Reflective Bible Study

Last week, we focused in on the miracle of Jesus healing an official’s son, but we didn’t cover one other big idea we can learn from this event. While this miracle demonstrates huge levels of faith with the officer asking Jesus to do something that there was no track record for Him doing, we can learn through Jesus’ response and their conversation something that we should apply to our requests to Jesus.

All too often, when we pray, we want God to answer us in a specific, expected way and anything less than our expectations makes us think that our prayers are going unanswered. However, is this expectation present in this miraculous event? Let’s read it and find out.

Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 4, and like in our last episode, we will be reading from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 46, John tells us that:

⁴⁶ Jesus went again to visit Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. One of the king’s important officers lived in the city of Capernaum, and his son was sick. ⁴⁷ When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to Jesus and begged him to come to Capernaum and heal his son, because his son was almost dead.

Let’s pause here for a moment to look closely at this official’s request. Jesus had just returned to Cana in Galilee and we can conclude that Cana probably wasn’t too far from Capernaum. When the officer comes to ask Jesus for help, his request is for Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son. We can call this request the official’s prayer request. Similar to the times when we ask Jesus for help with something, this official was asking Jesus for help with something.

Let’s continue reading to learn Jesus’ response. Picking back up in verse 48:

⁴⁸ Jesus said to him, “You people must see signs and miracles before you will believe in me.”

⁴⁹ The officer said, “Sir, come before my child dies.”

⁵⁰ Jesus answered, “Go. Your son will live.”

The man believed what Jesus told him and went home. ⁵¹ On the way the man’s servants came and met him and told him, “Your son is alive.”

⁵² The man asked, “What time did my son begin to get well?”

They answered, “Yesterday at one o’clock the fever left him.”

⁵³ The father knew that one o’clock was the exact time that Jesus had said, “Your son will live.” So the man and all the people who lived in his house believed in Jesus.

⁵⁴ That was the second miracle Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.

In our passage and in this miracle, we see the official restating his original request for Jesus to come, to hurry before his child dies. In response, Jesus challenges the man to believe and trust Jesus’ promise that this man’s son will live. John tells us that the man believed Jesus’ words and left to return home.

It is at this point that we look at the prayer request and the answer to prayer being two completely different things. The man asked Jesus to come, and Jesus basically said “No”. However, under the surface, the man wants Jesus to help, specifically to heal his son, and for this request, Jesus was happy to answer “Yes” to the man’s request and His belief.

This miracle gives us a model for when we ask God for help. While we won’t always see what goes on behind the scenes in God answering our prayers, we should make our prayer requests fully expecting God to help us in the best way for us to be helped. This might mean that our prayers are answered exactly like how we requested them, but it might also mean that our prayers are answered in ways that we didn’t expect them to be answered. We might not even recognize what God has done as an answer to a prayer.

Whenever I talk about prayer and answers to prayer with people, I like to share that God has four answers that He gives to our prayers. The first way God response to prayer is with a “Yes”. With what we asked for, God is willing to give us the answer.

The second way is with a “No”. While people might think this answer is the least desirable, in my own life, I actually like seeing closed doors, because it tells me that God has something better in mind for me.

The third way God answers prayers is with a “wait” response. Perhaps our request is something God knows that we need, and He is more than happy to help us with it, but the timing isn’t right. I could ask God for a million dollars, and He might know that at some point in my life, a million dollars would be a great thing for me to have. However, He might also know that at this point in my life, I am not ready for that level of wealth, so the answer is a wait, because I need to learn, grow, and mature into being the person capable of handling that wealth. If He were to answer the request before I am ready to handle it, God’s answer to my request would do more harm than good.

The fourth way God answers prayer is with a “No, but here is something else”. This is the trickiest response God can give because it might feel like He is rejecting our prayers, when in reality, He is simply blessing us in ways that are different from our expectation.

These are the four primary ways I see God answer prayers. However, from our passage and this miracle, God may have a fifth way that is distinct from the other four. This fifth way is a Yes, but trust me to do what is needed behind the scenes before you will visibly see my response. While this is similar to the “wait” response, we learn that the answer to the official’s request was not delayed, but the official’s knowledge of the prayer request being answered was delayed briefly.

When we pray to God, know that He does not delay answering our prayers. Like the official did, we should trust that God has answered our prayers at the exact moment we pray them. However, we should also move forward with the faith that we might not always see God’s answers to prayers at the moment we pray them, or in the way we expect them to be answered.

