Reflective Bible Study

If you have ever wondered what God the Father is like, or if you have ever wanted to know more about who God the Father is, you happen to be in luck, because in this episode’s short, four-verse passage, Jesus gives us the key for how we can know God.

But before we get to reading our passage for this episode, let me frame what we are about to read with an observation about the culture we live in. In today’s culture, there is a belief that has spread throughout Christianity and the broader culture that says God the Father is mean and vengeful while Jesus is kind and loving. The implication of this belief is that we need Jesus to step between the mean Father and us to protect us from Him.

But this viewpoint is completely misguided and wrong. Yes, there are things that happen in the Bible and the Old Testament that could paint God the Father in a negative light, but as I have studied, I’ve realized God has a different picture and perspective on life, and as a Life-Giver and Creator, He thinks differently than we do as His creation.

However, while I might have a different view on this than other people do, how do I know that the “Mean-Father” belief is inaccurate? One piece of supporting evidence for my belief is found in our passage for this episode. While there are several passages in the gospels that help show us a better picture of God the Father, our passage for this episode answers this challenge regarding the Father’s character a little more directly than most. And like I hinted at a moment ago, this passage also gives us the key to learning more about who the Father is and what He is like.

Our passage is found in the gospel of Luke, in chapter 10, and we will read if using the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 21, Luke tells us:

²¹ At that time Jesus was filled with joy by the Holy Spirit and said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth! I thank you because you have shown to the unlearned what you have hidden from the wise and learned. Yes, Father, this was how you were pleased to have it happen.

²² “My Father has given me all things. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

²³ Then Jesus turned to the disciples and said to them privately, “How fortunate you are to see the things you see! ²⁴ I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, but they could not, and to hear what you hear, but they did not.”

Did you catch the key to knowing God here? Actually, as I read this just now, I saw three keys included in this passage, with one being a little clearer than the other two.

The first and main key is in Jesus’ words specifically about knowing the Father. Verse 22 tells us, “No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Note that last part: “and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” From Jesus’ own lips we read that He is the only one who really knows the Father, and He is the only One who can reveal the Father to others.

This tells me that either Jesus was incredibly arrogant and should not be believed in this case (which is what popular culture wants us to do), or He was sharing a significant truth about God that we would be wise to pay attention to.

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. If they don’t share their ideas with this filter, then they are giving an opinion. It might be their opinion, someone else’s opinion, or even Satan’s opinion, but if we believe Jesus’ words here, any claims about God that do not come through Jesus are merely opinions.

The second key is a little trickier to see, but it is in the first portion of Jesus’ statement. He says in verse 21: “Father, Lord of heaven and earth! I thank you because you have shown to the unlearned what you have hidden from the wise and learned.” In this phrase, we have a brief picture of God, and we can see that God may hide information from the wise and knowledgeable people, while helping show it to those without much education. This may relate to faith, but there is nothing included in this passage to make the knowledge God shares to the unlearned exclusively faith related.

The second key is simply realizing that God may choose to hide Himself from some people. Just like the first key places dependence on Jesus being the one who can choose to reveal God the Father, God the Father Himself can choose to stay hidden or give evidence of Himself to people.

The third key comes at the very beginning of this passage, in how Luke describes the scene. The first part of verse 21 says, “At that time Jesus was filled with joy by the Holy Spirit . . .” This leads into the statement that includes the second and first keys, but here in this third key, we see the Holy Spirit inspiring these words themselves.

By simply observing how Luke describes this event, we can see that the Holy Spirit must be present for someone to understand God the Father in a correct way, and the Holy Spirit is needed when looking at how Jesus reveals the Father, and the Holy Spirit is important when looking at how God the Father chooses to reveal Himself.

In this passage, we have three keys to knowing about God the Father, and each key relates to a member of the Godhead. This also says that any opinion about God that is gained outside of these three keys is simply opinion. It may be a close to accurate opinion or it could be a complete distortion of God, but it is entirely opinion.

Jesus concludes by telling the disciples how fortunate they are to see Jesus in person, because many people throughout all the other points in history wanted to see and hear what they saw and heard. For us living today, we have their testimony, passed down from the first century to help us understand better what God is like.

However, while Bible study is great, it must also be done in the context of our three keys in order to get the most out of it. Like this passage challenges us, we must look through Jesus’ life and ministry to understand the scriptures, God must want to teach us something and open up a truth for us, and the Holy Spirit must be present in order for us to make an accurate conclusion to what we are learning.

