March 20, 2022 – John’s Writings – Opposition, Inside and Out

Opposition, Inside and Out

Ezra 4:1-7 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, ² they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.”

³ But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.”

⁴ Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. ⁵ They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.

⁶ At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, they lodged an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.

⁷ And in the days of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and the rest of his associates wrote a letter to Artaxerxes. The letter was written in Aramaic script and in the Aramaic language.

What did the enemies of Judah and Benjamin hear (verse 1)?

Who did the enemies come to (verse 2)?

What did the enemies want to do (verse 2)?

How did “Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel” answer the enemies (verse 3)?

What did the peoples around them “set out to” do (verse 4)?

How did the try to discourage them and make them afraid (verse 5)?

When did they lodge “an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem” (verse 6)?

How was the letter to Artaxerxes written (verse 7)?

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

In your opinion, how does this passage show the world’s opposition to God’s people?

John 2:13-25 - New International Version (NIV)

¹³ When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵ So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

¹⁸ The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

²⁰ They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” ²¹ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

²³ Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. ²⁴ But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. ²⁵ He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.

When did Jesus go “up to Jerusalem” (verse 13)?

What were people doing in the temple courts (verse 14)?

How did Jesus respond to what people were doing (verses 15 and 16)?

What did His disciples remember (verse 17)?

Who ask “what sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this” (verse 18)?

How did Jesus answer them (verse 19)?

In your opinion, why did the Jews not understand what Jesus meant (verse 20)?

What had Jesus been talking about (verse 21)?

When did the disciples recall and believe “the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken” (verse 22)?

What did “many people” do while Jesus was in Jerusalem (verse 23)?

Why would Jesus not “entrust himself to them” (verse 24)?

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

In your opinion, how does this passage show the world’s opposition to God’s people?

1 John 2:15-19 – 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.

What are Christians not to love (verse 15)?

When is “love for the Father” not in someone (verse 15)?

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

Who lives forever (verse 17)?

Who has come (verse 18)?

How do we know it is the last hour (verse 18)?

Where did the antichrists not belong (verse 19)?

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

In your opinion, how does this passage show the world’s opposition to God’s people?

Revelation 2:8-11 – New International Version (NIV)

⁸ “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. ⁹ I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. ¹⁰ Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.

¹¹ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.

Who is John to write to (verse 8)?

Who are the words that John is to write from (verse 8)?

What is known (verse 9)?

Who is rich (verse 9)?

Who are those slanderers “who say they are Jews” (verse 9)?

What are they not to be afraid of (verse 10)?

Who will receive “life as your victor’s crown” (verse 10)?

Who is to hear (verse 11)?

Who will “not be hurt at all by the second death” (verse 11)?

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

In your opinion, how does this passage show the world’s opposition to God’s people?

In your opinion, how does the opposition of “the peoples around them” to the people rebuilding the temple in Ezra 4:1-8 and the resistance of the Jews to Jesus in John 2:13-25 show ways that God’s work can be impeded?   

In your opinion, how is the conflict between the world and the kingdom of God displayed in both Ezra 4:1-8 and in 1 John 2:15-19? 

In your opinion, how do the people around Jerusalem and their opposition to the building of the temple in Ezra 4:1-8 compare to those who are a “synagogue of Satan” slandering the church of Smyrna in Revelation 2:8-11 in attitude and in method?

In your opinion, how does the zeal that Jesus had in the temple in John 2:13-25 help us understand how to deal the “everything in the world” that John warns us of in 1 John 2:15-19? 

In your opinion, what is the difference between those who “believed in his name” but who Jesus would not entrust himself to in John 2:13-25 and the “one who is victorious” in Revelation 2:8-11?

In your opinion, how are the antichrists that John warns of in 1 John 2:15-19 related to those “who say they are Jews” in Revelation 2:8-11? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezra, John, 1 John and Revelation teach us about the source of opposition to God’s people and their work?

In your opinion, how should Christians respond to opposition from the outside?

In your opinion, how should Christians respond to opposition from the inside?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

March 13, 2022 – John’s Writings – Work, the Fruit of Love

Work, the Fruit of Love

Ezra 3:8-13 - New International Version (NIV)

⁸ In the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak and the rest of the people (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work. They appointed Levites twenty years old and older to supervise the building of the house of the Lord. ⁹ Joshua and his sons and brothers and Kadmiel and his sons (descendants of Hodaviah) and the sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers—all Levites—joined together in supervising those working on the house of God.

