September 4, 2022 – John’s Writings – Love’s Open Door

 

Love’s Open Door

Nehemiah 2:1-10 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, ² so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”

I was very much afraid, ³ but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

⁴ The king said to me, “What is it you want?”

Then I prayed to the God of heaven, ⁵ and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.”

⁶ Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time.

⁷ I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? ⁸ And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests. ⁹ So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me.

¹⁰ When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites.

How was Nehemiah different in the presence of King Artaxerxes (verse 1)?

In your opinion, why was Nehemiah “very much afraid” (verse 2)?

Why did Nehemiah’s face look sad (verse 3)?

What did Nehemiah do before he answered the King’s question, “what is it you want” (verse 4)?

How did Nehemiah answer the question (verse 5)?

What did the King want to know (verse 6)?

In your opinion, why would Nehemiah ask for letters to the governors asking for safe-conduct (verse 7)?

What else did Nehemiah ask for (verse 8)?

Why did the King grant Nehemiah’s requests (verse 8)?

Who did the King send with Nehemiah (verse 9)?

Why were Sanballat and Tobiah upset (verse 10)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how has the Lord opened a door in this passage?

John 4:39-45 - New International Version (NIV)

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ And because of his words many more became believers.

⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

⁴³ After the two days he left for Galilee. ⁴⁴ (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) ⁴⁵ When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.

Why did “many of the Samaritans from that town” believe (verse 39)?

What did the Samaritans urge Jesus to do (verse 40)?

What did Jesus do (verse 40)?

Why did “many more” become believers (verse 41)?

What did the people know because they heard for themselves (verse 42)?

Where did Jesus leave for (verse 43)?

What had Jesus pointed out about a prophet (verse 44)?

How did the Galileans respond to Jesus (verse 45)?

What had the Galileans seen (verse 45)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how has the Lord opened a door in this passage?

In your opinion, what are the differences between Nehemiah and Jesus that would cause “Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official” to be disturbed by the presence of Nehemiah in Nehemiah 2:1-10 but the Samaritans, also foreigners rejected by Israel, to have urged Jesus to stay in John 4:39-45?  Are there alsodifferences between Sanballat and Tobiah on one hand and the Samaritans on the other that would bring about the different reactions?   

1 John 3:11-24 – New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. ¹² Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. ¹³ Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. ¹⁵ Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? ¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

¹⁹ This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: ²⁰ If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹ Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God ²² and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. ²³ And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. ²⁴ The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

What is the message “heard from the beginning” (verse 11)?

Who did Cain belong to (verse 12)?

Why did Cain murder his brother (verse 12)?

What should not surprise Christians (verse 13)?

How do Christians know they have passed from death to life (verse 14)?

Who remains “in death” (verse 14)?

Who is a murderer (verse 15)?

How do we know what love is (verse 16)?

How are Christians to love (verse 18)?

In your opinion, what does John mean when he says that we can “set our hearts at rest in his presence” because if our hearts condemn us “we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” (verses 19 and 20)?

When can “we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask” (verses 21 and 22)?

What is God’s command (verse 23)?

How do we know “that he lives in us” (verse 24)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how has the Lord opened a door in this passage?

In your opinion, how is the conflict between the Israelites and the Horonites and Ammonites in Nehemiah 2:1-10 and Cain and his brother as reported in 1 John 3:11-24 an indication of the reaction that Christians can expect from the world today?  How does this conflict make it harder to be obedient to John’s instruction to “love each other”?

In your opinion, how can the Samaritan woman in John 4:39-45 serve as an example of the command of 1 John 3:11-24 to “love each other”?

Revelation 3:7-13 – New International Version (NIV)

⁷ “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. ⁸ I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. ⁹ I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. ¹⁰ Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.

¹¹ I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. ¹² The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. ¹³ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Who is John to write to (verse 7)?

How is Jesus, who gives the words, described (verse 7)?

In your opinion, why is it important to tell the church of Philadelphia “what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open” (verse 7)?

What does He know (verse 8)?

