Reflective Bible Study

In our last episode, we began our annual two-part finale focusing in on insights we discovered during the first half of this year focusing on Matthew’s gospel. We ended off last week’s podcast with Jesus rejected at Nazareth. We’ll pick back up at about this point in Matthew’s gospel and move through the second half of Matthew pulling out insights from this last half of our year of podcasting in Matthew.

However, before diving head on into these insights, I want to give you a brief update and a sneak peak at where we’re headed for next year. As our long-time listeners remember, before this year focused on Matthew’s gospel we spent a couple years looking at some topics. Two years ago, we focused in on the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion, and last year, we focused in on Jesus’ miracles. As many of you might remember, at the end of our year focusing on Jesus’ miracles, I had the idea of spending the following four years dedicating each year looking at one of the gospels. We just finished Matthew’s gospel, and next up, we’ll be looking at the gospel of Mark.

But while I’m eager to get started looking at and sharing insights from Mark’s gospel, we still have insights left to cover in this last part of our finale focusing on Matthew. So without any further delay, let’s dive into some of the biggest and best insights we discovered while looking at the second half of our year focusing on Matthew’s gospel.

Jumping into the second half of our year in Matthew, episode 26 focused us on the 24 hours or so that included the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus sending the disciples away so He could pray alone, the disciples fighting for their lives in a sudden storm, Jesus walking on the water to them, and what happened when they arrived back on shore. In all these events, we learned that when we are focused on God, His love and power will be seen in our lives and it will positively affect the lives of those around us. We also learned that within these four events, we can see how God is worthy of our trust, our faith, and our belief, and we can see that we succeed when we place His will ahead of our own. We are blessed when we stay focused on Jesus and on doing God’s will for our lives!

Jumping ahead a couple of weeks, we come to episode number 28, where we looked at Jesus helping a gentile woman in a way that might offend some, and how this event is followed up with Jesus feeding a crowd of over 4,000 people. In this episode, we were challenged with the truth that God will sometimes call us to help people who are not like us, and we should help people who ask for help regardless of what they look like and regardless of what our preconceived ideas and stereotypes are. And, God is willing to help us with what we need, and while sometimes He is waiting for us to ask, and push past a few challenges, other times, He is more than willing to supply what we need without us even needing to open our mouths to pray.

Moving ahead to episode 30, where Peter makes the proclamation that Jesus is God’s Son the Messiah, we discover in what happened that regardless of whether I understand prophecy or how the Bible describes future events, my understanding is only as good as my willingness to be open to what God is continually revealing. If I close my mind to what God wants to teach me, then I will ultimately be like the disciples who missed out on the best warning they had regarding the events of crucifixion weekend. The disciples had every opportunity to know what would happen, but they were caught believing the traditional belief of the Messiah, and a belief that the Messiah could not experience death.

In the next episode, number 31, as Jesus comes down the mountain with three of His disciples after the transfiguration, Matthew’s gospel challenges us with the idea that too often, we have our own motives, agendas, thoughts, and perspectives, and we ultimately miss opportunity after opportunity to come to God with the question He wants us to ask.

Moving up to episode number 33, where Jesus describes who would be the greatest in the kingdom by inviting a child to be near Him, we were reminded with the truth that God has given us enough evidence for His existence and enough evidence to show us His character. It is up to us to open our eyes to the evidence He has given and to have faith that looks past the doubt and into the promises He has given to us about our future with Him!

When Jesus talked about forgiveness and conflict resolution in episode 34, He challenged us with the idea that In order to stay forgiven, we must be forgiving towards each other. Jesus’ death on the cross allows God to extend forgiveness to all of humanity. If we choose to not extend forgiveness towards others, then we forfeit our forgiven status and we bring God’s judgment onto ourselves.

Jumping ahead to episode 40, where Jesus is challenged about paying taxes, in Jesus’ response, we discovered that God is not interested in our breath returning to Him before our mission on this earth is finished. Instead, God has loaned us breath so that we can fulfill the mission and purpose He has placed us on this earth to fulfill. In this challenge Jesus shares, I see Jesus challenging every person who has breath to dedicate their breath, or we could say their spirit, or we could say their lives, to God and to the mission He has placed us on this earth to accomplish!

