Reflective Bible Study

As we continue looking at the parables Jesus told, we turn our attention to one of Jesus’ shortest parables. While the setup for this parable gives this parable an extra verse, the parable itself is only one verse long. This isn’t the only parable that is under two verses, but because it is so short, don’t think for a moment that it isn’t challenging, relevant, or significant. In just a few short phrases, Jesus masterfully illustrates several aspects of God’s kingdom in a way that lifts us up while also challenging us regarding our mission in this world.

Let’s read this parable and discover what we can learn from Jesus’ illustration. While this parable is found in Matthew’s gospel, Luke also includes it. Since most people look at Matthew’s version of it, let’s be different and focus in on Luke’s gospel, even if both parables are written almost identically. With this said, our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will read it from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 18, Luke tells us that:

¹⁸ Then Jesus said, “What is God’s kingdom like? What can I compare it with? ¹⁹ It is like a mustard seed that a man plants in his garden. The seed grows and becomes a tree, and the wild birds build nests in its branches.”

In these few phrases, we have our parable. While Jesus then immediately shares another parable, we’ll hold off on focusing on that parable until our next episode, even though both parables have a number of similarities.

In this parable, we discover God’s kingdom being compared to a mustard seed. I don’t know much about mustard seeds, but what I do know is that they are among the smallest seeds that can be seen without magnification. Perhaps what is significant about this truth is that while the seed is small, the seed’s smallness does not indicate the size of a plant the seed will become. In a similar way, God’s kingdom started incredibly small, but with the Holy Spirit and a little bit of time, God’s kingdom has expanded in amazing ways.

Something else that seems to stand out to me whenever I read about this parable is the final phrase. The last thing Jesus shares about the seed that became a tree is that this tree had “wild birds build nests in its branches”. This is significant, because it tells us that God’s kingdom exists to be a shelter and refuge for God’s creation.

While we could take the idea of wild birds literally, they might also be a metaphor for those living in this world. While many of us listening to this episode are already a part of God’s kingdom, when we have intentionally allied ourselves to Jesus, do we live our lives in a way that helps those in this world who are not yet followers of Jesus? Is the witness we display in the world one where other people are loved, welcomed, helped, and lifted up?

According to this parable, God’s kingdom grows into a place where those who are near it benefit from it. God’s kingdom gives more than it takes; God’s kingdom does not behave like a parasite. Everyone near God’s kingdom benefits from its presence.

When I look out at the world today, I don’t see many clear examples of people living to serve others in a sacrificial way. Most serving, if we could call it that, seems to be centered on how we can help others while being compensated in some way for it. While there is nothing wrong with being compensated for helping others, is the goal of our help to get paid, or is the goal of our help to serve? Is the goal of our help and our service towards others aimed at building up a name for ourselves or is aimed at building up the name of Jesus Christ?

One test we can use when asking ourselves if we live up to this ideal is if a random person passing by would miss what we are doing if we were to disappear. Another way we could test this is asking ourselves if we were to stop doing what we are doing, would God miss it? While these are not perfect tests, know that if the mustard tree in our parable were to disappear, the wild birds who had taken up residence would definitely notice. God would also notice because He values every plant, animal, and human He created!

When we join God’s kingdom, we get a new perspective. This perspective changes from what can I do to help me succeed to what can I do to help others succeed. Our perspective also changes from what can God do to help me to what can I do to help bring glory to God through blessing others. When we join God’s kingdom, our focus shifts away from ourselves and onto saying thank You to God by giving Him glory, honor, and praise.

Another way to describe this from our parable is remembering that the tiny mustard seed that grew into a tree represents God’s kingdom. This seed does not represent us and it does not represent anything we can do. Without the Holy Spirit, any efforts we put into growing our own spiritual seeds will result in nothing more than tiny, spiritual seeds.

However, with the Holy Spirit, our efforts into helping God’s kingdom grow transform from the insignificant gifts we have into being the transformative gifts God will use to bless others. This only happens when we remember that we are building up God’s kingdom, and God’s kingdom is focused on giving glory to Jesus!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first and place Him first in your life. Choose to say thank You to God for everything He has done for you by helping others, by blessing others, and by giving God the glory and credit for everything you accomplish. If it was not for God, you would not be alive today!

