Reflective Bible Study

First off, as we begin, happy new year to all of you. After having finished all four years of chronologically moving through Jesus’ life, I have to admit that it is a little weird to be beginning this year not actually looking at something from Jesus’ birth story. However, if your experience was anything like mine, we probably spent plenty of time focusing on Jesus’ birth this past Christmas season.

However, as I’m sure you know, the main reason Jesus’ birth was so special wasn’t just because of God stepping down and becoming human, as hard as that is for us to grasp. The main reason we should pay attention to Jesus’ entrance and time spent in our world is what we will be focusing on during this year of podcasts. This year, we will be focusing on the week leading up to the cross, and what we can learn about Jesus and God from this key piece of time in our world’s history.

To start our year of podcasting through the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion, we will turn our attention to John’s gospel, to a special supper that takes place in Jesus’ honor, and what we can learn about what happened. Our passage for this episode is found in John’s gospel, chapter 12, and we will be reading it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. ² Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. ³ Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

⁴ But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, ⁵ “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” ⁶ He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

⁷ “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. ⁸ You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

⁹ Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ¹⁰ So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, ¹¹ for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.

In this passage, alongside Mary’s amazing gift of perfume, we discover how this event both predicts what is coming, as well as it setting the stage for Jesus’ crucifixion a little less than a week later.

To set the stage for this final week, the way John concludes this passage is about perfect. John reminds us that a large crowd found out Jesus was there and they came to see Him, and not just Jesus, but Lazarus as well. Because of Jesus’ renewed popularity and because this resurrection miracle was prompting people to believe in Jesus, the chief priests not only focused on looking for a way to kill Jesus, but to kill Lazarus as well. As we move from this point forward, we discover how everything the chief priests do is focused on trying to discredit Jesus, on planning His death, or both.

Also, the stage is set in this passage for Judas to betray Jesus. In this event, we discover that Jesus pushes back at Judas Iscariot over his condescending remarks about Mary’s gift. John tells us Judas did not say this because he was interested in helping the poor, but because he would help himself to the money they had collected for the poor. I don’t know how this wouldn’t have been obvious to the other disciples and to Jesus because they traveled everywhere together, but perhaps Judas thought he was being secretive, but instead, it was something that all the disciples knew, but that Judas simply denied regardless of the evidence.

Regardless of what had led to this point, Jesus’ response to Judas over Mary’s gift challenges Judas and it gives Judas the opportunity to take the challenge personally instead of focusing on what Jesus had just told everyone.

When we look at this passage, Jesus sets the stage for our whole year of podcasting the week leading up to His crucifixion by directly attributing Mary’s gift of perfume for the day He would be buried. Many of those present might have missed this foreshadowing, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t present. In Jesus’ statement, we see Him drawing attention to the idea they didn’t want to accept that He would die. This wasn’t the first time Jesus tried to forewarn the disciples about His upcoming crucifixion, but like many of the other times, the significance of Jesus’ words escaped those present.

With the stage set leading into the week of the cross, and our year of podcasting the events of this week, Jesus also shares a powerful statement that would be wise for us to keep in our minds. Jesus tells His followers in verse 8, “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

This phrase is powerful in my mind because it challenges our perspective in a number of ways. The first and most obvious way is that Jesus’ followers will not always have Jesus. This sounds counterintuitive because Jesus promised to be with His followers forever in the great commission, but the truth we must face in Jesus’ words is that we might not always feel or see Jesus’ presence. In a physical sense, Jesus is not always going to be visible in our lives or in our situations.

However, to contrast this, Jesus tells His followers that there will always be those who are poor living among us. Being poor is not a problem that can be solved because being poor is simply standing at a specific place on a scale of income or wealth. While we can look at those at the bottom and desire to help them increase their standard of living, this doesn’t change the definition of being poor as being at the bottom of the wealth spectrum.

However, feeling poor is a different story. Almost everyone feels poor, and that is because most people live right up to the edge of their income, and most people focus on looking at those who have more than they do – which makes most people feel poor even if they are among the richest people in the world.

But the biggest perspective challenge Jesus shares is a challenge to focus on what God has blessed us with and to focus on our relationship with Jesus above everything else. There will always be problems and challenges in our lives similar to how there will always be poor people living in the world. Jesus challenges His followers, you and I included, to focus on our relationship with Him first and then only after we have a strong relationship with Him should we then focus on helping those around us.

