Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure

Coming Off a Spiritual Mountain: Luke 9:43b-45

Published December 20, 2024 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Luke 9:43b-45 (NASB)

During one of the emotional high points the disciples had with Jesus, He pulls them aside to tell them a very sobering message. Oftentimes, the events of the short passage predicting His upcoming crucifixion are disconnected from the larger event that has just taken place.

To set the stage for what Jesus shares in this passage, Jesus, Peter, James, and John had just come down from the mountain where they had seen the event known as the transfiguration, a point in Jesus’ ministry where these disciples were able to experience a brief glimpse of Jesus’ glory. While this was happening on the mountain, the remaining disciples were unsuccessfully trying to cast a demon out of a boy.

Luke tells us that the following day, when Jesus came down from the mountain, He meets the disciples and the father of this boy and successfully casts out the demon. It is at this moment where Luke tells us: “But while everyone was marveling at all that He was doing, He said to His disciples, ‘Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.’” (v. 43b-44)

The gospels of Matthew and Mark have Jesus conclude this sentence by saying: “and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.” (Mark 9:31; Matthew 17:23)

This is powerful when we think about it. At this point in Jesus’ ministry, the thought of Jesus being killed was the last possible thing on their minds. To these disciples, especially Peter, James, and John who saw Jesus glorified less than 24 hours earlier, they may have perceived Jesus to be invincible. Regardless of the predicted resurrection that is also included in this statement, Jesus’ words seem to fall on deaf ears.

Luke tells us that the disciples were afraid to ask and that the meaning of Jesus’ words was hidden from them. It is possible that God hid the meaning of Jesus’ words from the disciples. Also, it is possible that the fear of asking stopped the disciples from learning the truth about Jesus’ message here. However, I wonder if the emotional high that is shared at the beginning of this passage is a clue about what blinded the disciples to the meaning of Jesus’ words.

Luke tells us that the events leading up to Jesus’ message prompted everyone present to marvel at what Jesus was doing. This was a high moment for Jesus and the disciples, and part of me wonders if Jesus reserved this direct message for this emotional high point to help ground the disciples onto the reality of the true mission of the Messiah.

If this is the case, we can learn a powerful truth from this short passage: During our emotional highs, it may be more difficult for God to share His message and His truth into our lives. While there is nothing evil about emotional and spiritual high points, we must not focus our lives towards always seeking after these types of events, because God may have something to teach us that can only be learned while we are facing the challenges of life.

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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Year in John – Finale: Part 1

Published December 19, 2024 in Audio Journal Entries

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It seems like such a long time since we began our year focusing in on John’s gospel, but we have now come to our special, two-part finale. As we take some time here at the end of the year to look back at what we’ve learned from this gospel, let me first wish all of you a Merry Christmas. While John’s gospel doesn’t focus on Jesus’ birth story like Matthew or Luke do, John’s gospel gives us a unique and powerful look into just how significant Jesus is. Because Jesus came, we all have the choice whether we accept His invitation and whether we accept His life and death to cover our sins.

We discovered a lot as we focused in on John’s gospel, and without any further delay, let’s begin diving into some of our biggest and best insights during the first half of our year focusing in on John’s gospel.

Let’s begin by looking at our insights in Episode 1. Episode 1 focused on the opening verses in John’s gospel and how Jesus existed before the world began. As we looked closely at this episode, we learned that Jesus willfully created the reason He would face the cross. John tells us that God’s glory is full of kindness and truth. God’s glory does not judge, put down, or condemn others. God’s glory shines the light of kindness and truth. We all have sinned and fallen short of God’s ideal. The sooner we realize that we are not any better than anyone else, the sooner Jesus can transform our lives with His glory, kindness, and truth!

Moving forward to episode 3, which focused in on Jesus’ first followers, we discover that Jesus’ early followers didn’t try to impress their friends with what Jesus had done, they simply invited them to come and see Jesus for themselves. When we share Jesus with others, the focus is not on us and the conversation isn’t about us. Instead, we focus on Jesus. We share what Jesus has done for us, we invite others to come and see, and when the focus stays on Jesus, God moves in amazing ways.

In the very next episode, number 4, which focused in on Jesus turning the water into wine, we learned that this miracle only happened because the servants had enough faith to obey Jesus’ ridiculous sounding request to serve the host water. The servants’ faith in Jesus, not knowing who Jesus even was, opened the door for this miracle!

This episode also reminded us that often times we don’t see God working in our hearts or our lives, but other people do. Other people are likely to see a greater change in our lives when we come to God or begin moving towards Him than we do. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection solved the sin problem. Jesus supplied His life in exchange for ours. It is now up to us to accept Jesus’ gift and His invitation to substitute His life for ours.

Jumping ahead to episode 6, which focused in on Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, we discovered that those who have not been born spiritually are unable to see the Kingdom of God.

Also, while it isn’t pleasant to think about, we also are reminded 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. 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 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!

The very next episode, number 7, continued this thought when our passage focused on what John the Baptist preached about Jesus. In this episode, we learned that 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.

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, formed the foundation for Jesus’ ministry, Jesus’ life, and Jesus’ death on behalf of you and me!

