Reflective Bible Study

Immediately following Jesus feeding the crowd of over 5,000 people that we looked at in our last episode, our passage for this episode takes place that evening. At the end of our last event, Jesus sends the disciples away, telling them to cross the lake and that He will find them later. Jesus did this because the people present who experienced the miracle of food multiplication wanted to make Jesus their king at that moment. I suspect the disciples would have supported this declaration, and Jesus wanted to stop this from happening.

This leads us into our passage for this episode. Our passage opens with Jesus praying on the mountain by Himself, and the disciples beginning their journey across the lake. Let’s read what happened.

Our passage for this episode is found in John’s gospel, chapter 6, and we will read it from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 16, John tells us that:

¹⁶ When evening came, his disciples went to the sea. ¹⁷ They got into a boat and started to cross the sea to the city of Capernaum. By this time it was dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. ¹⁸ A strong wind started to blow and stir up the sea.

¹⁹ After they had rowed three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea. He was coming near the boat, and they became terrified.

²⁰ Jesus told them, “It’s me. Don’t be afraid!”

²¹ So they were willing to help Jesus into the boat. Immediately, the boat reached the shore where they were going.

²² On the next day the people were still on the other side of the sea. They noticed that only one boat was there and that Jesus had not stepped into that boat with his disciples. The disciples had gone away without him. ²³ Other boats from Tiberias arrived near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord gave thanks. ²⁴ When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into these boats and went to the city of Capernaum to look for Jesus.

In this event, two details stand out to me.

The first detail is that immediately after Jesus stepped into the boat, the boat reached the shore where they were going. It is possible this was another miracle beyond Jesus simply walking on water, or that John abbreviated the last portion of the trip. The big truth I can learn from the first portion of this passage is that life without Jesus is significantly more difficult than life with Jesus.

Taking this idea a step further, we could also conclude that it is impossible to reach God’s goal for us without Jesus. However, when we are with Jesus, we have already arrived at God’s destination for us.

The second detail that stood out to me is found in verse 22, when we read that “On the next day the people were still on the other side of the sea. They noticed that only one boat was there and that Jesus had not stepped into that boat with his disciples.”

This detail is fascinating to me. The people who had been fed knew that the disciples had taken the only boat when they left, and that Jesus wasn’t with them in the boat when they pushed off from the shore. These people, as well as some others who made the trip across the lake to the place where the bread had been served were all looking for Jesus, expecting to find Him without His disciples.

However, they all were disappointed and too late. This detail tells me that sometimes Jesus is away from His followers, but the best place to look for Jesus is with those who are serving and following Him.

Part of me wonders what would have happened if Jesus had stayed on that shore, and if the disciples had reached Capernaum without Him. What would the crowd have done if they had found Jesus apart from His disciples? Would the crowd have wanted to pressure Jesus into being a king? Would they have demanded more food like the previous day’s miracle?

We might never know, but what we can be certain of is that Jesus walked across the lake to the disciples not just because they were having a difficult time without Him in the boat, but because Jesus loves His followers. Another thing we can learn in this event is that when we are unable to reach our goal, Jesus is happy to come find us to help us get to our destination. The disciples made it part way across the lake without Jesus, but when Jesus came to be with them, He solves the part of the trip they are unable to solve.

In our own lives, when we are dealing with turning away from sin and leaving it in our past, some aspects of this are possible for us to do on our own. However, there will be a point when we have reached as far as we can without Jesus, and when we have come to this place and want to go further, don’t be surprised if Jesus comes and offers His help.

Jesus is more than willing to help us conquer sin in our lives and when we fill our hearts with Him and God’s Holy Spirit, we actively are pushing sin out. The best way to get rid of sin is by crowding our lives with Jesus and serving Him. When we are wholly serving Jesus, we won’t have time for sin, and our focus will be on God’s will for our lives!

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

Always continue to seek God first in your life and choose to depend on Him for help turning away from sin in your own life. Resolve to focus on what God wants you to focus on and push the sin out of your life by filling it so full of God’s goals for your life that sin cannot break in. Choose to be too busy doing God’s will for you to have time to sin.

