Reflective Bible Study

Picking back up where we left off in our last episode, Jesus continues sharing during His famous Sermon on the Mount about the importance of doing things privately for God rather than publicly for the praise of others.

But before Jesus picks back up with this focus, He has a short, challenging message for all of His followers. Of all the challenging messages and difficult ideas Jesus shares, this one is one of the most challenging and difficult, if for no other reason than because of its subject matter.

Let’s pick up reading where we ended off last week in Jesus’ sermon. Continuing in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 6, using the New International Reader’s Version, immediately following Jesus finishing the model prayer, He tells us starting in verse 14 that we should:

¹⁴ Forgive other people when they sin against you. If you do, your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive the sins of other people, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Pausing briefly, I want to emphasize this huge, challenging idea. If we do not forgive other people, God will not forgive us. This makes forgiveness one of the most significant characteristics of God’s people, and some might say that this is the most significant.

If you struggle with forgiving others, then perhaps this challenge from Jesus is a wakeup call for you to ask God for His help to forgive others, to forgive a specific situation, or to simply let go of a past issue that keeps coming to mind. If we hold on to the past, this unforgiving spirit hurts us more than we realize and it ultimately damages our relationships with others and our relationship with God.

After challenging those present with this message of forgiveness, Jesus continues preaching. Picking back up in verse 16, Jesus told the crowd:

¹⁶ “When you go without eating, do not look gloomy like those who only pretend to be holy. They make their faces look very sad. They want to show people they are fasting. What I’m about to tell you is true. They have received their complete reward. ¹⁷ But when you go without eating, put olive oil on your head. Wash your face. ¹⁸ Then others will not know that you are fasting. Only your Father, who can’t be seen, will know it. Your Father will reward you, because he sees what you do secretly.

¹⁹ “Do not gather for yourselves riches on earth. Moths and rats can destroy them. Thieves can break in and steal them. ²⁰ Instead, gather for yourselves riches in heaven. There, moths and rats do not destroy them. There, thieves do not break in and steal them. ²¹ Your heart will be where your riches are.

²² “The eye is like a lamp for the body. Suppose your eyes are healthy. Then your whole body will be full of light. ²³ But suppose your eyes can’t see well. Then your whole body will be full of darkness. If the light inside you is darkness, then it is very dark!

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters at the same time. You will hate one of them and love the other. Or you will be faithful to one and dislike the other. You can’t serve God and money at the same time.

We’ll stop reading here. In this section of Jesus’ sermon, He reemphasizes the importance of doing things for God in secret, and in a way that only God will see what you are doing. He extends the living, giving, helping, and praying in private to also fasting in private. When we do things secretly for God, we trust that He will reward us.

Jesus compares our doing good for others and doing things secretly for God like making deposits in a heavenly bank account, or like gathering riches in heaven. While we understand the importance of saving and earning money in an earthly sense, Jesus tells us that all the money in the earth is not as safe as a single penny in heaven.

Money on earth can erode, it can decompose, or in our highly digital society, a seemingly insignificant computer glitch can take our money from abundant to absent. While this isn’t a statement for or against a cashless society, Jesus does make the challenge that money acquired here on earth is temporary at best. Instead, we should focus on growing money in heaven.

While this sounds great on the surface, growing money in heaven works differently than growing money on earth. Giving all your money away here on earth can earn some riches in heaven, but heavenly wealth is measured in different terms than earthly wealth, and there is no guarantee that giving money on earth will earn treasure in heaven.

Some might wonder how we earn treasure in heaven, since Jesus appears to place great emphasis on this here in His message. The answer has been what we have been subtly focusing on over the past couple of episodes. We earn treasure in heaven when we do things privately for God, when we give in secret, when we help anonymously, and when we pray privately. When we live for God in a way that gives God the glory, and when we do things for God in ways that cannot be praised or rewarded by others, then we earn treasure in heaven, and treasure in heaven cannot decay, treasure in heaven cannot be stolen, and treasure in heaven does not disappear over time.

Treasure in heaven gains heavenly interest, and while treasure in heaven doesn’t earn us a place in heaven, we can only earn treasure in heaven when we are living for God and have accepted His sacrifice on our behalf.

