Reflective Bible Study

If you ever wished for God or Jesus to give a clear, unquestionable sign that He exists, you may find this passage interesting, or maybe even a little problematic.

While many of us have a tendency to experience doubts living over 2,000 years after Jesus was here on earth, some of us may believe that a sign from God would be nice – if only to assure us that He is still present and interested. According to what our passage for this episode says, those living during Jesus’ life on earth had their doubts and skeptical attitude, and even with Jesus present, they were interested in seeing some type of unquestionable, irrefutable sign from God.

But let’s read how Jesus answers them. Our passage for this episode is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 12, and we will read it using the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 38, Matthew tells us:

³⁸ Then some experts in Moses’ Teachings and Pharisees said, “Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign.”

³⁹ He responded, “The people of an evil and unfaithful era look for a miraculous sign. But the only sign they will get is the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰ Just as Jonah was in the belly of a huge fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. ⁴¹ The men of Nineveh will stand up with you at the time of judgment and will condemn you, because they turned to God and changed the way they thought and acted when Jonah spoke his message. But look, someone greater than Jonah is here! ⁴² The queen from the south will stand up at the time of judgment with you. She will condemn you, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear Solomon’s wisdom. But look, someone greater than Solomon is here!

What I find amazing in Jesus’ response is that He responds counter to the “seeing-is-believing” attitude that was present in the minds of these skeptics. From the description present in this passage, Jesus knows that there will always be skeptics, and there will always be people who discount or rationalize their faith away from God. Most of these people never admit that they are simply shifting what they place their faith in, because in their minds, faith is a pointless concept.

But when we look closer at Jesus’ response, He does give these skeptical religious leaders a sign to watch for – but it was far from what they were looking for. There was a point when Jesus’ prediction about Himself came true, and He was in the grave like Jonah was in the fish. Jonah likely never even imagined His rebellion would turn into a Messianic symbol, but Jesus draws upon the key event in Jonah’s life as a symbolic representation of Himself.

Jesus then moves the focus of His response onto two events where faith was present. First, the people of Nineveh had faith in Jonah’s words – perhaps because He stank like fish or maybe because He had God at His back – and the people of Nineveh changed their ways. Interestingly enough, Jonah’s prediction did not come true because the people turned away from sin and towards God. The faith the people of Nineveh had was not based on much evidence, they simply trusted that Jonah’s words were important enough to pay attention to – even though Jonah had no previous track record of successful predictions that we are aware of for them to look back on.

Jesus’ other example is of the queen from the south. She heard rumors about Solomon, and perhaps some of these rumors seemed a little too unbelievable to be true. However, instead of writing off the rumors, she decides to investigate further to see if there was any truth in what she was hearing.

In this way, by traveling a great distance to meet someone she had only heard rumors about shows how she had great faith in those spreading the information. She was so far away that there was likely no way for her to have seen any tangible, irrefutable evidence to support the claim that Solomon was uniquely gifted in wisdom. But that didn’t stop her from making the trip to confirm or deny her curiosity.

Both the people of Nineveh and the queen from the south had enough faith in what they heard that they changed their actions and plans in light of the evidence they had. Those in Nineveh had a prophet who stank like fish, and the queen from the south had rumors, some from potentially reliable sources, but perhaps a number from some questionably reliable sources as well.

The key idea Jesus is making is that no amount of signs and miracles can convert a stubborn heart. Jesus is also sharing a key insight regarding God’s character: God is okay with individuals exercising their free will to refuse believing in Him. He doesn’t like it when people refuse those He has sent, but He is reserved enough to know that belief that is bought through spectacular, miraculous signs is cheap. Someone who follows simply because of the miracles is blessed for following, but if they never grow past the miracles themselves, then they are prime to be swept away when someone else comes who is able to perform even more spectacular signs.

It seems that God gives or allows miraculous signs to happen as a way to point us to pay attention to an individual. It is then up to us, knowing what we know about God and His character, to determine if the miracle-worker has God as his or her Source, or of they have a different spiritual force at their back.

God wants our faith and trust not simply because of miracles or signs, but because of who He is and what He is like.

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

As I always open these challenges by saying in one way or another, intentionally seek God first in your life. Choose to follow God because of who He is and because of what Jesus showed us He is like. While other people in your circle of friends might not understand your decision, know that when you make a decision to follow God, you are looking at life from eternity’s perspective and have heaven to look forward to.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, purposefully choose to pray and study the Bible for yourself and look for how God has revealed His character in each event you read. The Bible shares more details about God and His character than we might think at first, but in order to see what God is like in the pages of the Bible, we must be intentionally on the lookout for it.

