Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure

Flashback Episode — Testing Jesus’ Teaching: John 7:14-36

Published April 27, 2026 in Audio Journal Entries

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As we continue moving through John’s gospel, our last episode ended with Jesus secretly going up to the feast, alone, without either His disciples or His brothers. Part of the reason for this was because the Jews were openly looking for Jesus in order to arrest Him. However, as we will discover in our passage for this episode, Jesus had a hard time staying out of the spotlight.

Our passage for this episode is found in John’s gospel, chapter 7, and we will read it from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 14, John tells us that:

¹⁴When the feast was about half over, Jesus went to the Temple and began to teach. ¹⁵The people were amazed and said, “This man has never studied in school. How did he learn so much?”

¹⁶Jesus answered, “The things I teach are not my own, but they come from him who sent me. ¹⁷If people choose to do what God wants, they will know that my teaching comes from God and not from me. ¹⁸Those who teach their own ideas are trying to get honor for themselves. But those who try to bring honor to the one who sent them speak the truth, and there is nothing false in them. ¹⁹Moses gave you the law, but none of you obeys that law. Why are you trying to kill me?”

Pausing briefly, the way Jesus opens His response to the question of where His knowledge came from is powerful. First, Jesus acknowledges that what He is teaching is not His own ideas. Instead, Jesus is teaching ideas from God. However, Jesus then makes an amazing statement. In verse 17, Jesus tells this crowd: “If people choose to do what God wants, they will know that my teaching comes from God and not from me.”

This statement is powerful, and it is a promise we can apply in our own lives and our own world today. If we choose to do what God wants, we will know whether Jesus’ teaching is from God or not. The reverse is also true. If we choose to ignore or reject doing what God wants, we will ultimately discount Jesus, His teaching, and everything about Him.

With that said, how do we know whether we are doing what God really wants?

If this is an open question in your mind, we don’t need to look any farther than a few weeks ago in our podcast episodes, and into the previous chapter in John. Earlier in Jesus’ ministry, while challenging the crowd He fed, Jesus shares the answer to the question about what God really wants. In John, chapter 6, verse 29, Jesus tells the crowd plainly: “The work God wants you to do is this: Believe the One he sent.”

According to Jesus, believing in Him is the clearest way to discover whether His teaching is from God or not. In other words, Jesus invites us to try life His way and when we accept Jesus’ challenge, we will discover personally whether Jesus’ way is best.

This is the best strategy to take, because it is a personal strategy, and it opens the door for God to show up in our lives. The worst thing someone could do is ignore Jesus on the recommendation of someone else who has chosen to ignore Jesus and ultimately miss out on the rewards because they didn’t try Jesus’ way out for themselves!

However, the people, or at least some of those in the crowd, are a little confused at Jesus calling out the plot to kill Him. In verse 20, John tells us that:

²⁰The people answered, “A demon has come into you. We are not trying to kill you.”

²¹Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. ²²Moses gave you the law about circumcision. (But really Moses did not give you circumcision; it came from our ancestors.) And yet you circumcise a baby boy on a Sabbath day. ²³If a baby boy can be circumcised on a Sabbath day to obey the law of Moses, why are you angry at me for healing a person’s whole body on the Sabbath day? ²⁴Stop judging by the way things look, but judge by what is really right.”

²⁵Then some of the people who lived in Jerusalem said, “This is the man they are trying to kill. ²⁶But he is teaching where everyone can see and hear him, and no one is trying to stop him. Maybe the leaders have decided he really is the Christ. ²⁷But we know where this man is from. Yet when the real Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”

²⁸Jesus, teaching in the Temple, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. But I have not come by my own authority. I was sent by the One who is true, whom you don’t know. ²⁹But I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”

³⁰When Jesus said this, they tried to seize him. But no one was able to touch him, because it was not yet the right time. ³¹But many of the people believed in Jesus. They said, “When the Christ comes, will he do more miracles than this man has done?”

³²The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Jesus. So the leading priests and the Pharisees sent some Temple guards to arrest him. ³³Jesus said, “I will be with you a little while longer. Then I will go back to the One who sent me. ³⁴You will look for me, but you will not find me. And you cannot come where I am.”

³⁵Some people said to each other, “Where will this man go so we cannot find him? Will he go to the Greek cities where our people live and teach the Greek people there? ³⁶What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘You cannot come where I am’?”

