Reflective Bible Study

Over the past several weeks of podcasts, we have been focusing in on a section of Luke’s gospel where Luke includes lots of Jesus’ teaching. For this episode, Luke shifts out of sharing big truths Jesus taught in order to share with us a powerful miracle that teaches us a powerful truth.

Let’s read about what happened and then look a little closer to discover some big things we can learn from this event.

Our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 17, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 11, Luke tells us:

¹¹ While He [referring to Jesus] was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; ¹³ and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” ¹⁴ When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going, they were cleansed. ¹⁵ Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, ¹⁶ and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷ Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? ¹⁸ Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” ¹⁹ And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”

Whenever I read this event, I always get the picture in my mind that the nine who didn’t return to thank Jesus must not have been very grateful. However, I then look closer at the details of this event and suspect that these other men simply had a different focus when they realized they were healed, and this other focus doesn’t mean they were not thankful, but that they didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize their healing.

However, before getting to what their focus may have been, as we read this passage and learned about this event, several details jump out that I believe are significant and worth paying attention to.

The first of these details is Jesus’ message to them. Jesus doesn’t promise them healing, He simply tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. There is an implication that they would be healed, but it really isn’t promised. After all, they could go and show themselves to the priests and receive the verdict that they still were unclean lepers.

Jesus’ message to these men is significant, because often times we might expect God to speak a direct message to us about our current situation, and instead, we receive instructions that don’t sound very related. It was this way with the Old Testament man known as Naaman, who had leprosy, and who was instructed to do something simple, and who almost missed out on being healed because the task given to him seemed too simple and too insignificant. To learn more about this story, you can find it in 2 Kings, chapter 5.

When we receive simple or seemingly unrelated instructions from God, we would be wise to trust that He knows best. If the instructions don’t contradict any law included in the Bible, we should be willing to follow the instructions because chances are we will see a positive result.

I wonder if Naaman was on the minds of these lepers as they heard Jesus’ instructions. Jesus’ instructions were simple and His instructions only made sense in a situation that assumed they were already healed. Because of these two reasons, these lepers likely immediately set out to see the priests.

This brings us to the second big portion of this event that stands out in my mind. Luke tells us in verse 14 that “as they were going, they were cleansed.” These lepers were not cleansed before they started on their trip to see the priests; they were cleansed after they began their trip.

Often times, when we want to see God moving and working in our lives, we need to be like these lepers and begin moving – specifically following the instructions we have been given. Only when we start moving will we likely discover the next steps to take after we have started. Often, like traveling through a fog, we cannot see the ultimate destination. Instead, we are only able to see the next few steps. We should trust that God has the end in mind and that He is leading our steps as we continue to step forward with Him!

While the men were going to see the priests, they were cleansed. The implication I read in this passage is that they were cleansed relatively quickly after their trip began. I suspect this because this man is easily able to find Jesus and give thanks to Him.

However, the passage says in verse 15 that this man “turned back”. This Samaritan turned back from going to see the priest because He wanted to thank his Healer. A case could be made that these men had not traveled very far, because Jesus expects to see nine more people with this man giving praise and thanks.

The obvious answer to Jesus’ question about where the other nine men were is that they were following through with the instructions Jesus had given them. They were going to see the priests to get an official “all clean” verdict.

In some ways, we could flip this situation around and say that this Samaritan leper risked losing his healing because he deviated from following the instructions Jesus gave.

However, giving thanks and glory to God is never outside of God’s will. Jesus honored the gratitude and praise this Samaritan gave and Jesus tells him that his faith had made him well. This was the faith that left to see the priests, and the faith that likely directed Him to return to his journey to see the priests after thanking Jesus personally.

I am certain that the other nine men who were healed were thankful and that they praised God. Perhaps they finished their trip to see the priests before coming and thanking Jesus personally, or perhaps they praised God for Jesus and this miracle without returning. It is also possible they wanted to find Jesus after having seen the priests, but they were unable to locate Him.

Whatever the reason for these other men not returning, I am certain that it wasn’t because they were not grateful. Instead, I am certain they wanted to solidify the healing their faith in Jesus and God had blessed them with.

