November 13, 2022 – John’s Writings – Accepting the Bread

 Accepting the Bread

Ezekiel 24:15-24 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁶ “Son of man, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes. Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears. ¹⁷ Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead. Keep your turban fastened and your sandals on your feet; do not cover your mustache and beard or eat the customary food of mourners.”

¹⁸ So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. The next morning I did as I had been commanded.

¹⁹ Then the people asked me, “Won’t you tell us what these things have to do with us? Why are you acting like this?”

²⁰ So I said to them, “The word of the Lord came to me: ²¹ Say to the people of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am about to desecrate my sanctuary—the stronghold in which you take pride, the delight of your eyes, the object of your affection. The sons and daughters you left behind will fall by the sword. ²² And you will do as I have done. You will not cover your mustache and beard or eat the customary food of mourners. ²³ You will keep your turbans on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You will not mourn or weep but will waste away because of your sins and groan among yourselves. ²⁴ Ezekiel will be a sign to you; you will do just as he has done. When this happens, you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.’

Whose word came to Ezekiel (verse 15)?

What will happen “with one blow” (verse 16)?

What was Ezekiel not to do (verse 16)?

How was Ezekiel commanded to act (verse 17)?

What did Ezekiel do on the morning after his wife died (verse 18)?

Who ask Ezekiel “why are you acting like this” (verse 19)?

What is the Sovereign Lord about to do to His sanctuary (verse 21)?

How do the people view the sanctuary (verse 21)?

What will the people no do when their sons and daughters “fall by the sword” (verses 21 and 22)?

Why will they “waste away” even though they are not mourning or weeping (verse 23)?

What will the people know (verse 24)?

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

In your opinion, how have people in this passage strayed from God?

John 6:60-71 - New International Version (NIV)

⁶⁰ On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

⁶¹ Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? ⁶² Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! ⁶³ The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. ⁶⁴ Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. ⁶⁵ He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”

⁶⁶ From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

⁶⁷ “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

⁷⁰ Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” ⁷¹ (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)

After hearing about eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus, who said “This is a hard teaching.  Who can accept it?” (verse 60)?

Who said “Does this offend you?” (verse 61)?

In your opinion, what difference would it make to see “the Son of Man ascend to where he was before” (verse 62)?

What are the words that Jesus spoke to them full of (verse 63)?

What did Jesus know “from the beginning” (verse 64)?

Who can come to Jesus (verse 65)?

What did “many of his disciples” do (verse 66)?

Who did Jesus ask “you do not want to leave too, do you” (verse 67)?

What words did Simon Peter say that Jesus had (verse 68)?

Who was the devil (verses 70 and 71)?

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

In your opinion, how have people in this passage strayed from God?

In your opinion, how are the people of Jerusalem that Ezekiel told “the Sovereign Lord says: I am about to desecrate my sanctuary—the stronghold in which you take pride, the delight of your eyes, the object of your affection” and the disciples who found Jesus’s teaching hard and left Him in John 6:60-71 alike?

1 John 2:18-27 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁸ Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

²⁰ But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. ²¹ I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. ²² Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. ²³ No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

²⁴ As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is what he promised us—eternal life.

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.

What have the “dear children” that John is writing to heard (verse 18)?

How does John say that “we know it is the last hour” (verse 18)?

Where did the antichrists go out from (verse 19)?

What would they have done if “they had belonged to us” (verse 19)?

What anointing do the “dear children” have (verse 20)?

Where can “no lie” come from (verse 21)?

Who is the liar and the antichrist (verse 22)?

Who acknowledges the Father (verse 23)?

What has Jesus promised us (verse 23)?

How are believers taught (verse 27)?

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

In your opinion, how have people in this passage strayed from God?

In your opinion, how are the people who took delight in the Lord’s sanctuary in Ezekiel 24:15-24 similar to those who go out from believers but then deny that Jesus is the Christ in 1 John 2:18-27?

In your opinion, what does 1 John 2:18-27 help us understand about how the Father “enabled” disciples to come to Jesus in John 6:60-71, and also enables us today?

Revelation 9:1-12 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. ² When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. ³ And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. ⁴ They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵ They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. ⁶ During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.

⁷ The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. ⁸ Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. ⁹ They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. ¹⁰ They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. ¹¹ They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).

