September 18, 2022 – John’s Writings – Power and Love

Power and Love

Ezekiel 1:15-28 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. ¹⁶ This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. ¹⁷ As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not change direction as the creatures went. ¹⁸ Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.

¹⁹ When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the living creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose. ²⁰ Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. ²¹ When the creatures moved, they also moved; when the creatures stood still, they also stood still; and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

²² Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was what looked something like a vault, sparkling like crystal, and awesome. ²³ Under the vault their wings were stretched out one toward the other, and each had two wings covering its body. ²⁴ When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings.

²⁵ Then there came a voice from above the vault over their heads as they stood with lowered wings. ²⁶ Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. ²⁷ I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. ²⁸ Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.

This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

What was on the ground beside “each creature with its four faces” (verse 15)?

How were the wheels structured (verse 16)?

In your opinion, why did the wheels “not change direction as the creatures went” (verse 17)?

What were the rims full of (verse 18)?

What happened when the living creatures moved (verse 19)?

Where was the spirit of the living creatures (verse 20)?

What was spread out “above the heads of the living creatures” (verse 22)?

What did Ezekiel hear when the creatures moved (verse 24)?

Where did the voice come from (verse 25)?

How was the figure described (verse 27)?

What was the appearance the likeness of (verse 28)?

How did Ezekiel react when he saw it (verse 28)?

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

In your opinion, what can we learn about God in this passage?

John 5:16-23 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁶ So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. ¹⁷ In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” ¹⁸ For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

¹⁹ Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. ²¹ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. ²² Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³ that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

Why did the Jewish leaders begin to persecute Jesus (verse 16)?

What did Jesus say “in his defense” (verse 17)?

In your opinion, why would Jesus’s defense cause the Jewish leader to try “all the more to kill him” (verse 18)?

What can the Son do “by himself” (verse 19)?

What can the Son only do (verse 19)?

What does the Father show the Son (verse 20)?

How will the Jewish leaders respond to the greater works that the Father will show the Son (verse 20)?

Who will the Son give life to (verse 21)?

Who is judgment entrusted to (verse 22)?

What may “all” do (verse 23)?

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

In your opinion, what can we learn about God in this passage?

In your opinion, how can Jesus, appearing so magnificent in Ezekiel 1:15-28, have the Jewish leaders persecuting and trying to kill Him in John 5:16-23?  How do you think the Jewish leaders would have responded if Jesus had appeared to them as He appeared to Ezekiel?   

1 John 4:7-16 – New International Version (NIV)

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

¹³ This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. ¹⁶ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

What are the “dear friends” to do (verse 7)?

Where does love come from (verse 7)?

Who loves (verse 7)?

Who does not know God (verse 8)?

How did God show “his love among us” (verse 9)?

What is love (verse 10)?

Why should we love each other (verse 11)?

When is God’s love made complete in us (verse 12)?

How do “we know that we live in him and he in us” (verse 13)?

What does John testify to (verse 14)?

What occurs when someone “acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God” (verse 15)?

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

In your opinion, what can we learn about God in this passage?

In your opinion, how does picturing God as described by Ezekiel 1:15-28 help us understand the definition of love that is in 1 John 4:7-16 “this is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins”?

In your opinion, what does 1 John 4:7-16 help us understand about what Jesus had to do to be able to give “life to whom he is pleased to give it” as He said He would in John 5:16-23?

Revelation 4:1-11 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” ² At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. ³ And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. ⁴ Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. ⁵ From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. ⁶ Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. 

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. ⁷ The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. ⁸ Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:

“‘Holy, holy, holy

is the Lord God Almighty,’

who was, and is, and is to come.”

⁹ Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

¹¹ “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
    and by your will they were created
    and have their being.”

Where was the door that was standing open (verse 1)?

What does the voice like a trumpet tell John (verse 1)?

What was before John “at once” (verse 2)?

How did the One on the throne appear (verse 3)?

In your opinion, what do the twenty-four thrones and elders represent (verse 4)?

What were the seven lamps that were blazing (verse 5)?

What was around the throne (verse 6)?

How did they appear (verse 7)?

What do they “never stop saying” (verse 8)?

What do the twenty-four elders do when the “living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne” (verses 9 and 10)?

What do they say (verse 11)?

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

In your opinion, what can we learn about God in this passage?

In your opinion, how is the response of Ezekiel to God in Ezekiel 1:15-28 and the response of the twenty-four elders to God in Revelation 4:1-11 a lesson to us in how to respond to God?  Why do you think it is hard for us to respond to God in this way? 

In your opinion, why does someone with the power and majesty that is displayed in Revelation 4:1-11 reveal themselves to the world in the way that Jesus does in John 5:16-23?