Ultimately, Jesus tells us that the most valuable part of our treasure in heaven is our hearts, because when our hearts are focused on our heavenly treasure, we live for God in more significant ways than if our hearts are focused on the things of this world.

Jesus finishes by challenging us that we cannot serve two masters. We cannot be looking for and seeking after things in this life while also being 100% dedicated to God in heaven. The challenge Jesus ends with is deciding whether you will serve God, or whether you will chase money or wealth here on earth. We cannot do both, and while society tells us we should choose wealth, Jesus has already framed wealth as not lasting past this life.

God wants us to be rich in heavenly riches, and this comes through focusing on God, serving Him, and living our lives in ways that secretly and publicly honor 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, continue seeking God first and choose to place Him first in your life. Choose to grow riches in heaven by serving God in secret ways while also publicly acknowledging Him. Help others anonymously, give secretly, live subtly, pray privately, and when growing close to God through other spiritual disciplines, do so in a way that others won’t be able to tell. What we do for God in secret is what God will reward us for when we reach heaven!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and move closer to God. While learning from others is good, always take what you learn and filter it through your personal, private time in prayer and in the Bible. It is through this personal prayer and Bible study where God wants to grow a personal relationship with you and He will teach you what is worth focusing on when we bring what we learn to Him in 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 stop moving towards where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue in Luke’s gospel, we arrive at a passage describing a miracle that seems spontaneous on the surface, but one that I believe Jesus may have planned earlier. In our last episode, we discovered that Jesus spent a Sabbath afternoon in Simon’s home and that Jesus had healed Simon’s mother-in-law. If Luke’s ordering of events at this point in his gospel is chronological rather than categorical, then it would mean Simon, who was also known as Peter, would have been aware of Jesus’ miracle working ability and Simon’s extended family would have already benefitted from Jesus’ power to heal before the significant event that happens in this passage.

However, some scholars believe this event in Luke happened before Jesus’ visit to Simon’s home, and when we read what happened, it may become clear why.

Our passage for this event is found in Luke, chapter 5, and we will read from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us that

¹ One day while Jesus was standing beside Lake Galilee, many people were pressing all around him to hear the word of God. ² Jesus saw two boats at the shore of the lake. The fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. ³ Jesus got into one of the boats, the one that belonged to Simon, and asked him to push off a little from the land. Then Jesus sat down and continued to teach the people from the boat.

⁴ When Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Take the boat into deep water, and put your nets in the water to catch some fish.”

⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we worked hard all night trying to catch fish, and we caught nothing. But you say to put the nets in the water, so I will.” ⁶ When the fishermen did as Jesus told them, they caught so many fish that the nets began to break. ⁷ They called to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats so full that they were almost sinking.

⁸ When Simon Peter saw what had happened, he bowed down before Jesus and said, “Go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man!” ⁹ He and the other fishermen were amazed at the many fish they caught, as were ¹⁰ James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will fish for people.” ¹¹ When the men brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed Jesus.

From this event, I can understand some scholars believing this happened before Jesus’ trip to Simon Peter’s home when Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law. From Simon Peter’s response to Jesus’ miracle, he seems surprised that Jesus’ word could direct the fish into their nets. If Simon had known Jesus’ word to be powerful enough to silence and banish demons and to heal the sick, it seems only logical that Jesus could direct fish into a net.

However, I can also see Luke’s description of this event happening in chronological order. The reason I think this is because I believe Jesus knew Simon Peter’s heart better than anyone else. Simon Peter likely needed some convincing beyond simply seeing something miraculous one time to get him to drop everything to follow Jesus. Because of this, I wonder if Jesus subtly began working on Simon Peter before Simon even realized it. This may have begun on the Sabbath in the synagogue when Jesus healed the demon-possessed man. For Jesus to go to Simon’s home that afternoon, it would only be logical that Simon, or members of Simon’s family were present at that synagogue meeting.

It is even possible they sought Jesus out to invite Him to come with them because they knew Simon’s mother-in-law was sick. If Simon Peter wasn’t present at the synagogue that day, I’m confident he would have been present when Jesus healed his mother-in-law and all the people that evening.

What we read about in our last podcast episode appears to lead directly into this event. If Luke’s order of events is accurate, than this means that Simon Peter knew Jesus and was happy to help Jesus by letting Jesus preach from his boat.

