Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure

He Hears Our Prayers: Luke 1:5-25

Published January 2, 2026 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Luke 1:5-25 (NIV)

⁵In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. ⁶Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. ⁷But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.

⁸Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, ⁹he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. ¹⁰And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

¹¹Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. ¹²When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. ¹³But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. ¹⁴He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, ¹⁵for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. ¹⁶He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

¹⁸Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

¹⁹The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. ²⁰And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

²¹Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. ²²When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.

²³When his time of service was completed, he returned home. ²⁴After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. ²⁵“The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

Read Luke 1:5-25 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

After Luke begins his gospel with a formal greeting, instead of sharing Jesus’ back story and His birth story, Luke goes even further and chooses to focus on the birth of Jesus’ forerunner in ministry, John the Baptist. While John’s birth is not as miraculous as Jesus’ birth, it was a birth that God did have His hand in.

While reading this event, a phrase jumped out at me that has important implications for everyone who has chosen to include prayer as part of their lives. When Zechariah entered the temple to burn incense, he realized he was not the only one in that inner room of the temple – an angel appeared to him standing beside the alter. “When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard.” (v. 12-13)

While we are quick to move through this story and get to the promise of the angel, and Zechariah’s doubt, too often we miss a key phrase at the beginning of the angel’s message. After calming Zechariah’s nerves as much as possible by saying, “Do not be afraid,” the very first part of the angel’s message is, “Your prayer has been heard.” (v. 13)

This is important, because all too often, when we pray, we may wonder or doubt if God really hears us. If God chooses not to answer us, or if He determines that the time isn’t right for us to receive a response, we may wonder if God really has heard us. It is in this first part of the angel’s message to Zechariah that each of us can see that God really does hear our prayers. It was years, and maybe even decades that this elderly couple had prayed for a child, and perhaps they had long since given up now that they were old.

But whether our prayer was spoken 5 minutes ago or even 5 years ago, God has heard it, and He has been working (and perhaps waiting for the right time) to give us the best possible answer for us. God hears our prayers, and He answers them at the perfect time and in the perfect way from His kingdom perspective – the perspective that results in the greatest number of people being saved for eternity.

Zechariah’s prayers didn’t fall on deaf ears. Instead, God was waiting for the perfect time to give him an answer.

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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Why Parables: Matthew 13:10-17

Published January 1, 2026 in Audio Journal Entries

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As we begin our year looking at Jesus’ parables, it would be good to begin by answering the question about why Jesus used parables when He spoke to people. While parables are fascinating and simple illustrations, there are plenty of other ways of sharing God’s truth, many of which are clearer and simpler to understand, while others are more complex and less relatable.

Fortunately for us living today, the disciples asked Jesus why He used parables when speaking to the crowds, and most of the gospels include Jesus’ answer to this question. While it would be easy to speculate why Jesus used parables, let’s let Jesus answer this question for us.

Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will read it from the New Living Translation. Starting in verse 10, Matthew tells us that:

¹⁰[Jesus’] disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?”

¹¹He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. ¹²To 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. ¹³That is why I use these parables,

For they look, but they don’t really see.
They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.

¹⁴This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says,

‘When you hear what I say,
    you will not understand.
When you see what I do,
    you will not comprehend.
¹⁵For the hearts of these people are hardened,
    and their ears cannot hear,
and they have closed their eyes—
    so their eyes cannot see,
and their ears cannot hear,
    and their hearts cannot understand,
and they cannot turn to me
    and let me heal them.’

¹⁶“But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. ¹⁷I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.

In His response, Jesus not only answers their question, but He also shares that He was fulfilling prophecy while doing so. Jesus used parables to share truth in a simple, yet challenging way. While parables are simple sounding illustrations, we must be paying attention in order to understand what Jesus is teaching.

Jesus’ response tells us there is a difference between looking versus seeing, and hearing versus listening or understanding. In verse 13, Jesus summarizes a key idea in Isaiah by saying “For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.”

In order to understand Jesus, we must not only be looking and hearing, but we must also be seeing and listening.

