Reflective Bible Study

Picking up where we left of in our last episode, Mark continues his gospel sharing about a conversation Jesus has with several of the disciples who came to Him with a question. In our last episode, as Jesus and his disciples left the temple, Jesus makes a statement in response to a comment from one of the disciples about the temple being destroyed. As we look at how Mark frames the events in his gospel, it is likely that the disciples, on remembering Jesus’ prediction from earlier in the day, decide to ask Jesus about the event He predicted.

Let’s read the disciples’ question and Jesus’ response. Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will read from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 3, Mark tells us that:

³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives facing the temple buildings, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, ⁴ “Tell us, when will this happen? What will be the sign when all this will come to an end?”

Pausing briefly, I want to point out that the disciples’ question is a much bigger question than what they may have even realized. On one hand, they likely are thinking about the destruction of the temple and are asking about when that will take place, but they are also asking when the world will come to an end as well. In their minds, these two events may have been thought to be one single event, but as history has shown, the destruction of the temple happened long before the return of Jesus and the end of the world as we know it.

Let’s continue in verse 5 and read Jesus’ response:

⁵ Jesus answered them, “Be careful not to let anyone deceive you. ⁶ Many will come using my name. They will say, ‘I am he,’ and they will deceive many people.

⁷ “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, don’t be alarmed! These things must happen, but they don’t mean that the end has come. ⁸ Nation will fight against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes and famines in various places. These are only the beginning pains of the end.

⁹ “Be on your guard! People will hand you over to the Jewish courts and whip you in their synagogues. You will stand in front of governors and kings to testify to them because of me. ¹⁰ But first, the Good News must be spread to all nations. ¹¹ When they take you away to hand you over to the authorities, don’t worry ahead of time about what you will say. Instead, say whatever is given to you to say when the time comes. Indeed, you are not the one who will be speaking, but the Holy Spirit will.

¹² “Brother will hand over brother to death; a father will hand over his child. Children will rebel against their parents and kill them. ¹³ Everyone will hate you because you are committed to me. But the person who endures to the end will be saved.

¹⁴ “When you see the disgusting thing that will cause destruction standing where it should not (let the reader take note), those of you in Judea should flee to the mountains. ¹⁵ Those who are on the roof should not come down to get anything out of their houses. ¹⁶ Those who are in the field should not turn back to get their coats.

¹⁷ “How horrible it will be for the women who are pregnant or who are nursing babies in those days. ¹⁸ Pray that it will not be in winter. ¹⁹ It will be a time of misery that has not happened from the beginning of God’s creation until now, and will certainly never happen again. ²⁰ If the Lord does not reduce that time, no one will be saved. But those days will be reduced because of those whom God has chosen.

²¹ “At that time don’t believe anyone who tells you, ‘Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘There he is!’ ²² False messiahs and false prophets will appear. They will work miraculous signs and do wonderful things to deceive, if possible, those whom God has chosen. ²³ Be on your guard! I have told you everything before it happens.

Let’s stop reading here for this episode and save the rest of Jesus’ message for our next podcast. While reading this first part of Jesus’ response to the disciples’ question, a couple things stood out in my mind that are worth drawing our attention to.

The first thing to jump out in this portion of Jesus’ response is how it opens and closes with a warning against being deceived. Jesus opens His response warning about people coming in His name and claiming to be Him, and in the last section of Jesus’ response that we read, we are warned against believing people who tell us the Messiah has arrived.

Jesus warns His followers that miraculous signs and wonderful things are not the marks of Jesus’ return. While Jesus performed miracles and did many wonderful things while He was with them, part of me sees Jesus telling all His followers that His return will be distinctly different from His first coming. Jesus’ original entrance into this world marked God coming to earth for His people.

Through Jesus and what He accomplished for us on the cross during His first coming, God opened the way for Jesus’ second coming. While Jesus’ first coming is God coming to be near His people, Jesus’ second coming will usher in God’s people leaving earth to be near God.