In the next episode after this one, episode 41, Jesus shares a message to Jerusalem while standing near the city. We learned that God isn’t going to force His protection onto a group of people – especially a group of people who are actively rejecting Him. Jesus loves the Jewish people just as much as He loves the non-Jewish people. Bringing this message into today’s culture, we see that placing the truth of the Bible over the traditions of men is the only way for a church or community to stay united with Christ.

Moving forward, when Jesus was anointed during an evening meal shortly before He was betrayed, which we focused in on in episode 44, we learned that: While the woman likely believed her gift to be anointing Jesus leading up to Him stepping into the role of Messiah and King, specifically into the role of a messiah who would overthrow the Romans and give the Jews back their homeland, Jesus shifts the meaning of this gift to be foreshadowing His burial. When we give gifts to Jesus, I believe He is just as willing to take our gifts and use them for His glory, and I believe that while Jesus can use gifts of money to help where money is needed, Jesus really values the gifts that are more specific than money. The gifts we give Jesus that are non-monetary are ones where He can use and multiply for His glory. Giving God non-monetary gifts helps us grow and stay connected to Him in our lives.

Moving forward, we spent several episodes subtly focusing on how Jesus intentionally chose the cross and that dying did not come as a surprise to Him. Jesus could have avoided the cross in any number of ways, but He didn’t and that is because He loves each of us! Episode 45 taught us that Jesus chose the cross. The cross was not something that God the Father forced onto Jesus. The cross was not something Judas Iscariot surprised Jesus with. Jesus knew the date and location of His death before Judas even knew He would be the betrayer.

Without God, life has no ultimate purpose, no hope, and a doomed future. Jesus chose the cross for you and me, and He willingly faced death knowing that through His death, the way would be opened for us to live with God for eternity.

In episode 46, which contained Jesus’ unfair trial that almost fell apart, we learned that When people reject God in their hearts, societies descend into chaos. When people reject God, we shouldn’t be surprised if God chooses to stay silent. Jesus came to show us God’s love, and while there are those who believe God is unloving or unlovable, Jesus came to challenge their belief by living out how much God loves us. Jesus chose the cross to show us God’s love, and through Jesus we can come to know the God who loves us so much that He gives us Himself, and that He gives Himself up to redeem us from the consequences of breaking His law!

Jumping ahead to episode 49, let’s conclude our year of podcasting with what is likely the biggest truth of the gospel message, and the source our greatest hope for our future: On Resurrection morning, the 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 continue living our lives every day, every month, and every year, remember what Jesus did for us. Jesus did not lie once during His life on earth, and we can trust His words, His promises, and His predictions about being resurrected when He returns to take us home to be with Him!

Last week we began our annual two-part finale by focusing on insights from the first half of this year podcasting through Jesus’ week leading up to the cross. Last week, we moved up to and through the last supper, but we ran out of time at about the same time Judas Iscariot left to betray Jesus. For this episode, we’ll pick up at the end of this Last Supper, and move through Jesus’ final 24 hours leading to His death.

However, before we dive into this, I’ve been thinking about what we should focus on for next year. We had several years of chronologically moving through the Bible, and we just finished an amazing year focusing on the topic of Jesus’ final week. Another topic I thought of a few weeks ago while realizing we were coming up to this point was taking a year and focusing it on all the amazing miracles Jesus performed throughout the gospels.

While teaching and preaching were among the things Jesus was most well known for, Jesus’ ability to perform miracles was like God lifting Jesus above the other teachers and rabbis and prompting those in the first century to pay attention. Jesus’ miracles were one of the best, most practical ways, He helped people on a personal level, and these miracles were ways Jesus gave glory to God!

However, if I’m not careful, we’ll spend all of this episode focusing on miracles, and we won’t have any time left to go over the long list of insights I planned to share in this episode.

