Reflective Bible Study

As Jesus finishes up the special meal He has with His disciples on the night He was arrested, John’s gospel includes a powerful teaching Jesus shares with His followers about staying hopeful, and Jesus also promises His disciples a gift He would send them after He has left.

I thought about shortening this passage, or splitting it up into multiple blocks, but I concluded that if I did, we might not be able to finish the year on time. With that said, the next few episodes will contain longer passages than normal, and in each, I won’t be able to draw out as much as I might want to if we had a little more time.

With that said, our passage for this episode is found in John’s gospel, chapter 14, and we will read it from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 1, John records Jesus’ words to these remaining disciples, saying:

¹ “Don’t be troubled. Believe in God, and believe in me. ² My Father’s house has many rooms. If that were not true, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you? ³ If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again. Then I will bring you into my presence so that you will be where I am. ⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going.”

⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going. So how can we know the way?”

⁶ Jesus answered him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you have known me, you will also know my Father. From now on you know him through me and have seen him in me.”

⁸ Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will satisfy us.”

⁹ Jesus replied, “I have been with all of you for a long time. Don’t you know me yet, Philip? The person who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? What I’m telling you doesn’t come from me. The Father, who lives in me, does what he wants. ¹¹ Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe me because of the things I do.

¹² “I can guarantee this truth: Those who believe in me will do the things that I am doing. They will do even greater things because I am going to the Father. ¹³ I will do anything you ask the Father in my name so that the Father will be given glory because of the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask me to do something, I will do it.

¹⁵ “If you love me, you will obey my commandments. ¹⁶ I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper who will be with you forever. ¹⁷ That helper is the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept him, because it doesn’t see or know him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be in you.

¹⁸ “I will not leave you all alone. I will come back to you. ¹⁹ In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. You will live because I live. ²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in my Father and that you are in me and that I am in you. ²¹ Whoever knows and obeys my commandments is the person who loves me. Those who love me will have my Father’s love, and I, too, will love them and show myself to them.”

²² Judas (not Iscariot) asked Jesus, “Lord, what has happened that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”

²³ Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will go to them and make our home with them. ²⁴ A person who doesn’t love me doesn’t do what I say. I don’t make up what you hear me say. What I say comes from the Father who sent me.

²⁵ “I have told you this while I’m still with you. ²⁶ However, the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything. He will remind you of everything that I have ever told you.

²⁷ “I’m leaving you peace. I’m giving you my peace. I don’t give you the kind of peace that the world gives. So don’t be troubled or cowardly. ²⁸ You heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away, but I’m coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I’m going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am.

²⁹ “I’m telling you this now before it happens. When it does happen, you will believe. ³⁰ The ruler of this world has no power over me. But he’s coming, so I won’t talk with you much longer. ³¹ However, I want the world to know that I love the Father and that I am doing exactly what the Father has commanded me to do. Get up! We have to leave.”

In this passage, several ideas jumped off the page at me. Probably the biggest idea, theme, and promise within this passage is that while Jesus is leaving, He is coming again. Second to this are the powerful ideas that seeing Jesus is equivalent to seeing the Father; when we believe in Jesus, we will do what He does; when we believe in Jesus, He will answer our prayers; and when we love and obey Jesus, He will send us a helper.

A phrase stood out in Jesus’ promise to give us the Holy Spirit. Verse 16 tells us a key detail of this promise: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper who will be with you forever.”

While at other points in time I’ve focused on the first phrase, the last phrase in this verse is significant. When God gives us the Helper, who is the Spirit of Truth, we will have that helper forever. When we are given the Holy Spirit, this gift is not temporary; it’s eternal!

I suspect that while we will always have the Holy Spirit while we love and obey Jesus, the way the Holy Spirit is present and working in our lives will likely adapt depending on our situation and our stage of life. This shouldn’t be seen as discouraging. Instead, this demonstrates a powerful type of love that knows each of us is unique, and we all need God in our lives in unique ways.

However, with all this said, Jesus also promises to leave us peace. From the way this section fits within the rest of Jesus’ message, I suspect that the peace Jesus leaves us is connected with the Holy Spirit. In verse 27, Jesus promises us that we will receive His peace, and this peace is unlike what the world gives. With Jesus’ peace, we should not be troubled, cowardly, or fearful.

Peace from the world’s perspective is accepting the rule of those who are more powerful. Peace in this instance does not allow for us to push back at injustice, because when we push back, we will experience resistance and hostility. Jesus does not want His followers to have the world’s form of peace.

Instead, Jesus promises us His peace, and it is a peace that allows us to stand up for God in this world, and a peace that doesn’t make sense to those who do not have it.

The peace Jesus gives His followers comes from knowing that with whatever happens in this world, Jesus has already successfully redeemed us and saved our seats at God’s table in the next world. We have peace because this life in sin is temporary, but our next life is eternal when we have placed our faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus!

