Welcome
to our small group Bible study! Amber and I are glad to have you participating.
We are excited to both help you become a more detailed student of the Bible, if
you aren't already, and learn what insights you garner in your reading. We have 3 goals for this Bible
study:
1. To treasure
God's Word in our hearts so that He can guide our walk in this life. (Psalm
119:11,105)
2. To seek the
truth (John 14:6) in the Word of God in order to put on the full armor of God
for our defense. (Ephesians 6:10-18)
3. To be ready
to share the gospel as commanded by our Lord (Mark 16:15) and to defend our
faith from the world. (1 Peter 3:15)
In short we are going to discern
the truth and learn to apply it in our lives. Finally, our special focus is to
help all of us learn to evangelize in a compassionate and non-condescending
manner while learning to be apologists for questions of our faith in the face
of different worldviews, including denominational "Christians"
(Catholics, Mormons, etc.), other religions (Hindu, Muslim, etc.), and secular
humanist ideologies (post-modern/post-structural, atheist, etc.). We plan on
studying 1-2 chapters a week in an expositional style. We will provide some general and discussion
questions to get you going along with the chapters each week. Now that we have
scared everyone away, here are a few tips for studying.
1. Pray for the
Holy Spirit's guidance. (John 16:13)
2. Read it quick
and outline it, then read in more detail focusing on 2 questions: What does it
say? What does it mean?
3.
www.biblehub.com is a great resource with multiple translations, concordances,
bible dictionaries, and interlinear texts for Greek and Hebrew all at your
fingertips.
4. Remember that
the Bible interprets itself. If something doesn't make sense, the answer is
usually somewhere else in the Bible.
5. Still stuck!
The Bible is an integrated message system from outside our time domain and it
is all about Jesus.
If you don't have all the
answers every time you read, no big deal. Neither do we and we don't pretend
to. That's why we are organizing this study, to help everyone, including us, to
learn. We look forward to our first meeting!
Saturday, October 26,
John 1-2
Did any verse
or story help provide some new insight?
What in this reading impacted
you the most regarding the integrity of the Bible as a whole?
What personal application did
you draw from this reading?
John 1
1. Who is the
Word? What Old Testament connection can you make with this identification?
2. Jehovah's
Witnesses do not worship Jesus because they believe that Jesus and God are two
separate beings. Using John 1:1-18 and 2 other references in the Bible,
disprove this theory.
3. In v. 21,
priests and Levites ask John the Baptist if he is "that prophet".
What does that mean?
4. What is the
significance of Jesus being called the Lamb of God by John the Baptist?
5. John the
Baptist was baptizing before Jesus' ministry had begun. What was the point of
his baptism?
6. As Jesus
gathered His disciples Nathanael said, "Can there any good thing come out
of Nazareth?" Nazareth is part of Israel; why this odd question?
7. Psalm 139:2
says, "Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest
my thought afar off." In John 1:48 Jesus tells Nathanael, "Before
that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee."
Nathanael immediately submits himself to the "King of Israel." What
do you think Nathanael was thinking about under that fig tree?
8. What is the Old
Testament reference for v. 51, "the
angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man"? What does
this mean?
9. The
overriding theme of the gospel of John is found in chapter 1, what is it?
John 2
10. Jesus first
sign is turning water into wine even though everyone at the wedding was already
"well drunk". What did He do that for?
11. Why did He
tell His mother "mine hour is not yet come"?
12. Verses 12-16
contain an often recalled story by skeptics who say that Jesus wasn't perfect;
i.e. He got angry and threw things in the temple. Give a 2-3 sentence defense
of Jesus' actions in the temple.
13. When Jesus
attests He will raise up the temple in 3 days, John affirms that He was talking
about His body. What implication does this hold for you and I, as we are made
in God's image (Gen 1:26), and thus, our bodies are temples as well?
God is Master of the Universe, not He-man (about science and the Bible,
you don't have to read it)
Using composite
probabilities to quantify prophecy about Jesus; Adapted from Learn the Bible in 24 Hours, ch. 13 by
Chuck Missler
Composite probabilities indicate
the chance of something occurring. If 10 people are in a room, 6 male, 4
female; there is a 40% chance of blindly selecting a female (4/10=.4). If 6 of
those people are right-handed and 4 left-handed, again you get a 40% chance of
grabbing a left-handed individual. What are the odds of picking a left-handed
female? Multiply the percent chance of each to get the answer: .4 x .4 = .16 or
a 16% chance of making that pick. In these 2 chapters we have seen at least 6
statements that link to Old Testament prophetic references of Jesus' time on Earth. The Old Testament
has over 300 detailing His life and ministry. Let's use eight to do some math
using conservative composite probability estimates.
1. Born in
Bethlehem: 1/100,000 = .00001 5.
Presents Himself as King riding a donkey: 1/100 = .01
2. Betrayed
for 30 pieces of silver: 1/1k = .001 6.
Silver thrown into the temple to a potter: 1/100k = .00001
3. Thomas disbelief
after crucifixion: 1/1k=.001 7. Not a
word in His defense: 1/1000 = .001
4. No deceit
in His mouth: 1/1000 = .001 8.
Pierced hands and feet: 1/10,000 = .0001
Multiply all these chances
together and you get 10^28 or 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (ten
octillion). Divide that by the chance it was any man over the last 2000 years:
10^28/10^11=10^17 or there is a 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 (100 quadrillion)
chance that someone fulfilled these 8 prophecies over the last 2000 years, and
remember there are 300+! So, what does that mean? You have the same chance of
blindly picking a marked silver dollar in a bucket of silver dollars the area
of Texas that is two feet deep. Now let's multiply the number of prophecies we
use to 48 and divide by the population to get 10^157. Again, what does that
mean? Well, there are 10^66 atoms in our galaxy, we're short. Let's make each
atom a ball of 10^66 atoms. That is still short, at 10^132. OK, let's make each
atom a ball of 10^66 atoms for every second the universe has been in existence
(10^17). Still short! That is only 10^149 atoms. In other words, to match a
portion of the prophetic implications of Jesus Christ, you have to pick a
marked atom in a bucket the size of the universe at the precise moment in the
history of the Earth it becomes marked.
And remember, we are still only considering 48 prophecies of 300+. Good
luck finding that atom!
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