Reflective Bible Study

As we continue moving through John’s gospel, our last episode ended with Jesus secretly going up to the feast, alone, without either His disciples or His brothers. Part of the reason for this was because the Jews were openly looking for Jesus in order to arrest Him. However, as we will discover in our passage for this episode, Jesus had a hard time staying out of the spotlight.

Our passage for this episode is found in John’s gospel, chapter 7, and we will read it from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 14, John tells us that:

¹⁴ When the feast was about half over, Jesus went to the Temple and began to teach. ¹⁵ The people were amazed and said, “This man has never studied in school. How did he learn so much?”

¹⁶ Jesus answered, “The things I teach are not my own, but they come from him who sent me. ¹⁷ If people choose to do what God wants, they will know that my teaching comes from God and not from me. ¹⁸ Those who teach their own ideas are trying to get honor for themselves. But those who try to bring honor to the one who sent them speak the truth, and there is nothing false in them. ¹⁹ Moses gave you the law, but none of you obeys that law. Why are you trying to kill me?”

Pausing briefly, the way Jesus opens His response to the question of where His knowledge came from is powerful. First, Jesus acknowledges that what He is teaching is not His own ideas. Instead, Jesus is teaching ideas from God. However, Jesus then makes an amazing statement. In verse 17, Jesus tells this crowd: “If people choose to do what God wants, they will know that my teaching comes from God and not from me.”

This statement is powerful, and it is a promise we can apply in our own lives and our own world today. If we choose to do what God wants, we will know whether Jesus’ teaching is from God or not. The reverse is also true. If we choose to ignore or reject doing what God wants, we will ultimately discount Jesus, His teaching, and everything about Him.

With that said, how do we know whether we are doing what God really wants?

If this is an open question in your mind, we don’t need to look any farther than a few weeks ago in our podcast episodes, and into the previous chapter in John. Earlier in Jesus’ ministry, while challenging the crowd He fed, Jesus shares the answer to the question about what God really wants. In John, chapter 6, verse 29, Jesus tells the crowd plainly: “The work God wants you to do is this: Believe the One he sent.”

According to Jesus, believing in Him is the clearest way to discover whether His teaching is from God or not. In other words, Jesus invites us to try life His way and when we accept Jesus’ challenge, we will discover personally whether Jesus’ way is best.

This is the best strategy to take, because it is a personal strategy, and it opens the door for God to show up in our lives. The worst thing someone could do is ignore Jesus on the recommendation of someone else who has chosen to ignore Jesus and ultimately miss out on the rewards because they didn’t try Jesus’ way out for themselves!

However, the people, or at least some of those in the crowd, are a little confused at Jesus calling out the plot to kill Him. In verse 20, John tells us that:

²⁰ The people answered, “A demon has come into you. We are not trying to kill you.”

²¹ Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. ²² Moses gave you the law about circumcision. (But really Moses did not give you circumcision; it came from our ancestors.) And yet you circumcise a baby boy on a Sabbath day. ²³ If a baby boy can be circumcised on a Sabbath day to obey the law of Moses, why are you angry at me for healing a person’s whole body on the Sabbath day? ²⁴ Stop judging by the way things look, but judge by what is really right.”

²⁵ Then some of the people who lived in Jerusalem said, “This is the man they are trying to kill. ²⁶ But he is teaching where everyone can see and hear him, and no one is trying to stop him. Maybe the leaders have decided he really is the Christ. ²⁷ But we know where this man is from. Yet when the real Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”

²⁸ Jesus, teaching in the Temple, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. But I have not come by my own authority. I was sent by the One who is true, whom you don’t know. ²⁹ But I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”

³⁰ When Jesus said this, they tried to seize him. But no one was able to touch him, because it was not yet the right time. ³¹ But many of the people believed in Jesus. They said, “When the Christ comes, will he do more miracles than this man has done?”

³² The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Jesus. So the leading priests and the Pharisees sent some Temple guards to arrest him. ³³ Jesus said, “I will be with you a little while longer. Then I will go back to the One who sent me. ³⁴ You will look for me, but you will not find me. And you cannot come where I am.”

