Bible Studies, Inspired by Faith and Science

We left Jesus preaching at the Temple during the Feast of Tabernacles last week. This week's study continues from there, with the authorities beginning to get annoyed, as one might expect. (After all, how annoyed do we get when someone appears to contradict authority in our churches?) (54) Streams of Living Water The Feast of Tabernacles is a 7-day event in September/October at the end of the grape harvest. According to John’s Gospel, Jesus reaches Jerusalem in the second half of the feast ( John 7:2,14 ), and starts teaching, apparently unopposed ( John 7:26 ). But the authorities won’t let this go one forever. Read John 7:32-36 1.        Read John 7:32-34. Do you think the officers captured Jesus, or did they just threaten him? Read John 7:45 So who is Jesus’ audience at this point? 2.        The authorities found Jesus again at Passover. When did they seek him and not find him? 3.     ...

It seems like a good time of year for our Coffee Break group to be reading about the Feast of Tabernacles. I wonder if it will take us till spring to get to the Easter part of the tale? Anyway, it's fall in the Bible story, and Jesus' "time" has not yet come... again. So here's another study for the third year of ministry. (53) The Hour That Hasn’t Yet Come After Jesus’ “whoever is not against you is for you” remark, Luke’s Gospel goes on to describe Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, where many will stand against him. Meanwhile John describes a sequence of visits in the final year, following the pattern of Jewish feasts and pilgrimage. Read Luke 9:51 , John 7:1. 1.        Who wanted to kill Jesus at this point, and why? 2.        Are there people today who want to kill faith in Jesus? Are they easily recognized, or might they be just as “faithful” as those enemies in Jesus’ day? 3.        Re...

It's September. The schools have restarted, and our Coffee Break group is restarting its weekly Bible Studies. We've been looking at a chronological account of Jesus' life through the Gospels, and now we're entering the final year - it seems appropriate that the whole study will have taken us 3 years when we finish. So here's our first "welcome" study - a little shorter, so we'll have time to catch up on news from the summer. We hope you'll join us. (52) Welcome Jesus is in the final year of his ministry, approaching his final journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. He is going to die for us, for sinners, for people who get it wrong… for the people who will kill him. And now, two thousand years later, our separate churches and denominations are sure we have it right. We can recognize cults. We can reject false beliefs. We can reject false believers…? Or should we welcome them instead? The disciples are about to show how we can be tempted t...