With that said, let’s pick back up where we left off in our last episode. Episode 25 of this year has Jesus giving His disciples a new command, and Jesus challenging Peter based on Peter’s promise to be completely loyal to Jesus. In this episode, we learned that: In the command Jesus gives to His disciples, I see Him challenging His followers to love others simply because they are part of the human family. While loving our neighbor is a part of this, this also means loving those who are clearly acting, living, and believing differently than we do. This challenge is a challenge to love others because Jesus loved us, and not because of who the other person is or who they could be. We love others because Jesus loved us, and because God lives in our heart.

In the following several episodes, we looked closely at Jesus’ last conversation with His disciples on the night of His betrayal and arrest. Episode 26 reminded us that: Jesus never lived His life to seek glory from people, but everything He did was to show people God’s love and to give them reasons to give God glory.

Episode 27 continued this theme by teaching us that: some Christians immediately think that anything that supports keeping the law is a step towards legalism and away from God’s grace. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Obeying God’s law can be done with a legalistic attitude, or it can be done with a loving attitude. Obedience comes from either legalism or from love. Too many religious leaders in the first century came to obedience through legalism, but God, through Jesus, has called us to obedience through love. Jesus promises to move into the hearts and lives of those who love and obey Him and He promises to bring the Father with Him.

Episode 28 focused on how we are connected to Jesus like a branch is connected to a vine. We learned in this episode that: Jesus shares how He is happy to answer prayers and requests of those who are joined to Him, and in this context, those who are joined to Him are those who are being fruitful.

God touching our lives is not optional. Either He will trim us to help us be more fruitful, or He will cut us off if we are not fruitful. Being fruitful brings glory to God and it shows that we are Jesus’ disciples.

Episode 29 reminded us of Jesus’ challenge to His followers that they would be hated by the world. In this episode, among the long list of things we discovered, we saw that: If we let any person, idea, tradition, or logical idea filter our idea of God and the truth the Bible teaches, these verses warn us that we might become guilty of hate while thinking we offer a service to God when we don’t really know Him. Those who don’t know Jesus and who have not placed their belief in Him are susceptible of believing anything and everything, regardless of whether it is valid. Out of context, the Bible can be twisted to appear to support anything, and this is why it is crucial that we study it for ourselves.

Episode 30 gave us Jesus’ promise to share the Holy Spirit with us and three powerful roles the Holy Spirit has in addition to being our helper. The first is that the Holy Spirit will prove to the people of this world that sin is not believing in Jesus, the second is that being right with God comes from Jesus’ return to Heaven and not being seen any more, and the third is that judgment happened when the ruler of this world was judged. I could share more, but it would take too much time from this episode, and we are quickly running out of time.

Episode 31 wraps up this late night conversation with Jesus telling His followers that: Regardless of what our circumstances look like, how we feel, or what Satan tries to tell us to discourage us, when we believe in Jesus, we are never alone. God the Father, and His Holy Spirit are always with us. Even if everyone else has abandoned us, God is still faithful, and His presence matters more than the presence of anyone else.

Jumping forward to Episode 33, in Jesus’ famous prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, we learned that: While the cross was Jesus’ decision to make, Jesus’ prayer tells us that He doesn’t make the decision alone. In this prayer, and how Jesus ends it, we discover a powerful truth about God the Father. If God the Father did not love the human race, Jesus would not have faced the cross. Jesus asks the Father to take the cup of suffering away from Him, but He leaves it up to God.

Before skipping forward to the time Jesus spent on the cross, Episode 34, which featured Jesus’ betrayal and arrest, included a fascinating idea within Jesus’ words. In this episode, we discovered: From the perspective of eternity, evil has only a moment of time in the spotlight. The only moment that sin has is the time it takes to show the universe how destructive it is, and then it is done away with. We live in an interesting point in history where sin and evil have already been judged, but God is holding off on executing this judgment because He knows there are still more people who will enter this world who He can save for eternity. God doesn’t want to end earth’s history before every person who is willing to place Jesus first has done so. God has not forgotten this planet or its inhabitants – He wants as many people as possible saved for eternity!

There are a ton of insights we learned between Jesus’ arrest and His walk to Calvary, however we don’t have time to focus on them all. Instead, let’s spend the last few minutes looking at the time Jesus spent on the cross.