³⁵ Some people said to each other, “Where will this man go so we cannot find him? Will he go to the Greek cities where our people live and teach the Greek people there? ³⁶ What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘You cannot come where I am’?”

In this extended time teaching in the temple, I am amazed because Jesus takes one of the groups of people and turns their hesitation into belief. While Jesus shares some challenging things, this group rightly concludes that it would be unlikely for anyone to come afterwards who will do more miracles or be a more positive influence in the world than Jesus was.

While I could share more, the big challenge I see in Jesus’ message is that we should trust Jesus even though there will likely always be unanswered questions. Some of our questions are simply unanswerable, and when we face a question that does not have a good answer, the easy temptation is to doubt because we don’t understand. However, we are called to have faith that every question we have will be answered at the right moment, and it is possible that the right moment for some questions will be when we stand face to face with Jesus after He has returned and brought us home to heaven.

The big thing for us to remember and focus on is doing what God wants us to do, and that is believing the One He sent, and testing Jesus’ teachings out in our own lives to know personally whether what Jesus shared is from God or not. When we have personally walked the path God created us to walk, we’ll discover who Jesus truly is and we’ll get a glimpse of the amazing future God has prepared for us when Jesus returns to bring us home!

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 believe in Jesus and trust that His sacrifice on the cross is enough to pay the penalty for your sins. Choose to take Jesus at His word and trust that He will give you the answers to your questions when the time is right.

Also, pray and study the Bible for yourself and try God’s way in your own life. Choose to pray and study the Bible for yourself and test God’s truth by applying it into your life in order to know whether Jesus’ way is really the best way to live. I’ve done this in my own life and determined that Jesus’ way is both better today, even with the challenges it brings, and the rewards for following Jesus are better than we could even imagine. This is what I have discovered in my own journey, and I challenge you to take the journey for yourself instead of taking anyone’s word 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!

As we continue moving through our year focusing in on Jesus’ parables, we come to a series of three short parables that only Matthew’s gospel includes. These three parables are shared just with the disciples, and they are shared after Jesus responds to the disciples asking for explanation of one of Jesus’ other parables. For this episode, we’ll focus on the first parable in this set of three parables, because while the three parables are all short and similar, each is distinct enough to warrant an episode dedicated to it.

Let’s read the first parable and discover another way Jesus describes God’s kingdom to the disciples. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will read it from the Good News Translation. In verse 44, Jesus tells the disciples:

⁴⁴ “The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man happens to find a treasure hidden in a field. He covers it up again, and is so happy that he goes and sells everything he has, and then goes back and buys that field.

As we read this one-verse parable, two phrases jumped out to me. The first phrase is how the parable opens. This translation draws a casual connection to the discovery of this treasure. It describes, “A man happens to find a treasure in a field”. Reading this translation makes me think that the man was strolling through the field, and he trips over something hard and realizes that it is the corner of a treasure chest. The way this is described makes me think that the man was not looking for treasure, but that he at least had his eyes open enough to recognize the treasure was there when it tripped him.

When reading the opening statement of this parable from multiple translations, no clues are given to the intentional nature or the casual finding of this treasure. Instead, the parable simply describes someone simply finding treasure hidden in a field. From this detail, and from the fact this is a parable Jesus shared, we can conclude that the treasure that is found is something that we all can find in our lives if we are paying attention. This “treasure in a field” is something that we may have been seeking out, or it may be something we find at a time we are not expecting to find it. Regardless of whether we are actively looking, or whether we stumble onto it, what matters is not that we found it, but what we will do when we have found it.

After the man found the treasure, he has three options. He can bury the treasure and walk away; He can steal the treasure, have the money, but also have the guilt associated with the theft; or He can sell as much as is necessary to buy the field that contains the treasure, which is the legally correct option. If I sold a home to you, and buried in the walls of the home were diamonds and blocks of gold that I was not aware of, when you discovered them, they would legally be yours. I might be upset at myself for not finding the treasure, but it would legally be the property of the owner of the home.

According to the details of the parable, the man doesn’t take any chances that he will not have enough money, so even if he only needed to sell a portion of his stuff, he sold everything because the treasure is that valuable in his eyes. This is the second idea that stood out in my mind as we read this parable.