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

Always seek God first and don’t be afraid of asking God your difficult requests. Know that God is willing to tackle your most difficult challenges, but He will only answer your requests in ways that are beneficial to you from an eternity’s perspective. God wants you and I in heaven with Him, and this filters all the answers He gives to the prayers we pray. I believe that God won’t answer a prayer we pray in a way that will cause us to forfeit our salvation.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God. Growing closer to God through prayer and study will help align our requests with God’s will, and when we are praying within God’s will, nothing will stop God from freely answering every request we ask.

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

As Jesus was stepping from being relatively unknown and into the public eye, John the Baptist made pointing people to Jesus part of his message. One of these occasions is caught and recorded for us in the gospel of John. In my mind’s eye, this happens just days after Jesus returned from the wilderness where he had been tempted.

On the day Jesus came back from the wilderness, I picture Jesus passing where John the Baptist was preaching, and then we discover that the next day, Jesus returns to the spot where John was teaching and challenging the crowds. Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 1, and we will be reading from the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 35, we learn that:

³⁵ The next day, John was there again, and two of his followers were with him. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus walking by, he said, “Here is the Lamb of God!” ³⁷ John’s two followers heard him, and they went with Jesus.

³⁸ When Jesus turned and saw them, he asked, “What do you want?”

They answered, “Rabbi, where do you live?” The Hebrew word “Rabbi” means “Teacher.”

³⁹ Jesus replied, “Come and see!” It was already about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with him and saw where he lived. So they stayed on for the rest of the day.

⁴⁰ One of the two men who had heard John and had gone with Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and tell him, “We have found the Messiah!” The Hebrew word “Messiah” means the same as the Greek word “Christ.”

⁴² Andrew brought his brother to Jesus. And when Jesus saw him, he said, “Simon son of John, you will be called Cephas.” This name can be translated as “Peter.”

Pausing our passage at this point, I want to point out a pattern that I see present in this passage, and one that continues as we finish off the passage. This pattern is that the people who see, interact, and/or who know who Jesus is tell those closest to them to pay attention to Jesus.

This pattern first starts with John the Baptist. Jesus had already been baptized by John, and John knew who Jesus was. He tells his followers that Jesus is the Messiah, though the specific phrase John uses is “the Lamb of God”. (v. 36)

While I don’t know how many people were in the crowd of John’s followers that day, two of those present are paying attention enough to realize that John just identified the Messiah and that the Messiah John pointed out is someone is who worth following even more.

Andrew and an unnamed disciple, who we could call John, since John is telling us about this event because he was probably present, leave the crowd surrounding John the Baptist, and follow Jesus.

This starts the pattern.

Once these first followers find out where Jesus is staying, one of them, Andrew, immediately finds his brother and brings him to Jesus. We don’t know if John does the same with his brother James, but that may have happened. John tries to keep himself out of the story as much as possible in his gospel because his goal is focusing people onto Jesus.

The pattern we see is that the earliest followers of Jesus immediately seek out those closest to them to bring to Jesus when they learn who Jesus is. This pattern continues the following day. Picking up in verse 43, we read that:

^43-44 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. There he met Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Jesus said to Philip, “Come with me.”

⁴⁵ Philip then found Nathanael and said, “We have found the one that Moses and the Prophets wrote about. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

⁴⁶ Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

Philip answered, “Come and see.”

⁴⁷ When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said, “Here is a true descendant of our ancestor Israel. And he isn’t deceitful.”

⁴⁸ “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”

⁴⁹ Nathanael said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God and the King of Israel!”

⁵⁰ Jesus answered, “Did you believe me just because I said that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see something even greater. ⁵¹ I tell you for certain that you will see heaven open and God’s angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man.”

One thing I find amazing about this whole passage is the interaction Jesus has with the two disciples who were brought to Him by others. The first one, Andrew’s brother Simon, was given a new name, before Jesus really had spent any time with him. It would be like meeting someone for the first time, knowing this other person is important, and that person’s first response to you is to say He doesn’t like your name and promptly gives you a new one.

While I wouldn’t have been as bold or up front, Jesus gets away with this because He knows something we don’t, and while it sounds strange to us in our day, this might have been a powerful compliment to someone living at that time period. One way we could view this is that parents give their children their names, and Jesus giving Simon a new name, which was Cephas or Peter, was like Jesus was adopting Simon into His family.