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each day. While learning from other people is nice, choose to let the Holy Spirit teach you through the pages of the Bible as you study it personally. Nothing can replace personal prayer and Bible study as you build a strong spiritual foundation for your life!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Following Jesus feeding the crowd of over five thousand people, and then walking on the water to His disciples as they were struggling in their boat to cross the lake, we come to our passage for this episode. Leading up to this passage, Jesus had sent the people away following the miraculous feeding of food, and the following day they return looking for Him.

The crowd saw Jesus’ disciples leave without Jesus in their boat, but when they came back looking for Jesus, they could not find Him where that miracle had taken place. The crowd then travels to the other side of the lake looking for Jesus.

This background leads us into our passage for this episode, and a set of powerful truths we can learn from it. Actually, the teaching we are looking at in this passage is too long for one episode, and because of this, we will split this teaching into two parts.

Let’s read the first part of what Jesus shared, and discover some amazing things about how Jesus pushed His crowd of followers.

Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 6, and we will read it from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 25, John tells us:

²⁵ When the people found Jesus on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Teacher, when did you come here?”

²⁶ Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you aren’t looking for me because you saw me do miracles. You are looking for me because you ate the bread and were satisfied. ²⁷ Don’t work for the food that spoils. Work for the food that stays good always and gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give you this food, because on him God the Father has put his power.”

²⁸ The people asked Jesus, “What are the things God wants us to do?”

²⁹ Jesus answered, “The work God wants you to do is this: Believe the One he sent.”

I must pause here to draw out this huge truth. In Jesus’ response, we have the clearest answer for the mission of Jesus’ followers on earth. Above anything and everything else, we are called to believe the One God sent. In other words, we are to believe Jesus and place our faith, our hope, and our trust in Him. When we believe someone, we trust their words and adjust our actions accordingly. When we believe Jesus, we trust His words and we align our lives into His will.

However, the crowd has another question. After Jesus tells them to believe the One God sent, we continue in verse 30, and read:

³⁰ So the people asked, “What miracle will you do? If we see a miracle, we will believe you. What will you do? ³¹ Our ancestors ate the manna in the desert. This is written in the Scriptures: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

³² Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven; it is my Father who is giving you the true bread from heaven. ³³ God’s bread is the One who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴ The people said, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

³⁵ Then Jesus said, “I am the bread that gives life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But as I told you before, you have seen me and still don’t believe. ³⁷ The Father gives me the people who are mine. Every one of them will come to me, and I will always accept them. ³⁸ I came down from heaven to do what God wants me to do, not what I want to do. ³⁹ Here is what the One who sent me wants me to do: I must not lose even one whom God gave me, but I must raise them all on the last day. ⁴⁰ Those who see the Son and believe in him have eternal life, and I will raise them on the last day. This is what my Father wants.”

⁴¹ Some people began to complain about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that comes down from heaven.” ⁴² They said, “This is Jesus, the son of Joseph. We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

⁴³ But Jesus answered, “Stop complaining to each other. ⁴⁴ The Father is the One who sent me. No one can come to me unless the Father draws him to me, and I will raise that person up on the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns 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 I tell you the truth, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread that gives life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but still they died. ⁵⁰ Here is the bread that comes down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will never die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give up so that the world may have life.”

Let’s stop reading here and finish this passage in our next episode.

In this first portion of Jesus’ challenge to this crowd, I am amazed that they are this stubborn and unbelieving. It is as though this crowd is looking for reasons to not believe in Jesus than for reasons to believe.

This is the clearest to me when they directly ask Jesus what sign He would give them from heaven. I suspect you caught the irony like I did when the crowd uses the example of God giving the people manna in the desert. They quote scripture saying that God gave them bread from heaven to eat.

The irony in my mind is that these people just finished eating a clearly miraculous food miracle, where the only place for this bread to have come from is God. A boy supplied his meal big enough for one person, and Jesus multiplied it into food for over 5,000 with plenty of leftovers. After witnessing this miracle, likely less than 48 hours later, this crowd completely discounts the miracle of food multiplication, and they want a clearer sign instead of remembering back to what had just taken place.