Yes we should help other people, but 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.

As we come to the end of our first episode in our year focusing on the cross, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Always prioritize your relationship with God, with Jesus, and with the Holy Spirit first. Accept Jesus’ challenge that helping others is important, but it should never take the place of our relationship with Him. Even the most generous life lived without Jesus is counted as a loss when we look at what is needed for salvation. Because of this, the challenge for all of us is to place and prioritize Jesus as first in our lives.

Also, be sure to always pray and study the Bible for yourself because this is the best way to grow closer to God each and every day. While an author, speaker, pastor, or podcaster can give you things to think about, they should never replace your personal relationship with Jesus.

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

Hi guys,

Just like I recorded a special message for you last week, I thought it might be nice to record a special New Year’s greeting as well. Next week, we’ll pick back up with the regular Flashback episodes, looking at Season 3.

However, today is New Year’s Eve, and the last day of 2018. For some people, this day marks the end of a crazy year and if you’re a part of this group, I imagine you cannot wait for tomorrow when a new year begins.

However, others may have had an amazing year, and while it is sad to see this year move into history, there is nothing stopping 2019 from being just as good or even better.

Whenever I stop to think about the transition between one year and the next, I am ultimately reminded that regardless of how the last year went, or how great my hopes for the New Year are, the transition between two years marks one additional step closer to the return of Jesus.

I have no idea what year Jesus will return, and I don’t recommend spending any energy trying to figure it out. Energy spent trying to figure out the date of Jesus’ return, when Jesus Himself said He didn’t know it, seems very futile, or very speculative.

Instead, since we don’t know when Jesus will return, or when our last breath will be, our lives are best lived for God today, and each day moving forward.

With that said, while this isn’t really a New Year’s resolution, let me leave you with a special New Year’s challenge: When moving into the New Year, determine to live for God each and every day. Choose to do something each day to grow closer to God. Choose to do at least one thing that is intentionally nice for someone you know today, and choose to do at least one thing that is intentionally nice for a stranger as well.

While it doesn’t seem like much, every nice act helps and together we can help a hurting world experience God’s love as we live and grow closer to Him while loving each other.

Again I hope that whether you are looking forward to the end of 2018 or looking back on this year wishing it would never end, it is my hope and prayer that 2019 will be infinitely better than 2018, and that we all will grow closer to Jesus together!

Last week, we began this two-part finale looking at insights we discovered during the first half of our second-chronological year moving through the gospels looking at events from Jesus’ life. However, before diving into this second part of our finale looking at insights we discovered during the last half of this year of podcasting, I thought it would be good to share briefly about the journey we are on together.

A few years ago, while we were working through some years focusing on topics found in the gospels, such as prophecies Jesus fulfilled from the Old Testament, and a year focusing on the parables Jesus shared, I had the idea of taking four years and dedicating them to chronologically moving through the gospels. However, instead of taking four years to move through Jesus’ story from start to finish, the idea I had was to do four years that moved through Jesus’ life and have each year of podcasting conclude with Jesus facing the cross. Each year moving through the gospels in this way would focus on different details and events that the gospels include, and each would conclude in a grand way looking at Jesus’ sacrifice for us.

With that said, we have hit the halfway point in this four-year journey, and starting next week, we’ll start our third, chronological year moving through the gospels. However, unlike the past two years of moving through the gospels, we’ll spend our next year and the year following looking at events we did not cover during these past two years.

However, if I’m not careful, we’ll spend all of this episode talking about where we’re headed and not have any time left for insights from the last half of this year.

So without any further delay, let’s dive into insights we discovered during the last half of this year podcasting through the gospels.

To pick back up where we left off, let’s start in episodes 25 and 26. In these two episodes, we found the Pharisees challenging Jesus about not having a second witness to validate His ministry and Jesus declaring some powerful truths about God the Father. In these passages and episodes, we discovered that Jesus aligns Himself with God the Father, and when looking at the gospel record, we can see how the Father responded and validated Jesus’ ministry while He was here on earth.

