Reflective Bible Study

As we continue in John’s gospel, and in the debate that Jesus was having with the Jews, we discover some amazing truths within Jesus’ response, we discover a powerful challenge Jesus shares about an important subject, and we also find one of my favorite Bible passages. Since this is a longer passage, let’s dive right in.

Our passage for this episode is found in John’s gospel, chapter 8, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 31, John writes:

³¹ To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Pausing briefly, I want to point out one of my favorite verses, and this is the message Jesus shares as our passage opens. If we were to ask the question about what makes us true disciples of Jesus, Jesus’ first words in this passage gives us the answer. Jesus tells us, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” This is one of my favorite Bible passages, because it clarifies the path to the truth, and the benefit we get from knowing the truth. The way to the truth is becoming a disciple of Jesus, and the way to become a disciple of Jesus is holding onto Jesus’ teaching. When we apply Jesus’ teachings into our lives, we walk the path of a disciple, and on the path of being a disciple, we discover the truth and are ultimately set free.

However, the Jews present took offense to the idea of being set free. Continuing reading in verse 33:

³³ They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

³⁴ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵ Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷ I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. ³⁸ I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”

³⁹ “Abraham is our father,” they answered.

“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. ⁴⁰ As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. ⁴¹ You are doing the works of your own father.”

“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”

⁴² Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. ⁴³ Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. ⁴⁴ You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵ Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! ⁴⁶ Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? ⁴⁷ Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

⁴⁸ The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”

⁴⁹ “I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. ⁵⁰ I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. ⁵¹ Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”

⁵² At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. ⁵³ Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”

⁵⁴ Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. ⁵⁵ Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. ⁵⁶ Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”

⁵⁷ “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”

⁵⁸ “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” ⁵⁹ At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

In this passage, we have a lot we could unpack, and simply not enough time to do so with the format of these shorter episodes.

However, one truth that I want to draw out of this passage is very significant. This truth is that the idea of dying and death in this passage use two different Greek words, and while these words are similar, the way Jesus uses these two words in this passage help to frame a huge truth that is easily missed, or perhaps intentionally ignored.

In this passage, specifically in verse 51, Jesus shares the promise that “whoever obeys my word will never see death.” This promise is repeated with a likely mocking tone of voice by the Jews responding to Jesus in verse 52.

However, it is interesting to note that in this entire passage, these are the only times this Greek word for death is used. Instead, when describing how the prophets and significant people from the past died, a different Greek word was used.

This is a very significant detail, because when we look at how Jesus frames these two words for death in the four gospels, we quickly discover that Jesus used one of these words to describe an eternal death, and the other to describe a death that will be cut short with a resurrection. This truth is made a little more complicated, because the Greek term used for sentencing someone to death, is the one that describes an eternal death, which makes historical sense, because the Greek’s dualistic beliefs stood entirely opposed to the concept of resurrection as something that their gods would do, or that would even be desirable to experience.

To arrive at this conclusion, I looked at all the places in the gospels where Jesus used these two Greek words, and not simply at all the places they appear. Looking at all the places they appear in the gospels prompts us to conclude that these might be very interchangeable terms.

However, when we look at Jesus’ own words, Jesus uses the term “death”, specifically the one we see only mentioned a couple times in this passage, to describe a death that lasts forever, and when He describes the types of death that people were sentenced to. When being sentenced to die, I know of no court that would include the context of a future resurrection. Being sentenced to death is being sentenced to having one’s life removed with no expectation of it returning.

The other Greek word for dying has a future resurrection implied. This is easily seen when Jesus is talking with Martha about Lazarus dying, which is an event we will look at in a future episode. Both Martha and Jesus frame this type of death as one that looks forward to a resurrection. Jesus just helps Martha discover that resurrection can happen sooner than Jesus’ return.

As we are running out of time, let me draw this powerful truth out into the open: Jesus promises us that everyone who obeys His Words will never see eternal death. This is powerful for us to remember, because it makes the truth about believing Jesus relevant. A truth we reject is one that we don’t apply into our lives, while a truth we believe is one that we will obey. By not obeying Jesus’ truth, we reject Him, and we step off of the path of discipleship.

When we reject Jesus’ teachings, we lose out on not just discovering God’s truth and the freedom that comes with it, as we looked at in the beginning of this passage, but we also lose out on the promise of never tasting eternal death as well.

