Reflective Bible Study

Part of me wonders if Jesus had fun pushing and challenging the disciples’ faith. Up to this point in the miracles we have looked at, Jesus has healed people, cast evil spirits out of people, and in our last episode, we discovered that Jesus raised a dead boy back to life. With all these miraculous events, I believe the disciples were getting more and more confident in Jesus’ God-given ability to help those who were hurting.

However, having a firm grasp of healing and health is one thing. But in our event for this episode, the disciples’ faith is tested on an entirely new level. Also, following this event, the disciples had at least one more reason to be amazed and in awe regarding Jesus.

Let’s read about what happened. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 8, and we will be reading from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 23, Matthew tells us that:

²³ Jesus’ disciples went with him as he left in a boat. ²⁴ Suddenly, a severe storm came across the sea. The waves were covering the boat. Yet, Jesus was sleeping.

Let’s pause briefly because what we just read is amazing to me. The last two statements we just read were that waves were covering the boat, and that Jesus was sleeping through it. This wasn’t just a rocky storm, this was a severe storm that could easily end a sailor’s life. While we don’t know if there was any rain with the wind and waves, reading that the waves were covering the boat makes me amazed that Jesus was able to sleep through this.

It would be illogical to think that in this entire event, Jesus didn’t get wet. In my mind’s eye, this passage describes Jesus sleeping through wave after wave as it covers the boat and drenches Him with water. I doubt I could sleep through that, but this is likely what happened. I don’t think there is evidence for boats in that day being like what we have today with a cabin below deck that is shielded from the elements. It is much more likely that Jesus and the disciples were exposed to the wind, waves, and rain if rain was also present.

The first thing in this passage that amazes me is the level of trust and faith Jesus displays in God. Through one of the worst flash storms the lake experiences, Jesus sleeps through it. This could only happen because Jesus had complete trust and faith in God. Jesus knew His live was not going to end at the bottom of the lake, so He knew God would keep Him safe. It’s also likely that Satan was behind this storm in an attempt to stop Jesus from reaching the cross.

Let’s continue reading to discover what happens next. While the wind is raging and the waves continue crashing into the boat, filling it with water, and Jesus continues sleeping, we pick back up in verse 25 where Matthew tells us:

²⁵ So they woke him up, saying, “Lord! Save us! We’re going to die!”

²⁶ Jesus said to them, “Why do you cowards have so little faith?” Then he got up, gave an order to the wind and the sea, and the sea became very calm.

²⁷ The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!”

As I read this event, I wonder what Jesus is actually challenging the disciples’ faith on. Many of these disciples were experts on the water, and this storm had them scared for their lives. On one hand, Jesus could be challenging them regarding their faith in God’s protection. I’m not sure if the disciples remembered or understood that they had protection because they were with Jesus, and that the Old Testament extended protection to Jesus’ followers that none, except the one who would betray Jesus, would be lost.  

But Jesus could have challenged the disciples’ faith from a different angle. This other angle challenges the disciples’ faith regarding the idea that they could challenge the wind and waves in Jesus’ name to be still. While Jesus had not sent them out in pairs to preach and heal others yet, the disciples did have enough evidence to have at least tried to ask God to help them.

I wonder what would have happened if one of the disciples had tried to challenge the wind and waves in Jesus’ name. Would that have displayed enough faith for a miracle? Or I wonder what would have happened if the disciples had cried out to God to calm the storm for them. Would God have answered the disciples’ prayer while Jesus was sleeping?

While we can only speculate about what these alternate outcomes might have been in the disciples’ case, we can learn from these alternate paths when we face challenges and problems in our own lives. When faced with something challenging or impossible, we can lose heart and give up, or we can cry out to God for help!

However, in this event, we discover how the disciples fall into a trap that we are capable of falling into, even if their situation is a little different from ours. The disciples fall into the trap in this event believing someone else has a better connection to God than they did, and more specifically, that God is more willing to answer this other person’s request than He would be if they asked it.

While in the disciples’ case, this Someone is Jesus, and Jesus does have an excellent connection with the Father. However, I don’t believe for an instant that God the Father would only answer Jesus’ prayers while Jesus’ best friends on earth were in trouble. Jesus did have a better connection with God than the disciples did, but that does not mean that God would be less willing to answer their prayers or cries for help.

