Reflective Bible Study

Moving forward in Matthew’s gospel, we open chapter 2 looking at an event that happened shortly after Jesus was born, but also an event that is almost always included in the Christmas story. This event is the visit of the wise men, and as we will soon discover, this event shares a characteristic that our last passage and episode focused in on.

Let’s read what happened and draw out some things that we can learn from this event. Our passage and event are found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 2, and we will read from the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 1, Matthew tells us that:

¹ When Jesus was born in the village of Bethlehem in Judea, Herod was king. During this time some wise men from the east came to Jerusalem ² and said, “Where is the child born to be king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

³ When King Herod heard about this, he was worried, and so was everyone else in Jerusalem. ⁴ Herod brought together the chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses and asked them, “Where will the Messiah be born?”

⁵ They told him, “He will be born in Bethlehem, just as the prophet wrote,

⁶ ’Bethlehem in the land
    of Judea,
you are very important
    among the towns of Judea.
From your town
    will come a leader,
who will be like a shepherd
    for my people Israel.’”

⁷ Herod secretly called in the wise men and asked them when they had first seen the star. ⁸ He told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, let me know. I want to go and worship him too.”

⁹ The wise men listened to what the king said and then left. And the star they had seen in the east went on ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ They were thrilled and excited to see the star.

¹¹ When the men went into the house and saw the child with Mary, his mother, they knelt down and worshiped him. They took out their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh and gave them to him. ¹² Later they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, and they went back home by another road.

¹³ After the wise men had gone, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Hurry and take the child and his mother to Egypt! Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is looking for the child and wants to kill him.”

¹⁴ That night, Joseph got up and took his wife and the child to Egypt, ¹⁵ where they stayed until Herod died. So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “I called my son out of Egypt.”

Let’s stop reading here because several details stood out to me while reading this passage.

First, I find it interesting that the wise men paid attention to the stars. While there has been much speculation regarding whether the star of Bethlehem was a true star, a planet, or even an angel or band of angels, it is interesting in my mind that the wise men made the connection to a coming king in Judea. Some people believe the wise men were people who had learned from the school Daniel likely founded in Babylon while he was a captive and wise man there many centuries earlier.

It’s also interesting that while the wise men accurately identify the purpose of the star signaling a coming king, they incorrectly assume that the child would be born in Jerusalem. I wonder if they assumed incorrectly, or if they simply did not know but they expected those in Jerusalem to be aware and preparing for the arrival of their Messiah. However, it appears as though those in Jerusalem were more ignorant of the signs of the Messiah’s arrival than they would have thought.

The religious leaders were unaware of anything special in the night sky, but they were very aware of the prophecies concerning the Messiah, especially the one concerning the place of His birth. With how this event is worded, I am curious if the religious leaders knew the purpose of the wise men’s arrival prior to being questioned by Herod. If the religious leaders knew Herod’s tendency towards violence against any threats against his rule, it wouldn’t have surprised them to learn of Herod’s march against the babies in Bethlehem. What is amazing in my mind is that the religious leaders simply hand this key piece of information over, which speaks both to their allegiance to the Roman government and to their ignorance of the Messiah’s arrival.

When reading this event, I am most amazed at Joseph. Just like we saw in the last episode, Joseph has a dream and it immediately prompts him to act. In our last episode, the dream he received changed his plans regarding sending Mary away to accepting Mary and her extraordinary pregnancy, and this dream prompts Joseph and the family to make a midnight escape.

From my understanding, Bethlehem isn’t too far away from Jerusalem, which prompts me to wonder how much lead time Joseph and Mary had to escape. If Joseph’s dream was the same night that the wise men were warned about not returning to Herod, then Joseph and Mary had maybe 6 hours or so to get out. If there was a gap of time between the wise men leaving the region and Herod learning about their departure without returning, then it’s possible Joseph and Mary were already out of the country by the time Herod realized what happened.

In the last passage and this one, we see that Joseph is a man of action, and he is more than willing to follow God’s plan for his life. When God gives Joseph a direction to take, Joseph heads full force in that direction, and this quality ultimately saves Jesus’ life from an early death at the hands of Herod.

In our own lives, we should be as dedicated to following God’s directions as Joseph was. While we might not have as significant of a role in history, God is willing to use us for His glory at the exact moment and place where He has brought us into His story.

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 obey His will for your life. Don’t let indecision get in the way of following God’s Word and His will for you.