Always keep your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and His sacrifice because we cannot earn our salvation through what we do. Jesus earned salvation for us, and the best way for us to say thank You to Him is by walking forward through life with Him and without sin.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God each and every day. God wants a personal relationship with you, and we grow a personal relationship with God when we pray, study our Bibles with an open mind listening for what He wants to share with us, and when we actively step out into His will and His plan for our lives. Life with God can begin today, and life with God extends into eternity!

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 give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue moving through Mark’s gospel, we come to an event where one key detail is the lack of faith of those present. While all four gospels routinely demonstrate and highlight the faith of many of those Jesus healed, this event actually highlights the exact opposite. I have a suspicion that several of the gospels include this event as a warning to us about how easy it can be to choose doubt over faith, and to reject someone God sends your way because of petty details.

Let’s read this event and discover what we can learn from what happened when Jesus traveled to a place that was very familiar to Him. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 6, and we will read out of the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 1, Mark tells us that:

¹ Jesus left that place and went back to his hometown, followed by his disciples. ² On the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue. Many people were there; and when they heard him, they were all amazed. “Where did he get all this?” they asked. “What wisdom is this that has been given him? How does he perform miracles? ³ Isn’t he the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon? Aren’t his sisters living here?” And so they rejected him.

⁴ Jesus said to them, “Prophets are respected everywhere except in their own hometown and by their relatives and their family.”

⁵ He was not able to perform any miracles there, except that he placed his hands on a few sick people and healed them. ⁶ He was greatly surprised, because the people did not have faith.

Then Jesus went to the villages around there, teaching the people.

In this event, we see Jesus returning to His hometown, which was Nazareth, and to the synagogue that He likely grew up in. An amazing detail I see in this passage is the progression of Jesus’ rejection. Stepping through the phrases of verses 2 and 3, we see that the first reaction people had was amazement: “Many people were there; and when they heard him, they were all amazed.”

When thinking about what makes people amazed, a number of different reasons can come to mind. Among those things are being amazed because something is profoundly different and/or better. Another reason might be because something is shocking in some way. A third reason might be because something that seemed impossible just happened.

In the context of our passage and event, it is likely in my mind that the amazement came because Jesus now spoke or taught differently than before. While I don’t know if He had ever spoken up or taught in the synagogue during the time He grew up in the area, the passage suggests that He might have since those present have a somewhat startled response.

The next phrase leads us to where these people start their logical progression. They asked each other, “Where did he get all this?” In the context of our passage, the phrase “all this” could refer both to the truth He taught, and/or to the band of disciples that was tagging along with Him. Unlike other places that Jesus taught, those in Nazareth would have known that Jesus did not attend any formal school and Jesus did not sit at the feet of any great teacher or Rabbi that they were aware of. For the last 10 or so years, Jesus had simply been a carpenter and the son of a carpenter, not a teacher or healer or anyone significant or noteworthy.

Following the first question, the next one begins to plant the seeds of doubt. After wondering out loud where Jesus got what He had, they clarify specifically what they are referring to by asking: “What wisdom is this that has been given him?” In a subtle way, those present understand that what Jesus shared was amazing truth, and they recognize the wisdom in Jesus’ words, but they had a hard time accepting that the wisdom Jesus shared may have been through personal study or directly from God. While those in this synagogue admit that Jesus shared wisdom that Sabbath, they immediately turn to looking for a logical source for this wisdom.

With this seed of doubt planted, they then turn to another question they cannot answer. The next question is based on rumors that they had heard. They ask each other: “How does he perform miracles?” While we understand the miracles Jesus did were because the Holy Spirit had filled His life, those in the synagogue set themselves up to reject Jesus by asking the big impossible question. While they can admit Jesus had some wise things to say, they cannot find a source for this wisdom, and asking about how a miracle is done when one doesn’t have faith means that they won’t ever find or accept the truth. With the first three questions the people in the Nazareth synagogue ask, we have questions that they are unwilling or unable to answer.

