Reflective Bible Study

As we continue our journey through Luke’s gospel, we reach a passage where Jesus begins to train the disciples for the time following His return to heaven. However, the disciples are unaware of this detail. All they realize is that Jesus sends them out to the surrounding towns to tell people about Him. In the instructions Jesus gives to His disciples, and the few verses following this mini-commission, we can discover some amazing things.

Our passage for this episode comes from Luke’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read from the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us that:

¹ Jesus called together the 12 disciples. He gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to heal sicknesses. ² Then he sent them out to announce God’s kingdom and to heal those who were sick. ³ He told them, “Don’t take anything for the journey. Do not take a walking stick or a bag. Do not take any bread, money or extra clothes. ⁴ When you are invited into a house, stay there until you leave town. ⁵ Some people may not welcome you. If they don’t, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet. This will be a witness against the people living there.” ⁶ So the 12 disciples left. They went from village to village. They announced the good news and healed people everywhere.

⁷ Now Herod, the ruler of Galilee, heard about everything that was going on. He was bewildered, because some were saying that John the Baptist had been raised from the dead. ⁸ Others were saying that Elijah had appeared. Still others were saying that a prophet of long ago had come back to life. ⁹ But Herod said, “I had John’s head cut off. So who is it that I hear such things about?” And he tried to see Jesus.

¹⁰ The disciples returned. They told Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him. They went off by themselves to a town called Bethsaida. ¹¹ But the crowds learned about it and followed Jesus. He welcomed them and spoke to them about God’s kingdom. He also healed those who needed to be healed.

In this short passage, we see Jesus sending out the disciples to announce God’s kingdom and to heal those who were sick. We see Jesus share a similar focus when He began His ministry. When Jesus started preaching shortly after His baptism and trip into the wilderness to be tempted, He began by sharing about God’s Kingdom, which in some places is also called the Kingdom of Heaven. This small detail tells me that if God challenges you and leads you into a ministry sharing about Him, the best place to begin is by sharing about God’s kingdom. This is what John the Baptist did, what Jesus did, and what Jesus tells the disciples to do.

However, it is also significant to point out that Jesus’ disciples also were given the authority to heal people and to cast out demons. The clear point in this short-term missionary trip was to know that God was with them. Specifically we could say that these disciples had the Holy Spirit with them when they went out on their trip to the surrounding countryside.

While Luke’s gospel doesn’t give any summary statement describing if the disciples were successful, Mark’s gospel does fill in the details that the disciples healed people and cast out demons while they were out ministering. Luke’s gospel hints at the disciples’ success because when they return to Jesus and then try to go to off by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, the crowds discovered this and came to see Jesus. I suspect that if the disciples weren’t successful, Jesus could have traveled more freely without being recognized as clearly.

While the disciples were out sharing the news about God with the surrounding region, Luke inserts a brief summary about John the Baptist. Part of me wonders if Jesus’ popularity and fame reached Herod during the disciples’ missionary trip, and that this was not long after John was beheaded. Matthew and Mark take some verses to describe what happened, and that Herod would rather have kept John locked up, but that his wife and her daughter plotted together to push Herod to execute John. Luke simply tells us the summary, while also including a brief note that Herod “tried to see Jesus” (in verse 9).

However, with all this said, what could we call the big theme in these verses in Luke?

What is one big thing this passage teaches us that we can apply into our lives today?

As I ask myself these questions, it becomes clear that the big emphasis in this passage is on trusting God and letting Him lead. When Jesus instructs the disciples about this trip, He tells them not to take anything for their journey. Instead, Jesus challenges His disciples to simply go and trust that God will provide.

I don’t know how long Jesus anticipated them to be gone for, but I suspect that it was several weeks at least. From Luke’s description, they disciples had time to travel to multiple villages, be rejected by some, and be welcomed by others.

Also, Jesus challenges the disciples to not force themselves into situations. If they are invited to stay in a town, then stay in one place where they are welcomed. However, if they are rejected by a town, they are challenged to simply leave and shake the dust off of their feet as they go.