Unsure of what God’s Word says and what His will is for your life. The best place to turn is to prayer and to Bible study. Through prayer and studying the Bible for yourself, you open the door to learning from God’s Holy Spirit and you are better able to grow the personal relationship with God that helps you see His will for your life. While other people can help point you in the right direction, God wants a personal relationship with you without anyone else in the place of a middleman.

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 start this new year off, we turn our attention onto Luke’s gospel. Luke’s gospel is one of my favorite gospels, Luke’s gospel also happens to be the longest of the four gospels, and Luke’s gospel is written with a skeptic in mind. Unlike the other three gospels, Luke’s account of Jesus’ life appears to be written for one specific person who is deciding what to make of all that he is hearing about this person named Jesus. The first four verses of Luke’s gospel describe why he wrote this gospel, and these verses give context for not only Luke’s gospel, but also the angle Luke is writing his gospel from.

It is worth noting that some skeptics and scholars have challenged the idea that Luke’s gospel was written by an early follower named Luke. However, for the purposes of our time in this gospel, we will assume it was written by someone named Luke, whether or not it was the Luke that many people believe or don’t believe was the author.

Let’s read Luke’s opening words and unpack what we can learn about why Luke wrote this gospel, and what we can take and use as a foundation for our year focusing in on Luke’s gospel. Our passage is found at the very beginning of Luke’s gospel, which is chapter 1, and we will read from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 1, Luke begins by writing:

¹ Many have attempted to write about what had taken place among us. ² They received their information from those who had been eyewitnesses and servants of God’s word from the beginning, and they passed it on to us. ³ I, too, have followed everything closely from the beginning. So I thought it would be a good idea to write an orderly account for Your Excellency, Theophilus. ⁴ In this way you will know that what you’ve been told is true.

In these four verses, there is a lot of information that is useful for us to focus in on, but one question many people ask that doesn’t have a great answer is who was Theophilus? Many theories are present, but as I did a quick bit of research, none seemed to stand out more significantly in my mind.

The name Theophilus means “friend of God” or “beloved by God” which I thought was interesting, and this meaning has prompted one theory that Theophilus wasn’t a specific person but a generic term Luke used to direct his gospel at all friends of God.

Other theories include that Theophilus was a Jew from Alexandria, that he was a Roman official, that he was Paul’s lawyer while Paul was in Rome, or even that he was a Jewish priest. While we don’t know definitively who Theophilus was or was not, Luke writes his gospel with skill and clarity to help people on the fence decide that Jesus is worth paying attention to and to clear up confusion regarding what people were hearing Jesus did verses what He did not do.

Verse 4 draws our attention to this detail when Luke tells Theophilus that “in this way you will know that what you’ve been told is true”.

However, before going too far forward with this assumption, we might want to ask ourselves if we can trust Luke?

In Luke’s gospel, we have a number of unique challenges, and while this question isn’t one that is pleasant to ask, it is one we should at least tackle briefly.

When I read this introduction, it is worth noting that Luke is not actually building a case for believing in Jesus. Instead, Luke frames this gospel as being more like a second witness in a case rather than the first. Following Matthew and Mark, as well as some other accounts that were lost in history, Luke steps in as an additional witness to confirm who Jesus was. Repeating verse 4, Luke writes, “in this way you will know that what you’ve been told is true”.

Luke writes his gospel to help confirm the truth about Jesus in the minds of people who were uncertain whether they should believe all they were hearing about Jesus, especially when much of what was being shared seemed hard to believe.

Another question for Luke is where he is coming from when he is writing this gospel, or in other words, what angle is Luke writing from? Is Luke an insider or an outsider when he is writing this gospel, as well as the book of Acts?

While answering this question might take more time than we have left for this episode, Luke steps into the story of the early church in the book of Acts and he is mentioned by Paul in several of Paul’s letters. There are several sections of Acts where the writer switches to using first person narration, while the bulk of Acts is written in the third person.

Some people believe Luke was a Greek convert to Christianity, while other people believe Luke was a Hellenistic Jew, which simply means that Luke was a Jew that had blended aspects of Greek culture and philosophy into his Jewish faith prior to becoming a Christ follower.

However, is Luke writing from the inside perspective, or from an outside perspective for this gospel?

The end of verse 1, Luke gives us a clue. Verse 1 says, “Many have attempted to write about what had taken place among us.” Luke uses the phrase among us, which tells me that Luke is writing this account as someone who is part of the early church. Luke then quantifies who he means when describing the group he is a part of in verse 2 by saying, “They received their information from those who had been eyewitnesses and servants of God’s word from the beginning, and they passed it on to us.”

