Reflective Bible Study

Following the meal Jesus eats with His disciples, the eleven remaining disciples have a little bit of time alone with Jesus while Judas Iscariot is off getting the soldiers and mob to arrest Jesus. While John’s gospel describes in detail what Jesus shares with the disciples during their trip to the garden, the remaining gospels focus on what Jesus does after they have arrived at Gethsemane.

Let’s read our passage and discover what we can learn from what Luke tells us happened. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 22, and we will read from the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 39, Luke tells us that:

³⁹ Jesus left the city and went, as he usually did, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples went with him. ⁴⁰ When he arrived at the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”

⁴¹ Then he went off from them about the distance of a stone’s throw and knelt down and prayed. ⁴² “Father,” he said, “if you will, take this cup of suffering away from me. Not my will, however, but your will be done.” ⁴³ An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. ⁴⁴ In great anguish he prayed even more fervently; his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

⁴⁵ Rising from his prayer, he went back to the disciples and found them asleep, worn out by their grief. ⁴⁶ He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you will not fall into temptation.”

As we read this passage from Luke, several things jumped out at me. The first thing is how passionately and fervently Jesus prayed. Verse 44 describes Jesus’ sweat was “like drops of blood falling to the ground.” Some people point to this detail and say Jesus was literally sweating blood or that blood was mixing with His sweat. While this sounds crazy, this is actually something that is possible and has been documented on a number of occasions. I don’t remember what this is called, but if I did, I doubt I’d be able to pronounce the word correctly.

Another way I can understand this description of Jesus’ sweat that only Luke includes is that Jesus was sweating so profusely that it was dripping off Him like blood might drip out of a wound.

However, whichever way we want to view this small detail that sounds crazy, this detail isn’t very significant in the big picture of this passage.

Another big detail that I see in this passage reflects a big theme we looked at last week about persisting within God’s will. Looking closely at Jesus’ prayer reveals the powerful truth that Jesus was willing to follow God’s will even through what is likely the worst abuse and death imaginable. Jesus prayed in verse 42, “Father, if you will, take this cup of suffering away from me. Not my will, however, but your will be done.”

Jesus’ prayer to God reflects how we are challenged to pray. When we come before God in prayer, it is worthwhile to bring our requests to Him. However, we also are challenged to frame our requests as being less important or significant that His will. While we might try to push forward in our own strength what we believe to be God’s will, our timing and our perception doesn’t always mirror God’s.

Jesus prayed a prayer with a request for help, but He also prayed that He would remain firmly within God’s will for His life – even if that meant that He would face the cross the following day. Jesus’ prayer here in the garden is a powerful example for us when we decide to go before God in prayer. Jesus’ prayer teaches us how to bring our requests to God while also praying that we stay within God’s will for our own lives.

Speaking of prayer, this leads us to what might be the biggest truth and challenge I see tucked within this event. In verse 40, prior to Jesus walking away from the group to be alone to pray, He tells the group of disciples to “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”

This is powerful when we look closely at it. Of all the nights these disciples would face, and of all the nights in the history of the world, this night was likely one of the darkest. While the following night would appear to be a victory for Satan with Jesus in the tomb, the night before the cross was filled with more temptation directed towards Jesus and all those closest to Him than we likely could imagine.

Leading into this night filled with temptation, Jesus challenges His closest disciples to pray for strength to avoid temptation. While it is difficult to know whether all His followers heeded His words or not, we do know that the two big predictions Jesus made about that night came true. Peter ultimately denied Jesus even though he strongly denied Jesus’ suggestion about what would happen. Also, all the disciples scatter and leave Jesus to be arrested as the scripture predicted would happen.

Aside from these two fulfilled predictions, I suspect that these disciples did ultimately pray for strength to avoid temptation and they received help as an answer to their prayers. None of the disciples aside from Judas Iscariot the betrayer was ultimately lost from this group, and Judas Iscariot was only truly lost because he took his own life. I suspect that Judas Iscariot could have been forgiven if he had first forgiven himself, humbly repented before God in prayer, and not taken such drastic measures as he did. Suicide is sometimes referred to as the permanent solution to a temporary problem, and if given enough time, the problem faced is always less than the solution suicide provides.

