Queen's Road Cell

4. The next step in an overview is to break the book into major sections, then break those sections into parts. This gives you a working outline to see how the book is put together. To save you time, we have suggested some divisions on the following pages. Go back through the book, and make up a title for each major and secondary section. (Feel free to alter the divisions; they are arbitrary in some places.) If you have trouble making up titles for all of these passages now, do only the main sections and fill in the subsections as you study each lesson.   1:1-20. Prologue and the vision of Jesus, Introduction      1:1-8 Prologue and introduction to letter       1:9-20 Jesus among the lampstands, John’s assignment    2:1-3:22 Letters to the seven churches       2:1-7 to Ephesus       2:8-11 to Smyrna       2:12-17 to Pergamum      2:18-29 to Thyatira    ...

 1. What are your first impressions about John's style of writing? (Does it seem more like a documentary, a theater production, cartoon animation, a logical essay? Is it fun or difficult? Why?) What are your impressions of his tone or mood (optimistic, pessimistic, angry, joyful, fearful, calm, cynical, excited ...)?  John seems objective in his account, and yet he is clearly greatly affected by what he sees. He falls at Jesus' feet though dead (1:17), weeps (5:5), and worships the mediating angel (19:10, 22:8). He “marvels”. “Like a movie” “with soundtrack”  “A lot of repeated structures” “very descriptive” “Action packed” “plot twists” “good ending”  There are tough times for Christians and non Christians. “Like a play with acts”. There is scene change. There are protagonist and antagonists  “Like dreams” with scene changes. “Hard to keep up” “Acid trip” “How big God is”   2. Repetition is a clue to the ideas an author wants to emphasize. What words and p...

  Chan says we are to be in a place where we have Nothing to prove : a state of deep security in God -  we must be humble Nothing to lose : a state of absolute surrender to God - we give in to God. 'When Christ is absolutely everything, Christ is absolutely enough' Nothing to hide : a state of true integrity before God. All our worst sins are forgiven. Qin mentioned the nakedness of Adam and Eve in the Garden.    The root obstacle of our inability to reach this is a lack of inner security. This leds to a performance trap, fragile egos, vain comparions, envy (desiring that others have) and jealousy (when we are upset that others have more than we do). We then cannot celebrate others' strengths and successes. We must not seek security in acquiring, possessing and hoarding. Insecurity causes us to hide our sin rather than repenting of sin and finding freedom in Christ's transformation. In Christ our destiny is secure In Christ our identity is secure  All this is by...