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life, and place growing towards Him as a priority in your life.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do in one way or another, continue prayerfully studying the Bible for yourself, understanding and applying the three keys we just learned in this passage, in order to learn and understand more of what God wants to share with you. While other people often share ideas and opinions, frame everything you hear, read, and see within the framework of Jesus’ ministry. Only through looking at Jesus does history make sense.

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!

While reading the gospels and learning about all the different challenges the religious leaders push onto Jesus, at times I have wondered if the religious leaders ever actually challenged Jesus with what we might consider a valid challenge.

In many ways, all the challenges the religious leaders use against Jesus were valid challenges, but when looking at all the places where Jesus’ ministry is challenged, do any of the challenges that are included in the gospels stand apart from the rest?

When answering this question for myself, we don’t need to look any further than the challenge the Pharisees bring to Jesus in our passage for this episode. Interestingly enough, this challenge from these religious leaders is only found in the gospel of John, and in John’s gospel, it is found in chapter 8. While the Pharisee’s challenge begins in verse 13, let’s begin reading with verse 12 to help us get a better context for how these Pharisees try to discredit Jesus. We’ll also be reading this passage using the New Century Version. Starting in verse 12, John tells us that:

¹² Later, Jesus talked to the people again, saying, “I am the light of the world. The person who follows me will never live in darkness but will have the light that gives life.”

¹³ The Pharisees said to Jesus, “When you talk about yourself, you are the only one to say these things are true. We cannot accept what you say.”

Before reading how Jesus responds, of all the challenges the Pharisees bring, this is among the most relevant for those living in the first century and those of us living in every century since.

If it were not for this passage and challenge, we might not even think of this sort of challenge to Jesus’ ministry today, but this type of challenge was very real in the Old Testament and the first century. In the Law of Moses, in order for any testimony to be valid, it must be independently validated by at least one other witness.

In many ways, this is the same in our court system today. Outside of direct confessions, judges and juries must weigh the evidence and testimony of numerous witnesses in order to determine guilt and innocence. This is even truer in cases where capital punishment or jail-time is a potential result.

The Pharisees’ challenge to Jesus is a valid challenge because if Jesus is the only one giving testimony about Himself, then His testimony is not valid. It would be like anyone standing up and claiming to be the messiah. It would simply be their word alone – and because of this, it would not be valid testimony.

But while this is a valid challenge in many ways, let’s read how Jesus responds, starting in verse 14:

¹⁴ Jesus answered, “Yes, I am saying these things about myself, but they are true. I know where I came from and where I am going. But you don’t know where I came from or where I am going. ¹⁵ You judge by human standards. I am not judging anyone. ¹⁶ But when I do judge, I judge truthfully, because I am not alone. The Father who sent me is with me. ¹⁷ Your own law says that when two witnesses say the same thing, you must accept what they say. ¹⁸ I am one of the witnesses who speaks about myself, and the Father who sent me is the other witness.”

¹⁹ They asked, “Where is your father?”

Jesus answered, “You don’t know me or my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father, too.”

Jesus has a second witness, but what I find fascinating about the second witness Jesus’ uses is that in essence Jesus says God is His second witness.

Not only is this a very bold thing to say, it is completely subjective to each person present. The Pharisees can see and hear Jesus, but are they willing to open their eyes to the Father?

When they ask where Jesus’ Father is, I doubt their intention was to validate Jesus’ words. Instead, it was more likely to find ways to invalidate this second supporting testimony. Seeing the sorts of challenges the Pharisees brought to Jesus prompts me to think that they were excellent persuaders and expert trappers. The religious elite in Jesus’ day used logic as a weapon, and while they weren’t successful using it against Jesus, they were sure they could use it against any second “witness” Jesus had to validate His testimony.

However, Jesus’ Father, or we could simply say God the Father, is a valid witness in Jesus’ ministry. If for nothing else, every time Jesus performed a miracle, and every time He cast out a demon, it was only because God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, was empowering these actions. Without the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ ministry would clearly have been a one-witness ministry, and the Pharisees’ challenge would be valid, but because of the miracles, we can have confidence that God was validating Jesus as a witness and if the Pharisees were willing to admit it – which most weren’t – Jesus did have a second witness in the Father.

