Reflective Bible Study

As we continue moving through the gospels looking at events from Jesus’ life and ministry, we come to an event where Jesus challenges not just His disciples or the crowd present, but the entire generation living during the first century.

However, I suspect that the issue Jesus takes aim at that generation for is actually an issue that every generation has faced since Adam and Eve’s fall, and I doubt that any generation prior to Jesus’ return will be exempt.

The idea Jesus challenges all of us on is the presence of unbelief in our lives. Immediately following Jesus being on the mountain with His three closest disciples, we read about what was happening with the other nine disciples when Jesus, Peter, James, and John rejoin the group. Our passage for this episode is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read it using the New International Version. Starting in verse 14, Mark tells us that:

¹⁴ When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. ¹⁵ As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.

¹⁶ “What are you arguing with them about?” he asked.

¹⁷ A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. ¹⁸ Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”

¹⁹ “You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”

²⁰ So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

²¹ Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”

“From childhood,” he answered. ²² “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

²³ “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

²⁴ Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Let’s stop reading here to draw our attention onto the significance of what this boy’s father exclaims. While Jesus finishes off this event by healing the boy when His disciples could not accomplish this task, too often, we jump to the end triumph and miss what we can learn during the challenging middle of this event. Also, we often jump to the end of Jesus’ wrap up discussion with His disciples that this particular evil spirit was different from most and that prayer with fasting are the keys necessary to remove it.

However, let’s focus on what the boy’s father exclaimed in verse 24. The boy’s father cries out, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Our belief is powerful, and unbelief has the power to sabotage the belief we do have.

In this passage, belief is mentioned a number of times leading up to the boy’s father’s exclamation.

The first mention of belief versus unbelief in this passage is when Jesus calls out the whole generation as “unbelieving” in verse 19. It is as though when Jesus learned what happened while He was gone, His heart sank a little because the people, and specifically the disciples, seemed to miss the truth about the power of belief. It also appears as though Jesus became a little irritated at how slow or dense many of the people were.

The second mention of belief also comes from Jesus when He responds to the boy’s father by saying that “Everything is possible for one who believes” in verse 23. This is a statement that both religious people as well as non-religious have taken and held up as a banner for believing in oneself. They take the spiritual word and make it common by saying things like, “Believe in yourself and you can do anything.”

It is very possible I don’t have enough belief, or perhaps it is something else, but all the belief in the world is not going to make me a NFL football player. To most of the hulk-like guys on football fields, I look more like a malnourished toothpick than a candidate for any season game. The sarcastic part of my brain wants me to conclude that this probably is entirely a case where I have unbelief which is sabotaging me. Or, more likely, I have concluded that I have better things to do with my body type and skill-set than play professional football.

The third mention of belief in this passage is hinted at instead of being directly stated. However, Jesus doesn’t miss this hint, and He draws it out for us to focus on. Jesus knows how the words we use reveal our thoughts, and Jesus challenges the father’s lack of belief by quoting the father’s opening to his request. In Jesus’ response, He calls out the father’s lack of belief by quoting the boy’s father’s words “If you can”.

The word “if” is a word that allows for exception, and it is a word that changes a certain statement into one where certainty is the exception. By using this word, the boy’s father revealed that he didn’t have confidence in Jesus’ ability to help in this situation. When we use the word if, we reveal that we don’t have total confidence in the subject we are talking about.

For example, by starting a statement with the words “Because God is God, He will . . .” I am getting ready to proclaim a promise that I believe God will do. However, starting a statement with the words “If God is God, He will . . .” I have effectively changed the direction of the statement into a challenge, and the only reason it is a challenge is because under the surface, the implication is that I don’t believe He could or would do the next part of the phrase.

Jesus calls the boy’s father out on the language He is using. He calls each one of us out regarding the words we use. Words are powerful, and Jesus wants to keep us from letting the words we use erode our belief.

After being challenged by Jesus, the boy’s father restates his wish, and he states that he does believe, but he acknowledges that he needs help with his “unbelief”.

In the context of this passage, unbelief is not the presence of doubt. Instead, unbelief is the presence of skepticism. Unbelief is when our hearts are hardened and we simply choose to challenge an idea like a skeptic would instead of believing. Doubt is the uncertainty that is present with faith in something that is unseen. While faith and doubt are almost always mixed, it is within our power what the ratio is.

