Reflective Bible Study

In our walk through the gospels looking at Jesus’ miracles, it seemed that a disproportionate number of miracles happened on the Sabbath. While this may accurately reflect what actually happened, this also could be because no other day of the week prompted the religious leaders to challenge Jesus on what He was doing. Perhaps the friction Jesus created because of His views regarding what was acceptable and not on the Sabbath pushed the miracles Jesus did on the Sabbath into the spotlight and memories of those present.

However, when Jesus healed people, rarely did He ever actually do something that would even remotely have been considered work. In the miracle for this episode, nothing even hints at Jesus doing any action that would be thought of as work, even though a healing took place. In this event, not only do we discover a miracle, but we also discover Jesus sharing a new picture regarding how we should view the Sabbath, or as our chosen translation describes it, as a day of rest – a holy day.

Let’s read what happened. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will be reading it from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 10, Luke tells us that:

¹⁰ Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the day of rest—a holy day [most other translations simply say on the Sabbath]. ¹¹ A woman who was possessed by a spirit was there. The spirit had disabled her for 18 years. She was hunched over and couldn’t stand up straight. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her to come to him and said, “Woman, you are free from your disability.” ¹³ He placed his hands on her, and she immediately stood up straight and praised God.

Let’s pause reading here for a moment because what this last verse said prompts us to why Jesus may have healed this woman on this occasion. This verse tells us that when the woman stood up straight, she “praised God”.

Probably the best reason Jesus healed and helped people was to bring God praise and glory, and this formerly disabled woman was happy to lead those present to praise God for what He had healed her of.

But not everyone present was happy with what happened. While the synagogue leader could not argue with praising God, he did take offense to Jesus healing on this day. Continuing in verse 14, we learn that:

¹⁴ The synagogue leader was irritated with Jesus for healing on the day of worship. The leader told the crowd, “There are six days when work can be done. So come on one of those days to be healed. Don’t come on the day of rest—a holy day.”

¹⁵ The Lord said, “You hypocrites! Don’t each of you free your ox or donkey on the day of rest—a holy day? Don’t you then take it out of its stall to give it some water to drink? ¹⁶ Now, here is a descendant of Abraham. Satan has kept her in this condition for 18 years. Isn’t it right to free her on the day of rest—a holy day?”

¹⁷ As he said this, everyone who opposed him felt ashamed. But the entire crowd was happy about the miraculous things he was doing.

In this event, Jesus challenges the notion of what is work and what isn’t. Nowhere in this miracle does Jesus deny the synagogue leader’s reference to the Sabbath commandment and it being a commandment about resting from work.

Instead, Jesus challenges the idea of what work included and what it didn’t include. The woman didn’t pay Jesus for the healing, and nowhere that I know of was Jesus ever paid for healing someone. In contrast, doctors earn a living through healing and helping others. By looking at the income angle of this passage, we can see one filter for what is work and what isn’t – and even though the synagogue leader had reduced Jesus to a doctor who could teach the scriptures, Jesus was more likely a teacher of the scriptures who healed people as a hobby.

The comparison Jesus makes in His reply is interesting. Jesus responds to the synagogue leader by first calling them hypocrites, then giving them an example of why. It is likely that everyone present would bring water to their animals on the Sabbath for the animals to drink. This isn’t work. Instead, this is kindness.

However, this act takes more time than Jesus took and more energy than Jesus exerted. But Jesus doesn’t challenge the idea of work based on the difficulty level or on the level of income earned. Jesus challenged the idea on the angle of freedom. If those in the first century were more than willing to untie their animals to let them get a drink, how much more applicable would it be for God, through Jesus, to untie this disabled woman who had been bound up for 18 years. In this miracle, Jesus not only redefined what was acceptable on the day of worship, but He also elevated this woman’s status above that of the animals.

All this is summarized nicely in the verse we focused on part way through this passage. Immediately when the woman was freed from her disability, she praised God, and she led those present who were willing in praising God as well. The only people present who were upset were the ones who held their opinions about what were acceptable activities for the Sabbath over the wellbeing of others.

This idea is powerful. It tells us that when we let our opinions of the world or of certain people become greater than our desire to help the world, this person, or this group of people, then we will become more hostile, bitter, angry, and withdrawn. We see this happen in people who are so far removed from those who struggle that they cannot even grasp what others are going through, and we also see this from people who have grown calloused towards helping others.

