Reflective Bible Study

As we continue moving through Matthew’s gospel, we come to two well-known events that happened within twelve hours or so of each other. One of these events happens to be included in all four gospels, and it is distinct because it is the only miracle other than Jesus’ resurrection, that is included in all four gospels. The other event is another miracle that was less well known, even though it is in three of the four gospels, and Matthew’s gospel includes a unique detail in it that none of the other gospel writers mention.

I debated whether to choose one of these events to focus in on instead of both, but thought that since most often, these two events are looked at separately, it might be beneficial to actually read them together and point out some shared themes that we might not see immediately on the surface.

With that said, let’s read our passage for this episode. It is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 14, and we will read from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 13, Matthew tells us that:

¹³ When Jesus heard about John, he left in a boat and went to a place where he could be alone. The crowds heard about this and followed him on foot from the cities. ¹⁴ When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw a large crowd. He felt sorry for them and cured their sick people.

¹⁵ In the evening the disciples came to him. They said, “No one lives around here, and it’s already late. Send the crowds to the villages to buy food for themselves.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to them, “They don’t need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

¹⁷ They told him, “All we have here are five loaves of bread and two fish.”

¹⁸ Jesus said, “Bring them to me.”

¹⁹ Then he ordered the people to sit down on the grass. After he took the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed the food. He broke the loaves apart, gave them to the disciples, and they gave them to the people. ²⁰ All of them ate as much as they wanted. When they picked up the leftover pieces, they filled twelve baskets.

²¹ About five thousand men had eaten. (This number does not include the women and children who had eaten.)

A quick side-note that I’ll include here is that this is where most people will break these two events. However, since we’re looking at both together, let’s continue reading. Jumping back in at verse 22, we read that:

²² Jesus quickly made his disciples get into a boat and cross to the other side ahead of him while he sent the people away. ²³ After sending the people away, he went up a mountain to pray by himself. When evening came, he was there alone.

²⁴ The boat, now hundreds of yards from shore, was being thrown around by the waves because it was going against the wind.

²⁵ Between three and six o’clock in the morning, he came to them. He was walking on the sea. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. They said, “It’s a ghost!” and began to scream because they were afraid.

²⁷ Immediately, Jesus said, “Calm down! It’s me. Don’t be afraid!”

²⁸ Peter answered, “Lord, if it is you, order me to come to you on the water.”

²⁹ Jesus said, “Come!” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he noticed how strong the wind was, he became afraid and started to sink. He shouted, “Lord, save me!”

³¹ Immediately, Jesus reached out, caught hold of him, and said, “You have so little faith! Why did you doubt?”

³² When they got into the boat, the wind stopped blowing. ³³ The men in the boat bowed down in front of Jesus and said, “You are truly the Son of God.”

³⁴ They crossed the sea and landed at Gennesaret. ³⁵ The men there recognized Jesus and sent messengers all around the countryside. The people brought him everyone who was sick. ³⁶ They begged him to let them touch just the edge of his clothes. Everyone who touched his clothes was made well.

In this long passage, we have four main events, even if we’re tempted to only see two. The first event is the feeding of the five thousand, which happens to be the famous miracle that all four gospel writers include. The second event is Jesus praying on the mountain while the disciples are struggling in the boat. The third event is Jesus coming to the disciples on the water and Peter’s big water-walking adventure. The fourth and last event is Jesus healing those who were sick in Gennesaret.

Every single one of these events have big themes that we can learn from them. However, when we put them all together, one theme stands above the rest. This theme says that: When we are focused on God, His love and power will be seen in our lives and the lives of those around us.

If we don’t include Jesus’ prayer on the mountain event, we have another big theme that trusting Jesus in our lives is never misplaced trust. Those who needed food in the wilderness, those who were sick in Gennesaret, and Peter as he was sinking in the water all needed Jesus, and they all trusted that Jesus could help them in the exact way they needed.

However, this second theme doesn’t match our primary theme in significance or importance. In all four of the events within our passage, we see the clear example of focus being placed on God. In the miracle of the feeding the large crowd, Jesus pushes the focus of the disciples onto what God can do when they are being tempted to believe that they cannot be a blessing.