Belief is similar to but distinctly different from faith. Belief is spiritual certainty and knowing something to be true in one’s mind. Faith is trust and/or devotion to something or someone. Often both words are used interchangeably, and in the church world, we should have both mixed into our lives.

Belief, faith, and acknowledging some doubt that is present in a situation is good. Unbelief, or skepticism about something, is bad. I suspect this is one big reason why Jesus called out the boy’s father when he made his request.

As I shared earlier, this event concludes with Jesus healing the boy, and the disciples later asking Jesus why they could not cast this evil spirit out. Jesus’ response is that prayer is the key. While Jesus’ words are directly tied to this situation, I also believe that they are tied to the subject of belief: Belief without prayer is weak. Prayer without belief is futile. However, belief when combined with prayer is limitless.

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 and prayerfully seek God first in your life. When tempted or challenged to give up on your faith or your belief, lean into God and trust that His plan and perspective are bigger than we can imagine. When something doesn’t make sense, seek God first and ask Him to give you understanding to what you are struggling to understand.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself in order to grow your personal relationship with Him. When questioning ideas, beliefs, or concepts, always test them against what the Bible teaches and prayerfully seek God’s guidance and help leading you into His truth.

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 Jesus was moving towards the second half of His ministry leading up to the cross, I am always a little surprised as I read the gospels to see how Jesus tried to warn and wake the disciples up to what would happen on crucifixion weekend. In one such warning, we can see that Jesus wanted to not simply warn them about the death side of the weekend, but to also point them towards the resurrection side of this weekend as well.

Our passage for this episode is one place where Jesus shares these truths with the disciples and it is amazing to read how the disciples react to hearing the news. We will be reading Matthew’s version of this event, which can be found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 16, and we will be reading out of the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 21, Matthew tells us:

²¹ From that time on Jesus began to say plainly to his disciples, “I must go to Jerusalem and suffer much from the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law. I will be put to death, but three days later I will be raised to life.”

²² Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “God forbid it, Lord!” he said. “That must never happen to you!”

²³ Jesus turned around and said to Peter, “Get away from me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my way, because these thoughts of yours don’t come from God, but from human nature.”

Let’s pause reading for a moment because I want to point out something I wonder about. I’m not sure whether Peter said these things because Satan truly prompted him to say them, or because Peter, like the rest of the disciples and people living in that generation, believed that the Messiah God would send would never face death. It was this misunderstood angle of prophecy that made many people during Jesus’ life miss out on truly understanding the sacrifice Jesus had come to make.

However, this misunderstanding also appears to blind and deafen Peter to the latter portion of what Jesus had said. While Jesus had described death, He had also predicted resurrection as well, and exactly when that would happen. It is in this description that we can see Jesus being fully aware of the path for His life – and Peter’s reaction is a challenge to this on multiple levels.

It is strange to think that one of Jesus closest disciples would have been easily prompted by Satan to say something that went counter to Jesus’ mission, but this appears to be the case. Satan was present enough that one of Jesus’ closest twelve disciples, Judas Iscariot, was willing to betray Jesus to death. In my mind, it isn’t a far stretch to believe that Peter’s statement was Satan inspired.

Peter’s remark that He hoped what Jesus had just predicted would never happen challenges Jesus on at least three levels. The first is simple. If Jesus was from God, the words He would say would also be prophetic. Wishing that His words would not come true is a challenge against Jesus as God’s messenger.

The next challenge is that if Jesus were to avoid death, then all of sinful humanity would have no hope of life. Peter would not have realized this at the time He said this, but this was exactly what Satan wished would happen – or perhaps, not happen, depending on the perspective one takes this idea.

The third challenge is that the resurrection would not happen. If Jesus never faced the cross and died, that would be one thing, but even worse for Satan would be trying to explain or rationalize away the resurrected Jesus. If Satan couldn’t stop Jesus from dying for humanity, the next best thing would be to stop the resurrection from happening. While Peter would have had no idea that his words implied this, Satan would have, and it was the next best option if the cross was destined to happen.

