Reflective Bible Study

When looking at the parables Jesus shared, it is easy to begin to think that Jesus shared many positive, uplifting, or primarily encouraging parables. Many of the well-known parables end in a positive way. However, there are quite a few parables that do not end positively, and the parable we will be focusing on in this episode is one such parable.

It is interesting to focus on the context of this parable, because while it is relevant to all of humanity, it is likely this parable wouldn’t have been shared if it weren’t for the shouted request of Jesus to do something.

Let’s read what happened and then discuss what we can learn from this event. Our passage is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 12, and we will use the New American Standard Bible translation to read it. Starting in verse 13, Luke tells us that:

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to Him [referring to Jesus], “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” ¹⁴ But He said to him, “Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?” ¹⁵ Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” ¹⁶ And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive. ¹⁷ And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ ¹⁸ Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ ²¹ So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

This parable and passage are a little depressing and very challenging. While some reading this might conclude that God will immediately demand the life of anyone who is not generous towards Him, this isn’t the key idea behind this parable. Instead, this parable is entirely focused on the captive nature of greed.

Before jumping in to the truth we can learn from this parable, it is worth paying attention to a key idea: Jesus passed on the opportunity to judge people or cases when He came to this world. This strongly suggests that Jesus’ purpose for coming into the world is not to act as a judge. Jesus came with the goal of showing us what God is like, and showing us that God loves us so much that He would die for us, taking the punishment for our sins upon Himself. This truth sets up the foundation for understanding the parable itself.

The context leading up to this message, especially with how Jesus frames this parable, gives us the key ideas. Leading up to this parable, someone in the crowd shouted at Jesus to tell his brother to divide the family inheritance with him. If a parent had recently passed away, then each of the children would receive a portion of the estate. Generally the portions were equal, with the only exception to this being that the first born son would receive a double share because he would be responsible for the family moving forward.

It is unclear from the context if this is the younger brother, older brother, or simply one of many brothers making this request. It is also unclear if the brother making the request is asking for what would be rightfully his, or if what he received didn’t feel fair and that he wanted Jesus to side with him regarding what is fair.

For the sake of our discussion, let’s assume that the brother making the request is the younger of two brothers, is fully grown into adulthood, that he has a family of his own and is earning enough money to support their lifestyle. Nothing in the man’s request speaks of needing the money to survive, but simply wanting the inheritance.

Let’s also assume that this brother also deserved to receive a share of the inheritance, but that his older brother did not want to share it with him. For the purposes of our discussion, let’s basically say there is every reason for this man to receive his fair share of the inheritance, and no good reason for his brother to keep the money from him. We could call this man’s request completely reasonable, and his brother a greedy, spoiled, selfish person.

Even in the most justified scenario, which fits the details we are given in this event, Jesus responds by first passing on the opportunity to be a judge in this situation. Jesus then warns this brother, and everyone present to, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”

In this parable and situation, greed disguised itself as fairness. Fairness sounds reasonable, but if fairness is pushed or refuted in an immature way, then greed might be the underlying motivation. While fairness sounds reasonable, greed masking as fairness is never positive and it often will never be satisfied if things are truly fair.

Greed is never positive, and according to this parable, greed only focuses on one possible outcome in the future. The greed in the parable ignored the possibility that said the morning would never come for that man. The greed prompted the man to assume that his life was set because he had been blessed.

It’s worth paying attention to the detail that it was “the land of a rich man” that was productive. The wealth this man had was because God had blessed him, and greed never wants to admit that it doesn’t deserve what it has. Greed focuses on keeping as much as possible, and sharing seems ridiculous for someone who is greedy.

However, Jesus’ finishes this parable by sharing reality with this greedy person. At the end of this man’s life, whether it would be that night or at some point years into the future, someone else would get what this man had tried so hard to keep for himself. In the end, other people get everything of ours, which means that in the end, greed is worthless.