In this extended time teaching in the temple, I am amazed because Jesus takes one of the groups of people and turns their hesitation into belief. While Jesus shares some challenging things, this group rightly concludes that it would be unlikely for anyone to come afterwards who will do more miracles or be a more positive influence in the world than Jesus was.

While I could share more, the big challenge I see in Jesus’ message is that we should trust Jesus even though there will likely always be unanswered questions. Some of our questions are simply unanswerable, and when we face a question that does not have a good answer, the easy temptation is to doubt because we don’t understand. However, we are called to have faith that every question we have will be answered at the right moment, and it is possible that the right moment for some questions will be when we stand face to face with Jesus after He has returned and brought us home to heaven.

The big thing for us to remember and focus on is doing what God wants us to do, and that is believing the One He sent, and testing Jesus’ teachings out in our own lives to know personally whether what Jesus shared is from God or not. When we have personally walked the path God created us to walk, we’ll discover who Jesus truly is and we’ll get a glimpse of the amazing future God has prepared for us when Jesus returns to bring us home!

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to believe in Jesus and trust that His sacrifice on the cross is enough to pay the penalty for your sins. Choose to take Jesus at His word and trust that He will give you the answers to your questions when the time is right.

Also, pray and study the Bible for yourself and try God’s way in your own life. Choose to pray and study the Bible for yourself and test God’s truth by applying it into your life in order to know whether Jesus’ way is really the best way to live. I’ve done this in my own life and determined that Jesus’ way is both better today, even with the challenges it brings, and the rewards for following Jesus are better than we could even imagine. This is what I have discovered in my own journey, and I challenge you to take the journey for yourself instead of taking anyone’s word for it.

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!

Flashback Episode: Year in John – Episode 17: When Jesus stands up in the temple to teach part way through a Jewish festival, discover how Jesus challenges the crowd to test His teachings and how Jesus tells us whether we can know whether His teachings are from God or not.

Profaning the Holy: John 2:13-25

Published April 24, 2026 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: John 2:13-25 (NIrV)

¹³It was almost time for the Jewish Passover Feast. So Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴In the temple courtyard he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves. Others were sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵So Jesus made a whip out of ropes. He chased all the sheep and cattle from the temple courtyard. He scattered the coins of the people exchanging money. And he turned over their tables. ¹⁶He told those who were selling doves, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” ¹⁷His disciples remembered what had been written. It says, “My great love for your house will destroy me.”

¹⁸Then the Jewish leaders asked him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do this?”

¹⁹Jesus answered them, “When you destroy this temple, I will raise it up again in three days.”

²⁰They replied, “It has taken 46 years to build this temple. Are you going to raise it up in three days?” ²¹But the temple Jesus had spoken about was his body. ²²His disciples later remembered what he had said. That was after he had been raised from the dead. Then they believed the Scripture. They also believed the words that Jesus had spoken.

²³Meanwhile, he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast. Many people saw the signs he was doing. And they believed in his name. ²⁴But Jesus did not fully trust them. He knew what people are like. ²⁵He didn’t need anyone to tell him what people are like. He already knew why people do what they do.

Read John 2:13-25 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Two times in Jesus’ ministry, we read about Him chasing people out of the temple. During the first time He threw people out of the temple, Jesus says an interesting phrase that is important for us to remember. While we often focus in on the second time Jesus cleared the temple (which happened during the week He was crucified), there is a unique quality that make’s John’s record of this temple cleansing important for us living today.

On coming up to Jerusalem and the temple for the Passover feast, Jesus enters the temple. “In the temple courtyard he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves. Others were sitting at tables exchanging money. So Jesus made a whip out of ropes. He chased all the sheep and cattle from the temple courtyard. He scattered the coins of the people exchanging money. And he turned over their tables.” (v. 14-15)

When reading this, we are quick to jump to the other gospels to look for an answer. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record Jesus’ quotation from the Old Testament where He says, “It is written that the Lord said, ‘My house will be called a house where people from all nations can pray.’ But you have made it a ‘den for robbers.’” (Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46)

We are quick to point out that dishonesty drove Jesus to clear out the temple, but these three gospels happen at the end of Jesus’ ministry. John’s gospel shares a different reason Jesus gives for this early-in-His-ministry temple cleansing.