This leads us to one last big truth we can learn from this event: When we do nice things for others, sometimes we will be thanked directly for what we have done, but other times, we might not receive gratitude from those we helped. Whether we receive thanks or not, we should continue to help others because this is what God does.

We best reflect God and His character when we help others. Sometimes our help will be rewarded with gratitude, other times, our help will appear to fall on ungrateful people. However, God has called us to be a blessing to the world around us and regardless of whether we receive thanks for what we do in this life, God will reward those who blessed others in His name regardless of whether they received gratitude before.

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 give God thanks and gratitude for all the ways He has blessed you with. If you haven’t done so recently, simply say “Thank You” to God for what He has brought into your life. Having a grateful attitude is one of the best decisions we can make in our lives with God!

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each day. Through the pages of the Bible, discover a God who loves you more than you can ever imagine, and discover how we can open our hearts and let Him into our lives!

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

As we continue moving through Matthew’s gospel, we come to a question that sounds simple on the surface, but one that we often complicate much more than necessary. Also in this passage, we discover one of the most impossible analogies in the entire Bible, but even with its impossible nature, Jesus tells us that under certain conditions, what is described is indeed possible.

Let’s dive into this passage and discover what we can learn from Jesus’ teaching. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 19, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 16, Matthew tells us that:

¹⁶ A man came to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to have life forever?”

¹⁷ Jesus answered, “Why do you ask me about what is good? Only God is good. But if you want to have life forever, obey the commands.”

¹⁸ The man asked, “Which commands?”

Jesus answered, “‘You must not murder anyone; you must not be guilty of adultery; you must not steal; you must not tell lies about your neighbor; ¹⁹ honor your father and mother; and love your neighbor as you love yourself.’”

²⁰ The young man said, “I have obeyed all these things. What else do I need to do?”

²¹ Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, then go and sell your possessions and give the money to the poor. If you do this, you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.”

²² But when the young man heard this, he left sorrowfully, because he was rich.

Let’s pause briefly here, because I want to draw our attention onto something that is easy to miss. While Christians are always quick to point out that our faith saves us, everything in the structure of this passage is about obedience.

Jesus first frames the commands about honoring our neighbors as being central to obtaining eternal life. I’ve heard some people theorize that Jesus was cut short before moving to include commands from the first portion of the Ten Commandments, but the way Matthew frames this conversation, I don’t see this as being likely. Instead, Jesus wraps up this set of commands with the overall theme and command to love your neighbor as you love yourself, which isn’t part of the Ten Commandments, but it is a good summary statement for the commandments Jesus quotes.

From the way this man frames his request, he senses there is more, and he pushes Jesus for more details. I believe from the way this man answered the first response, and from Jesus not really touching on this other angle, that this man likely kept the other commandments from the Ten Commandments that Jesus didn’t mention.

Jesus shifts focus with His next response and He tells the man that the next step is selling what he has, giving the money to the poor, and that will give him treasure in heaven. I don’t believe this is the only time Jesus challenges someone to give their stuff away, but it is interesting in my mind how Jesus frames this challenge.

With this challenge, Jesus knows that the biggest distraction we have away from God is our stuff and our money. I believe Jesus does want this man to be one of His disciples, but Jesus can see the tug of this man’s money on his heart. If this man wasn’t wealthy, or if this man’s wealth was not a significant part of this man’s focus, either Jesus wouldn’t have challenged this man to give away what he had, or this man would have happily dropped everything to follow Jesus.

It is interesting that Jesus doesn’t ignore the necessity of faith in Him and the importance of following Him. Instead, Jesus frames this as being perhaps the easiest of the decisions, while the most difficult decisions needed are the ones focused on obedience and on keeping our focus on God above our stuff.

After this man left sorrowfully, verse 23 tells us:

²³ Then Jesus said to his followers, “I tell you the truth, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. ²⁴ Yes, I tell you that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁵ When Jesus’ followers heard this, they were very surprised and asked, “Then who can be saved?”

