Reflective Bible Study

Leading up to one of Jesus’ more well-known teachings is a relatively unknown parable. While I imagine that if you have read the gospels or have been in church for a moderate length of time, you probably will recognize the teaching that follows this parable, but you might have missed or not heard this parable itself.

However, after this episode, you can confidently say that you have heard the parable that we’re focusing in on, and that you understand how it relates to having effective prayer. This parable and our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 11, and we will read it from the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 5, Luke tells us that:

⁵ [And] Jesus said to his disciples, “Suppose one of you should go to a friend’s house at midnight and say, ‘Friend, let me borrow three loaves of bread. ⁶ A friend of mine who is on a trip has just come to my house, and I don’t have any food for him!’ ⁷ And suppose your friend should answer from inside, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ ⁸ Well, what then? I tell you that even if he will not get up and give you the bread because you are his friend, yet he will get up and give you everything you need because you are not ashamed to keep on asking. ⁹ And so I say to you: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For those who ask will receive, and those who seek will find, and the door will be opened to anyone who knocks. ¹¹ Would any of you who are fathers give your son a snake when he asks for fish? ¹² Or would you give him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? ¹³ As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

This whole first section of Luke chapter 11 relates with effective prayer. Luke 11 begins with Jesus sharing the model prayer with His disciples in the first four verses, which we didn’t have time to cover in this episode, before then moving into the parable and follow up teaching.

All too often though, I feel that people stop reading too soon because the last verse we focused on is likely the biggest key in this entire passage and discussion on prayer. Jesus finishes off by telling His followers at the end of verse 13, “How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

This whole discussion centers around asking, seeking, and knocking within the context of prayer, and the specific context is asking for the Holy Spirit. We can know that when we ask for the Holy Spirit, God will not give us a counterfeit, and He will not give us something harmful instead.

However, part of me sees a disconnect between the big theme of Jesus’ parable and with the key idea Jesus shares in the follow-up teaching. In the parable, the key idea is persisting in prayer until we get the response we are asking for, but being challenged to persist in prayer makes God seem like He is not as good of a Father as we might think He should be. After all, good, attentive fathers here on earth wouldn’t delay giving their children what they ask for and need. It would be a mistake to think God is worse, or less attentive, than our example of a good earthly father.

So why then are we challenged to persist in prayer when it would seem like our prayers should be answered immediately?

In my own mind, the disconnect in this understanding is really a misunderstanding of the nature of prayer. If prayer is simply asking God to give us something, then God appears to be a real jerk for not granting our requests. However, if prayer is us opening our hearts to God, then requests are less significant and the focus is more on building a relationship with God and growing closer to Him.

When I see prayer as the best way for me to share my life with God, prayer becomes the way I can grow my faith, my trust, and my belief in God more fully. This is before even bringing any request to God at all. Prayer helps me recognize, remember, and acknowledge who God is and His role in my life.

Above everything else, when we pray, we should focus on connecting with God and sharing our joys, fears, triumphs, and trials with Him.

However, the context and focus of this parable is still fascinating. The context of this parable centers around bringing requests to God. While we cannot catch God at a point when He’d rather be sleeping or vacationing, the strong implication in this parable is that persistence in prayer appears to get results, similar to persistence in our lives would get results. Oddly enough, the just woken up friend isn’t much of a friend if he or she wouldn’t part with a few loaves of bread, but persisting in our request after receiving a no response is likely to break any friendship that might have been there.

The great thing about prayer is that this is not the way it works with God. We cannot pester God out of loving us or being interested in helping us. I think that sometimes God is more interested in building a relationship with us through prayer than simply filling the role of a genie who grants wishes and requests.

God knows what we need and He is more than willing to help us get what we truly need, but with our requests, God also knows we need a relationship with Him. Perhaps when He delays a clear response, it is because God wants us to slow down and focus on growing closer to Him.

God is well aware of the best timing and the best way to move forward in history, and because of this, we can trust that when we pray and don’t get a clear response to our prayer, that God knows what He is doing. Perhaps, when we face unanswered prayer, we can use the uncertainty as a reminder that we should focus on growing closer to God through prayer, and focus on opening up our lives to God within prayer, because life tends to get so busy that it pushes Him to the side.

Jesus concludes by reminding us the one thing we should focus on asking for above everything else. Jesus challenges us to continually ask for the Holy Spirit to come into our lives. Without the Holy Spirit, there is no way we can truly become the people God created us to be. Because of this, let’s as a group focus on asking for the Holy Spirit to come into our lives and hearts and transform us into the people God created us to be!

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

As always, be sure to seek God first and choose to see the goal of prayer as opening our lives and hearts to God. Use your prayer time to remind yourself of who God is and thank Him for what He has done and is doing for you. Open your heart to God, ask for the Holy Spirit to enter, and let God transform your life and your focus.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, pray and study the Bible for yourself. While other people can give you things to think about, always go back to the Bible in prayer to validate what you have learned. God has given us everything we need for salvation within the pages of the Bible, and if we trust that God is able to keep us safe for eternity, we should trust that He can keep His message safe for a few thousand years. Our current history is just a speck of time when compared with the eternity God has planned for His people!

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 reading John’s gospel, we ultimately discover how Jesus divided people. If we only had Jesus’ words to go on with no miracles, no fulfilled prophecy, and no resurrection, we could rightly conclude that Jesus was the most deluded speaker or preacher in the history of the world.

