Being Great In God’s Eyes: Mark 9:33-37

Focus Passage: Mark 9:33-37 (NIV)

33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

36 He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

Read Mark 9:33-37 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Have you ever wanted to do something great for God?

I know I have. This blog, newsletter, and website are one such “great thing” in my own life. However, in each of our lives, I believe there is a desire to start something great, do something great, or be a part of something great – and have the choices of our lives impact the world long after we are gone.

Our passage for this entry brings us into a similar argument that was happening among the disciples, only they were not arguing over doing something great, but over who would get the greatest position in Jesus’ coming kingdom. Each of the disciples were already aware that they were a part of something greater than each of them individually, and in this argument, pride and selfishness jump into the mix since they are looking to organize and rank each other’s worth in this big thing.

In Jesus’ response, He gives a clear answer regarding how to be great, though His answer is not one the disciples wanted to hear. Jesus said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (v. 35)

In this answer, Jesus turns the idea of climbing up the ladder into one where we are to climb down. I have heard that we could describe this as an inverted (upside-down) leadership pyramid, where the CEO serves the leadership and each member of the leadership serves their employees.

However, I believe Jesus’ response goes deeper than organizational structure. In this response, Jesus is teaching about the character of God, and about His own character. God served everyone (both active sinners as well as “perfect” Christians) by letting Jesus come to earth as a human. Jesus gave up everything and served everyone by laying down His life on a cross. Jesus’ death was for all humanity, not just those who think like us or believe in the same way we do.

Mark’s gospel is the only one that includes the phrase “the servant of all”, and in this phrase, we see Jesus asking all His followers (or at least the ones that have a desire to be great), to serve everyone, with no biases or favoritism, since God is not biased in His love, and His favorite person is everyone. Each of us is unique and special in His eyes, and we are all irreplaceable.

When we serve like Jesus served, we will become a servant of all – helping everyone without showing favorites, serving wisely with good boundaries so that our help does not enable/hurt others, and helping in ways that won’t burn ourselves out.

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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The Bible in Eight Verses: John 3:1-22

Focus Passage: John 3:1-22 (NCV)

There was a man named Nicodemus who was one of the Pharisees and an important Jewish leader. One night Nicodemus came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we know you are a teacher sent from God, because no one can do the miracles you do unless God is with him.”

Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot be in God’s kingdom.”

Nicodemus said, “But if a person is already old, how can he be born again? He cannot enter his mother’s womb again. So how can a person be born a second time?”

But Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born from water and the Spirit, you cannot enter God’s kingdom. Human life comes from human parents, but spiritual life comes from the Spirit. Don’t be surprised when I tell you, ‘You must all be born again.’ The wind blows where it wants to and you hear the sound of it, but you don’t know where the wind comes from or where it is going. It is the same with every person who is born from the Spirit.”

Nicodemus asked, “How can this happen?”

10 Jesus said, “You are an important teacher in Israel, and you don’t understand these things? 11 I tell you the truth, we talk about what we know, and we tell about what we have seen, but you don’t accept what we tell you. 12 I have told you about things here on earth, and you do not believe me. So you will not believe me if I tell you about things of heaven. 13 The only one who has ever gone up to heaven is the One who came down from heaven—the Son of Man.

14 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, the Son of Man must also be lifted up. 15 So that everyone who believes can have eternal life in him.

16 “God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him. 18 People who believe in God’s Son are not judged guilty. Those who do not believe have already been judged guilty, because they have not believed in God’s one and only Son. 19 They are judged by this fact: The Light has come into the world, but they did not want light. They wanted darkness, because they were doing evil things. 20 All who do evil hate the light and will not come to the light, because it will show all the evil things they do. 21 But those who follow the true way come to the light, and it shows that the things they do were done through God.”

22 After this, Jesus and his followers went into the area of Judea, where he stayed with his followers and baptized people.