God doesn’t want His people to be calloused from helping others, but instead, He wants love, help, kindness, and compassion from all His people, and He has called us to help others because we can help. We are to help both Christians and non-Christians alike, and we are to be known for our love over our religion, our faith, our politics, or any other measure that we can think of.

We are Jesus’ representatives in the world today, and Jesus came and He loved and helped those who needed help.

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

Always seek God first and look for ways you can show love and help to others. Through Jesus, God stepped down to earth, down to the cross, and down to the grave for you and me. If we accurately model Jesus, we should be stepping down and helping wherever we can, and we should look for people we can help who need help, love, and encouragement.

Also, to better reflect Jesus to others, we should always pray and study the Bible for ourselves to learn what Jesus is like. While it is easy to take someone else’s word for it, the best, most trustworthy source for what Jesus is like is in the pages of the Bible, specifically the pages of the gospels, and in the Bible we can truly discover God’s love for each of us!

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

In our last podcast episode, we began focusing in on a question several of Jesus’ closest disciples ask Him about the time of the end, and Jesus began sharing His response. However, Jesus’ response is much longer than one podcast could hold, so we stopped part way through, saving the last section for this episode.

If you missed our last episode, Jesus described a time of intense suffering and a time where we should not believe anyone who claims to be the Messiah or to know where the Messiah has appeared. Even if we see signs, wonders, miracles, or other amazing things, we shouldn’t be fooled, because as we discussed in our last episode, Jesus’ return has a distinctly different goal than His first coming.

In our last episode, we stopped reading before Jesus describes the time of His actual return. Let’s pick back up where we left off. Our passage for this episode comes from Mark’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will read from the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 24, Mark continues sharing Jesus’ response:

²⁴ In those days, right after that time of suffering,
“The sun will become dark,
and the moon
    will no longer shine.
²⁵ The stars will fall,
and the powers in the sky
    will be shaken.”

²⁶ Then the Son of Man will be seen coming in the clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ He will send his angels to gather his chosen ones from all over the earth.

Let’s pause reading here briefly because I want to draw our attention onto what Jesus has just described.

In the days after the time of suffering that God cuts short for the sake of His people, we are warned not to believe any one claiming to have discovered the Messiah, or anyone claiming to be the Messiah. Jesus then describes how the sun will be darkened, the moon will cease to give light, stars will fall, and the powers in the sky will be shaken. All of these things could be describing independent events leading up to Jesus’ return, or they could be describing different aspects of the grand event known as Jesus’ return.

But regardless of these details, verse 27 makes it clear: Jesus “will send his angels to gather his chosen ones from all over the earth.” Nothing in this passage hints at Jesus actually coming to this planet to stay. Instead, as I read this, the events leading up to Jesus’ return might be so dramatic that it makes the earth uninhabitable. With no sun, we would have no light, no warmth, and no vegetation.

Everything Jesus has 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. In Paul’s writings, we see him describing Jesus’ return as gathering God’s people together in the clouds with Him. (For reference, this can be found in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.)

Because of this, we can be certain that Jesus is not returning to set up an earthly kingdom, but to bring us home to a heavenly one.

But Jesus isn’t finished sharing. In verse 28, He continues saying:

²⁸ Learn a lesson from a fig tree. When its branches sprout and start putting out leaves, you know summer is near. ²⁹ So when you see all these things happening, you will know that the time has almost come. ³⁰ You can be sure that some of the people of this generation will still be alive when all this happens. ³¹ The sky and the earth will not last forever, but my words will.

³² No one knows the day or the time. The angels in heaven don’t know, and the Son himself doesn’t know. Only the Father knows. ³³ So watch out and be ready! You don’t know when the time will come. ³⁴ It is like what happens when a man goes away for a while and places his servants in charge of everything. He tells each of them what to do, and he orders the guard to keep alert. ³⁵ So be alert! You don’t know when the master of the house will come back. It could be in the evening or at midnight or before dawn or in the morning. ³⁶ But if he comes suddenly, don’t let him find you asleep. ³⁷ I tell everyone just what I have told you. Be alert!