One amazing thing to realize in this short missionary trip to the towns and villages in the region is that the disciple’s visit may have been the only invitation or visit these towns received while Jesus was present on earth. There were too many towns for Jesus to visit them all personally, and by sending the disciples out, Jesus was able to multiply what God wanted to do to help Israel. If a town rejected the disciples, as some likely did or else Jesus’ instruction about this would have been unnecessary, we could say this town rejected the messengers God sent to help them.

In our own lives, not only are we called and challenged to trust God and let Him lead in our lives, we should also be willing and grateful for the messengers God sends into our lives. The towns Jesus sent the disciples to had the opportunity to accept or reject the messengers God sent to them. In a similar way, God sends people into our lives to challenge and encourage us. While we might not always recognize those God sends our way, we should be grateful and willing to accept those God brings into our lives.

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to accept those He brings into our lives to challenge or encourage us. While we don’t always know, recognize, or understand who God sends, it is important for us to be willing and open to accepting messengers God sends our way. Otherwise, we might realize too late when we rejected the only messengers (also known as disciples) God sent our way like some of the towns in our passage did.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself. Through prayer and Bible study, we are able to grow closer to God, and the closer we are to God, the better able we will be to both recognize and accept the people God sends into our lives!

A short while after Jesus called Matthew to be a disciple, we discover a set of two miracles that display some unusual characteristics. Neither miracle is really like the other, but without both of these miracles put together, neither one would be as significant.

Let’s read what happened and then look for some things we can learn from this event. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 18, Matthew tells us that:

¹⁸ While Jesus was saying these things, a leader of the synagogue came to him. He bowed down before Jesus and said, “My daughter has just died. But if you come and lay your hand on her, she will live again.” ¹⁹ So Jesus and his followers stood up and went with the leader.

²⁰ Then a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years came behind Jesus and touched the edge of his coat. ²¹ She was thinking, “If I can just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”

²² Jesus turned and saw the woman and said, “Be encouraged, dear woman. You are made well because you believed.” And the woman was healed from that moment on.

²³ Jesus continued along with the leader and went into his house. There he saw the funeral musicians and many people crying. ²⁴ Jesus said, “Go away. The girl is not dead, only asleep.” But the people laughed at him. ²⁵ After the crowd had been thrown out of the house, Jesus went into the girl’s room and took hold of her hand, and she stood up. ²⁶ The news about this spread all around the area.

In this event and this set of two miracles, we discover among other things, that Jesus was focused on helping each individual exactly how they needed help. It is also interesting in my mind that Matthew really summarizes this event and these two miracles.

In the other gospels that include this event, the synagogue leader who asks for help asks Jesus while His daughter is still sick and not dead yet. The other gospels also draw out the woman’s healing and her desire to remain hidden. In the other gospels, it seems that Jesus stops everything to discover the woman who touched His garment, and it delayed His progress to the synagogue leader’s home to the point that messengers were able to arrive and tell the synagogue leader that his daughter had died.

While Matthew summarizes many things about both these miracles, one thing Matthew does not skip over is Jesus’ reaction to the funeral musicians and those crying. Matthew also does not skip over sharing the woman’s thoughts and her belief that simply touching the edge of Jesus’ clothing would heal her.

Matthew includes the detail of the woman having faith in perhaps the least significant action she could think of. Touching the edge of Jesus’ clothing is pretty insignificant, but she believes that is all she needs to be healed. She may have been embarrassed about her condition, and would rather not have to explain it to a bunch of men why she was needing to be healed.

However, Jesus doesn’t want her faith or her miracle to be lost in the commotion of Him going to help someone else. Jesus stops just long enough to make sure she was healed and to draw attention onto her faith and her story so that we would be able to read and know it from what was recorded. If Jesus had not stopped, this woman’s miracle would have never been known outside of a handful of people.