After this miracle, when other gospels share how this crowd wanted to force Jesus to become their King, Jesus sends the disciples alone across the lake while He goes up the mountain to pray. In this second event, Jesus focuses more on God and His will than on what the crowd wanted Him to be or become. Jesus intentionally focused on God when everyone else wanted the focus to be placed on Him.

When Jesus comes down the mountain and walks to the struggling disciples on the water, Peter jumps out of the boat on Jesus’ command, but then he becomes scared and his focus leaves Jesus. At that moment, Peter starts sinking and he cries out to Jesus and God to save Him. When Peter’s focus left God, he began to sink prompting him to remember his need for Jesus.

In the fourth event, after the boat lands at Gennesaret, the people there spread the news this is where Jesus and the disciples had docked, and everyone brought those who needed help to Jesus. At Gennesaret, the people trusted in God and they placed their faith in Jesus that He could heal their friends and family. The focus of these miracles was on God and the power He had blessed Jesus with.

Within these four events, we can see how God is worthy of our trust, our faith, and our belief, and we can see that we succeed when we place His will ahead of our own. We are blessed when we stay focused on Jesus and on doing God’s will for our lives!

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, be sure to intentionally seek God first in your life and always place His will ahead of our own. Stay focused on Jesus and be sure to place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus, because like our secondary theme tells us, hope, faith, and trust placed in Jesus is never misplaced hope, faith, and trust.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and know God better. Use your prayer and study time to grow a close, personal relationship with God and open your heart to what He wants to teach you. Discover in your personal time with God a God who loves you enough to let His Son die to redeem you from 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 abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we near the half way mark in our year focusing in on Luke’s gospel, we come to another part of Luke’s gospel where he shares some of Jesus’ messages that are more challenging. However, because Luke is writing this to someone who never met Jesus personally, we can know that these teachings are applicable to more than just those who Jesus spoke to directly. While the message Jesus shares is challenging, I suspect Luke knows that this message is applicable for all of Jesus’ followers throughout history.

Because of this, let’s read this message Jesus shared and discover what we can learn from it. Our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 12, and we will read it from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 35, Luke tells us Jesus taught those present saying:

³⁵ “Be dressed, ready for service, and have your lamps shining. ³⁶ Be like servants who are waiting for their master to come home from a wedding party. When he comes and knocks, the servants immediately open the door for him. ³⁷ They will be blessed when their master comes home, because he sees that they were watching for him. I tell you the truth, the master will dress himself to serve and tell the servants to sit at the table, and he will serve them. ³⁸ Those servants will be blessed when he comes in and finds them still waiting, even if it is midnight or later.

³⁹ “Remember this: If the owner of the house knew what time a thief was coming, he would not allow the thief to enter his house. ⁴⁰ So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at a time when you don’t expect him!”

Pausing our reading briefly, it is easy to wonder if Jesus is talking to just His immediate followers, or if Jesus’ message extends beyond. It seems as though Peter also has this question, because he speaks up in the next verse.

Continuing in verse 41:

⁴¹ Peter said, “Lord, did you tell this story to us or to all people?”

⁴² The Lord said, “Who is the wise and trusted servant that the master trusts to give the other servants their food at the right time? ⁴³ When the master comes and finds the servant doing his work, the servant will be blessed. ⁴⁴ I tell you the truth, the master will choose that servant to take care of everything he owns. ⁴⁵ But suppose the servant thinks to himself, ‘My master will not come back soon,’ and he begins to beat the other servants, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. ⁴⁶ The master will come when that servant is not ready and is not expecting him. Then the master will cut him in pieces and send him away to be with the others who don’t obey.

⁴⁷ “The servant who knows what his master wants but is not ready, or who does not do what the master wants, will be beaten with many blows! ⁴⁸ But the servant who does not know what his master wants and does things that should be punished will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. And from the one trusted with much, much more will be expected.

⁴⁹ “I came to set fire to the world, and I wish it were already burning! ⁵⁰ I have a baptism to suffer through, and I feel very troubled until it is over. ⁵¹ Do you think I came to give peace to the earth? No, I tell you, I came to divide it. ⁵² From now on, a family with five people will be divided, three against two, and two against three. ⁵³ They will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Let’s stop reading here because what Jesus has shared in this passage is powerful and I don’t want us to miss it.