Episode 44 begins several episodes detailing Jesus’ time on the cross, and this one focused us on a temptation Jesus received that was different from the others. Leading up to the cross, Jesus was tempted to avoid or abandon it, but while on the cross, the temptation was to come down from the cross and save Himself. In this episode, we learned that: The only way this temptation makes sense is if it was within Jesus’ power to do. The fact that Jesus received hostility and insults from all angles suggests that this was prompted by Satan because Jesus could come off of the cross if He wanted to. Jesus overcame this big temptation because His mission was to redeem humanity. Jesus triumphed over every temptation Satan threw at Him from the temptations at the start of His ministry after His baptism, to this last temptation Satan was saving for Jesus’ time on the cross. Jesus overcame temptation and sin to make it possible for us to accept the gift He offers to each of us.

Episode 45 detailed Jesus’ promise to one criminal on the cross, and we looked at how this criminal’s decision might not have been as last-minute as many people believe it to be.

We will end this second part of our finale focusing on what we learned in Episode 47. In this episode, Jesus takes His last breath and some amazing things happen. With what happened at the moment Jesus took His last breath, we discovered that: Jesus’ death brings life. Jesus’ death on the cross opens the way for all those who have died believing in and trusting Jesus to be raised to life when He returns. An earthquake split open graves and Jesus’ death brought literal life to many who had died trusting in the Messiah prior to His death for sin!

Also, at Jesus’ final breath, we discover that: At the darkest part in history, while Jesus is dead, the curtain that split in two marks an accepted sacrifice and an accepted sacrifice is a hope and promise we can hold on to when we face dark places in our lives. Even if our faith is weak and people want to discount Jesus’ life, His death, and His resurrection, remember that God validated it all by ripping the temple curtain into two pieces, from top to bottom, which is something no human could do.

In our year of podcasting Jesus’ road to the cross, while we finished with His resurrection, the biggest focus for all of us is on the fact that Jesus’ sacrifice was accepted, and that opens the way for all of God’s people to be redeemed and saved for eternity.

As we move through each day, each month, and each year, let’s remember what Jesus accomplished for us. Jesus came to this earth as one of us, and He lived the life we couldn’t live, so He could give us the life that we don’t deserve – and that life lasts forever with God.

To start our special two-part finale of this year focusing on events in Matthew’s gospel, I want to begin by wishing you an extra special, extra Merry Christmas and holiday season. I hope that this year has been a good year, or at the very least, you are looking forward to this year being over and a new one beginning. Every year forward brings us closer and closer to Jesus’ return!

As is our custom, these two finale episodes focus on sharing our biggest and best insights from this past year of podcasting, and we highlight some of the things I learned while putting this year of podcasts together. As is always the case, I’ve had a hard time narrowing down this year’s insights down to being manageable for our finale because this has been a great year with many great insights we could focus on. However, I’ve done what I can, so let’s get started by looking at this year of podcasting in Matthew’s gospel!

Let’s start by focusing in on some of the insights we discovered in episode number 2, which covered the wise men coming to visit Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Baby Jesus. In this episode, we uncovered how ignorant the religious leaders were to the Messiah’s arrival because they simply hand over the location of Jesus’ birth to Herod. This speaks to their ignorance and to their allegiance to Rome over their allegiance to the future Messiah.

We also saw a glimpse of how dedicated Joseph was with following God because the instant the angel warns Joseph to flee with the family to Egypt, Joseph wastes no time getting the family to Egypt. This quality in Jesus’ earthly father saved Jesus’ life.

In the next episode, number 3, we focused in on Jesus’ baptism, and in this episode, we discovered that the baptism event at the beginning of Jesus ministry is one place we see Jesus intentionally setting the stage for a ministry of service and selflessness. In the baptism event, we discover Jesus placing Himself below humanity and foreshadowing His upcoming sacrifices, including the sacrifice He would make on the cross.

Jumping forward to episode 4, we focused on Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. In this episode, we learned that self-service is not a characteristic of God and we fall victim to this temptation when we place our own needs ahead of God’s desires for our lives. One big reason Jesus came was to win the hearts and minds of His people, and this is something only the cross can purchase. A secret sacrifice isn’t that valuable of a sacrifice.