While Luke is primarily describing the authors of other gospels focusing on Jesus, he also is subtly framing his own gospel about Jesus as he describes all gospel writers receiving information from eyewitnesses and servants of God’s word. However, instead of describing his gospel as being a several steps removed and being based on other author’s work, Luke describes his gospel as being a passion of his that he had followed early on. The first part of verse 3 describes this when Luke says, “I, too, have followed everything closely from the beginning.”

From this framing of Luke’s gospel, we see that Luke is interested in writing a parallel gospel to what was already written as a way of confirming the witness of the other writers. As we will see while moving through Luke’s gospel, many of the events Luke includes parallel the events in Matthew and Mark, but Luke often includes different subtle details, leading me to believe that Luke did his own research on the same events.

As we dive into Luke’s gospel, expect to be impacted by how Luke frames Jesus’ life and expect to be challenged along with me as we focus in on what Luke confirms happened during Jesus’ life and ministry in the first century!

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

Like I always challenge you to do, intentionally and purposefully seek God first in your life and open your heart and mind to what He wants to teach you through Jesus and through what the gospels describe Jesus to be. Jesus came not only to give His life as a sacrifice, but Jesus also came to show us what God is like. Luke helps confirm for us if we have doubts whether or not we should place our faith in Jesus.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself. Don’t let a pastor, podcaster, author, or speaker determine the truth for you. Instead, use the multiple witnesses included in the Bible to make up your own mind. God has preserved and emphasized the four gospels as His record of Jesus’ life, and as we move through Luke’s gospel in our podcast episodes for this year, open your mind to what God wants to teach you through this amazing gospel.

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!

While it might seem strange starting out the new year looking at a passage from the Christmas story, this happens to be where Matthew begins. Well actually, before looking at Jesus’ birth story, Matthew takes a look at Jesus’ genealogy and traces it back to Abraham. While planning for this year, I quickly realized that Matthew has too many events in it than we are able to cover in our year. Because of this, I thought we could move through this gospel looking at some of the highlight events, and focusing in on some of the events that only Matthew includes.

This then leads us to focus a couple episodes here at the beginning of our year in this gospel on Jesus’ birth, because while Luke also focuses on this event, both gospels share different details.

Matthew sets the stage by including the tension that was present when it was discovered that Mary was pregnant. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 1, and we will read it from the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 18, Matthew tells us that:

¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. ²⁰ But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” ²² Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ²³ “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” ²⁴ And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, ²⁵ but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

While reading this, I am amazed at Joseph. This passage gives us a glimpse of Joseph’s character, and it is one of only a few passages that focus on Jesus’ earthly dad. In this passage, Matthew describes Joseph as a “righteous man”, but the subtle implication is also that he did not believe Mary when she insisted that her pregnancy was of divine origin. Joseph decides to send Mary away secretly because he does not want to disgrace her in a public way. This choice shows us a piece of Joseph’s character. While Joseph had every right and opportunity to publicly shame Mary for her pregnancy before his dream, he resolved to keep the issue as a private matter in order to help Mary keep her reputation more intact.

However, after resolving on a plan of action, Joseph has a dream that changes his plans. The timing of this dream is interesting in my mind. I wonder if Joseph had been deliberating on a plan of action for several days or weeks before making up his mind, or if this was something Joseph had decided on the same day he learned about the pregnancy.

Regardless of the timing details that are not included in this passage, it is fascinating that the angel appeared in the dream only after Joseph had made a decision. I wonder if this shows us a little piece of how God acts. Sometimes, God will wait for us to make a decision before He steps in to help us shift our decision onto His path for us.

If this is the case, then it does us no good to wait and stall making a decision because we want God’s input, because God is waiting for us to make the decision for ourselves before stepping in if needed to help us shift our choices onto His paths.

After Joseph had the dream, he changed the course of His life to match the message he was given. Instead of sending Mary away quietly, Joseph moves through the marriage proceeding, and it’s possible he accelerated the plan simply to help this situation be less awkward for his new wife. It is possible that Joseph wanted this pregnancy to be less obvious that it was not his, even though he kept her a virgin as Matthew described.

This dream completely changed the course of Joseph’s life. Joseph took this dream to heart and he followed through with what the angel told him. In this dream, we have an angel validating Mary’s unbelievable story, and the angel also, interestingly enough, calls Joseph a “son of David”. I’m curious if Joseph knew his genealogy enough to know that he was a descendant of David. I wonder if this is one reason why Matthew opens his gospel by not only connecting Joseph to David, but also to Abraham as well. Either way, this greeting is a powerful one to pay attention to because the Messiah that God promised was to be one of David’s descendants, and if I’m not mistaken, one of Abraham’s descendants as well.