In this event, we discover that at the darkest points in history, our prayers should be for help to avoid temptation. At the darkest parts of our lives, we are the most prone to falling into temptation and we should focus more intently on prayer for God’s help and guidance. I believe that when we come before God asking for help to stay away from sin and for help withstanding temptation, He is more than happy to double, triple, or in some other way multiply our own power to resist temptation.

I doubt God puts forth much effort to help us resist sin if we are only half-hearted in our request. However, if we are sincerely committed to resisting sin, I believe God is more than happy to step in and help when we ask Him for help and to fill in any gaps in our strength that might exist. With God’s help, we can have a willpower that is stronger than we might expect or realize!

When our lives are hard and when times are dark, lean into God and ask Him for help resisting temptation! I know that when we claim this prayer, God is more than happy to step in and walk with us along the path He has called us to walk!

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, continue to seek God first in your heart, in your mind, and in your life. When things get tough and times are challenging, lean into God asking for strength to keep moving forward with Him!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow a strong personal foundation. While praying and studying with others is beneficial, don’t neglect your personal prayer and study life. Through personal prayer and study, discover God’s truth for your life and open your heart to Him!

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

Near the end of our last podcast episode, we briefly looked at the last two verses in Mark’s longer conclusion, and saw tucked within it, a reference to where Jesus would go in Heaven after His ascension. However, since the conclusion of Mark’s gospel has some controversy surrounding it, I thought it would make sense to focus one episode on the specific idea of Jesus being seated at God’s right hand, since this idea has both a connection point in the Old Testament, and it is referenced numerous times in the New Testament.

To remind us of the passage we concluded our last episode with, instead of starting with the Old Testament passage like we have typically done so far this year, let’s instead start briefly in Jesus’ ministry before looking back on the passage that serves as the foundation for this idea.

In our last episode, the last passage we looked at was in Mark, chapter 16, and we read it from the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 19, the author of this conclusion wrote:

¹⁹ So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. ²⁰ And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.

In this conclusion, when Jesus is received into heaven, He takes the favored position of being at God’s right hand. While some people might understand why this would be, other people, including many religious leaders living in the first century, could not comprehend this thought.

However, we are in luck because during Jesus’ ministry, He has an opportunity to draw this topic into the open, and He does so in a way that silences the religious leaders’ vocal opposition.

Part way through the week leading up to the cross, several groups of religious leaders approach Jesus with challenges for Him to solve. The first group to bring a challenge to Jesus were some Pharisees who had temporarily allied with a group known as the Herodians and they came to Jesus with a seemingly unsolvable dilemma related to paying taxes.

Next, a group of Sadducees came to Jesus with a logical and very difficult challenge focused on the validity of the resurrection framed within a dilemma focused on marriage and remarriage.

After Jesus had answered the Sadducees, a religious expert appears to throw Jesus an easy question about what the greatest commandment was, but before this full challenge had finished, it appeared as though Jesus derailed His challengers with a question of His own.

In Jesus’ question to all the religious leaders present, He quotes from the following psalm. Reading from Psalm, number 110, starting in verse 1, we discover that:

¹ The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
² The Lord will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying,
“Rule in the midst of Your enemies.”
³ Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power;
In holy array, from the womb of the dawn,
Your youth are to You as the dew.

⁴ The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind,
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”
⁵ The Lord is at Your right hand;
He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath.
⁶ He will judge among the nations,
He will fill them with corpses,
He will shatter the chief men over a broad country.
⁷ He will drink from the brook by the wayside;
Therefore He will lift up His head.

Here at the beginning of this psalm, David writes about the Messiah being seated at the right hand of God. Three of the four gospels include Jesus’ challenge to the religious leaders and the quotation He uses to stump them. Let’s read Matthew’s version of this event.

In Matthew, chapter 22, starting in verse 41, we read:

⁴¹ Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question: ⁴² “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” They said to Him, “The son of David.” ⁴³ He said to them, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying,

⁴⁴ ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet”’?

⁴⁵ If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?” ⁴⁶ No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question.

In this event, Jesus sets up a seemingly impossible-to-reconcile situation where David is shown that one of his descendants had existed before Him. While someone who believes in reincarnation would not see this idea as being strange in any way, nothing in the gospels, or even in the Bible, points to this as a logical probability. While some verses have been pulled out of context to make the Bible appear to support this idea, as well as a lot of other fringe ideas, the fact that these religious leaders are stumped by this dilemma is evidence that reincarnation was not something they gave any weight to.