While there is enough in this last section to fill an entire other podcast episode, for our remaining time together in this episode, I want to focus in on three big ideas in three of these verses.

The first big idea is one of the most time sensitive ideas, and it is stated in verse 32: “No one knows the day or the time. The angels in heaven don’t know, and the Son himself doesn’t know. Only the Father knows.” This is important for us to pay attention to because it tells us that setting a date for Jesus’ return is pure, 100% speculation. Setting a date for Jesus’ return when He tells us that the angels don’t know (which also includes Satan and his angels), and even that He doesn’t know tells us that any date that is set is a guess, and it is way more likely to be wrong than right.

Since Jesus tells us that only the Father knows this, we can conclude that even the Holy Spirit doesn’t know the date for Jesus’ return, which then means that any date set is not an inspired action, but a random guess at a number. This sounds more like gambling or picking lottery numbers rather than being inspired by God. 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. In every case but one, tomorrow will come, but we don’t want to assume there will always be a tomorrow, because if we do, Jesus’ return will catch us off guard.

The second verse and idea I want to draw our attention to is found a couple verses earlier, in verse 30, where Jesus tells His followers, “You can be sure that some of the people of this generation will still be alive when all this happens.” While this might be an easier way of translating Jesus’ words in this verse, when we compare this statement to what some of the more literal translations say, we can see a potential misunderstanding or bias appear.

In the New American Standard Bible translation, we find this verse being worded like this: “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” The NASB translators also include the note on the word generation, saying that an alternate word they could have used is the word “race”.

This means that Jesus may simply be saying that humanity will not cease to exist before all that Jesus predicted comes to pass. This also subtly suggests that after Jesus returns, there may be a point when this race passes away, and in the context of this idea, we could conclude that Jesus may be referring to the sinful race and sinful generation He often describes in other places in the gospels.

However, another way of understanding this verse is in light of our third big idea, which is a promise that comes in verse 31. Jesus promises us that “The sky and the earth will not last forever, but my words will.” The NASB includes a little bit of wordplay in this promise, saying that “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.”

Jesus promises in this warning about the time of the end that even though heaven and earth pass away, which we know happens when God recreates the new heaven and new earth, Jesus’ words won’t pass away, and Jesus tells the disciples that His words have purified them.

When we listen and apply Jesus’ words into our lives, we will not pass away with the world. Like many of Jesus’ disciples and followers living during the first century, we can look forward to Jesus’ return and a future life with Him that lasts longer than sin, longer than our sin stained earth, and longer than we could possibly imagine. With Jesus’ words in our heart, we will outlive and outlast sin, and we will ultimately be united with Jesus forever!

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first and place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and His sacrifice for you on the cross.

Continue intentionally praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow closer to God and Jesus each and every day and let His word challenge your life, your heart, and your mind. Accept and apply God’s word into your mind and your heart to let His love change your life and prepare you for the eternal life He has promised to give all His people.

And while we look forward to the time He returns, 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 continue moving through the gospels looking at miracles Jesus did to help people, we come to a miracle where Jesus helps someone, but where He receives pushback from those present. While this isn’t new at this point in Jesus’ ministry, and our next several miracles include pushback from people who were present, the way Jesus receives pushback in this miracle is interesting. Also, the specific pushback Jesus receives is fascinating when we look at how Jesus responds. After Jesus has responded, those present who opposed Him have only one logical response, even if the logical path is the one they had predetermined they would never take.

Let’s read what happened. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 11, and we will read it from the Contemporary English Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 14, Luke tells us that:

¹⁴ Jesus forced a demon out of a man who could not talk. And after the demon had gone out, the man started speaking, and the crowds were amazed. ¹⁵ But some people said, “He forces out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons!”

¹⁶ Others wanted to put Jesus to the test. So they asked him to show them a sign from God.

Let’s pause reading here to first look at the claim that was being made against Jesus. On the surface, this argument does make sense. It is logical to conclude that the ruler of the demons would have the power and authority to force the demons out. However, this argument breaks down because it would not be logical for the ruler of demons to intentionally shrink his dominion by willingly sending demons out of people unless there was a greater purpose or deception in mind. Looking at Jesus’ life and teaching, we don’t see any greater deception present because Jesus kept pointing people back to God and Jesus kept telling people to give glory and praise to God.