Instead of falling into Satan’s trap, let’s hold onto Jesus’ teaching, apply it into our own lives, and let the Holy Spirit lead us into God’s truth, specifically the truth that brings us resurrection and eternal life.

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 today to apply Jesus’ truth and teachings into your life. Choose to obey, not simply because Jesus has challenged us to, but because obeying leads us to discovering God’s truth and obedience is the best way to make your belief known. A hidden, secret faith does not have value if it stays hidden.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and discover God’s truth for your life. We can look to the Bible, specifically to the four gospels, to discover Jesus’ teachings, and by following Jesus’ teachings, we step onto the path of discipleship. Never let anyone get in the way of you following Jesus and applying His truths into 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!

As Jesus wraps up the section of parables we have spent the last several episodes focusing in on, He asks the disciples if they understand Him. To my surprise when reading this, the disciples answer that they do understand, and then as a final wrap-up statement, Jesus shares another short, one-verse parable that is powerful when we stop to actually look a little closer at it.

This last parable in this section of parables is found in Matthew, chapter 13, and we will read it from the Good News Translation. In verse 52, Matthew tells us that Jesus replied by saying:

⁵² [So he replied,] “This means, then, that every teacher of the Law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of heaven is like a homeowner who takes new and old things out of his storage room.”

In this short illustration, we discover a special place in God’s kingdom for those who entered into the kingdom as teachers of the Law. While many people living after the first century see Christianity as a complete replacement for Judaism, according to this parable, both are significant. This parable strongly suggests that teachers of the Law who enter God’s kingdom are able to draw from a rich storeroom of spiritual truth that was contained in the Old Testament Jewish faith and culture, while also being open and aware of all the new things God is doing.

This parable is also applicable to us today. It challenges us on where we place our focus and on what we determine is relevant. Just as the first century was a time when there were huge shifts in the spiritual culture, the time we are living in today is also experiencing significant shifts.

When navigating these significant times in history, this parable helps to align and remind us of what is truly important.

In this parable, we discover two ditches we can fall into when moving from the old into the new. The first ditch is hanging on to the old, the traditions, and the way things were simply because they are more comfortable, more familiar, or even more acceptable by others. While familiarity and acceptability are not negative attributes, they become negative if they stop us from moving forward when God asks us to move forward.

Hanging on to the past and rejecting the new is the first ditch we can fall into that this short parable warns us about. This is best illustrated by the religious leaders in the first century who rejected Jesus simply because Jesus did not their idea of who the Messiah would be.

The second ditch we can fall into is by rejecting the past in favor of the present. Many people fall into this ditch regularly believing that our own experiences and situations today are more significant and relevant than the experiences and situations that those in the past faced. While everyone can only see the world through the filtered view of their eyes and their own experiences, the past is our best teacher when navigating tricky situations in the present.

Discarding the past when we face the new is the other ditch we can fall into that this parable warns us about. This is best illustrated by those who believe that the New Testament replaced the Old Testament, and that the Old Testament is no longer relevant. Those living in the first century had a word for the Old Testament. They called it the scriptures.

So how does this parable help us navigate through life avoiding these ditches?

Let’s read our parable again. Jesus concluded by telling the disciples that “every teacher of the Law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of heaven is like a homeowner who takes new and old things out of his storage room.”

In this parable, we are challenged to draw both new and old things from our spiritual storeroom. The old has not been done away with as some might think. Instead, the old is the lens looking forward to what Jesus would do. In contrast, the new is simply paying attention to what God is doing in the world today. Just like it is bad to ignore what is happening in the world around us, it is also bad to ignore or forget what happened in the past.

Our parable challenges us to learn from both the present and the past. If we never learned from our past, we would continually make the same mistakes moving into the future. The same can be said of a culture or a community. If we choose to reject learning from our past, we will make the same mistakes moving into the future.

But the beauty of learning from our past when looking from the perspective of a culture or a community is that we can learn without having to make the same mistakes ourselves. By looking at other people’s mistakes, we can learn without experiencing the pain ourselves. This is one big way we can draw relevance from the old things in our storeroom.