Matthew also does not summarize or minimize Jesus’ reaction to those who were preparing for a funeral at the synagogue leader’s home. Jesus tells them all in verse 24, “Go away. The girl is not dead, only asleep.” However, those present laughed at Jesus. They knew the girl had died. A doctor had probably already called the time of her death a short while earlier.

However, I wonder if Jesus intentionally set the stage for this event by making sure that He hadn’t arrived before the girl had died. I wonder if Jesus wanted to challenge the faith of everyone present and if He wanted to teach us that death is nothing to be feared. When we read the Bible, we cannot get around the metaphor, both in the gospels and in the other parts of the Bible, that death is compared with a sleep.

In the context of Jesus’ statement here, those who viewed death viewed death as the end of life, with no immediate hope of a resurrection. If those present had believed in an upcoming resurrection, it is likely there wouldn’t be any tears present. It is clear in this event, that the crowd of mourners and funeral musicians did not have faith that Jesus could reverse death. Because they didn’t have faith, I believe this is why Jesus kicked them out of the house.

It is also interesting that if those present believed the girl to be in a much better place now that she had died, then they may have been sad at her death, but they wouldn’t have wished for her to be brought back to life. In this frame of view, Jesus resurrecting anyone, including Himself, would be one of the cruelest things for Him to do.

I don’t believe it is a coincidence that death is referred to as sleep in the Bible. The Bible contains many metaphors that God has written into the details of our physical world to teach us about spiritual truths. I believe sleep teaching us about death is one such truth.

While there are many physical and biological reasons for sleep and how our brains need sleep to function well, the spiritual component of sleep is simply rest from our daily work. If the day represents our life and sleep represents our death, then there is nothing to be afraid of when we ultimately lay down to rest at our life’s end because we know morning is coming. Following our rest in death, morning brings us a resurrection into a new life with God.

Whether we are close to death in this life or whether we have a lot of life left, we can know and trust that with whatever happens, God has placed us alive on this earth for a reason. We can know and trust that when we have accomplished what He has placed us here to accomplish, He will let us rest in peace until morning comes and the trumpet of resurrection sounds.

While we don’t know the rest of this girls story, what we do know is that from that moment forward, her life was a clear gift from God. This girl’s story would be significant and important in God’s eyes, because He had given her a new life, and her new life foreshadows our new lives when we are resurrected at Jesus’ return!

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and in His promise of a new life with God. While our new life with God begins at the moment we choose God, our ultimate new life with God begins at the moment He returns to take us home!

Also, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself. Don’t take my word, or any pastor, author, speaker, or podcaster’s word for any spiritual truth. Instead, test everything through what the Bible teaches to discover God’s truth for your life with Him.

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!

Continuing our journey through Luke’s gospel, brings us to a powerful example of God’s love as Jesus travels to a remote location seemingly to see just one person. However, I wonder if this wasn’t what Jesus had intended even if it was what happened.

In this event, and the miracle of healing Jesus does to help a man trapped by demonic forces, we are able to see just how powerful God is in relation to Satan, and just how much He loves those who are trapped by sin.

Our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 8, and we will read from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 26, Luke tells us that Jesus and His disciples:

²⁶ [They] sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. ²⁷ When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. ²⁸ When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” ²⁹ For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.

³⁰ Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. ³¹ And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.

³² A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. ³³ When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

³⁴ When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, ³⁵ and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. ³⁶ Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. ³⁷ Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left.

³⁸ The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ³⁹ “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.

Whenever I read this event, I am amazed. From the details Luke describes, Jesus and His disciples sail across the lake, heal this one individual, and then sail away. While Jesus likely wanted to help more people from the region, I don’t think this rejection surprised Him. However, this event teaches us that Jesus was willing to travel to a region for one specific person.

Immediately before this, Luke recorded how Jesus calmed the worst storm the expert fishermen disciples had ever experienced with a simple word. Jesus was sleeping in the back of the boat and the disciples were convinced that they all were going to die. It wouldn’t surprise me to discover this was a supernaturally created storm Satan caused to try to stop Jesus from reaching this man.

