Reflective Bible Study

As we continue working our way through John’s gospel, we arrive at a place where Jesus is clearly asked whether He is the Messiah or not. While this seems like a great place for Jesus to openly declare that He was in fact the Messiah these Jews had been waiting for, I am fascinated that Jesus takes a different angle when answering this question. In the angle Jesus takes, He subtly challenges the very idea these Jews had about who the Messiah would actually be.

Let’s read about what happened, and how Jesus’ reframe of His ministry should have prompted these Jews to understand the Messiah differently, instead of simply prompting them to reject Him.

Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 10, and we will read it using the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 22, John tells us that:

²² It was winter, and the Festival of the Dedication of the Temple was being celebrated in Jerusalem. ²³ Jesus was walking in Solomon’s Porch in the Temple, ²⁴ when the people gathered around him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? Tell us the plain truth: are you the Messiah?”

²⁵ Jesus answered, “I have already told you, but you would not believe me. The deeds I do by my Father’s authority speak on my behalf; ²⁶ but you will not believe, for you are not my sheep. ²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they shall never die. No one can snatch them away from me.²⁹ What my Father has given me is greater than everything, and no one can snatch them away from the Father’s care. ³⁰ The Father and I are one.”

³¹ Then the people again picked up stones to throw at him. ³² Jesus said to them, “I have done many good deeds in your presence which the Father gave me to do; for which one of these do you want to stone me?”

³³ They answered, “We do not want to stone you because of any good deeds, but because of your blasphemy! You are only a man, but you are trying to make yourself God!”

³⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written in your own Law that God said, ‘You are gods.’ ³⁵ We know that what the scripture says is true forever; and God called those people gods, the people to whom his message was given. ³⁶ As for me, the Father chose me and sent me into the world. How, then, can you say that I blaspheme because I said that I am the Son of God? ³⁷ Do not believe me, then, if I am not doing the things my Father wants me to do. ³⁸ But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, you should at least believe my deeds, in order that you may know once and for all that the Father is in me and that I am in the Father.”

³⁹ Once more they tried to seize Jesus, but he slipped out of their hands.

⁴⁰ Jesus then went back again across the Jordan River to the place where John had been baptizing, and he stayed there. ⁴¹ Many people came to him. “John performed no miracles,” they said, “but everything he said about this man was true.” ⁴² And many people there believed in him.

In this passage, I am amazed at how Jesus frames the crowd’s hostility towards Him. While the crowd rightfully determines that Jesus’ words would fall within one definition of blasphemy, either they did not understand, or they were unwilling to accept, the difficult truth that the Messiah that the Old Testament prophesied about would actually be God’s Son.

Much later in Jesus’ ministry, during the week leading up to Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, trial, and crucifixion, Jesus uses an Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah as evidence that the Messiah existed before David while also being David’s descendant. For those who are interested in what happened, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all include this event, and you can find it at the end of Matthew, chapter 22, near the end of Mark, chapter 12, and at the end of Luke, chapter 20.

However, tucked within Jesus’ counter-challenge to these Jews is another amazing truth. While Jesus doesn’t ask those in this crowd to accept what they feel are blasphemous claims about being one with God, Jesus does challenge them regarding what they see Him doing. Everything Jesus did was to bring glory to God and to uplift God’s name. Even the crowd acknowledged when they picked up stones to stone Jesus that it wasn’t for anything He had done, but for one single claim He had made.

While Jesus clarifies how His claim about being God’s Son is completely compatible with the Old Testament scriptures, He shifts the focus onto His actions. Actions always speak louder than words, and in Jesus’ case, the only way Jesus could have done 90% of what He did was if God was with Him supporting Him through the Holy Spirit. While Jesus could have leaned on His divinity throughout His entire life, Jesus instead submitted Himself to God the Father’s will, and leaned on the Holy Spirit for power.

This means that if God the Father did not like the message Jesus was sharing, there would be no way Jesus could have helped people during the time He was teaching, and preaching. We don’t have to look very far into Jesus’ miracles to come to one that would be impossible for Jesus to do if God was not with Him.

Because Jesus worked so many miracles, and because Jesus always attributed these miracles as the Father’s will, and as reasons to give God the glory, we can use Jesus’ actions as a foundation for our faith. Regardless of the message Jesus shared, what Jesus did while He was alive on earth could only have happened if God was with Him. If Jesus had stepped too far, or over the line of what God felt was acceptable or not, we could expect that Jesus’ ability to perform miracles would stop.

