Reflective Bible Study

As we continue our journey through Jesus’ life, we come to a long passage that contains a verse that transformed my view of Jesus when I first read it. This view is incredibly counter-cultural and it actually helps us frame several things Jesus does in His ministry that might not make any sense without this perspective.

In our culture today, we like to place people on pedestals and on platforms, and look to them for ideas, inspiration, entertainment, or escape. Our culture today loves to give glory to people who overcome unbelievable odds, it loves to talk about people who have royally messed up, and it loves to vilify the people it stereotypes.

We all in some way, shape, or form do this. When we pay attention to a singer, actor, politician, celebrity, athlete, or someone significant in our life, the focus and attention we give to them is subtly also giving them glory. This idea of giving glory also extends to us giving glory to Jesus, and this draws our attention onto a verse contained in our passage.

However, before we focus in on that verse, I want to point out that giving glory to other people is not a universally bad thing. Giving some glory to others is unavoidable in our world and in today’s culture. Where we tend to fail in this area is by not prioritizing the time, and consequently, the glory that we are giving away. The easy trap we fall into is forgetting to give glory to God personally and directly, by intentionally spending time with Him.

This then brings our attention to the passage we are focusing in on for this episode. However, because this passage is quite long, I am going to pull out a section of it to read, while encouraging you to read the broad passage on your own when you get the chance. Like many of you, I have probably read this broad passage many times, but during one of the times reading it, a verse within it hit me and completely shifted my perception of Jesus.

Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 5, and we will read it from the New International Version. While I would like to begin in verse 16, for our time together to stay within somewhere close to our normal length, l’ll jump down several verses. With that said, starting instead in verse 31, we read Jesus responding to the religious leaders, saying:

³¹ “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. ³² There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true.

³³ “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. ³⁴ Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. ³⁵ John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

³⁶ “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. ³⁷ And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, ³⁸ nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. ³⁹ You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, ⁴⁰ yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

⁴¹ “I do not accept glory from human beings, ⁴² but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. ⁴³ I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴ How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

Let’s stop reading here. One verse near the end of this challenge Jesus gives to the religious leaders is amazing when we stop to draw attention to it. This verse is verse 41, where Jesus tells the religious leaders, “I do not accept glory from human beings.”

I know I had read this broader passage numerous times before really seeing this verse, but one morning while studying, this verse jumped off the page at me and shifted my perception of Jesus. It’s interesting, because once I saw Jesus through this verse, I find it hard to read any passage about Jesus without using this new perspective.

By including this phrase, Jesus is either being an example of the most sinless human ever to live, or He is being an example of one of the most deluded sociopaths. I’m inclined to think He was the most sinless human, because God gave Him the power to perform miracles, healing thousands of sick people, feeding thousands more, and a little event we call the resurrection helps this thought as well.

Also, sociopaths don’t live selflessly, so Jesus doesn’t really fit that stereotype if we look at this comparison from the other angle.

Since this phrase Jesus said reveals part of His character, I don’t ever see this idea changing. I don’t see Jesus having rejected glory from people while here on earth, but then later changing His mind about this. Instead, I suspect Jesus does the same thing with the glory He is given today that He did while He walked the earth during the first century. Whenever anyone tried to give Jesus glory, He directs the glory to the Father.

If we take this idea one step further, what about Satan? If anyone was more opposite to Jesus, it would be him. Satan wanted more glory pointed towards himself. If God and the angels were not going to do this, humans are the only other candidate he has, which means that Satan will accept glory from humans. It is even possible that Satan desires glory from humanity.

So with this knowledge as one guide, a simple litmus test we can use to determine a genuine Christ-following disciple-leader is simply whether they point the glory to God, or if they accept glory themselves (or perhaps if they seek out more glory that they can accept).

I have not done much research into historical cult movements, but most if not all probably would have failed this simple litmus test. Someone looking in from the outside (and maybe even a rational person looking from within) could rationally say that the leader was interested in drawing people, focus, and glory onto himself or herself and not on forwarding that glory on to God.

This simple litmus test could also be one way of identifying Satan when he comes claiming to be Christ. By His own declaration, Jesus never accepted glory from humans, whereas Satan will likely be the opposite. I very much suspect that a Satan impersonating Jesus, or anyone impersonating Jesus, will fail the test of whether they are in it for their own glory or for God’s.

So where does that leave you and I today? How can we take this information and change our lives?