However, Satan is more than interested in tricking people out of realizing this truth. Jesus’ repeated warning in this end-time message is about not being deceived when another “messiah” appears. Jesus’ return will not be marked by Him staying on earth to win people over to Him. That wasn’t even part of Jesus’ original first coming goals.

Jesus’ return, also known as His second coming, is to take God’s people to be home with Him. While Mark’s gospel doesn’t include this promise, John includes in his gospel, chapter 14, verses 2 and 3 that He is going to prepare a place for us, and if He prepares a place for us, He will come again and receive us to Him, because He wants us to be where He is.

When Jesus returned to heaven, God the Father gives Jesus the honored position. When Jesus returns to earth, it will be to bring God’s people home to be with Him forever.

These details mark the first big thing I see in Jesus’ response to the disciples, which we could simply say is a warning about being deceived by Satan.

The other big phrase in Jesus’ response is in the first part of verse 13, where Jesus directly tells His followers that “Everyone will hate you because you are committed to me.”

While it isn’t pleasant to think about, if Satan can’t trick or deceive us into leaving God, he will openly have us mocked, ridiculed, and hated for choosing to stay with God. This truth is evident for God’s people throughout history and especially today as we look out across the world and culture.

However, Jesus includes a powerful promise while talking about being hated. Jesus finishes this verse off by telling us that “the person who endures to the end will be saved”.

One word in this promise stands out to me. This word is “endure”. We shouldn’t expect Satan’s hate to go away, and we see no indication that we should fight back against the world hating us. Instead, we should see the hate this world throws our way as both a distraction and as a litmus test that we might be on the right path. Satan will use hate to try to pull our focus off of God, and those who are focused on following God and Jesus can understand that hate directed their way is because Satan hates God’s people.

However, Jesus’ challenge remains: “The person who endures to the end will be saved.” This is a challenge for all of us to keep pressing forward and to stay committed to God regardless of what Satan throws our way. Look forward to Jesus’ return, the end of sin, and our trip to heaven. Don’t let Satan deceive you and stay committed to God and endure to the end!

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

Continue seeking God first in your life and choose to stay connected, dedicated, and allied to Him regardless of what Satan throws your way.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn the truth God wants to teach you first hand from the pages of His word. Don’t assume the Bible says something. Instead, study it out for yourself and let the Bible direct your understanding of truth!

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 be tricked into leaving where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue focusing on Jesus’ last big teaching to His remaining disciples on the night of His arrest, we come to a promise Jesus shares that is also framed with a challenge. I suspect that this promise stays true while we are following through with Jesus’ challenge, but that when we give up on Jesus’ challenge, we fail to receive what Jesus promised to us.

With that said, let’s dive into this passage and discover what we can learn in what Jesus shared with His remaining followers. Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 15, and we will read it from the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, John records Jesus saying:

¹ “I am the true vine. My Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch joined to me that does not bear fruit. He trims every branch that does bear fruit. Then it will bear even more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain joined to me, just as I also remain joined to you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain joined to the vine. In the same way, you can’t bear fruit unless you remain joined to me.

⁵ “I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain joined to me, and I to you, you will bear a lot of fruit. You can’t do anything without me. ⁶ If you don’t remain joined to me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and dries up. Branches like those are picked up. They are thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain joined to me and my words remain in you, ask for anything you wish. And it will be done for you. ⁸ When you bear a lot of fruit, it brings glory to my Father. It shows that you are my disciples.

⁹ “Just as the Father has loved me, I have loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. In the same way, I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that you will have the same joy that I have. I also want your joy to be complete. ¹² Here is my command. Love one another, just as I have loved you. ¹³ No one has greater love than the one who gives their life for their friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I do not call you slaves anymore. Slaves do not know their master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends. I have told you everything I learned from my Father. ¹⁶ You did not choose me. Instead, I chose you. I appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit that will last. I also appointed you so that the Father will give you what you ask for. He will give you whatever you ask for in my name. ¹⁷ Here is my command. Love one another.