²⁶ Jesus looked at them and said, “For people this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

²⁷ Peter said to Jesus, “Look, we have left everything and followed you. So what will we have?”

²⁸ Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, when the age to come has arrived, the Son of Man will sit on his great throne. All of you who followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹ And all those who have left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children, or farms to follow me will get much more than they left, and they will have life forever. ³⁰ Many who are first now will be last in the future. And many who are last now will be first in the future.

In this passage, we often focus on Jesus’ challenge that it is impossible for those who are rich to enter heaven, or that Jesus gives an opening for God making the way possible for rich people to enter God’s kingdom. Other people focus in on how the eye of a needle might refer to a narrow gate in one of Jerusalem’s walls, while other people exclaim that no evidence for such a gate exists.

Instead of focusing on any of these ideas, one big theme present in this entire passage that is often overlooked is the role of sacrifice in our salvation. In this passage, the more we sacrifice for God, the greater our rewards.

We can see this theme in the first portion of this passage, when the man leaves sorrowfully because he is unsure if he is willing to sacrifice that significantly. We see this theme present in the part where Jesus challenges His followers about the difficulty of getting into heaven, whether one is rich or not. Jesus’ message about it being impossible for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven rings true because someone who is wealthy hasn’t given up everything they have for God. While God can make a way for a rich person to be saved, the way to salvation is through sacrifice, similar to how Jesus challenged the rich man in the first portion of this passage.

In the last section of this passage, Peter reminds Jesus what the disciples have sacrificed, before asking Jesus what their rewards will be. Jesus frames the rewards for sacrificing things in this world for Him as being rewards that will come in the age to come. This is the age after Jesus has returned as King. At this time, everyone who has sacrificed for God’s Kingdom will be rewarded with much more.

The message of this passage is about sacrifice and focus. Those who sacrifice in this life who are focused on and invested in the age to come will be rewarded infinitely more than those who focus on and invest in this life while sacrificing the next. Through Jesus, God has made the way for our salvation, and Jesus challenges His followers to sacrifice in this life and to keep our focus on the age to come!

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

As I regularly challenge you to do, continue intentionally seeking God first in your life. Choose to sacrifice things in this life because you are focused on the age to come, and remember that when we give up something in this life, God has a much better reward for us in the life to come. God hasn’t called us to live counter to His character, His will, or His law in this life. Instead, we are called to place God’s will, God’s law, and God’s desires ahead of our own.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself. Don’t take my word, or anyone else’s word, for anything at face value. Instead, test everything you read and hear through the lens of what the Bible teaches. If it is a spiritual truth, it will be validated or discredited through the Bible’s teaching. If a belief, teaching, or tradition contradicts the Bible, reject the belief, the teaching, or the tradition before ever considering rejecting the Bible.

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

As we continue moving through Luke’s gospel, we come to even more challenging teaching that Jesus shares. While the topics of our last few episodes have been challenging, Jesus shifts His focus in this passage and turns His attention onto warning His disciples about things they should be aware of.

This means that as followers and disciples of Jesus living today, we should intuitively pay attention to what Jesus wants His people to know.

Our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 17, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1:

¹ Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. ² It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. ³ So watch yourselves.

“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. ⁴ Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”

Let’s pause reading here briefly, because Jesus has just shared some powerful ideas. So far in our passage, Jesus has warned the disciples about things coming that will cause people to stumble, and Jesus specifically warns that those people who bring stumbling blocks into our paths would be better off having never been born.

Jesus is not advocating the death penalty for anyone who disagrees with Him. Instead, Jesus is emphasizing how God values and desires for His people to protect those who are new to the faith. Just like it is child abuse if a parent were to throw their toddler into the deep end of a pool to teach them how to swim, it is spiritual abuse to take a new believer and toss them into the deep end of spiritual debates and issues.

However, forgiveness should be one of the key identifying attributes of God’s people. If other people sin against us, we are allowed to rebuke them, which basically means to tell them that what they did was wrong. If they accept our rebuke and apologize, we are told to forgive them. We are told to forgive others even if they repeatedly sin against us and continue coming back.