This man wants this treasure legally, and he does not want any of the guilt associated with simply stealing it. This man knows that a treasure that has been wrongfully gained is not a treasure in the end. The treasures we can have and enjoy the most are the ones that don’t come with guilt or other negative traits.

The man buys the field because he knows that with this treasure, he can gain the life he has always wanted. While we might be tempted to think that simply having money can get us the life we most desire, the truth of this parable is that the kingdom of heaven is represented by this treasure that is hidden in a field. In other words, the treasure that can bring us true fulfillment in our lives is the kingdom of heaven treasure.

If we read this parable from the New American Standard Bible translation, it tells us that “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

The amazing truth of this parable is that the kingdom of heaven is something that we simply must open our eyes in order to discover. The kingdom of heaven is something that we might miss if we are not paying attention, but it is something we can discover if we keep our eyes open for it.

And not only this, the kingdom of heaven is something that is worth selling everything we have in order to acquire it. The kingdom of heaven isn’t a treasure that can be stolen. Instead, it is a treasure that is worth giving our lives for. This is because all that this life offers us is pain and sin that ultimately leads to death. While life may have its good moments, our lives one hundred, or even two hundred years from now will have ended in death – unless we have given our lives for the kingdom of heaven.

When we give our lives to Jesus, He promises to keep us safe through the death we face, and bring us out on the other side into a new, perfect, eternal life that has all the best parts of this life without any of the pain, sin, and death.

The kingdom of heaven is the ultimate treasure, and the first step in finding this treasure is seeking Jesus. Jesus is the way to this treasure, and He is the only way to eternal life!

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

As always, be sure to intentionally seek Jesus and God first in your life. Place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus as you choose to open your eyes to discovering God’s kingdom. As Jesus’ return moves closer, be sure you are actively seeking Him in your life so that when He returns, you will be ready.

One of the best ways to get and stay ready is by praying and studying the Bible for yourself. Regular prayer and Bible study helps draw you close to God and it helps you accept God’s Holy Spirit into your life. With the Holy Spirit working in your life, don’t be surprised to discover that God is using you to bring about His kingdom 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 abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue moving through John’s gospel, after John has finished sharing about the crowd Jesus challenged and how almost all of Jesus’ followers left Him, John moves to focusing on Jesus being at home with His brothers and away from His disciples. We don’t have much context for what set the stage for this event, however what John shares in this event is fascinating.

Our passage for this episode comes from John’s gospel, chapter 7, and we will read it from the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. ² Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. ³ Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. ⁴ For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” ⁵ For not even His brothers were believing in Him. ⁶ So Jesus said to them, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. ⁸ Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.” ⁹ Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee.

Pausing reading briefly, I am amazed at this event and at Jesus’ short conversation with His brothers. As I wonder and imagine the details of this scene, I suspect that Jesus’ disciples had already left to go to the feast in Jerusalem, and this is why Jesus was alone with His brothers.

However, the phrase that really jumps off the page at me is a statement Jesus’ brothers tell Him in verse 4: “For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly.” This statement speaks volumes about where the heads and hearts of Jesus’ brothers were. The statement Jesus’ brothers make is completely true, but this statement also entirely misses the direction of Jesus’ life and mission.

When Jesus’ brothers share this statement, it is solid logic: If someone wants to be known and have a following, they won’t hide their lives away. If someone wants to be known by others, they must step into a spotlight, or at least step out in some way. This statement, given in the context of the whole message Jesus’ brothers tell Jesus, lets us know that Jesus’ brothers did not understand Jesus’ mission as the Messiah. In the minds of Jesus’ brothers, the Messiah needed to be very public and the Messiah needed to be focused on attracting followers in order to kick Rome out of the nation.

However, Jesus understands something that His brothers don’t. Jesus understands that fame and popularity are two very bad motivators. What Jesus’ brothers don’t understand is that Jesus is not interested in being known by the world – at least at this point in His ministry. Instead, Jesus is more interested in fulfilling God’s mission for His life, and God’s mission is one that is both incredibly personal, as well as incredibly sacrificial. Jesus’ mission for His life ultimately gives life to those around Him and to those who accept Him.