But Jesus, sensing a teaching moment, pulls the disciples together. Picking back up in verse 24:

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you want to come with me, you must forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me. ²⁵ For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for my sake, you will find it. ²⁶ Will you gain anything if you win the whole world but lose your life? Of course not! There is nothing you can give to regain your life. ²⁷ For the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each one according to his deeds. ²⁸ I assure you that there are some here who will not die until they have seen the Son of Man come as King.”

While the focus of this passage up to this point had been on challenging Peter’s statement from Satan, Jesus doesn’t want the focus to remain there. To this end, Jesus quickly shifts the focus of the conversation onto the commitment that is required for His disciples, and the reward that will be theirs for choosing to follow Jesus.

What Jesus says in this passage is one of the biggest paradoxes in the entire Bible. In verse 25, Jesus tells those present: “if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for my sake, you will find it.” The paradox is that there is no way for us to save ourselves. The only way we can live past our limited time on earth is by choosing to give up our lives here on this earth – and this is done by committing our lives on this earth to Jesus.

When we have committed our lives to Jesus, He will begin leading us, guiding us, teaching us, and showing us how He wants us to live. The truth that many Christians living today miss is that obedience to Jesus today increases the quality of life we have today, and life with God can begin today and not wait until the next age. Jesus actually invites us to begin our lives with God today, and this is accomplished by giving up what we think is important and instead leaning on God to show us what He feels is important.

I say this not just as a challenge for you, but primarily a challenge for me. My personality is one that feeds on achievement and I like the feeling of accomplishment after successfully finishing a goal or task. Left unchecked, I could be caught achieving many worthwhile things that are unimportant to God. The challenge to myself is to place my life and goals before God and then only pick up the things He tells me are truly important.

Jesus also makes the statement that some of those present would not experience death before seeing Jesus come in God’s glory. There is debate whether this promise had to do with an event known as the transfiguration, whether this promise had to do with seeing Jesus following the resurrection, or whether Jesus is making a statement about true followers of Jesus never facing death on this earth.

While I would love to dive into the implications of this verse, it would take too much time for our podcast format, and it would actually distract us from the big promise Jesus wants us to pay attention to. This promise is that when Jesus returns, He will be bringing rewards for those who gave their lives to Him, and this is based on what we made of our lives.

Actually, I should probably say instead that this is based on what He made of our lives, because the only way for us to make it through this glorious return is to have given our lives to Jesus beforehand, and let Him use our lives for His purposes.

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

If you haven’t done so already, dedicate your life to God. Choose to give your life to Him each day and let Him guide and direct your decisions. He knows what the most important goal for your life is, and we can trust that He will only lead us to focus on the tasks that He knows are the eternally important ones.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn from God and the Holy Spirit firsthand. While listening to a pastor or a podcast is nice, if you base your spiritual life on what someone else has learned, you shortchange yourself out of what God might want to teach you personally through His 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!

As we continue our journey through the gospels, we come to an event where it appeared as though Jesus didn’t get His miracle 100% right the first time. All too often, I find myself picturing Jesus as succeeding the first time at everything He set out to do, and I imagine that even though Jesus faced struggles, problems, and challenges, my mind’s eye pictures Jesus as easily winning every challenge that came His way.

Jesus was always one step ahead of the trick questions of the religious leaders, He always seems to know the right words to say to help hurting people, and His touch, voice, or simply His presence healed people.

Knowing that Jesus succeeds with the tasks He set out to do then makes the miracle in our passage for this episode a little more fascinating. This is because the miracle in our passage seems to suggest that Jesus didn’t get the healing right the first time, and that He had to redo it in order for it to truly be successful.

Let’s read what happened. Our passage is found in the gospel of Mark, chapter 8, and we’ll be reading it using the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 22, Mark tells us that Jesus and His disciples:

²² [They] came to Bethsaida, where some people brought a blind man to Jesus and begged him to touch him. ²³ Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. After spitting on the man’s eyes, Jesus placed his hands on him and asked him, “Can you see anything?”

²⁴ The man looked up and said, “Yes, I can see people, but they look like trees walking around.”

²⁵ Jesus again placed his hands on the man’s eyes. This time the man looked intently, his eyesight returned, and he saw everything clearly. ²⁶ Jesus then sent him home with the order, “Don’t go back into the village.”

In this passage, as we were reading it together, a detail jumped off the page at me. In my mind, I find it fascinating that Jesus would take the man outside the village before healing him, and then after healing him, tell him to not go back into the village. I wonder if this is one more example of an event where Jesus wants to avoid receiving praise from people.