At this point, the people turn to two questions that they are able to answer, because they cannot bring themselves to admit that Jesus has an unknown-to-them Source for His teaching, His wisdom, and His miracles. The answerable questions are: “Isn’t he the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon? Aren’t his sisters living here?”

With this set of questions, the logical progression of this group of Jews rejecting Jesus is complete. They can answer this question with a yes. Jesus is the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon, and according to this passage, Jesus had at least two sisters, because the plural nature of the last question. Jesus was one of five boys and several girls in Mary’s family. These last two questions pull Jesus back to reality in the minds of those present, and it allows them to step fully through the door rejecting Jesus’ divinity and only accepting His humanity.

Because of this, we read that those in the Nazareth synagogue rejected Jesus.

With this whole progression of questions, I picture in my mind different people asking each question. With each question, the door is opened a little more to rejecting Jesus. Instead of accepting and admitting that God had used Jesus to share a powerful and wise message with them that day, those present cannot bring themselves to see a carpenter as anything more than a carpenter, regardless of the group of disciples He had collected. This truth teaches us that it is always easier to reject Jesus than it is to accept Him. There will always be reasons for people to doubt. However, while it is easier to doubt Jesus, doubting Jesus ultimately cheats you out of experiencing a miracle in your life.

In our own lives, God can use people to share His wisdom and His truth. While we are never called to accept messengers without first looking at the quality of the message, God has a way of using sinners to help spread His message and His truth. Aside from Jesus, everyone has sinned, and this truth challenges us to look past the messengers God sends our way and to focus on the message calling us to return to and believe in Jesus Christ.

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to place your hope, faith, trust, and belief in Jesus. Through what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross, we have the assurance of salvation when we accept the gift of Jesus’ perfect, sinless life in place of our own. Jesus took the punishment we deserved and offers us the life He deserved in its place.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to personally grow closer to God each and every day. While we can learn from other people, the best place to validate messages coming into our lives is by personally taking each idea and validating it against the truth of God’s Word, also known as the Bible. While customs, traditions, and society’s expectations change on a daily basis, God’s truth stays consistent, and it is as true today as it was during the Bible’s time period of history, and it will remain true throughout every generation that comes after us as well! God’s truth is the best place to build a spiritual foundation for our lives.

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 let doubt steal you away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue our journey in John’s gospel, we arrive at one of the very few times John’s gospel includes an event that all three other gospels also include. However, John’s gospel is still significant in this case, because John gives us several additional details that help us understand what happened a little better.

With that said, let’s read what happened, and the miracle Jesus ultimately does to help this tricky situation. Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 6, and we will read it from the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). ² A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs which He was performing on those who were sick. ³ Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. ⁴ Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. ⁵ Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” ⁶ This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. ⁷ Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.” ⁸ One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, ⁹ “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?”

Let’s pause reading here for a moment. If you are even remotely familiar with the miracles of Jesus, you already know what happens next, but before we go there together, let’s briefly focus on the doubt that is present leading up to the miracle, and let’s also draw our attention onto who actually initiates this miracle.

When we look at how this event opens, Jesus sees the opportunity to teach the disciples about God’s ability to provide. If Jesus hadn’t asked Philip the question about buying bread, then everything that happened next likely wouldn’t have happened. John tells us that Jesus asked this question to test Philip, because He already knew what He was planning to do.

However, there is an interesting shift between Jesus’ question and Philip’s answer. Jesus doesn’t ask Philip how much it would cost for enough bread, and Philip doesn’t answer Jesus where they could go to get enough bread. Jesus was interested in a place, while Philip was focused on the cost. In this subtle shift, we can learn that cost is not a significant issue in God’s eyes. The amount of money needed for something is irrelevant to God. Instead, God’s focus is elsewhere.

After this, Andrew steps in with an answer, but even Andrew doesn’t have much faith that this answer will amount to anything. When stepping into Jesus’ and Philip’s conversation, Andrew says in verse 9: “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?”

Andrew’s answer gives a place Jesus can get some bread, but five loaves of bread and two fish were the meal of a small boy, and splitting this up among the huge crowd wouldn’t scratch the surface of anyone’s appetite.