However, Simon Peter was not expecting a miracle that impacted him directly. Leading up to this miracle, we see Simon being content helping others, including Jesus, and being supportive of Jesus helping others, but when Jesus shifts the focus onto helping Simon personally, Simon got uncomfortable.

Like many people living today, Simon had no problem helping other people. However, he had a personality and character that did not like receiving help personally. Simon was more than happy to partner with others, but teaming up is different than accepting miraculous help with no strings attached.

Simon represents someone who is happy being self-sufficient and accepting gifts from others is difficult for someone who is happy and content being self-sufficient.

However, Simon also is willing to test Jesus’ words personally, and this makes him one of the most significant disciples Jesus ever invited. When Jesus told Simon to cast his nets in the water to catch some fish, Simon knew this was the worst time of day to fish, but he responded in verse 5 saying, “Master, we worked hard all night trying to catch fish, and we caught nothing. But you say to put the nets in the water, so I will.”

Simon’s response to Jesus emphasized that the best his team could do was nothing. The team of fisherman that night caught nothing. However, Simon responds that he personally would test Jesus’ words regardless of what the others chose to do. The situation quickly turns into something Simon needs all the help he can get to pull in all the fish that got caught in their net.

Simon Peter recognizes that his life is full of sin and that he is unworthy of Jesus’ help. However, Simon needs to realize the state of his life in order to accept Jesus’ invitation. In the same way, when we are deciding whether to come to Jesus or not, we must understand that a self-sufficient attitude is not as useful to God as an attitude that will test Jesus’ promises and try Jesus’ instructions personally, regardless of whether what Jesus’ asks us to do makes sense on the front-end or not.

Going fishing in the day made no sense whatsoever, but after these fishermen, specifically Simon, tested Jesus’ challenge personally, they realized that Jesus’ way works, even if it doesn’t make sense.

The challenge in this passage for all of Jesus’ followers throughout history is to recognize that God’s way is the best way and be willing to follow Jesus even if it doesn’t make sense at first. We are called to test God’s promises and prove them to be true in our own lives. A self-sufficient skeptic will never come to faith in Jesus because they will have too many reasons to assume Jesus’ way won’t work rather than trying it out personally to realize that it does work.

Like Simon Peter, let’s realize that we are sinners and understand that we need Jesus to help us be the people God created us to be!

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

As I always begin by challenging you, intentionally and purposefully seek God first in your life. Choose to let God lead in your decisions each and every day and test His promises to determine the truth of His word.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Choose to test God’s word in your own life rather than simply taking someone else’s word for it. When eternity is at stake, God’s truth is worth testing for yourself.

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!

Continuing our journey in Matthew’s gospel brings us to another point in Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. In this section of Jesus’ message, we discover how God values our private relationship with Him over a public relationship. It may be for this reason that Jesus challenged the religious leaders so strongly. It is likely that many of them did not have a personal relationship with God in private, and that they only acted like they had a relationship with God when in public.

In the portion of Jesus’ sermon that we are focusing in on, Jesus draws our attention onto two specific areas where He likes to see His people be more private than public.

Let’s read this section of Jesus’ sermon, which is found in Matthew chapter 6. Using the God’s Word translation and starting in verse 1, Jesus continued preaching saying:

¹ “Be careful not to do your good works in public in order to attract attention. If you do, your Father in heaven will not reward you. ² So when you give to the poor, don’t announce it with trumpet fanfare. This is what hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets in order to be praised by people. I can guarantee this truth: That will be their only reward. ³ When you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. ⁴ Give your contributions privately. Your Father sees what you do in private. He will reward you.

⁵ “When you pray, don’t be like hypocrites. They like to stand in synagogues and on street corners to pray so that everyone can see them. I can guarantee this truth: That will be their only reward. ⁶ When you pray, go to your room and close the door. Pray privately to your Father who is with you. Your Father sees what you do in private. He will reward you.

⁷ “When you pray, don’t ramble like heathens who think they’ll be heard if they talk a lot. ⁸ Don’t be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

⁹ “This is how you should pray:

Our Father in heaven,
    let your name be kept holy.
¹⁰     Let your kingdom come.
    Let your will be done on earth
        as it is done in heaven.
¹¹     Give us our daily bread today.
¹²     Forgive us as we forgive others.
¹³     Don’t allow us to be tempted.
    Instead, rescue us from the evil one.