Jesus redefines the source of the Bread from heaven, and in a symbolic way, Jesus takes the manna that the Old Testament Israelites ate, and He turns it into a symbolic prophecy about God sending Him into the world.

Jesus clearly tells this crowd in no uncertain terms that He is the symbolic bread that gives life. Jesus says in verse 35 that “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Jesus is speaking on a spiritual level that many in this crowd do not understand, and those that do understand this are not willing to accept it.

Those in the crowd are unwilling to accept Jesus because many of them knew the family Jesus was raised in. Whether Mary and Joseph kept Jesus’ miraculous birth a secret, or whether they stopped trying to tell people because no one believed them, this crowd saw Jesus as simply being Joseph’s son and nothing more significant. The amazing miracles that God did through Jesus were not enough to break through to them that Jesus was more than simply a carpenter’s son.

However, we have an advantage, because three of the four gospels shed light on Jesus’ origins, and on how Jesus did in fact come from heaven. While this passage may be enough to cause some people to trip up in their faith like those in this first century crowd, the biggest truth I see included in this passage is Jesus’ repeated promise about His own task and responsibility.

In this first part of Jesus’ challenge to this crowd, He repeatedly tells them that He is the Source of eternal life, and that His responsibility is raising up all of God’s people on the last day. When we place our trust in Jesus, not only to we trust in His sacrifice to cover our sins, we trust that He is more than capable of raising us up personally when He returns on the last day.

Jesus’ promise is a promise pointing forward to resurrection, and it is a promise I firmly hold on to. Jesus conquered death, and I know He is preparing a place for all of us who have placed our faith in Him as we all together look forward to the day He returns to bring us home!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As always, continue seeking God first in your life and intentionally place your faith, your hope, your trust, and your belief in Jesus and what He did for you on the cross. Also place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and His power to do exactly what He has promised for all of God’s people, which is raising each and every one of them up when He returns. It is Jesus’ responsibility to raise up God’s people and it is His responsibility to not lose even one of those who have given their lives to God. We can trust that even when we don’t know why or how, Jesus knows, He is trustworthy, and God is working in ways we likely cannot see yet.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to personally grow closer to Jesus each and every day. The Bible is the best way to discover Jesus for yourself, and prayer and study are the best ways to open your heart to Jesus and fall in love with Him like He has fallen in love with you!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

In our last episode, I hinted at the next several episodes being focused in on a series of parables found in Matthew’s gospel. However, before we continue looking at the series of parables, Mark’s gospel includes similar but unique parable that sounds related to the parable we focused on in our last episode. In planning our year of podcasts, this seemed like a great point to briefly detour away from Matthew to look at it.

While Mark includes this similar sounding parable to Matthew’s Wheat and Weeds parable, the key idea in Mark’s parable focuses not on the harvest, even though a harvest is included, but the time between the planting and the harvest, and Mark doesn’t include any details about weeds.

Let’s read Jesus’ parable from Mark’s gospel and discover what it can teach us about our lives today and the current world we are living in. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 4, and we will read it from the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 26, Mark tells us that:

²⁶ Jesus also said, “Here is what God’s kingdom is like. A farmer scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷ Night and day the seed comes up and grows. It happens whether the farmer sleeps or gets up. He doesn’t know how it happens. ²⁸ All by itself the soil produces grain. First the stalk comes up. Then the head appears. Finally, the full grain appears in the head. ²⁹ Before long the grain ripens. So the farmer cuts it down, because the harvest is ready.”

When reading this parable, one of the first things that I thought of might make me sound a little skeptical, but it is simply that nowadays, we know how a seed germinates and becomes a plant. With our scientific advances, we know how this happens. We also know that soil left to its own won’t produce anything. If there is water and other soil with plants nearby, without some intervention, the soil in question might gain some of the plants from the nearby soil or it might get the pesky unwanted plants we call weeds.

However, soil with no water or moisture won’t produce anything lasting. We know more about how plants grow today than perhaps at any other point in history.