However, what happens next is powerful. On being informed of the boy’s food, let’s continue reading in verse 10:

¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. ¹¹ Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. ¹² When they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.” ¹³ So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. ¹⁴ Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

¹⁵ So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.

Let’s stop reading at this point in order to focus on this miracle, and on what we can learn from what Jesus did.

In events like this, I always keep my eye open for examples of faith, and whenever we see a miracle, one thing I look for is where faith is present. In this event, I sense a little faith, but a lot more doubt. It’s interesting that John points out that Jesus already knew what He was going to do, which places the faith necessary for this miracle squarely on Jesus’ shoulders because prior to Jesus even asking the question, no one was thinking of bread or of feeding this crowd.

When we look at the disciples for faith in this event, we can see a few small examples, but overall there is much more doubt. The slivers of faith we see in this event from the disciples are when Andrew brings the child with his food to Jesus, and when the disciples obey Jesus’ instruction to have everyone sit down on the grass.

It is interesting that when we look at the disciples’ words and compare their words with their actions, everything the disciples say displays doubt, while everything they do displays faith. Bringing a boy to Jesus and having the crowd sit down demonstrates faith, since these disciples suspect something big is going to happen. However, saying that they don’t have anywhere close to the money needed to buy bread for the people, and that this small boy’s lunch is horribly insignificant shows doubt. The disciples’ words are filled with doubt, while their actions suggest at least a sliver of faith.

Another interesting detail that we don’t often focus on is that before Jesus begins sharing this gift of food, He gives thanks. Jesus demonstrates gratitude, and this is powerful, because it leads us into a huge truth we can learn from this miracle: God is thankful when we bring our gifts, and He is more than willing to multiply a genuine gift that is small into being more than enough for a huge challenge!

Our huge problems are no match for God. When we bring our huge problems to God, He is fully capable of using things that might appear insignificant to solve our problems. Any problem we face is nothing compared to what God can do, and if we doubt God can help us with what we are facing, then our picture of God is much smaller than who God really is.

Jesus took a lunch that looked insignificant, and He turned it into a meal that satisfied the hunger of over five thousand people, with plenty left over. God is fully capable of multiplying our small, seemingly insignificant gifts, into exactly what is needed to solve huge problems.

Taking this truth one step further: Jesus came to this earth as God’s gift to solve the problem of sin, and while many people believed Jesus to be insignificant or unable to do this, through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, Satan’s character was exposed, and a way was made for us to be redeemed out of sin.

God gives us a way to be redeemed from this sin-filled world, and it is up to us to accept this gift that He offers to us and begin a new life with Him.

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 and choose to bring God what you can to help when challenges appear. When we offer up gifts that look insignificant, and when our gifts also contain our heart and a sliver of faith, expect to see God work in amazing ways with the gift we believed to be insignificant. Sometimes God will combine a bunch of insignificant gifts into something greater, while other times He will take the insignificant gift and miraculously allow it to extend further than we believed possible. When we have the tiniest amount of faith that is visible, nothing is impossible with God.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself, in order to grow your personal relationship with God. While other people can give you things to think about, be sure to never let your relationship with God be dependent on anyone else. God wants a personal relationship with you, and the relationship He wants with you will not be filtered through anyone else.

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

After Jesus calms the storm, we discover that He and the disciples then land on the other side of the lake, and they land their boats at a relatively deserted part of the shoreline. While some parts of Lake Galilee were well-populated, other parts, such as the place we discover Jesus and the disciples reaching, have a lot less people living there. However, while this place is deserted by human standards, we discover that it is well populated in a slightly different way.

Let’s read the passage and discover what we can learn about who inhabited the place where Jesus and His disciples traveled to. While our event is found in three of the four gospels, as you can imagine, for our year in Mark, we will be looking at it from Mark’s gospel. This event is found in Mark, chapter 5, and let’s read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, Mark tells us that:

¹ They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. ² When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. ³ This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. ⁴ For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

⁶ When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. ⁷ He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” ⁸ For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”

⁹ Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” ¹⁰ And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

¹¹ A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. ¹² The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” ¹³ He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

Let’s pause reading this event for a moment. While reading from Mark’s gospel, I find it interesting that when we are first introduced to this man, Mark describes him as someone who lives among the dead and who has an impure spirit. The thing that stands out in my mind is the singular nature of this description.