However, in a strange twist, the idea of Jesus being seated at God’s right hand, as this quotation from the Old Testament suggests, ends up being used as one major foundation for condemning Jesus, after Jesus has been betrayed, arrested, and condemned by the religious leaders. In a fascinating way, Jesus’ impossible to reconcile framing of this psalm with the other prophecies about Jesus being David’s descendant becomes the foundation for putting Jesus to death. While the religious leaders could not do anything publicly to answer Jesus’ challenge, they saved their hostility towards this challenge and frame until they clearly had the upper hand.

But these religious leaders could only reject this Old Testament psalm, and by rejecting Jesus, they not only discount David’s prophetic insight into the Godhead, they also subtly reject the other big prophetic idea present in this psalm, specifically that the Messiah would be a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. While there are no shortage of ideas for what this means, I suspect that David wants to draw attention to God having priests and people worshiping Him in a world prior to the Jews being freed from Egypt, and that being a priest of God is something that is not necessarily part of one’s genealogy.

If we stop to think about this idea for a moment, we will realize that this is a great thing. God is more than able and willing to welcome people into His family who might not have any shared genetic or ancestral connection to God’s chosen people. Jesus being a priest in the order of Melchizedek, who lived hundreds of years before Moses and Aaron, and who was someone who had no recorded beginning or end draws our attention to Jesus being someone who can bring us into a future that may have a beginning, but one that clearly has no end. Jesus, our Priest, has done everything for us to prepare the way for our salvation, and His sacrifice on our behalf opens the way for God to forgive our sins while remaining just.

God promised to elevate the Messiah’s role to be at His right hand, and the Messiah, Jesus, the Son of God, was granted this status when He ascended to Heaven. While there is plenty to debate about in Mark’s conclusion that we don’t have time to cover, don’t for a moment question where Jesus ended up when He entered heaven, because that truth is amazingly clear.

However, following Jesus’ return to Heaven and Him being seated at God’s right hand, Jesus had promised the disciples He would do something for them, and this promise will be our focus for our next episode.

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

As I always open by challenging you in one way or another, intentionally seek God first in your life. Choose to accept Jesus as your High Priest and as your Redeemer, and let His sacrifice for you be everything you need to be saved for eternity.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow personally closer to Jesus each and every day. Choose to let Jesus lead and guide your life, mind, and heart, and intentionally step forward each and every day with Jesus as you move together 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 give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue through Luke’s gospel, we come to the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested. However, before this happened, Jesus wanted to eat the Passover meal with His disciples. However, they don’t have a place prepared beforehand to eat this meal.

While this is a problem from our human perspective, God had a plan. Let’s read what happened, and how Jesus solves this challenge.

Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 22, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 7, Luke tells us that:

⁷ The Day of Unleavened Bread came when the Passover lambs had to be sacrificed. ⁸ Jesus said to Peter and John, “Go and prepare the Passover meal for us to eat.”

⁹ They asked, “Where do you want us to prepare it?” ¹⁰ Jesus said to them, “After you go into the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters, ¹¹ and tell the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says: “Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover meal with my followers?”’ ¹² Then he will show you a large, furnished room upstairs. Prepare the Passover meal there.”

¹³ So Peter and John left and found everything as Jesus had said. And they prepared the Passover meal.

Pausing reading briefly, I am amazed that when Peter and John have the dilemma of where to prepare this Passover meal, Jesus simply gives them a very random but specific set of instructions and they find everything exactly as Jesus had described.

This sort of detail tells me that Jesus clearly knew the events of that weekend better than any of the disciples did, and Jesus also knew Judas Iscariot’s betrayal even better than Judas did.

From this passage that draws our attention onto the preparation of Jesus’ last supper prior to His death, we can clearly learn the truth that Jesus knows the future. Jesus knows the future and He is not scared by it. Since Jesus knows the future and He is not scared by it, we can confidently move forward in our own lives with Jesus knowing that He has the solution to the problems we face.

Continuing reading in verse 14, Luke then tells us:

¹⁴ When the time came, Jesus and the apostles were sitting at the table. ¹⁵ He said to them, “I wanted very much to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer. ¹⁶ I will not eat another Passover meal until it is given its true meaning in the kingdom of God.”

¹⁷ Then Jesus took a cup, gave thanks, and said, “Take this cup and share it among yourselves. ¹⁸ I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until God’s kingdom comes.”