Jesus has just finished sharing one of His most challenging messages. Many people living in the first century believed the Messiah would come and usher in an age of peace for all people. These people believed that after a brief but decisive victory over the Romans who had control of their country, the Messiah would set up a new kingdom that would never be destroyed and a kingdom that would bring peace.

This was the belief of those present, but Jesus directly challenges this mindset by saying that He did not come to bring peace but to divide the earth. A surface reading might imply that Jesus came to divide families against each other, but when framed like this, it doesn’t sound very Godly or Christ-like to divide families.

However, Jesus did not come to divide families. Instead, Jesus shifts from what He came to do, which was to divide the earth, and onto the result, which is that families would be divided. Jesus came to redeem humanity and the earth from sin, and when humanity is blinded by sin, and actively living in and preferring sin, there is a clear tension present. The division Jesus came to make was giving people the choice of whether to continue living in sin or to choose a life that places sin in the past.

Jesus did not come with the goal to divide families, but He knew that families would be divided when some preferred their lives of sin while others were interested in leaving sin behind.

While the reality of every situation is way more complicated than the oversimplified description I just shared, this oversimplification is more like a theme that runs through almost every spiritual division within families. Jesus came to redeem people from sin, to call people to live new lives with Him, and to reward those who have repented and turned to God with eternal life when He returns.

This is one reason why the opening part of our passage always stands out to me. As our passage opened, Jesus tells His followers in verses 36 and 37 “Be like servants who are waiting for their master to come home from a wedding party. When he comes and knocks, the servants immediately open the door for him. They will be blessed when their master comes home, because he sees that they were watching for him. I tell you the truth, the master will dress himself to serve and tell the servants to sit at the table, and he will serve them.”

While we might want to read this passage as the servants get to serve the master when the master arrives home, the reverse is what is described. While the servants fully expect to serve the master on his arrival, the master reverses the roles. Jesus describes the master stepping down and serving the servants when he finds them ready and watching for his arrival.

When we understand that Jesus is describing His return in this illustration, we begin to see that when Jesus returns, He will reward those who have been patiently waiting for Him by serving them when they fully expect to serve Him instead. Those who have been serving God all their lives will be able to rest and let God serve them. The servants who God finds at their posts serving Him will be rewarded when He returns.

As servants of God, let’s continue to model Jesus to the world. This means that even though Jesus said that His arrival would divide the world, we are not to intentionally cause division. Instead, Jesus came reflecting God’s love for those who were hurting, and with the challenge to return to God towards all who were sinning. This should be our attitude and our message. Let’s show our love for God by loving others, and let’s call people to live to a higher standard and out of lives that are focused on sin.

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 let God lead you out of sin. Let God help you leave sin in your past and when given the choice on whether to serve sin, self, or God, choose to serve God. Serving God leads to receiving God’s reward of eternal life and a life that outlasts sin.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Through prayer and study, discover how to open your heart to the Holy Spirit and let Him into your heart, your mind, and your life!

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 we move through Matthew’s gospel looking at events that focus on Jesus, we come to an event where Jesus is more of a footnote in an event where the focus is completely different. In this event, Matthew records for us what happened to John the Baptist, who was Jesus’ forerunner in ministry. At this point of Jesus’ story, John the Baptist had been dead for a while, but Matthew breaks from Jesus’ story briefly to describe what happened to bring about John’s death.

While you probably know this story if you have spent any time in the gospels, let’s read it together and discover some things we can learn from what happened. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 14, and we will read from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 1, Matthew tells us that:

¹ At that time Herod, the ruler of Galilee, heard the reports about Jesus. ² So he said to his servants, “Jesus is John the Baptist, who has risen from the dead. That is why he can work these miracles.”

³ Sometime before this, Herod had arrested John, tied him up, and put him into prison. Herod did this because of Herodias, who had been the wife of Philip, Herod’s brother. ⁴ John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to be married to Herodias.” ⁵ Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they believed John was a prophet.

