What Day is it?

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.       Read John 7:2-5 Has Jesus been acting in secret? Why might people who want to see him “succeed” accuse him of acting in secret?

4.       How do we want to see faith succeed? Do we ever try to force God’s hand? How might we be wrong?

5.       Which brothers didn’t believe in Jesus? Would this just mean siblings, or maybe cousins, friends, neighbors? Could “hangers-on” be brothers? And who are our brothers?

6.       Read John 7:6 When did Jesus say this earlier in John’s gospel. Whose “time” or “hour” was different from Jesus’ time them. (Read John 2:1-5) What happened afterward?

7.       How might this relate to the world’s (and much of the Christian world’s) fondness for predicting the end-times?

8.       Read John 7:7-9 Why might they go to the festival without Jesus? How might this relate to people who are “so heavenly minded they’re no earthly use”? Should we wait for God’s confirmation before every act we take?

9.       Read John 7:10 Did Jesus deceive the disciples? Did he change his mind? How are “changing your mind” and “being guided by the Spirit” related? How willing are we to let the Spirit change our minds?

10.   Read John 7:11-13 What do people ask/say today about Jesus?

 John always seems to know the right people, be in the right place, join the right conversations etc. so his gospel continues by telling us what Jesus said and did, while Jesus wasn’t being “public.” Meanwhile, Matthew really knows his Bible, Mark wants to get it all down, Luke investigates… Which Gospel-writer might you resemble?

1.       Read John 7:14-16 Jesus can clearly say this, but can any human teacher say it? How do you react when someone says “God told me…”?

2.       Read John 7:17-18 Can we apply this test to recognizing whether other people are teaching God’s will? Does the fact that no-one is righteous except God make this harder?

3.       Read John 7:19-20 Which of Jesus’ accusations do the crowds ignore? What do we prefer to ignore? And what have demons got to do with it?

4.       Read John 7:21-24 Can you paraphrase Jesus’ argument?

5.       Read Romans 2:28-29, Colossians 2:11. Where might Paul have got the idea from?

6.       Read John 7:25-27 Can you imagine the scene and the conversation in the crowds? Traditional Jewish teachers said no one would know where the Messiah came from, perhaps to counterbalance the same sort of scripture-searching that leads to today’s predictions of when the world will end. Read Matthew 2:1-6. Clearly Bethlehem was not a well-established birth-place prediction. How can we balance what we know and don’t know?

7.       Read John 7:28-29 Can you paraphrase again?

8.       Read John 7:30-31 What hour had not yet come? Who is in control? And who is in control now? Is that a comforting or a disturbing thought?