In contrast, the mission the first century culture had for the messiah was that he would overthrow Rome in their nation, and this mission required lives to be lost in order to succeed. Jesus’ ultimate mission only had one life to be given, and this life was His own.

Because of this, Jesus opts to sit this festival out, because He knows His time has not yet come, and likely because traveling with His disciples or His brothers will draw too much attention onto Himself.

However, after Jesus’ brothers leave for the feast, John continues in verse 10, saying:

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?” 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.

In this passage, Jesus travels to this festival alone, and as anonymously as possible. At the start of the feast, the Jews were actively looking for Him, but they did not find Him. While this feast was happening, people were talking about Jesus and debating among themselves about how important Jesus really was.

At other places within the gospels, Jesus described how He would divide people. This last part of our passage hints at how Jesus divides people. In all this subtle whispering, we see this division take place. One group describes Jesus as a good man, while other people believed Jesus to be leading the people astray.

However, it is interesting from how John describes these whispered debates that neither one of these two groups understands Jesus’ ultimate mission or goal. Instead, the group that believes Jesus to be a good man might not believe much more about Jesus then this.

In an interesting twist, by this point in John’s gospel, Jesus has amassed a huge crowd of followers and pushed them all away. This detail allows this debate to flourish about Jesus because those who believe Jesus to be a good man can focus on all those Jesus has helped and healed, which is a sizable amount, while those who believe Jesus to be leading people astray can focus on the unbelievable claims Jesus made while teaching. Both sides of this debate have different sets of proof, but neither one appears to take any steps towards believing Jesus to be God’s Messiah.

This is the same in our lives today, except that there are now three groups of people. In our world today, there are people who are actively opposed to Jesus and God, and this includes many who simply claim God doesn’t exist and Jesus is not the same person that the Bible describes. Those who believe this line of thinking make up one group.

The second group of people are those who believe Jesus to be a good man and a good teacher, but that history has exaggerated His life and His ministry. Those in this second group know slivers of Jesus’ life and ministry, but they are not open to letting Jesus or God change their lives.

These first two groups are direct descendants of the two groups debating in our passage in John’s gospel.

To contrast these two groups, we have a third group, and this group believes Jesus to be the Messiah, and that Jesus is the way God stepped into history to show His love for us. This third group, which began with Jesus’ disciples shortly after Jesus returned to heaven, changed the first century world. I am a part of this third group, and if you’re not a part of this group yet, consider yourself invited to join. Those who have placed their hope, faith, trust, and belief in Jesus and His sacrifice for us on the cross can begin a new life with God today, and our lives with God extend forward into eternity!

 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 place your faith, your hope, your trust, and your belief in Jesus and in what He accomplished for humanity on the cross. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are giving the opportunity of a new life with God, a life that we don’t deserve, but a life that God offers to us as a gift if we are willing to accept it. If you haven’t accepted God’s gift yet, this is a challenge to do so today!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to personally grow closer to Jesus each and every day. Through personal prayer and study, discover just how much God loves you and how God showed His love for all of us through what Jesus did for us! While some people point to acts of God that sound negative, angry, or hostile, we should filter all the claims through Jesus. Jesus gives us the best picture of God we can know, and because of this, the best place to begin studying is with 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!

As we continue looking at Jesus’ parables, we arrive at another very short parable. In this parable, we discover another subtle theme that broadens our picture of God’s kingdom. While many of the early parables we looked at so far this year did not deal with God’s kingdom, it is as though Jesus shifted His focus part way through His ministry and increased the number of parables aimed at teaching people about God’s kingdom.

Similar to the parable we focused on in our last episode, and the next two parables we will look at, this parable is very short, but also very powerful. This parable also includes a subtle change of wording that draws our attention onto a significant truth. Let’s read what Jesus taught about God’s kingdom in this parable. Our parable and passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will read from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 20:

²⁰ Jesus said again, “What can I compare God’s kingdom with? ²¹ It is like yeast that a woman took and hid in a large tub of flour until it made all the dough rise.”

While this parable is also included in Matthew’s gospel, Luke’s gospel simply ends here. Luke continues in the following verses by describing how Jesus continued traveling through the cities and villages in the region. Matthew’s gospel also has Jesus finish teaching with this short parable, but Matthew stays with the perspective of the disciples, who then ask Jesus for further clarification on an earlier parable before hearing more parables.

