Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure

Protection for His Followers: John 17:1-26

Published October 18, 2024 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: John 17:1-26 (CEV)

¹After Jesus had finished speaking to his disciples, he looked up toward heaven and prayed:

Father, the time has come for you to bring glory to your Son, in order that he may bring glory to you. ²And you gave him power over all people, so that he would give eternal life to everyone you give him. ³Eternal life is to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, the one you sent. ⁴I have brought glory to you here on earth by doing everything you gave me to do. ⁵Now, Father, give me back the glory that I had with you before the world was created.

⁶You have given me some followers from this world, and I have shown them what you are like. They were yours, but you gave them to me, and they have obeyed you. ⁷They know that you gave me everything I have. ⁸I told my followers what you told me, and they accepted it. They know that I came from you, and they believe that you are the one who sent me. ⁹I am praying for them, but not for those who belong to this world. My followers belong to you, and I am praying for them. ¹⁰All that I have is yours, and all that you have is mine, and they will bring glory to me.

¹¹Holy Father, I am no longer in the world. I am coming to you, but my followers are still in the world. So keep them safe by the power of the name that you have given me. Then they will be one with each other, just as you and I are one. ¹²While I was with them, I kept them safe by the power you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost, except the one who had to be lost. This happened so that what the Scriptures say would come true.

¹³I am on my way to you. But I say these things while I am still in the world, so that my followers will have the same complete joy that I do. ¹⁴I have told them your message. But the people of this world hate them, because they don’t belong to this world, just as I don’t.

¹⁵Father, I don’t ask you to take my followers out of the world, but keep them safe from the evil one. ¹⁶They don’t belong to this world, and neither do I. ¹⁷Your word is the truth. So let this truth make them completely yours. ¹⁸I am sending them into the world, just as you sent me. ¹⁹I have given myself completely for their sake, so that they may belong completely to the truth.

²⁰I am not praying just for these followers. I am also praying for everyone else who will have faith because of what my followers will say about me. ²¹I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us. Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me.

²²I have honored my followers in the same way that you honored me, in order that they may be one with each other, just as we are one. ²³I am one with them, and you are one with me, so that they may become completely one. Then this world’s people will know that you sent me. They will know that you love my followers as much as you love me.

²⁴Father, I want everyone you have given me to be with me, wherever I am. Then they will see the glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the world was created. ²⁵Good Father, the people of this world don’t know you. But I know you, and my followers know that you sent me. ²⁶I told them what you are like, and I will tell them even more. Then the love that you have for me will become part of them, and I will be one with them.

Read John 17:1-26 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

During one of Jesus’ prayers on the night He was arrested, He prays for the disciples and all of His future followers in the coming months, years, and centuries. It is in a portion of this prayer that we see a profound statement and mission for Jesus’ followers, and in this prayer, we have a promise we can claim for when trouble comes our way.

A little over half way through the prayer as John records it, Jesus prays, “Father, I don’t ask you to take my followers out of the world, but keep them safe from the evil one. They don’t belong to this world, and neither do I. Your word is the truth. So let this truth make them completely yours. I am sending them into the world, just as you sent me. I have given myself completely for their sake, so that they may belong completely to the truth.” (v. 15-19)

What I find amazing in this prayer is that Jesus specifically asks the Father to keep us safe from the evil one. This is an incredible promise we can claim when we feel attacked or targeted by Satan. However, with that said, Jesus also notes that He is not asking God to remove His followers from the world. While that would be one way to keep them safe, it is not Jesus’ chosen method.

This portion of the prayer echoes our mission as disciples to be salt and light to the world. We cannot have a good influence on others if we are millions of light years away in heaven. We cannot share what God has done for us if we have been stolen away to heaven at the moment we accepted Jesus into our hearts. In a subtle way, Jesus also implies here that death does not immediately shift His followers into heaven – because that would also technically be taking them out of the world.

Instead, Jesus says that while we don’t belong to this world, we have been sent into it just as the Father had sent Jesus. This is an incredible mission and one that we only have a handful of decades in history to move forward. Jesus asks for protection for us from the evil one, and while this promise might not always seem to smooth challenges or problems out in our lives, through this request we can be assured that any negative that does come is something that God can turn into a positive if we let Him.

Jesus has sent us into the world, and while He specifically requests that the Father not remove us, He has prayed for our safety and protection from Satan. Through Jesus and the truth He shared from God, we are completely God’s and this means that this world does not have any claim on us. With God’s truth and gospel message, we are sent on a mission for Jesus into the world. Jesus gave Himself for each of us and each of us is invited to return the favor by giving our lives back to Him.