This is where we will stop reading. It is interesting that some of the oldest manuscripts stop Jesus’ prayer here, while some of the later manuscripts add the familiar closing, which goes something like “for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

Whether you believe Jesus ended His model prayer with a nice closing statement, or whether He left the prayer open ended to let us have the freedom to conclude the prayer in whatever way we would like, we shouldn’t miss the bigger picture of what Jesus is trying to teach us in this part of His sermon.

In this portion of Jesus’ message, He amplifies the importance of having a private relationship with God, specifically a private relationship when we give of our time and energy, and a private relationship when we pray. While both of these activities can be done publicly, and in the case of prayer, sometimes should be done publicly in certain cases, the goal of our giving, helping, and prayer must be giving glory to God. If we do anything looking for glory or praise from others for ourselves, then while we may be doing something good, we have the wrong motives, which actually undermines our relationship with God and with others.

When we do things for praise and glory from others, we subtly set ourselves up for disappointment. This is because once we have done something praiseworthy, the next time we do this it becomes less praiseworthy, and after a few times, what we once were praised for is now an expectation that we have created for ourselves. This leaves us searching and moving from one praiseworthy thing to another and trying to outdo our past selves and others expectations. Looking for praise from others is setting ourselves up for disappointment because we will not always be able to receive praise from others.

Also, looking for praise from someone else affects how we live our lives. When we are looking for praise from someone else, when no one else is around, then we are let off the hook for pleasing others and we believe we can do whatever we want. This leads to hypocrisy, which is when our talk doesn’t match our actions, and our private lives don’t math our public lives. The opposite of hypocrisy is integrity, and integrity is when everything in our public and private lives match, and when our words and our actions are in alignment. Living our lives looking for praise from others leads to hypocrisy, because we elevate others ahead of ourselves, and subtly ahead of God as well.

In contrast, when we intentionally give, help, and pray privately, the only one who knows is God, and He is willing to step in and help when we are genuinely seeking to please Him. While some might believe that it is possible to have an empty, private relationship with God, part of me wonders if the more time we spend with God privately, even if it feels like we are only going through the motions, if God is still able to use this time to actually draw us to Him.

While it’s obvious that the ideal for our private relationship with God is genuine, heartfelt, time with God that is not rushed in any way, I don’t know of anyone who decided to grow their relationship with God from nothing and have it turn into this extra close relationship and connection in less than 24 hours.

Instead, like friendships and relationships in our lives with others, a relationship with God takes time, and the time we spend with God, even if it feels weird, hollow, or empty at the beginning will grow into more when we resolve to stick with God.

Our passage challenges us to avoid doing things for praise and recognition from others, because that will be our only reward. Instead, Jesus challenges us to give, help, and pray in a way that when we are rewarded, the only possible Source of our reward is God because He is the only one who knows what you gave, how you helped, and what you specifically prayed for!

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 focus on pleasing Him in ways where only He knows what you have given, how you have helped, and what you have prayed for. Focus on growing your personal relationship with God and choose to live your life in a way that pleases God and that doesn’t chase after praise from others.

Also, as you grow your personal relationship with God, be sure to continue spending time with Him and to privately and prayerfully study the Bible with Him and with His Holy Spirit. While public Bible study is good, and while other people have good ideas to share, always take what others teach and test it against what you know and read in the Bible for yourself. God has revealed truth to us in the Bible, and He has kept the Bible safe for thousands of years.

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

Continuing in Luke’s gospel, after Jesus is rejected in Nazareth, He travels back to Capernaum and on what may have been the following Sabbath, we see something significant happen. I wonder if Jesus ever actually had a normal Sabbath day at a synagogue in His entire three-year ministry. While the gospel writers include many exceptions, like the one we read in our last episode and the one we will read about in this episode, it is unlikely they would give much space to a normal trip to a synagogue.