The other angle of this discussion is one we really don’t have enough time to unpack in this episode, because it has to do with the hundreds of ways Jesus fulfilled Old Testament Messianic prophecies. The fulfillment of prophecies is a clear third witness for those who are willing to accept this.

Our passage concludes in verse 20 by saying:

²⁰ Jesus said these things while he was teaching in the Temple, near where the money is kept. But no one arrested him, because the right time for him had not yet come.

Part of me wonders if Jesus wasn’t arrested here, not only because the right time had not come, but also because at this point, the Pharisees officially wrote Jesus off. If the Pharisees were unwilling to accept the miracles and healing as signs that God was validating Jesus’ ministry, then there was no way they would accept Old Testament prophecy as a witness either.

The argument the Pharisees used to discredit Jesus is valid, and the argument Jesus uses to counter this challenge is subjective – which I believe Jesus does intentionally.

In other places, Jesus taught that only those who the Father brings to Him will understand who He really is. If the Father doesn’t bring someone to Jesus, to that person, Jesus’ ministry will not look valid because they do not know the Father. To someone who the Father brings to Jesus, Jesus’ ministry will look like the most valid ministry ever in the history of the world, because to this person, not only the Father and Jesus are witnesses, but also history, prophecy, and all the miracles. Even the death and resurrection will be a witness to the person whose eyes are open to what God is teaching.

In this passage, Jesus aligns Himself with God the Father, and looking at the gospel record, we can see how the Father responded and validates Jesus’ ministry. The only thing left for us to do is decide whether we will accept the Father-Son testimony that we have been given in scripture.

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

As I always challenge you to do in one way or another, intentionally seek God first in your life. If you are undecided about who Jesus is, don’t discredit Him because of what someone else has said. Instead, seek to understand Him for yourself, and only discredit Him if your personal study reveals that you should.

When studying, as I regularly challenge you to do, purposefully and prayerfully study the Bible for yourself to understand both the God of the Bible and about Jesus who came to show us what God is like. The four gospels, which are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are a great place to begin when studying to learn about both God the Father and about Jesus.

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 – because, if He created you, which He did, He has an amazing purpose for your life with Him!

If you ever wondered whether Jesus was the sort of person to sneak around, the event in this passage could definitely be used as a proof text. Perhaps Jesus didn’t sneak everywhere He went, but it seems that every so often, He chose to travel in a way that did not draw attention to Himself.

It’s possible we could think this was because Jesus wanted to avoid people, but if that were the case, He simply would not have traveled to the event that our passage for this episode focuses on.

For those of you who want a reference, we will be looking at the gospel of John, chapter 7, and we will be reading from the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 10, John tells us:

¹⁰ But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret. ¹¹ So the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and were saying, “Where is He?”

Pausing our reading briefly, it would seem that Jesus wanted to avoid the Jewish leaders who may have been looking to arrest Him at this time. Continuing in verse 12:

¹² There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, “He is a good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray.” ¹³ Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews.

¹⁴ But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. ¹⁵ The Jews then were astonished, saying, “How has this man become learned, having never been educated?” ¹⁶ So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. ¹⁷ If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. ¹⁸ He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

In this passage, Jesus shares a pretty profound statement, and it helps us frame both His own ministry, and really the ministry of many of the prophets in the Old Testament.

The verse we ended off at, which is verse 18, records Jesus telling the crowd, “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”

While Jesus is speaking about Himself in this passage, the way He phrases this statement implies a truth that can be applied to not only Himself, but to all supposed messengers from God throughout the ages.

In the Old Testament, the role of a prophet was not something that many would want. Not only were many of God’s prophets hated and hurt by those they were sent to give messages to, God often asked them to do crazy things with their lives to illustrate a truth He wanted to share with His people. And as a specific example, while it was not one of the craziest things that God ever asked someone to do, we can read about the prophet Jonah trying to run away from his responsibility as a prophet – even though that didn’t work out so well for him.

But the one thing that all God’s messengers had in common was that at their core, they were seeking to give glory and obedience to the One who sent them. Using Jesus’ words, a false prophet seeks His own glory, while a true prophet doesn’t really care about his fame or glory, but instead focuses in on the glory of the One who sent Him.

Jesus touches on this key idea in a very practical way in verse 17 when He says, “If anyone is willing to do [God’s] will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.”