It is along these lines that Jesus responds to this latest angle of challenges. Continuing in verse 17, Luke tells us that:

¹⁷ Jesus knew what they were thinking, and he said:

A kingdom where people fight each other will end up in ruin. And a family that fights will break up. ¹⁸ If Satan fights against himself, how can his kingdom last? Yet you say that I force out demons by the power of Beelzebul. ¹⁹ If I use his power to force out demons, whose power do your own followers use to force them out? They are the ones who will judge you. ²⁰ But if I use God’s power to force out demons, it proves that God’s kingdom has already come to you.

It’s interesting in this event that Jesus turns their own words, and their own allies against them. No one present questioned God’s greater strength and ability to force demons out, and because of this, Jesus has unlikely allies in the religious leaders who were able to cast demons out of people.

In a partially humorous way, Jesus strengthens His argument by breaking apart the unified front of the religious leaders. The religious leaders claimed Jesus was a rogue demon bent on breaking apart the demonic forces (which isn’t logical at all), while Jesus shines light on this fallacy before separating His accusers from those in their own midst who could also cast out demons. In essence Jesus says He is on the same side as those in their midst who cast demons out, and this is on God’s side.

This angle leaves only one option for His accusers, and it is not one they are willing to take. The option that is left is that they have sided with Satan and that Jesus is Someone God sent to grow God’s own kingdom. Since these people have already accused Jesus of being one of the demons, I have no reason to believe that they immediately would correct themselves and apologize when the flaw in their argument is revealed. People changing their opinions or beliefs in a debate rarely happens, and the only places we find examples of it happening are in people who are very mature, in people who are still deciding what they believe, or in situations where the belief or idea being debated is insignificant.

I don’t see maturity, open mindedness, or an insignificant idea present in this situation, and I also don’t see any hint of these people changing their opinion of Jesus. Instead, when faced with logic, they harden themselves to their illogical beliefs.

Some people probably believe Christians hold onto illogical beliefs, and I would agree with them. Some of our beliefs don’t make any logical sense at all. However, not all things are logical, or even understandable by us.

Probably the biggest illogical idea in all of Christianity is Jesus Himself. It is illogical that God would send Himself to take the punishment of a bunch of rebels when it would be much easier to simply wipe the slate clean and start over. The only answer we have defies all logic, because it is the key description we have of God’s character. The answer we have is love.

Love in its very nature is illogical. Lust, procreation, and a number of other ideas that are often linked to love have some elements of logic, but selfless, other-focused, enduring love that looks past faults and past the negatives is not logical at all. However, God’s love for us can only be described as selfless, other-focused, and looking past all our negatives in order to see us as the people we were created to be.

Jesus came into this world to die for sinners in the least logical way, but historical records all confirm Jesus did in fact die and that He did rise from the dead on the third day, regardless of how illogical or impossible this is.

God defied all logic because He loves us. It was illogical to come and redeem us from sin, but that logic didn’t stop God from coming to save us.

However, just because God sometimes defies logic doesn’t mean our faith should be illogical or that we should throw out logic when we become followers of Jesus. Instead, we should be willing to accept that some things we will have to take on faith because they simply cannot be understood. It also means that sometimes God steps in to history in supernatural ways that also cannot be explained.

We are called to have a logical faith, pressing forward to understand all that we can and having the faith that God will help us understand the things we don’t yet understand as we intentionally grow closer to Him. We also admit and look forward to the time when all our questions will be answered as we stand face to face with Jesus. Some questions simply cannot be answerable before heaven, and in the case of these questions, we have faith that God knows what He is doing moving the world towards eternity and the end of sin.

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

Always seek God first and trust that even if we don’t have all the answers, He still knows what He is doing. Instead of distrusting God because of an unanswered question, claim, or idea, choose to trust in the truth that He is smarter than we can even imagine, and that His picture of history is bigger than we could ever think or dream. God’s ultimate goal is you, me, and as many people as possible redeemed with Him in heaven, and we can trust that with whatever happens on this earth during the reign of sin, it happened now so it will never have to happen again.

Also, always be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Trust that God is able to keep you safe for eternity, and that if He wants us with Him forever in eternity, He is more than capable and willing to keep His Word the Bible safe for a few thousand years. Distrusting the Bible is almost like distrusting God.

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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