Reflective Bible Study

As Jesus neared the end of His famous sermon on the mount, we find another parable-illustration that Jesus uses to help us understand a key point He wanted to emphasize for the crowd. While the crowd was used to following their religious leaders, at the big high point of Jesus’ sermon, we discover a warning that is just as important for us to remember as it was for those living in the first century.

Let’s read Jesus’ words as recorded in Matthew’s gospel. Our passage is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, and we will read from the God’s Word Translation. Starting in verse 15, Matthew quotes Jesus saying:

¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets. They come to you disguised as sheep, but in their hearts they are vicious wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by what they produce.

“People don’t pick grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles, do they? ¹⁷ In the same way every good tree produces good fruit, but a rotten tree produces bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a rotten tree cannot produce good fruit. ¹⁹ Any tree that fails to produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into a fire. ²⁰ So you will know them by what they produce.

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the person who does what my Father in heaven wants. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we force out demons and do many miracles by the power and authority of your name?’ ²³ Then I will tell them publicly, ‘I’ve never known you. Get away from me, you evil people.’

²⁴ “Therefore, everyone who hears what I say and obeys it will be like a wise person who built a house on rock. ²⁵ Rain poured, and floods came. Winds blew and beat against that house. But it did not collapse, because its foundation was on rock.

²⁶ “Everyone who hears what I say but doesn’t obey it will be like a foolish person who built a house on sand. ²⁷ Rain poured, and floods came. Winds blew and struck that house. It collapsed, and the result was a total disaster.”

²⁸ When Jesus finished this speech, the crowds were amazed at his teachings. ²⁹ Unlike their experts in Moses’ Teachings, he taught them with authority.

Every time I read this passage and this event, I am amazed at the strong words Jesus used in the conclusion of this message. The illustrations Jesus uses in this passage all center around a very unpopular idea: obedience. We are warned on the front end by Jesus to pay attention to how obedient someone is and to judge their words based on their level of obedience to God’s Word.

Throughout the Bible, the idea of a prophet is simply someone who receives a message from God and then shares it with others. The Bible includes prophets who were both men and women. There is no distinction in God’s eyes when it comes to giving messages to males or females. God looks at other characteristics when deciding whether to give someone a message.

However, the Bible also warns of false prophets. These people claim to speak messages from God, but God never gave them a message to share. These people speak from their own assumptions, and they taint God’s reputation because they misrepresent Him. Obedience in one’s own life is a huge factor in whether we are accurately reflecting God.

After getting all of us agreeing on the truth that we should not expect bad trees to produce good fruit or good trees to produce bad fruit, Jesus then shifts the focus onto the fruit that we produce. If you want to know someone’s heart, look at their actions, look at where they spend their money, and look at how they treat other people. Our hearts reveal our nature through our actions.

In emphasizing His point, Jesus stresses that a lack of obedience will get people kicked out of the kingdom of heaven. The sobering truth in the center of Jesus’ conclusion is that no quantity of good deeds in the world will outweigh disobedience. Jesus calls those who are disobedient, “evil doers”. A disobedient heart is what led to Lucifer’s rebellion in heaven, and it would be crazy for God to bring disobedience into His new heaven and new earth.

However, the big parable in Jesus’ conclusion focuses in on two builders. Note the only distinction Jesus shares that separates these two people. Verse 24 quotes Jesus saying that “everyone who hears what I say and obeys it will be like a wise person”. Verse 26 contrasts this by quoting Jesus saying that “everyone who hears what I say but doesn’t obey it will be like a foolish person”.

Both the wise and the foolish individuals hear Jesus. What makes one wise is whether they obey Jesus or not. Not only is Jesus teaching and warning us about paying attention to others, Jesus is warning us about being intentional about the choices we make in our own lives.

Nowhere in this teaching do we find obedience hinted at as being the source of our salvation. Our salvation is found through faith in Jesus and trusting in His life covering our sins. The only thing obedience gains us is wisdom in this life.

However, the real teaching Jesus emphasizes in our passage is that disobedience in this life has the power to forfeit our salvation. Nothing Satan can do can steal us away from Jesus, but if we choose a life of disobedience, we are effectively choosing sin over Jesus, which not only cheapens the sacrifice He made on our behalf, we choose Satan over Christ.

Instead, Jesus challenges those in the first century, as well as us living today, to be intentional about obeying, not because we believe we can obey our way into being saved. Instead, we are challenged to obey as a way of saying thank You to God for sending Jesus, and thank You to Jesus for coming to pay the price for our sins.

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

As I always open these challenges by saying, continue to intentionally seek God first and place Him first in your life. Intentionally obey God as a way of saying thank You to Him for what Jesus has done for us.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God each and every day. While a pastor, author, speaker, blogger, or podcaster can give you ideas to think about, never base your spiritual foundation on the ideas of others. Instead, always build your spiritual foundation on the truth found in the Bible which you learn and validate through personal Bible study.