The cure for greed is gratitude and intentional generosity towards God for what He has truly given to us. We push greed away when we give thanks to God for what He has given to us, and when we intentionally return God his portion of what He has blessed us with. Typically, we call this portion a tithe, which simply means a tenth. In the New Testament era, we are not excused from paying tithe, but are called to give above and beyond this because we are so grateful and thankful towards God for what Jesus did for each of us.

Gratitude in our lives starts with recognizing what Jesus did for us, and then living generously towards others because we are grateful and thankful for what Jesus did for us. Gratitude and generosity keep greed from taking over our lives, and a generous gratitude in our lives helps us live like Jesus has called us to live!

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 be grateful and thankful towards Him for everything He has blessed us with. Remember to thank Jesus for what He accomplished while He was here on this earth, and for giving us the gift of salvation.

Also, remember to always pray and study the Bible for yourself. While learning from other people is good to do, check everything you learn with what the Bible says, and then trust the Bible’s conclusion if it differs from what you were taught. God has preserved the Bible for us as a guide for our lives, and if we trust that He is able to keep us safe for eternity, we can trust that He is more than capable of keeping the Bible safe for a few thousand years.

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

As we continue moving further into John’s gospel, John the author turns His attention back onto John the Baptist, Jesus’ forerunner in ministry. In this short event, John the Baptist says some amazing things about his ministry pointing people to Jesus, and he gives a profound summary statement regarding eternal life that is worth paying attention to.

Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 3, and we will be reading from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 23, John tells us in his gospel that:

²³ John [the Baptist] was also baptizing in Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. People were going there to be baptized. ²⁴ (This was before John was put into prison.)

²⁵ Some of John’s followers had an argument with a Jew about religious washing. ²⁶ So they came to John and said, “Teacher, remember the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you spoke about so much? He is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

²⁷ John answered, “A man can get only what God gives him. ²⁸ You yourselves heard me say, ‘I am not the Christ, but I am the one sent to prepare the way for him.’ ²⁹ The bride belongs only to the bridegroom. But the friend who helps the bridegroom stands by and listens to him. He is thrilled that he gets to hear the bridegroom’s voice. In the same way, I am really happy. ³⁰ He must become greater, and I must become less important.

³¹ “The One who comes from above is greater than all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and talks about things on the earth. But the One who comes from heaven is greater than all. ³² He tells what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts what he says. ³³ Whoever accepts what he says has proven that God is true. ³⁴ The One whom God sent speaks the words of God, because God gives him the Spirit fully. ³⁵ The Father loves the Son and has given him power over everything. ³⁶ Those who believe in the Son have eternal life, but those who do not obey the Son will never have life. God’s anger stays on them.”

In this passage, as we read it together, a couple of ideas jumped out of these verses at me.

First, the way John the Baptist opens his reply about Jesus taking his followers is amazing. The way John the Baptist frames his ministry in relation to Jesus’ ministry is powerful. John knows that his ministry is entirely preparing people for Jesus, and when Jesus steps into the public eye, John wants people to pay more attention to Jesus than to him. In the first portion of his reply, John says: “A man can get only what God gives him. You yourselves heard me say, ‘I am not the Christ, but I am the one sent to prepare the way for him.’ … He must become greater, and I must become less important.” (verses 27-28, 30)

This is powerful in my mind because it tells me John knew His ministry and influence would shrink as Jesus’ ministry and influence grew. John understood His role as forerunner for Jesus, and he humbly accepts that his time in the spotlight would fade as Jesus becomes more famous. It is also interesting to note that we read about a brief period of time when Jesus and John the Baptist were both baptizing people, and that this happened prior to John the Baptist being thrown into jail.

Part of me wonders if God let John be thrown in jail to symbolize or simply mark the end of John’s ministry in an attempt to help push John’s followers over to Jesus. From how John describes his ministry, John is clear that he is not the Messiah, or the Christ, but that he was sent to point people to the Messiah. Even while not saying it directly in this passage, John focuses attention onto the detail that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, who God had sent into the world.

