Reflective Bible Study

On the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, while Judas Iscariot and the religious leaders are gathering the mob to arrest Jesus, Jesus spends the first part of His remaining time with the disciples teaching them and giving them reasons for hope.

Over the past few episodes, we have looked at what John has told us about Jesus’ last message to His followers leading up to His arrest, and in this episode, we’ll continue looking at Jesus’ words, including a promise Jesus emphasizes, but that the disciples might not have fully understood until later.

With this said, let’s dive into our passage. Our passage for this episode is found in John, chapter 16, and we will read it using the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, John records Jesus saying to the disciples:

¹ “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. ² They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. ³ They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. ⁴ I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,

⁵ but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. ⁷ But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹ about sin, because people do not believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; ¹¹ and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

¹² “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. ¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. ¹⁵ All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

¹⁶ Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

¹⁷ At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” ¹⁸ They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”

¹⁹ Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? ²⁰ Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. ²¹ A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. ²² So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. ²³ In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ²⁴ Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

²⁵ “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. ²⁶ In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. ²⁷ No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. ²⁸ I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

²⁹ Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. ³⁰ Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

³¹ “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. ³² “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

In this late-night message to Jesus’ disciples, two portions of this passage stand out in my mind. The first is when Jesus is sharing three primary roles for the Holy Spirit, also known as the Advocate according to this translation. Jesus promised us in verse 9 that when the Holy Spirit comes, He would “prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment”. Jesus then clarifies these three points in verses 9 through 11. The truth about sin, specifically our past sins, is that they only really matters if we do not believe in Jesus. The truth about righteousness, referring to personal integrity and having a Godly character, is found in Jesus standing in heaven as our advocate. And the truth about the judgment is that it is guaranteed to happen because the prince of this world, referring to Satan, stands as condemned.

While each of these points could be the focus of a full length sermon, before our time runs out, there is one other idea that Jesus shared in this passage I want to draw our attention to.

In some segments of Christianity today, there is the belief that God is looking at those in the world with anger and hostility, but that Jesus is holding the Father’s anger back. Whenever a prayer comes in, it might go to Jesus, who would petition for this prayer to be answered by God. However, this belief runs contrary to Jesus’ message to His followers that night. Verses 26 and 27 clearly draw out the truth about God the Father and His attitude towards us: “In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.”

Jesus tells us that God the Father loves us and that He is willing to hear and answer our prayers. We can, and should, ask our prayers in Jesus’ name, but all too often, slapping the phrase, “In Jesus’ name” at the end of our prayers is less heartfelt and more cliché than we might want to admit. When we come before God with our prayers, it is beneficial to come in Jesus’ name, because it reminds us about what Jesus accomplished for us, but we should never cheapen our prayers to God with clichés. Clichés hurt our prayers unless we intentionally mean the words that we are saying.

While there is more we could focus in on, it will need to wait for another time. With that said, 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 welcome the Holy Spirit into your heart. Understand the three primary roles the Holy Spirit has and let Him teach you the truth about sin, the truth about righteousness, and the truth about the judgment. While Satan has lies spread throughout culture about all three of these things, trust that when we lean on the Holy Spirit for God’s truth, He will lead us into God’s truth in each of these topics.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself, being intentional about inviting the Holy Spirit into your study time. Since the Holy Spirit is behind the inspiration of the Bible, there is no better Teacher for our minds when trying to understand the Bible than the Holy Spirit. Ask the Holy Spirit for help studying, and don’t be surprised when He draws your attention onto new insights you never have seen before.

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 drift away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

While some of Jesus’ parables are given because Jesus knew the crowds needed to hear a specific truth, other parables are shared in response to specific questions. Some parables are given in the context of the broader crowds, while other parables are given to just Jesus’ close group of disciples.

The parable we will be focusing in on for this episode happens to be a parable shared in response to a specific question, and this parable was likely shared while only the disciples were present. However, just because this parable didn’t have a broad audience when Jesus shared it doesn’t mean that it is less relevant or less challenging. This parable may be one of the most challenging parables Jesus shared.

However, leading up to this parable, one of Jesus’ disciples asks Him a question. Let’s read the question and Jesus’ response that includes this parable. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 18, and we will be reading from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 21, Matthew tells us:

²¹ Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, when my fellow believer sins against me, how many times must I forgive him? Should I forgive him as many as seven times?”

²² Jesus answered, “I tell you, you must forgive him more than seven times. You must forgive him even if he wrongs you seventy times seven.

Before jumping into the parable, two things stand out about the question Peter asks Jesus. These two things hinge on the phrase “fellow believer”. Other translations might use the word brother, but however the translators bring the idea into our language, the idea is that this is someone who is closer to us.

I’m not sure what prompted Peter to ask Jesus the question in this way, but it is fascinating that Peter would ask specifically about those closest to us, and/or specifically about those who believe similarly as we do.