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 let Satan trick you into walking away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue moving through John’s gospel, we come to the place where John begins to shift his focus away from John the Baptist and onto Jesus. John does this by following the first two people who chose to follow Jesus, one who was known as Andrew, and the other who is not named but who could easily have been the disciple John, the author of this gospel.

Let’s read about what happened and discover what we can learn from these first followers of Jesus. Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 1, and we will read from the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 35, John’s gospel tells us:

³⁵ The next day, John was there again, and two of his followers were with him. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus walking by, he said, “Here is the Lamb of God!” ³⁷ John’s two followers heard him, and they went with Jesus.

³⁸ When Jesus turned and saw them, he asked, “What do you want?”

They answered, “Rabbi, where do you live?” The Hebrew word “Rabbi” means “Teacher.”

³⁹ Jesus replied, “Come and see!” It was already about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with him and saw where he lived. So they stayed on for the rest of the day.

⁴⁰ One of the two men who had heard John and had gone with Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and tell him, “We have found the Messiah!” The Hebrew word “Messiah” means the same as the Greek word “Christ.”

⁴² Andrew brought his brother to Jesus. And when Jesus saw him, he said, “Simon son of John, you will be called Cephas.” This name can be translated as “Peter.”

^43-44 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. There he met Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Jesus said to Philip, “Come with me.”

⁴⁵ Philip then found Nathanael and said, “We have found the one that Moses and the Prophets wrote about. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

⁴⁶ Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

Philip answered, “Come and see.”

⁴⁷ When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said, “Here is a true descendant of our ancestor Israel. And he isn’t deceitful.”

⁴⁸ “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”

⁴⁹ Nathanael said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God and the King of Israel!”

⁵⁰ Jesus answered, “Did you believe me just because I said that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see something even greater. ⁵¹ I tell you for certain that you will see heaven open and God’s angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man.”

In this passage, I am amazed at how this early group of followers grew. In these few verses that conclude chapter 1 of John’s gospel, we see Jesus’ first followers going and telling those they know about Jesus and inviting them to come and see Jesus for themselves.

This is incredibly significant in my mind because Jesus has done no miracle, Jesus hasn’t really said anything wise, and Jesus is from a less-than-reputable location. This group of early followers has three things in common: They heard about Jesus from someone else, they believe the testimony they heard, and they accept the invitation to come and see Jesus for themselves.

About the only amazing thing Jesus says is the statement to Nathanael about seeing him under the fig tree, which doesn’t mean that much to us today, and the greater declaration that the disciples would see even greater things than this.

It is also amazing, but to a lesser extent, that when Jesus meets Simon for the first time, Jesus gives him the name Peter. While this could be an official new name, Jesus could also have given him what we might call in today’s culture a nickname. However, far from being a nickname that is based on what Peter had done in the past, this name signaled what Peter would do in the future and how instrumental he would be when standing up for God.

The way this passage shares about Jesus’ first followers I suspect is a model that we are called to apply. When Jesus has done something for us, or when we have found Jesus, the best thing for us to do is share Jesus with those around us. Specifically, when we have been invited to experience Jesus, we should intentionally invite someone else to come and see too.

In our own lives, sometimes we might be afraid of what other people will think of an invitation to church or to a Bible study. Sometimes these fears are valid concerns. There are definitely times and places where sharing Jesus would not be welcomed or wise.

However, if Jesus is the answer we know would solve the pain, anxiety, or stress in a friend, family member, neighbor, or coworker’s life, it would be cruel to keep Jesus from them. These first followers intentionally shared Jesus with those in their lives, and their invitations early on, before Jesus had entered the public spotlight, speak volumes to how their faith in Jesus was not based on miracles or on fame, but on the understanding that Jesus had a solution their lives needed. While each of Jesus’ early followers may have had different reasons for accepting the invitation and sharing it with others, they all knew early on that following Jesus was important.

While we might feel fear about following Jesus or inviting others, intentionally push past the fear because what Jesus did for us is more significant than the worst response we could receive when inviting someone to come to Jesus. The worst response we could receive is anger, hostility, and/or rejection. The response we receive when inviting someone to Jesus doesn’t say anything about ourselves; the response we receive when inviting others to Jesus reveals their hearts and their state of mind.

It is normal to feel a little nervous at times about sharing Jesus with others, but we should push past this fear because we might be surprised how God steps in and shifts the conversation in ways you might be surprised to discover. 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. When we share Jesus with others, focus on sharing 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.

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. If you are unsure or fearful about inviting someone to church or to a Bible study, pray for strength, an opportunity, and the opening to share. Trust that God will bring an opening into your life to share. However, also know that God may be waiting for you to make an opening for Him to step into. When inviting people, keep the focus on Jesus and on what Jesus has done for all of us!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and discover what God has done for us. The Bible is God’s story of history, and it is our story of redemption through what Jesus accomplished for us. While critics and skeptics can try to discount the Bible based on passages or events they dislike, look past the critics and onto the cross. Look past the skeptics and into the face of Jesus, who came to give His life for you and me. In the pages of the Bible, discover how much God loves humanity, and lean on God’s love for humanity when looking for the strength to invite others to 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 let fear paralyze you out of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!