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)

March 5, 2017 – Genesis and John (Gospel and Revelation) – Rainbows and Reality

Rainbows and Reality

Genesis 9:8-16 – New International Version (NIV)

⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ⁹ “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you ¹⁰ and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. ¹¹ I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹² And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: ¹³ I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶ Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

Who did God speak to (verse 8)?

What did God establish (verse 9)?

In your opinion, why are the living creatures included in the covenant (verse 10)?

What is the covenant (verse 11)?

How many generations is the covenant with (verse 12)?

What has God set as a sign of the covenant (verse 13)?

When will God remember the covenant (verses 14, 15 and 16)?

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

John 16:5-15 - New International Version (NIV)

⁵ but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. ⁷ But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹ about sin, because people do not believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; ¹¹ and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

¹² “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. ¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. ¹⁵ All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

Where is Jesus going (verse 5)?

What are the disciples filled with (verse 6)?

In your opinion, why is it good that Jesus in going away (verse 7)?

What will the Advocate prove the world to be wrong in (verse 8)?

Why is the world wrong about sin (verse 9)?

Why is the world wrong about righteousness (verse 10)?

Why is the world wrong about judgment (verse 11)?

In your opinion, why can the disciples not bear to hear more of what Jesus has to say (verse 12)?

What will the Spirit of truth do (verse 13)?

What will the Spirit of truth speak (verse 13)?

How will the Spirit of truth glorify Jesus (verse 14)?

What belongs to Jesus (verse 15)?

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

In your opinion, how is Jesus’ promise to send the Advocate in John 16:5-15 an extension of the promise for the future shown in the covenant that God makes in Genesis 9:8-16?

Colossians 2:6-17 - New International Version (NIV)

⁶ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. ¹¹ In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

¹⁶ Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. ¹⁷ These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

What are the Colossians to continue in (verse 6)?

How are the Colossians to be rooted (verse 7)?

What were the Colossians to overflow with (verse 7)?

In your opinion, how could “hollow and deceptive philosophy” take someone captive (verse 8)?

What lives in Christ (verse 9)?

What have the Colossians been brought to in Christ (verse 10)?

In your opinion, what does the “circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands” mean (verse 11)?

How were the Colossians “buried with him” (verse 12)?

How were the Colossians “raised with him” (verse 12)?

What did God do when the Colossians were dead in their sins (verse 13)?

How did God cancel our legal indebtedness (verse 14)?

What did God do after He disarmed the powers and authorities (verse 15)?

What were the Colossians not to let anyone judge them by (verse 16)?

Where is the reality found (verse 17)?

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

In your opinion, how is Jesus’ promise that the Spirit will guide us into all truth in John 16:5-15 shown to be fulfilled as Paul talks about faith, life and forgiveness of sins in Colossians 2:6-17?

In your opinion, how is the promise of the rainbow that all life will not be taken in a flood in Genesis 9:8-16 dwarfed by the opportunity of new life through Christ as we are shown by Paul in Colossians 2:6-17?

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 did John see the open door (verse 1)?

What was before John when he was in the Spirit (verse 2)?

What encircled the throne (verse 3)?

Who were seated on the 24 thrones (verse 4)?

Who is the seven lamps (verse 5)?

What covered the four living creatures (verse 6)?

What were the four living creatures like (verse 7)?

What did the four living creatures always say (verse 8)?

Who falls down before the throne and worship “him who lives for ever and ever” (verse 10)?

Who is worthy to “receive glory and honor and power” (verse 11)?

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

In your opinion, how does the grandeur of God portrayed in Revelation 4:1-11, and shown by Paul in Colossians 2:6-17 to be the opposite of human tradition and elemental spiritual forces of this world, help us to avoid hollow and deceptive philosophy?

In your opinion, how does Jesus, through John in Revelation 4:1-11, answer the question “where are you going” that He said no one was asking in John 16:5-15?

In your opinion, why is it significant that the rainbow, a reminder of the covenant in Genesis 9:8-16, encircled the throne in Revelation 4:1-11?

In your opinion, how do these passages from Genesis, John, Colossians and Revelation help us move from the promise not to destroy all life in the flood to the celebration in heave of the God who “created all things”  and in who all things “have their being”?

In your opinion, how do these passages help us to contrast the hollow promises of the world with the magnificent promises of God?                                                                                                                         

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)