However, how is it possible for someone to be looking but not seeing, or hearing but not actually listening? Isn’t the definition of looking actually seeking something out, and isn’t hearing necessary for learning?

It is in this subtle concept that we discover an amazing truth about what Jesus likely warns us about in these parables. While these illustrations are simple, the temptation is to read them, pull out a theme, and then discard the parable. This is looking and hearing with a closed mind, and it is what the religious leaders were good at doing in the first century.

When Jesus stepped into history, there was expectation in the culture about the Messiah appearing. However, the expectation was so exclusively focused on one understanding of prophecy that Jesus simply didn’t fit the expectation. Jesus ultimately was rejected because the religious leaders had closed their minds to any other understanding of prophecy. As we spent a whole year looking at, without covering everything, the Old Testament is filled with prophecies that Jesus did fulfill in His lifetime, including prophecies that Jesus could not have directly influenced while here on earth.

But because Jesus didn’t fit the picture of the Messiah that the religious leaders were looking for, they rejected Him. These religious leaders give us a model for looking but not seeing, and hearing but not really listening. The religious leaders looked with an agenda, and they filtered their ears with their ideas about who they believed God would send.

Jesus’ warning in His answer is that more understanding will be given when we listen to Jesus’ teaching, and we will have “an abundance of knowledge”, but when we don’t listen, even the little understanding we think we have “will be taken away”.

We live in a world today that has pushed Jesus and His teachings to as far on the sidelines as it can, and we are seeing the fruit of this decision. Without Jesus’ teachings that affirm creation, we are left wading through theories about our origins that keep getting disproven. The problem isn’t the theory; the problem is with the assumptions that are used to form the rules that define what theories are acceptable. By rejecting Jesus, knowledge may be increasing, but understanding is being lost.

Without Jesus’ teaching on all the subjects that this world struggles with, we are left with a world that is growing more chaotic, more polarized, and more hostile than it has been in a long time.

Jesus shares the solution in His response. In verses 16 and 17, Matthew quotes Jesus saying, “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.”

When we look with open eyes for Jesus and when we listen to Jesus, we will be blessed. Seeing Jesus means that we are looking for examples of ways God is working in the world today, not just supernaturally, but also through His people. Listening to Jesus means that we hear His teachings with an open mind and we apply the themes and lessons He shared into our lives. This is the simple recipe for gaining knowledge about God, and it is the framework for our focus on the parables during this year of podcasting.

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

As I always open these challenges by saying in one way or another, continue to seek God first and let Him lead and guide you as you walk through life. Don’t just look with a closed mind at what God may be doing, but open your mind and see what God is doing in the world around us. Don’t just selectively hear what you want to hear, but listen with an open mind and bring what you have learned to the Bible to discover if it is truth.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, keep praying and studying the Bible for yourself to discover what the Bible really teaches and to grow your own personal relationship with God. While studying the Bible isn’t the last or only step when growing a relationship with God, combining prayer and Bible study are the only way to have a strong, solid foundation for your relationship with 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 deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Year of Parables – Episode 1: As we begin a year looking at the parables Jesus shared, it makes sense to ask and answer the question about why Jesus used parables. Luckily for us, the disciples asked Jesus this question, and we can simply look at Jesus’ answer to learn why.

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Christ-like Habits: Mark 1:35-39

Published December 31, 2025 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Mark 1:35-39 (NIV)

³⁵Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. ³⁶Simon and his companions went to look for him, ³⁷and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

³⁸Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” ³⁹So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Read Mark 1:35-39 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

If we were to dig into the gospels looking to find habits that Jesus had, one of the more notable ones we would find is found right near the beginning of Mark’s gospel. While Luke also includes this event near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, I imagine that we don’t read about it more because after a couple of days like this, the disciples would not see it as being as unique or significant to include in their gospels.

As I think about this, this event is included in the two gospels that were not written by members of the 12 disciples. I imagine the two disciple-authors simply understood this to be part of who Jesus was.