Jumping ahead a few episodes, we come to episodes 6 through 13, which all focused in on Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. In episode number 7, we uncovered the truth that just because Jesus lived 100% obedient to the law doesn’t mean that the law was abolished. Obeying a law does not abolish it. We also focused on the truth that entrance into God’s kingdom isn’t about what we have done or what we can do. It’s about what has been done for us.

In episode number 8, we discovered that breaking God’s law condemns us to death, and Jesus offers to take the death we deserve and give us the life He deserved. We shouldn’t continue to sin, but we should resolve to turn away from our sins as a way to say Thank You to Jesus for the gift He purchased for us on the cross!

Episode 9, which includes Jesus’ model prayer and some teachings related to this subject, taught us that looking for praise from someone else affects how we live our lives. Living our lives looking for praise from others leads to hypocrisy, because we elevate others ahead of ourselves, and subtly ahead of God as well. The time we spend with God, even if it feels weird, hollow, or empty at the beginning will grow into more when we resolve to stick with God.

Episode 10 focused on forgiving, being forgiven, and storing up treasure in heaven, and we learned in this part of Jesus’ sermon that there is no guarantee that giving money on earth will earn treasure in heaven. We also learned that the most valuable part of our treasure in heaven is our hearts, because when our hearts are focused on our heavenly treasure, we live for God in more significant ways than if our hearts are focused on the things of this world.

Jumping ahead to episode 13, which concludes Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Jesus challenges us with the truth that our actions matter in God’s eyes! Obedience alone will not bring us salvation. Our salvation is found in a saving relationship that is based on faith, trust, hope, and belief in Jesus mixed with obeying what He asks us to do.

Moving forward to episode 16, which includes Matthew’s invitation to be a disciple and a dinner Matthew hosts that included Jesus and many of Matthew’s tax collector friends, we discovered that Jesus lived His life from God’s perspective in His response. Jesus lived showing kindness more than demanding obedience. While obedience is important, kindness and God’s love is more central to God’s character. When we are being representatives for God, we are to above everything else, show God’s love and kindness to those He brings into our lives while we are personally being obedient to Him the best way we know how.

In episode 18, we focused in on a couple people who Jesus healed. In this event and episode, we were reminded that sometimes bad things happen simply to remind us that our eternity is not in a sinful world. Sometimes when bad things happen, God is reminding us to look forward to a new life with Him in heaven. When we face trials in our lives, Jesus is the best place for us to look to and the best Person for us to lean on!

In the very next episode, number 19, Jesus elevates what it means to be one of His disciples. In this episode, we were challenged with the truth that A secret disciple isn’t a valuable disciple. By losing our own lives, we are able to gain Jesus’ life, and His life in our lives brings us eternal life! When we are kind to those who follow God and when we are kind simply because we are God’s followers, Jesus promises us that God will reward us.

In episode 20, we learned a little bit about what it means to follow Jesus and how following Jesus is easier than we might think at first. If your life is so busy that you feel you are drowning under the weight of your obligations, then Jesus offers you rest. The rest Jesus offers you isn’t just physical rest, but also rest for your soul. Jesus offers us the truth that we don’t have to worry about appeasing an angry God who wants to punish us.

Instead, Jesus came to satisfy the requirements of the law so that God can love us even more. Jesus came representing God the Father and the Holy Spirit, and His love for us shows us how much God loves us. The light load Jesus offers us is a load where He already took the heavy requirements on Himself, and He leaves us with a gift if we are willing to accept it. The gift Jesus offers us is His life in exchange for ours, and His life gives us eternal life while our lives bring Him death.

Moving forward to episode 21, we learned in some challenges Jesus faced regarding how He and His followers kept the Sabbath that: Jesus honored the Sabbath day the way God wanted His people to honor it. Jesus did not come to replace the Sabbath; He came to restore it.

For the religious leaders, the Sabbath was a day of avoiding work and avoiding anything that could even remotely resemble work. The Sabbath had descended into a list of activities to avoid. The Sabbath was not a blessing away from work; it had become a curse and a burden regarding avoiding work or work-like activities.