The Bible is the best spiritual guide we have. This is not because it displays perfection for us to model, but because it clearly reveals the flaws, shortcomings, and failures that people experienced in the history of our race. Not only does the Bible reveal God’s working and moving in the world for over 2000 years leading up to Jesus and the first century, the Bible teaches us in a real way how no-one is perfect, and how everyone needs a Savior. Jesus came into this world to be the Savior and Jesus is the best example of how we can embrace the old as we boldly move into the new!

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

As always, intentionally seek God first and move towards Him in your life. Don’t delay coming to God until you get perfect enough, because it is impossible to be perfect enough. Instead, come to God as you are and let Him transform you through the power of His Holy Spirit!

Also, as you come to God, remember to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn firsthand what God is like. While the Bible contains many challenging events that don’t appear to make sense on the surface, take your questions to God in prayer. I believe He will lead you to the answers He wants you to learn, and if any questions are left at the end of your life, then I’m positive Jesus will be ready, waiting, and willing to answer them when we reach heaven. Don’t let an unanswered challenge or question stop you from growing closer to God!

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 drift away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue moving through John’s gospel, we come to another place where Jesus challenges the crowds, and from the context of this event, this crowd included a number of Pharisees. It is fascinating in my mind when reading this event to discover that the challenge the religious leaders bring to Jesus looks like a valid challenge on the surface. However, for these religious leaders’ challenge to be valid, they would have to reject much more than they would like to admit.

With that said, let’s read about what happened and about the challenge these religious leaders give Jesus.

Our passage for this event is found in John’s gospel, chapter 8, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 12, John tells us that:

¹² Later, Jesus talked to the people again, saying, “I am the light of the world. The person who follows me will never live in darkness but will have the light that gives life.”

¹³ The Pharisees said to Jesus, “When you talk about yourself, you are the only one to say these things are true. We cannot accept what you say.”

¹⁴ Jesus answered, “Yes, I am saying these things about myself, but they are true. I know where I came from and where I am going. But you don’t know where I came from or where I am going. ¹⁵ You judge by human standards. I am not judging anyone. ¹⁶ But when I do judge, I judge truthfully, because I am not alone. The Father who sent me is with me. ¹⁷ Your own law says that when two witnesses say the same thing, you must accept what they say. ¹⁸ I am one of the witnesses who speaks about myself, and the Father who sent me is the other witness.”

¹⁹ They asked, “Where is your father?”

Jesus answered, “You don’t know me or my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father, too.” ²⁰ Jesus said these things while he was teaching in the Temple, near where the money is kept. But no one arrested him, because the right time for him had not yet come.

²¹ Again, Jesus said to the people, “I will leave you, and you will look for me, but you will die in your sins. You cannot come where I am going.”

²² So the Jews asked, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he said, ‘You cannot come where I am going’?”

²³ Jesus said, “You people are from here below, but I am from above. You belong to this world, but I don’t belong to this world. ²⁴ So I told you that you would die in your sins. Yes, you will die in your sins if you don’t believe that I am he.”

²⁵ They asked, “Then who are you?”

Jesus answered, “I am what I have told you from the beginning. ²⁶ I have many things to say and decide about you. But I tell people only the things I have heard from the One who sent me, and he speaks the truth.”

²⁷ The people did not understand that he was talking to them about the Father. ²⁸ So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, you will know that I am he. You will know that these things I do are not by my own authority but that I say only what the Father has taught me. ²⁹ The One who sent me is with me. I always do what is pleasing to him, so he has not left me alone.” ³⁰ While Jesus was saying these things, many people believed in him.

In this passage, Jesus makes some very bold claims. And the religious leaders present were quick to challenge Jesus’ claims based on the detail that they did not see anyone else validating these claims.

This challenge is one of the better challenges the religious leaders could think of, because any secondary witness validating Jesus’ claims could immediately be challenged, judged, and likely discredited. Because of this, I suspect this is why Jesus didn’t remind them of John the Baptist, who made the same claim about Jesus. I also suspect this is why Jesus didn’t pull out the secondary witness of the scripture, because it would cut to the heart of their belief, and this wasn’t likely the right time for that.