In the first portion of Jesus’ response, we discover that Jesus challenges Peter that counting the number of times is worthless. Jesus multiplied the number Peter suggested by ten, then told Peter that the number is more like Jesus’ number multiplied by Peter’s number. In this case, this sounds like 70 times 7.

I don’t believe Jesus is giving us a number to use, but telling us that the actual number is well beyond whatever reasonable number we might suggest.

However, is this only a guideline for our fellow believers? I don’t think so, because while the context of the question is framed this way, the parable Jesus shares in His response suggests otherwise.

After challenging the number of times Peter’s suggested we should forgive, Jesus continues in verse 23 by sharing a parable:

²³ “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who decided to collect the money his servants owed him. ²⁴ When the king began to collect his money, a servant who owed him several million dollars was brought to him. ²⁵ But the servant did not have enough money to pay his master, the king. So the master ordered that everything the servant owned should be sold, even the servant’s wife and children. Then the money would be used to pay the king what the servant owed.

²⁶ “But the servant fell on his knees and begged, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything I owe.’ ²⁷ The master felt sorry for his servant and told him he did not have to pay it back. Then he let the servant go free.

²⁸ “Later, that same servant found another servant who owed him a few dollars. The servant grabbed him around the neck and said, ‘Pay me the money you owe me!’

²⁹ “The other servant fell on his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything I owe.’

³⁰ “But the first servant refused to be patient. He threw the other servant into prison until he could pay everything he owed. ³¹ When the other servants saw what had happened, they were very sorry. So they went and told their master all that had happened.

³² “Then the master called his servant in and said, ‘You evil servant! Because you begged me to forget what you owed, I told you that you did not have to pay anything.³³ You should have showed mercy to that other servant, just as I showed mercy to you.’³⁴ The master was very angry and put the servant in prison to be punished until he could pay everything he owed.

³⁵ “This king did what my heavenly Father will do to you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

When I read this parable, I am immediately challenged by two big ideas. The first idea is that the debt we are forgiven is a debt that we cannot even come close to paying on our own. While the NCV translation puts the significance of the debt as several million dollars, the original language describes this as 10,000 talents. When we discover that one talent equals over 15 years of wages for a common laborer, we get a huge number. Doing the math, we come up with 150,000 years of wages. This is a little longer than our current life spans as humans living in sin.

However, what happens if you earn more than minimum wage, then let’s cut the number of years back. For our episode illustration, let’s assume you make four times what minimum wage is and see how the math works out. Working for a rate of four times what minimum wage is, you would still need to work and earn for over 37,000 years.

I’m sure you could get there faster with appropriate savings and compound interest, but the best case scenario says you would not have enough time on earth to earn enough to repay this debt. The debt we are forgiven because we have sinned against God is a debt that is bigger than we can pay on our own. This is a debt we must come humbly before God and ask to be forgiven.

However, more challenging than the debt that we have been forgiven is the realization that our staying forgiven is conditional. If we choose to not forgive others, then God will withdraw our forgiveness. The unimaginable gift that Jesus gives to us called forgiveness from a debt we could never pay will be withdrawn if we don’t forgive others of the lesser debts they owe us.

This isn’t pleasant to think about, and it doesn’t sound like good news on the surface, but this is actually amazing news. The reason this is amazing news in my mind is when we think about the alternate.

What would happen if you were stuck in heaven with someone who was unwilling to forgive if something went wrong? While heaven is perfect, I think it is naïve to think that everything in heaven will go our way. What would you think if a disagreement arose between you and a neighbor and they chose not to forgive you?

Without forgiveness, heaven would cease to be perfect, and because of this, every one of God’s people who are invited and accepted into heaven have a grateful attitude of forgiveness, because when we think about forgiveness, God forgave us first. God also forgave us of a greater debt than we could ever dream of repaying. Because of this, we forgive others as a small way of saying thank you to God for forgiving us of our sin-debt.

If you are struggling with forgiveness in your life, take this challenge to God and ask Him to remind you just how much He has forgiven you. When we frame our forgiveness issues in light of what God went through to forgive us, our issues don’t seem nearly as challenging. If you are still struggling with forgiveness, why not ask God for help. God is the best Forgiver in the universe, and He is more than willing to help us forgive one another.

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

Continue to seek God first in your life and remember just how much God gave to us when He chose to forgive us of our sins. Choose today to live a life of gratitude and forgiveness, thanking God for what He has given to us by being forgiving to those around us. Remember that God forgave us first, and we show our gratitude towards Him and His gift by forgiving those around us.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each day. Don’t let me, or anyone else, get between you and God. God wants a personal relationship with you that isn’t dependant on anyone else.

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