What has the church in Philadelphia done even though they “have little strength” (verse 8)?

Who will Jesus make come and fall at the feet of the church in Philadelphia and acknowledge that Jesus loves them (verse 9)?

Why will the church in Philadelphia be kept from “the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth” (verse 10)?

Why are they to “hold on to what you have” (verse 11)?

Who will be made “a pillar in the temple of my God” (verse 12)?

In your opinion, what is the significance of having the name of God, the name of the city of God and the name of Jesus written on the victorious (verse 12)?

Who is to hear (verse 13)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how has the Lord opened a door in this passage?

In your opinion, how does the story of Nehemiah and Artaxerxes in Nehemiah 2:1-10 illustrate the ability of God to open doors and described in Revelation 3:7-13? 

In your opinion, why would people not have expected the Samaritan woman in John 4:39-45 to be like the members of the Church of Philadelphia who were commended in Revelation 3:7-13?

In your opinion, how can Christians, who are told in 1 John 3:11-24 that they will be hated by the world, find comfort in the promise of Jesus in Revelation 3:7-13 to the members of the Church of Philadelphia about the open door? 

In your opinion, how is the love of God demonstrated in these passages from Nehemiah, John, 1 John and Revelation?

In your opinion, could the love of God be considered the door that Jesus opens that cannot be closed?  Why or why not?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

April 10, 2022 – John’s Writings – Repent, Remember and Hold Fast

Repent, Remember and Hold Fast

Nehemiah 1:1-11 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah:

In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, ² Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.

³ They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

⁴ When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. ⁵ Then I said:

“Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, ⁶ let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. ⁷ We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

⁸ “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, ⁹ but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’

¹⁰ “They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. ¹¹ Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.”

Where was “Nehemiah son of Hakaliah” (verse 1)?

What did he question “Hanani” about (verse 2)?

Why were “those who survived the exile and are back in the province” in trouble and danger (verse 3)?

How did Nehemiah respond when he “heard these things” (verse 4)?

How does Nehemiah describe God at the beginning of his prayer (verse 5)?

Whose sins against God does Nehemiah confess (verse 6)?

How have they acted (verse 7)?

What was to happen to the Israelites if they were unfaithful (verse 8)?

What was to happen if, after they were unfaithful, they returned to God and obeyed God’s commands (verse 9)?

How had “they” been redeemed (verse 10)?

What success did Nehemiah pray for (verse 11)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how is the destruction of the devil’s work taking place in this passage?

John 4:27-38 - New International Version (NIV)

²⁷ Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ³⁰ They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

³³ Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. ³⁵ Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ³⁶ Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Why were the disciples surprised (verse 27)?

What did the disciples not ask (verse 27)?

In your opinion, why did the woman leave her water jar when she went back to town (verse 28)?

What did the woman tell the people in the town (verse 29)?

What did the woman ask the people in the town (verse 29)?

How did the townspeople respond (verse 30)?

What did the disciples urge Jesus to do (verse 31)?

How did Jesus respond to them (verse 32)?

What is Jesus’s food (verse 34)?

Why did Jesus want the disciples to open their “eyes and look at the fields” (verse 35)?

When does “the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life” (verse 36)?

What is true (verse 37)?

Who has reaped the benefits of others hard work (verse 38)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how is the destruction of the devil’s work taking place in this passage?

In your opinion, would you say that Nehemiah as he was investigating and then praying in Nehemiah 1:1-11 would be placed into the category of one who sows or of one who reaps from John 4:27-38?  Does the fact that he might fall into one of these categories limit what Nehemiah might do in the future to only that category?  Are we limited today to one or the other?   

1 John 3:1-10 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

⁴ Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. ⁵ But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. ⁶ No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

⁷ Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸ The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. ⁹ No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. ¹⁰ This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

What is the proof that God has lavished “great love” on us (verse 1)?

Why does the world “not know us” (verse 1)?

What are we (verse 2)?

What will we be (verse 2)?

Who will we be like (verse 2)?

What do those who hope in Christ do (verse 3)?

Who breaks the law (verse 4)?