However, the big idea I want to draw our attention onto in this event is what we see Jesus allow the demons to do. From the details Luke shares about this event, there were hundreds, if not thousands of demons possessing this man. When we look at what Luke describes, the first thing the demons do when they leave the man and enter the pigs is to stampede the pigs off the edge of a cliff.

This brings me to an interesting observation. God allowed the demons to kill the pigs, but these demons did not, or maybe even could not, kill this man. Part of me wonders if God’s protective power was over this man’s life even if he was possessed by more demons than anyone could count. I wonder if Satan had dispatched a whole legion of demons to kill this man and the closest they could get was driving him from society. Satan then sent a massive storm in an attempt to keep Jesus from reaching this man.

However, nothing could stop Jesus from reaching this man. Nothing Satan could do could stop this from happening. While the demons weren’t restricted from killing the pigs, they were powerless to kill this man under God’s protection. It didn’t matter how many demons were present in this man, God’s protection of this man’s life was clearly stronger.

These demons may have been tired of not being successful and so when given the opportunity to leave the man and enter the pigs, they happily accepted because they wanted to succeed killing something and the pigs were the next best choice.

Little did the demons know that this would attract the attention of the town, and that would bring more people to see Jesus.

This whole event is amazing. One command from Jesus sent thousands of demons out of person they desperately wanted to kill. God’s protective hand on this man’s life withstood the attacks and attempts these demons used to try to kill this man. It is likely God also prevented these demons from leaving the region with this man when discovering that the storm the night before didn’t knock Jesus off course.

The biggest theme in this event is that when Jesus wants to heal a life, free a life, or change a heart, the best Satan can muster is no match for a single command from Jesus’ mouth. And from what Jesus did for us on the cross, nothing Satan can muster can steal eternal life away from those God has chosen and called!

God is calling you. Are you going to accept His invitation?

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to trust God. Know that God is infinitely stronger than Satan and nothing Satan can do is able to stop God from achieving His goals. One of God’s goals is eternal life for you and me, and the amazing thing about God is that He defeated Satan so we could have the choice of salvation. God isn’t going to force people into heaven against their will, and Satan is powerless to stop someone from accepting Jesus and turning to God when they choose to make that decision.

Also, pray and study the Bible for yourself and grow a personal relationship with God. God wants a personal relationship with you that begins in this life, because a relationship with God in this life leads to a forever, eternal relationship with Him when Jesus returns! Don’t let anyone, Satan included, trick you out of the life God has freely offered to you and me!

As we continue in Matthew’s gospel, we come to an event that is probably the least surprising event to find in Matthew’s gospel, but one that I’m a little surprised Matthew puts as late as he does in his gospel. Perhaps this event came earlier and Matthew wants to minimize its significance, or perhaps Matthew was really one of the last disciples to join the group.

Our passage for this episode focuses in on Matthew describing his call to be a disciple, and in some ways, Matthew really downplays this event for the significance it probably had on his life. This event is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 9, Matthew tells us:

⁹ When Jesus was leaving, he saw a man named Matthew sitting in the tax collector’s booth. Jesus said to him, “Follow me,” and he stood up and followed Jesus.

¹⁰ As Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with Jesus and his followers. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they asked Jesus’ followers, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹² When Jesus heard them, he said, “It is not the healthy people who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ Go and learn what this means: ‘I want kindness more than I want animal sacrifices.’ I did not come to invite good people but to invite sinners.”

Let’s stop reading here because I want to draw our focus on several things that we have just read.

First, Jesus’ actual call for Matthew is very downplayed. The entire event is only one verse long. The first half of the verse sets the stage for Matthew’s invitation, and the second half is Jesus simply giving Matthew the challenge to follow. The verse concludes with Matthew standing up and following Jesus, with no hesitation or question.

Before moving on to what happened that evening, let’s look a little closer at Matthew’s invitation. While it is possible that Matthew was alone in the tax collector booth, this is unlikely. What is more possible is that there were at least one or two guards hired to assist and protect him. Tax collectors were hated people, and their presence reminded the people more than most things that they were not in a country owned by them. It also didn’t help that most tax collectors were corrupt, and it is likely that the corrupt tax collectors moved ahead faster and that they were praised rather than punished.