But before we dive into the other parables, we still have this parable about yeast to focus in on. While other parables focus on subjects that are less familiar to me, I happen to enjoy baking, and I understand the role of a little bit of yeast added to dough. While I have no idea how or why yeast causes dough to rise, I certainly appreciate this characteristic whenever I make pizza dough, or cinnamon buns. When yeast is present and working, what would have been flat and dense becomes large, light, and fluffy.

However, I find this parable one of the most fascinating comparisons Jesus could make with God’s kingdom. This is because so much of the Old Testament sacrifices and ceremonies were centered on eating bread that had been baked without yeast added. This bread is called Unleavened bread, and it even had a festival celebration called after it, though this festival was also known as the Passover.

I find this comparison also fascinating because Jesus warned His followers and those in the crowds at least twice to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and religious teachers. Just a chapter before the parable we are focusing in on, Jesus told the disciples in Luke 12, verse 1 to “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, because they are hypocrites.” Other translations indicate that the yeast of the Pharisees was actually hypocrisy and not simply avoiding the Pharisees’ teachings because the Pharisees were hypocrites.

Overall, we discover that yeast is presented negatively more times than positively throughout the Bible, and even with this detail in His mind, Jesus compares God’s kingdom to yeast.

I believe this is because of the characteristic we see Jesus focus our attention on in this parable. In our parable about yeast, once the woman had hidden the yeast in the flour, the yeast was present but not visible. I wonder if it would even be possible to separate the yeast from the flour after this point. This detail is important, because when we have God’s Word hidden in our hearts and memorized in our minds, then it will be with us whenever we need it even though its presence might be invisible.

In this parable, we discover that God’s kingdom, hidden within a small location, has a way of growing and affecting the entire area, whether this is a church, a community, a region, or even a country. When God has people placed in certain locations, it is because He knows that they can positively impact lives in that location. From previous parables, we learned that our responsibility is to plant seeds, and we are to let God grow the seeds.

Just like I have no idea how yeast works when it causes dough to rise, we don’t know all the details about how God grows His kingdom in a region or territory. But we know that with the Holy Spirit, a tiny batch of spiritual yeast transformed the first century world.

With this positive picture of yeast, why then does God seem to speak so harshly about it?

In my mind, this is because there are spiritual forces at war in our world today. These forces want to grow wherever they can, and these forces want especially to grow in our hearts. While there are positive forces that can grow us into being mature believers and disciples of Jesus, negative forces can also grow causing us to doubt, to be cruel or mean to others, to tear people down, and to be anything and everything opposed to God’s character of love and selflessness.

It doesn’t take long to look at the world today and see people being confronted about their negative choices. However, someone’s negative choice only happened because they let a negative spiritual yeast grow in their lives.

Yeast’s nature is to grow, and when we talk about hidden growth, yeast is the perfect example. Just a tiny amount of pride, doubt, or cynicism can break down an otherwise solid spiritual wall against evil. However, just a tiny speck of selflessness, of genuine love, or of the Holy Spirit’s blessing can do the same with a solid spiritual wall against God.

In our parable about yeast, it was hidden in the large tub of flour, and while the yeast became invisible at that point, there was no denying that once the flour had been turned into dough, that there was yeast present!

When we talk about the metaphor of yeast, we are reminded that we must be intentional and diligent with whatever side of the spiritual war we are on, because just a little piece of unchecked yeast can cause us to switch sides. We should be extra intentional that we let God’s kingdom grow in our hearts like yeast, and to actively root out Satan’s yeast of doubt, hostility, and pride from our hearts!

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

As always, be sure to intentionally seek God first in your life and let the yeast of His kingdom grow in your heart and your life. Diligently work to eliminate all the negative forms of yeast from your heart as you purposefully grow spiritually with God.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow through the reading and study of His Word. Personal Prayer and Bible study are the best ways to build a solid spiritual foundation in our lives. While hearing about the Bible from other people is okay, it is best to study out the Bible’s truths for yourself. Eternity is too important to let it depend on someone else’s interpretation or bias.

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!