The second disciple who was brought to Jesus was Nathanael. Jesus’ interaction with Nathanael is interesting because we know a little detail about Nathanael before the first meeting. John tells us that when Philip tells Nathanael about Jesus, Nathanael’s first response is to challenge the idea that anything good could come from Nazareth. As a side note, Nathanael might have not been aware of what Matthew wrote in his gospel about Jesus being called a Nazarene by the prophets. (This is referenced in Matthew 2:23. Understand that I am aware that a Nazarene is different from simply being from Nazareth, but I am intrigued that these two words sound connected even if they are not.)

When Nathanael sees Jesus, the first thing Jesus does is compliment him. In an odd twist, Nathanael criticizes Jesus because of where he came from, right before we read that Jesus compliments him based upon his ancestry.

While the rest of the conversation proves to Nathanael that Jesus is sent from God, it is less significant in my mind then what we can learn from this big pattern.

In this passage, I see the big truth and challenge to all who call ourselves disciples, believers, and followers of Jesus that we are to share Jesus with others. Arguing with people over who Jesus is, is not productive. Inviting people to experience Jesus is the way to move forward.

In all the examples in this passage, the invitation is presented to simply follow Jesus and see what He is like. We can learn from this first century pattern and example because there are plenty of excuses and arguments people have for not choosing Jesus – and some of these reasons are valid ones. However, arguments are rarely “won”. Instead, when people argue, they become more emotionally attached to their own side of what is being debated.

We learn from this passage that a better way to share Jesus is to invite those to experience Him. The “Come and See” approach is perfect because only by experiencing Jesus can we truly realize His heart for each of us. Experiencing Jesus today is a little different then back in the first century. Today, we can experience Jesus by visiting a Christ-like church community, by reading more about Him from the gospels, and by serving those in need like Jesus did when He was present on earth.

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. If you are on the fence about Jesus, be sure to “come and see” what He is like before discounting Him or His message. If church has burned you in the past, let me apologize for them because while they believed they were doing the right thing, I know they missed communicating in a truly Christ-like way. While the media might make you think differently, there are more churches who model Christ’s character than those who don’t, so please try it again, and if needed, make a personal challenge to see how quickly you can find a church that truly does model Jesus well. They do exist, and I believe when we seek God, He will lead us to the community He wants us to be a part of.

Also, as I always challenge you to do in one way or another, when coming to Jesus, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself. A pastor or podcaster can give you things to think about, but these things can never replace your own personal relationship with Jesus. Your personal relationship with Him grows strong when you know who He really is – and this is learned through the pages of the Bible.

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!

Moving forward through Jesus’ miracles, we come to another miracle, which is tagged as Jesus’ second miracle at the conclusion of it. But when we read how John introduces us to this miracle, I wonder if Jesus would rather not have done any miracles.

Let’s dive into our passage and discover some things it can teach us about faith, about Jesus, and about how Jesus went about His ministry. Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 4, and we will be reading it from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 46, John tells us that:

⁴⁶ Jesus went again to visit Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. One of the king’s important officers lived in the city of Capernaum, and his son was sick. ⁴⁷ When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to Jesus and begged him to come to Capernaum and heal his son, because his son was almost dead. ⁴⁸ Jesus said to him, “You people must see signs and miracles before you will believe in me.”

Let’s pause reading here for a moment because what Jesus has just said is powerful for us to pay attention to. In a short, quick statement, Jesus calls out everyone present, which would include the disciples, this officer making the request, and everyone around on the idea that miracles make one worthy of faith and belief. The idea then is implied that if a greater miracle worker came around, we should switch our allegiance over to the new miracle worker.

When saying it like this, the idea sounds crazy, but it isn’t a stretch to imagine people thinking this way. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn of people living today who believe that they should follow someone working miracles.

However, also tucked within Jesus’ challenge is something we could call a cry to not base our faith on signs or miracles. I imagine the way Jesus said these words was challenging and confrontational with emotion, possibly a hint of sadness, in His words.

While John tells us that Jesus replied to the king’s officer with this statement, Jesus starts His response by saying “You people…” which implies that Jesus was speaking to a larger group of people or segment of the population.

