Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure

Setting the Rumor Straight: John 21:15-25

Published November 17, 2023 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: John 21:15-25 (NIV)

¹⁵When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

¹⁶Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

¹⁷The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” ¹⁹Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

²⁰Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) ²¹When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”

²²Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” ²³Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”

²⁴This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.

²⁵Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

Read John 21:15-25 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

In John’s final story of his gospel, he shares the origins of a rumor that had likely spread for decades about this special disciple’s life. We don’t know if John was the youngest disciple, or if God simply gifted him with more years than the other followers, but the rumor had spread that Jesus would return before John’s death.

Actually, the rumor was more along the lines of John remaining alive until Jesus’ return. Perhaps this gave greater push for spreading the gospel message in the second half of the first century. If you knew that it was up to your generation to finish God’s mission, and that the world was going to end after the second-last member of your generation died, would that make you extra motivated to complete the mission?

It apparently helped the disciples and the early church, because with the Holy Spirit’s power, they expanded rapidly throughout their known world. But the rumor was more a lie than the truth.

After Jesus shared with Peter about the sort of death he would experience, “Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them … When Peter saw him, he asked, ‘Lord, what about him?’” (v. 20-21)

Peter’s question asks about John’s death. Perhaps Peter was wanting to compare himself to the other closest follower of Jesus, or maybe Peter simply wanted to learn how one of the other key disciple’s lives would end.

But Jesus’ response is tricky. Jesus simply states, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” (v. 22)

This prompts the rumor that John would be alive when Jesus returned, and that John would not die. But John at the close of his gospel states the truth: “Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, ‘If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?’”. (v. 23)

Jesus’ statement to Peter about John’s death is a statement about the importance of keeping our relationship with Jesus personal and strong – and not playing comparison games with others. Jesus wants Peter to focus on Peter and His relationship, and not worry about the relationship that any of the other disciples had. This is emphasized with Jesus echoing His earlier re-invitation by saying “You must follow me.” (v. 22)

Following Jesus must be a personal decision. It must be something each of us decides to on an individual level, and it must be something we recommit to personally each day we are alive. Jesus emphasizes that our relationship with Him should not be based on someone else’s relationship, or on anything anyone else has said or done.

Is John alive in heaven right now? The answer to this question is irrelevant to us. What matters instead is whether we have placed our focus onto our own relationship with Jesus that leads us towards our own eternal life with God.

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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Facing Temptation with Jesus: Luke 22:39-46

Published November 16, 2023 in Audio Journal Entries

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Following the meal Jesus eats with His disciples, the eleven remaining disciples have a little bit of time alone with Jesus while Judas Iscariot is off getting the soldiers and mob to arrest Jesus. While John’s gospel describes in detail what Jesus shares with the disciples during their trip to the garden, the remaining gospels focus on what Jesus does after they have arrived at Gethsemane.

Let’s read our passage and discover what we can learn from what Luke tells us happened. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 22, and we will read from the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 39, Luke tells us that:

³⁹Jesus left the city and went, as he usually did, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples went with him. ⁴⁰When he arrived at the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”

⁴¹Then he went off from them about the distance of a stone’s throw and knelt down and prayed. ⁴²“Father,” he said, “if you will, take this cup of suffering away from me. Not my will, however, but your will be done.” ⁴³An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. ⁴⁴In great anguish he prayed even more fervently; his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

⁴⁵Rising from his prayer, he went back to the disciples and found them asleep, worn out by their grief. ⁴⁶He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you will not fall into temptation.”

As we read this passage from Luke, several things jumped out at me. The first thing is how passionately and fervently Jesus prayed. Verse 44 describes Jesus’ sweat was “like drops of blood falling to the ground.” Some people point to this detail and say Jesus was literally sweating blood or that blood was mixing with His sweat. While this sounds crazy, this is actually something that is possible and has been documented on a number of occasions. I don’t remember what this is called, but if I did, I doubt I’d be able to pronounce the word correctly.

Another way I can understand this description of Jesus’ sweat that only Luke includes is that Jesus was sweating so profusely that it was dripping off Him like blood might drip out of a wound.

However, whichever way we want to view this small detail that sounds crazy, this detail isn’t very significant in the big picture of this passage.

Another big detail that I see in this passage reflects a big theme we looked at last week about persisting within God’s will. Looking closely at Jesus’ prayer reveals the powerful truth that Jesus was willing to follow God’s will even through what is likely the worst abuse and death imaginable. Jesus prayed in verse 42, “Father, if you will, take this cup of suffering away from me. Not my will, however, but your will be done.”

Jesus’ prayer to God reflects how we are challenged to pray. When we come before God in prayer, it is worthwhile to bring our requests to Him. However, we also are challenged to frame our requests as being less important or significant that His will. While we might try to push forward in our own strength what we believe to be God’s will, our timing and our perception doesn’t always mirror God’s.