In your opinion, how does seeing the One who loves so wonderfully in 1 John 4:7-16 also described so powerfully in Revelation 4:1-11 change your understanding of love?  Why would One with that much power and majesty love as completely as 1 John describes? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezekiel, John, 1 John and Revelation show about the power of God and the purpose of love?

In your opinion, how can we move from being people who desire power in some form to being people who display the power of God’s love?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

November 12, 2017 – Moses and Jesus and Us – Heart Issues

-            The

Heart Issues

Exodus 7:8-13 - New International Version (NIV)

⁸ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ⁹ “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.”

¹⁰ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. ¹¹ Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: ¹² Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. ¹³ Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.

Who is talking to Moses and Aaron (verse 8)?

What is Aaron to do when the Pharaoh says “perform a miracle” (verse 9)?

Who did Moses and Aaron go to (verse 10)?

What happened when Aaron threw his staff down in front of the Pharaoh and his officials (verse 10)?

In your opinion, why did the Pharaoh summon “wise men and sorcerers” (verse 11)?

What happened to the snakes the staffs of the wise men and sorcerers became when they threw them down (verse 12)?

How did the Pharaoh respond (verse 13)?

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

Luke 5:1-11 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. ² He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. ³ He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

⁶ When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. ⁷ So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

⁸ When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” ⁹ For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, ¹⁰ and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” ¹¹ So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

Where was Jesus standing when the people crowded around Him “listening to the word of God” (verse 1)?

What were the fishermen who left the two boats at the water’s edge doing (verse 2)?

Who did Jesus ask to “put out a little from shore” (verse 3)?

In your opinion, why did Jesus say “put out into deep water, and let down your nets for a catch” (verse 4)?

Why did Simon not expect to catch anything (verse 5)?

Why did Simon let down the nets (verse 5)?

How many fish did they catch (verse 6)?

Who came to help (verse 7)?

In your opinion, why did Simon Peter fall at Jesus knees and say “go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man” (verse 8)?

What astonished Simon Peter and his companions (verses 9 and 10)?

What does Jesus tell Simon Peter he will now do (verse 10)?

In your opinion, why did Peter leave everything and follow Jesus (verse 11)?

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

In your opinion, why is the reaction of the Pharaoh to the miraculous sign that he requested in Exodus 7:8-13 so different from the reaction of Peter to the astonishing catch of fish in Luke 5:1-11?

Romans 3:21-28 – New International Version (NIV)

²¹ But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²² This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— ²⁶ he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

²⁷ Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. ²⁸ For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

Who testifies to the righteousness of God that has been made known “apart from the law” (verse 21)?

How is this righteousness given “to all who believe” (verse 22)?

What have “all” done (verse 23)?

In your opinion, what does Paul mean by “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (verse 24)?

Who does God present as a “sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood” (verse 25)?

What did God want to demonstrate “at the present time” (verse 26)?

What law excludes boasting (verse 27)?

What does Paul maintain (verse 28)?

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

In your opinion, how is Peter’s recognition that he is sinful and his request that Jesus leave him in Luke 5:1-11 addressed by a loving God in Romans 3:21-28?

In your opinion, how is the hardening of the heart that afflicted the Pharaoh in Exodus 7:8-13 similar to the boasting that Paul says is excluded in Romans 3:21-28?

1 John 4:7-16 – New International Version (NIV)

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

¹³ This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. ¹⁶ And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

Why should we “love one another” (verse 7)?

Who do those who do not love not know (verse 8)?

How did God show His love among us (verse 9)?

In your opinion, why is love “not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (verse 10)?

Why should we “love one another” (verse 11)?

What happens when “we love one another” (verse 12)?

How do we know that we live in God and God lives in us (verse 13)?

What has John seen and testified to (verse 14)?

When does God live in us and we in God (verse 15)?

What can we know and rely on (verse 16)?

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

In your opinion, how is the “righteousness” that “is given through faith in Jesus Christ” that Paul talks about in Romans 3:21-28 related to the love that John says “comes from God” in 1 John 4:7-16?

In your opinion, how is the love that John says in 1 John 4:7-16 “comes from God” the perfect response to the human reaction to God that Peter exhibits in Luke 5:1-11 when he says “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man”?

In your opinion, how is the hardening of the Pharaoh’s heart after he received the miracle that he requested in Exodus 7:8-13 help us understand the one who John says in 1 John 4:7-16 does not love because they don’t “know God”?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Exodus, Luke, Romans and 1 John teach us about how people react to the love of God?

In your opinion, how does the progression of these passages from a hardened heart, to requesting Christ leave because of a recognition of sinfulness, to being “justified freely by his grace” help we who have been made righteous to “love one another”?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)