In our own lives, we might not have as great of a relationship with Jesus as we see other people having. We might even look back and wish we lived during the first century and could have walked and talked with Jesus personally. However, while there is always the temptation to think that someone else is better connected with God than we are, we should never let this fear affect our faith that God loves us and that He really does want to answer our prayers.

It is easy to be tempted that someone else’s prayers are more valuable than your own, but this temptation is a lie from Satan. God loves you and He wants to help you when you ask for help. While God answers prayers from a different perspective than we are in, God’s goal is saving us for eternity; even if that means that the answer He gives us in this instant doesn’t appear to be helpful.

We can trust that God has our best, eternal interests in mind, and that He is more than willing to help us when we pray to Him!

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

Always seek God first and place your hope, faith, trust, and belief in Him. Know that God loves you and that He is more than willing to listen and answer your prayers. Never doubt God’s love or believe Satan’s lie that another person’s prayers are more valuable than yours are. God loves you and He wants a close relationship with you personally!

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow personally closer to God and to learn what He wants to teach you. While a pastor, author, speaker, or even a podcaster can give you ideas to think about, be sure to filter everything through what you read in the pages of God’s Word.

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!

While reading the gospels and especially the portion of an event we are looking at in this episode, I wonder if Jesus was ever actually busy or in a hurry. Perhaps this is something that is different in today’s culture than it was at the time Jesus walked the earth, but I imagine that with Jesus’ popularity as a miracle worker, a healer, and a counter-cultural teacher, He would have just as many demands on His time as someone living today. Jesus might have had even more demands on His calendar than the busiest of us. Even though Jesus didn’t travel very far over the course of His life, by the later stages of His ministry, I doubt there was anyone living in Israel who didn’t know something about Him.

However, while my life gets busy pretty regularly, and it is easy to let the busyness sidetrack me from slowing down, when I read the gospels, I don’t even see a hint of Jesus acting busy or stressed out. Throughout the gospels, I instead see Jesus modeling a presence in every moment that is very unusual when compared with our highly distracted societies today, and it might have even been unusual in the first century as well.

One great example of Jesus living in each moment comes in our passage for this episode. We will be reading from the gospel of Mark, chapter 5, using the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 21, we learn that:

²¹ When Jesus went in the boat back to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him there. ²² A leader of the synagogue, named Jairus, came there, saw Jesus, and fell at his feet. ²³ He begged Jesus, saying again and again, “My daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so she will be healed and will live.” ²⁴ So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed Jesus and pushed very close around him. ²⁵ Among them was a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered very much from many doctors and had spent all the money she had, but instead of improving, she was getting worse. ²⁷ When the woman heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his coat. ²⁸ She thought, “If I can just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Instantly her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed from her disease.

³⁰ At once Jesus felt power go out from him. So he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

³¹ His followers said, “Look at how many people are pushing against you! And you ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

³² But Jesus continued looking around to see who had touched him. ³³ The woman, knowing that she was healed, came and fell at Jesus’ feet. Shaking with fear, she told him the whole truth. ³⁴ Jesus said to her, “Dear woman, you are made well because you believed. Go in peace; be healed of your disease.”

We’ll stop reading here because I want to draw out several things that stood out to me while reading this passage.

The first thing that stood out in my mind is that while Jairus urgently wanted Jesus to come quickly because the situation with his daughter looked very bleak, Jesus was more interested in identifying and drawing out the secret miracle. If we think a little deeper about what happens, it’s likely the woman who was healed, Jairus, and most everyone else present would have preferred this woman’s miracle and story to remain hidden.

But Jesus knows that this story needed to be vocalized, and He wanted to highlight this woman’s faith. We learn that the woman who was healed had a powerful testimony, but an even stronger faith that said she would be healed. While we’ll focus on the woman’s faith later in this episode, Jesus was willing to put the urgent situation of a dying child on hold to focus on the faith of a shy, would-rather-not-be-acknowledged woman.

Whether Jesus wanted to validate the woman, her faith, and the healing that just happened, or whether He wanted to stall long enough that Jairus’ daughter would actually die (which sets up the next part of the story), we see Jesus intentionally being present in each moment, even if the situation would pressure Him to hurry forward.