¹⁰ When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel. ¹¹ With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:

“He is good;
    his love toward Israel endures forever.”

And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. ¹² But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. ¹³ No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.

When did the work begin (verse 8)?

Who was appointed to supervise (verse 8)?

What happened when they “laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord” (verse 10)?

How did the people respond after the song “He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever” (verse 11)?

In your opinion, why did “many of the older priests and Levites and family heads” weep aloud (verse 12)?

Why could no one “distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping” (verse 13)?

Where was the sound heard (verse 13)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about the importance of work and our relationship with God?

John 1:35-42 - New International Version (NIV)

³⁵ The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

³⁷ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. ³⁸ Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

³⁹ “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). ⁴² And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).

Who was there “the next day” with John (verse 35)?

What did John say when “Jesus was passing by” (verse 36)?

Who followed Jesus (verse 37)?

What did they say when Jesus ask “what do you want” (verse 38)?

How did they respond to Jesus’s invitation to “come” (verse 39)?

Who was Andrew (verse 40)?

What did Andrew tell Simon (verse 41)?

Where did Andrew bring Simon (verse 42)?

What did Jesus tell Simon (verse 42)?

In your opinion, what does Peter mean (verse 42)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about the importance of work and our relationship with God?

1 John 2:10-14 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁰ Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. ¹¹ But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

¹² I am writing to you, dear children,
    because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
¹³ I am writing to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
    because you have overcome the evil one.

¹⁴ I write to you, dear children,
    because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
    because you are strong,
    and the word of God lives in you,
    and you have overcome the evil one.

Where does the one who loves “their brother and sister” live (verse 10)?

What does the one who hates “a brother or sister” do (verse 11)?

Why is John writing the “dear children” (verse 12)?

Why is John writing the “fathers” (verse 13)?

Why is John writing the “young men” (verse 13)?

Why is John writing the “children” (verse 14)?

Why is John writing the “fathers” (verse 14)?

Why is John writing the “young men” (verse 14)?

Where does the “word of God” live (verse 14)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about the importance of work and our relationship with God?

Revelation 2:1-7 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. ² I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. ³ You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

⁴ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. ⁵ Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. ⁶ But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

⁷ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Who is John to write to (verse 1)?

Who are the words that John is to write from (verse 1)?

What is known (verse 2)?

What has not happened to the recipients of the letter in spite of their having to persevere and endure hardships (verse 3)?

What had the recipients of the letter forsaken (verse 4)?

How are the people to respond after they consider how far they “have fallen” (verse 5)?

Whose practices do they hate (verse 6)?

Who is to hear (verse 7)?

Who will receive the “right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” (verse 7)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about the importance of work and our relationship with God?

In your opinion, how does the difference in the way the foundation of the temple was laid in Ezra 3:8-13 and the way Jesus began to lay the foundation of the church by naming Peter the Rock in John 1:35-42 help us understand more about our relationship with God today?   

In your opinion, how does the fact that “all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem began to work” in Ezra 3:8-13 and the fact that John addressed the children, the parents, and the young in 1 John 2:10-14 help us understand about who is to be working on God’s temple today? 

In your opinion, how does John in Revelation 2:1-7 challenge those who he wrote to and commended for what they had accomplished in 1 John 2:10-14 to move beyond accomplishment?

In your opinion, what did Andrew do in John 1:35-42 that the children, parents, or young of 1 John 2:10-14 did? 

In your opinion, how can the actions of Andrew and Peter in John 1:35-42 serve as a guide for those who have fallen and need to do “the things” they did at first in Revelation 2:1-7?

In your opinion, what does John saying that everyone who loves their brother and sister “lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble” in 1 John 2:10-14 and Jesus telling those in Revelation 2:1-7 that He holds against them that they “have forsaken the love” they had at first teach us about the importance of love? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezra, John, 1 John and Revelation teach us about the complex relationship between receiving God’s love, doing God’s work, and loving God’s people?

In your opinion, how are we who have eaten “from the tree of life” to work?

In your opinion, how are we who have eaten “from the tree of life” to love?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

March 6, 2022 – John’s Writings – Responding to a Glorious God

Responding to a Glorious God

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

⁵ Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. ⁶ All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings.

⁷ Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god. ⁸ Cyrus king of Persia had them brought by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.