¹⁸ “My disciples, does the world hate you? Remember that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you like one of its own. But you do not belong to the world. I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember what I told you. I said, ‘A slave is not more important than his master.’ If people hated me and tried to hurt me, they will do the same to you. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹ They will treat you like that because of my name. They do not know the one who sent me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ Whoever hates me hates my Father also. ²⁴ I did works among them that no one else did. If I hadn’t, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen those works. And still they have hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ This has happened so that what is written in their Law would come true. It says, ‘They hated me without any reason.’

²⁶ “I will send the Friend to you from the Father. He is the Spirit of truth, who comes out from the Father. When the Friend comes to help you, he will be a witness about me. ²⁷ You must also be witnesses about me. That’s because you have been with me from the beginning.

In this passage, Jesus challenges His disciples with the illustration of a vine and its branches. The challenge for us in this illustration is that as branches, the only way we will have life that allows us to be fruitful is when we stay connected to the vine, and the vine in this illustration is Jesus.

Throughout this passage, we are called to be fruitful for God, to be witnesses for Him, and to let Him give us life. When we are being witnesses for God, being fruitful for Him with the life He has given to each of us, we are bringing glory to God the Father, and fulfilling the mission He has placed us on this earth to fulfill. Tucked within this passage is the powerful life mission that we are called to give glory to God by being fruitful with the things He has blessed us with.

Also within this passage is a powerful promise. In verse 15, Jesus tells us that: “I do not call you slaves anymore. Slaves do not know their master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends. I have told you everything I learned from my Father.”

If we are ever tempted to think that God created us to simply be His slaves, Jesus challenges this lie clearly in this verse. If God wanted slaves, He would have created humanity in a very different way – and if this other way allowed us fail the test of sin, God would have responded in a very different way as well. While it is not ideal to think about, slaves are treated differently than friends.

Jesus instead frames the way God sees us as friends. While one way of looking at friendship is two equals who enjoy spending time together, I suspect the friendship we have with God is more like a King being friends with those who He enjoys spending time with. It would also be like the CEO of a company being friends with someone several levels down in the organization.

In these clearly unequal examples of friendship, we discover that we are not equal friends with God, but that He desires us to be His friends, and that He blesses us, promises us, and shares with us like a friend would. Some people might be tempted to take God’s blessings, promises, and truths and run, but that is not the actions of a true friend. A true friend accepts the gifts they have been given and then wants to give back gifts that their friend wants.

If our friendship with God was equal, we could give God back equally to what He has blessed us with. However, our friendship with God is so unequal that the best we can offer is entirely unworthy of God. The best we can offer God is like dirty rags.

But God has given us another choice. In response to everything God has blessed us with, we can give God our hearts. While our hearts might be the worst part of our entire being, the only One capable of cleaning, fixing, mending, and restoring sin-stained hearts is God. Because God is the only one capable of fixing or replacing our hearts, it is the gift He desires the most.

God does not want us living forever with a sin-filled, sin-stained, sin-tainted heart. Instead, God wants us to bring our hearts to Him, and let Him transform our hearts into being like His. When we stay connected to Jesus, like a branch stays connected to the vine, we allow God to work on restoring our hearts, and we are able to be fruitful for God in ways that might even surprise us!

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to stay connected to Him and to Jesus like a branch connected with a vine. In response to everything God has blessed you with, open up your heart to Him and let Him transform your heart into His heart, and let God take your heart and use it for His glory!

Also, as I always challenge you to do, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God each and every day. God loves you personally, and He wants a personal relationship with you starting today, and extending into eternity!

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

As Mark begins winding down the events that happened in the temple during the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion, he shares a brief statement one of Jesus’ disciples makes, and a startling response Jesus shares with the group of disciples. It is likely that the response Jesus gives prompts the conversation that we will focus in on during the next two episodes.

With that said, while it would be easy to skim past or skip over these two opening verses, these verses set the stage for a much bigger conversation, while also being surprisingly powerful on their own. Let’s read what happened when Jesus and His disciples leave the temple.

Our passage is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will read it from the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 1, Mark tells us that:

¹ As He [and this is referring to Jesus] was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, behold what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” ² And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.”