Where is there no sin (verse 5)?

Who does not keep on sinning (verse 6)?

Who is righteous (verse 7)?

Why did the Son of God appear (verse 8)?

Who does not continue to sin (verse 9)?

How do we know “who the children of God are” (verse 10)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how is the destruction of the devil’s work taking place in this passage?

In your opinion, how is the redemption of the Israelite people in Nehemiah and the destruction of the devil’s work (the taking away of sins) in 1 John 3:1-10 similar?  How is the conflict between what we are called to be and what we are apparent in both Nehemiah 1:1-11 and in 1 John 3:1-10?  How can we who have been redeemed today learn from both the redemption and the conflict following redemption of the Israelites and the early Christians?

In your opinion, in John 4:27-38, where Jesus explained the concept of sowing and reaping, who was sowing, who was reaping, and how were they both destroying the work of the devil, as 1 John 3:1-10 indicates is the Son of God’s purpose?

Revelation 3:1-6 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ “To the angel of the church in Sardis write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. ² Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. ³ Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

⁴ Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. ⁵ The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. ⁶ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Who is John to write to (verse 1)?

Who are the words that John is to write from (verse 1)?

What does Jesus know (verse 1)?

What does Jesus command them to strengthen (verse 2)?

In your opinion, what does Jesus mean when He says “I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God” (verse 2)?

What are the Christians from Sardis to hold fast to (verse 3)?

When will Jesus come if they “do not wake up” (verse 3)?

Who will walk with Jesus “dressed in white” (verse 4)?

In your opinion, how are the “few people” who are mentioned in (verse 4) different from the “victorious” who also will be dressed in white in (verse 5)?

Who is to hear (verse 6)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how is the destruction of the devil’s work taking place in this passage?

In your opinion, how does Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah 1:1-11 serve as a model for those in Sardis, and for the rest of us who want the victory that Jesus talks about in Revelation 3:1-6? 

In your opinion, who in John 4:27-38 would be an example of the victorious who repent, remember, and hold fast in Revelation 3:1-6?

In your opinion, how does 1 John 3:1-10 help us understand how the members of the church in Sardis in Revelation 3:1-6 might have had a good reputation but be dead and need to “strengthen what remains and is about to die”? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Nehemiah, John, 1 John and Revelation teach all about the conflict that happens after redemption?

In your opinion, how is a Christian remembering and holding fast similar to a non-Christian repenting?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

April 3, 2022 – John’s Writings – From Weeping to Worship

 From Weeping to Worship

Ezra 10:1-11 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites—men, women and children—gathered around him. They too wept bitterly. ² Then Shekaniah son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel. ³ Now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all these women and their children, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law. ⁴ Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.”

⁵ So Ezra rose up and put the leading priests and Levites and all Israel under oath to do what had been suggested. And they took the oath. ⁶ Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he was there, he ate no food and drank no water, because he continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.

⁷ A proclamation was then issued throughout Judah and Jerusalem for all the exiles to assemble in Jerusalem. ⁸ Anyone who failed to appear within three days would forfeit all his property, in accordance with the decision of the officials and elders, and would himself be expelled from the assembly of the exiles.

⁹ Within the three days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem. And on the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people were sitting in the square before the house of God, greatly distressed by the occasion and because of the rain. ¹⁰ Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful; you have married foreign women, adding to Israel’s guilt. ¹¹ Now honor the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives.”

How did those who gathered around Ezra as he was “praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down” respond (verse 1)?

What is there “in spite of” the unfaithfulness displayed by the marrying of foreign women (verse 2)?

In your opinion, why would making “a covenant before our God” be an appropriate response to the situation (verse 3)?

Why was Ezra to “take courage and do it” (verse 4)?

What did Ezra put “the leading priests and Levites and all Israel” under (verse 5)?

Why did Ezra continue to eat no food and drink no water (verse 6)?

Who was the proclamation too (verse 7)?

What would happen to those who did not appear “within three days” (verse 8)?

Why were the people “greatly distressed” (verse 9)?