The angel validates Mary’s testimony about the pregnancy, and the angel also gives Joseph the name that they should give the Baby. When we look at the story of Zechariah and the birth of John the Baptist in Luke’s gospel, we discover that the father was the one to officially name the child. It is only after Zechariah officially writes down John’s name that he is able to speak again.

Bringing this information over to Joseph and Mary’s story in Matthew, it is as though through this angel, God the Father is telling Joseph, the earthly dad, what to name His Son. This is a powerful exchange between these two father roles and we can easily miss this detail if we are not paying attention.

Joseph’s role is a significant role in Jesus’ story. Joseph’s role is similar to an adoptive step-father, since Jesus is not directly his, but Joseph is also responsible for raising Jesus. While we don’t know much about Joseph’s character, we do know that Joseph succeeded at his role of being Jesus’ dad because of the man Jesus grew up to be.

As we come to the end of this first passage in our year in Matthew’s gospel, 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 Him lead and guide you along the path He wants you to take. While sometimes God will show us a decision we should make before we have made it, don’t wait to make decisions, because God might be waiting for us to make the decision before stepping in if necessary. We should intentionally move through life and be open, willing, and expecting God to step in and correct our course when necessary.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow personally closer to God each and every day. While other people can give you things to think about, only through personal study, personal prayer, and time can someone grow a personal relationship with Jesus. Continue growing your personal relationship with Jesus, starting today!

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

In our last episode, we began our annual two-part finale looking at some of the big insights and ideas we discovered during the first half of our year focusing on Mark’s gospel. For this episode, let’s pick up where we left off and focus in on the second half of this amazing gospel, looking at themes leading up to Jesus’ time on the cross, and what we can learn from Jesus’ amazing sacrifice and resurrection.

However, as I always take a minute or so to do during our last episode each year, I think it is important to take a brief look at where we’ve been and where we are headed for the coming year. If you’ve been listening for a while, a few years ago, while we were focusing a year of podcasts looking at the miracles of Jesus, I had the idea of taking a set of four years and focusing each year on one of the four gospels.

Well according to that plan, we have just reached the half-way point. Last year we focused on Matthew’s gospel, and the year we are ending in this episode has been entirely focused on Mark. Following this plan then leads next year’s focus to be on Luke’s gospel, and that makes me really excited. Luke included some amazing things in his gospel, and I can’t wait to dive in and discuss them with you!

However, before I jump too far ahead, we still have a bunch of insights to cover from the last half of our year in Mark. So with that said, let’s look back at what we learned during the second half of this year in Mark’s gospel.

Our first part of this finale ended focusing on episode 24. Episode 25 focused in on the disciples being concerned about other people casting out demons using Jesus’ name that weren’t part of their group. In this episode, we were challenged with the truth: Christianity was never meant to be an exclusive club for sinners saved by grace. Christianity is united by people following Jesus Christ and giving Him the glory, the praise, and the credit for everything. Everyone is given the option to choose Jesus or not. It is a choice we are freely given, and one that we all must make.

Moving forward to episode 26, which focused on some challenging themes regarding marriage, we learned that while this passage contains some pretty significant challenges, Jesus did not come to judge people; He came to love, forgive, and redeem everyone who wants to be loved, forgiven, and redeemed.

In the next episode, number 27, Jesus predicts that the trip He and the disciples were taking to Jerusalem would end in His death. In this passage and episode, we discovered that we shouldn’t fear death. Instead, we should be determined to walk along the path God has placed before us and not be concerned if that path ends in death. Whether we live or die following the path God has for our lives, we can look forward to the resurrection that Jesus promised and the resurrection Jesus experienced.

Jumping ahead to episode 30, we looked at Jesus chasing the moneychangers and commerce out of the temple. In this event, we see Jesus push back against a me-focused worship experience. Worship is not about our preferences, our likes or dislikes, or about anything to do with ourselves. Instead, worship is all about God and what He wants. God wants His house on earth described as a house of prayer for all nations. Our worship is not for our own benefit. Instead, when we worship God, we are to focus on bringing Him what He wants, and God is interested in gifts that contain our hearts.

