Saturday, April 8, 2023

April 23, 2023 – John’s Writings – Finding Jesus in the Babel

Finding Jesus in the Babel

 Going Up or Down? - YouTube   - This is a sermon that has the following scriptures as its basis.

Genesis 11:1-9 - New International Version (NIV)

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

How many languages did the world have (verse 1)?

Where did the people settle (verse 2)?

What did they use instead of stone and mortar (verse 3)?

Why were they building a city “with a tower that reaches to the heavens” (verse 4)?

Who came to see the city and the tower (verse 5)?

In your opinion what is meant by “if as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them?” (verse 6)?

How was the Lord going to change things (verse 7)?

Where did the Lord scatter the people (verse 8)?

Why is the place called Babel (verse 10)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about finding what we are seeking?

John 10:31-42 - New International Version (NIV)

31 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

33 “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’? 35 If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— 36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? 37 Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” 39 Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.

40 Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. There he stayed, 41 and many people came to him. They said, “Though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man was true.” 42 And in that place many believed in Jesus.

What did Jesus’s Jewish opponents do (verse 31)?

How did Jesus respond (verse 32)?

Why did the Jewish opponents say they were going to stone Jesus (verse 33)?

What did Jesus say was “written in your Law” (verse 34)?

In your opinion, who was Jesus suggesting that those who were picking up the stones were (verses 35 and 36)?

When were they to believe Jesus (verse 37)?

What were they to believe in even if they did not believe Jesus (verse 38)?

How did they react to Jesus’s words (verse 39)?

Where did Jesus go next (verse 40)?

What did the people who came to Jesus say (verse 41)?

How did they react to Jesus (verse 42)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about finding what we are seeking?

In your opinion, which of the groups of people who react to Jesus in John 10:31-48 were like the people of Genesis 11:1-9?

1 John 3:19-24 – New International Version (NIV)

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.

How do we know that we “belong to the truth” (verses 19 and 21)?

Who is greater than our hearts (verse 20)?

What does God know (verse 20)?

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

In your opinion, what does it mean to “keep his commands and do what pleases him” (verse 22)?

What is His command (verse 23)?

Who “lives in him” (verse 24)?

How do we know “that he lives in us” (verse 24)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about finding what we are seeking?

In your opinion, how does the motive of those who were building the tower in Genesis 11:1-9 contrast with the instructions of 1 John 3:19-24?

In your opinion, which group of people from John 10:31-42 would be more likely to follow the instructions of 1 John 3:19-24?  Why?

Revelation 17:1-6 – New International Version (NIV)

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.”

Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. The name written on her forehead was a mystery:

babylon the great

the mother of prostitutes

and of the abominations of the earth.

I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.

Who came to John (verse 1)?

What did he want to show John (verse 1)?

Who was “intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries” (verse 2)?

Where did the angel carry John (verse 3)?

What was the woman sitting on (verse 3)?

In your opinion, what does Revelation 12:3 or Revelation 13:1 help us understand more about the beast the woman was sitting on (verse 3)?

How was the woman dressed (verse 4)?

What was she holding (verse 4)?

Where is the name “Babylon the Great – The Mother of Prostitutes – And of the Abominations of the Earth” written (verse 5)?

What was the woman drunk on (verse 6)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about finding what we are seeking?

In your opinion, what is the relationship between the tower of Genesis 11:1-9 and the woman of Revelation 17:1-6?

In your opinion, who, in John 10:31-42, is intoxicated with the wine of” the woman on the scarlet beast in Revelation 17:1-6?  Do you think they would view their action in this way?

In your opinion, how can the simple command to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us” help us navigate the challenges of the intoxicating wine the woman in Revelation 17:1-6 offers? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Genesis, John, 1 John and Revelation help us recognize about following the One who loved and died to rise again or seeking to make a name for ourselves?

In your opinion, how do we find rest for our hearts in a world which “Babels” about the greatness of Babylon?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

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