⁶ On Herod’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced for Herod and his guests, and she pleased him. ⁷ So he promised with an oath to give her anything she wanted. ⁸ Herodias told her daughter what to ask for, so she said to Herod, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” ⁹ Although King Herod was very sad, he had made a promise, and his dinner guests had heard him. So Herod ordered that what she asked for be done. ¹⁰ He sent soldiers to the prison to cut off John’s head. ¹¹ And they brought it on a platter and gave it to the girl, and she took it to her mother. ¹² John’s followers came and got his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.

In this somewhat disturbing passage, we learn how John the Baptist died. While John had likely been locked up for many months before His death, the impression I get when reading this event is that Herod did not want John’s death. Instead, He simply wanted John’s silence.

However, in this event, as I move through the characters present, we can discover some powerful themes that hold true today.

When looking at John and his interaction with Herod, we learn in verse 5 that “Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they believed John was a prophet”. From the verses prior to this, we learned that John openly challenged Herod on his marriage to his brother’s wife. From this section of the passage, we see the big themes that sinful people are intimidated by someone who speaks truth. We also see the theme that sinful people hate those who speak out against them and/or their actions.

At least one of the other gospels that include this event indicate that Herod wasn’t directly intimidated or hostile towards John, but was pressured and prompted by Herodias, his wife, because she hated John for speaking out against their marriage. Herodias had divorced herself from Herod’s brother, and Herod had divorced his first wife so the two of them could get married, and John challenged the validity of this arrangement.

The question remains whether this was a wise move on John’s part or not. In the big picture, John’s ministry led into Jesus’ ministry, and while many people understood this, John still kept followers even after pointing people towards Jesus. From the big picture, John could have been led to do this as a way of removing himself from the picture and emphasizing to his followers that they should follow Jesus.

However, unless God’s Holy Spirit is telling you to challenge someone in this way, this is not a wise move. While you might feel justified in your actions, calling someone out publicly for their sins or actions will only bring you hate and hostility in return. By calling out someone for the bad in their life, you only polarize people, and, more importantly, you likely misrepresent God’s love in the process.

While God is opposed to sin in any and every way possible, when we look at Jesus, we see a picture that separates the sin from the sinner, and through Jesus, we see a God who loved sinners and who called them out of sin. Jesus helped first then challenged second whenever He met a sinner who was hurting and needed help. I believe all of God’s people are called to model God’s love through Jesus’ example in this way!

Moving to the second portion of the event, when we look at Herod’s interaction with his niece, or adopted daughter depending on how you want to frame this, we can learn that we should be careful what we promise. Our promises may ultimately trap us in ways we didn’t wish or expect.

I don’t think Herod would have made such an open-ended promise if he knew beforehand what Herodias’ daughter was going to ask for. Because he had made a public oath, and because the request was well within the confines of the oath, Herod trapped himself into doing something he really didn’t want to do with this promise.

However, as a side-note, it is interesting that John believes Jesus to be a resurrected John the Baptist before he believes that Jesus is someone else entirely. This tells us that Herod believed the God of the Jews was powerful and that He could resurrect people, and that Herod believed John was worth resurrecting.

However, probably the most challenging theme I see in this passage is with Herodias herself. This theme challenges us with a simple phrase: Be patient. If you want something bad enough, an opportunity will likely arise when you can have it, even if it isn’t within God’s will, and even if everything about it will harm you in the long run.

This theme is challenging, because it places our desires and God’s desires for us as competing. God is not going to force His desires onto us. Instead, God is going to let us make the decision for ourselves, even if He knows that our desires will ultimately hurt us in the long run.

I don’t think God will protect us from every stupid decision we make that is outside of His will. Instead, I believe that more often than not, God will let us learn the results of our actions firsthand and face the natural consequences of our decisions. The challenge for all of God’s people is to lay our desires aside, and ask God to give us His desires for our lives. While God won’t always ask us to do things that make sense from our perspective, God is interested in filling up His Kingdom with as many people as possible. God works from the perspective of eternity, and He wants as many people as possible redeemed from this sinful world.

God’s ultimate goal is to save you, to save me, and to save as many people from this world as possible! God does not want anyone to perish. Instead, Jesus came to die for humanity and for all who are willing to accept God’s gift of salvation!

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, continue seeking God first and intentionally place His will and His purpose above your own. While we might not always understand why God prompts us to act in certain ways or do certain things, trust that God knows what He is doing and that His perspective will lead the most people possible into eternity.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God. For a relationship with God to be personal, you must be spending time with God in prayer and study, and this must be personal and not dependant on someone else. God doesn’t want anyone standing between you and Him. He wants a personal relationship with you because He loves you with all His heart!