John tells us in His gospel that Jesus told His reason to those selling doves. John says that Jesus said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” (v. 16)

Were the merchants in the temple being dishonest in John’s event? Probably, but here, Jesus does not mention anything to make us think this was His reason. Jesus’ reason for being upset is that these people were “turning [the temple] into a market.” (v. 16)

Jesus was upset by the commerce that was happening in the temple courtyard. This wasn’t outside of the temple, but on property that was owned by the temple and it would have been the first thing visitors would have seen when entering the temple. People who would be coming to pray and worship would have to weave their way through the crowds of merchants to simply find a quiet place to be with God.

Does Jesus hate commerce? Absolutely not when it is done in an ethical way, but in this passage we can find a key idea present for His actions here.

When we look at what God has done for us, and what Jesus has done for us, these are gifts we have been given. Life and salvation cost us nothing. God is a God who gives first, and if we choose to return, then we can choose to do so.

But commerce is all about exchange. Exchanges cost something. We give some money and we then get some item, object, or service. Commerce does not reflect God, but it does reflect society and social interactions.

Jesus is upset with the commerce in the temple because it was pulling people’s focus away from God. It was bringing what was common, ordinary, and typical of every day of the week into God’s home among people and implying that there is nothing distinguishing it from any other place one could go.

In a sort of similar way, churches today fill the role the temple and synagogues played in the first century. Churches today are places where we can go when wanting to feel closer to God. I wonder if we should pay more attention in our own lives and churches on this idea of distinguishing the common from the holy, and society’s commerce from God’s priceless gifts for us.

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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A Kingdom-Sized Treasure: Matthew 13:44

Published April 23, 2026 in Audio Journal Entries

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As we continue moving through our year focusing in on Jesus’ parables, we come to a series of three short parables that only Matthew’s gospel includes. These three parables are shared just with the disciples, and they are shared after Jesus responds to the disciples asking for explanation of one of Jesus’ other parables. For this episode, we’ll focus on the first parable in this set of three parables, because while the three parables are all short and similar, each is distinct enough to warrant an episode dedicated to it.

Let’s read the first parable and discover another way Jesus describes God’s kingdom to the disciples. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will read it from the Good News Translation. In verse 44, Jesus tells the disciples:

⁴⁴“The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man happens to find a treasure hidden in a field. He covers it up again, and is so happy that he goes and sells everything he has, and then goes back and buys that field.

As we read this one-verse parable, two phrases jumped out to me. The first phrase is how the parable opens. This translation draws a casual connection to the discovery of this treasure. It describes, “A man happens to find a treasure in a field”. Reading this translation makes me think that the man was strolling through the field, and he trips over something hard and realizes that it is the corner of a treasure chest. The way this is described makes me think that the man was not looking for treasure, but that he at least had his eyes open enough to recognize the treasure was there when it tripped him.

When reading the opening statement of this parable from multiple translations, no clues are given to the intentional nature or the casual finding of this treasure. Instead, the parable simply describes someone simply finding treasure hidden in a field. From this detail, and from the fact this is a parable Jesus shared, we can conclude that the treasure that is found is something that we all can find in our lives if we are paying attention. This “treasure in a field” is something that we may have been seeking out, or it may be something we find at a time we are not expecting to find it. Regardless of whether we are actively looking, or whether we stumble onto it, what matters is not that we found it, but what we will do when we have found it.

After the man found the treasure, he has three options. He can bury the treasure and walk away; He can steal the treasure, have the money, but also have the guilt associated with the theft; or He can sell as much as is necessary to buy the field that contains the treasure, which is the legally correct option. If I sold a home to you, and buried in the walls of the home were diamonds and blocks of gold that I was not aware of, when you discovered them, they would legally be yours. I might be upset at myself for not finding the treasure, but it would legally be the property of the owner of the home.

According to the details of the parable, the man doesn’t take any chances that he will not have enough money, so even if he only needed to sell a portion of his stuff, he sold everything because the treasure is that valuable in his eyes. This is the second idea that stood out in my mind as we read this parable.

This man wants this treasure legally, and he does not want any of the guilt associated with simply stealing it. This man knows that a treasure that has been wrongfully gained is not a treasure in the end. The treasures we can have and enjoy the most are the ones that don’t come with guilt or other negative traits.