Read John 3:1-22 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

If the Bible had a theme verse or a theme statement, a statement Jesus makes during His conversation with Nicodemus would likely cover it. Near the beginning of this statement, we find one of the most well known verses in the entire Bible.

At the close of their conversation, Jesus takes an event that is coming up in His life, and He gives it eternal significance. Jesus tells Nicodemus, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, the Son of Man must also be lifted up. So that everyone who believes can have eternal life in him.” (v. 14-15)

After framing the key to eternal life lies in Him, Jesus continues by saying, “God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him.” (v. 16-17)

These are two of the most famous verses in the Bible, and while we may be tempted to stop here, Jesus has more to help us understand on this idea. He continues by saying, “People who believe in God’s Son are not judged guilty. Those who do not believe have already been judged guilty, because they have not believed in God’s one and only Son. They are judged by this fact: The Light has come into the world, but they did not want light. They wanted darkness, because they were doing evil things. All who do evil hate the light and will not come to the light, because it will show all the evil things they do. But those who follow the true way come to the light, and it shows that the things they do were done through God.” (v. 18-21)

These eight verses summarize God’s heart for us, Jesus’ mission to save us, and our possible responses to what God has done. Our response is either to love the light, which means believing in God’s one and only Son, or to love the darkness, which means rejecting Jesus in favor of doing evil things.

In a slightly disturbing way, Jesus actually quantifies what makes an action evil. The test for whether an action is evil is whether it wants to remain hidden from public view. Jesus says that evil actions want darkness because the light will reveal them. One easy way for us to tell if an action is evil or not is whether we would want it broadcast (in its entirety) for the world to see. We could also reframe this question on whether we would want it shared at our funeral.

Actions that are evil want the cover of darkness. Actions that are evil want to remain hidden and secret. In contrast, actions that are noble are okay being visible. They thrive in the light. Noble actions are done through God.

Even more important than the famous pair of verses (v. 16-17) is what comes next. While God gave Jesus and while Jesus did not come to judge or condemn, our response can either place us in the group that will not be judged or in the group that is already condemned as guilty. Everything comes down to one decision: Will you believe in, trust in, and place your hope in Jesus while continually moving towards the Light that comes from God; or will you reject Jesus and prefer the darkness? This is the most important decision of our lives.

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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Flashback Episode — The Truth of an Empty Tomb: Matthew 28:1-15


Read the Transcript

As we come almost to the very end of Matthew’s gospel, we come to the climax of the gospel story. All four gospel writers focus in on it, and all the gospel writers share unique details about it. Matthew’s gospel is no exception. Since Matthew tells us about the guards who were posted by the tomb, Matthew includes what happens with them.

Let’s read Matthew’s gospel and discover what he tells us about the morning Jesus was resurrected. Our passage is found in Matthew, chapter 28, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 1, Matthew tells us:

The day after the Sabbath day was the first day of the week. At dawn on the first day, Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary went to look at the tomb.

At that time there was a strong earthquake. An angel of the Lord came down from heaven, went to the tomb, and rolled the stone away from the entrance. Then he sat on the stone. He was shining as bright as lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The soldiers guarding the tomb shook with fear because of the angel, and they became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, “Don’t be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus, who has been crucified. He is not here. He has risen from the dead as he said he would. Come and see the place where his body was. And go quickly and tell his followers, ‘Jesus has risen from the dead. He is going into Galilee ahead of you, and you will see him there.’” Then the angel said, “Now I have told you.”

The women left the tomb quickly. They were afraid, but they were also very happy. They ran to tell Jesus’ followers what had happened. Suddenly, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings.” The women came up to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Go and tell my followers to go on to Galilee, and they will see me there.”

11 While the women went to tell Jesus’ followers, some of the soldiers who had been guarding the tomb went into the city to tell the leading priests everything that had happened. 12 Then the priests met with the elders and made a plan. They paid the soldiers a large amount of money 13 and said to them, “Tell the people that Jesus’ followers came during the night and stole the body while you were asleep. 14 If the governor hears about this, we will satisfy him and save you from trouble.” 15 So the soldiers kept the money and did as they were told. And that story is still spread among the people even today.