In contrast, when Jesus confronts the evil spirit and asks its name, we discover that the evil spirit’s name is a plural: The evil spirit’s reply in verse 9 is, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”

What first appears to be a region inhabited by only a handful of people, specifically one demon possessed man and a group of pig-herders, is now defined as a key location that was home to thousands of evil spirits. Looking at the size of the herd of pigs, there would have been at least 2000 evil spirits in this man using a ratio of one spirit to one pig.

However, when we look up the definition of a Roman “legion”, we discover this term was used to describe a group of three to six thousand Roman soldiers. This means there could have been anywhere from two to six thousand evil spirits living in that region, specifically within that social outcast.

It may have been likely that two or even three spirits got to share each pig in that large herd.

However, why would Jesus have agreed to the evil spirits’ request to be sent into the herd of pigs?

In many ways, this doesn’t seem all that nice, especially to grant the request of a group of evil spirits at the expense of a herd of thousands of pigs who just happened to be nearby.

Let’s continue reading and discover what might be the answer. Picking back up in verse 14, Mark tells us that:

¹⁴ Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. ¹⁵ When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. ¹⁶ Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. ¹⁷ Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

Pausing our reading one additional time, I see in what happened here one possible answer to why Jesus let the evil spirits stampede the pigs to their death. For this miracle to be significant, it cannot truly stay hidden. Too many people knew about the man living in this region and about his demon possession. If this had been a secret miracle, then the healed man’s testimony would have very little credibility because people could just discount him saying that he was not that guy. Also, people visiting the region would welcome the absence of that man and would likely not assume that he had been healed. It would be more logical that he died somehow or that he moved to a different area. With attention being given to this miracle, we discover that this shines the spotlight on God and on God’s power over the evil spirits.

In our last episode, we discovered how one word from Jesus can calm the most significant storm Satan can muster, and this episode draws our attention onto the truth that one command from Jesus sends an army of evil spirits out of a comfortable home in a man and into a herd of pigs. One command from Jesus will always send Satan away. Any confrontation Jesus has with Satan results in Jesus gaining the victory.

However, what comes next is also amazing. Continuing in verse 18, Mark tells us:

¹⁸ As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. ¹⁹ Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” ²⁰ So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

At the close of this passage, Jesus sends the man home and this man goes to a region that was clearly known in that area, but one where Jesus rarely visited. Actually, there is only one other mention of this region in the gospels that references Jesus’ presence. It is likely that this man’s testimony about what Jesus did for him opened what was otherwise a shut door for His ministry. Those present in this event wanted Jesus to leave, but they couldn’t say no to this man whose home was there.

This man becomes a powerful ambassador for Jesus. In an instant, Jesus takes this man whose condition would place him firmly against God, frees him from the spiritual chains that held him, and then commissions him to be a missionary to his home territory.

In many ways, this mirrors how God calls us. While God calls some people to be missionaries for God in distant places, many of us are called to be ambassadors and missionaries for God right where we already live.

Wherever God has placed you and I, I believe He has called us to be His witnesses. While this man wanted to travel with Jesus and be a disciple, His commission to spread the news about Jesus was even more significant. While we might not readily think of it this way, this man becomes the first apostle, because like the disciples who were commissioned by Jesus after His resurrection, this man spreads the great news about Jesus with everyone who would listen! This man, like Saul turned Paul who we read about in the book of Acts, needed only an instant with Jesus in order to have His life turned around and focused on being an apostle for Jesus!

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to serve Him in wherever He has you placed. Choose to be God’s best representative regardless of the situation you are in and regardless of what other people might think of you.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow and strengthen your relationship with God. A strong personal relationship with God will help you be the representative God has called you to be in a world that is growing more hostile to God the closer to Jesus’ return that we get!

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