However, in the second portion of John’s response, another idea jumped off the page at me. In verse 36, John tells all his followers, “Those who believe in the Son have eternal life, but those who do not obey the Son will never have life. God’s anger stays on them.” This is a powerful statement. We discover that belief in Jesus brings eternal life, but lack of obedience forfeits eternal life.

Some might be quick to say that their preferred Bible translation does not say the word “obey”. Instead, their translation says something along the lines of: “he who does not believe the Son shall not see life”.

However, before our discussion dives into a debate about translations, the original Greek word in the first portion of this passage is different from the Greek word that is given later. The first word in our passage that is translated as “believe” has a similar but different meaning than the second word, which our passage translated as “obey”.

The first word, which is translated as “believe”, means “to be persuaded of” or “to place confidence in” which we could say is similar to trust. Trusting Jesus leads to having eternal life!

However, the second word, which our passage translated as “do not obey” has a slightly different meaning. While belief is part of its definition, it means not being persuaded, and there is a strong emphasis on the lack of belief leading to a lack of obedience. In my mind, this idea might be similar to apathy. If we are apathetic towards Jesus, and we don’t let the truth of the gospel affect our lives in visible ways, then we will never have life, much less eternal life.

Apathy towards Jesus is probably the worst thing we can do. If we say we believe Jesus, but we are apathetic towards Him, we will forfeit our salvation. Obeying Jesus does not give us eternal life, because when we obey Jesus, the focus can easily turn off of Jesus and onto how well we are obeying Him. Our salvation is not based on anything we can do or have done. We are only saved because of what Jesus accomplished for us.

When we accept Jesus’ gift and we let Him into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, we begin the process of life transformation, or as some religious people describe it: “sanctification”. When we actively move towards Jesus, we are also moving away from sin and away from disobedience. It is our change in direction that prompts us to be saved because we are trusting and believing in Jesus! We are saved when our focus and the direction of our lives is towards Jesus. We lose our salvation when we are apathetic towards Jesus or we outright reject Him.

John the Baptist understood this amazing truth before Jesus had fully stepped into the public spotlight, and his declaration about Jesus, regardless of how popular or unpopular it is, forms the foundation for Jesus’ ministry, Jesus’ life, and Jesus’ death on behalf of you and me!

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 intentionally place your hope, faith, trust, and belief in Jesus and in what Jesus accomplished for us during His time here on earth. Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we are offered a gift we do not deserve and a gift we cannot earn, and it is up to us whether we will accept this gift, even if it is unpopular, or be apathetic towards both the gift and the Gift-Giver.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and discover who Jesus is, who God is, and why this matters to us living over 2,000 years after these events happened. Through the pages of the Bible, discover God’s story and let God’s story define your story as we move forward towards 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 be apathetic towards where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Earlier on in this year looking at Jesus’ parables, and in our last episode as well, we have looked at an illustration Jesus shares about lighting a lamp and this lamp not being hidden. However, in each of the instances Jesus shares this illustration, the context and key idea is different. The first time we looked at this illustration, the main message was that we should let our light shine. The second time we looked at this illustration, the main message was focused on revealing secrets, and on secrets being exposed.

With this third appearance of our light illustration, Jesus emphasizes yet another truth that is important for us to pay attention to.

With that said let’s read what Jesus taught His followers. Our passage is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 11, and we will be reading it from the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 33, Jesus continues preaching, saying:

³³ “No one lights a lamp and hides it. No one puts it under a bowl. Instead, they put a lamp on its stand. Then those who come in can see the light. ³⁴ Your eye is like a lamp for your body. Suppose your eyes are healthy. Then your whole body also is full of light. But suppose your eyes can’t see well. Then your body also is full of darkness. ³⁵ So make sure that the light inside you is not darkness. ³⁶ Suppose your whole body is full of light. And suppose no part of it is dark. Then your body will be full of light. It will be just as when a lamp shines its light on you.”