¹⁹ Then Jesus took some bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to the apostles, saying, “This is my body, which I am giving for you. Do this to remember me.” ²⁰ In the same way, after supper, Jesus took the cup and said, “This cup is the new agreement that God makes with his people. This new agreement begins with my blood which is poured out for you.

²¹ “But one of you will turn against me, and his hand is with mine on the table. ²² What God has planned for the Son of Man will happen, but how terrible it will be for that one who turns against the Son of Man.”

²³ Then the apostles asked each other which one of them would do that.

In Luke’s passage describing this portion of Jesus’ Last Supper with His disciples, two big things stand out to me. While it is tempting to focus on the bread Jesus breaks and on the grape juice that Jesus shares, let’s save looking at those details for another time.

Instead, two different phrases stood out to me. In these two phrases are a promise and a warning. However, even within the warning is a powerful promise that is worth remembering.

The first phrase is a clear promise. Verse 16 records Jesus telling the disciples “I will not eat another Passover meal until it is given its true meaning in the kingdom of God.” This is a promise that we can hold on to because this means that Jesus is waiting in heaven for our arrival before He eats another Passover meal.

Also, while many people believe that the Passover was fulfilled that weekend when Jesus gave up His life, Jesus describes the Passover meal as having future significance. Reading this with you now prompts me to wonder if the great meal we all will eat with God in His kingdom following Jesus’ return will be a meal celebrating the big theme of the Passover. The great theme of the Passover is that God’s people were trapped in slavery, and that an Innocent Being gives up His life to redeem His people.

With this huge theme, we see that the entire story of history is contained within the great Passover truth. When we as Christians celebrate the Lord’s Supper, it seems small when compared with this grand, eternal message. While celebrating the Lord’s Supper is in no way wrong, let’s remember the big picture and what this event points forward to in our own future even while it pointed forward to Jesus’ death.

Also in this passage is a warning. In verse 22, immediately after Jesus reveals that this group of twelve disciples has a betrayer present, Jesus says, “What God has planned for the Son of Man will happen”.

As I read and think about this phrase, perhaps a warning is not the best way to frame it. While it sounds like a warning on one level, we also see the clear picture that Jesus was following God’s plan for His life. Jesus followed God’s plan which lead to and through death, and while there was pain involved in God’s plan for Jesus’ life, we ultimately wouldn’t want it any other way.

When we follow God’s plan, don’t be surprised if our lives include some level of pain. However, know that just like Jesus, when we look back on our lives, on the pain and on the joy, we ultimately would not want our lives to have gone any other way. While our lives on this earth are tainted by pain, sin, and death, the ultimate plan God has for our lives is eternal life with Him in a sinless recreated new heaven and new earth.

Our brand new life with God can start today, and when Jesus returns to bring us home, we will all celebrate the ultimate Passover meal together with God and all of God’s people who He has redeemed!

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, continue seeking God first in your life and choose to let God lead you on His plan. Place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and what He accomplished for us on the cross and look forward to the day when we will enter God’s kingdom and eat the ultimate Passover meal with Him and all of God’s people together.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Through prayer and personal study, discover a God who gives up everything to redeem His people out of sin and a God who loves us more than we can even imagine!

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

Following Jesus’ resurrection, one might think that no more prophecies would exist for Jesus to fulfill. Well, while that might be a thought someone could have, and while there were prophecies that we could have covered that we didn’t, over the next several episodes, I’ve saved some of the most powerful prophecies that Jesus’ ministry fulfilled.

However, to get to that point in moving forward through Jesus’ ministry, let’s turn our attention back onto one of the psalms in the Old Testament, and look closely at what it describes about the upcoming Messiah.

Our Old Testament passage is found in the book of Psalms, number 24, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 1, David, the author of this psalm, writes:

¹ The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains,
The world, and those who dwell in it.
² For He has founded it upon the seas
And established it upon the rivers.
³ Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
And who may stand in His holy place?
⁴ He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood
And has not sworn deceitfully.
⁵ He shall receive a blessing from the Lord
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
⁶ This is the generation of those who seek Him,
Who seek Your face—even Jacob. Selah.

⁷ Lift up your heads, O gates,
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in!
⁸ Who is the King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle.
⁹ Lift up your heads, O gates,
And lift them up, O ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in!
¹⁰ Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
He is the King of glory. Selah.