This is a huge challenge for us. What Jesus describes sounds impossible. However, what Jesus describes is exactly what God is like – and Jesus is describing exactly what we would want God to be like as well. When we sin against God and then turn away from our sin, we would want God to be ready and willing to forgive us. Even if we are horrible at obeying God and staying out of trouble, we would want God to always be willing to accept us back when we earnestly come back to Him.

God desires for His people to reflect His character, and in verse 5, sensing how big of a challenge this is, we read that:

⁵ The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

⁶ He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

⁷ “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? ⁸ Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? ⁹ Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? ¹⁰ So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

In this passage, and specifically in Jesus’ reply to the disciples asking Jesus to increase their faith, Jesus shares the powerful idea that faith isn’t as big of a deal as we might think it is. The disciples want Jesus to increase their faith, and Jesus replies that the tiniest amount of faith is needed for extraordinary miracles.

Instead of faith being the big piece of His response, Jesus instead emphasizes a different character attribute, which is obedience. Jesus illustrates the attitude that disciples and followers of Jesus should have. We should model the attitude of mature servants.

The attitude we have towards God says a lot about our character. If our attitude towards God says that God owes us something, or that we deserve to get repaid for what we have done for Him, then we are acting immature.

There are people outside of the church who think that the only reason people choose to follow Jesus is because of the rewards God offers. There are those who think that Christianity is a scam where the rewards we are promised are only given after our lives end, specifically after there is no turning back.

However, this is an immature way of viewing life – especially our spiritual life.

The first realization we all must have on the path from immaturity to maturity is that the world does not revolve around us. An immature person acts as though everything in life centers around them, while a mature person understands that life is a bigger picture and that the world revolves around things much bigger than a single person.

With this in mind, we see Jesus’ challenge for His followers. While an immature disciple might demand or expect a reward for every little thing they do for God, a mature disciple understands that a life of service in all that is asked of us leads to its own reward.

In the big picture of a spiritually mature mind, we have already been given way more than we could ever repay, and because of this, our response to God should always be one of humble gratitude. Verse 10 summarizes this by saying, “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

At the very least, God has given us breath and we cannot repay this gift. At the very greatest, God gave us Jesus who in turn offers us His life in exchange for ours. Jesus’ life is eternal life, and Jesus offers His life to us in exchange for our sinful lives that deserve death. Jesus takes our sin-filled lives and He nails them to the cross, while we get to experience the life Jesus deserved.

Nothing we can ever do, say, or give can repay God for everything He has already blessed us with. Instead of living an immature spiritual life looking for immediate blessings and rewards for every act of obedience, determine today to live a spiritually mature life that sees our lives of service as the best way to show gratitude and thanks to a God who has already given us everything!

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 live a life of obedience as your way of saying thank you to God for everything He has already blessed you with. If you have been living a spiritually immature life, determine today to change your focus and to understand that life is bigger than our perspective at any given moment. Choose to see yourself in the huge picture of eternity and as a tiny person in the grand story of Jesus called “HisStory”.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God each day. Through prayer and study, discover who God is and what He is like. Discover how our relationship with God today can extend into eternity when we place our hope, faith, trust, and belief in Jesus and what He did for us on the cross!

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!

In one of the more challenging portions of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus shares a parable that has amazing implications, both from God’s perspective and from our own. The passage we are about to cover, which is a little longer than many of our other passages, doesn’t need much explanation or expansion. This passage is very clear even if it is challenging on its own.

Let’s read what Jesus teaches and then the parable that follows. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 18, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 15, Jesus told those present:

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

Before continuing our passage, I want to draw attention to a couple things we just read because I don’t want them to be lost as we move forward. In the first portion of this passage, Jesus outlines the process for conflict resolution. However, while it is tempting to treat conflict in any way other than what Jesus describes, the way Jesus describes is fascinating. Also, it is worth noting that the final step in Jesus conflict resolution process does not allow us to stop loving or reaching out to the person who has refused to listen to the church.

Instead, we are to love those who have hurt us in the same way we love those outside of the church, and we are called to show God’s love to them. Jesus loved tax collectors enough to dine with them, call them out of trees while passing by, and even invite them to be among His group of disciples.