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 and place your faith, your hope, your trust, and your belief in Jesus. When we believe in Jesus, we unlock all the blessings God has promised to give us, though some of these promised blessings are being saved for us when we step into our next life when Jesus returns. Instead of focusing on what God is saving for us, focus on the blessings He gives each of us today, and stand up for Him in our daily lives with the assurance that Jesus has already won the victory!

Also, pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow a personal relationship with God on the best foundation possible – which is on His Word and His promises. The Bible gives us the best picture of God, and through Jesus, we know what God the Father is really like and how much He really loves each of us.

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 the events of Mark’s gospel, we come to an event that I believe is misunderstood by many people. This short event is when Jesus takes a break from teaching in the temple to sit near the temple money box.

However, while I believe this event is misunderstood, that doesn’t make it any less powerful of an event. Let’s read what happened before unpacking several things we can learn from this event. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 12, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 41, Mark tells us that:

⁴¹ Jesus sat near the Temple money box and watched the people put in their money. Many rich people gave large sums of money. ⁴² Then a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which were only worth a few cents.

⁴³ Calling his followers to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow gave more than all those rich people. ⁴⁴ They gave only what they did not need. This woman is very poor, but she gave all she had; she gave all she had to live on.”

In this short event, I wonder if the disciples didn’t even notice this widow at first. Prior to Jesus shining the spotlight on her gift, the few coins this woman gave hardly appeared significant in comparison to the large gifts of significant amounts of money.

But when Jesus does focus the disciples’ attention onto this widow’s gift, He tells His followers that she gave more than all the rich people.

Does this mean that God wants all His followers to give all their money to Him? In my own mind, the answer is a yes and no.

First off, in this event, nowhere do I get the impression Jesus was challenging His followers to do like this widow did. We don’t see in any of the gospels that record this event a challenge for the disciples to model this woman’s gift of everything. For this reason, the answer to our earlier question could easily be a “no”.

However, with that said, it is worth noting that God already owns everything. Whether we think we “own” something or not, whatever it is is actually God’s. This is just as true for our home and car as it is for our body and our breath. God created the universe and He owns every atom in this universe because of this.

Bringing this big truth into this discussion, the only giver in our short event who truly understands that God already owns everything is this poor widow who gave everything. She had two coins and she gave both to God. We don’t see her keeping one of her two coins. Instead, we see her give both her coins which shows an incredible faith in God to supply her needs.

In contrast, the extravagant gifts of the rich people were gifts of money that they did not need. This means that while they had plenty of money left over, and while they understood that giving was important, they had focused on their wants and needs ahead of placing God first. While it is possible that these large gifts included the giver’s tithe, nothing in how this event is recorded hints at this. Since the tithe was to be paid first, before expenses, and because Jesus describes these rich gifts as coming from what the rich people did not need, I cannot help but conclude that the gifts from these rich people does not describe them giving their tithe, even if these gifts were 10% or more of their income.

Because of this, we can see this poor widow being an example for us. This widow gives everything she has, which included her tithe and a free will offering, while the other givers only give after they had already satisfied all their needs. In this widow’s gift, we can see a challenge for us to give our gifts to God before anything else, and to not hold back what God may be calling us to give.

I don’t know if the Holy Spirit prompted this widow to give both her coins that day in the temple, or if she was that devoted of a person already. Whatever the case was, this widow gives something even greater than her gift of two coins. In this event, this widow gives her heart, her faith, and her trust to God that He will supply her needs. This widow does this likely knowing full well that her help will come from God and not from the organization that she was giving her money to.

At the time this widow gave her gift, the religious system was corrupt and it was unlikely she would be helped by it. More than anyone else living at that point in time, this widow would have known and realized her gift was being given to a corrupted institution. However, this widow still chooses to give.

This detail is important to realize. God calls us to give the money He has entrusted to us to further His mission on this planet. While we should be diligent regarding where we give our discretionary dollars, we should never exclude God’s church from our giving because we believe the church has fallen away. Jesus commended this widow’s gift to a corrupt institution.

God has called His people to give because giving is what He modeled for us. God wants to replicate His character in our lives and in our hearts. Because God is a giver, He wants His people to be givers as well. God gave us Jesus, and Jesus gave us His life in exchange for ours, and we are challenged to give our lives and hearts back to God as our way of saying thank You to God for everything He has blessed us with, which is similar to what this poor widow did with her gift!

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. Choose to give like this widow gave, and give God more than just your money – intentionally give God your faith, your hope, your trust, and your belief. Give God your heart like God gave you His heart!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. While other people have many ideas and opinions about the Bible and what it teaches, don’t discount what the Bible says in favor of their opinion. Choose to filter our world through the truth the Bible teaches.