In this passage, Jesus compares our eyes to our familiar lamps. In many ways, we could describe Jesus’ original parable by saying that no-one opens their eyes with the intention of covering them with a solid object. While I regularly use sun glasses, or other glasses, to protect my eyes, I don’t ever recall placing a solid, opaque, non-see-through object over my eyes. The closest example I can remember would be putting a welder’s mask on prior to working on a welding project. While these masks have become more advanced in recent years, the mask I was using at that time was very opaque, and while I had it on, I could not see a thing until I had started the weld.

Using this as our modern metaphor, it makes no sense to have perfectly working eyes, and to walk around wearing an old welder’s mask that blocks 99.999+% of light from getting through. However, this is what many people do spiritually.

All too often, people living today are too caught up in the busyness of life to pay attention to the important, lasting, eternal question that is the only thing that matters in the end. Too many people are caught up focusing only on the creation when they should also be focusing on the Creator as well. The worst place we can be is thinking we have perfect vision when our eyes don’t work well.

Instead, it would be better to acknowledge that none of us has perfect spiritual vision, but instead we look to God for help improving our spiritual vision, our spiritual outlook on life, and our spiritual perspective on this world. With God’s vision, God’s outlook on life, and God’s perspective, the world will look significantly different than we see it now.

However, this brings us to a verse in our passage that always stands out when I read this. In verse 35, Jesus cautions us to “make sure that the light inside you is not darkness”. On the surface, this statement doesn’t make sense, because in our physical world, darkness is simply the absence of light, not a separate force that is waging war against light.

This statement makes me believe Jesus is speaking not about our physical world, but about our spiritual one. In the spiritual world, both light and darkness exist and these two forces are battling for our lives. One huge thing for us to remember and pay attention to is what Jesus warns us in this verse. Jesus tells us to “make sure that the light inside you is not darkness”. Probably the worst think we possibly could do is think that we have light in us and share this light when it is actually darkness. This represents spreading error and lies as truth.

If we are shining darkness, then we are harming those around us. At the very least, someone shining darkness pulls the moods of everyone they are around down. At the worst, someone shining darkness is spreading lies as though they are truth. This is serious because what we do, say, and believe affects not only our lives, but the lives of those around us.

This verse is a challenge for everyone who shares something to be certain it is truthful and beneficial to those around them. If something is not truthful and beneficial, it is probably not worth sharing. Just like not everything truthful is beneficial, not everything beneficial is the truth. Jesus challenges us to make sure that we are sharing light and not darkness.

However, I will be the first to say that no one alive today is the source of all light. Truth is not something that is decided among a group of people or through a democratic vote. The best we can hope for is a group of people or a vote helping us gain perspective on truth.

The Source of all truth is found in God, simply because God is the one who created the world and He made the rules. All science is bound to the rules that God put in place, and science simply seeks to understand these rules even if they don’t want to acknowledge that these rules had an Author.

The best place to learn about God is in the pages of the Bible. While not everyone believes the Bible is truth or worthy of being read, most of those who are against the Bible have not read it for themselves; they have picked and chosen parts of the Bible they dislike and discredit the whole think on the basis that it doesn’t fit with their ideas or thoughts; and/or they were spiritually abused in some way by someone who believed the Bible, and they got the truth without love. Truth shared without love is abuse, and this “spiritual abuse” is likely the greatest cause of anti-God attitudes in the world today.

How we see the world is affected by our beliefs, just like our eyes are lamps for our bodies. God has called us to come to Him for truth, and to share the light of truth with those around us. When we share truth, it is only beneficial if it is shared with love and in a way that is helpful for those we are sharing it with.

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

As always, be sure to intentionally seek God first and place Him first in your life. Be sure to look to God for light, truth, and love, and trust that He will share with you everything you need to know to be the person that He created you to be.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn firsthand what God is like. While there are things that God does that don’t appear to make sense from our perspective, know that our perspective is very limited when compared with God’s perspective. Distrusting God based on a misunderstanding or even on an outright lie is a bad place to be in. That is why it is always best to pray and study the Bible for yourself to know firsthand what God is really like.