This means we are left picturing Jesus’ trips to synagogues being very abnormal or hostile encounters, but it is possible that many were simply normal and uneventful. Calculating an approximate number of synagogue visits, 52 weeks in a year times 3.5 years equals 182. However, I would imagine that there were many Sabbaths Jesus did not visit a synagogue, so for the purposes of this calculating, let’s subtract our total number by 22 down to 160. I would venture a guess that many of these 160 probable synagogue Sabbaths were normal.

However, our passage for this episode describes a more abnormal visit to a synagogue, and this event is recorded as happening soon after Jesus was run out of Nazareth’s synagogue. This episode’s passage comes from Luke’s gospel, chapter 4, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 31, Luke tells us:

³¹ Then he [Jesus] went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught the people. ³² They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority.

³³ In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, ³⁴ “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

³⁵ “Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.

³⁶ All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!” ³⁷ And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.

Let’s pause reading here because I want to draw our attention onto something significant. If casting a demon out of someone isn’t significant enough, I am amazed that Jesus commands the demon to be quiet after the demon begins to reveal who Jesus really is.

In my mind, Jesus does this for two big reasons.

First, demons can either lie or tell the truth. They usually lie, making any truth they say suspect. If Jesus let the demon truthfully say who He was, it would potentially taint His ministry and witness because it is never wise to trust a demon. Even a 100% truthful demon is untrustworthy because demons are not always 100% truthful. It is even unwise to listen to a demon to try to discern the truth from the error. Demons have had thousands of years of practice lying in convincing ways and they might lie in more ways that we can catch.

It is safest for us to follow Jesus’ example and simply not listen to any demon. If God wants us to learn or know something important or significant, there is an almost zero chance He would use a demon. While God could use a demon, it would not benefit the bigger picture in any positive-for-God way.

Second, there was too much cultural weight surrounding the role of the Messiah as a military leader who would come and overthrow the Romans. Jesus’ arrival to walk a path different from culture’s expectations would benefit from more ambiguity or uncertainty on whether He truly was the Messiah or simply someone else who was significant.

Jesus fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies related to a Messiah coming and suffering, and He left the prophecies related to His coming as a King largely untouched and waiting for His second coming.

If the people early on in Jesus’ ministry latched on too quickly to Jesus being the Messiah they knew God promised, they would likely slip into believing Jesus came as King and would try to force Him into this role. In other cases, such as the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus sidesteps this very issue because the crowds wanted Him to become their King.

However, this Sabbath day is not over yet. Continuing in verse 38, Luke tells us:

³⁸ Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. ³⁹ So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.

⁴⁰ At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. ⁴¹ Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.

It appears in this passage that Satan wanted to derail Jesus’ ministry by proclaiming who He was as much as possible. If the demon that Sabbath morning in the synagogue wasn’t enough, many more demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus and they try to make the same proclamation that evening.

When reading this event, it is difficult to escape one huge truth: The words Jesus spoke contained power. We can see this truth in the simple detail that Jesus’ command was powerful enough to cast a demon out of an individual.

However, Jesus’ word is even stronger than this. Jesus’ command isn’t just strong enough to cast demons out of people, but it is also strong enough to silence demons from speaking! That is amazingly significant in the big picture.

Jesus’ command is also powerful enough to reverse and eliminate sickness. Verse 39 describes how Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law, “So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her.” Rebuking something involves speaking, and this tells us Jesus’ word is powerful enough to heal.

On this Sabbath day, we discover a Jesus that is more powerful than we might first imagine. Jesus’ word is strong enough to cast out demons, it is strong enough to silence them and keep them from speaking, and it is strong enough to heal sickness and disease. When facing struggles, challenges, disease, or discouragement in our own life, we should look to the words of Jesus for the power to overcome!

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 to seek God first and place your hope, faith, trust, and belief in Jesus. When challenges come into our lives, choose to recognize them as opportunities to look to Jesus’ words for power to overcome. Jesus is more powerful than what we often give Him credit for, and I believe He is ready, waiting to help us the moment we decide to ask. While some challenges are given to strengthen our character, I believe other challenges are given to remind us it is best to turn to God for help!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself. A strong personal relationship with God is best developed through personal prayer and Bible study. While praying and studying in small or large groups is beneficial on one level, never give up your own personal study time because through our personal study we are able to grow a personal relationship with God and we are able to strengthen our personal faith. Personal Bible study is the best foundation to grow our faith in Jesus on.

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 or deceived out of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!