Jesus then shares a passage that sounds similar to a promise Jesus made to Peter a few chapters before this, but the context of this promise is to all of God’s people and Jesus’ disciples. Jesus continues in verse 18, saying:

¹⁸ “I tell you the truth, the things you don’t allow on earth will be the things God does not allow. And the things you allow on earth will be the things that God allows.

¹⁹ “Also, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about something and pray for it, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ This is true because if two or three people come together in my name, I am there with them.”

Let’s pause again here before looking at Jesus’ parable because what Jesus shared can be easily misunderstood. While one possible reading of Jesus’ promise here is that God will change His will and His law because of our prayers and our decisions, other parts of the Bible describe God as not changing. If God could brush aside the demands of the law under the frame of forgiveness, then Jesus would not have needed to die. Instead, Jesus died to pay the penalty of the law so that we could trade places. Jesus allows the punishment of the law to hold while also opening up the option of forgiveness.

The other way of seeing these verses is that when we are united with and focused on God, our will and our standards will be the same as God’s. This isn’t God changing to match us, but it is us being filled with the Holy Spirit and matching God. When the Holy Spirit is in our lives, the things we allow and don’t allow will match what God allows and doesn’t allow, and when we pray with others who are just as dedicated and focused on God, then our requests and our desires match God’s, and what we pray for will be done.

Continuing our reading in verse 21:

²¹ Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, when my fellow believer sins against me, how many times must I forgive him? Should I forgive him as many as seven times?”

²² Jesus answered, “I tell you, you must forgive him more than seven times. You must forgive him even if he wrongs you seventy times seven.

²³ “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who decided to collect the money his servants owed him. ²⁴ When the king began to collect his money, a servant who owed him several million dollars was brought to him. ²⁵ But the servant did not have enough money to pay his master, the king. So the master ordered that everything the servant owned should be sold, even the servant’s wife and children. Then the money would be used to pay the king what the servant owed.

²⁶ “But the servant fell on his knees and begged, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything I owe.’ ²⁷ The master felt sorry for his servant and told him he did not have to pay it back. Then he let the servant go free.

²⁸ “Later, that same servant found another servant who owed him a few dollars. The servant grabbed him around the neck and said, ‘Pay me the money you owe me!’

²⁹ “The other servant fell on his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything I owe.’

³⁰ “But the first servant refused to be patient. He threw the other servant into prison until he could pay everything he owed. ³¹ When the other servants saw what had happened, they were very sorry. So they went and told their master all that had happened.

³² “Then the master called his servant in and said, ‘You evil servant! Because you begged me to forget what you owed, I told you that you did not have to pay anything. ³³ You should have showed mercy to that other servant, just as I showed mercy to you.’ ³⁴ The master was very angry and put the servant in prison to be punished until he could pay everything he owed.

³⁵ “This king did what my heavenly Father will do to you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

In this question, response, and parable, we discover just how important forgiveness is in God’s eyes. If having faith in Jesus is the most important thing for us to do, forgiving others is a close second. We could say that this passage forces us to admit that in order to stay forgiven, we must be forgiving.

It is also worth pointing out that we have already been forgiven. Jesus’ death on the cross allows God to extend forgiveness to all of humanity, and in many ways, our default state after Jesus’ death and resurrection is forgiven. However, if we choose to not extend forgiveness towards others, then we forfeit our forgiven status and we bring God’s judgment onto ourselves.

God has called us to place our faith in Jesus, to love others even if they have wronged us, to love those who are different from us, to focus on living the way God wants us to live while praying for His will to be done, and to forgive others because we have been forgiven of infinitely more. In this challenging passage, Jesus shares with us the things that matter most from God’s perspective!

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 choose to live God’s will in your life. Choose to be forgiving towards others because God has forgiven you of so much more, and when others hurt you, follow the steps for resolution that Jesus shared at the beginning of our passage.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God each and every day. With a strong connection with God, our thoughts, hopes, and desires will match His thoughts, hopes, and desires and we will be the representatives for Him that He has called us to be.

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!