Obedience is what prompts us to be able to have the experience that can confirm or deny who Jesus really is. There are thousands, if not millions or billions, of people who are content to discredit Jesus from a place of disobedience. While sitting outside of God’s plan, a skeptic has plenty of one-sided evidence when taken at face value to reject God. Only through experientially testing God’s plan out will we be able to know the truth about who Jesus is.

This prompts me to look at the question from the crowd that inspired this statement. In verse 15, we read, “The Jews then were astonished [at Jesus’ teaching], saying, ‘How has this man become learned, having never been educated?’”

Something about this question strikes me as funny. I think it has to do with what is implied behind the question. While on the surface, the question is simply “How did Jesus get to be so intelligent since He was not formally educated?” under the surface, the implied statement is that intelligence is only developed through formal education.

Jesus was educated, but it was through an informal way – which consisted of prayerful personal study, and through what many might call home schooling, as Mary, Jesus’ mom pushed him and taught Him as He was growing up.

Sadly, I see this mentality in today’s culture. While I am not discounting formal education, which I am a product of, or encouraging home-schooling, I see a trend among people that assume degrees means knowledge. Degrees do generally mean that knowledge has been acquired, but degrees are not the only way of acquiring knowledge – and the knowledge behind a degree is highly subjective. Sure, a person passed a set of classes, signifying that they at one point knew the material, but was the material they learned the most up-to-date and practical information? Hopefully, but that is not guaranteed. Also, knowledge is great, but when it is not applied, it is not internalized, and it is eventually forgotten. While I know I learned some advanced level math in school, I don’t remember the importance of sine, cosine, and tangent except to say that they have something to do with angles and the bunch of weird buttons on my scientific calculator.

Knowledge is great. Intelligence is valuable. But when we look at Jesus, we see a bigger truth about our mission. Jesus tells the crowd and us in verse 16, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.”

Jesus depended on God and the Holy Spirit to teach, train, and speak through Him. He did not depend on His own ability when sharing God’s message. This tells me that if Jesus depended on God’s Spirit for His message and His knowledge, God’s Spirit should be the first place I look to when seeking knowledge that is useful for my life. And part of me wonders what would happen if more of us took this approach in life.

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

As I always open these challenges by saying, intentionally place God first in your life, and if you are up for the challenge, intentionally look to God and lean on Him for knowledge in your own life. Look to God for knowledge and allow Him to teach you what He wants you to learn.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do in one way or another, continue praying and prayerfully studying the Bible for yourself to grow closer to Jesus and allow God to develop your mind. Through Bible study, we can sharpen our mind and we can develop wisdom which can be more practically useful than intelligence in many situations. While knowledge is good, knowledge is easier to acquire than wisdom, while wisdom by many people is considered more valuable. Look to the Bible to learn wisdom!

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!

Of all the topics that the Bible shares, one of the most relevant and challenging topics the Bible deals directly with is the issue of conflict management. While some people might think of the Bible as only a place to receive spiritual truth, when we sit down to read what the Bible says, we discover that the Bible includes a lot of practical advice in other areas as well.

In the case of conflict management, anytime two or more people get together to do anything significant, expect there to be some level of conflict. I suspect that Jesus was very aware of this, and because of Jesus’ knowledge that conflict happens, I believe He included the passage we will focus on in our time together for this episode to help us navigate the interpersonal challenges we are destined to face.

However, while Jesus’ advice might seem to be too general, or too spiritual, the truth of the concept Jesus shares is amazingly relevant to every area of life.

Let’s read what Jesus advises. This teaching is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 18, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 15, Jesus continued teaching those present saying:

¹⁵ “If your fellow believer sins against you, go and tell him in private what he did wrong. If he listens to you, you have helped that person to be your brother or sister again. ¹⁶ But if he refuses to listen, go to him again and take one or two other people with you. ‘Every case may be proved by two or three witnesses.’ ¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen to the church, then treat him like a person who does not believe in God or like a tax collector.

We’ll stop reading here because I want to point out a specific statement Jesus concluded this sequence by saying. Jesus’ concluding remarks in His advice are, “If he refuses to listen to the church, then treat him like a person who does not believe in God or like a tax collector.” (v. 17b)

While some people might believe this conclusion warrants looking down on or shunning those who have been excluded, the truth of this idea is that God calls us to love and witness our faith to non-believers. Note also that Jesus even invited Matthew, the author of this gospel, who was a tax collector by trade, to be one of His twelve disciples. Jesus spent time with people who did not believe in God and he had positive interactions with tax collectors. Nothing in Jesus’ ministry suggests that we should push away those who we disagree with.