The habit Jesus had: early morning prayer: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (v. 35)

Perhaps, since this was early on in Jesus’ ministry, He caught the disciples off guard and this event stands out because they had to go searching for Him. While they were searching for Jesus, I wonder if many of the disciples were bothered that Jesus had asked them to follow Him, but now they couldn’t even find Him.

Eventually they did find Him, and they probably found Him praying. Jesus’ prayer life and His connection to the Father was His top priority throughout His entire ministry leading up to the cross. There are plenty of times Jesus spent the night in prayer, and I suspect that the times we know of are only a tiny sample of the times that He actually focused on prayer during the night hours.

If Jesus is to be an example for us like He was to the disciples, then we should also focus on our relationship with God through prayer as the first thing we do when we get up each morning, and as the last thing we do before going to sleep – not to mention keeping the communication open during the daytime hours as well. If prayer was a habit in Jesus’ life, we should make prayer a habit in our own lives as His followers.

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The Impossible Challenge: Matthew 5:38-48

Published December 30, 2025 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Matthew 5:38-48 (NCV)

³⁸“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹But I tell you, don’t stand up against an evil person. If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other cheek also. ⁴⁰If someone wants to sue you in court and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. ⁴¹If someone forces you to go with him one mile, go with him two miles. ⁴²If a person asks you for something, give it to him. Don’t refuse to give to someone who wants to borrow from you.

⁴³“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemies.’ ⁴⁴But I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you. ⁴⁵If you do this, you will be true children of your Father in heaven. He causes the sun to rise on good people and on evil people, and he sends rain to those who do right and to those who do wrong. ⁴⁶If you love only the people who love you, you will get no reward. Even the tax collectors do that. ⁴⁷And if you are nice only to your friends, you are no better than other people. Even those who don’t know God are nice to their friends. ⁴⁸So you must be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Read Matthew 5:38-48 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Of all the challenging words Jesus ever spoke, one of the most challenging in the entire gospels comes at the close of this passage. After talking about loving our enemies and going the extra mile, Matthew quotes Jesus as saying something that sounds completely impossible: “So you must be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (v. 48)

If there is only one thing I know, it is that God is perfect and I am not. While I constantly strive to do my best, there is no way that I can ever reach perfection, because at the very least, my past is far from perfect.

However, what if we are missing something from this idea when pulling this verse and looking at it on its own? On its own, this verse sounds impossible.

But something does stand out in Jesus’ words in this paragraph’s worth of teaching. In the entire paragraph that contains Jesus’ thoughts on this, the only words that are past tense are at the beginning, when Jesus draws His audience’s attention onto something they have heard taught in the past. Aside from that, everything is either present tense or a promise for the future.

This is important for all of us. If the entire context of this statement is the present tense, then we must move past our “past” mistakes and focus on the decisions we make today.

However, while it is great to put the past in the past, another challenge we have in Jesus’ statement here is the question: What does it mean to be perfect in God’s eyes?

To help answer that question, we should draw from another gospel writer’s record of this event. In Luke’s gospel, he includes a similar closing phrase, but with a different, more tangible concept in place of perfection. In Luke’s gospel, we read “Show mercy, just as your Father shows mercy.” (Luke 6:36)

One of the most appealing characteristics of God is that He is a merciful God. When we have made mistake after mistake, God is willing to show us mercy and forgive us. What if the mark of perfection in God’s eyes is not knowing it all, seeing it all, or controlling it all? What if the mark of perfection is having a love in our hearts that extends mercy to others?

Jesus’ teaching in this passage centers on the idea that God gives gifts to those who follow Him and those who don’t. God doesn’t selectively bless based on whether an individual is His follower. While following God’s ideal plan for our lives leads to happiness, peace, and contentment, these are simply the results of the steps He has laid out. God extends mercy to everyone, and this mercy gives each person the opportunity to decide for themselves whether they will turn their lives towards Him.

God has called us to be perfect like He is perfect, which is demonstrated by loving others like He loves them, and showing mercy towards both the people we agree with and those we don’t.

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