Jesus replied by saying, “You people must see signs and miracles before you will believe in me,” and let’s pick back up in verse 49 to learn what happened next:

⁴⁹ The officer said, “Sir, come before my child dies.”

⁵⁰ Jesus answered, “Go. Your son will live.”

The man believed what Jesus told him and went home. ⁵¹ On the way the man’s servants came and met him and told him, “Your son is alive.”

⁵² The man asked, “What time did my son begin to get well?”

They answered, “Yesterday at one o’clock the fever left him.”

⁵³ The father knew that one o’clock was the exact time that Jesus had said, “Your son will live.” So the man and all the people who lived in his house believed in Jesus.

⁵⁴ That was the second miracle Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.

In this passage, and specifically in how this passage ends, we discover something amazing. John tells us in verse 54 that this miracle “was the second miracle Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee”.

The implication is that Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine. In the timeline of the gospels, this event likely happened right before Jesus is run out of the Nazareth synagogue that we began this year by looking at.

When we frame this miracle with the detail that the only miraculous thing Jesus had done up to this point was turning water into wine, this officer’s belief is amazing. John described the miracle turning water into wine as something that the servants and early disciples knew, but it wasn’t something that was known beyond those two groups – that is, unless word spread because people had been talking about it.

However, while turning water into wine is amazing in itself, healing someone of a deathly illness is something much greater. A cleaver magician might be able to replicate the first miracle, but this second miracle would require divine intervention, because Jesus didn’t come to heal the man’s son personally, and he didn’t give any medical advice for how to turn the son’s condition around.

By asking Someone who had only turned water into wine up to this point for a miracle, this official is displaying an incredible amount of faith when there hasn’t been a track record for this type of miracle yet. Later on, Jesus will be known for healing people, but at this point, He was only the carpenter’s Son who could turn water into wine.

The official had faith in Jesus’ ability to perform a miraculous healing, and even though Jesus challenges the whole group, and possibly the entire generation of people, on the idea that they must see miracles before they will believe, the simple act of this official coming to ask Jesus for help is a powerful demonstration of faith. This official models faith like we should have faith. The official took Jesus at His word and returned home to find His request answered.

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

Always intentionally seek God first and place your hope, faith, trust, and belief in Him. We should be willing to ask God for help even if we don’t have any evidence of God helping in the specific way we are asking. This official only knew Jesus could help with drinks that had run out, but that was enough to ask Jesus to do the impossible. While we know Jesus is able to do the impossible, we shouldn’t discount our own requests thinking He is either above them or unwilling to help. God wants to help us in our own situation, and it is up to us to simply ask.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with Jesus. A pastor, author, speaker, or even a blogger or podcaster can give you things to think about, but always take what you learn and match it up with what you read and discover in the Bible. God is not going to randomly choose to contradict His Word, and because of this, we can use the Bible as a guide for our spiritual lives today.

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

As we continue into the gospels this year, we transition out of the Christmas story of Jesus’ birth, and now come to the introduction of Jesus’ forerunner in ministry, John the Baptist. While the gospel writers focus heavily on Jesus in their books, which we want and expect them to do, all four gospels give a little focus towards John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus to step into His public ministry.

The gospel of Luke, chapter 3, sets the scene and identifies the point in history this all happened. Let’s read what Luke shares as he makes the transition from talking about Jesus’ birth and childhood onto John the Baptist’s public ministry. We’ll be reading from Luke, chapter 3, starting in verse 1 from the New Living Translation:

¹ It was now the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, the Roman emperor. Pontius Pilate was governor over Judea; Herod Antipas was ruler over Galilee; his brother Philip was ruler over Iturea and Traconitis; Lysanias was ruler over Abilene. ² Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests. At this time a message from God came to John son of Zechariah, who was living in the wilderness. ³ Then John went from place to place on both sides of the Jordan River, preaching that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven.

Let’s pause reading here because I want to draw our attention onto something that might be very easy to miss. If we look at how Luke sets the stage and how he words the first verses of this chapter, it reads more like a historical stage than a fictitious stage. In other words, Luke draws our attention onto a specific point in history, which lends credibility that he wrote his gospel to document history, despite what critics might say or think.

Luke also draws our attention to the detail that John gets the nickname of “Baptist” or “Baptizer” because his message was one of repentance and he stressed that those who wanted to show they had repented should be baptized in a public setting.