However, when we fast forward to the end of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus was resurrected from the dead exactly as He predicted, Jesus returned to heaven, and the Holy Spirit was given to His followers exactly as Jesus promised. These details surrounding the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth give the greatest evidence to the powerful truth that Jesus was who He claimed to be. Jesus was God’s Son and the Messiah God had promised since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

Because Jesus’ word has never failed, we can trust His promises, and even if we are uncertain of some of the more extreme claims Jesus made, we can look to Jesus’ actions as a foundation for our faith in Him.

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 in your life and choose to place your faith, your hope, your trust, and your belief in Jesus and what He accomplished while He was alive on earth. Trust that Jesus is in heaven working for our benefit as history speeds towards the end of sin and the salvation of God’s people!

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. God wants a personal relationship with you, and a personal relationship is best built on the foundation of personal prayer and personal Bible study. While other people can have good things to say, or interesting ideas to think about, always take what you hear, read, or see and filter it through the truth in God’s Word.

Leading up to one of Jesus’ more well-known teachings is a relatively unknown parable. While I imagine that if you have read the gospels or have been in church for a moderate length of time, you probably will recognize the teaching that follows this parable, but you might have missed or not heard this parable itself.

However, after this episode, you can confidently say that you have heard the parable that we’re focusing in on, and that you understand how it relates to having effective prayer. This parable and our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 11, and we will read it from the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 5, Luke tells us that:

⁵ [And] Jesus said to his disciples, “Suppose one of you should go to a friend’s house at midnight and say, ‘Friend, let me borrow three loaves of bread. ⁶ A friend of mine who is on a trip has just come to my house, and I don’t have any food for him!’ ⁷ And suppose your friend should answer from inside, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ ⁸ Well, what then? I tell you that even if he will not get up and give you the bread because you are his friend, yet he will get up and give you everything you need because you are not ashamed to keep on asking. ⁹ And so I say to you: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For those who ask will receive, and those who seek will find, and the door will be opened to anyone who knocks. ¹¹ Would any of you who are fathers give your son a snake when he asks for fish? ¹² Or would you give him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? ¹³ As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

This whole first section of Luke chapter 11 relates with effective prayer. Luke 11 begins with Jesus sharing the model prayer with His disciples in the first four verses, which we didn’t have time to cover in this episode, before then moving into the parable and follow up teaching.

All too often though, I feel that people stop reading too soon because the last verse we focused on is likely the biggest key in this entire passage and discussion on prayer. Jesus finishes off by telling His followers at the end of verse 13, “How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

This whole discussion centers around asking, seeking, and knocking within the context of prayer, and the specific context is asking for the Holy Spirit. We can know that when we ask for the Holy Spirit, God will not give us a counterfeit, and He will not give us something harmful instead.

However, part of me sees a disconnect between the big theme of Jesus’ parable and with the key idea Jesus shares in the follow-up teaching. In the parable, the key idea is persisting in prayer until we get the response we are asking for, but being challenged to persist in prayer makes God seem like He is not as good of a Father as we might think He should be. After all, good, attentive fathers here on earth wouldn’t delay giving their children what they ask for and need. It would be a mistake to think God is worse, or less attentive, than our example of a good earthly father.

So why then are we challenged to persist in prayer when it would seem like our prayers should be answered immediately?

In my own mind, the disconnect in this understanding is really a misunderstanding of the nature of prayer. If prayer is simply asking God to give us something, then God appears to be a real jerk for not granting our requests. However, if prayer is us opening our hearts to God, then requests are less significant and the focus is more on building a relationship with God and growing closer to Him.

When I see prayer as the best way for me to share my life with God, prayer becomes the way I can grow my faith, my trust, and my belief in God more fully. This is before even bringing any request to God at all. Prayer helps me recognize, remember, and acknowledge who God is and His role in my life.

Above everything else, when we pray, we should focus on connecting with God and sharing our joys, fears, triumphs, and trials with Him.