¹² The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.

What was the star given that fell from heaven when the fifth angel sounded his trumpet (verse 1)?

When did smoke rise “like the smoke from a gigantic furnace” (verse 2)?

What was darkened by the smoke (verse 2)?

What power were the locusts that came out of the smoke given (verse 3)?

Who were the locusts allowed to harm (verse 4)?

How long could they torture them (verse 5)?

What will people seek and not be able to find during that time (verse 6)?

In your words, how would you describe the locusts (verses 7 through 10)?

Who was the king over the locusts (verse 11)?

What is yet to come (verse 12)?

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

In your opinion, how have people in this passage strayed from God?

In your opinion, how is wasting away of the people of Jerusalem because of their sins in Ezekiel 24:15-24 like the people of Revelation 9:1-12 who do not have “the seal of God on their foreheads” and seek death but can’t find it?

In your opinion, how are the decisions that people are making about God in Revelation 9:1-12 similar to the decisions that Jesus’s disciples made in John 6:60-71? 

In your opinion, how is the anointing received by the believers in 1 John 2:18-27 similar to the “seal of God on their foreheads” that protected some people during the first woe in Revelation 9:1-12?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezekiel, John, 1 John and Revelation teach us about how accepting the “hard teaching” that Jesus is the bread of life for ourselves can change our understanding of what is happening in the world around us?

In your opinion, how can we acknowledge Jesus in our lives today?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

November 6, 2022 – John’s Writings – Loving God Forever

 

Loving God Forever

Ezekiel 24:1-14 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ In the ninth year, in the tenth month on the tenth day, the word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, record this date, this very date, because the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day. ³ Tell this rebellious people a parable and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“‘Put on the cooking pot; put it on
    and pour water into it.
⁴ Put into it the pieces of meat,
    all the choice pieces—the leg and the shoulder.
Fill it with the best of these bones;
⁵     take the pick of the flock.
Pile wood beneath it for the bones;
    bring it to a boil
    and cook the bones in it.

⁶ “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“‘Woe to the city of bloodshed,
    to the pot now encrusted,
    whose deposit will not go away!
Take the meat out piece by piece
    in whatever order it comes.

⁷ “‘For the blood she shed is in her midst:
    She poured it on the bare rock;
she did not pour it on the ground,
    where the dust would cover it.
⁸ To stir up wrath and take revenge
    I put her blood on the bare rock,
    so that it would not be covered.

⁹ “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“‘Woe to the city of bloodshed!
    I, too, will pile the wood high.
¹⁰ So heap on the wood
    and kindle the fire.
Cook the meat well,
    mixing in the spices;
    and let the bones be charred.
¹¹ Then set the empty pot on the coals
    till it becomes hot and its copper glows,
so that its impurities may be melted
    and its deposit burned away.
¹² It has frustrated all efforts;
    its heavy deposit has not been removed,
    not even by fire.

¹³ “‘Now your impurity is lewdness. Because I tried to cleanse you but you would not be cleansed from your impurity, you will not be clean again until my wrath against you has subsided.

¹⁴ “‘I the Lord have spoken. The time has come for me to act. I will not hold back; I will not have pity, nor will I relent. You will be judged according to your conduct and your actions, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”

When did the word of the Lord come to Ezekiel (verse 1)?

What else happened on “this very date” (verse 2)?

Who is Ezekiel to tell the parable to (verse 3)?

In your opinion, what is the meaning of the parable (verses 3 through 5)?

Where did the “city of bloodshed” pour the blood it shed (verse 7)?

Where will the Lord pour “her blood” (verse 8)?

How will the Lord pile the wood (verse 9)?

Why will the pot be put “on the coals till it becomes hot and its copper glows” (verse 11)?

When will Jerusalem “be clean again” (verse 13)?

How will Jerusalem be judged (verse 14)?

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

In your opinion, what can we learn about the consequences of our choices in this passage?

John 6:53-58 - New International Version (NIV)

⁵² Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

⁵³ Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

What were the Jews arguing sharply about (verse 52)?

What did Jesus say the Jews would not have if they did not “eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood” (verse 53)?

Who has eternal life (verse 54)?