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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The King of the Jews: John 19:17-24

Published October 17, 2024 in Audio Journal Entries

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As John shifts his attention onto Jesus facing the cross, we discover a powerful prophecy that was fulfilled in this event, and we see evidence that Pilate was more impressed by Jesus than he was by the religious leaders.

However, leading up to Jesus facing the cross, John describes the road to the crucifixion a little differently than the other gospels. Let’s read about what happened.

Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 19, and we will read it from the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 17, John tells us that:

¹⁷Carrying his own cross, Jesus went out to a place called The Place of the Skull, which in the Hebrew language is called Golgotha.

Let’s pause reading for a moment. While Matthew, Mark, and Luke all describe how part way into Jesus’ trip with the cross, a bystander is called in to help Jesus carry the cross, John does not describe this. Instead, John focused on Jesus carrying his own cross.

While this may seem like a discrepancy, there are at least two ways we can reconcile this supposed conflict. The first is that John focuses on Jesus as He begins the trip, and Jesus starts on the road to Golgotha carrying the cross. None of the gospels say when Simon, the bystander, is called to help, but it could have been as late as Jesus having arrived at the hill, but not having the strength left to climb it.

Another way to reconcile this supposed conflict is by understanding that John may have been referring to Jesus’ spiritual cross. From the prayers in the garden less than 12 hours before this, Jesus had been carrying the sins of humanity on His shoulders, and this was more of a cross, or burden, than the wooden structure Jesus was dragging to the crucifixion site. While carrying humanity’s sins would crush anyone else, Jesus was strong enough, and He carried this spiritual cross when no one else could.

After arriving at the Place of the Skull, John continues in verse 18, telling us that:

¹⁸There they crucified Jesus. They also crucified two other men, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle. ¹⁹Pilate wrote a sign and put it on the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews. ²⁰The sign was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. Many of the people read the sign, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. ²¹The leading priests said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The King of the Jews.’ But write, ‘This man said, “I am the King of the Jews.”’”

²²Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

Let’s pause again briefly because Pilate’s sign and brief conversation with the religious leaders is fascinating. In Pilate’s message, we catch a glimpse of the impact Jesus had on Pilate, and I suspect that Pilate believed Jesus may have even had divinity within Him because of how Pilate responded when hearing the claim that Jesus was God’s Son.

While Pilate didn’t think highly of Jews or the Jewish religion, the children of gods would ultimately be gods and kings in all the other religions of the region, so Jesus being the Jewish God’s Son would make Jesus the King of the Jews.

Pilate understands this, and he also likely understood that Jesus never would have said He was the king of the Jews. From how Jesus frames Himself in His conversations with Pilate, Pilate understood Jesus as much more than simply a Jewish revolutionary.

The words Pilate wrote I suspect were aimed directly at the religious leaders. I suspect that Pilate wrote them as a challenge to them for crucifying their King, even if they didn’t believe Jesus to be that. Pilate’s words challenge the religious leaders because they draw attention to Pilate’s suspicion that Jesus was the Messiah these religious leaders had been waiting for.

Pilate doesn’t change the wording he used because Jesus never made the claim. Pilate wants this message to be a statement aimed at the religious leaders who were the ultimate ones responsible for Jesus’ death.

However, there is another part of the crucifixion event left for us to look at in this episode. Continuing in verse 23, John tells us that:

²³After the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, with each soldier getting one part. They also took his long shirt, which was all one piece of cloth, woven from top to bottom. ²⁴So the soldiers said to each other, “We should not tear this into parts. Let’s throw lots to see who will get it.” This happened so that this Scripture would come true:

“They divided my clothes among them,
and they threw lots for my clothing.”

So the soldiers did this.

When looking at what happened while Jesus was on the cross, and at this prophecy specifically, it is amazing to think that it was predicted centuries before this. Perhaps it was normal for the soldiers to gamble or divide a crucified person’s possessions among themselves, but the way this prophecy is framed is powerful.

This prophecy states that dividing would happen among Jesus’ clothes, but that Jesus’ “long shirt” as this translation describes, or Jesus’ undergarment according to some other translations, would not be divided but instead gambled for. In this prophecy is two direct conditions, and both are fulfilled exactly as predicted.

Jesus had no control over what Roman soldiers would do with His clothing, but God knew, and God gave this prophecy many centuries before to help draw attention to Jesus when the time was right.

Everything in Jesus’ life and ministry focused on and led Jesus to the cross, and this is because Jesus facing the cross opens up salvation for you and me. We have failed God in our lives. We likely will continue to fail God in the future. However, Jesus offers to take our failures and our sins onto Himself, and die a death He did not deserve in order to give us the opportunity to live a life we could never earn and a life that we don’t deserve.