However, the context and focus of this parable is still fascinating. The context of this parable centers around bringing requests to God. While we cannot catch God at a point when He’d rather be sleeping or vacationing, the strong implication in this parable is that persistence in prayer appears to get results, similar to persistence in our lives would get results. Oddly enough, the just woken up friend isn’t much of a friend if he or she wouldn’t part with a few loaves of bread, but persisting in our request after receiving a no response is likely to break any friendship that might have been there.

The great thing about prayer is that this is not the way it works with God. We cannot pester God out of loving us or being interested in helping us. I think that sometimes God is more interested in building a relationship with us through prayer than simply filling the role of a genie who grants wishes and requests.

God knows what we need and He is more than willing to help us get what we truly need, but with our requests, God also knows we need a relationship with Him. Perhaps when He delays a clear response, it is because God wants us to slow down and focus on growing closer to Him.

God is well aware of the best timing and the best way to move forward in history, and because of this, we can trust that when we pray and don’t get a clear response to our prayer, that God knows what He is doing. Perhaps, when we face unanswered prayer, we can use the uncertainty as a reminder that we should focus on growing closer to God through prayer, and focus on opening up our lives to God within prayer, because life tends to get so busy that it pushes Him to the side.

Jesus concludes by reminding us the one thing we should focus on asking for above everything else. Jesus challenges us to continually ask for the Holy Spirit to come into our lives. Without the Holy Spirit, there is no way we can truly become the people God created us to be. Because of this, let’s as a group focus on asking for the Holy Spirit to come into our lives and hearts and transform us into the people God created us to be!

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

As always, be sure to seek God first and choose to see the goal of prayer as opening our lives and hearts to God. Use your prayer time to remind yourself of who God is and thank Him for what He has done and is doing for you. Open your heart to God, ask for the Holy Spirit to enter, and let God transform your life and your focus.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, pray and study the Bible for yourself. While other people can give you things to think about, always go back to the Bible in prayer to validate what you have learned. God has given us everything we need for salvation within the pages of the Bible, and if we trust that God is able to keep us safe for eternity, we should trust that He can keep His message safe for a few thousand years. Our current history is just a speck of time when compared with the eternity God has planned for His people!

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!

As we continue reading John’s gospel, we ultimately discover how Jesus divided people. If we only had Jesus’ words to go on with no miracles, no fulfilled prophecy, and no resurrection, we could rightly conclude that Jesus was the most deluded speaker or preacher in the history of the world.

However, because Jesus could perform miracles, because the Old Testament clearly prophesied about His arrival and His life, and because we have the resurrection that He personally predicted on multiple occasions, we are challenged with the truth that none of this could have happened without God’s leading and blessing.

In our passage, similar to our last episode’s passage, we see Jesus divide people. While our last passage had religious leaders being challenged and divided over the healing of a blind man, our passage for this episode focuses on a teaching Jesus shared that challenged those present.

Let’s read what happened. Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 10, and we will read it from the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ Jesus said:

I tell you for certain that only thieves and robbers climb over the fence instead of going in through the gate to the sheep pen. ^2-3 But the gatekeeper opens the gate for the shepherd, and he goes in through it. The sheep know their shepherd’s voice. He calls each of them by name and leads them out.

⁴ When he has led out all of his sheep, he walks in front of them, and they follow, because they know his voice. ⁵ The sheep will not follow strangers. They don’t recognize a stranger’s voice, and they run away.

⁶ Jesus told the people this story. But they did not understand what he was talking about.

⁷ Jesus said:

I tell you for certain that I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ Everyone who came before me was a thief or a robber, and the sheep did not listen to any of them. ⁹ I am the gate. All who come in through me will be saved. Through me they will come and go and find pasture.

¹⁰ A thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy. I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest. ¹¹ I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd gives up his life for his sheep. ¹² Hired workers are not like the shepherd. They don’t own the sheep, and when they see a wolf coming, they run off and leave the sheep. Then the wolf attacks and scatters the flock. ¹³ Hired workers run away because they don’t care about the sheep.

¹⁴ I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and they know me. ¹⁵ Just as the Father knows me, I know the Father, and I give up my life for my sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep that are not in this sheep pen. I must bring them together too, when they hear my voice. Then there will be one flock of sheep and one shepherd.

¹⁷ The Father loves me, because I give up my life, so that I may receive it back again. ¹⁸ No one takes my life from me. I give it up willingly! I have the power to give it up and the power to receive it back again, just as my Father commanded me to do.