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!

For many Christians, Jesus is the primary reason, if not the only reason, we have chosen and held onto our faith. For many non-Christians, often it is reasons other than Jesus that have turned them away.

For some non-Christians, it is simply looking at those who self-identify as Christians that turn them off. For others, it is looking at the God described in the Bible and choosing to focus on only the cruel or destructive acts that He is described as doing.

However, what if Jesus subtly spoke into this debate with a phrase and blessing of His own?

Most Christians believe Jesus to be God’s Son and a blending of divinity and humanity. We believe and understand Jesus to be the relatable and visible member of the Godhead, and we also can attribute Jesus’ speaking about Himself as God revealing a part of Himself or sharing a specific message He wants us to learn.

This leads us into our passage for this episode, which is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 7, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 18, Luke tells us that:

¹⁸ John’s followers [and we are talking about John the Baptist who was in prison at this time. John’s followers] told him about all these things [that Jesus was doing]. He called for two of his followers ¹⁹ and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the One who is to come, or should we wait for someone else?”

²⁰ When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you with this question: ‘Are you the One who is to come, or should we wait for someone else?’”

²¹ At that time, Jesus healed many people of their sicknesses, diseases, and evil spirits, and he gave sight to many blind people. ²² Then Jesus answered John’s followers, “Go tell John what you saw and heard here. The blind can see, the crippled can walk, and people with skin diseases are healed. The deaf can hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor. ²³ Those who do not stumble in their faith because of me are blessed!”

We’ll stop reading at this point to draw attention onto the message Jesus sends back to John, because in this message is a profound statement about God.

John the Baptist was in prison and we learn that he had a number of followers who were keeping Him up-to-date on what Jesus was doing. However, perhaps at a point when John was feeling extra down or impatient about His situation, he began to have doubts. Of all people, John was among the first to know Jesus was the Messiah, and he directs his followers to Jesus when Jesus shows up on the scene. Our passage for this episode suggests that many of John’s followers may have moved over to Jesus, but not all of them did.

In John’s doubt, we learn something interesting about God. Perhaps hidden in John’s question is a request asking something along the lines of “How long are you going to leave your cousin and biggest fan in prison? When are you going to begin setting up your kingdom and free us from the Romans?”

The popular religious culture at the time said that the Messiah would come, rally the Jews together, and overthrow the Roman occupation of their country. I don’t recall anything included in the Bible that suggests that John did not have at least some of this belief present regarding the Messiah’s ministry.

While John may have been asking a subtle self-serving question about how much longer he must wait in prison, what Jesus does and doesn’t do is important for us when we are wanting to better understand God’s character.

Firstly, Jesus compliments John, but it is only after John’s followers leave. Picking back up in verse 24, we read:

²⁴ When John’s followers left, Jesus began talking to the people about John: “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed blown by the wind? ²⁵ What did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, people who have fine clothes and much wealth live in kings’ palaces. ²⁶ But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, and I tell you, John is more than a prophet. ²⁷ This was written about him:

‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
    who will prepare the way for you.’

²⁸ I tell you, John is greater than any other person ever born, but even the least important person in the kingdom of God is greater than John.”

This description Jesus shares is important because it shows that Jesus had a high opinion of John. However, it is also worth pointing out that Jesus (aka God) did not plan to break John out of prison. If God had wanted to, He could have broken the bars, sent angels to trap or subdue the guards, and allow John to simply leave, or He could have put pressure on Herod through Herod’s superiors to let John go free.

But freeing John was not in God’s plan. John had said it himself in an earlier part of his ministry that Jesus must increase while he must decrease. If John was miraculously freed, then the attention of the people would have been drawn away from Jesus and what God was doing through Him. John’s ministry was a success, and he finishes out his life in prison.

This leads us to pay attention to a key phrase Jesus said in his reply to John: “Those who do not stumble in their faith because of me are blessed!” (v. 23)

When Jesus says “because of me”, part of me wonders if He is talking about His immediate actions during His time on earth, or if this is a much broader statement that includes His divinity. Is this a statement simply to tell John to “Keep up your faith, even if I don’t come and rescue you.”? Or is this a much broader statement for all believers throughout history from a divine perspective, as though God is saying to everyone, “You are blessed for having a strong faith in Me even though there have been events that have happened that you don’t understand or events that on the surface appear to contradict My love.”?

