Reflective Bible Study

If there is a verse included in the gospels that describe why I write these blog posts and why I push myself to find multiple insights in each event, that verse is tucked away within Matthew’s gospel. The verse is found in a response Jesus gives to His followers when they asked Him why He spoke in parables.

In His response, Jesus says, “To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.” (v. 12)

This single verse, and the idea it communicates, pushes me to keep writing insights and ideas from the gospels. I’ve been at this for many years, and I know there are many more years of insights awaiting me as I keep looking at events and the details the gospel writers include.

While Jesus was alive on earth, His followers and the crowds had the privilege of being able to listen to Him personally. All you and I have is a collection of events that have been passed down through the centuries and assembled together in a book known as the Bible. When Jesus tells us to “listen” to His teaching, I believe He is telling us to pay attention to it. Sure, we can listen to someone reading it aloud, either in person, or perhaps as an audio recording, but often we can hear something but not really be listening to it.

To listen to someone means that we pay attention to what they are saying, and in this passage, Jesus promises those who pay attention to His teaching more understanding and an abundance of knowledge. For those who don’t listen, even the little understanding will be taken away. This is why I focus on the gospels and on uncovering insights, because the more I do this, the more Jesus promises to show me about Him!

Often times for these journal entries, I draw out an idea from the way a verse or phrase stands out in my mind. However, in our event for this journal entry, to really see the big idea, we must draw from two areas in the gospel of Luke to really catch the implications in Jesus’ words when responding to the religious leaders on the night of His arrest.

When Jesus is pulled in for questioning, they ultimately ask Him the question, “So you’re the Son of God?” (v. 70a)

This question was meant to be a trap question for Jesus because they would immediately use His response to build the claim blasphemy – in this case, it would be making oneself equal to God.

However, before sharing Jesus’ response, let’s bring our attention to Luke’s record of Jesus’ geneaology, which is found in Luke 3:23-38. Luke begins it with Jesus, and then traces it all the way back to God: “Jesus, so people thought, was the son of Joseph, son of Eli, son of Matthat, . . . son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God.” (Luke 3:23b-24a, 38)

In this genealogy, everyone who is a member of the human race can trace their ancestry back to God, which then makes Jesus’ response to the religious leaders even more amazing: “You’re right to say that I am.” (22:70b)

But here is where things get interesting. The religious leaders respond to Jesus’ answer by saying, “Why do we need any more testimony? We’ve heard him say it ourselves.” (v. 71) This tells us that they were closed-minded towards the truth.

While Jesus was born of a virgin and God the Father was His Father in a more direct way, even if Joseph was His actual dad, Jesus could still lay claim to being a descendant of God. Luke’s genealogy points us to the truth that God started it all, and He formed the human race. In this way, God the Father is “the Father” of humanity. By rejecting Jesus’ claim of being God’s Son, the religious leaders also turned their back on God the Father as their Creator, which tells us they have unknowingly sided with God’s enemy.

This truth reminds us that we all can claim royalty as God’s children, but if we choose to share that God is our Father, we would also be wise to act in a way that honors Him.

In our passage for this journal entry, we will be looking at two short illustrations Jesus shares that let us know how excited things get in Heaven when sinners are saved. We read that they celebrate, and it is likely quite a party.

Which brings us to the one thing we’ll focus on today: “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” & “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Verses 7, 10)

One thing that stood out in this passage is the emphasis on repentance, which is another way to say acknowledging sin in our lives and turning away from it and turning towards Jesus, our Savior. Included in this turning away from sin is asking for forgiveness and recognizing our need for help – specifically help from our Savior. Repentance means leaving any and every sin in the past and looking to Jesus for the strength and ability to live a new, free life in Him.

Too often we emphasize forgiveness and minimize repentance. Forgiveness is an act, a decision at a moment in time, while repentance starts as an act, but it is realized over a lifetime. Forgiveness is important. Repentance is essential.

It seems to me that this passage places repentance on par with joining the family of God, which is equivalent to being “saved”. In these parables, Jesus is searching for things (i.e. people/sinners) that are lost, and when they are found (i.e. saved/restored), there is a celebration.

The biggest difference between finding something like a sheep or a coin when compared with finding a person is that, in our case (finding a person), we can choose whether to be found or to remain “lost”. Jesus is always ready to find us and accept us back when we decide that we want to be found. We let Jesus know that we want to be “found” by repenting – turning away from sin in our lives and looking to Him to help us move forward.

When we do, there is a celebration in Heaven!

If you have ever wondered what day of the week the Sabbath was in the Bible, you don’t need to look any further than the resurrection story to find your answer. Aside from Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, nothing stands out clearer and more in unison among the four gospel writers than this.

But before we get to that, the roots of the Sabbath travel all the way back to creation. Some people believe that since we have no idea what day of creation week corresponds to what day of the current day of the week, any day can be celebrated as the Sabbath (i.e. the seventh day of creation that God set apart as holy in His perfect world before sin). While the creation record in Genesis does not call the seventh-day “the Sabbath”, it still marks it as significant and set apart as holy.

While any day can be celebrated and worshiped on, there are some simple clues in the Bible that lead us straight to the identity of this special day of the week.

Most people believe that the first mention of the Sabbath by name (i.e. the seventh day of the week) is in the Ten Commandments, but this is not the case. While the Israelites are traveling to Mount Sinai, and they are grumbling about not having any food, God sends them a substance called manna from heaven. Exodus 16 describes this event, and notes that God Himself marks the Sabbath day by not sending any food on it. The people were to gather twice as much on the sixth day. Several chapters later, in Exodus 20, when God gives Moses the Ten Commandments, He links the Sabbath day of rest as a memorial of creation.

From that point forward, the Sabbath day was known, and the Jewish nation has kept a record of where it lands ever since.

Each gospel writer confirms the date of the Sabbath in their Resurrection event. Matthew 28 opens by saying, “The day after the Sabbath day was the first day of the week…”; Mark 16 opens by saying, “The day after the Sabbath day…”; Luke 24 opens by saying, “Very early on the first day of the week…”; and John 20 opens by saying, “Early on the first day of the week…”.

In order to identify the Sabbath today, all we need to do is look at what day we celebrate the resurrection. Regardless of any calendar adaptations that have happened since the first century, Christians almost unanimously hold the belief that Jesus was resurrected early Sunday morning, and this makes the biblical Sabbath Saturday.