We also were challenged with the truth that Jesus is the only one who really knows the Father, and He is the only One who can reveal the Father to others. This led us to conclude that if Jesus is the only way for us to really know who the Father is, then anyone who claims to have knowledge about God, or the absence of God, must present it through the lens of Jesus.

Moving forward to episode 27, we looked at a time when Jesus shared with His followers about our eyes being lamps for our bodies. In this passage and episode, we concluded that Jesus’ words in this passage are significant because when we believe and spread lies, we are spreading darkness, and while we might think this darkness is light, it can only be true light if it is leading people into a deeper relationship with God.

Jumping ahead to episode 29, Jesus continued His teaching but shifted focus onto talking about thieves, robbers, sheep, and the importance of knowing the Shepherd’s voice. In this episode, we were reminded that Jesus is the way to peace, life, and rest – and He is also the best protection we have from those who would try to harm us. There are those who may harm our bodies, but Jesus keeps our lives safe – and this includes both our lives in the world today, and our lives in heaven in the future.

In the very next episode, which was episode number 30, during an event where Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath, we learned that for Jesus, the Sabbath was a day that was dedicated to God to rest and focus on family, friends, and relationships. It was to be the high point at the end of the week and it was to be a blessing for those who kept it. It was not intended to be a burden where people had to be extra-cautious for those 24 hours for fear of breaking a rule. In this event, we saw that Jesus lived God’s idea of the Sabbath, and that was an idea that focused on helping people on that special day. Jesus loved to help people, and He wants us to realize that the Sabbath is a day where we are free to help others!

Jumping ahead several episodes, we come to episode 37, and look at Jesus’ ministry not being accepted or understood by the religious leaders, and how this was actually prophesied many centuries earlier through the prophet Isaiah. In this passage, we discovered several powerful insights, including the truth that the light, love, and warmth Jesus radiated throughout His time on earth melted hearts that were receptive to His love, but it also hardened hearts that were defensive to Him and His message;

Also, by blending in, secret followers of Jesus dim their lights and they cheapen their witness;

And that God did not send Jesus into the world to fill the role of judge. The world has too many people in it claiming that role. Instead, Jesus came into the world as a Messenger, a Healer, and a Savior. Jesus came into this world to show us what God is really like.

Let’s move forward to episode 42, where we spent an episode looking at Judas Iscariot agreeing to betray Jesus. While this episode, and its passage, can prompt us to point many fingers at a various groups of people, we instead focused on the truth that Jesus didn’t die at the hand of Judas Iscariot, or even at the hand of the religious leaders. Even though Roman soldiers attached Him to the cross, that detail did not kill Jesus either. Instead, the truth about Jesus giving up His life on the cross is much bigger than one person betraying Jesus, or even a group of religious leaders plotting His death.

Moving forward to episode 46, where we focused on Peter’s three denials of Jesus in the early morning hours on the morning Jesus was crucified, we learned that knowing who we are and what we would do, God was still willing to bring us into the world. Regardless of the mistakes we would make, and/or the times we would reject God, He is still willing to give us life and the chance to choose Him. Knowing everything we would do and all the ways we would make mistakes, Jesus still came and died for us. Jesus died for you and me, and this is because He loves us, and wants us to have the opportunity to choose eternal life with Him.

Jumping ahead to episode 48, which focused us on the cross and the moment Jesus died, we learned through the events surrounding Jesus’ death that the curtain splitting is symbolic of an accepted sacrifice, and it draws our attention to Jesus’ sacrifice being enough to satisfy and fulfill the whole Jewish sacrificial system.

Also, in this passage and event, from one of the most secular people present at the crucifixion, and likely one of the least likely to believe in Jesus, comes what is probably the most profound statement in the entire Bible. The Roman officer states without any doubt that Jesus was God’s own Son.

And while this episode ended on a relatively dark note, we concluded that even when it seems like all hope is gone and that evil is winning, know that victory is just around the corner and that Jesus ultimately triumphs. Even if at times it seems like Satan has the upper hand, Satan’s achievements are short lived because Jesus’ death marked God’s ultimate victory over sin.

Moving forward to episode 49, from Jesus’ conversation with Mary on resurrection morning, we were reminded and assured of the truth that from the moment we place our faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus, we can know we are saved.