Jesus prayed a prayer with a request for help, but He also prayed that He would remain firmly within God’s will for His life – even if that meant that He would face the cross the following day. Jesus’ prayer here in the garden is a powerful example for us when we decide to go before God in prayer. Jesus’ prayer teaches us how to bring our requests to God while also praying that we stay within God’s will for our own lives.

Speaking of prayer, this leads us to what might be the biggest truth and challenge I see tucked within this event. In verse 40, prior to Jesus walking away from the group to be alone to pray, He tells the group of disciples to “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”

This is powerful when we look closely at it. Of all the nights these disciples would face, and of all the nights in the history of the world, this night was likely one of the darkest. While the following night would appear to be a victory for Satan with Jesus in the tomb, the night before the cross was filled with more temptation directed towards Jesus and all those closest to Him than we likely could imagine.

Leading into this night filled with temptation, Jesus challenges His closest disciples to pray for strength to avoid temptation. While it is difficult to know whether all His followers heeded His words or not, we do know that the two big predictions Jesus made about that night came true. Peter ultimately denied Jesus even though he strongly denied Jesus’ suggestion about what would happen. Also, all the disciples scatter and leave Jesus to be arrested as the scripture predicted would happen.

Aside from these two fulfilled predictions, I suspect that these disciples did ultimately pray for strength to avoid temptation and they received help as an answer to their prayers. None of the disciples aside from Judas Iscariot the betrayer was ultimately lost from this group, and Judas Iscariot was only truly lost because he took his own life. I suspect that Judas Iscariot could have been forgiven if he had first forgiven himself, humbly repented before God in prayer, and not taken such drastic measures as he did. Suicide is sometimes referred to as the permanent solution to a temporary problem, and if given enough time, the problem faced is always less than the solution suicide provides.

In this event, we discover that at the darkest points in history, our prayers should be for help to avoid temptation. At the darkest parts of our lives, we are the most prone to falling into temptation and we should focus more intently on prayer for God’s help and guidance. I believe that when we come before God asking for help to stay away from sin and for help withstanding temptation, He is more than happy to double, triple, or in some other way multiply our own power to resist temptation.

I doubt God puts forth much effort to help us resist sin if we are only half-hearted in our request. However, if we are sincerely committed to resisting sin, I believe God is more than happy to step in and help when we ask Him for help and to fill in any gaps in our strength that might exist. With God’s help, we can have a willpower that is stronger than we might expect or realize!

When our lives are hard and when times are dark, lean into God and ask Him for help resisting temptation! I know that when we claim this prayer, God is more than happy to step in and walk with us along the path He has called us to walk!

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, continue to seek God first in your heart, in your mind, and in your life. When things get tough and times are challenging, lean into God asking for strength to keep moving forward with Him!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow a strong personal foundation. While praying and studying with others is beneficial, don’t neglect your personal prayer and study life. Through personal prayer and study, discover God’s truth for your life and open your heart to 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 deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Year in Luke – Episode 46: On the night Jesus was arrested, He leaves the disciples with a challenge before He goes off to pray. Discover how this challenge is powerful and how we can claim it in our lives today!

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The Messiah Jesus Was: John 10:22-42

Published November 15, 2023 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: John 10:22-42 (GNT)

²² It was winter, and the Festival of the Dedication of the Temple was being celebrated in Jerusalem. ²³ Jesus was walking in Solomon’s Porch in the Temple, ²⁴ when the people gathered around him and asked,
How long are you going to keep us in suspense? Tell us the plain truth: are you the Messiah?

²⁵ Jesus answered,
I have already told you, but you would not believe me. The deeds I do by my Father’s authority speak on my behalf; ²⁶ but you will not believe, for you are not my sheep. ²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they shall never die. No one can snatch them away from me. ²⁹ What my Father has given me is greater than everything, and no one can snatch them away from the Father’s care. ³⁰ The Father and I are one.

³¹ Then the people again picked up stones to throw at him. ³² Jesus said to them,
I have done many good deeds in your presence which the Father gave me to do; for which one of these do you want to stone me?

³³ They answered,
We do not want to stone you because of any good deeds, but because of your blasphemy! You are only a man, but you are trying to make yourself God!

³⁴ Jesus answered,
It is written in your own Law that God said,
You are gods. ³⁵ We know that what the scripture says is true forever; and God called those people gods, the people to whom his message was given. ³⁶ As for me, the Father chose me and sent me into the world. How, then, can you say that I blaspheme because I said that I am the Son of God? ³⁷ Do not believe me, then, if I am not doing the things my Father wants me to do. ³⁸ But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, you should at least believe my deeds, in order that you may know once and for all that the Father is in me and that I am in the Father.