Moving forward a few episodes to episode 10, which focused on Jesus healing the man by the pool of Bethesda, we discovered the powerful truth that when God is our last hope, it is easy to look to Him. However, when God is not our first hope, we might not experience many miracles in our lives. When this man by this pool gave up hope in reaching the pool, which is something the other people present may not have been ready to do, he was ready to experience the healing Jesus offered him. When we give up hope in the things of this world and focus our faith on Jesus and what He accomplished for us, we are ready to receive miracles in our lives as well!

While we discovered lots of good insights in the next several episodes, what usually happens is that we must jump forward because I don’t want this episode to be too long. Because of this, let’s jumping forward all the way to episode 17, where we focused in on the first portion of Jesus teaching in the temple during a festival part way through His ministry. In this episode, we learned that if we choose to do what God wants, we will know whether Jesus’ teaching is from God or not. If we choose to ignore or reject doing what God wants, we will ultimately discount Jesus, His teaching, and everything about Him. 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 and whether Jesus really was who He claimed to be.

Moving forward to episode 20, our passage focused on a challenge the religious leaders bring Jesus about only being one witness. In this episode, 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.

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.

In the next episode, which is number 21, we looked at another challenge the religious leaders bring Jesus and an amazing promise Jesus shared about what we will gain when we believe in Him. In this episode, Jesus promises us that everyone who obeys His Words will never taste death. 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, but we also lose out on the promise of never tasting eternal death as well.

To wrap up our first half of this year focusing in on John’s gospel, let’s look at some of our insights from episode 24, which focused on the crowd plainly asking Jesus if He was the Messiah and then wanting to stone Him for His answer. In this episode, which is a great one for us to conclude with, we learned that everything Jesus did was to bring glory to God and to uplift God’s name. Even the crowd acknowledged when they picked up stones to throw at Jesus that it wasn’t for anything He had done, but for one single claim He had made. The simple truth we can remember is that if God the Father did not like the message Jesus was sharing, there would be no way Jesus could have helped people during the time He was teaching, and preaching.

Let’s finish this first part of our year-end finale off with a challenge we learned from this episode: Because Jesus’ word has never failed, we can trust His promises, and even if we are uncertain of some of the more extreme claims Jesus made, we can look to Jesus’ actions as a foundation for our faith in Him.

When we are tempted to doubt, remember that Jesus came to redeem us, and the doubts we are tempted with are really Satan trying to knock us off the path God created for us!

Year in John – Finale: In the first part of our annual two-part finale, discover some of the biggest insights we discovered during the first half of this past year moving through the gospel of John.

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The Pause Button: John 11:1-44

Published December 18, 2024 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: John 11:1-44 (CEV)

^1-2A man by the name of Lazarus was sick in the village of Bethany. He had two sisters, Mary and Martha. This was the same Mary who later poured perfume on the Lord’s head and wiped his feet with her hair. ³The sisters sent a message to the Lord and told him that his good friend Lazarus was sick.

⁴When Jesus heard this, he said, “His sickness won’t end in death. It will bring glory to God and his Son.”

⁵Jesus loved Martha and her sister and brother. ⁶But he stayed where he was for two more days. ⁷Then he said to his disciples, “Now we will go back to Judea.”

⁸“Teacher,” they said, “the people there want to stone you to death! Why do you want to go back?”

⁹Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours in each day? If you walk during the day, you will have light from the sun, and you won’t stumble. ¹⁰But if you walk during the night, you will stumble, because you don’t have any light.” ¹¹Then he told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, and I am going there to wake him up.”

¹²They replied, “Lord, if he is asleep, he will get better.” ¹³Jesus really meant that Lazarus was dead, but they thought he was talking only about sleep.

¹⁴Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead! ¹⁵I am glad that I wasn’t there, because now you will have a chance to put your faith in me. Let’s go to him.”

¹⁶Thomas, whose nickname was “Twin,” said to the other disciples, “Come on. Let’s go, so we can die with him.”

¹⁷When Jesus got to Bethany, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸Bethany was only about two miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁹and many people had come from the city to comfort Martha and Mary because their brother had died.

²⁰When Martha heard that Jesus had arrived, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house. ²¹Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²Yet even now I know that God will do anything you ask.”

²³Jesus told her, “Your brother will live again!”

²⁴Martha answered, “I know that he will be raised to life on the last day, when all the dead are raised.”

²⁵Jesus then said, “I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. ²⁶And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die. Do you believe this?”

²⁷“Yes, Lord!” she replied. “I believe that you are Christ, the Son of God. You are the one we hoped would come into the world.”

²⁸After Martha said this, she went and privately said to her sister Mary, “The Teacher is here, and he wants to see you.” ²⁹As soon as Mary heard this, she got up and went out to Jesus. ³⁰He was still outside the village where Martha had gone to meet him. ³¹Many people had come to comfort Mary, and when they saw her quickly leave the house, they thought she was going out to the tomb to cry. So they followed her.

³²Mary went to where Jesus was. Then as soon as she saw him, she knelt at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

³³When Jesus saw that Mary and the people with her were crying, he was terribly upset ³⁴and asked, “Where have you put his body?”