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!

Near the end of the special supper Jesus shares with His disciples, and after Judas Iscariot had left, Jesus shares a powerful truth and challenge to His remaining disciples. While it would be easy to focus in on the part of Jesus’ words that Peter focused in on, something Jesus said is worth paying attention to that it appears as though Peter missed.

With that said, let’s dive into our passage and discover what Jesus shared that Peter missed, and several things that are worth us paying attention to. Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 22, and we will read from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 31, John tells us that:

³¹ When he [referring to Judas Iscariot] was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. ³² If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

³³ “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

³⁶ Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”

³⁷ Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

³⁸ Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

In this passage, we see Jesus challenge Peter on his vocal willingness to be ready to die for Jesus. Jesus responds with the famous challenge that Peter would deny Him that night. While it would be very easy for us to focus on this detail, there are two verses that seem to disappear when reading this passage. These two verses are powerful, but it is as though Peter doesn’t hear them because of what Jesus had just said before.

Immediately after Jesus told the disciples that they cannot come with Him, and before Peter asks Jesus where He is going, Jesus gives the disciples a new command in verses 34 and 35, saying “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

In this command, we might be tempted to think this is simply Jesus restating or reminding the disciples about one of the two greatest commandments that are shared earlier in the gospels. In many ways, loving one another is very similar to the command to loving our neighbor. However, if we stop here, we miss something significant.

Within the earlier command to love our neighbor, the context is very tangible, and when using Jesus’ illustration of the Good Samaritan, we have a framework for what it means to “love our neighbor”. The wording of this command is specifically to love your neighbor as you love yourself. 

However, Jesus’ command to the disciples is distinctly different. Just as Jesus elevated God’s ideal for His law to a level much higher than the words themselves, such as when Jesus calls hating someone close as equivalent to murder, I suspect that Jesus is doing something similar here.

In the Old Testament law, we are challenged to love others as we love ourselves, and this makes us equals. This is healthy, and it pushes back arrogance and pride from our lives, because we are equal with each other.

However, Jesus’ command in this passage is that we are to love others like Jesus loved them. With this framing, does Jesus love other people as though they are equal to Him? While a case could be put together that implies this is true, when I read the gospels, I don’t see an equal frame for Jesus’ type of love. While it is very true that Jesus loved all people equally and individually, and while this is something we should do, I don’t recall seeing a place where Jesus emphasizes His equality with men.

In contrast, Jesus understood who He was, namely the Son of God, and He understood that we are sinners. This perspective could have led Jesus to judge others, which is a temptation for everyone to fall into, but it didn’t. Instead, this perspective led Jesus to extend mercy and grace to everyone God loved. With only one or two extraordinary exceptions, Jesus’ harsh words were reserved for those who believed themselves to be better than others and who used this moral superiority to bully those who were not as good as them. Unfortunately, this seems to be the norm today on many social and spiritual issues.

However, while Jesus understood that He was the Son of God, sinless, and that we all are sinners, how did that change His actions? Remember, Jesus is giving the disciples a new command to love each other like Jesus loved them, and what did Jesus do to demonstrate that love?

While we could easily jump to the cross, the disciples didn’t have that as a frame of reference like we do looking back on this event. Instead, the clearest modeling of Jesus’ new command was when, earlier that evening, Jesus stepped into the lowest servant’s role and washed their feet. When we look at how Jesus acted when loving others, never do we see Jesus step above someone else. Instead, in almost every case, Jesus steps down and places Himself in the role of servant to those needing help.

With all this said, Jesus elevates the Old Testament commandment in these two verses by challenging the disciples to place others ahead of themselves, like Jesus placed humanity ahead of Himself. It would have been easier to abandon humanity to sin, but it wouldn’t have been loving. True love in God’s eyes pushes past the easy, convenient solution towards the solution that puts others ahead of Himself.

We are called to love each other like Jesus loved us, and this is done when we place others ahead of ourselves. While this doesn’t eliminate the need for us to rest or to have healthy boundaries, it does mean that when God brings people into our lives that we can help, we are to place them ahead of ourselves and love them like the Godhead loves us.

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

As always, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to love others like Jesus commanded His followers to do, and loving others like Jesus loved each of us. While Jesus paid the ultimate price for us, the love He models is giving Himself to help us in ways that only He could. We are called to use our time, our talents, and our resources to help others beyond the quick, convenient fix. While help often looks different depending on the situation, when in doubt, lean on God to help you know how to best love those He brings into your life.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with Jesus. A personal relationship is personal when we focus on growing closer to Jesus and we don’t put anyone else in the middle of our relationship. While authors, speakers, pastors, or even podcasters can have good ideas worth considering, take everything you read, see, and hear and compare it with the truth found in the Bible. If what you are hearing or reading doesn’t match a clear truth within the Bible, it is an idea that likely won’t last beyond the end of sin.

