Saturday, June 10, 2023

June 18, 2023 – John’s Writings – Seek the Lord

Seek the Lord

Zephaniah 1:14-2:3 - New International Version (NIV)

14 The great day of the Lord is near—
    near and coming quickly.
The cry on the day of the Lord is bitter;
    the Mighty Warrior shouts his battle cry.
15 That day will be a day of wrath—
    a day of distress and anguish,
        a day of trouble and ruin,
    a day of darkness and gloom,
        a day of clouds and blackness—
16     a day of trumpet and battle cry
against the fortified cities
    and against the corner towers.

17 “I will bring such distress on all people
    that they will grope about like those who are blind,
    because they have sinned against the Lord.
Their blood will be poured out like dust
    and their entrails like dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold
    will be able to save them
    on the day of the Lord’s wrath.”

In the fire of his jealousy
    the whole earth will be consumed,
for he will make a sudden end
    of all who live on the earth.

2 Gather together, gather yourselves together,
    you shameful nation,
before the decree takes effect
    and that day passes like windblown chaff,
before the Lord’s fierce anger
    comes upon you,
before the day of the Lord’s wrath
    comes upon you.
Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land,
    you who do what he commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility;
    perhaps you will be sheltered
    on the day of the Lord’s anger.

Where is “the great day of the Lord” (verse 14)?

What will that day be (verses 15 and 16)?

Why will people “grope about like those who are blind” (verse 17)?

What will happen to the earth (verse 18)?

Who is commanded to “gather yourselves together” (verse 2:1)?

When are they to gather (verse 2)?

Who is to “seek the Lord” (verse 3)?

How might someone be sheltered “on the day of the Lord’s anger” (verse 3)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about people’s relationship with the Heavenly Father?

John 14:1-7 - New International Version (NIV)

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

What are Jesus’s disciples not to let “be troubled” (verse 1)?

Who do they believe in (verse 1)?

Who are they also to believe in (verse 1)?

What does Jesus’s Father’s house have (verse 2)?

Who is Jesus going to prepare “a place for” (verse 2)?

Where will Jesus take them (verse 3)?

What do the disciples know (verse 4)?

Who said “Lord, we don’t know” (verse 5)?

What is Jesus (verse 6)?

What is the only way to the Father (verse 6)?

Who do the disciples know “from now on” (verse 7)?

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

In your opinion, is this message from Jesus to the disciples also for us?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about people’s relationship with the Heavenly Father?

In your opinion, what is the difference between the outcome of the instruction in Zephaniah 1:14-2:3 to Seek righteousness, seek humility” and the outcome of the instruction of Jesus in John 14:1-7 to “do not let your hearts be troubled”?

1 John 2:15-23 – New International Version (NIV)

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

Why does John say not to love “the world or anything in the world” (verse 15)?

Where does “everything in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” come from (verse 16)?

What passes away (verse 17)?

Who “lives forever” (verse 17)?

What time is it (verse 18)?

How do we know what time it is (verse 18)?

What showed that the antichrists “did not really belong to us” (verse 19)?

Who has “has an anointing from the Holy One” (verse 20)?

Where does “no lie” come from (verse 21)?

“Who is the liar” (verse 22)?

What does and antichrist do (verse 22)?

Who has the Father (verse 23)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about people’s relationship with the Heavenly Father?

In your opinion, how are both Zephaniah 1:14-2:3 and 1 John 2:12-23 explanations of the difference between choosing to be humble before God or choosing the world?

In your opinion, how is the instruction of Jesus in John 14:1-7 to “do not let your hearts be troubled” related to the instruction from John in 1 John 2:15-23 to “do not love the world or anything in the world”?

Revelation 19:17-21 – New International Version (NIV)

17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.”

19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. 20 But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21 The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

Where was the angel standing (verse 17)?

Who did the angel cry out to (verse 17)?

Why were the birds to gather (verse 17)?

Whose flesh was to be eaten (verse 18)?

Why did the “beast and the kings of the earth and their armies” gather (verse 19)?

What happened to the beast and the false prophet (verse 20)?

How had the false prophet “deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image” (verse 20)?

What happened to the beast and the false prophet (verse 20)?

How were the rest killed (verse 21)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about people’s relationship with the Heavenly Father?

In your opinion, is there significance in the difference between Zephaniah 1:14-2:3 that the distress will be for all people, but those who seek righteousness and humility may be sheltered from the Lord’s anger, and Revelation 19:17-21 that all those who oppose the rider and His army will be captured or killed?

In your opinion, how can the One who goes to prepare a place in John 14:1-7 also be the One who kills with the Sword coming from His mouth in Revelation 19:17-21?

In your opinion, how does Revelation 19:17-21 expand the way we might understand John’s statement in 1 John 2:15-23 that “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever”? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Zephaniah, John, 2 John and Revelation teach us the about the choice between loving the world or trusting in and loving God?

In your opinion, how is obedience to the command to “seek the Lord” transformational?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

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