However, this was the logical, and perhaps a little skeptical, side of me. But what if Jesus isn’t really talking about farming?

Remember, this is a parable, and Jesus begins His parable by stating that His illustration will describe what God’s kingdom is like. With this introduction, we discover that this illustration about farming is not about farming at all. Instead, farming becomes a metaphor for spiritual growth.

With that as a frame of reference, do we know how spiritual growth works? I’ll be the first to say that we know a little bit about it, but similar to how Jesus describes the farmer not knowing how it happens, there are a lot of unknown details in the process.

When we talk about spiritual growth, we know some things that help and other things that do not. We know that prayer and Bible study help with spiritual growth, while many of the latest blockbuster movies, games, or other forms of entertainment don’t help us grow spiritually.

To sum up what we know and compare it to what we don’t know, what we do know is that there are some environments that help with spiritual growth, and other environments that don’t help with growth. This is similar to the parable from a couple episodes ago where seed falls on different types of soil with different results. Seed landing on soil is going to grow a lot better than seed landing on a solid slab of pavement. The environment matters when we talk about spiritual growth.

However, with the right environment, do we know what causes spiritual growth?

Again, we know something that can stop spiritual growth in the right environment, and that is a selfish, self-centered attitude. Also, a closed, hard heart towards God will stop spiritual growth. Judas Iscariot is the prime example of this. Everything spoke to Judas Iscariot having the same opportunity as the majority of the other disciples, but Judas chose to reject and betray Jesus because of His self-focused attitude, when the other disciples ultimately became ambassadors for God’s kingdom after they received the Holy Spirit.

So with the right environment, the right attitude, and the right focus, will we grow spiritually? I believe we will, but I also believe that we don’t truly understand how it happens. We can describe growing spiritually as receiving the Holy Spirit, learning new spiritual truths, having a new perspective and outlook on life, and being transformed by God, but how this happens is still a mystery.

Like the parable, we can see the outward stages of growth happening, all the way to being mature and ripe, but how spiritual growth happens within a person’s life is still a mystery. As the common metaphor goes, we can see the effects of the wind, but we cannot see the wind itself. We can feel the wind, but we cannot see it. We can feel and see spiritual changes in our lives and our perspectives, but that doesn’t mean we understand how we grow spiritually.

However, just because it is a mystery to us does not mean that this is a mystery to God. God knows and He understands. In this parable, Jesus subtly leaves one responsibility to us, and then we are to leave the rest to Him. This parable subtly challenges us to plant spiritual seeds. When we share God with others, when we live a life that gives God glory, and when we don’t back down when we are challenged spiritually, our lives are planting seeds in the lives of those we meet. This is what God has called us to do.

While we don’t understand how spiritual growth works, we can trust that God knows. God sends the spiritual sunshine, the spiritual water, and God prompts the spiritual germination that starts the spiritual growth in someone’s heart and life. Spiritual growth is something that is entirely based on the Holy Spirit. Once a seed has been planted, it is up to the environment to help facilitate the growth. We cannot control someone else’s spiritual environment, so we let God handle the growth.

With God focusing on the growth and the environment, every one of the seeds planted in His people will grow into spiritual maturity and become ripe for His harvest. God has left us with the responsibility of planting seeds, so let’s plant spiritual seeds and let Him worry about how to help them grow!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As always, seek God first and intentionally open your heart to Him. Ask Him to send the Holy Spirit into your life to help you grow, to help you live for Him, and to help you plant seeds through how you live your life. Trust that God is more than willing to answer this heartfelt prayer in your own life!

Also, don’t neglect the environments you place yourself in. Continue to set time aside to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow personally towards God. While the environment you are placed in is different from the one I am in, God knows how to grow someone spiritually when we stay connected to Him!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or wither away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Immediately following Jesus feeding the crowd of over 5,000 people that we looked at in our last episode, our passage for this episode takes place that evening. At the end of our last event, Jesus sends the disciples away, telling them to cross the lake and that He will find them later. Jesus did this because the people present who experienced the miracle of food multiplication wanted to make Jesus their king at that moment. I suspect the disciples would have supported this declaration, and Jesus wanted to stop this from happening.