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

As the religious leaders bring Jesus a set of challenges in what appears to be a last attempt to discredit His ministry, we discover in Mark’s gospel, a strange ending to this string of questions. However, it is likely that Mark summarized the conclusion of this event while other gospel writers include more detail.

During the last challenge that Jesus was given, we find the question appear surprisingly simple when compared with the earlier challenges. However, I wonder if this question was leading somewhere, and Jesus ultimately cut this train of questioning short.

After Jesus had been challenged by the Sadducees, a religious leader who heard what Jesus was saying decides to step in with a question of his own. Let’s read about what happened and discover what we can learn from this event.

Our event and passage are found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 12, and for our time together, let’s read it from the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 28, Mark tells us that:

²⁸ One of the teachers of the law came and heard the Sadducees arguing. He noticed that Jesus had given the Sadducees a good answer. So he asked him, “Which is the most important of all the commandments?”

²⁹ Jesus answered, “Here is the most important one. Moses said, ‘Israel, listen to me. The Lord is our God. The Lord is one. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ And here is the second one. ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ There is no commandment more important than these.”

³² “You have spoken well, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one. There is no other God but him. ³³ To love God with all your heart and mind and strength is very important. So is loving your neighbor as you love yourself. These things are more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

³⁴ Jesus saw that the man had answered wisely. He said to him, “You are not far from God’s kingdom.” From then on, no one dared to ask Jesus any more questions.

In this event, and from looking at all the trick questions Jesus had faced and avoided leading up to this point, it seems like this question was an easy one for Jesus. From looking at the other gospels and how they paint the big picture of Jesus’ life and ministry, I don’t believe this was the first time Jesus had been asked this question.

However, in this brief conversation, Jesus hints at something significant being necessary in order to gain entrance into God’s kingdom. In the summary that the religious leader shares with Jesus, he gives a compliment to Jesus for a well-summarized response. This religious leader also rightly concludes that loving God with all your heart, mind, and strength and loving your neighbor as you love yourself are more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices. From this summary, we see that this religious leader believed love and dedication to God and love and kindness to his neighbor are more important than the entire sacrificial system that was set up.

Seeing that this leader had also responded well, Jesus compliments him by telling him, “You are not far from God’s kingdom.”

In Jesus’ response to this religious leader, we discover something fascinating. Loving God with all our heart is one piece of the key needed to enter God’s kingdom. Another piece of this key is loving our neighbors as ourselves. However, being “not far from God’s kingdom” implies that you are close but still not in it.

With all the laws being summarized in these two commands related to love, what piece of the key into God’s kingdom is missing in this man’s response, in this idea, or in this man’s life that He still needs to discover?

As I look at what Jesus hints at in this conversation, the only thing I can see missing in this summary is a Savior.

This religious leader had rightly concluded that love is at the heart of God’s law, and loving God and loving others is the filter that we must view God’s law through. However, in this leader’s conclusion, there wasn’t any room for those who had broken the law. While this summary of the law is amazing, no-one alive at that point in time, or at any point in history other than Jesus fully exemplified this understanding of the law 100% of the time.

The punishment for breaking the law is death. We could logically understand then that the punishment for not loving God with all our heart and for not loving our neighbors is death. Everyone fails at this standard, and because of this, the closest we can come to God’s kingdom on our own is about as close as this religious leader, which happens to be close to God’s kingdom, but not actually in it.

Verse 34 records Jesus’ response to this religious leader: “Jesus saw that the man had answered wisely. He said to him, ‘You are not far from God’s kingdom.’”

This religious leader needed a Savior. This leader, like all of us living throughout history, needs a Savior because we all have failed Jesus’ standard of love for God and love for our neighbor. Jesus came to be that Savior. In the context of the pieces of the key needed for entrance into God’s kingdom, the missing piece is Jesus as our Savior. With love for God, love for our neighbor, and Jesus as our Savior, we are able to step into God’s kingdom and into the life He created us to live!

While Jesus doesn’t emphasize the need for a Savior to this religious leader, Jesus’ disciples make it very clear after Jesus was resurrected and returned to heaven that Jesus was the Messiah that the Old Testament prophets told them about. Jesus’ disciples take the message of Jesus and they emphasize that we are to love God with all our hearts and our minds, that we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and that we are to place our faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross for our sins!

Without Jesus, our faith is meaningless. With Jesus, our faith leads us 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 His sacrifice on the cross for your sins. Choose to accept the gift Jesus offers you and accept the eternal life He deserved while He paid the debt that we owed.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Discover in the pages of the Bible a God who is deeply in love with you and who is passionate about saving you for eternity. Don’t let anyone get in the way of you discovering this God for yourself and for growing a personal relationship with Him!

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!