Continuing on, Luke also describes how John the Baptist was prophesied about in the Old Testament. Picking back up in verse 4, we learn that:

⁴ Isaiah had spoken of John when he said,

“He is a voice shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming!
    Clear the road for him!
⁵ The valleys will be filled,
    and the mountains and hills made level.
The curves will be straightened,
    and the rough places made smooth.
⁶ And then all people will see
    the salvation sent from God.’”

Pausing briefly again, I wonder if John had read this prophecy about himself and felt a little overwhelmed. Imagine for a moment this message described you. How might you live your life if you knew you were helping to prepare the way for the Lord’s coming?

How did John do this? Luke then describes how John framed his message and what he challenged those who came to listen to him to do with their lives.

Continuing our reading in verse 7, we learn that:

⁷ When the crowds came to John for baptism, he said, “You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? ⁸ Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. ⁹ Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.”

¹⁰ The crowds asked, “What should we do?”

¹¹ John replied, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.”

¹² Even corrupt tax collectors came to be baptized and asked, “Teacher, what should we do?”

¹³ He replied, “Collect no more taxes than the government requires.”

¹⁴ “What should we do?” asked some soldiers.

John replied, “Don’t extort money or make false accusations. And be content with your pay.”

If you ever wondered if God or Jesus would have a message for us living today about how we should live, we can take what John says and pull out some big themes.

John challenged those in the first century to “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God” and I believe this could be a challenge for all of us living today as well. The best decision you can make is putting your belief, faith, and trust in Jesus to save you from your sins, but the way you make your decision public is by repenting, which is a fancy religious word for choosing to intentionally not do a particular bad action anymore and instead replace it with a good habit and action.

John challenges Christians throughout time that our lives are our greatest witness to others whether we have truly accepted Jesus into our hearts.

John challenges us to not rest on our past ancestry, our past choices, or even our past accomplishments. Instead, he challenges us to live our repentance each day we want Jesus in our lives.

John challenges believers to be generous, to be honest, and to be kind to each other. While this sounds incredibly simple, it is actually one of the hardest challenges for each of us to live out each day. While there are some people who can love others effortlessly, others, such as myself, must intentionally choose to love in this way because there are some people who don’t make loving them easy.

John’s message cut to the heart of the people living in the first century, and Luke draws our attention to another interesting detail. Continuing in verse 15, we learn that:

¹⁵ Everyone was expecting the Messiah to come soon, and they were eager to know whether John might be the Messiah. ¹⁶ John answered their questions by saying, “I baptize you with water; but someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹⁷ He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.” ¹⁸ John used many such warnings as he announced the Good News to the people.

While I might not think that John’s warnings sound like “Good News”, we can see from the anticipation in John’s message that he believed Jesus would come and usher in a new age of the world. Some people living today believe this to be the case. All the Old Testament prophecies seemed to point to the Messiah coming and setting things straight, but we might wonder why things are still messed up. Is the urgency in John’s message misplaced?

Should we give our message about Jesus a sense of urgency similar to John, or would that be misplaced too?

I don’t believe any message about Jesus is wrong to have a sense of urgency applied to it. Every time we share Jesus with others, we should include a sense of urgency because of two things.

First, there will be a time that the world will end and Jesus will come back. Each day brings us one day closer to this event.

Secondly, with rare exceptions, each of us don’t know when our lives will end, and if our lives end before Jesus returns, then it doesn’t really matter when Jesus comes back for us specifically. If you or I only have a week or year to live, this makes our decision for Jesus urgent for us. Since we don’t know the day we will die, it’s safest to live every day with the sense of urgency that either Jesus will return today, or that our lives might end today leading to the next thing we see being Jesus.

John challenged those present in the first century to be ready for Jesus’ first coming, and all of us in the 21st century should focus on preparing ourselves for Jesus’ second coming!

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

As I always start by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life. Live your life with a sense of urgency, and with an intentional purpose of growing closer to God. While we don’t know when our lives will end or when exactly Jesus will return, we do know that only one decision matters in the end, and that is whether we have placed Jesus first, repented, and intentionally chosen to put our focus, faith, trust, and belief on Jesus.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do in one way or another, as we move forward in life and history, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself so you will be able to know and understand what God and Jesus are really like. The better we know the God of the Bible, and Jesus who came showing us a picture of God, the better we will be able to recognize Jesus when He returns.

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!