What will Jesus do for those who have eternal life on “the last day” (verse 54)?

In your opinion, why does Jesus say “for my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink” (verse 55)?

Where will the one who eats the flesh and drinks the blood of Jesus remain (verse 56)?

Where will Jesus remain (verse 56)?

Why does Jesus live (verse 57)?

Why will those who feed on Jesus live (verse 57)?

What is the difference between the “bread that came down from heaven” and the manna (verse 58)?

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

In your opinion, what can we learn about the consequences of our choices in this passage?

In your opinion, how are those who refused to be cleansed in Ezekiel 24:1-14 and those who refuse the bread from heaven similar?   

1 John 2:12-17 – New International Version (NIV)

¹² I am writing to you, dear children,
    because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
¹³ I am writing to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
    because you have overcome the evil one.

¹⁴ I write to you, dear children,
    because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
    because you are strong,
    and the word of God lives in you,
    and you have overcome the evil one.

¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. ¹⁶ For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷ The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

Why is John writing to the “dear children” (verse 12)?

Who do the fathers know (verse 13)?

What have the young men done (verse 13)?

In your opinion, what is the same for the children, the fathers and the young men (verses 12 and 13)?

Who do the “dear children” now know (verse 14)?

Who do the fathers still know (verse 14)?

What is added to what the young men know (verse 14)?

What is not in the one who “loves the world” (verse 15)?

Where does “everything in the world” come from (verse 16)?

Who “lives forever” (verse 11)?

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

In your opinion, what can we learn about the consequences of our choices in this passage?

In your opinion, what does 1 John 2:12-17 help us understand about the people that Ezekiel is writing to in Ezekiel 24:1-14?

In your opinion, how is the transformation of the “dear children”, fathers and young men in 1 John 2:12-17 a result of the choice to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus as presented in John 6:53-58?

Revelation 8:1-13 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

² And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

³ Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. ⁴ The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. ⁵ Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

⁶ Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.

⁷ The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

⁸ The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, ⁹ a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

¹⁰ The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— ¹¹ the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.

¹² The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.

¹³ As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”

What happened in heaven when the seventh seal was opened (verse 1)?

Who was given the “seven trumpets” (verse 2)?

What was the angel with the golden censer given to offer (verse 3)?

What went from the angel’s hand and up before God (verse 4)?

In your opinion, why are the “prayers of all God’s people” presented to God before the bad things started to happen on the earth?

What did the angel do with the censer after he filled it with fire from the alter (verse 5)?

Who prepared to sound the seven trumpets (verse 6)?

What happened when the first angel sounded the first trumpet (verse 7)?

Where was the “something like a huge mountain” thrown (verse 8)?

What was the name of the star that fell on “a third of the rivers and on the springs of water” (verse 10)?

When did a third of the day and a third of the night become “without light” (verse 12)?

Why did the eagle cry “Woe! Woe! Woe!” (verse 13)?

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

In your opinion, what can we learn about the consequences of our choices in this passage?

In your opinion, how are the woes to the “city of bloodshed” in Ezekiel 24:1-14 similar to the sounding of the trumpets in Revelation 8:1-13?

In your opinion, will the terrible things that happen when the trumpets sound in Revelation 8:1-13 have any effect on the promise of Jesus from John 6:53-58 that whoever feeds on His flesh and drinks His blood has “eternal life” and that He “will raise them up at the last day”? 

In your opinion, how is the statement in 1 John 2:17 that “the world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” beginning to be fulfilled in heaven and on earth by what in revealed in Revelation 8:1-13?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezekiel, John, 1 John and Revelation teach us about what is eternal and what is not?

In your opinion, how can we move from troubles to loving God forever?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

October 30, 2022 – John’s Writings – Reacting to God

 

Reacting to God

 Ezekiel 22:23-31 - New International Version (NIV)

²³ Again the word of the Lord came to me: ²⁴ “Son of man, say to the land, ‘You are a land that has not been cleansed or rained on in the day of wrath.’ ²⁵ There is a conspiracy of her princes within her like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they devour people, take treasures and precious things and make many widows within her. ²⁶ Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. ²⁷ Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain. ²⁸ Her prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says’—when the Lord has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the foreigner, denying them justice.