However, looking at the sequence Jesus shares, this conflict resolution method has more to it than simply treating people who won’t listen like the don’t believe or belong to the church; this conflict resolution has steps that build upon one another and steps that shouldn’t be skipped over.

Verse 15 begins our passage by saying, “If your fellow believer sins against you, go and tell him in private what he did wrong. If he listens to you, you have helped that person to be your brother or sister again.” The first thing we must do if we have a conflict with someone is to talk directly to the person who we have the conflict with. At this point, they are the only one who can help resolve the conflict, and they are the only one who really benefits from being talked to. Talking about the conflict with anyone else before this step signals the start of gossip, and gossip erodes relationships.

If you have conversations about people while those people are not present, it tells everyone you talk to that you will talk about them behind their back as well. Someone who shares with others about a third party plants the seed in the mind of the one they are talking to that they cannot be trusted because if the person who is talking is sharing with them about someone else, they will also share with someone else the details that get shared with them.

While on the surface, people talking about others believe communication is happening, under the surface, those involved close off and stop sharing about themselves because when people gossip, trust ultimately disappears.

The brilliance in Jesus’ method is that there is never any gossip. The first step is a one-on-one conversation with the only person who can help remedy the situation, and if it works, then trust is actually built in this scenario and a friendship is strengthened.

But if it doesn’t work, then we move on to verse 16, where Jesus gives us the next step in the process. He says, “But if he refuses to listen, go to him again and take one or two other people with you.”

This next step is a scary one for most people, because it opens up both parties to scrutiny. If the one who feels wronged takes a couple individuals with them, then the tables may turn. Whoever has been chosen as a third-party to observe the conversation may take the side of the other person after hearing both sides. This actually happened to me a number of years ago, and describing this process actually bothers me for this reason. It is not pleasant to be told that you are on the wrong side of a conflict when you believe yourself to be right.

While we might be tempted to skip over this second step, we should resist this temptation because Jesus finishes verse 16 by saying that “Every case may be proved by two or three witnesses.” Taking one or two people with you is necessary for step number three, because if one presents a case to a third party, then it is one person’s word against another person’s word. While it is emotionally difficult for us to do, step number two gives us credible witnesses for step number three.

Those witnessing the conflict resolution in this second step are prime candidates to be witnesses for the third step, which Jesus shares in verse 17. Jesus tells us, “If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church.” This final step begins a more formal discussion about this topic with a much broader group of people, and like in the second step, it is possible the church in this case could side against the one who felt wronged. Again, there was a time – separate from the earlier case – where it felt like the church sided against me in a conflict resolution matter. I honestly don’t remember the details of what happened, and I am no longer attending that church, but I remember there being a conflict of some sort where I felt wronged.

The key for someone who is asked to be a witness in step two, or a third party juror of sorts in step number three is to objectively look at what happened, and what the one who felt wronged feels. If an apology is necessary from the one who did wrong, even if it doesn’t seem all that significant to those looking from the outside, it should definitely be recommended. If the one who did wrong refuses to apologize, even if it is a small matter, then there is likely something deeper at work in the one who did the wrong.

Apologies require humility, and humility is a vital ingredient for good relationships.

Bringing things around to where we began the discussion, “If he refuses to listen to the church, then treat him like a person who does not believe in God or like a tax collector.”

God did not call us to hate, avoid, or put down those who don’t believe in Him or those who collect taxes. He calls us to love them. Jesus loved people who didn’t believe in God, and Jesus loved tax collectors. He compliments Zacchaeus the tax collector, and He called Matthew the tax collector to be one of His twelve closest disciples. While the one who doesn’t listen to the church will be moved to the outside of the ring, there is nothing in Jesus’ words that tells us that the circle of the church is to be exclusively focused inward.

But that is another issue entirely – which we don’t have any time left for in this podcast episode. With that said, as we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to remain humble. Always assume the best in others, and choose to apologize even if you don’t think it is necessary.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn what Jesus is like, and the sort of love He wants us to have towards each other. It is through God’s love living within us that allows us to be humble, loving, and willing to apologize even if we don’t think it is necessary. God doesn’t let minor details stop Him from having a relationship with us, and we shouldn’t let minor thinks sabotage our relationships with others.

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