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Secrets Exposed: Luke 12:1-12

Published April 15, 2025 in Written Journal Entries
Focus Passage: Luke 12:1-12 (GW)

1 Meanwhile, thousands of people had gathered. They were so crowded that they stepped on each other. Jesus spoke to his disciples and said, “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees. I’m talking about their hypocrisy. 2 Nothing has been covered that will not be exposed. Whatever is secret will be made known. 3 Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight. Whatever you have whispered in private rooms will be shouted from the housetops.

4 “My friends, I can guarantee that you don’t need to be afraid of those who kill the body. After that they can’t do anything more. 5 I’ll show you the one you should be afraid of. Be afraid of the one who has the power to throw you into hell after killing you. I’m warning you to be afraid of him.

6 “Aren’t five sparrows sold for two cents? God doesn’t forget any of them. 7 Even every hair on your head has been counted. Don’t be afraid! You are worth more than many sparrows. 8 I can guarantee that the Son of Man will acknowledge in front of God’s angels every person who acknowledges him in front of others. 9 But God’s angels will be told that I don’t know those people who tell others that they don’t know me. 10 Everyone who says something against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But the person who dishonors the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

11 “When you are put on trial in synagogues or in front of rulers and authorities, don’t worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say. 12 At that time the Holy Spirit will teach you what you must say.”

Read Luke 12:1-12 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

During one of the times where thousands of people were crowded around, Jesus warns His disciples about something to watch out for and to be careful about. Some might think that this message was simply for those living in the first century; however, I believe there is a bigger truth in the theme behind this message.

Luke’s gospel records Jesus telling His followers: “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees. I’m talking about their hypocrisy. Nothing has been covered that will not be exposed. Whatever is secret will be made known. Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight. Whatever you have whispered in private rooms will be shouted from the housetops.” (v. 1-3)

This first portion of Jesus’ message has a powerful message regarding secrets, simply that secrets will never remain secret. The only thing that is up to us is whether we will reveal the secret on our own terms, or whether we will let it be discovered by others when it may not be convenient.

While we know more about these first disciples of Jesus than most any other specific person in history, I think Jesus’ warning is for everyone regarding the nature of secrets, even though He was speaking to the disciples while others in a crowd that listened in. It would not surprise me at all to learn that there were Pharisees in the crowd present for this event.

Reading this passage makes me think the Pharisees in that culture lived with secrets. It seems like they had their private lives that contained secret sins, and then their public lives that they tried to make look perfect and sinless. This is the nature of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is holding others to a standard that you don’t hold yourself to and living differently in private than you do in public.

Secrets and hypocrisy are closely connected, and Jesus’ message about each should prompt us to live differently. As I read what Jesus spoke, I see it as a challenge to live a life that matches both our public lives as well as our private lives, and live in a way where we won’t have anything that needs to be kept a secret. Living transparently with self-control is living with true freedom, because we choose to live without hypocrisy and without secrets weighing on our minds.

Jesus’ message about secrets and hypocrisy is just as true today as it was when He first spoke it. While we don’t have literal Pharisees to worry about in the same way that the first disciples did, there are plenty of ways hypocrisy can inch its way into our lives. Whatever secrets we have in our lives will eventually be revealed. We cannot stop them from being made known. About the only thing we can decide is whether we will publicize our secrets on our own terms, or let others discover them when it may not be as convenient.

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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On Guard Against Greed: Luke 12:13-34

Published April 11, 2025 in Written Journal Entries
Focus Passage: Luke 12:13-34 (NASB)

At one point while Jesus is teaching, a person called a question out to Him from the crowd. While I am sure this was something that may have regularly happened, this particular time gets recorded in Luke’s gospel, and it shifts the focus of Jesus’ teaching onto a new topic.

Luke tells us in his gospel that “Someone in the crowd said to Him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’” (v. 13)

Jesus immediately responded to the man by saying, “Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?” (v. 14)

This brief conversation shifts the focus of the entire discussion, because then Jesus begins to teach everyone saying, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” (v. 15)

The statement Jesus shares to this crowd is incredibly powerful. Greed focuses on defining itself through what can be accumulated, saved, purchased, and/or simply gained. However, the trap of greed makes us believe that our life’s value is based on the number of possessions we have, the size of our home, the make and model of our vehicle, and on our overall net worth. Greed is sneaky, because while most people would openly deny living for the accumulation of more, if one were to observe how most people live, many decisions are made with this in mind.

Jesus challenges everyone – both Christians as well as non-Christians – to not fall into greed’s trap. Your life is so much more valuable than what you earn or what you own. Those things are temporary. Jesus came and paid the price of sin because He values your life over your stuff.

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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Merely the Beginning: Mark 13:1-13

Published April 9, 2025 in Written Journal Entries
Focus Passage: Mark 13:1-13 (NASB)

Most of you who have followed along on this gospel adventure journey have likely concluded that I am a detailed person, and you would be correct. The message Jesus shares in this journal entry’s passage is in three of the four gospels, and the detail that I noticed while studying this passage comes to us from Mark’s gospel.