In my mind, I think Jesus is actually saying both.

When something I read or am challenged with doesn’t display a loving picture of God, I will always tell myself that I have less than half a perspective. There’s God’s perspective, which I believe sees the situation with eternity in mind, and there is the perspective of the one I am learning about. There are always more sides to any event than we can fully uncover, and with that understanding, I know that just because something doesn’t look loving from my vantage point, it does not make it unloving from God’s perspective.

As I have grown closer to God, I have begun to see that God’s way and His perspective, which is the way and perspective of One who can freely give life, only makes sense when we begin to see a present and future life. If the Life-Giver can give life freely, He will also have a different picture of life than we do. The present life becomes the testbed for life in the future. Not only does this truth amplify the importance of our life and decisions in the present, it helps us trust in God with a hope of a great future with Him.

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

As I always open these challenges by saying, intentionally seek God first in your life. Even if you don’t understand everything that has happened in your life, your past, or the world around us, choose to keep your focus on God. While we are here on earth, we won’t have all the answers, but don’t let a challenge or misunderstanding shake your faith in the One who has blessed us with life.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn the love, the pain, and the mission God has during this phase of His-Story. Through the Bible, discover just how much God loves you, and what He wants to bless you with when He returns to put an end to this sin-filled world.

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!

Our passage for this episode begins with one of Jesus’ most famous verses, and this verse is one that Christians for centuries have claimed as a promise worth holding onto. However, sometimes what we receive after we claim this promise is not what we ask for, and this often confuses us into thinking God doesn’t care, He doesn’t exist, or perhaps that He dislikes us.

However, none of these thoughts are true. God does care, He does exist, and He does love us. Let’s read the passage for this episode and unpack how we can see each of these things present. Our passage is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, and we will read it using the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 7, Jesus continued teaching, saying:

⁷ Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. ⁸ Everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who searches will find. And the door will be opened for everyone who knocks. ⁹ Would any of you give your hungry child a stone, if the child asked for some bread? ¹⁰ Would you give your child a snake if the child asked for a fish? ¹¹ As bad as you are, you still know how to give good gifts to your children. But your heavenly Father is even more ready to give good things to people who ask.

Let’s briefly pause here to draw our attention to a contrasting set of ideas that Jesus sets up. We are quick to claim the “Ask”, “Search”, and “Knock” promises, but look a little closer how Jesus says these will be answered. Yes, we will receive when we ask, we will find when we search, and we will have a door opened when we knock, but what often confuses us is that what we receive, what we find, and the door that is opened looks different than what we wanted.

Jesus explains this in the next verses and He summarizes it by saying, “your heavenly Father is even more ready to give good things to people who ask.” (v. 11b) God answers our prayers with things that will help us from His “eternity” perspective, and they will almost always look different than what we were asking for from our “earthly” perspective. God does care for us – He wants to be with us forever!

Let’s continue our passage. In verse 13, Jesus says:

¹² Treat others as you want them to treat you. This is what the Law and the Prophets are all about.

¹³ Go in through the narrow gate. The gate to destruction is wide, and the road that leads there is easy to follow. A lot of people go through that gate. ¹⁴ But the gate to life is very narrow. The road that leads there is so hard to follow that only a few people find it.

We’ll pause here to address an idea that I see included in this portion. The metaphor of a narrow gate and a wide gate and a narrow road contrasted with a wide road are about as famous as the Ask-Seek-Knock set of promises we just read about in the previous section.

However, there is something that bothers me about this metaphor. If believing in Jesus is how we gain entrance into heaven, then it seems as though there is enough people on that path to make it less narrow and easier to find and follow.

Perhaps this is the case, but maybe Jesus is thinking a step deeper than just gaining salvation. He calls this gate the gate of life, so perhaps this gate and path have to with finding the life that God calls each of us to live. I’ve heard this interpretation alluded to, and it is contrasted with those who fall short of God’s plan for their lives.

But Jesus contrasts the “life” gate with the “destruction” gate, which makes me think that we still must look at a judgment-like context. While Christians for centuries believe that belief in Jesus is the only way of receiving a ticket into heaven, the very valid counter-argument-question is what about all those living before Jesus was alive. Is the first several thousand years or more of history doomed to destruction simply because Jesus was not alive and present?