However, instead of focusing on this angle of our passage, let’s instead focus on the fascinating detail that Jesus’ first attempt at this miracle was only partially successful. After Jesus’ first attempt, the man responses that He can see movement, but that the people look more like trees than people.

This response is a clue for us that this man probably was not born blind. Instead, it is likely that at some point in his life, his eyesight failed or an accident took his sense of vision. I suspect this because someone who has never seen a person likely could not distinguish as quickly between a visual impression of a person versus simply what could be distinguished from the other senses.

However, regardless of whether this man really was born blind, or if he lost his ability to see at some point after he was born, it is fascinating that Jesus takes him out of the village and away from those who had brought him. Part of me suspects that Jesus could tell that those who had brought the man to Him were less interested in the health or well-being of the man and simply wanted to see Jesus perform a miracle.

If this was the case, Jesus separates the two desires in order to help this man: He desires to restore this man’s sight, but He does not want to satisfy the crowd’s selfish desire to see a miracle since they were unlikely to give God the glory for this miracle. To solve this dilemma, Jesus separated the man from the crowd, and led him out of the village.

At this point in the passage, I wonder whether the blind man had given up hope. If the blind man had given up hope of ever regaining his eyesight, he might have thought Jesus was separating him from the crowd because Jesus wanted to let him know that He might not be successful, or that this man’s blindness was incurable. While any speculation into what this blind man may have been thinking is impossible to verify, it would not surprise me to learn of at least one person coming to Jesus who was uncertain if Jesus could help their specific situation. In other words, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone believed Jesus could help everyone else, but that their own situation was unsolvable.

If this man had given up hope of ever having full eyesight again, he may have agreed to let the crowd bring him to Jesus because he was willing to see if Jesus could at least improve his eyesight a little. If this was what the man was thinking, then it explains what actually happens in this two-step miracle.

After Jesus leads the man away from the village and places His hands on the man’s eyes for the first time, we see the first step of this miracle take place. In other passages, the gospel writers seem to indicate that the level of faith present in an event could dictate how many people were healed. Usually this was the faith of the person who was being healed, but there are recorded cases where a friend or companion’s faith is sufficient.

Since this man was away from the crowd and away from other people who would clearly have enough faith, the faith necessary in this miracle was completely his. If the man’s faith was so small that all he expected was a slight improvement and a partial healing, then that is what would ultimately happen. The man came hoping to have his sight improved, and this ultimately resulted in him getting eyesight that was not perfect, but could at least help him get around without running into things.

However, from the first step of this miracle, the man received more than this. From seeing improvement in his eyesight, the man’s hope and faith in Jesus grew. With his increased level of faith, the second step of this miracle results in a complete restoration of the man’s eyesight.

If the faith necessary for this miracle was based on the faith of the man being healed, then we should not be surprised to learn that this miracle came in two parts. All too often, our faith in God is small at first, and only after we have experienced God working in our lives will our faith grow.

Also, this miracle challenges us with the truth that God will not stop blessing and healing as our level of faith increases. God is not going to give up on us if we don’t get our faith in Him right the first time. God is a God of second chances, and God is okay with us asking for a “do-over”.

Through Jesus’ sacrifice, God gave us the ultimate do-over card that we can use to restart and redirect our life towards Him no matter the number of times we stumble or make mistakes. God is the ultimate Giver, and most definitely a God of second chances.

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 so you don’t need to ask for that “do-over”. When choosing God and following His will for your life, while times in this life may not be easy and while we may stumble, know that we have our future life with God secured.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself so you can learn about who Jesus is and what He did for you and I. Through the pages of the Bible, discover just how much Jesus loves you and what He went through to save you and me!

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

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, the Jewish leaders as a group actively opposed Him. However, I don’t think that these leaders believed they were opposing God’s Messiah. Instead, I suspect that these leaders had wrapped their beliefs up inside their tradition, and when God sent Jesus as His chosen Messiah, He didn’t fit the description their tradition had created or ultimately formed.

However, the Jewish leaders could not deny that Jesus was special, that He had the ability to work miracles, and that He focused on helping those who were hurting. But what they could not wrap their minds around was how Jesus fit into their mold – because if Jesus didn’t fit into their mold, they concluded that they could not trust that He was from God.

