Group wall: Journeys with John§↻

hello!

I just joined!

Did you find the pics and videos?

Yep

Thank you. That is one thing that would be nice is being able to at least put photos in chats. But that can be dangerous if someone that doesn’t care about decency should put pictures up. Sadly, that is a reality.

The pictures and videos don't work on the website, but pictures can be found on Facebook, and videos on YouTube.

Mid-Atlantic Christian School Association. For a little more info check this website: https://gobiblequiz.com.

I’ve heard of MAACS: Mid American Association of Christian Schools
What is MACSA?

I am quizzing with Macsa Bible Quizzing, and that is our passage for this winter.

That's awesome, Lne! Did you pick those at random or do these have some significance to you?

Hey guys just joined..... I am currently attempting to memorize John 1-6

Thanks PeterP. That’s a wonderful comparison.

Thanks for sharing PeterP!

I noticed a striking similarity between these two setences… in John 19, Pilate said, “Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you.” But earlier, in John 10, Jesus had said, “I have authority to lay down my life, and authority to take it up again.”
So Jesus understood the true nature of power and authority, and he was able to reply to Pilate, “You would have no authority at all over me unless it had been given to you from above.”
And actually the same if true for us. God has authority over our destiny.

But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.
"I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.
John 16:4

"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
John 16:12-13

These are fascinating passages for me. Jesus was speaking face-to-face with his disciples throughout his ministry, yet there were some things that he could not tell them. Sometimes he withheld because they were not ready for it yet. At other times he could not say it because the timing was not right. Even when he was on the verge of dying he had more to say but he could not. Instead, he made plans to get his word to his disciples after his death.

It is frustrating dealing with the timing of God. How often have I asked God to just speak plainly to me about his will, yet only hear his silence. How many times have a I demanded he move, not knowing the full consequences of what I'm asking. I'm like a two-year-old who wants to play with a tarantula, getting mad at my Father because he won't let me. Yet when I need to know something, he lets me know at the right time every time. I guess that's were trust comes in. At some level we have to trust God to accomplish in us his will in the right way and at the right time, and depend on the Holy Spirit to guide us along the way.

Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" John 20:17

This is such a powerful statement made by Jesus. The risen and soon to be ascended Son of God calls his disciples brothers, and declares his Father to be their Father.

It is also interesting to follow the transition in terms Jesus uses to describe his followers in John. He starts out by calling them servants, and then friends, and finally brothers.

Great achievement JD

That's awesome, JD! I'm so proud of you!

Yes great comments!

Just got a lovely satisfied feeling. Just completed John’s Gospel. I guess it will be a while before all verses are at a 100%.

great comments ,

You know, the Bible is interesting. There are times where on the surface it appears that a Bible verse will say one thing definitively on a subject when taken by itself, but that definitive thing will actually become conditional when considered against the rest of the Bible.

Take for example, John 12:42-43 (ESV)
42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue;
43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

The view here seems pretty clear. These disciples are not really disciples at all. Moreover, they loved themselves more than God. So the action plan is, you must confess Jesus openly always to be his disciple, and if you don't you do not love him. But is that the whole story? Not if you look at the narratives of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea in the same book.

In John 3, Nicodemus, a Pharisee, comes to Jesus in secret to learn from him, and Jesus tells him how to be born again. Nicodemus hears his instructions and then continues to be a Pharisee with no indication that he converts. Later, he pops up again in chapter 7 when he defends Jesus by saying he must be given a hearing based upon facts before he can be condemned, and gets called a Galilean sympathizer. Later, after Jesus' death, Nicodemus again comes forward and Joseph prepare Jesus' body for burial, likely taking a hit to his Pharisaical reputation. Yet despite his secrecy, Nicodemus is not labeled as a false disciple.

John, likewise does not condemn Joseph of Arimathea, who is a rich member of the Sanhedrin, in 19:38: "After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body." Then he and Nicodemus take the body of Jesus and bury him instead of letting his body be eaten by vultures, which was the punishment for those guilty of sedition. This was likely a planned event (for they had already prepared a tomb for Jesus) taken at great risk while Jesus' true disciples were hiding for fear of the Jews (20:19).

So here we have two men who were in just the right place at just the right time to step in and accomplish God's will despite their secrecy. Perhaps, then, the mark of a true disciple is not so much that he or she is willing to shout his saved status from the rooftops, but that he or she has a heart set on God and is willing to come out of the shadows at the right time to do God's will.

You know, it is rather ironic, but this verse, which is one of my favorites, is also the one I mess up the most:

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. John 14:26

The problem is that in John there are several variations on this verse.

In one, the Son sends the Holy Spirit:

"But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. John 15:26

In another, he is called the Spirit of Truth:

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. John 16:13

And in another, the Holy Spirit bears witness about Jesus:

"But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. John 15:26

They are all written and sound so similar that when I come to any of those verses my brain just kind of locks down because I know I'll get them wrong. And so I do.

I think it would have been 4 years in March- but again, even this wouldn’t have been achieved without the encouragement and the example of so many of you.

Good move Luli. Gutted for you that you lost your streak. But you did Soooooooo well. You've set the bar so high for the rest of us. I think you got to nearly 5 years? !!

Definitely challenging but enjoying it, even more so when the overall percentage is maintained 🙈
I’ve decided to focus on the learning queue, mainly the gospel of John and psalms and stop adding a new verse for a while (since I already lost my streak) 😞

I think complete memorisation is just a distant dream. 😂

Those were excellent observations, onfire247

That's great! I didn't realize you were so far into John. It is a challenging book to memorize for sure, but a journey well worth the time. I look forward to hearing you've memorized it!

That’s really interesting. I’ll watch out for that as I continue learning John’s Gospel. I notice that there is much made of Jesus being the Son of God and that by knowing Him we can know The Father also.
I actually was rejoicing on the last day of 2021 as I thought I’d just added the last verse of John’s Gospel, only to discover I’d totally missed chapter 7! So I guess I won’t be done until about 53 days time 😂

I am now on chapter 18 of this book, so I've passed through the teaching parts. As I head into the passion narratives, I've noticed that language related to repentance (i.e., "you must repent!") found in the other gospels is missing in John. Instead, one finds discussions about "light" versus "dark," "condemned" versus "not condemned," "having life" versus "not having life," and the consequences of not believing versus believing. So to be sure, the message of repentance still exists in John, but it is subtly woven into John's definition of faith rather than explicitly expressed as it is in the Synoptic Gospels.