From the moment we accept Jesus as our substitute, we have the assurance of salvation, and this was as true for the thief on the cross as it is for each of us today. Eternity starts when we step towards God through Jesus. However, like Jesus prompts us to understand through His conversation with Mary, eternal life is a reward that is saved for the New Heaven and New Earth.

Jesus’ message through Mary helps us understand how salvation works. There is an immediate reward, but there is also a future reward as well.

And to wrap up our insights from this past year chronologically looking at events in Jesus’ life, let’s remember what we discovered just a few weeks ago in episode 50, which looked at Jesus’ conversation with Peter following Jesus’ resurrection. When Jesus invites Peter to follow Him again, we can know and understand that each of us is called to follow Jesus like Peter’s second call. We are called to follow with the understanding that this invitation comes with forgiveness from our past. The invitation Jesus gives us is focused on our future with God from this point forward, and it lets the past remain in the past. Our past mistakes and sins are covered when we choose to recommit our lives to Jesus. It was this way with Peter and the rest of the disciples, and it is this way for each of us living today.

I cannot think of a better way to end this second year of podcasting through Jesus’ life. So with that said, let’s remember that as we move through every day, every month, and every year, Jesus has invited us to leave our past sinful lives behind and He invites us to move forward with Him day-by-day, as we look forward to spending eternity with Him.

Last week, we began our annual two-part finale by looking at insights we discovered in the first half of this past year of moving through the gospels. In part 2, we’ll pick back up where we left off and focus in on insights we learned during the second half of this year moving through the gospels.

But before diving into the insights, I want to share briefly what’s planned for our next year in the gospel adventure podcast. We have just finished moving through four years of chronologically jumping through the gospels, and we have now finished this crazy idea I had several years ago when we began. While it would be easy to simply start over, I thought it might be fun to do a couple of years focusing on certain topics.

One topic that has been fresh on my mind, perhaps because all four gospels dedicate significant space to it, is the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. For this next year of episodes, this is where I’m thinking of taking us. However, for future years, be sure to email me and share your ideas. We may come back to doing chronological years in the future, but before that happens, let’s focus in on some topics.

However, while I’m excited to get started, we still have the second half of this past year to focus on in this episode. So let’s dive in, starting at what we learned in Episode 26.

In episode 26, we focused on Mary and Martha’s first encounter with Jesus, and how each of them interacted with Jesus. From this episode, we learned that “It is more important for us to focus on learning from Jesus than trying to please or impress Him through our actions.” We also learned that “God is never going to distract us away from spending time with Jesus.”

Moving into episode 27, we looked at a passage Jesus shares about faith, and how faith must be visible. In this episode, we saw that “Those who publicly side with Jesus will be acknowledged by God throughout the universe.” We also learned that “secret faith is worthless; faith that is valuable is one that stands for God when challenges come; and that the more we reject the Holy Spirit in our lives, the less connected to Jesus we will be.”

Jumping to episode 29, we focused on a passage where Jesus describes how some people will ultimately miss out on salvation even though they believed themselves to be ready. In this passage and episode, we learned that “there will be a time when salvation’s door is closed. After this point, those who knock on the door are not allowed to enter. This is because the homeowner does not know them. This tells us that it is very important that God knows us, and this is accomplished by regularly spending time with Him.” This passage also taught us that “people who do evil are excluded. This passage strongly suggests that doing evil will forfeit your salvation.” Overall, what matters most is what we choose to do in the present, and not on what we have done in the past. Our present choices are more important than our past failures.

Jumping forward a couple of episodes to episode 31, we spent some time talking about the rich man and Lazarus illustration Jesus shared. Regardless of what you believe about this illustrations regarding it’s teaching on the state of the dead, we concluded that one of the biggest themes it tells us is that “after someone has died, they cannot change their decisions from this life. This makes our decisions today especially important.” We also can all agree that “the next conscious thought someone has following their death will be one of regret when realizing they didn’t choose correctly.”

In episode 32, we looked at Jesus healing 12 lepers. We learned that “there is never a wrong time to stop and be grateful towards God for what He has done in our lives.” Also in this passage, we see the big truth that “sometimes we must obey before we are able to see God’s hand working in our lives.”