³⁹ Once more they tried to seize Jesus, but he slipped out of their hands.

⁴⁰ Jesus then went back again across the Jordan River to the place where John had been baptizing, and he stayed there. ⁴¹ Many people came to him.
John performed no miracles, they said,
but everything he said about this man was true. ⁴² And many people there believed in him.

Read John 10:22-42 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Have you ever received something you needed, but it was not what you expected?

If so, you may have something in common with the crowd at the opening of this passage. While Jesus is walking in the temple, the crowd asks Him, “Tell us the plain truth: are you the Messiah?” (v.24)

Instead of answering them “plainly”, Jesus tells them that He already told them, and then goes on describing how He is the One who God the Father sent. Jesus is trying to expand their minds about what the Messiah’s role is, and that it is not at all what their culture was expecting. In His response, Jesus makes a clear distinction between those who truly hear His voice, and those who are listening through a filter – and hearing only what they want to hear.

This makes me wonder in my own life, how many times do I truly keep my ears (and/or eyes) open to God? Am I someone who listens through a filter, or do I allow all of God’s messages through?

In this passage, most of those in the crowd were listening through a filter. Their filter said that the Messiah was political, that God was distant, and that those who claimed to be God should be stoned.

These filters kept them from seeing or hearing Jesus’ message that God elevates us to higher than we can imagine when we acknowledge Him as our Father, Lord, and Savior.

I believe that God is currently active in the creation process, creating things all around us. This makes it easy for me to call Him Father. However, even if He decided to take a vacation, it still would be easy for me to call Him Father because He started it all.

Jesus was not the Messiah the Jews expected. Jesus came to fulfill the promise given to Adam and Eve when they were thrown out of the garden. This promise said that one of Adam and Eve’s offspring would crush the serpent’s head. Satan was the serpent deceiver, and before Jesus, no one was able to truly fulfill this promise. Jesus came as a Messiah to all of humanity who has ever sinned, not to one specific nation or race.

Jesus was not the Messiah the crowd, the Jews, or the world expected; but He was the Messiah that the world needed.

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Inside the House: Matthew 2:1-23

Published November 14, 2023 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Matthew 2:1-23 (CEV)

¹When 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 ²and 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.”

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

⁵They 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.’”

⁷Herod secretly called in the wise men and asked them when they had first seen the star. ⁸He 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.”

⁹The 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. ¹⁰They were thrilled and excited to see the star.

¹¹When 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. ¹²Later they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, and they went back home by another road.

¹³After 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.”

¹⁴That night, Joseph got up and took his wife and the child to Egypt, ¹⁵where 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.”

¹⁶When Herod found out that the wise men from the east had tricked him, he was very angry. He gave orders for his men to kill all the boys who lived in or near Bethlehem and were two years old and younger. This was based on what he had learned from the wise men.

¹⁷So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet Jeremiah had said,

¹⁸“In Ramah a voice was heard
    crying and weeping loudly.
Rachel was mourning
    for her children,
and she refused
to be comforted,
    because they were dead.”

¹⁹After King Herod died, an angel from the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph while he was still in Egypt. ²⁰The angel said, “Get up and take the child and his mother back to Israel. The people who wanted to kill him are now dead.”

²¹Joseph got up and left with them for Israel. ²²But when he heard that Herod’s son Archelaus was now ruler of Judea, he was afraid to go there. Then in a dream he was told to go to Galilee, ²³and they went to live there in the town of Nazareth. So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “He will be called a Nazarene.”

Read Matthew 2:1-23 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

While I understand why our culture has done this, what we see displayed every Christmas is not what actually happened at Jesus’ birth. While Luke’s gospel describes Jesus being wrapped up in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn, nowhere do the gospels actually tell us that the manger was present in a stable.

If we are going to blend Matthew’s visit of the wise men with Luke’s visit of the shepherds into one night, then Matthew actually tells us a key detail many people have never seen before. Matthew describes the wise men’s visit by saying, “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.” (v. 11)

According to Matthew, Jesus was in a house when the wise men came. Perhaps this was a small living structure that was not part of the inn. Maybe it was the place where the owner or manager of the inn lived.

However, what likely was the case is that the wise men visited a few weeks or months after Jesus was born. From Luke’s description of what Joseph and Mary are able to do, we know that their escape to Egypt didn’t happen on the night of His birth, because Joseph and Mary take Jesus when He was just days old to be dedicated at the temple.

This would mean that Herod unknowingly had this upcoming Baby-King even closer to him without him even being aware.

While tradition and culture have abbreviated Jesus birth story into one night, it is important for us to pay attention to the details of what the gospel writers tell us to understand where tradition has it right, and where it has adapted the details. When we are able to see the details we get an even more incredible picture of God’s guidance and protection during the Christmas story.

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