¹⁹ The people took sides because of what Jesus had told them. ²⁰ Many of them said, “He has a demon in him! He is crazy! Why listen to him?”

²¹ But others said, “How could anyone with a demon in him say these things? No one like that could give sight to a blind person!”

In this passage, we see Jesus dividing another crowd. It is likely that this event happened not long after the miracle we read about in our last episode, where Jesus healed the man who was born blind. I suspect this because our passage in this episode ends with the crowd being torn over Jesus having given sight to a blind person.

However, in this passage, we are presented with several challenging statements.

The first challenging statement in my mind is at the end of verse 14. Right in the middle of Jesus explaining this parable, Jesus tells those present “I give up my life for my sheep.” This is one of the craziest things for anyone to say. From the most literal way of understanding this idea, if a shepherd gives up his life for his sheep, his sheep would be left defenseless when the next predator comes. On the surface, this sounds crazy.

However, while this sounds crazy, this is one more clear example of Jesus predicting His death, and the ultimate reason Jesus gives up His life.

The second challenging statement is connected with the first and it is when Jesus says in verses 17 and 18: “The Father loves me, because I give up my life, so that I may receive it back again. No one takes my life from me. I give it up willingly! I have the power to give it up and the power to receive it back again, just as my Father commanded me to do.”

While the truth in these two verses is difficult, or perhaps even impossible for us to fully understand, Jesus has the power to give His life up and the power to receive it back again. This means that Jesus essentially has the power to resurrect Himself, and if I were to hear someone claim this today, I would be just as confused as the people listening to Jesus in the first century.

This outlandish claim leaves only two options: Either Jesus was ridiculously deluded and overstepped His bounds, or Jesus spoke the truth and He has more power than any of us can even begin to comprehend.

The way we reconcile this claim is by testing it against what happened, and all evidence tells us that Jesus did die, and that He did rise again, just as He predicted. Even though this event happened thousands of years ago, it is the most preserved truth in all of history.

This leads us to the third challenging statement. This one is found between our other two statements. In verse 16, Jesus tells those present: “I have other sheep that are not in this sheep pen. I must bring them together too, when they hear my voice. Then there will be one flock of sheep and one shepherd.”

While on the surface this doesn’t sound all that crazy, especially when compared with the other two statements we have already looked at, the craziness in this statement is that Jesus has people who are part of other groups of people. While we might limit the other groups of people to other believing Christians who are part of different denominations or churches, I suspect Jesus’ statement is even broader than this, including other belief systems and other worldviews. It is possible that God has called someone from a group you could not possibly think could be saved or savable.

However, while this is a challenging truth, it is worth noting that Jesus is the one responsible for uniting people. It is not our responsibility to change other people’s minds. Instead, in a subtle twist, our responsibility is to live in a way that doesn’t push other people away. We are to live a visible faith, we are to love and help others, but we should not be abrasive, pushy, arrogant, prideful, or hostile towards people who are not like us.

Jesus came into a world to save people who were nothing like Him. Jesus loved people who were nothing like Him. We are called to love those who Jesus loves, and that includes people who are nothing like us, people who stand for the opposite things as we do, and people who are even openly hostile towards us. We are called to be loving, and Jesus is called to be the one uniting!

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 choose to be loving to those He brings into your life. While this includes strangers and acquaintances, this also includes your friends and your family – both your immediate family and your extended family as well. God has brought everyone into your life for a reason, and regardless of whether you understand the reason, we are called to be loving towards everyone God has brought into our life.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Through the pages of the Bible, discover just how much God loves you and I and how much He was willing to give to redeem us from sin.

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!

As we move through the gospels and the parables Jesus shared, we come to an illustration that is definitely a story Jesus shared, but unlike many of Jesus’ other parables, it is so realistic that it may have actually happened. I’m confident that those listening to Jesus’ story were not surprised by the way any of the characters acted, that is except for one.

Let’s read this illustration and discover what we can learn from Jesus’ message to the crowd. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 10, and we will read it from the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 25, Luke tells us that:

²⁵ An expert in the Law of Moses stood up and asked Jesus a question to see what he would say. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to have eternal life?”

²⁶ Jesus answered, “What is written in the Scriptures? How do you understand them?”

²⁷ The man replied, “The Scriptures say, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.’ They also say, ‘Love your neighbors as much as you love yourself.’”