Episode 33 might have been the most controversial episode this year because it focused in on Jesus’ teaching on the topic of marriage and divorce. While our current generation has wrestled with this, we discover from this passage in Matthew’s gospel, that every generation since sin entered the world has been challenged by God’s ideal for marriage. Jesus tells us that while not everyone can or will marry, those who do will be held to the truth He teaches us about marriage.

Jumping up to episode 35, we discovered in the parable of the ten servants that “the important man who left returned as king. In spite of his enemies’ wishes, this man becomes king. This teaches us that Jesus will one day return as King. Jesus had enemies while here on earth because He wasn’t impressed by ambitious spiritual ladder-climbers. Now is the best time to ally with Jesus because we don’t know when He will actually return.” Also, looking at this parable we discover that “it is important to be fruitful with what God has blessed us with. The worst thing we can do is nothing.”

In episode 36, we discovered a short passage where Jesus cried when approaching Jerusalem. Among the things we discovered in this passage, we concluded that “as followers of Jesus, we should spend 5-10x more time praying than we do seeking influence among other people. Seeking influence shouldn’t even be a measurable goal for a follower of Jesus.” Also tucked in Jesus’ message for Jerusalem is the truth that “the only place where peace can be found is by seeking God through Jesus, learning to depend on Him for everything, and praying like crazy for His will to be done in the world today.”

Episode 38 challenged us again when we read Jesus’ parable about a man being kicked out of a wedding banquet. We discovered in this episode that accepting the invitation is a great first step, but also equally important is accepting the free gift of wedding clothes that the king would have offered when the last minute guests arrived. We accept the gift of clothing when we put our sinful lives in the past and let God replace our sinful characters with Jesus’ sinless character.

The next episode, number 39, found us looking a little closer at Jesus stumping the Pharisees with a question of His own. Ultimately, we concluded that “the Bible gives us plenty of evidence we can use to base our faith on, and we can use what the Bible says to know everything we need to know to be saved.”

Jumping ahead to episode 41, we looked at the parable of the three servants, which shares several characteristics with episode 35’s parable of the ten servants. In the parable of the three servants, we learned that God, “the master, gave everyone something, and He is watching to see what we will do with what He has blessed us with. When Jesus returns, those who have done something will be rewarded, while those who were fearful of making a mistake will lose out on everything.”

Moving forward to episode 43, we discovered three levels of faith in what Jesus shared with the eleven disciples as they were headed to the garden on the night He was betrayed and arrested. In Jesus’ conversation with the disciples, we learn that “God has called us to three distinct levels of faith: We should have faith in who Jesus is as God’s Son and a member of the Godhead; we should have faith in what Jesus has done for us, especially focusing in on what He accomplished on the cross; and we should have faith in Jesus’ working in our lives in both our present and our future.”

Episodes 44 and 45, which also focused on the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, focused us onto the truths that “History is ‘His Story’, specifically Jesus’ story, and it is a story of redemption. While sinners killed Jesus, Jesus chose to die for those who God desires to save.”

Moving forward, while being led to the cross in episode 47, Jesus shared a challenge to some women who were following the procession. We learned in this episode that “we shouldn’t feel sad that Jesus faced the cross, we should be glad – we should be grateful for what Jesus’ death accomplished for each of us!”

Just a few short weeks ago, we looked at episode 48, and discovered that “In Peter’s experience on the morning Jesus was raised to life, we have a model for what we may experience. Peter found enough evidence to support a belief in the resurrection, but not so much evidence that would eliminate the need and role of faith. God has called us to have faith in Jesus, and to trust His promises. It is unlikely He will remove every reason for doubt, but He is more than willing to give us enough evidence for us to base our faith on.”

As we wrap up this episode, and this year of podcasting chronologically through Jesus’ life, I want to leave you with the main insight and challenge we wrapped up episode 50 with:

If those in the first century lived so close with God that they had the Holy Spirit show up in their lives in visible, miraculous ways, and these early church leaders didn’t believe themselves to be special or exclusively picked to receive the Holy Spirit, we can conclude that each of us living 2,000+ years later is capable of living lives like Jesus’ first followers and receive the Holy Spirit like they did. Knowing this, let’s intentionally live our lives so focused on growing closer to God that the Holy Spirit cannot help but show up in miraculous ways.