The next thing that stood out in my mind is that we learn that Jairus is a synagogue leader. This is significant to me because while I get the impression from the gospels that virtually all the religious leaders were opposed to Jesus, I highly doubt that this majority included Jairus – especially after this event.

Looking from the opposite perspective is also fascinating. From Jesus’ perspective, even though the majority of the religious leaders opposed Jesus, Jesus didn’t let the stereotype distract Him from choosing to help someone who needed help. Jesus didn’t let the stereotype that all religious leaders opposed Him stop Him from answering the call for help from one religious leader, and Jesus didn’t let the societal view of women stop Him from focusing attention onto this woman’s story, her faith, and her healing.

The third thing that stood out to me in our passage is the simple equation that Faith + Jesus = a Miracle. We learn from the woman’s story that she had tried everything else without success. She had spent all her money with no improvement. These details are important because the woman had faith in the medical practice of her day – even if the medical standards and understanding was lacking compared to what we know today. This woman had faith, but faith alone didn’t result in healing when she focused her faith onto the medical community.

When the woman shifted her faith onto Jesus, she discovered that was all that was needed. She focused all her faith on simply touching part of Jesus’ clothing, and that would be enough. She probably believed her condition wasn’t as serious as other conditions Jesus had healed, and because of this, Jesus’ direct intervention wouldn’t even have been necessary. She might have also believed that since her condition was less visible than most, that she could get away with a healing that was less visible than most.

The woman’s faith, when focused on Jesus resulted in a miracle and a healing in her life. We can learn from this as well because while there are countless things we could place our faith in, the only One truly worthy of our faith is Jesus – and Jesus is the only place where our faith can result in miracles occurring.

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

Be sure to place your faith onto Jesus. Focus on Him and on growing closer to Him each and every day.

Also, be sure to intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself because only through Bible study can you learn what Jesus is really like. While a pastor or podcaster can point you in the right direction, only through personal study can you grow a personal relationship with God!

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

Up to this point in Jesus’ ministry, we have seen Him heal those who were sick, those who were disabled, and those who were possessed by evil spirits. However, as we come to the miracle we will focus in on in this episode, Jesus enters a completely new area for miracle working, and this all begins with Jesus feeling sorry for a widow who needed help.

Let’s read our passage to discover what happened. Our passage is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 7, and we will be reading from the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 11, Luke tells us that:

¹¹ Some time later, Jesus went to a town called Nain. His disciples and a large crowd went along with him. ¹² He approached the town gate. Just then, a dead person was being carried out. He was the only son of his mother. She was a widow. A large crowd from the town was with her. ¹³ When the Lord saw her, he felt sorry for her. So he said, “Don’t cry.”

Let’s pause reading here for a moment, because what Jesus feels and what He does appear to conflict with each other. In about the same breath, Luke tells us Jesus felt sorry for the widow, and He tells her to not cry. Crying when one has experienced loss is about the most natural thing that we can do.

However, I believe Jesus wants to teach us something about God and about loss that we don’t often think of. Regardless of what Jesus is about to do in this passage, the perspective Jesus has is one that focuses on eternity. While Jesus is about to raise the dead boy back to life, even if Jesus had not done so, we can trust and know that when we believe in Jesus, we are guaranteed a future life at the resurrection. Death in this life is not the end, even if death in this life feels like a huge loss.

After telling the widow to stop crying, Jesus then does the truly amazing miracle. While Jesus had healed people of any and every sort of illness or disability, what comes next takes His ministry to a new level. Continuing in verse 14:

¹⁴ Then he went up and touched the coffin. Those carrying it stood still. Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” ¹⁵ The dead man sat up and began to talk. Then Jesus gave him back to his mother.

¹⁶ The people were all filled with wonder and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” ¹⁷ This news about Jesus spread all through Judea and the whole country.

In our passage, not only does Jesus raise this young man back to life, we discover in this miracle a revelation that those present make that is truly profound.

While one might begin to put the focus on Jesus as the source of this resurrection miracle, the crowd present has a slightly different response. On realizing what had just taken place, Luke describes the people present as being “filled with wonder” and praising God. In this miracle, God received the glory and the credit, not Jesus. Luke quotes the people present saying, “A great prophet has appeared among us. God has come to help his people.”