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 be tricked into leaving where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue moving through the events in John’s gospel, we come to the event surrounding one of the most famous Bible verses in the world. However, while this verse is incredible, the event and discussion that surrounds this verse is just as amazing. The conversation happens at night, and I wonder if some of the disciples had already fallen asleep.

Let’s read about what happened, and about what Jesus shared during this late-night conversation with a Pharisee. Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 3, and we will read it from the New Living Translation. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. ² After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”

³ Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

⁴ “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

⁵ Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. ⁷ So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

⁹ “How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked.

¹⁰ Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? ¹¹ I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony. ¹² But if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. ¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

¹⁶ “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

¹⁸ “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹ And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. ²⁰ All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. ²¹ But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

²² Then Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and went into the Judean countryside. Jesus spent some time with them there, baptizing people.

In this late night conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus shares some amazing things, while always seeming to be one step ahead of Nicodemus’ question. When reading this event, it is as if Nicodemus asks Jesus a question, and Jesus answers what would likely have been Nicodemus’ follow up question.

However, the three big answers Jesus gives us are amazing and profound. Tucked within these big answers is a powerful message that we might be tempted to miss, skip, or ignore. Allow me to share a set of verses or statements pulled from Jesus’ three answers to Nicodemus’ questions. “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God. … I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. … As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. … God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.” (v. 3, 5, 14-15, 17-18)

In Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, there are two clear topics, and both of these topics are initiated by Jesus. The first topic is about being born again. The powerful truth I see in Jesus’ response is that those who have not been born spiritually are unable to see the Kingdom of God. In other gospels, Jesus shares how the Kingdom of God is present among us, and one way to understand Jesus’ words is that the Kingdom of God is present wherever God is actively moving, working, or being present.

With this working definition, we can conclude an obvious but easily overlooked truth that people who are not connected with the Holy Spirit cannot discern how God is working in the world today. Someone connected with the Holy Spirit can look around and see God working everywhere, whereas someone disconnected and uninterested in the Holy Spirit sees random chance, a series of coincidences, or just good or bad fortune.

The second topic of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus is about eternal life and judgment. It is within this second topic that we find our famous set of verses summarizing Jesus’ life and ministry. John, chapter 3, verses 16 and 17 tell us “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”

However, the verses immediately before this and immediately after this are in many ways more powerful than these two famous ones. The two verses before verse 16 predict Jesus’ crucifixion and the results of His sacrifice: “as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.” (v. 14-15)

The two verses after verse 17 tell us about the one criteria God’s judgment will be based on when Jesus returns: “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.” (v. 18-19)

Jesus tells Nicodemus, and all of us, that God’s judgment is reserved for those who do not believe in God’s one and only Son, Jesus. The way people reject Jesus is by preferring darkness and evil actions over coming into the light and letting Jesus wash away their sins. In this framing of judgment, those who avoid God’s judgment are able to because they have placed their belief and trust in Jesus, and they have left their sinful lives in the past, while those who are judged are those who preferred sin and darkness over the offer of a Savior.

Jesus did not come into the world to fulfill the role of judge. Instead, Jesus came to this world to fulfill the role of God’s light, and Jesus’ presence separates those who want to seek God, His light, and His forgiveness, from those who reject God, prefer their sinful lives, and willingly choose to refuse the light God offers.

Whether we face judgment is 100% up to us. While it is unpopular to do in the world today, choosing Jesus in this life gives us a free pass to avoid the judgment when the world ends, and choosing Jesus in this life is done by leaving our sin-filled past in the past, and actively growing towards Jesus each and every day!

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 believe in the Light God sent into the world through Jesus. When we choose to follow and obey Jesus over our sin-filled desires, we are choosing life over judgment and death. We reject Jesus when we choose sin over our Savior. Always choose to obey Jesus when faced with a choice, because choosing Jesus in this life, regardless of the consequences, is never the wrong choice from eternity’s perspective.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to Jesus. Through personal prayer and study, grow a personal relationship with Jesus and lean on Him for the strength to face each day moving forward in this 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 give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!