I cannot speak for you, but when originally reading this phrase and when the flood of ideas poured into my mind, I could not escape the clear revelation of Jesus’ character. Jesus was 100+% focused on helping others and forwarding the glory onto God the Father.

As disciples of Jesus, which is another way of saying that we model or imitate our lives after His, I see pointing all glory and praise upwards to God as a character attribute we all need to incorporate into our own lives, myself included. I must not seek glory for myself, but forward any glory onward and upward to Jesus and the Father. There is the constant pressure from culture to accept glory and praise, therefore, in my mind, since Jesus did not accept it and culture wants us to seek it, rejecting praise and pointing our focus upwards towards God must be something worth striving for in living a Jesus-like life.

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, choose to intentionally place God first in your life and choose to model Jesus and give God the glory.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn more about who Jesus really was and what Jesus ultimately did for you when He died on the cross. Accept the gift Jesus offers and don’t let anyone trick you out of holding onto the promise of salvation!

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!

One characteristic that virtually all humanity shares is identifying differences between ourselves and another person or group of people. Sometimes, this difference is a desirable one, and we want to change ourselves in whatever way is needed to then share that characteristic. Whether the characteristic is lots of money, a big house, a nice car, or even an incredibly humble spirit, whatever the characteristic happens to be, we see what someone else has and we want to have that as part of our lives as well.

On the other hand, often times when we compare ourselves to others, we can see differences that we are happy are not part of our lives, and in these cases we are motivated to move further away from the difference, and maybe even take extra precautions to keep ourselves away from experiencing the same. A characteristic in this group that many people can relate to is the desire to not go to prison. While there may be some people who want to go to jail, most people don’t, and the desire to not be locked up inspires us to obey the laws of the place where we are living.

Early on in Jesus’ ministry, we see two different groups of people coming to Jesus and His followers with a peculiar difference they have noticed between their respective groups and Jesus’ followers. While they know the scriptural basis for their side of the question, they are perplexed that Jesus’ followers don’t do the same things that they do.

While this event is in three of the four gospels, we will be reading about what happened from the gospel of Mark, chapter 2, using the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 18, we read:

¹⁸ John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came to Jesus and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but your disciples don’t?”

¹⁹ Jesus replied, “Can wedding guests fast while the groom is still with them? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. ²⁰ But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast.

Let’s pause reading here to draw our attention onto an interesting distinction. John the Baptist’s disciples fast, and the various Pharisee groups fast as well, but they have noticed that Jesus’ followers don’t fast, or at least they don’t fast like they do.

This difference makes them curious, so they ask Jesus why there is this difference, and in Jesus’ reply, we find a hint at something profound. Jesus answers their question by saying in verses 19 and 20, “Can wedding guests fast while the groom is still with them? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast.”

What is amazing in my mind about this answer is not only does it answer their question that Jesus’ disciples’ lack of fasting is only a temporary thing, but we also see a hint that Jesus will not be with His followers forever. In other words, Jesus says openly that there will be a time when He is taken away from them. This could reference Jesus’ death or, more likely, Jesus’ ascension and return to heaven.

Here in the early portion of His ministry, Jesus begins hinting at what was to come. Jesus facing the cross and His return to heaven were both not a surprise to Jesus. But these two events, especially the cross, were unexpected in the disciple’s minds.

But Jesus hasn’t stopped speaking His response. In verse 21, He continues by saying:

²¹ “No one patches an old coat with a new piece of cloth that will shrink. Otherwise, the new patch will shrink and rip away some of the old cloth, and the tear will become worse. ²² People don’t pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the wine will make the skins burst, and both the wine and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine is to be poured into fresh skins.”

In many ways, this is a peculiar thing to say when talking about fasting and the temporary differences between Jesus’ disciples and these other two groups of disciples.

But it is possible that in these verses, Jesus is hinting at something bigger as well – specifically that His mission is going to appear like a new piece of cloth on an old coat, or like new wine in an old wineskin. The truth that the Jewish leaders were unwilling to admit to was that they had drifted culturally, spiritually, and doctrinally away from the path that would have recognized the Messiah for who He was. They had emphasized certain prophecies that seemed good to them, and minimized or ignored prophecies that didn’t seem to fit with their idealized picture.

I don’t believe that Jesus came with the goal of replacing Judaism with Christianity. It was only after being rejected by the Jews who were unwilling to discover how far they had drifted that Jesus decided to start small and with a group of unlikely people as His first disciples. In the years during Jesus’ ministry prior to the cross, and in the years following His return to heaven, many of these leaders ultimately realized what God was doing and they joined His movement. These people were leaving the old wineskin and moving to the new one – because they had been reborn spiritually.