Instead, Jesus counter-challenged the religious leaders on the detail that His secondary witness is God the Father, and that only those who knew Him would also be able to recognize the Father. Jesus subtly dismisses the religious leaders’ challenge by giving them a secondary witness but also telling them that they are unlikely to ever know Him.

Jesus emphasizes that without faith in Him, specifically faith in Jesus, everyone present, and we could also say everyone at any point in history, will die in their sins. Only through Jesus is a made way for us to trade our sins away. Jesus offers to take the punishment for our sins and in return, He offers us the life that He deserved – a life that can begin today and extend into eternity.

However, in this event, and in what Jesus shares, He makes a powerful set of claims that are easy to miss. In verses 15 and the first part of 16, Jesus tells those present that: “You judge by human standards. I am not judging anyone. But when I do judge, I judge truthfully, because I am not alone.”

This truth is powerful, because it tells us that Jesus did not come as a judge when He came to earth in the first century. Instead, while Jesus doesn’t claim the role of judge at that point, He does foreshadow that He will judge in the future. This verse brings out the powerful truth that: Our redeemer is also Our Judge.

If you have ever been worried or uneasy about God the Father judging you and that somewhere in your past is an unconfessed sin that could forever separate you from God forever, you should take that worry to Jesus, and understand that Jesus is not only your Redeemer, He is also the Judge. We don’t have a Judge who is unfamiliar with what life is like as a human living in a sinful world. Our Judge understands our lives better than we might be willing to accept, and our Judge gave His life to redeem us.

God loves us so much that Jesus came to take our place. Jesus not only became our Redeemer on the cross, Jesus also happens to be our Judge. This means that Satan’s accusations against us can simply be brushed aside by our Judge when we accept the gift of His sacrifice on our behalf, and let His perfect life cover our sins.

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 today to accept Jesus’ gift in your life. Choose to place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in what Jesus accomplished for humanity on the cross, and ask Him to take your sin-filled past and give you His life in exchange. This prayer is one that Jesus is more than happy to answer!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God and Jesus each and every day. Choose to pray and study personally in order to make your relationship with God personal, and don’t let anyone get in the way of your relationship with God!

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 run from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Over the past several episodes, we have covered a set of six parables that together form an interesting theme. While too often, we take one or two parables and pull the themes from the smaller picture, I thought this episode would be a great time to zoom out and look at the logical pattern Matthew takes when telling us these parables.

In Matthew’s gospel, chapter 13, we find more parables than any other single chapter in the whole gospels. From the outline of our year looking at Jesus’ parables, I count 8 parables included in Matthew 13, and the next highest a single chapter comes is 3. So far, we have looked at 7 of the Matthew 13 parables, and in our next episode, we will focus in on the eighth.

While Matthew 13 begins by sharing the significant parable of the farmer planting seed and the four types of soil, the next 6 parables all reference the Kingdom of Heaven, and when looked at as a set, they form a logical, intentional structure.

The first three parables form one set. These parables are the Wheat and the Weeds parable, where the farmer plants wheat and his enemy sneaks in and plants weeds; the parable of the Mustard Seed that grows into a great tree; and the parable of the Yeast Hidden in Flour.

Within this first set of parables, we see several big themes. Within the focus of each of these parables is the theme of growth, the theme that the kingdom needs spiritual water to fuel its growth, and the theme that growth takes time. All three of these parables in our first set touch on all three of these themes.

From this set of parables, we can learn that God’s kingdom is a growing kingdom. While some of the parables allow for setback within the growth theme, these three parables tell us that growth is present.

From this set of parables, we also learn that God’s kingdom needs water to fuel its growth. With this theme regarding water, I am reminded of the Water of Life that Jesus referred to in other places in the gospels. This water of life is something that Jesus gives to those who ask and this water is spiritual water that satisfies our spiritual thirst. In the context of our first set of parables, I wouldn’t be surprised if the water that is needed for kingdom growth is the water of life.

Also, this set of parables focuses us on the detail that the growth of God’s kingdom will take some time. It takes time for a seed to turn into a plant, or a seed into a tree. It also takes time for yeast to rise when it has been mixed into dough. Given enough time, all these situations will equal growth, but they all need time. Yeast needs more than 5 minutes, and a seed needs more than 5 days to fully mature. We shouldn’t expect God’s kingdom to instantly appear in the world today or even instantly appear in our hearts. Instead, we should expect that God leads us on a journey of growth that will take time.

