Some sheep think they can cope without a shepherd: do you?

Reading: John 10:1-21
 
If you missed it, here's a link to the Sermon: Have You Got A Good Shepherd?  

There are too many questions here for one study, so please do select those you want to study more as a group.

1)   Who is Jesus speaking to? (see chapter 9) Who acted as a good shepherd to  the man born blind and who didn’t? Why?

2)   What does the shepherd know about his sheep, and what is the significance of this? (Ps. 139:2&3).

a)      How does he care for them? (Ps. 23).

b)      What does it mean that he goes ahead of them?

c)      What is the lesson here for us today?

3)   What do the sheep know about the shepherd? Why is this important? (Ps. 100:3).

a)      How can we know the voice of our Shepherd, God? (Rom. 1:18-21; Ps.53:1).

b)      Did Jesus' listeners understand him? Why?

4)  What claim does Jesus make in verse 7, and what did he mean?

5)  What does he promise to those who enter through him? (7, 9, 10b).

6)  Is there any other way to God? What does he say about all others?

7)  What does Jesus claim about himself? (11, 14a) and what backs up his claim? (11, 14-18; 1 Sam. 17:34-36, 45-47).

8)  How does the hired hand act when it comes to the crunch? Why? (12, 13) How is he like the shepherd? How and why is he fundamentally different to the shepherd?

9)   What does Jesus say about his "other sheep"? (16) Who is he talking about?

10) Why do all people need a shepherd?

11) Why did Jesus lay down his life for the sheep? (17, 18; Isa. 11:6) and what does  this teach us about God? (Isa. 42:6; 49:6; 56:6)?

12) How can there be one flock and one shepherd?

13) How can we be good sheep?

14) What does this passage say, if anything about the shepherds of his flock?

15) How did the people listening respond to Jesus' words? How will you respond?

 

Calvin L. Smith: Christians and Modern Israel

Do check out Calvin's latest blog post:

Calvin L. Smith: Christians and Modern Israel: Theologically compli...: 
Once again conflict in the Middle East raises that perennial question: How should Christians view and respond to the modern State of Israel?....

Back on the right track - again

Joel 2:25-26 reminds us:

I will restore to you the years

that the swarming locust has eaten...

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,

and praise the name of the Lord your God,

who has dealt wondrously with you.

There will be times in our lives when we slip, when we think we've listened to God guiding us, but we get it wrong...

When that happens let's not make the mistake of allowing the enemy to convince us that we’ve suddenly become second class Christians. God’s grace is sufficient!

You see the devil will spin a tale something like this:

        Your life is planned out for you by God, who acts like some kind of cosmic travel agent. So as long as you turn up in the right place at the right time and stick to His itinerary then you’re fine… But the moment you miss one of the connections God has sent you to the plan is ruined. Yes if you ask Him, God will draw up another one for you, but it will always be a bit second best, it can you can never really recover, not properly…

Don’t ever believe that; don’t believe the lie that God doesn’t have the wisdom or the resolve to, immediately you ask Him, pick you up, dust you down and set you on the best, the perfect, path for you. God can and does graciously restore us, when we let Him…

A Paternity Test

Reading: John 8: 31 - 47
 
If you missed it, here's a link to the Sermon: A Paternity Test?  

1. Verse 48 starts with a barrage of abuse from the Pharisees. Why the rudeness and what exactly do the Pharisees mean by what they say?
2. Verse 49 is written to carry serious force (truly, truly or amen amen), discuss the condition to having eternal life.
3. Verse 56: how did Abraham see Jesus coming (Gen 14 perhaps?)?
4. Verse 58: what is Jesus claiming, what does I AM mean and when was it first used of God to describe Himself?
5. In the sermon we suggested a paternity test - how might you test your spiritual paternity?

Why would you need saving?

Reading: John 8: 31 - 47
 
If you missed it, here's a link to the Sermon: Do you need to be free?  

1. Chat through what verse 31 means, consider what the flipside of this is? This is a big deal why?
2. What does it mean to you to be free in Christ? how does that match up to Jesus teaching, here and elsewhere, on freedom and slavery?
3. The Pharisees are really out of their depth in this passage. Why are they getting wound up, and how come they can't answer Jesus' questions of them?
4. What are you as an individual taking away from this passage to help you in your Christian life?
5. Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus' tells us that we either choose Him and eternal life or Satan and eternal existence in the 'outer darkness'. What do you make of that?

Not Just A Light

Reading: John 8:12 - 30
 
If you missed it, here's a link to the Sermon: Not Just A Light  

1. Discuss verse 12, what does it mean? What is the impact of this verse on us today, and how should we apply it?
2. Compare verse 13 - 18 with John 5:31. What is different about the two situations?
3. Consider how taking Jesus words out of context can have devastating consequences.
4. What were the Pharisees getting at in verse 19?
5. Take a look at the remainder of the passage what was Jesus trying to get the Pharisees to understand?

Sin - A Three Act Play

Reading: John 7:45-8:11
 
If you missed it, here's a link to the Sermon: A Three Act Play...   

1. Read through to the end of chapter 7.Talk through what happened when the temple police got back to base without making an arrest: consider the things the different characters said. What can we learn from this scene?
2. In the sermon we split the next section into three acts. Chat through the three separate acts and discuss each part with the intention of listing as many things as you can that we can learn and apply to our lives today. This is quite a major exercise and could take most of the time you have for questions.
3. Spend some time praying together for the needs of each other, the life of our church and the impact of the Gospel in our lives and the lives of others we meet.