They replied, “Lord, come and you will see.”

³⁵Jesus started crying, ³⁶and the people said, “See how much he loved Lazarus.”

³⁷Some of them said, “He gives sight to the blind. Why couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”

³⁸Jesus was still terribly upset. So he went to the tomb, which was a cave with a stone rolled against the entrance. ³⁹Then he told the people to roll the stone away. But Martha said, “Lord, you know that Lazarus has been dead four days, and there will be a bad smell.”

⁴⁰Jesus replied, “Didn’t I tell you that if you had faith, you would see the glory of God?”

⁴¹After the stone had been rolled aside, Jesus looked up toward heaven and prayed, “Father, I thank you for answering my prayer. ⁴²I know that you always answer my prayers. But I said this, so that the people here would believe that you sent me.”

⁴³When Jesus had finished praying, he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴The man who had been dead came out. His hands and feet were wrapped with strips of burial cloth, and a cloth covered his face.

Jesus then told the people, “Untie him and let him go.”

Read John 11:1-44 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Most times I read about Jesus raising Lazarus back to life, I am fascinated at many of the details that are included. However more than just simply looking at the details, I enjoy looking behind these details to themes that tell me more about what God and Jesus are like.

The big idea that challenges me as I read this event directly relates to who Jesus is: Jesus is a Life-Giver. All throughout the gospels, Jesus heals people, restoring them into a new life; He teaches people, helping them begin a new life and relationship with God; and He was trying really hard to train some difficult people (known as the disciples) how to live dependant on God – which was a new life compared with the life they left behind after accepting His call.

Jesus is a life-giver, and because of this, He is not afraid of death. Jesus first describes Lazarus as sleeping, which may give us a clue into what He wanted us to think of death. Verse 11 shares this initial description: “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, and I am going there to wake him up.” However, like what usually seemed to happen, the disciples don’t get what Jesus is trying to say, leading Jesus to talk directly to them a few verses later with the fact that “Lazarus is dead!” (Verse 14)

One thing that challenges me is in this event has to do with how Jesus responds to the news that Lazarus is sick. In verse 4, Jesus responds to the news by saying “His sickness won’t end in death. It will bring glory to God and his Son.” Verse 4 and verse 14 contradict one another, because Jesus said the sickness wouldn’t end in death, but then Lazarus died.

But when we look at what Jesus says, from the perspective He is trying to teach the disciples to grasp, we see something interesting.

For much of His ministry, Jesus was trying to help the disciples understand life from God’s viewpoint. God’s perspective on life looks at it through the lens of eternity, and knowing the whole story, or at least the portion of the story that John shares, Lazarus’ sickness included death as a pit-stop or detour on the path to a new God-given life. Lazarus’ sickness did not “end” in death, because death was not the end of His story.

Instead, Jesus gives us another insight into God’s perspective. From God’s perspective, death is like a sleep. A few verses later, Jesus tells Martha, “I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die.” (Verses 25-26)

There are two directions we could understand Jesus’ words in these verses. We could understand this to mean that those who believe in Jesus will never “fall asleep” like Lazarus did; or we may understand Jesus’ words to mean that those who believe in Him will not have their stories end in death, even if death happens to be a temporary resting place on the path.

Looking at the broad story and how in each conversation Jesus is trying to teach people truths from God’s perspective, and that Jesus begins by pointing us to the big picture by saying that Lazarus’ sickness won’t end in death, I am inclined to believe that Jesus describes what we call death as a sleep. This sleep-death is not the end, but merely a pause on life that will later be resumed when the resurrection happens. Death in Jesus’ eyes is when someone’s future contains no more life in it while sleep in Jesus’ eyes holds the promise of resurrection.

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The Unconditional Invitation: Matthew 22:1-14

Published December 17, 2024 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Matthew 22:1-14 (NIV)

¹Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ²“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

⁴“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

⁵“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. ⁶The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

⁸“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ¹⁰So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹²He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

¹³“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹⁴“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Read Matthew 22:1-14 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

During one of Jesus’ famous parables near the end of His earthly ministry, He shares about a banquet feast that a king prepared and invited His friends to. However, all those who He thought were His friends ended up either rejecting the invitation because either they claimed to have more “important” things to do, or they were outright hostile towards the king’s messengers.

When the servants returned and told the king what had happened, the king responded to his servants by saying “The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.” (v. 8-10)

As I read this portion of the passage, I am amazed by the broad, unrestricted invitation that was shared. While the original invitation was given to a select group of people, this second round of inviting has no limits. Matthew tells us in verse 10 that Jesus’ illustration has the king gathering “all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good,” in order to fill His wedding hall.

In this parable, I believe the king represents God, and if this is the case, God’s invitation has no restrictions; God’s invitation is unconditional. The only criteria we can see present in this second round of invitation is simply the willingness to accept the invitation. Past performance is irrelevant when the invitation comes our way; our current habits, projects, and lifestyle are also irrelevant, provided that these things don’t interfere with us choosing to accept God’s invitation.

The only thing that matters in the framework of eternity is whether we will be willing to accept God’s invitation when He returns to invite us home!

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