In this psalm, I see two distinctly different parts. In the first half of this psalm, we find a description of God’s righteous people living within God’s creation. While this could represent humanity in a fallen, sinful world, I suspect that David may be painting a picture of God’s people, who He has redeemed out of sin, living in a world after sin.

In the second half of this psalm, we see God enter His city triumphantly, like He has just returned from battle victorious. Similar to how the first half could be understood in different ways, I could understand the logic someone could use to frame this psalm describing Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on the donkey during the week leading up to His crucifixion. However, while Jesus did ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, I am doubtful that this entrance is what is described in this psalm, if for no other reason that Jesus’ trip into Jerusalem on a donkey was not because He had triumphed from anything.

Instead, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one valid way of understanding this psalm is describing Jesus’ return into the heavenly Jerusalem following His return to Heaven. After the resurrection and His ascension, when Jesus entered the heavenly Jerusalem, there would not be any question in anyone’s mind about whether He was returning victorious. When Jesus returned to Heaven, He returned victorious, having defeated Satan, sin, and death.

Looking at the New Testament, specifically in the gospels, we find a brief picture of Jesus’ ascension in Luke’s gospel. In Luke, chapter 24, starting in verse 50, Luke writes:

⁵⁰ And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. ⁵¹ While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. ⁵² And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, ⁵³ and were continually in the temple praising God.

In an amazing way, Luke describes how the disciples return to the earthly Jerusalem following Jesus’ ascension and as Jesus was returning to the heavenly Jerusalem. While the disciples did not receive any fanfare or glory when walking through the gates of the earthly Jerusalem, I suspect that the reception Jesus received in heaven would have been a little different. I would be surprised if there was not some level of celebration for Jesus who was returning victorious.

In Mark’s gospel, as part of the longer conclusion to this gospel, we see another brief description of Jesus ascending to Heaven. In Mark, chapter 16, starting in verse 19, we read:

¹⁹ So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. ²⁰ And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.

While Jesus’ resurrection marks a great foreshadowing of the resurrection of God’s people at the end of time, and as a powerful assurance that we don’t have any reason to fear death, Jesus’ ascension and acceptance into Heaven also contains a powerful foreshadowed theme worth remembering.

This truth teaches and challenges us with the promise that since Jesus returned to heaven, we can know and trust that Jesus is able to take us there to be with Him. While this idea is not a direct focus in our year of prophecy, Matthew’s gospel contains a strange, unique detail that when Jesus died and was resurrected, many righteous people from the past returned to life. For reference, this can be found in Matthew, chapter 27, verses 52 and 53. I suspect that when Jesus ascended to heaven, these people who were also raised from the dead ascended to heaven with Him.

However, while the conclusion to Mark’s gospel is challenging to some people, and while some people are quick to discount it as not being part of the oldest group of manuscripts, another detail in this conclusion is present, and it is worth paying attention to.

In Mark’s conclusion, we read the idea that when Jesus was “was received up into heaven”, He “sat down at the right hand of God.” While there are problematic details included in Mark’s longer conclusion, which we’ve covered in previous episodes, Jesus being seated at God’s right hand is incredibly significant. However, I’m going to save this piece of our discussion for our next episode.

Before wrapping up this episode, let’s together remember that Jesus’ ascension into heaven is a promise we can claim when this world seems to be crazy. Let’s remember Jesus’ promise to return. Remember that Jesus’ goal is not to give us a comfortable life in a sinful world. Instead, it is to prepare a place for us to live forever in a sinless, perfectly recreated New Heaven and New Earth. When we ally with Jesus, we are assured of a world that is much better than the one we live in, and a world that will ultimately last forever.

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

As I always open by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life. Look to Jesus for hope, assurance, and peace regarding everything happening in the world today, and remember that when we have allied our lives with His, He is preparing a place for us in a world where there won’t be any of the pain, disease, craziness, death, and sin that defines our current world. When we have allied our lives with Jesus, He invites us into God’s kingdom that lasts forever.

Also, as I always challenge you in one way or another, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow personally closer to God each and every day. God wants a relationship with you, and the relationship God wants with you will not have anyone other than Jesus in the middle of it. Jesus came to bridge the gap between heaven and earth, and because of this, don’t let anyone get in between you and Jesus.

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!