However, what prompted this statement regarding old and new was a simple question on fasting differences, and the response to this question was that this difference was only temporary. Following Jesus being taken from His disciples, whether through His death on the cross or His return to heaven, Jesus’ followers would reincorporate fasting as a spiritual discipline.

This means that even today, over two thousand years later, as followers of Jesus, we can incorporate fasting into our spiritual lives. Just because John’s disciples and the Pharisees fasted while Jesus’ disciples didn’t at that time, Jesus shares in His response that fasting isn’t a negative activity. Fasting is going without for a time so that we can draw closer to God and focus better on Him. Sometimes fasting involves avoiding food, but it could also be avoiding or eliminating television, movies, or other forms of entertainment.

In this passage, we see the difference between these groups of disciples being temporary, and less than five years after this question was asked, the early disciples would be found fasting, praying, and engaging in other spiritual disciplines like these to help them continue growing closer to God. If the early disciples brought fasting into their spiritual lives after Jesus had returned to heaven, nothing should stop us from adding it into our own spiritual lives as well, provided that we fast with the goal of moving closer to God through the power of the Holy Spirit.

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

If you have not fasted recently, and there isn’t a significant health reason why you shouldn’t, consider fasting for a short period of time and doing so on a regular basis. If you regularly read and study the Bible first thing in the morning, consider skipping supper the night before as a mini-fast you could do without impacting your schedule too significantly. While I wouldn’t recommend doing this every night, once or twice a week are definitely doable.

Also, while you spend time praying and studying, be sure to be studying the Bible and not focusing too significantly on anything that doesn’t draw you to reading the Bible personally. While devotionals and other study tools are good, they are only as good as their ability to draw you into reading and studying the Bible for yourself. While being a part of a spiritual community is vital for spiritual growth, so is being involved in personal Bible study. I want to help you have a personal relationship with Jesus, and that only happens through personal prayer and personal study.

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 our journey through the gospels focusing on Jesus’ life, we arrive at a passage that has an interesting opening. If you have read the gospels for any length of time, you might be surprised to see a detail in this opening that is likely very understated.

If you have ever taken a trip to see someone or something special, then you might see this detail at the opening of our passage sooner than someone who has never done this. Perhaps this detail is only included in one of the gospels and that is why many people overlook it. While this event is found in three of the four gospels, only in Luke’s gospel do we have an interesting detail – one that could help frame Jesus’ setup for this healing miracle.

Let’s look at this event, Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 5, and we will read it using the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 17, Luke sets the stage by telling us:

¹⁷ One day some Pharisees and experts in the Law of Moses sat listening to Jesus teach. They had come from every village in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem.

God had given Jesus the power to heal the sick, ¹⁸ and some people came carrying a crippled man on a mat. They tried to take him inside the house and put him in front of Jesus. ¹⁹ But because of the crowd, they could not get him to Jesus. So they went up on the roof, where they removed some tiles and let the mat down in the middle of the room.

²⁰ When Jesus saw how much faith they had, he said to the crippled man, “My friend, your sins are forgiven.”

²¹ The Pharisees and the experts began arguing, “Jesus must think he is God! Only God can forgive sins.”

²² Jesus knew what they were thinking, and he said, “Why are you thinking that? ²³ Is it easier for me to tell this crippled man that his sins are forgiven or to tell him to get up and walk? ²⁴ But now you will see that the Son of Man has the right to forgive sins here on earth.” Jesus then said to the man, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk home.”

²⁵ At once the man stood up in front of everyone. He picked up his mat and went home, giving thanks to God. ²⁶ Everyone was amazed and praised God. What they saw surprised them, and they said, “We have seen a great miracle today!”

Before today, I had not ever noticed how Luke’s version of this event opened. Luke opens this passage and event by telling us that the Pharisees and experts in Moses’ Law had “come from every village in Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem.”

This short phrase tells me that while this was early on in Jesus’ ministry, He was starting to become better known, and that His ministry was gaining traction. The detail Luke includes in his gospel that these religious leaders sat listening to Jesus implies that they initially came because they wanted to see and hear Jesus for themselves without taking other people’s word for it. Also, since people had traveled from all over the region to see and hear Jesus, we can conclude that Jesus’ fame had grown to the point where the formerly crippled man’s friends knew about Jesus and that Jesus could heal their friend.