Let’s stop reading here. The next verse transitions into a conversation Jesus has with the disciples later that evening, and while that conversation is likely directly related to this short statement and response, what Jesus has shared here is too significant, and I don’t want us to miss this significance by attaching it to a larger passage in one episode.

In this short passage and conversation, Jesus makes a direct prediction, and He also makes a subtle one. The direct prediction was the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem which ultimately happened several decades later. The subtle prediction is that other buildings we build up will likely be torn down.

While I don’t know what the temple in Jerusalem looked like during the time Jesus and the disciples were alive, I do know that it was likely one of the most magnificent buildings in that region, and perhaps the grandest building that any of them had ever seen.

The Jews took pride in the temple they had built and decorated in Jerusalem. However, what was likely started as a project focused on giving God the best they had, over time and generations, the temple had become the focus in itself rather than simply a place designed to help those present focus on Someone else – specifically on God.

We can see that the temple was the focus in the statement this anonymous disciple makes. This unnamed disciple in verse 1 comments, “Teacher, behold what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!”

This statement has nothing to do with glorifying God, which is the only reason the temple had been originally constructed. This disciple’s statement is only focused on praising the building and those who constructed it and not on God, who it was constructed to glorify.

We could say the same thing about many of the iconic buildings in some of the most famous cities. Some of the most distinct buildings that immediately identify the city they are a part of are amazing to see, and they are engineering masterpieces. But few, if any, are constructed to glorify God. And when we look at what has been built, culture never praises God for it, but it praises itself and human ingenuity.

However, a building is simply a building. Jesus’ response, while shocking to all the disciples rings true with a huge, challenging truth: The best buildings we can construct as a human race are nothing but stones, wood, brick, and cement. The best buildings we can construct will ultimately not last past the disaster that Jesus knows is coming.

This leaves us with a question. Knowing that what we build will crumble at some point in the future, should we even try to build anything new, grand, or spectacular?

I would answer this question with a yes. In Jesus’ response, we don’t see any hint that the temple or other grand buildings are evil or wrong. A building is simply a building.

However, a building is never meant to be our focus. Instead, buildings are meant to be places where people can live, work, and collaborate with each other.

In the case of the temple in Jerusalem, it was constructed to be a place where Jews came to worship God and to offer their sacrifices to Him. In the cases of buildings today, they are constructed to help us fulfill purposes beyond simply looking pretty on the outside or inside. Houses are constructed to be places where families can grow and live together. Office buildings and factories are buildings constructed for people to be able to work and accomplish things with the help of each other. Churches are buildings designed for people to come together to worship God.

Buildings should never be seen as the ultimate answer to problems. This is because buildings come and go. Instead, buildings are to be seen and used as tools helping us achieve things together. Just like buildings are a result of hundreds, if not thousands, of people working together in many different industries, buildings are used by many people to accomplish things together.

The best humanity can create or build is nothing when it comes to what God has in store for us in heaven. Culture wants us to minimize God while glorifying what humanity is capable of building. Jesus challenges His followers to glorify God while being realistic about what humanity is able to accomplish.

Natural disasters, terrorism, and other catastrophes can easily destroy in minutes a building that took years to construct. This is why Jesus challenges His followers to not focus on amazing or extravagant buildings. Buildings come and building go, but what matters above everything else is giving glory to the One who created life, and the One who gave His life for each of us!

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to glorify Him in whatever environment you are in. Whether you are in a home, an office, a factory, a vehicle, or outside, take a few moments to give God the glory and thank Him for blessing you with life, with breath, and with the gift of eternity together with Him. Resist the culture’s temptation to place buildings over relationships, especially when it comes to your relationship with God.

Also, continue intentionally praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and move closer to God each and every day. While what we pray and study might matter to some, what matters more is that we actually pray and study. Praying and studying our Bibles is infinitely more significant than trying to find the best place to study in. Don’t let the lack of an ideal location stop you from growing closer to God through prayer and study.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As 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!