⁹ This was the inventory:

gold dishes	30
silver dishes	1,000
silver pans	29
10 gold bowls	30
matching silver bowls	410
other articles	1,000

¹¹ In all, there were 5,400 articles of gold and of silver. Sheshbazzar brought all these along with the exiles when they came up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

How are the “family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites” described (verse 5)?

What did they prepare to do (verse 5)?

Who assisted them (verse 6)?

How did they assist them (verse 6)?

What did King Cyrus bring out (verse 7)?

Who were the articles “counted” out to (verse 8)?

How many articles were there (verse 11)?

What happened to the articles (verse 11)?

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

In your opinion, how does this passage show a response to the glory of God?

John 1:14-18 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

¹⁵ (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶ Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

What did “the Word” become (verse 14)?

Where did “the Word” make His dwelling (verse 14)?

What have “we” seen (verse 14)?

Who testified “concerning him” (verse 15)?

Why did John say that “He who comes after me has surpassed me” (verse 15)?

Where has the grace “we have all received” come from (verse 16)?

What was given through Moses (verse 17)?

Where did “grace and truth” come from (verse 17)?

Who has seen God (verse 18)?

What has the “one and only Son” made known (verse 18)?

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

In your opinion, how does this passage show a response to the glory of God?

1 John 1:5-10 – New International Version (NIV)

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

⁸ If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

What is God (verse 5)?

How much darkness is in God (verse 5)?

When do we lie (verse 6)?

What do we have if we “walk in the light, as he is in the light” (verse 7)?

In your opinion, why does the “blood of Jesus” purify us from sin if we walk in the light (verse 7)?

When do we “deceive ourselves” (verse 8)?

What happens if we “confess our sins” (verse 9)?

How can we “make him out to be a liar” (verse 10)?

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

In your opinion, how does this passage show a response to the glory of God?

Revelation 1:9-20 – New International Version (NIV)

⁹ I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. ¹⁰ On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, ¹¹ which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

¹² I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³ and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. ¹⁴ The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. ¹⁵ His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. ¹⁶ In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. ¹⁸ I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

¹⁹ “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. ²⁰ The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

How does John identify himself (verse 9)?

Why was John on the island of Patmos (verse 9)?

Where was John on the Lord’s Day (verse 10)?

What was John to write and send to the seven churches (verse 11)?

Why did John turn around (verse 12)?

Where was the one “like a son of man” (verse 13)?

In your opinion, how does the description of the one “like a son of man” make you feel (verses 13, 14 and 15)?

What did He hold (verse 16)?

When did the one “like a son of man” place His right hand on John and say “do not be afraid” (verse 17)?

In your opinion, why does the on “like a son of man” say “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever!” {verse 18)?

What is John to write (verse 19)?

What are the seven stars and the seven lampstands (verse 20)?

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

In your opinion, how does this passage show a response to the glory of God?

In your opinion, what does the difference between the “house of the Lord in Jerusalem” that the people in Ezra 1:5-11 were going to build and the dwelling that John says “the Word” made among us in John 1:14-18 teach us about where and how we can have a relationship with God?   

In your opinion, what can we learn about following God from the fact that it was those whose hearts “God had moved” who were going to Jerusalem in Ezra 1:5-11 and those that “walk in the light, as he is in the light” who have fellowship with God in 1 John 1:5-10? 

In your opinion, what does the difference between a people gathering wealth to go to Jerusalem to build a house for the Lord in Ezra 1:5-11 to an inspiring and transformed Jesus standing in the midst of the churches with the angels in His hand in Revelation 1:9-20 help us understand about how to worship today?

In your opinion, how is the grace that John says comes, along with truth, through Jesus Christ in John 1:14-18 connected to the confession, forgiveness and purification he talks about in 1 John 1:5-10? 

In your opinion, what does Revelation 1:9-10 help us understand about the “glory of the one and only Son” that John said he had seen in John 1:14-18?

In your opinion, how does it make you feel to think about walking with Jesus in the light, as instructed by 1 John 1:5-10, when Jesus is the person who is described by John in Revelation 1:9-20, white hair, blazing eyes, bronze feet, double-edged sword from mouth and shining face? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezra, John, 1 John and Revelation teach us about how we, who have sin in our lives and who live in a world where there is suffering, should respond to the glory of God today?

In your opinion, how is God moving in your heart today?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)