Skipping forward to episode 35, we looked at two short verses that contained a powerful truth that predicted the magnificent temple Jesus and His disciples were leaving would be destroyed. In this episode, we were reminded that the best humanity can create or build is nothing when it comes to what God has in store for us in heaven. Culture wants us to minimize God while glorifying what humanity is capable of building. Jesus challenges His followers to glorify God while being realistic about what humanity is able to accomplish. Natural disasters, terrorism, and other catastrophes can easily destroy in minutes a building that took years to construct. This is why Jesus challenges His followers to not focus on amazing or extravagant buildings. Buildings come and building go, but what matters above everything else is giving glory to the One who created life, and the One who gave His life for each of us!

Moving forward, episodes 36 and 37 focused in on Jesus sharing details surrounding His return. In these episodes we are reminded and challenged that through Jesus and what He accomplished for us on the cross during His first coming, God opened the way for Jesus’ second coming. While Jesus’ first coming is God coming to be near His people, Jesus’ second coming will usher in God’s people leaving earth to be near God. Everything Jesus described leading up to His return is so dramatic that if there is any doubt in your mind regarding Jesus’ return, it is likely a false Jesus coming, rather than the real one. Setting a date for Jesus’ return is pure, 100% speculation.

Instead of spending mental energy on trying to figure out a date, we should live each day with the expectation that today could be the day, being ready if Jesus comes, while also planning our future lives in case tomorrow happens. We don’t want to assume there will always be a tomorrow, because if we do, Jesus’ return will catch us off guard.

Let’s jump forward again to episode 42, which focused on Jesus’ trial before Pilate. In this episode, we were amazed to discover that Jesus willingly chose to take the place of a rebel, a murderer, and a sinner, and in this event Barabbas, the clearly evil, condemned-to-die person, represents you and me. Barabbas represents every human being who has ever lived who deserves to die for their sins but who gets the opportunity of a new free life because of Jesus!

Following Jesus’ trial before Pilate in episode 42, episode 43 focused on Jesus being beaten by the soldiers. In this episode’s passage, we see the soldiers mocking Jesus by dressing Him up as a king. We also discovered and were challenged with the truth that above any other gift, God wants our hearts. If our hearts are not included in our worship to God, then our worship is no more pleasing to God than the soldiers mock worship was to Jesus.

The following three episodes move through the time Jesus spends on the cross. Episode 44 focused us on the place Jesus was crucified, Golgatha, and we learned that the place Jesus died was connected with the origin of sin and with humanity’s fall. When we place our faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and His sacrifice, Jesus accepts our sinful lives as being included in His death, and He gives us the assurance of the life He deserved.

Episode 35 focused in on the insults Jesus received while He was on the cross. However, as we looked a little closer at what was said, we discovered Jesus’ chose not to save Himself so that He could save every person who wants to have a new life with God. Jesus used these insults that were thrown His way as subtle encouragements to remind Him why He was on the cross, which was to save sinners, and that the cross would end with resurrection on the third day! Jesus used the biggest insults His enemies had and He had masterfully planned for them to be a source of encouragement in His darkest, most pain-filled hours leading up to His last breath.

Episode 36 focused in on the darkness that covered the land during the last hours of Jesus’ time on the cross and Jesus then taking His last breath. We were challenged to realize that it is tempting to think God is with us in the good times and that He has abandoned us in the bad times, but if we choose to believe this, we may be believing a lie Satan wants to trick us with. I believe that regardless of the source of the darkness, and regardless of Jesus’ cry out to God about feeling abandoned, that God was 100% focused on this moment in history. Even though Jesus felt like God had left Him, I don’t believe for a moment that God turned His back on Jesus’ sacrifice.

Satan wasn’t strong enough to convince Jesus that His cries to His Father would not be heard. Satan is powerless to stop our prayers from being heard by the Father, and Satan is powerless to stop the Father from being passionately in love with us! Everything worth anything in life hinges on Jesus’ death, and because Jesus died on the cross, we are able to accept the gift of eternal life through Jesus that extends into eternity!

In our year podcasting in Mark’s gospel, we learned many things and were challenged in many ways. However, Jesus’ death didn’t really end Jesus’ story. To wrap up our year-end finale, Mark concludes His gospel by sharing Jesus’ resurrection. In episode 48, which is a great episode to finish our finale looking at, we are reminded and challenged by the truth that even when we fail God, He never gives up on us! If you have felt as though you have failed God, don’t give up on God because He hasn’t given up on you. Instead, return to Him, ask for forgiveness, and restart your walk with God from a place where you are a little older and a little wiser than you were before. With God, we never restart our spiritual journeys at the same place, but every restart is further ahead than the last one as we continue walking through life towards eternity.