³⁰ “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one. ³¹ So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.”

Whose word came to Ezekiel (verse 23)?

What had not happened to the land (verse 24)?

Who devours people and takes treasures and makes “many widows” (verse 25)?

In your opinion, what does it mean that the priests “do violence to my law” (verse 26)?

Who are “like wolves tearing their prey” (verse 27)?

How do the prophets “whitewash these deeds for them” (verse 28)?

Who practices extortion and commits robbery (verse 29)?

Who was the Lord looking for (verse 30)?

What will the Lord pour out (verse 31)?

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

In your opinion, what can we learn about how people react to God in this passage God?

John 6:43-51 - New International Version (NIV)

⁴³ “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. ⁴⁴ “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. ⁴⁶ No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. ⁵⁰ But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

What did Jesus tell the people to stop doing (verse 43)?

Who must draw people to Jesus (verse 44)?

When will Jesus raise the people up (verse 44)?

What is written in the Prophets (verse 45)?

Who has seen the Father (verse 46)?

Who has eternal life (verse 47)?

What is Jesus (verse 48)?

What happened to the ancestors who “ate the manna” (verse 49)?

Where does the bread come from that “anyone may eat and not die” (verse 50)?

What will Jesus give “for the life of the world” (verse 51)?

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

In your opinion, what can we learn about how people react to God in this passage God?

In your opinion, how are the priests that Ezekiel spoke of in Ezekiel 22:23-30 a contrast to Jesus in John 6:43-51? 

Do you think that Jesus could b the person that was to build up the wall and stand in the Gap in Ezekiel?  Why or why not?   

1 John 2:3-11 – New International Version (NIV)

³ We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. ⁴ Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. ⁵ But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: ⁶ Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

⁷ Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. ⁸ Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

⁹ Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. ¹⁰ Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. ¹¹ But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

How can we know that we have come to know Jesus (verse 3)?

Who is a liar (verse 4)?

What is made complete for those who obey the word of Jesus (verse 5)?

Who “must live as Jesus did” (verse 6)?

In your opinion, how can the command that John is writing about be old and new (verses 7 and 8)?

What is “already shining” (verse 8)?

Who is “still in the darkness” (verse 9)?

Who has “nothing in them to make them stumble” (verse 10)?

Why do those who hate “a brother or sister” not know where they are going (verse 11)?

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

In your opinion, what can we learn about how people react to God in this passage God?

In your opinion, what does John’s comments in 1 John 2:3-11 help us understand about the princes, priests, officials, prophets, and people of Ezekiel 22:23-30?   

In your opinion, what does 1 John 2:3-11 help us understand about how those that Jesus is talking about in John 6:43-51 who eat the living bread that comes from heaven are changed?

Revelation 7:9-17 – New International Version (NIV)

⁹ After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”

¹¹ All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² saying:

“Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!”

¹³ Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”

¹⁴ I answered, “Sir, you know.”

And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵ Therefore,

“they are before the throne of God
    and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne
    will shelter them with his presence.
¹⁶ ‘Never again will they hunger;
    never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,’
    nor any scorching heat.
¹⁷ For the Lamb at the center of the throne
    will be their shepherd;
‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’
    ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”

Who is standing before the throne wearing white robes and holding palm branches (verse 9)?

Who do they say “salvation” belongs to (verse 10)?

What do the angels do when they hear who “salvation” belongs to (verses 11 and 12)?

Who ask “these in the white robes-who are they, and where did they come from” (verse 13)?

Where did they come from (verse 14)?

How did their robes become white (verse 14)?

How will they be sheltered (verse 15)?

When will the thirst (verse 16)?

Who will be their shepherd (verse 17)?

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

In your opinion, what can we learn about how people react to God in this passage?

In your opinion, what is the difference between the people of Israel in Ezekiel 22:23-30 and the great multitude in Revelation 7:9-17? 

In your opinion, why were those in front of Jesus in John 6:43-51 grumbling and those in front of Jesus in Revelation 7:9.17 worshipping and praising?

In your opinion, what does Revelation 7:9-17 reveal about the “true light” that 1 John 2:3-11 says is shining? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezekiel, John, 1 John and Revelation teach us about why people react differently to God?

In your opinion, how can we be a part of the “great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb”?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)