This leads us into our passage for this episode. Our passage opens with Jesus praying on the mountain by Himself, and the disciples beginning their journey across the lake. Let’s read what happened.

Our passage for this episode is found in John’s gospel, chapter 6, and we will read it from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 16, John tells us that:

¹⁶ When evening came, his disciples went to the sea. ¹⁷ They got into a boat and started to cross the sea to the city of Capernaum. By this time it was dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. ¹⁸ A strong wind started to blow and stir up the sea.

¹⁹ After they had rowed three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea. He was coming near the boat, and they became terrified.

²⁰ Jesus told them, “It’s me. Don’t be afraid!”

²¹ So they were willing to help Jesus into the boat. Immediately, the boat reached the shore where they were going.

²² On the next day the people were still on the other side of the sea. They noticed that only one boat was there and that Jesus had not stepped into that boat with his disciples. The disciples had gone away without him. ²³ Other boats from Tiberias arrived near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord gave thanks. ²⁴ When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into these boats and went to the city of Capernaum to look for Jesus.

In this event, two details stand out to me.

The first detail is that immediately after Jesus stepped into the boat, the boat reached the shore where they were going. It is possible this was another miracle beyond Jesus simply walking on water, or that John abbreviated the last portion of the trip. The big truth I can learn from the first portion of this passage is that life without Jesus is significantly more difficult than life with Jesus.

Taking this idea a step further, we could also conclude that it is impossible to reach God’s goal for us without Jesus. However, when we are with Jesus, we have already arrived at God’s destination for us.

The second detail that stood out to me is found in verse 22, when we read that “On the next day the people were still on the other side of the sea. They noticed that only one boat was there and that Jesus had not stepped into that boat with his disciples.”

This detail is fascinating to me. The people who had been fed knew that the disciples had taken the only boat when they left, and that Jesus wasn’t with them in the boat when they pushed off from the shore. These people, as well as some others who made the trip across the lake to the place where the bread had been served were all looking for Jesus, expecting to find Him without His disciples.

However, they all were disappointed and too late. This detail tells me that sometimes Jesus is away from His followers, but the best place to look for Jesus is with those who are serving and following Him.

Part of me wonders what would have happened if Jesus had stayed on that shore, and if the disciples had reached Capernaum without Him. What would the crowd have done if they had found Jesus apart from His disciples? Would the crowd have wanted to pressure Jesus into being a king? Would they have demanded more food like the previous day’s miracle?

We might never know, but what we can be certain of is that Jesus walked across the lake to the disciples not just because they were having a difficult time without Him in the boat, but because Jesus loves His followers. Another thing we can learn in this event is that when we are unable to reach our goal, Jesus is happy to come find us to help us get to our destination. The disciples made it part way across the lake without Jesus, but when Jesus came to be with them, He solves the part of the trip they are unable to solve.

In our own lives, when we are dealing with turning away from sin and leaving it in our past, some aspects of this are possible for us to do on our own. However, there will be a point when we have reached as far as we can without Jesus, and when we have come to this place and want to go further, don’t be surprised if Jesus comes and offers His help.

Jesus is more than willing to help us conquer sin in our lives and when we fill our hearts with Him and God’s Holy Spirit, we actively are pushing sin out. The best way to get rid of sin is by crowding our lives with Jesus and serving Him. When we are wholly serving Jesus, we won’t have time for sin, and our focus will be on God’s will for our lives!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Always continue to seek God first in your life and choose to depend on Him for help turning away from sin in your own life. Resolve to focus on what God wants you to focus on and push the sin out of your life by filling it so full of God’s goals for your life that sin cannot break in. Choose to be too busy doing God’s will for you to have time to sin.

Always keep your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and His sacrifice because we cannot earn our salvation through what we do. Jesus earned salvation for us, and the best way for us to say thank You to Him is by walking forward through life with Him and without sin.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God each and every day. God wants a personal relationship with you, and we grow a personal relationship with God when we pray, study our Bibles with an open mind listening for what He wants to share with us, and when we actively step out into His will and His plan for our lives. Life with God can begin today, and life with God extends into eternity!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!