How did the man answer (verse 11)?
Why did the man have no idea who had healed
him (verses 12 and 13)?
What did Jesus warn the man (verse 14)?
What did the man tell the Jewish leaders
(verse 15)?
Why did the Jewish leaders begin to
persecute Jesus (verse 16)?
In your opinion, what is the basic
message of this passage?
In your opinion, what
can we learn from this passage about how God can be opposed and followed?
In your opinion, what can we learn from the fact that
Nehemiah and the other Jews were mocked and ridiculed when they began a good
work in Nehemiah 2:11-20 and Jesus was persecuted for doing a good work on the
Sabbath in John 5:1-16?
1
John 4:1-6 –
New International Version (NIV)
1 Dear friends, do not believe every
spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because
many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This
is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but
every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit
of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already
in the world.
4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome
them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in
the world. 5 They are from the world and therefore
speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We
are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God
does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of
truth and the spirit of falsehood.
What are the “dear friends” not to believe (verse
1)?
Why are they to “test the spirits to see whether
they are from God” (verse 1)?
How can we “recognize the Spirit of God” (verse
2)?
Which spirits are the antichrists (verse 3)?
Where are the antichrists (verse 3)?
Why have the “dear children”
overcome the antichrists (verse 4)?
Where
are the antichrists from (verse 5)?
What
viewpoint do the antichrists speak from (verse 5)?
How
does the world respond to the antichrists (verse 5)?
Who
listens to John (verse 6)?
Who
does not listen to John (verse 6)?
In
your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, what can we learn from this
passage about how God can be opposed and followed?
In your opinion, who in
John 5:1-16 meets the definition of antichrists that is given by 1 John 4:1-6?
Revelation
3:14-22 – New International Version (NIV)
14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of
the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s
creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither
cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So,
because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my
mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and
do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched,
pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy
from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white
clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve
to put on your eyes, so you can see.
19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and
repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat
with that person, and they with me.
21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit
with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my
Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them
hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Who is John to write to (verse 14)?
How is Jesus, who gives the words, described (verse 14)?
What does Jesus know (verse 15)?
In your opinion, why does Jesus wish they were either
hot or cold (verse 15)?
Why is Jesus about to spit them “out of my mouth”
(verse 16)?
What do the Christians of Laodicea say (verse 17)?
What do they not realize (verse 17)?
How does Jesus counsel them (verse 18)?
Who does Jesus “rebuke and discipline” (verse 19)?
How should the Laodicean Christians respond to the “rebuke
and discipline” (verse 19)?
What is Jesus doing (verse 20)?
Who will Jesus “come in and eat with” (verse
20)?
What will Jesus give to the “one who is
victorious” (verse 21)?
Who is to hear (verse 22)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this
passage?
In your opinion, what can we learn from
this passage about how God can be opposed and followed?
In your opinion, who,
in Nehemiah 2:11-20, was lukewarm like the Laodicean church of Revelation
3:14-22 and what was the rebuke and discipline that they responded to?
In your opinion, how
can the thirty-eight-year invalid in John 5:1-16 be an inspiration to the
Laodicean church of Revelation 3:14-22 who Jesus said was “wretched,
pitiful, poor, blind and naked” and who told “I stand at the
door and knock”?
In your opinion, what do these passages from Nehemiah,
John, 1 John and Revelation show about the willingness of God to be satisfied
with the status quo? How does help us
understand how God can be opposed, and how God can be followed?
In your opinion, how do people of the world move from
disgrace to victory?
(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)
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