Those present for this miracle describe Jesus as a prophet, which is another way of saying a messenger for God, and they even push past this idea by saying that God has come to help His people. In a subtle way, these people give Jesus honor by recognizing God working in His life. These people recognized that with the arrival of Jesus, God had come to help His people.

This truth extends much further than these first-century Jews realized. Jesus’ arrival in history marked God coming into History to save all His people. God’s people in the context of our discussion include both those who were faithful, loving Jews, as well as God’s people who were not Jewish.

With the arrival of Jesus, we now have a picture of God that we can place our faith on. Prior to this, the sacrifice of an innocent animal as a sin offering foreshadowed what Jesus would do. Those who lived before the cross looked forward to the sacrifice God would make on their behalf through the sacrifice of the lamb. Even if the first-century Jewish culture had misinterpreted the Messiah’s role for His first coming, they had kept the sacrifices intact, and through all the legalism present in that era, we still can see the theme that something else would take the punishment for our sins.

I don’t believe these witnesses of Jesus’ first resurrection miracle could have responded the way they did without the Holy Spirit’s help. Since this was the first time a resurrection miracle had happened in Jesus’ ministry, it is rational for us not to see anything about faith in Jesus displayed through this event. However, faith in Jesus isn’t the only source of Jesus’ miracles.

In this passage, we can see Jesus raise this dead boy to life not just for the benefit of his widowed mother, but that through this event, God would receive the glory. In a similar way, I wonder if we would see more miracles in our lives if we intentionally pushed for the glory to go to God and not to ourselves. While it is easy to take credit for our part in something amazing, God should be the recipient of the majority of our praise, if not all of it.

Jesus healed people as a way to show people God’s love for us, and Jesus healed people in miraculous ways that changed peoples’ lives for the better. In our own lives, we should live seeking to give God the glory and to show people God’s love through how we live, act, and help others. Christians should not be known for their political pursuits, but for their prayerful, personal love for others.

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, be sure to keep seeking God first in your life and be sure to give Him the credit and the glory for the things He has blessed you with. God has blessed all of us in so many more ways than we even can realize, and it isn’t too much to stop and acknowledge the blessings we recognize. Also, intentionally show your thanks to God by loving others. God loved the worst members of humanity, and as His followers, we are called to do the same.

Also, be sure to always pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn more about God and to personally grow closer to Him each and every day. While a pastor or podcaster can give you ideas to think about, filter everything through the truth you find in God’s word and let Him take and transform not only your heart, but your life as well.

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!

Part way through Jesus’ ministry, He shares a broad series of parables about God’s kingdom, and with these simple illustrations, we can discover some amazing truths about God’s kingdom. These illustrations have a way of actually showing us, regardless of the place we are in history, what God’s kingdom is like.

Both the gospels of Matthew and Luke include two short parables that are often grouped together. While many people will often default to Matthew’s gospel when reading them, let’s look at Luke’s version of these parables, and discover what we can learn about God’s kingdom through these two simple, but also profound illustrations.

We will be reading from the gospel of Luke, chapter 13, using the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 18:

¹⁸ Then Jesus said, “What is God’s kingdom like? What can I compare it with? ¹⁹ It is like a mustard seed that a man plants in his garden. The seed grows and becomes a tree, and the wild birds build nests in its branches.”

²⁰ Jesus said again, “What can I compare God’s kingdom with? ²¹ It is like yeast that a woman took and hid in a large tub of flour until it made all the dough rise.”

We’ll stop reading here because in these two parables are several profound thoughts.

The first idea that jumps out at me when I read this is a similar theme that is present in both parables. This theme says that God’s kingdom is growing or expanding. When we look at the first parable, the mustard seed, which happens to be among the smallest seeds around, grows into a well-sized tree. In the same way, God’s kingdom started very small, and it has been growing and expanding ever since.

In a similar way, the yeast parable describes a woman hiding yeast in a tub of flower. Chances are the yeast, when it was mixed into the flower was completely hidden, but when water was added to make dough, there was no denying that the yeast was present, because the yeast made the dough rise. Just like in the first parable, the tiny amount of yeast needed might seem insignificant when compared with the whole tub of flour, but it had a disproportionate affect on the dough. This is similar to the tiny mustard seed being insignificant, and similar to God’s kingdom appearing insignificant at first, but growing and affecting the world around it.