Outside of probably a few isolated cases, such as Jesus teaching up in Nazareth and being thrown out of the synagogue, this event might have been the spark that ignited the hostility the religious leaders had towards Jesus throughout the gospels.

At the beginning of this passage, there is no indication that the Pharisees were hostile towards Jesus, but they were probably curious. In reality, I am a little curious what Jesus actually was teaching about that day before the crippled man enters via the roof. Part of me suspects that Jesus was teaching on something related to forgiveness and this unexpected entrance helped bring Jesus’ sermon to its main point.

What amazes me about Jesus is that He does not tip-toe around an issue. While He is loving and compassionate to those who need healing, He is also very direct to those who need to hear truth shared directly.

In this miracle, we see a clear contrast between two ideas: mere talk verses practical action.

The Pharisees and religious leaders had mastered the ability to talk about ideas and debate theories, but they lacked the practical action to support their message. In Jesus’ statement on forgiveness, He expresses an action that is really only internally expressed or felt, since feeling forgiven by God, or by anyone for that matter, is something that has no visible signs in the moment.

When Jesus claims that this man’s sins had been forgiven, this statement gets the Pharisee’s attention. Forgiveness is an action, but it is a God-only action. Perhaps, since forgiveness is an intangible action, perhaps these religious leaders felt that it was better left in the talk realm, specifically for them to be able to encourage or discourage people when they bring their sacrifices. However, Jesus assures the man that His sins have been forgiven, and this is before the man had done anything like asking for forgiveness or bringing a sacrifice.

The Pharisee’s don’t like Jesus’ attitude towards forgiveness, so Jesus chooses to frame their model of forgiveness as mere talk by asking them the rhetorical question, “Is it easier for me to tell this crippled man that his sins are forgiven or to tell him to get up and walk?”

While we have no tangible proof when God forgives a sin, we can very easily test the command, “Get up and walk”. Get up and walk is something that is so testable that it takes mere seconds to verify. Can the man actually obey Jesus’ command?

This is a bold move on Jesus’ part.

While Jesus claimed to have knowledge of who God has forgiven, in the Pharisees’ minds, Jesus was directly taking credit for forgiveness, which was a role they believed was God’s alone – specifically the power to forgive sins. Jesus challenged their understanding and belief with a clear, direct miracle.

When reading this event, we might be tempted to think that this event is an example of Jesus drawing attention to Himself, but this would not be the case. Instead, throughout this whole event, the focus was on giving God the glory, and it was a success, because the passage closes with these words in verse 26, “Everyone was amazed and praised God. What they saw surprised them, and they said, ‘We have seen a great miracle today!’”

Another powerful truth in this passage that I want to draw our attention to is that Jesus never claims to have the power to forgive sins according to what we read in this passage. Jesus did not say “I forgive you of your sins.” Instead, He said “My friend, your sins are forgiven.” This passive statement is one subtle way that people in Biblical times attributed a truth to God. In other words, Jesus tells this man that God had forgiven His sins.

In this statement, Jesus shared the truth that God forgives sins because that is who He is – and He forgives sin with no strings attached. Jesus wanted to stretch the mind of His audience to the reality that God loves before God requires. The Pharisees believed God’s love was conditional and based on obedience to His requirements. Jesus challenged this idea with the truth that God loves first, and Jesus’ presence in a sinful, rebellious world is the biggest evidence of this truth.

Through all the details included in this event, Jesus gave 100% of the glory to God – and Jesus’ actions and message in this event reveal a profound truth about God the Father’s character and love for us.

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 struggling with feeling forgiven, claim Jesus’ promise now that God has already forgiven your past sins and resolve to move forward, starting today, into a new life with Him.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself, because the Bible reveals God’s true character, and while other people have ideas and opinions, when wanting to know who God is, it’s best to look at what He tells us about Himself in 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 abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

If you have ever wondered what Jesus’ most important habit was, an unassuming passage in Mark’s gospel likely gives us a big clue about it. In it, we find Jesus doing something that the disciples did not expect, and it is something that we can just as easily do today as Jesus did back in the first century.

While this event is included in two of the four gospels, specifically Mark and Luke, for our time together in this episode, we’ll be reading from Mark’s version. This event, clue, and habit are found in the first chapter of Mark’s gospel, and we’ll read it from the New International Version. Starting in verse 35, Mark tells us that:

³⁵ Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. ³⁶ Simon and his companions went to look for him, ³⁷ and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

³⁸ Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” ³⁹ So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

This passage may be easy to skim over, but if we do, we miss an important key into Jesus’ private life. While most of the gospels focus on Jesus’ public life, which included His healing, preaching, and teaching, Jesus’ private life was focused in on finding time to be alone to pray.