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 get tricked out of following where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

If you have ever faced or struggled with worry in your life, the message Jesus shares in our passage for this episode may be a relief for you, or it may challenge you. However, regardless of whether this passage is challenging or it brings relief, Jesus’ message in this passage is both powerful and relevant.

And this teaching, or perhaps just the parable included in the first portion of Jesus’ teaching, is shared because of a request from someone in the crowd listening to Jesus. Let’s read what happened.

Our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 12, and we will read from the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 12, Luke tells us:

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to Him [referring to Jesus], “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” ¹⁴ But He said to him, “Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?” ¹⁵ Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”

Pausing reading for a moment, Jesus’ words here are powerful, and if you highlight statements in your Bible, this last message is worth highlighting because it is worth remembering. While we intellectually grasp the idea that our lives don’t consist of our possessions, almost every message we will receive from culture, from advertising, and from social media will try to define the value of our lives as being based on what we have, what we don’t have, and what we supposedly need.

However, even with everything, our lives are distinctly different from our possessions. From Jesus’ warning about greed, I wonder if greed in our lives is at the foundation of seeing our worth as been the sum of what we own and what we have.

Let’s read Jesus’ warning again, and then continue into the parable He shares as a follow-up illustration. Reading from verse 15, Jesus said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”

¹⁶ And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive. ¹⁷ And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ ¹⁸ Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ ²¹ So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

Pausing our reading again, this parable is powerful every time I read it. While some people might read this parable as God judging and killing this man for being greedy and not generous, the big truth in this passage comes from the rhetorical question God asks this man at the end of this parable. Summarizing God’s question, He basically asks this man what all the savings and value the wealth he had stored up will do for him once he is dead. After this man is dead, he cannot take what he has stored with him beyond the grave.

This means that regardless of how much we store and save in this life, when we die, the result is the same: Someone else will get everything we saved.

The implication is that we can choose how to use our wealth while we are alive, but how our wealth is used after we are gone is completely up to others. Even with a will, it is up to other people whether they will honor our last wishes or not. By being generous with our money when we are alive, we get to experience the joy that comes with giving because we can see how our gifts are able to benefit others.

However, Jesus isn’t finished sharing. Continuing in verse 22:

²² And He said to His disciples, “For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. ²³ For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. ²⁴ Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds! ²⁵ And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span? ²⁶ If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters? ²⁷ Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. ²⁸ But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You men of little faith! ²⁹ And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. ³⁰ For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. ³¹ But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you. ³² Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.

³³ “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. ³⁴ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

In this big teaching about how useless it is to worry, Jesus makes a powerful statement at the end of this message. In verse 34, Jesus tells everyone living at every point in history: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Where we have placed our treasure, we have also placed our hearts. When we give money away to help others, we have the amazing opportunity of storing up treasure in heaven. Our intentional generosity is never lost, even when we do everything we can to be anonymous.

When we give up our possessions and give money to help others, we rob greed of its power. Greed is powerful in our lives when our focus is placed on what we own. When we shift our focus onto selling, giving, and focusing on helping others, greed is robbed of its power in our lives.

However, the biggest benefit of choosing a life of generosity isn’t the removal of greed, or the storing of our treasure in heaven. Instead, the biggest benefit of living a generous life of service to others is that our hearts will be stored in the same place where our treasure is, and when our treasure is stored in heaven, our hearts will be there as well!

God desires your heart and mine. When we live lives focused on serving God, helping others, and storing our treasure in heaven, God gets our hearts as well – and God is the only one who is able to restore a sin-stained heart. God solved the sin problem through Jesus, and He is willing to solve our personal sin problem when we give our hearts to Him!

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to live a life of generosity and service in order to store up treasures in heaven! Trust in what God has given to us through Jesus and His sacrifice and live a life of gratitude, giving thanks to God for everything He has blessed us with!

Also, always continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself. Through personal prayer and Bible study, strengthen your relationship with God and discover what He wants to teach you personally through His Word. While others people have ideas and opinions, God wants to speak through the Bible to you personally!

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!