While the theme of growth is present in both parables, and because of this, we can conclude the theme of growth is a strong theme present in God’s kingdom as well, we can uncover more themes than just this shared one tucked within each parable when looking a little closer.

In the first parable, found in verse 19, Jesus says God’s kingdom “is like a mustard seed that a man plants in his garden. The seed grows and becomes a tree, and the wild birds build nests in its branches.”

Tucked in the mustard tree’s growth is a benefit we can discover. Jesus describes how wild birds will build nests in this tree’s branches. This seems like unnecessary information if Jesus simply wanted to tell those present about the growth nature of God’s kingdom, unless Jesus shares this as a way of describing one purpose for this growth.

In the case of a mustard tree, when it is grown, it exists as a place for wild birds to build their homes and rest. The wild birds are not opposed to the existence of the tree, but instead, they value its presence. In the same way, when God’s kingdom expands and affects the world around it, I believe God meant for this expansion to be beneficial for all those involved. When Christianity comes into an area or a region, it should enhance the lives of those present, it should love those who are present, and it should be something that is so beneficial that those in the area where it exists would hate to see it leave.

With this description, I see the church having failed in many ways. There are plenty of examples of unloving Christians. I am sure you may have met one or two in your life at some point. However, I want to point out that a Christian who is not loving, generous, and genuinely interested in helping those around him or her is not actually a Christian. When Jesus Christ walked this earth, He loved others, He was generous towards those who came to Him, and He was genuinely interested in helping those around Him, and this is who He called His followers to be.

If Jesus’ followers returned to this ideal, we could eventually shake off the hate-filled, and hostile stereotype that we as a whole have been branded with. The stereotype we should aim for is one where we forgive others too many times, love and care for others in over the top ways, and put others ahead of ourselves whenever we can. If we had a stereotype like this, we would be more accurately representing Jesus in the world around us.

But let’s shift over to the other parable. In verse 21, Jesus describes God’s kingdom “like yeast that a woman took and hid in a large tub of flour until it made all the dough rise.” In this description, we see the growth and expansion being internal and hidden. When the dough is first made, it is a small clump, but with the yeast present, the dough as a whole expands. Unlike the mustard tree that grows out of the ground, the yeast affects the entire area it was placed in, which in this case is the flour, water, and other ingredients placed in the dough.

In this second parable, we see God’s kingdom growing inside of each of us and growing in a more hidden way than in the first parable. While we can see the effects of this growth, and other people can see the effects perhaps even more clearly than we can, the growth itself is hidden within us. God’s kingdom in this second parable is hidden in our hearts and lives and it changes and affects our actions and our attitudes. These new actions and attitudes towards our circumstances are evidence that something is growing in our lives, and this something is the “yeast” of God’s kingdom.

Shifting our focus back onto looking at both parables, we can see two more themes and these two themes are connected. In both parables, we see a person intentionally placing the item representing God’s kingdom into the place where it is. In the first parable, a man plants the mustard seed in his garden, and in the second parable, a woman hides the yeast in the flour.

This shared theme says that God’s kingdom is placed intentionally in places where God wants it to grow, and chances are very high that one of the places God has planted a spiritual seed for His kingdom is within your heart. This also means that when we are a part of God’s kingdom, we can know and trust that He has placed us in exactly the place we need to be, and that where we are is where He wants us to be. While we might not know why we are where we are in life, He does and we can trust that He knows best.

The second half of this shared theme is the subtle truth that both seeds and yeast need water to grow. Water helps launch a seeds growth like water activates the yeast in a bowl of flour. Without water, both the yeast and the seed would stay dormant. This means that in our own lives, we must remain connected to the source of water, we might even call this water “the living water” in order to let God’s kingdom grow and expand in our lives. We stay connected to this source of life by intentionally focusing on God and intentionally moving towards God each and every day.

The best ways I know how to move towards God is through prayer and Bible study. With that said, as we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to prioritize Bible study and prayer in your daily routine.

Also, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself. While devotionals, pastors, or podcasts are good places to start, never settle for someone else’s knowledge and relationship when God wants a personal relationship with you. This is why I always recommend that you study the Bible for yourself, and if you need help getting started, I’m happy to help get you on the right track.

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!