In this event, lots of things are happening, and it is a very chaotic morning. However, one thing that is interesting in my mind when I read this is how Matthew would have known so much about what happened with the soldiers, with the religious leaders, and with what was said behind closed doors. As we have looked at in the past few episodes, Matthew is well aware of how Judas Iscariot plotted against Jesus and the conversations he had with the priests, and Matthew is also well aware of how the priests respond and try to stop and then silence the resurrection.

It is interesting that Matthew has all these details to share while the other gospel writers either didn’t know or chose to exclude these details from their records of Jesus.

In my mind, since Matthew had come from a background of tax collecting, which was a profession that needed Roman soldier protection, I think that Matthew had friends who were soldiers. While I don’t know if Matthew was personally friends with any of the guards who watched the tomb, it wouldn’t surprise me if Matthew’s guard friends had direct connection to the guards involved. I suspect that Matthew may have gotten some of the back-story that is included in his gospel through a network of friends from his tax collector days. If it isn’t for this, I suspect that Matthew probably knew how to interact with soldiers and he may have known how to get information. It is also possible that some of the soldiers present decided to come clean and become followers of Jesus after this event.

However, what is even more amazing in my mind than Matthew’s connections or how these events were discovered and shared is how Matthew describes the soldiers responding to one angel. Matthew describes the soldiers shaking in fear and becoming like dead men.

In my mind, I’ve always pictured the tomb being guarded by maybe a half-dozen soldiers, but knowing the religious leaders concern, and remembering what we talked about in the last episode about Pilate telling the religious leaders to make the tomb as secure as they know how, I suspect there were many more soldiers present. I wouldn’t be surprised if that Saturday night, the temple in Jerusalem was barely guarded, while Jesus’ tomb had dozens, maybe even a hundred or more soldiers, guarding it.

These soldiers would have slept in shifts, and there wouldn’t have been a single moment in time when all the soldiers would have been asleep. If this happened, the soldiers would likely have been killed or at least severely punished by the governor or their superiors.

Also, I find it interesting that nowhere do we read about any disciple of Jesus going near the tomb. Perhaps, the disciples knew it was clearly guarded and they didn’t want to be killed next. The only records of disciples going to the tomb happen after hearing the report of the women.

It is also interesting that the women come to the tomb, and they are not worried about guards present. It is possible that the women didn’t know that guards had been posted to guard the tomb.

However, the most interesting thing in this entire event in my mind is that the religious leaders’ fear of Jesus’ resurrection prompts them to place eyewitnesses at the tomb, and the only way that this story can stay quiet is for them to bribe the soldiers to tell a lie rather than the truth. The religious leaders cannot defend against a clearly empty tomb, so they default to what is likely the least believable story. The soldiers all fell asleep, and they slept through a seal being broken, a stone being rolled away, and a bunch of amateurs stealing a body that was weighed down with probably over 50 pounds of spices. There would then be the challenge of still hiding Jesus’ body after the fact, and then covering up this story in favor of a resurrection story which is almost as unbelievable.

Why should we believe the resurrection happened and not the soldiers’ story?

In my mind, here’s why: In all of Jesus’ ministry in the gospels, did Jesus ever tell a lie or describe something that didn’t happen the way He said it would? If we cannot find a lie Jesus spoke outside of the statements that are in question about His predicting His death, burial, and resurrection, then these predictions are more believable. If Jesus ever told a lie on any other occasion, then His prediction about His resurrection becomes suspect. However, the only lies Jesus is accused of sharing are lies that the religious leaders try to use to discredit Jesus, and these lies almost made the trial against Jesus fall apart.