The man buys the field because he knows that with this treasure, he can gain the life he has always wanted. While we might be tempted to think that simply having money can get us the life we most desire, the truth of this parable is that the kingdom of heaven is represented by this treasure that is hidden in a field. In other words, the treasure that can bring us true fulfillment in our lives is the kingdom of heaven treasure.

If we read this parable from the New American Standard Bible translation, it tells us that “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

The amazing truth of this parable is that the kingdom of heaven is something that we simply must open our eyes in order to discover. The kingdom of heaven is something that we might miss if we are not paying attention, but it is something we can discover if we keep our eyes open for it.

And not only this, the kingdom of heaven is something that is worth selling everything we have in order to acquire it. The kingdom of heaven isn’t a treasure that can be stolen. Instead, it is a treasure that is worth giving our lives for. This is because all that this life offers us is pain and sin that ultimately leads to death. While life may have its good moments, our lives one hundred, or even two hundred years from now will have ended in death – unless we have given our lives for the kingdom of heaven.

When we give our lives to Jesus, He promises to keep us safe through the death we face, and bring us out on the other side into a new, perfect, eternal life that has all the best parts of this life without any of the pain, sin, and death.

The kingdom of heaven is the ultimate treasure, and the first step in finding this treasure is seeking Jesus. Jesus is the way to this treasure, and He is the only way to eternal life!

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 Jesus and God first in your life. Place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus as you choose to open your eyes to discovering God’s kingdom. As Jesus’ return moves closer, be sure you are actively seeking Him in your life so that when He returns, you will be ready.

One of the best ways to get and stay ready is by praying and studying the Bible for yourself. Regular prayer and Bible study helps draw you close to God and it helps you accept God’s Holy Spirit into your life. With the Holy Spirit working in your life, don’t be surprised to discover that God is using you to bring about His kingdom in the world today!

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!

Year of Parables – Episode 17: When Jesus shares the short parable about a treasure hidden in a field, discover some things we can learn from this parable, and what is worth selling everything we have in order to acquire it. You may be surprised to learn the treasure we discovered!

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Giving Evidence of Our Faith: Matthew 9:27-34

Published April 22, 2026 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Matthew 9:27-34 (NASB)

During one of the healing miracles that Jesus performed, we can find an interesting dialog that Jesus has with a couple of blind men. Matthew tells us in his gospel that these blind men found Jesus and were following Him crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” (v. 27)

Matthew doesn’t tell us how far Jesus traveled that day or at what point the blind men found Jesus, but when they ultimately came to the place they were going to stay the night, the blind men came up to Jesus to be healed. Jesus asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” (v. 28a)

They both responded, “Yes, Lord.” (v. 28b)

On one hand, the answer to this question should be obvious. These men had followed Jesus crying out for mercy from Him. This would mean that they knew He was capable of healing them, and it would seem that they were pretty persistent with their desire to be healed. When Jesus asked them if they believed He is capable of healing their sight, the counter question back to Jesus easily could have been, “If we didn’t believe this, why would we have followed You here?

But on the other hand, I think this miracle might have a lesson for the disciples attached to it. These men clearly demonstrated their belief through their actions. They had followed Jesus requesting help for miles, and it is only after the trip had finished that Jesus acknowledges their presence. I am sure Jesus was aware of their presence before arriving. These men may have even been disruptive in their attempts to get His attention. However, it is only after Jesus arrives at the house they were staying that He comes over to talk with them.

The big key I see in this passage that makes me think this was a teachable moment for the disciples comes with what Jesus says as He is touching their eyes. “Then He touched their eyes, saying, ‘It shall be done to you according to your faith.’” (v. 29)

The proof for the blind men’s faith had been demonstrated in what they had done leading up to this miracle, and the result of their conversation with Jesus and His touch blended with this faith to give the ultimate result: “And their eyes were opened.” (v. 30a)

Jesus attached the effectiveness of this miracle to the faith of the men making the request. While faith isn’t directly visible in every miracle Jesus performed, we can see that faith is a key ingredient in many of Jesus’ healing miracles.

One lesson Jesus may be teaching here is that faith that is strong enough for miracles will also be a faith that is visible to others. Hidden faith is not a powerful faith. Powerful faith gives evidence for its existence. The blind men didn’t care who knew they wanted Jesus’ help, they simply followed Jesus asking for help until Jesus was ready to acknowledge them. Their persistence proves their level of faith.

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