How had they added “to Israel’s guilt” (verse 10)?

How were the people to “honor the Lord . . . and do his will” (verse 11)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about how those who believe in Jesus are different from those in the world?

John 4:13-26 - New International Version (NIV)

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Who will “be thirsty again” (verse 13)?

What will the water that Jesus gives become (verse 14)?

Why did the woman want “this water” (verse 15)?

In your opinion, why would Jesus say “go, call your husband and come back” (verse 16)?

What did Jesus say when the woman said “I have no husband” (verses 17 and 18)?

What could the woman see about Jesus (verse 19)?

In your opinion, is the woman’s response to Jesus a question, a plea, or an attempt to start an argument (verse 20)?

What time is coming (verse 21)?

Who is salvation from (verse 22)?

How will “true worshipers” worship the Father (verse 23)?

Who is “spirit” (verse 24)?

According to the woman, what will the Messiah do “when he comes” (verse 25)?

Who does Jesus claim to be (verses 25 and 26)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about how those who believe in Jesus are different from those in the world?

In your opinion, why does Jesus invite the Samaritan woman, who would have been one of the people that Ezra was instructing the Israelites to separate themselves from in Ezra 10:1-11, to become a part of something that is neither of Israel nor Samaria?   

1 John 2:26-29 – New International Version (NIV)

²⁶ I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. ²⁷ As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

²⁸ And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

²⁹ If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

Who is John “writing these things” about (verse 26)?

What remains in the ones John is writing to (verse 27)?

Why do they “not need anyone to teach you” (verse 27)?

How are they to respond to the real anointing they had received (verse 27)?

How can the “dear children” be “confident and unashamed before him at his coming” (verse 28)?

What do we know if we “know that he is righteous” (verse 29)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about how those who believe in Jesus are different from those in the world?

In your opinion, how, though they are similar, is the decision that the people of Israel had to make concerning mingling with or separating from the people around them in Ezra 10:1-11 different from the decision that the “dear children” of 1 John 2:26-29 had to make about remaining in the anointing they had received or going astray? 

In your opinion, how does John 4:13-26 help us understand the anointing of 1 John 2:26-29?

Revelation 2:18-29 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁸ “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. ¹⁹ I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

²⁰ Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. ²¹ I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²² So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. ²³ I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

²⁴ Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, ²⁵ except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

²⁶ To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— ²⁷ that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸ I will also give that one the morning star. ²⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Who is John to write to (verse 18)?

Who are the words that John is to write from (verse 18)?

What does Jesus know (verse 19)?

What does Jesus have against them (verse 20)?

What does Jezebel call herself (verse 20)?

How does Jezebel mislead Jesus’s servants (verse 20)?

What had Jesus given Jezebel (verse 21)?

How can those who committed “adultery with her” avoid suffering intensely (verse 22)?

How will “each of you” be repaid (verse 23)?

Who will not have “any other burden” imposed (verse 24)?

In your opinion, what does it mean to “hold on to what you have until I come” (verse 25)?

How will the “one who is victorious” rule over the nations (verses 26 and 27)?

What else will the victorious receive (verse 28)?

Who is to hear (verse 29)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about how those who believe in Jesus are different from those in the world?

In your opinion, how does the “hope for Israel” in Ezra 10:1-11 help us understand what those who had committed adultery with Jezebel in Revelation 2:18-29 must do? 

In your opinion, how does Jesus’s discussion with the angel of the church in Thyatira in Revelation 2:18-29 help us understand what Jesus meant when He told the Samaritan women that a time was coming when “true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth” in John 4:13-26?

In your opinion, how does John’s instruction in 1 John 2:26-29 to “remain in him” help those who are exposed to the teachings of Jezebel and “Satan’s so-called deep secrets” to win the victory of Revelation 2:18-29? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezra, John, 1 John and Revelation teach all about how weeping is transformed to hope?

In your opinion, how are hope and anointing threatened by Jezebel’s teaching and Satan’s secrets?

In your opinion, what is crucial to success in remaining or holding on?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)