In a humorous turn of events, Jesus’ habit catches these early followers off guard, because while they are suppose to be following Jesus, they seemed to have lost Him and have to go out and find Him.

There are plenty of other examples we find in the gospels about Jesus taking the time to pray, and there are both public examples as well as private ones. But here in the first chapter of Mark’s gospel, I believe he wants to give us a baseline of Jesus habits. In a subtle way, Mark draws our attention onto Jesus’ private prayer life as the foundation of His public ministry.

But this isn’t the only habit that is hinted at in these short verses. While prayer is the most significant habit in this passage, it would be nothing without the habit that is demonstrated after the disciples find Jesus praying.

After the disciples exclaim that everyone from the town they were just in is looking for Jesus, we see Jesus reply with something that is a little strange. Instead of going back into town to find the people who were also looking for Him, Jesus redirects the disciples by saying in verse 38, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”

The second habit that is demonstrated in this passage is that Jesus followed the Holy Spirit’s prompting that came from the close relationship He had with God through his prayer life. It is entirely plausible that God directed Jesus to the best private place to pray that morning, and He kept Jesus hidden from everyone else until the early disciples found Him. And during this prayer time, God prompted Jesus to leave this town and go to the other villages nearby and continue teaching, preaching, and healing there.

In this passage, when we stop and look at Jesus’ foundation and private life, nothing that is described is something we cannot do. The only things truly stopping us from carving out time for prayer are feeble excuses, such as not having any time, or being too busy. These excuses are weak because we can easily prioritize that which is important to us. If prayer was as important to us as it was to Jesus, we would be praying as much as Jesus prayed.

While too often we stay up too late, which then cascades us into sleeping in and rushing our mornings, this is ultimately a choice we are making. For most people, going to bed a little earlier so that getting up a little earlier is not as rushed is completely doable. This might mean not watching as many movies or television shows, or giving up some other activity, but whatever we must do to adjust both the evening and morning routines to make time to pray is vital to our spiritual lives.

After we have made time to pray, we must also choose a place to pray where we are less likely to be distracted by our surroundings. While most people, myself included, cannot get away from 100% of the distractions, I am able to minimize the number of things that are able to distract me by simply being strategic about where I choose to pray.

It’s quite likely that I am sharing what many in our listening audience already know and do. Many of us, if you have been following the challenges I end each podcast with for any length of time, will already have an active prayer life. If this is you, perhaps you know someone who would benefit from these messages and challenges.

But where many people stumble, and this includes me as well, is with the second habit that we see present. While prayer is crucial for our spiritual lives to be strong, we must not pray in a vacuum – both literally and figuratively. What this means is that we must take our Bibles into our prayer time, reading and claiming promises that God has shared throughout the Bible narrative, and then choosing to move forward with what He has impressed upon our hearts to do that align with His Word. God will not contradict Himself by telling us to do something opposite from what He told those in the past. While the circumstances and situations may be different, the themes and principles He shares won’t be.

Many of us take our Bibles with us to pray, but we don’t let the Holy Spirit speak into our lives or into our situations. Others will pray and be impressed to move forward but will chicken out or dismiss the prompts that God has given to us while we pray. However, when we don’t let the Holy Spirit speak into our lives, and when we don’t move forward with what the Holy Spirit has prompted us to do, we unknowingly stop our spiritual growth and our walk with God – and when described this way, we all can agree that stopping our walk with God is not something we would intentionally choose to do.

Prayer, Bible study, and Holy-Spirit-inspired action are the foundations for any successful God-centered ministry. It is also the foundation for Reflective Bible Study’s framework. While you don’t need my help to pray, study, and be inspired by the Holy Spirit, I am happy to help via long-distance through the Internet if you would like it. At the very end of this episode, I’ll share more about how I can help, but before we close out another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Choose to seek God first and prioritize Him as most important in your life. Demonstrate to yourself that you have prioritized God first by making time, if you haven’t already, to add regular prayer into your schedule. Remember, if prayer was as important to us as it was to Jesus, we would be praying as much as Jesus prayed.

Also, take your Bible with you to pray. Open up and claim promises that God has shared through the various events, prayers, and songs that the Bible includes and ask God to be present and active in your life and situation. While I have no idea what God’s presence will look like for you, I know this is a prayer that God is happy to answer.

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!