It is with this backdrop that we come to an event where two opposed religious groups team up and ask Jesus for something. We will be looking at this event from Matthew’s gospel, and it is found in chapter 16. Starting in verse 1 and reading from the New International Version, Matthew tells us that:

¹ The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.

² He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ ³ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. ⁴ A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.

What I find amazing in this passage and event is that Jesus criticizes these leaders for wanting a sign, before telling them that they will actually get a sign, but that the sign will come in a way that they did not expect.

Likely up to this point, no one had thought of Jonah’s rebellious life and attempt at running away from God as a Messianic symbol, but after Jesus made this connection with these religious leaders, the connection is clear. Jonah himself probably wouldn’t believe it if someone had suggested to him that his attempts at running away from God would be used as a sign pointing out the Messiah.

However, the challenge Jesus shares with these leaders is one that should prompt us to pause. Jesus says in verse 4, “A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it…” Part of me wonders if Jesus really meant to say that a wicked generation demands a sign. If this is the case, then these leaders, who were trying to test Jesus by challenging Him to give then a sign from heaven, would be implicated, but those living at various points in history who were diligently seeking God and looking for the ways God is moving around them would not be guilty. I can understand those who frame Jesus’ statement in this way.

But while the heading in my Bible titles this section as a demand for a sign, the wording of the verses themselves speak more on the looking and seeking a sign rather than demanding a sign.

When we look a little deeper at what Jesus is describing in these verses, specifically in the context of these leaders’ request, we find an interesting clue about what Jesus is speaking out against. The leaders who had come to Jesus came with the idea that if Jesus would perform a miraculous sign for them, then they would choose to believe in Him.

This is a key distinction between of the two angles we can understand Jesus’ response. In Jesus’ own words, evil and adulterous people desire to see signs and miracles before believing, whereas other people who are paying attention don’t have to demand signs or miracles because they have opened their eyes to see what God is already doing all around them. Those who are paying attention to God’s moving and working have all the evidence they need for their faith, while those who demand to see miraculous signs will never be truly satisfied with what they see.

But tucked within these leaders’ demand for a miraculous sign is another trap that is less visible on the surface. I don’t even believe the leaders themselves realized it was there. The demand to display a miraculous sign is very similar to one of the temptations Satan brought to Jesus in the wilderness. In this temptation, Satan takes Jesus, places Him at the highest point of the temple, and challenges Him to jump off, quoting a scripture about God promising to protect Him.

The subtle temptation in both of these situations is for Jesus to do something miraculous to draw attention to Himself. The trap present here is that Jesus did not come to draw attention to Himself, but instead to give glory to God the Father. Everything Jesus did was intended to point people to the Father and to give people an accurate view of the Father. The Father poured His Holy Spirit out onto Jesus to validate this mission, and even at a few key points in Jesus’ ministry, the Father speaks His approval of Jesus.

Those who are always looking for and seeking signs will ultimately be disappointed. While Jesus does point these leaders to a sign that they can look for, the sign Jesus gives them is nowhere near the one they wanted to receive or the one they expected.

The sign Jesus points them to look forward to is a sign that is outward focused. People cannot raise themselves from the grave, but God can do so if He chooses. Another way to say this idea would be that if God the Father did not want Jesus to return to life after the crucifixion, there would have been nothing Jesus could have done to raise Himself from the grave. Jesus returning to life after the crucifixion is one of the clearest ways God gave to validate Jesus’ ministry.

In our own lives, we should not look for or seek after miraculous signs in order to build a foundation for our faith and trust in God. Instead, we should build our trust in Him based upon what He has promised us, and then keep our eyes open to what God is doing around us. There are plenty of signs available for us to see, but we must be paying attention and willing to acknowledge God’s interest in being involved the world today. It is easy to discount coincidences as simply that, but what if every coincidence was instead providence that gives us additional evidence of God moving in the world today.

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

Continue seeking God first, and choose to place your foundation on His promises and on what Jesus has done for each of us. Don’t look for miracles or signs to build your faith on, but instead look for these things as a way to validate the commitment you have already made.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to personally grow closer to God each day. Through prayer and personal Bible study, we are able to invite Jesus into our lives and hearts and let Him transform us from the inside.

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!