April 2, 2023 – John’s Writings – Love, Accepted or Refused

Love, Accepted or Refused

Isaiah 52:3-10 - New International Version (NIV)

³ For this is what the Lord says:

“You were sold for nothing,
    and without money you will be redeemed.”

⁴ For this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“At first my people went down to Egypt to live;
    lately, Assyria has oppressed them.

⁵ “And now what do I have here?” declares the Lord.

“For my people have been taken away for nothing,
    and those who rule them mock,”
declares the Lord.
“And all day long
    my name is constantly blasphemed.
⁶ Therefore my people will know my name;
    therefore in that day they will know
that it is I who foretold it.
    Yes, it is I.”

⁷ How beautiful on the mountains
    are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
    who bring good tidings,
    who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
    “Your God reigns!”
⁸ Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
    together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion,
    they will see it with their own eyes.
⁹ Burst into songs of joy together,
    you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people,
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
¹⁰ The Lord will lay bare his holy arm
    in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see
    the salvation of our God.

What were the people of Israel and Judah sold for (verse 3)?

What will they be redeemed for (verse 3)?

In your opinion, how are Egypt and Assyria similar (verse 4)?

When is God’s name blasphemed (verse 5)?

Who will know God’s name (verse 6)?

Whose feet are “beautiful on the mountains” (verse 7)?

What will the watchmen see “with their own eyes” (verse 8)?

Why are the ruins of Jerusalem to “burst into songs of joy” (verse 6)?

Where will the “salvation of our God” be seen (verse 10)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about listening to God’s voice?

John 10:11-18 - New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³ The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

¹⁴ “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. ¹⁷ The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. ¹⁸ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

What is Jesus (verse 11)?

What does the good shepherd do (verse 11)?

In your opinion, why does this not say “lays down his life for his sheep” (verse 11)?

What does the wolf do (verse 12)?

Why does the hired man run away (verse 13)?

Who knows the shepherd (verse 14)?

What does the good shepherd do for the sheep (verse 15)?

How many flocks will there be (verse 16)?

What will Jesus do with His life (verse 17)?

Who takes Jesus life from Him (verse 18)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about listening to God’s voice?

In your opinion, how is the salvation of God that Isaiah 52:3-10 talks about related to the laying down of His life Jesus is telling about in John 10:11-18?

1 John 3:1-6 – 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.

What is the result of the “great love the Father has lavished on us” (verse 1)?

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

What are we (verse 2)?

When will we be like Christ (verse 2)?

What do people who have “this hope in him” do (verse 3)?

Who “breaks the law” (verse 4)?

What is sin (verse 4)?

Why did Jesus appear (verse 5)?

How do people who live in Jesus change (verse 6)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about listening to God’s voice?

In your opinion, what does 1 John 3:1-6 help us understand about the redemption that Isaiah 52:3-10 says will happen “without money”?

In your opinion, how does John 10:11-18 help us understand about how amazingly great the love that 1 John 3:1-6 says that God has “lavished on us” is?

Revelation 16:8-11 – New International Version (NIV)

⁸ The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. ⁹ They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.

¹⁰ The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in agony ¹¹ and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.

What was the sun allowed to do when the fourth angel poured out his bowl (verse 8)?

How did the people who were “seared by the intense heat” respond to God (verse 9)?

What did the people refuse to do (verse 9)?

Where did the fifth angel pour out his bowl (verse 10)?

What happened when he poured out his bowl (verse 10)?

Why did people gnaw their tongues (verse 10)?

How did people respond to God (verse 11)?

What did people refuse to do (verse 11)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about listening to God’s voice?

In your opinion, how are the people who were “sold for nothing” in Isaiah 52:3-10 similar to the people who “cursed the God of heaven” in Revelation 16:8-11?  How are the people who are redeemed in Isaiah 52:3-10 different from the people in Revelation?

In your opinion, how can the God who is the Shepherd and who lays down His life in John 10:11-18 be the same God who brings the plagues in Revelation 16:8-11?

In your opinion, why do those who are receiving the force of the plagues in Revelation 16:8-11 refuse to “see” and know the one that 1 John 3:1-6 says came to “take away our sins”? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Isaiah, John, 1 John and Revelation help us understand about who Jesus loves enough to lay down His life for?

In your opinion, what is the difference between those who respond to Jesus’s voice by coming to Him and those who refuse to repent?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)