Without another lie from Jesus to use as an example, what initially seems impossible, specifically that Jesus accurately predicted His own death, burial, and resurrection, actually becomes more believable than soldiers risking their lives and reputations by sleeping and letting a bunch of amateurs take the thing they were put in charge of protecting.

It is amazing to think that in both the soldiers lie and in the truth of the resurrection, no-one contested the clearly visible fact that Sunday morning, the tomb was empty. In this entire event, the one thing that is not debated is the empty tomb. While nothing could have stopped the resurrection from happening, there were much more believable lies that could have been spread, and better explanations for the tomb being empty.

However, the big truth for us to remember is that following Jesus crucifixion just days before, on that Sunday morning, Jesus’ tomb was empty. Jesus returned to life just like He said He would, and His resurrection is a promise, a gift, and a sign that all of God’s people will be resurrected when Jesus returns to take His people 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 place your hope, faith, trust, and belief in Jesus. Understand and believe that Jesus rose from the dead just like He predicted He would, and that His resurrection foreshadows our resurrection when He returns.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and strengthen your personal relationship with Jesus. Don’t let anyone trick you out of believing in the greatest promise and greatest truth of the gospel message!

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 simply leave where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Flashback Episode: Year in Matthew – Episode 49: In Matthew’s gospel, when sharing about Jesus’ resurrection and the lie that the religious leaders bribe the guards to spread, one detail in both stories is not refuted, and this detail is one of the biggest reasons God’s people have hope for our future.

Join the discussion on the original episode's page: Click Here.

The War in the Garden: Luke 22:39-46

Focus Passage: Luke 22:39-46 (GNT)

39 Jesus left the city and went, as he usually did, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples went with him. 40 When he arrived at the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”

41 Then he went off from them about the distance of a stone’s throw and knelt down and prayed. 42 “Father,” he said, “if you will, take this cup of suffering away from me. Not my will, however, but your will be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 In great anguish he prayed even more fervently; his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

45 Rising from his prayer, he went back to the disciples and found them asleep, worn out by their grief. 46 He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you will not fall into temptation.”

Read Luke 22:39-46 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

During the night of Jesus’ arrest, before Judas the betrayer had arrived with the mob, Luke includes a detail about the time Jesus was praying that the gospel writers do not include. This prompts me to wonder if not all the disciples slept during the first part of that night.

Luke tells us that while Jesus was praying, “An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. In great anguish he prayed even more fervently; his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” (v. 43-44)

Tradition says that Jesus experienced a condition in this event known as “hematidrosis” which is where blood mixes with one’s sweat when under extreme stress. This is very possibly what happened, but when I compared a number of translations, they all said that Jesus’ sweat was “like” drops of blood. Maybe this was because the sweat looked red from experiencing hematidrosis, or perhaps it was simply sweat that was pouring and dripping off of His face like blood running out of an open wound.

But Luke’s record of this medical condition is not the main reason why his description stands out to me. It is the presence of an angel.

There are only two times I can think of in Jesus’ ministry where an angel appears to strengthen Him. The first is following Jesus’ time in the wilderness when He was tempted, and the second time is this one recorded in Luke’s gospel. Both times Jesus has faced a pretty intense trial, and it is likely that both of these events faced some pretty intense moments of temptation.

I wonder if, like the angel came at the close of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness, the angel came at the close of Jesus’ prayer before the last time He went to wake the disciples up. I wonder if the angel brought a last word of encouragement from God reminding Him of the reason He came. Perhaps many of those living in the first century wouldn’t be saved, but the angel may have reminded Him of the millions of people before and after the cross that Jesus would be giving His life for.

What if the angel reminded Jesus of your name while He was in the garden?

Jesus faced extreme anguish in the garden – probably even more stress and pain than the torture and the cross. The war in the garden was a war of the will, and once Jesus submitted to the plan of salvation they had put in place at the beginning of time, the angel came to remind, validate, and encourage Jesus of all those His life would be saving.

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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