As I look deeper into the theme and idea of Jesus’ sacrifice, I see it echo the first sacrifice that happened immediately following Adam and Eve’s exile from Eden. After being kicked out of the garden, God gives them a promise through the symbol of a sacrificed lamb, and this sets the contrast in place between a “do-it-myself” attitude, and a “let-God-help-lead-and-guide-me” attitude.

The symbol of a sacrificed lamb shows us God’s mercy while still bringing punishment. It shows us God’s mercy towards us by shifting the death we deserve onto something that did not deserve it. I think in many ways, this could have been an incredibly powerful metaphor for those living before Jesus arrived in history – and it helps us trust in God’s existence, even if we don’t always understand His methods.

Let’s continue our passage. In verse 15, Jesus says:

¹⁵ Watch out for false prophets! They dress up like sheep, but inside they are wolves who have come to attack you. ¹⁶ You can tell what they are by what they do. No one picks grapes or figs from thornbushes. ¹⁷ A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that produces bad fruit will be chopped down and burned. ²⁰ You can tell who the false prophets are by their deeds.

Many Christians will take this last section of our passage and apply it with a number of other passages to give the impression that moving forward, God will not send any more prophets. In other words, they say, Jesus was the culmination of the prophets, and there is nothing more for a prophet to predict or point forward to.

While in many ways this is true, another way to describe a prophet is by using the word messenger. The typical way of describing someone as a prophet is if they make a prediction, but if we look at the lives and ministries of the Old Testament prophets, we can see the theme running through all their ministries that they were called to share a message, or a series of messages, from God.

If we understand Jesus’ words about prophets to be forewarning us about upcoming messengers, then we can clearly understand the test Jesus gives to help us weed out the imposters. Jesus’ test is simply to look at their lives. Aside from Jesus, everyone in history has sinned, so simply seeing a sin in someone’s past should not disqualify someone from being a messenger, because then only angels could fill that role.

Instead, Jesus helps us understand that He still likes us, loves us, and wants to help us by promising to send messengers to help point us back to Him. And the easy way to tell if these messengers are from God is to look at how they live their lives. False prophets will have red flags in their actions and attitudes, while true messengers will display fruits of the Spirit and have a more Christ-like and Christ-focused character.

God cares, God exists, and God likes each of us, and our passage in this episode helps us reaffirm our faith and trust in Him.

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life. Continue to place your hope, faith, and trust in Jesus, the One who gave His life to be our sacrifice.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself and keep your eyes open for examples of God’s love for His people. Through the Bible, we can learn how God has been present in the history of this world, and we can get an idea for what He is like and how we can see Him moving in the world today.

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!

If you have ever wondered about how important forgiveness is, or if you have ever had trouble forgiving someone, in this episode’s passage, we find one of the most bothersome, but strangely practical, warnings about this difficult, challenging subject.

In my own life, for a long time, forgiveness was something I struggled with, and it impacted my family, my friends, my co-workers, and every other area of my life. Forgiveness was something I struggled with because I didn’t really understand it all that well, and also because part of me simply did not want to extend forgiveness to people who, in my mind, clearly didn’t deserve it.

Thankfully, God brought some people into my life who helped me understand what forgiveness is and what it is not, and they helped me see why forgiveness is important.

Let’s read our passage for this episode, before unpacking a little more about what forgiveness is all about. Our passage is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, and we will read it using the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 14, Jesus continued teaching, saying:

¹⁴ Forgive other people when they sin against you. If you do, your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive the sins of other people, your Father will not forgive your sins.

¹⁶ “When you go without eating, do not look gloomy like those who only pretend to be holy. They make their faces look very sad. They want to show people they are fasting. What I’m about to tell you is true. They have received their complete reward. ¹⁷ But when you go without eating, put olive oil on your head. Wash your face. ¹⁸ Then others will not know that you are fasting. Only your Father, who can’t be seen, will know it. Your Father will reward you, because he sees what you do secretly.

While the last portion of our passage doesn’t appear to focus on forgiveness, it is still important for us to pay attention to – and in several ways, it is relevant to our discussion about forgiveness. But before we get to how this relates to forgiveness, let’s focus in on how this passage opens.