God is more interested in kindness than in receiving animal sacrifices, which is another way of saying that our kindness and love for others is worth more than a blind, strict obedience to the letter of the law.

Jumping forward to episode 24, which focused on Jesus being rejected in Nazareth, we discovered that Jesus didn’t come to please everyone or to get everyone to like Him. Jesus came to save all of God’s people, and to give humanity a better picture of God and His love for us!

Any message that paints Jesus as unloving towards those who were hurting, or unloving towards those who God loves, is a picture that does not match the Bible’s message about Jesus. With few exceptions, the only times Jesus speaks harshly are when He challenges those who believed they were better than others and who were self-righteously putting others down while trying to raise up their own status in God’s eyes. Jesus came to help those who were hurting and to give humanity hope for a future with God!

This seems like a great place to conclude the first half of our two-part finale.

In place of our usual challenges at the end of each episode, let me challenge you, among all the other great reminders and challenges in this episode to: Remember to place Jesus first; Keep praying and studying your Bible to grow closer to God; and never stop moving forward along the path He has called you to walk with Him!

As we begin our special two-part finale for this year of podcasting, first off I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. I hope that in the midst of all the festivities, you are able to remember this as the time Jesus stepping into our world, and that this only matters because of what we have just finished focusing on during this previous year of podcasts. Without the cross, Christmas would lose all meaning, and the cross, which we have just finished focusing in on this past year, would not have happened without Christmas.

Without any further delay, let’s dive into some of the biggest and best insights, at least in my own mind, that we discovered this past year focusing in on the cross. As always, we discovered so much that I had a difficult time narrowing down this list to a manageable length.

We’ll start off by focusing in on what we learned in episode 1. Episode 1 drew our focus onto Jesus receiving a special gift, and the giver being criticized by those present due to the supposed cost of this gift. In this episode, we summarized the following lesson for our lives: While we are called to help others, the truth of this life is that the most generous person who doesn’t have a relationship with Jesus will be worse off when this life ends than the person who could have been more generous, but they chose instead to focus on and grow towards Jesus. We might not always feel God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit’s presence, but we know from Jesus’ challenge that this is where we should focus our attention.

Moving forward into episode 2, we focused on Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, and on a peculiar message Jesus shared when He saw Jerusalem and wept. We discovered in this event that: When we depend on God and lean on Him for guidance, He will teach us what to say, and He will bring us His peace. While Jesus wept when realizing that the city He loved would ultimately be destroyed, He still loved the city and the people living within its walls. Even if our own lives cause Jesus pain, He still loves each of us and He wants to help heal our hurts.

Jumping ahead to episode 4, we discovered some amazing lessons related to prayer in the unfortunate end of a fig tree that looked leafy, but was being unfruitful. In this episode, we concluded that: We are called to pray with faith in God; with forgiveness in our hearts; with no doubt that God loves us, that He wants to answer our prayers, or that He wants the best for us; and with the trust that He answers our prayers the moment they leave our mouth. After we pray, we should eagerly look for answers He has given and expect to see them show up in our lives when the time is right.

Episode 5, which has Jesus kicking the commerce out of the temple also taught us a lesson about prayer. We discovered that: Prayer is all about coming before God, and submitting ourselves to His will. While prayer can include requests for help from God, prayer is inherently focused on God and not on ourselves. An exclusively self-focused and self-serving prayer is unlikely to be answered ever.

Moving into Episode 6, we learned a powerful truth from a challenge Jesus received from the chief priests and leaders about where Jesus received His authority. In this episode, we discovered that: Knowledge that is not applied is worthless. It is harder for an arrogant follower of Jesus to be saved than it is for the most sin-filled, evil person who decided to change, come to God, and repent. Anyone who believes they don’t need to repent has just placed themselves in the same group these religious leaders are in, and this group risks losing their salvation. An arrogant pride stopped the religious leaders from discovering and accepting Jesus, and arrogant pride in our own lives and hearts risks our own salvation.

Episode 7 continued this theme in the parable of the evil tenants, which challenged us with the truth that: God gives everyone the freedom to choose Him or not. God is looking for a people who will return His portion of fruit to Him. The challenge for us to remember is to be fruitful towards God, and to return His portion of what He has blessed us with, otherwise God may move to focusing on a different group than the one we are in.

