March 5, 2023 – John’s Writings – God is Working

God is Working

Exodus 12:1-13 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ² “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. ³ Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. ⁴ If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. ⁵ The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. ⁶ Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. ⁷ Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. ⁸ That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. ⁹ Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. ¹⁰ Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. ¹¹ This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.

¹² “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. ¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

Where were Moses and Aaron when God gave them the message (verse 1)?

In your opinion, why was this month “to be for you the first month, the first month of your year” (verse 2)?

What is each man to take on the tenth day of the month (verse 3)?

How is a household to respond if it is too small “for a whole lamb” (verse 4)?

Where will the lambs come from (verse 5)?

When will the lambs be slaughtered (verse 6)?

Where is the blood to be put (verse 7)?

What is to be eaten with the lamb (verse 8)?

How is the lamb to be prepared (verse 9)?

What is to happen to any meat that is left over (verse 10)?

How is the Lord’s Passover to be eaten (verse 11)?

What will happen when God passes through Egypt (verse 12)?

Who will the Lord bring judgment on (verse 12)?

What will happen when God sees the blood (verse 13)?

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

In your opinion, how does this passage display God working?

John 9:1-12 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

³ “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. ⁴ As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵ While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

⁶ After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ⁷ “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

⁸ His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹ Some claimed that he was.

Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”

But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”

¹⁰ “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.

¹¹ He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”

¹² “Where is this man?” they asked him.

“I don’t know,” he said.

What did Jesus see (verse 1)?

In your opinion, why would the disciples ask “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind (verse 2)?

Why was the man born blind (verse 3)?

When must Jesus and the disciples “do the works of him who sent me” (verse 4)?

When is Jesus “the light of the world” (verse 5)?

What did Jesus do (verse 6)?

What happened when the man “went and washed” (verse 7)?

Who asked “isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg” (verse 8)?

In your opinion, why would others say “no, he only looks like him” (verse 9)?

How did the man answer the question “how then were your eyes opened” (verses 10 & 11)?

How did the man answer the question “where is this man” (verse 12)?

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

In your opinion, how does this passage display God working?

In your opinion, how are the acts of putting the blood on the sides and top of the doorframes in Exodus 12:1-13 and  going to the pool to wash in John 9:1-12 similar?  How are the results of the two acts similar?

1 John 2:1-6 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. ² He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

³ We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. ⁴ Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. ⁵ But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: ⁶ Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

Why does John write (verse 1)?

Who is the “advocate with the Father” for the one who sins (verse 1)?

Who is Jesus “the atoning sacrifice” for (verse 2)?

What do we have to do “if we keep his commands” (verse 3)?

Who is a liar (verse 4)?

What happens to anyone who “obeys his word” (verse 5)?

How must the one who claims to live in Jesus live (verse 6)?

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

In your opinion, how does this passage display God working?

In your opinion, how are the lambs that were sacrificed in Exodus 12:1-13 and the atoning sacrifice of 1 John 2:1-6 similar in what they accomplish?

In your opinion, how are the work of Jesus in returning sight to the blind man in John 9:1-12 and His work as the atoning sacrifice in 1 John 2:1-6 different? 

Revelation 14:6-13 – New International Version (NIV)

⁶ Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. ⁷ He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

⁸ A second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”

⁹ A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, ¹⁰ they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. ¹¹ And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” ¹² This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.

¹³ Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”

“Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”

What did the “angel flying in midair” have to proclaim (verse 6)?

Who was it to be proclaimed to (verse 6)?

Why should we “fear God and give him glory” (verse 7)?

How is God described (verse 7)?

Who does the second angel say is fallen (verse 8)?

What had the one who had fallen made the nations drink (verse 8)?

What will the one who “worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand” drink (verses 9 and 10)?

How long will “the smoke of their torment” rise (verse 11)?

What does this call for “on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus” (verse 12)?

Who does the voice say is blessed (verse 13)?

What will they rest from (verse 13)?

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

In your opinion, how does this passage display God working?

In your opinion, how are the differences between the people of Israel and the people of Egypt in Exodus 12:1-13, similar to the differences between the people of God and the people who worship the beast and take its mark in Revelation 14:6-13?

In your opinion, how is the choice the man who had mud put on his eyes by Jesus made, to do what Jesus said or do something else, in John 9:1-12 the same choice as those who hear the “eternal gospel” in Revelation 14:6-13 have to make?

In your opinion, how does 1 John 2:1-6 proclaiming that Jesus is the advocate for those who sin help the people of God to have “patient endurance” in the circumstances of Revelation 14:6-13? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Exodus, John, 1 John and Revelation teach us about God’s judgment and how people are prepared to be passed over?

In your opinion, how, in the turmoil between those who follow God and those who reject God, can God display His work in us today?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)