After this first set of three parables, Matthew shares Jesus’ explanation for the first parable, and He emphasizes in this explanation how the harvest this parable refers to is the Day of Judgment when the wicked will be separated from the righteous.

Following this explanation, Jesus then shares three short parables that also include some shared themes. These last three parables together form our second set of parables. These parables are the Treasure Hidden in a field, the Merchant looking for fine pearls, and the Fishing Net catching both good and bad fish to be sorted.

In this second set of parables, we discover the big themes that God’s kingdom is best viewed from God’s perspective, that God’s kingdom is willing to wade through a lot of inferior things in order to find that which it sees as valuable, and that God’s kingdom sacrifices in order to gain what it desires.

Within the parables of the treasure, the pearl, and the fishing net, we might be tempted to take these parables and read them from our perspective, believing we are the ones who are searching for treasure, seeking pearls, and sorting bad and good things from our lives. While none of these things are bad to do, these parables should be viewed as being from God’s perspective, since the clear explanation of the parable of the fishing net is given from God’s perspective and all three of these parables are explanations of the kingdom of heaven.

With God’s perspective, we discover how valuable we really are in His eyes, leading us to the other two big themes found in this second set of parables.

When looking at all three parables, we discover God’s kingdom is willing to wade through a lot of inferior things in order to find that which is valuable. While a case can be made for the parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl as being less about pulling everything together and sorting, these first two parables in our set have the element of patience included.

In the man’s case, while he might have not expected to find hidden treasure, he had a plan when he discovered it. There was a lot of dirt that was worthless in this man’s eyes, but one mound of dirt had a treasure, and when he discovered what mound of dirt that was, he was going to purchase it no matter what.

In the next parable in this set, the merchant was used to seeing, evaluating, buying, and selling products. The parable of the Merchant has a stronger theme of filtering because a good merchant is a salesman who only purchases items he believes he can sell, and he has learned this skill from experience and from wading through a lot of inferior items. When the exceptional pearl came past this merchant, he immediately knew its value, and he would not stop selling until he had enough to purchase it.

The parable of the fishing net has a clear theme of filtering and sorting, because that is what the fishermen do with what is caught in their nets.

Our final big theme for the last three parables is that when the valuable item appeared, God’s kingdom gives up everything to acquire it. The man with the treasure sold everything he had, similar to the merchant selling all that he had as well. In the parable of the fishing net, the time is spent collecting everything and making sure all the valuable fish were saved.

This big set of 6 parables begins with a parable about sorting wheat and weeds, which Jesus describes as a judgment scene, and these 6 parables end with a parable describing sorting good and bad fish in a judgment scene. In the middle point of these parables, Jesus gives the big explanation of the first parable that God’s kingdom will allow the good and bad to grow and live together until the point of the judgment. Up until the fishing net collected all the fish to sort out the fish, both the good and bad fish lived together. God’s kingdom will ultimately sort out the bad from the good when the judgment happens.

The second and fifth parables have a similar but also significant focus, and this shared theme is that the size of an item does not dictate its value. Whether the kingdom is small like a seed or a pearl, God sees what it can be, not what it is right now. The seed is capable of becoming a great tree, and the pearl can become the focal point of an exceptional necklace. God measures our value through our potential, not through our current circumstances.

The third and fourth parables have a hidden and internal focus, because God’s kingdom is something that lives inside of us and when God’s kingdom is alive within us, it shines through us blessing those God brings into our lives.

I believe Matthew arranged these parables with a very structured and logical thought when he wrote his gospel record, and I believe Jesus shared these parables because He was leading the disciples towards better understanding God’s kingdom truth!

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

As always, continue to seek God first in your life and let God teach you about His kingdom as you move closer to Him each and every day letting His kingdom enter your heart and mind. Be sure to place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus knowing that Jesus is the way to experience God’s kingdom in our lives today as we are preparing for eternity.

Also, intentionally and regularly pray and study the Bible for yourself to keep your personal connection with God strong. Never let anyone else get between you and God’s Word or between you and living out God’s mission for your life! Live each day for God’s kingdom grounded in the truth of God’s Word and blessing others with God’s love!

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!