Jumping up to episode 10, where Jesus is challenged regarding marriage and the resurrection by a group of Sadducees, we learned that: God has the perspective that everyone is alive, but that is because He can see all points of history. This doesn’t mean that everyone is conscious at all points in history. Instead, our perspective mirrors the first part of Jesus’ reply: We look forward to the resurrection, when God the Creator and Re-Creator, pull everyone from their respective endpoints in history’s timeline into a brand new timeline called the New Heaven and New Earth.

In this same episode, we also learned that: In the new age without sin, Jesus tells us that there won’t be marriage, but I’m sure that is because it will have been replaced with something even better.

Moving up to Episode 15, we learned from an answer Jesus gives to His closest disciples that: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” From this episode and this promise, we discovered that: This promise is powerful because it reminds us that whatever happens in this life, and whatever Satan tries to throw at us to take our focus off of God, in the end, Jesus’ words and His message will survive. Jesus’ words last forever. Jesus’ words last longer than sin. Jesus’ words bring eternal life.

Episode 16 draws our attention onto an illustration of wise and faithful servants being rewarded. We discovered that: It’s possible that Jesus’ return will be after we have died in this life. It is not up to us whether we will be alive when Jesus returns, or resurrected when He appears. Instead, God brought us into the world at the time He did because He has a task for us to accomplish. All of God’s wise and faithful servants will be saved when Jesus returns, and this includes both those who are living at the time He returns, and those who have been awaiting resurrection.

Jumping forward to Episode 19, we read Jesus’ big conclusion to His end-time teaching which included a sobering parable about sheep and goats. From this illustration, we learned that: When we are called to help others, we are called to help in ways that are not repayable. The motivation of our hearts matter and the reason for our love is crucial. In order to be welcomed into heaven, we must be saved internally, because of our faith in Jesus, and we must display our faith and thanks to God for His gift by helping others in ways that are not easily repaid. This is living out God’s character in the world, and it’s His challenge to each of His followers!

In the next episode, Episode 20, we looked at Judas Iscariot plotting His betrayal with the religious leaders. In this episode, we are reminded that: God and Jesus gave Judas Iscariot every opportunity to change his heart and his life, but he refused. Through the negative of Judas Iscariot’s betrayal, we have Jesus’ sacrifice for us, and we have the amazing news that His death gives us the opportunity for a new life with Him. God is able to turn negatives, even the betrayal of His own Son, into amazing good for His Story of redemption!

To follow up what we discovered in Episode 20, jumping forward to Episode 22, we saw that Jesus washed Judas Iscariot’s feet, and in Episode 23, we saw Judas Iscariot having one last opportunity to reject the role of the betrayer. We saw that: If Judas refused the bread, Satan would not have entered Him, and it is possible this would be the beginning of Judas letting Jesus into His heart. Judas had the choice whether to accept the bread from Jesus, and Judas accepted both the bread and the role of betrayer in one instant. Judas Iscariot was not forced to accept the role of betrayer. God did not predestine him to this role. Jesus did not invite Judas to be a disciple on the condition that three years later, he would betray Him. Judas chose the role of betrayer with his own free will, and simply because God saw this happen, and because it was predicted before the events took place, everything hinged on Judas’ choice to accept the bread.

In a less negative way, we discovered in this powerful episode that: By accepting Jesus into our hearts and lives, we are also accepting the One who sent Jesus, and this is God the Father, and His Holy Spirit.

Let’s wrap up this episode by focusing on the last thing we discovered from Episode 23: Even though God knows us so well that He knows what we will choose, we still have the freedom to choose when the moment comes. When we face temptation, regardless of our past, we can choose a new path moving forward. While our past lives might be full of sinful decisions, Jesus came to take care of our past when we choose to accept Him into our lives, accept the One who sent Him, and to turn away from the sin in our past. Jesus came to give us a new life with God, and God is inviting us to grow with Him for eternity.

Don’t ever let yourself abandon or chicken out of the new life God has called you to live!