Thematic Bible: Zealous


Thematic Bible







Still I think it necessary to send Epaphroditus to you now, for he is my brother, fellow-worker, and fellow-soldier, and he was also your messenger to help me in my need. For he has been longing to see you all, and has been distressed because you heard of his illness. And I can assure you that his illness very nearly proved fatal. But God had pity on him, and not on him only but also on me, that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow. read more.
I am all the more ready, therefore, to send him, so that the sight of him may revive your spirits and my own sorrow be lightened. Give him, then, the heartiest of Christian welcomes, and hold such men in great honour. For it was owing to his devotion to the Master's work that he was at the point of death, having risked his own life in the effort to supply what was wanting in the help that you sent me.

Epaphras, who is one of yourselves, sends you his greeting. He is a servant of Christ Jesus, and is always most earnest in your behalf in his prayers, praying that you may stand firm, with a matured faith and with a sure conviction of all that is in accordance with God's will. I can bear testimony to the deep interest he takes in you, as well as in the Brethren at Laodicea and at Hierapolis.

I thank God for inspiring Titus with the same keen interest in your welfare that I have; For Titus has responded to my appeals and, in his great earnestness, is starting to go to you of his own accord.

At this I wept long, because no one could be found who was worthy to open the book or look within it. But one of the Councillors said to me--'Do not weep. The Lion conquered--the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Scion of David--and can therefore open the book with its seven seals.'

Our dear Brother, Tychicus, will tell you all about me. He is a faithful minister, and a fellow-servant in the Master's cause. Verse ConceptsGood FriendsFaithfulness, Examples OfLoyaltyTelling Of People's Situations

But the men went out, and spread the news about him through all that part of the country. Verse ConceptsFameMaking Christ KnownSpreading StoriesSpreading The Gospel

Upon this his neighbors, and those who had formerly known him by sight as a beggar, exclaimed: "Is not this the man who used to sit and beg?" "Yes," some said, "it is"; while others said: "No, but he is like him." The man himself said: "I am he." "How did you get your sight, then?" they asked. read more.
"The man whom they call Jesus," he answered, "made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me 'Go to Siloam and wash your eyes.' So I went and washed my eyes, and gained my sight." "Where is he?" they asked. I do not know," he answered. They took the man, who had been blind, to the Pharisees. Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and gave him his sight. So the Pharisees also questioned the man as to how he had gained his sight. "He put clay on my eyes," he answered, "and I washed them, and I can see." "The man cannot be from God," said some of the Pharisees, "for he does not keep the Sabbath." "How is it possible," retorted others, "for a bad man to give signs like this?" So there was a difference of opinion among them, and they again questioned the man; "What do you yourself say about him, for it is to you that he has given sight?" The Jews, however, refused to believe that he had been blind and had gained his sight, until they had called his parents and questioned them. "Is this your son," they asked, "who you say was born blind? If so, how is it that he can see now?" "We know that this is our son," answered the parents, "and that he was born blind; But how it is that he can see now we do not know; nor do we know who it was that gave him his sight. Ask him--he is old enough- -he will tell you about himself." His parents spoke in this way because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that, if any one should acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, he should be expelled from their synagogues. This was why his parents said 'He is old enough; ask him.' So the Jews again called the man who had been blind, and said to him: "Give God the praise; we know that this is a bad man." "I know nothing about his being a bad man," he replied; "one thing I do know, that although I was blind, now I can see." "What did he do to you?" they asked. "How did he give you your sight?" "I told you just now," he answered, "and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Surely you also do not want to become his disciples?" "You are his disciple," they retorted scornfully; "but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses; but, as for this man, we do not know where he comes from." "Well," the man replied, "this is very strange; you do not know where he comes from, and yet he has given me my sight! We know that God never listens to bad men, but, when a man is god-fearing and does God's will, God listens to him. Since the world began, such a thing was never heard of as any one's giving sight to a person born blind. If this man had not been from God, he could not have done anything at all." "You," they retorted, "were born totally depraved; and are you trying to teach us?" So they expelled him. Jesus heard of their having put him out; and, when he had found the man, he asked: "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" "Tell me who he is, Sir," he replied, "so that I may believe in him." "Not only have you seen him," said Jesus; "but it is he who is now speaking to you." "Then, Sir, I do believe," said the man, bowing to the ground before him;

So the woman, leaving her pitcher, went back to the town, and said to the people: "Come and see someone who has told me everything that I have done. Can he be the Christ?"

One of the two, who heard what John said and followed Jesus, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him: "We have found the Messiah!" (a word which means 'Christ,' or 'Consecrated'.)

The following day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. He found Philip, and said to him: "Follow me." Philip was from Bethsaida, and a fellow-townsman of Andrew and Peter. He found Nathanael and said to him: "We have found him of whom Moses wrote in the Law, and of whom the Prophets also wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, Joseph's son!"


"Go back to your home," he said, "and relate the story of all that God has done for you." So the man went through the whole town and proclaimed, as he went, all that Jesus had done for him. Verse ConceptsExperience, of Godevangelists, identity ofTestify On God's BehalfFervourZealousness, Examples OfChrist's WorkTelling Of JesusFamily And FriendsGod Turning Bad Things Into Good

Jesus insisted upon their not telling any one; but the more he insisted, the more perseveringly they made it known, Verse ConceptsUnwise ZealGrowth In ProclamationChrist Concealing ThingsSpreading StoriesChrist's Orders