It is interesting in my mind the timing of when Matthew includes his call in relation to the events in his gospel. Matthew has already included three chapters focused on a powerful sermon, and several miracles. While it’s possible Matthew learned about this from the other disciples who were present for those events, I wonder if Matthew was a part of the crowd listening as Jesus shared this sermon, and that the Holy Spirit had been working on Matthew’s heart for a while.

Being called to be a follower of a Rabbi was a great honor, and Matthew knew that this likely was his only chance. While we don’t know the path that led Matthew to becoming a tax collector, Matthew’s quick response to Jesus’ call indicates that he would rather be doing something else. Matthew might have even studied to become a Rabbi’s disciple but ultimately was not chosen.

The logic behind this idea is because Matthew, more than any other gospel writer, draws our attention onto the prophecies in the Old Testament that Jesus fulfilled. Someone who studied to become a Rabbi’s disciple would be the most educated in Old Testament prophecy.

Moving to the events of that evening, we discover that Matthew hosts a dinner at his home, and he invites all his tax collector and other “sinners” friends over to meet Jesus. While we read this event and are quick to judge the Pharisees who are subtly judging Jesus’ actions, at this point in Jesus’ ministry, I don’t believe that the Pharisees as a group are as opposed to Jesus as they ultimately will be. In my mind, this group of Pharisees might have simply wanted to know Jesus’ motives for acting differently from every other religious teacher in that era.

However, it is also possible that the Pharisees asked Jesus’ disciples because they wanted more reasons to incriminate Jesus in their own minds. I don’t know if Jesus responded before the disciples had a chance to open their mouths, or if the disciples who were asked did not have an answer.

But the biggest phrase that is fascinating in my mind is Jesus’ opening to His response. In verse 12, Matthew tells us that when Jesus heard the question asked to His disciples about why He eats and socializes with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus replies first by saying: “It is not the healthy people who need a doctor, but the sick.”

While the rest of Jesus’ response summarizes Jesus’ reasoning, this opening could be seen by some to be an insult to those Jesus spent time with. Jesus’ opening could also be a subtle message to the Pharisees that Jesus’ focus would always be on those who need help, healing, and encouragement.

However, I wonder if Jesus was implying in His opening that the Pharisees who were asking the question were the healthy people in contrast to those who Jesus was eating with. I wouldn’t be surprised to think that this is what the Pharisees heard Jesus say. The Pharisees probably took Jesus’ opening to mean that they were healthy, and they saw Jesus’ message as a compliment.

But Jesus ultimately challenges them on one of God’s messages from the Old Testament, and with the idea that He came to invite sinners and not “good people”.

In the events surrounding Matthew’s invitation, we discover a window into Jesus’ focus for His ministry. Jesus came to help those who were sick, hurting, and who needed help, and Jesus came specifically to invite sinners to return to God. Jesus’ focus for His ministry was not on helping those who did not believe they needed help, on those who believed themselves to already be right with God, or on those who looked down on others.

Jesus lived His life from God’s perspective in His response. Jesus lived showing kindness more than demanding obedience. While obedience is important, kindness and God’s love is more central to God’s character. When we are being representatives for God, we are to above everything else, show God’s love and kindness to those He brings into our lives while we are personally being obedient to Him the best way we know how.

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to model God’s love and His kindness to those who He brings in to your life. Jesus lived a life that was kind, compassionate, and loving to those who society had rejected, and He calls us to do the same. Don’t be surprised that when we live and love like Jesus, that those who are self-righteous will look down on us for who we are associating with, because those who were self-righteous in the first century looked down on Jesus too.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to keep your personal relationship with God strong and growing stronger. A personal connection with God will give you the right motives and love for helping those who God brings into your life, and when we’re connected with God, He will lead us to those who He knows need His love.

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!