As Jesus is sharing about what will happen, He describes rumors, wars, earthquakes, and famines, but how He frames these things is interesting. At the end of verse 8, after telling us about all the bad that is coming, He says, “These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.”

What stands out to me is the portion of this teaching that is describing nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom being simply the beginning. Is Jesus telling us that all this stuff will continue, and progressively get worse and worse, similar to the way labor gets more intense as it progresses forward? Or is Jesus subtly sharing that there will be a point between nations fighting with each other and His return where there technically would be large scale peace?

These are some of the questions that run through my mind as I read Jesus’ words in this passage.

I know it seems as though each war that has happened has gotten progressively worse. Perhaps not in the number of casualties, but worse in the number of lives affected. Living in North America, war is not a daily reality as it is in some other parts of the world. In recent history, wars escalated to the level of major nations allying with each other on both sides to create large scale “world” wars.

However, Jesus describes all these events as “merely the beginning”.

This passage tells me one big truth: We are in the “beginning of the end” and we have been for some time. Regardless of the political landscape and the wars that are raging in parts of the world, God is not surprised with what is going on and He has our future secure in His hands.

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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Observing the Signs: Luke 12:35-59

Published April 8, 2025 in Written Journal Entries
Focus Passage: Luke 12:35-59 (NCV)

 35 “Be dressed, ready for service, and have your lamps shining. 36 Be like servants who are waiting for their master to come home from a wedding party. When he comes and knocks, the servants immediately open the door for him. 37 They will be blessed when their master comes home, because he sees that they were watching for him. I tell you the truth, the master will dress himself to serve and tell the servants to sit at the table, and he will serve them. 38 Those servants will be blessed when he comes in and finds them still waiting, even if it is midnight or later.

    39 “Remember this: If the owner of the house knew what time a thief was coming, he would not allow the thief to enter his house. 40 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at a time when you don’t expect him!”

 41 Peter said, “Lord, did you tell this story to us or to all people?”

 42 The Lord said, “Who is the wise and trusted servant that the master trusts to give the other servants their food at the right time? 43 When the master comes and finds the servant doing his work, the servant will be blessed. 44 I tell you the truth, the master will choose that servant to take care of everything he owns. 45 But suppose the servant thinks to himself, ‘My master will not come back soon,’ and he begins to beat the other servants, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master will come when that servant is not ready and is not expecting him. Then the master will cut him in pieces and send him away to be with the others who don’t obey.

    47 “The servant who knows what his master wants but is not ready, or who does not do what the master wants, will be beaten with many blows! 48 But the servant who does not know what his master wants and does things that should be punished will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. And from the one trusted with much, much more will be expected.

    49 “I came to set fire to the world, and I wish it were already burning! 50 I have a baptism to suffer through, and I feel very troubled until it is over. 51 Do you think I came to give peace to the earth? No, I tell you, I came to divide it. 52 From now on, a family with five people will be divided, three against two, and two against three. 53 They will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

 54 Then Jesus said to the people, “When you see clouds coming up in the west, you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it happens. 55 When you feel the wind begin to blow from the south, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it happens. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to understand the appearance of the earth and sky. Why don’t you understand what is happening now?

    57 “Why can’t you decide for yourselves what is right? 58 If your enemy is taking you to court, try hard to settle it on the way. If you don’t, your enemy might take you to the judge, and the judge might turn you over to the officer, and the officer might throw you into jail. 59 I tell you, you will not get out of there until you have paid everything you owe.”

Read Luke 12:35-59 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

While teaching His followers and the crowd at large, Jesus turns the spotlight onto where the people living that day were placing their focus – and what Jesus shares is very relevant for us living today.

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus tells those in His audience, “When you see clouds coming up in the west, you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it happens. When you feel the wind begin to blow from the south, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it happens. Hypocrites! You know how to understand the appearance of the earth and sky. Why don’t you understand what is happening now?” (v. 54-56)

These short few verses point our attention to how it is very easy to create a rut in our lives that make us experts in certain areas, but completely ignorant in others. As technology advances and the scientific community collectively learns more, it is true that no one can know everything about everything, and because of this, we all must specialize and focus on certain areas.

In this passage, Jesus does not say that we must strive to know as much as we possibly can. Instead, in this passage, Jesus challenges those present that they had become excellent observers of weather patterns, but had failed to focus equivalent energy on observing the patterns of world events as they relate to God’s moving within the world. This was most directed at those whose job description was to pay attention to what God was doing in the world and draw people’s attention to it. Jesus’ challenge includes not only the religious and spiritual leaders living in the first century, but also religious and spiritual leaders living at any point in history.

The challenge Jesus shares is that everyone who calls themselves a follower of God should devote some energy to spending time with Him and also be actively looking for how He is moving in the world around them. God is far from absent in the world today, but it is up to us to open our eyes to the subtle ways He is moving – because only when we pay attention to the signs do we have ample evidence that He is still in control.

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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