However, because Jesus could perform miracles, because the Old Testament clearly prophesied about His arrival and His life, and because we have the resurrection that He personally predicted on multiple occasions, we are challenged with the truth that none of this could have happened without God’s leading and blessing.

In our passage, similar to our last episode’s passage, we see Jesus divide people. While our last passage had religious leaders being challenged and divided over the healing of a blind man, our passage for this episode focuses on a teaching Jesus shared that challenged those present.

Let’s read what happened. Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 10, and we will read it from the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ Jesus said:

I tell you for certain that only thieves and robbers climb over the fence instead of going in through the gate to the sheep pen. ^2-3 But the gatekeeper opens the gate for the shepherd, and he goes in through it. The sheep know their shepherd’s voice. He calls each of them by name and leads them out.

⁴ When he has led out all of his sheep, he walks in front of them, and they follow, because they know his voice. ⁵ The sheep will not follow strangers. They don’t recognize a stranger’s voice, and they run away.

⁶ Jesus told the people this story. But they did not understand what he was talking about.

⁷ Jesus said:

I tell you for certain that I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ Everyone who came before me was a thief or a robber, and the sheep did not listen to any of them. ⁹ I am the gate. All who come in through me will be saved. Through me they will come and go and find pasture.

¹⁰ A thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy. I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest. ¹¹ I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd gives up his life for his sheep. ¹² Hired workers are not like the shepherd. They don’t own the sheep, and when they see a wolf coming, they run off and leave the sheep. Then the wolf attacks and scatters the flock. ¹³ Hired workers run away because they don’t care about the sheep.

¹⁴ I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and they know me. ¹⁵ Just as the Father knows me, I know the Father, and I give up my life for my sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep that are not in this sheep pen. I must bring them together too, when they hear my voice. Then there will be one flock of sheep and one shepherd.

¹⁷ The Father loves me, because I give up my life, so that I may receive it back again. ¹⁸ No one takes my life from me. I give it up willingly! I have the power to give it up and the power to receive it back again, just as my Father commanded me to do.

¹⁹ The people took sides because of what Jesus had told them. ²⁰ Many of them said, “He has a demon in him! He is crazy! Why listen to him?”

²¹ But others said, “How could anyone with a demon in him say these things? No one like that could give sight to a blind person!”

In this passage, we see Jesus dividing another crowd. It is likely that this event happened not long after the miracle we read about in our last episode, where Jesus healed the man who was born blind. I suspect this because our passage in this episode ends with the crowd being torn over Jesus having given sight to a blind person.

However, in this passage, we are presented with several challenging statements.

The first challenging statement in my mind is at the end of verse 14. Right in the middle of Jesus explaining this parable, Jesus tells those present “I give up my life for my sheep.” This is one of the craziest things for anyone to say. From the most literal way of understanding this idea, if a shepherd gives up his life for his sheep, his sheep would be left defenseless when the next predator comes. On the surface, this sounds crazy.

However, while this sounds crazy, this is one more clear example of Jesus predicting His death, and the ultimate reason Jesus gives up His life.

The second challenging statement is connected with the first and it is when Jesus says in verses 17 and 18: “The Father loves me, because I give up my life, so that I may receive it back again. No one takes my life from me. I give it up willingly! I have the power to give it up and the power to receive it back again, just as my Father commanded me to do.”

While the truth in these two verses is difficult, or perhaps even impossible for us to fully understand, Jesus has the power to give His life up and the power to receive it back again. This means that Jesus essentially has the power to resurrect Himself, and if I were to hear someone claim this today, I would be just as confused as the people listening to Jesus in the first century.

This outlandish claim leaves only two options: Either Jesus was ridiculously deluded and overstepped His bounds, or Jesus spoke the truth and He has more power than any of us can even begin to comprehend.

The way we reconcile this claim is by testing it against what happened, and all evidence tells us that Jesus did die, and that He did rise again, just as He predicted. Even though this event happened thousands of years ago, it is the most preserved truth in all of history.

This leads us to the third challenging statement. This one is found between our other two statements. In verse 16, Jesus tells those present: “I have other sheep that are not in this sheep pen. I must bring them together too, when they hear my voice. Then there will be one flock of sheep and one shepherd.”

While on the surface this doesn’t sound all that crazy, especially when compared with the other two statements we have already looked at, the craziness in this statement is that Jesus has people who are part of other groups of people. While we might limit the other groups of people to other believing Christians who are part of different denominations or churches, I suspect Jesus’ statement is even broader than this, including other belief systems and other worldviews. It is possible that God has called someone from a group you could not possibly think could be saved or savable.

However, while this is a challenging truth, it is worth noting that Jesus is the one responsible for uniting people. It is not our responsibility to change other people’s minds. Instead, in a subtle twist, our responsibility is to live in a way that doesn’t push other people away. We are to live a visible faith, we are to love and help others, but we should not be abrasive, pushy, arrogant, prideful, or hostile towards people who are not like us.

Jesus came into a world to save people who were nothing like Him. Jesus loved people who were nothing like Him. We are called to love those who Jesus loves, and that includes people who are nothing like us, people who stand for the opposite things as we do, and people who are even openly hostile towards us. We are called to be loving, and Jesus is called to be the one uniting!

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first and choose to be loving to those He brings into your life. While this includes strangers and acquaintances, this also includes your friends and your family – both your immediate family and your extended family as well. God has brought everyone into your life for a reason, and regardless of whether you understand the reason, we are called to be loving towards everyone God has brought into our life.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Through the pages of the Bible, discover just how much God loves you and I and how much He was willing to give to redeem us from sin.

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!