²⁸ Jesus said, “You have given the right answer. If you do this, you will have eternal life.”

²⁹ But the man wanted to show that he knew what he was talking about. So he asked Jesus, “Who are my neighbors?”

Let’s pause for a moment right here before reading Jesus’ reply. In this first portion of this conversation, Jesus has just given a very simple formula for gaining eternal life. Eternal life is gained by loving God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind, and through loving our neighbors as much as we love ourselves.

This seems like a pretty straightforward formula, but it is one that many people seem to have trouble with. I remember a neighborhood meeting of people living in my neighborhood where someone became agitated over how someone else had parked their vehicle. When the suggestion was made that this person talk to the owner of the vehicle, the quick, almost instantaneous reply, was that the owner of the vehicle was not this individual’s neighbor. The term neighbor apparently is a very subjective term, because I would think that those living in my “neighborhood” would be considered my neighbors, while this person was applying the term neighbor to the homes in the neighborhood that were directly around his.

Perhaps this question was in the experts mind when he followed up his question to Jesus by asking who his neighbor was. From the context of our passage, I get the impression that this leader wanted to know where the line was between excluding people from help versus including them in our help. The term neighbor was a noun that needed defining.

Let’s read Jesus’ response and the illustration Jesus shares answering this question:

Continuing in verse 30:

³⁰ Jesus replied:

As a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, robbers attacked him and grabbed everything he had. They beat him up and ran off, leaving him half dead.

³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road. But when he saw the man, he walked by on the other side. ³² Later a temple helper came to the same place. But when he saw the man who had been beaten up, he also went by on the other side.

³³ A man from Samaria then came traveling along that road. When he saw the man, he felt sorry for him ³⁴ and went over to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. ³⁵ The next morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, “Please take care of the man. If you spend more than this on him, I will pay you when I return.”

³⁶ Then Jesus asked, “Which one of these three people was a real neighbor to the man who was beaten up by robbers?”

³⁷ The teacher answered, “The one who showed pity.”

Jesus said, “Go and do the same!”

In this parable-illustration, the person who showed pity was the least likely candidate for showing mercy. This parable contains two representatives for God who do nothing, while a secular, non-religious person steps in to help.

Oddly enough, Jesus’ illustration here has become so well known that when thinking of a Samaritan, we often think of the fictional one in Jesus’ story here and not on any of the others, many of whom rejected Jesus and were hostile towards the Jews.

Also, while this illustration is prompted by a Jewish religious leader who wanted a definition for the term neighbor so he could know the groups that are included while also knowing those that are excluded, Jesus does not define neighbor as a noun, but as a verb. Jesus’ illustration does not overly focus on the nationality of those present. Instead, Jesus’ illustration focuses on what the neighborly individual did to help the one in need.

This passage ends with one of the most challenging commissions we can think of. Jesus concludes by saying in verse 37, “Go and do the same!”

It is in this challenge, which is connected to this illustration, where we get the true definition of what it means to love our neighbor. Nothing changes Jesus’ confirmation that loving God with everything we are and with everything we have is central for our salvation. However, with this illustration, we have a definition and a central focus for what it means to love our neighbor.

According to this parable, loving our neighbor means genuinely helping those in need when we see them in our life. Every situation is different, but we are called to be a neighbor rather than simply keep our eyes open for our literal neighbors. Jesus has called us to help those in need who He brings into our path.

The Good Samaritan didn’t start his journey thinking that he would find someone who needed help, but when his path came to someone needing help, it didn’t matter that this Samaritan had no idea who the injured man was, or even that others had refused to help. The Samaritan knew that he could help, and he chose to do so.

Being a neighbor is helping because God has brought someone into our path who needs help, and being a neighbor is choosing to help simply because that is who God has called us to be. Like Jesus challenged those present for this teaching to do, we too should “Go and do the same!”

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

As I regularly challenge you to do, be sure you always seek God first. Remember that while this passage focused mainly on being a neighbor, the context also stressed the importance of placing God first in our lives. Be sure that you are loving and serving God while also helping others as God brings them into your path.

In order to keep your connection with God strong, keep praying and studying the Bible for yourself and grow your personal relationship with God even more. Don’t let me or anyone else get between you and God. Focus on growing your relationship with God and let Him lead and direct your path towards those who need your help!

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