Probably the biggest, most ominous comparison in this passage is Jesus warning about forgiveness in the first two verses of this passage. He directly says, “Forgive other people when they sin against you. If you do, your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive the sins of other people, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (v. 14-15)

This elevates the nature of forgiveness into looking dangerously close to a salvation issue. God forgiving our sins is necessary for us to be in heaven, and according to what Jesus says here, He will not forgive us when we choose to not forgive others.

So what is forgiveness?

The simplest way I know of to explain how I understand forgiveness is by using a money metaphor. If I owed you $50,000, we would say that I was in debt to you. If I could not pay the debt and you chose to forgive what was owed, then forgiveness simply means that we canceled the debt. If you refused to forgive the debt, then weeks, months, or even years might go by with my inability to pay the debt. With an open expectation of payment for this debt, we would have a huge strain on our relationship, if there was one to begin with, and the more you internalized that I owed you money, the debt would begin to change you, and eventually it would bleed over into the other areas of your life, even affecting your other relationships.

While I am not suggesting that I don’t pay my debts, I am suggesting that in many ways, forgiveness benefits the debtor more than the one in debt. By having my debt forgiven by you, I would be relieved and thankful, but you would also experience a release from the burden of trying to collect the debt from me.

In this money scenario, perhaps forgiveness might look like I pay a small percentage relative to what I have, while you forgive the rest. However, in every other area of life, forgiveness gets significantly more complicated and challenging. While forgiveness always involves releasing a debt of some type, when we look at non-monetary debts, repayment can never be full restoration.

In the Old Testament, the Jews had the saying, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” but even this concept, which stresses fair treatment and don’t do something to someone if you would not want them to return the favor, falls short of debt repayment. If someone literally poked out your eye, there is no way for them to restore your eye. Using this principle, you could injure them in the same way they injured you, but while that might make you feel satisfied, you both end up in a worse place than when you began.

In non-monetary areas, there is no way for debt repayment to happen, and if we look deeper at both monetary debts and non-monetary debts, there is no way to ever repay what was potentially lost. By not having that chunk of money, using our first example, there were ample investments that you missed out on. Losing out on other investments might not be significant in your mind, but in the non-monetary world, there is no way a parent, whether it is a father or mother, can repay for the time that was lost if they were gone for a while. A parent who has left for months or even years can return and choose to be more engaged and involved, but there is no way they can truly repay for the time that they missed while they were gone.

This is where forgiveness comes in. In many ways, it is like mentally and emotionally wiping the slate clean. It is saying something like, “I will not expect you to give me anything for how you hurt me.” It does not mean that both individuals must reconcile or restore their relationship. It is simply a release of expectation in the heart and mind of the one who feels cheated and/or like someone owes them something.

How does forgiveness and forgiving others relate to the last portion of our passage?

In the second portion of our passage, Jesus talks about doing some things for God in secret. While many people don’t often think this way, what Jesus describes in the second portion of this passage relates to forgiveness because forgiveness is mainly an internal decision. It is a point in time where one decides to cancel the debt they feel they are owed. They might tell the person who wronged them about it later, but that is less necessary.

In this way, forgiving others releases us to feel joy again. When I struggled with forgiveness, I also had anger issues. When someone irritated me, it rubbed on the hurts others had made and prompted me to react to all the pain that had added up in my past instead of to the issue at hand. Forgiveness helped me realize the extent of the past hurts, to release debts that could not be repaid, and to freely move forward with a new-found feeling of joy that I had not had in a long time.

We all are challenged and called to forgive others because God has offered us His forgiveness, and the debt we owe Him is far greater than the debt anyone owes us. While forgiving people who don’t deserve it is challenging from an emotional level, God offers us forgiveness through what Jesus did for us on the cross when we don’t deserve it. Jesus challenges us in this passage to do for others, what God has already done for us!

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 seek God first in your life. Accept God’s forgiveness for your sins by forgiving those who have hurt you. Choose to learn from the past, and aside from the lessons learned, leave everything from the past in the past, and release those who hurt you from your expectation that they will ever change. If they do, then great, but don’t let their lack of change infect your life moving forward.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue intentionally growing closer to God by praying and studying the Bible for yourself. As you study, look for examples of His love for you and the forgiveness He offers for your sins. Remember that because God has forgiven you when you don’t deserve it, He is more than happy to help you forgive others who don’t deserve it. God loves you too much to want you carrying the baggage of bitterness in your heart moving forward.

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!