The life Jesus offers us can begin right now, and when it begins, it has the potential to extend into eternity!

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 let God lead and guide your life both today, and every day leading towards eternity. Intentionally accept Jesus’ gift to take our sins onto Himself and accept the gift of a new life He offers to us when we accept His life in exchange for ours.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and move closer to God each and every day. A personal relationship with God is possible, and it begins when we personally take steps to grow closer to Him through prayer and reading His Word.

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 fall away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Year in John – Episode 42: When Jesus is crucified and hanging on the cross, Pilate has a sign written and posted over Jesus. Discover why this sign is significant, and some other powerful truths John tells us in the opening section of Jesus’ hanging on the cross.

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Right Beside Us: John 7:1-9

Published October 16, 2024 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: John 7:1-9 (NASB)

As I read the gospels, sometimes I get the feeling as though Jesus and His disciples were together 24/7, and there was only an occasional break, such as when He sends 72 followers out to the neighboring villages, or when He sends the disciples alone across the lake while He goes up onto the mountain to pray.

However, in my mind, I see these breaks as the exception rather than the rule. Which is why when I read this journal entry’s passage, I have to ask myself the question: “Where were Jesus’ disciples?”

After Jesus is baptized and He begins His public ministry, we really don’t see much interaction between Him and His earthly family. This passage is really one of only a few places where interaction is recorded.

Perhaps one reason Jesus limited His interactions with His family is because of the pressure they put on Him to reveal Himself as the promised Messiah, or maybe it is an entirely different reason.

What we do know from the context and surrounding chapters is that just prior to this family dialog, Jesus had just finished pushing most of His popular crowd away, and He had left the area to return “home” with only the core group of 12 disciples.

Looking at the progression of events, Jesus’ brothers must have wondered why He would have done this. After all, in their minds, a Messiah who was going to overthrow the Romans needed lots of people rallied together to fight. Getting such a crowd, then pushing them all away for not being committed enough seems like a very counterproductive move.

But then what about our own lives? Are there ever any times that we feel closer to Jesus than others? Are there times where we are in a spiritual high point that contrasts sharply from the spiritual lows we all face?

Perhaps when we don’t see the disciples in this passage, or when we don’t see Jesus’ brothers included in most of the gospel story, we can conclude that there are times when Jesus will be/feel closer, and times when He feels farther away. This doesn’t mean He cares any more or less about us, but it may mean that we have moved closer to or further away from Him.

There may be times we don’t feel close to Jesus, but this doesn’t mean Jesus isn’t still right beside us.

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Helping Jesus Today: Matthew 10:16-42

Published October 15, 2024 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Matthew 10:16-42 (GNT)

¹⁶“Listen! I am sending you out just like sheep to a pack of wolves. You must be as cautious as snakes and as gentle as doves. ¹⁷Watch out, for there will be those who will arrest you and take you to court, and they will whip you in the synagogues. ¹⁸For my sake you will be brought to trial before rulers and kings, to tell the Good News to them and to the Gentiles. ¹⁹When they bring you to trial, do not worry about what you are going to say or how you will say it; when the time comes, you will be given what you will say. ²⁰For the words you will speak will not be yours; they will come from the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

²¹“People will hand over their own brothers to be put to death, and fathers will do the same to their children; children will turn against their parents and have them put to death. ²²Everyone will hate you because of me. But whoever holds out to the end will be saved. ²³When they persecute you in one town, run away to another one. I assure you that you will not finish your work in all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

²⁴“No pupil is greater than his teacher; no slave is greater than his master. ²⁵So a pupil should be satisfied to become like his teacher, and a slave like his master. If the head of the family is called Beelzebul, the members of the family will be called even worse names!

²⁶“So do not be afraid of people. Whatever is now covered up will be uncovered, and every secret will be made known. ²⁷What I am telling you in the dark you must repeat in broad daylight, and what you have heard in private you must announce from the housetops. ²⁸Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather be afraid of God, who can destroy both body and soul in hell. ²⁹For only a penny you can buy two sparrows, yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father’s consent. ³⁰As for you, even the hairs of your head have all been counted. ³¹So do not be afraid; you are worth much more than many sparrows!

³²“Those who declare publicly that they belong to me, I will do the same for them before my Father in heaven. ³³But those who reject me publicly, I will reject before my Father in heaven.

³⁴“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the world. No, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵I came to set sons against their fathers, daughters against their mothers, daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law; ³⁶your worst enemies will be the members of your own family.

³⁷“Those who love their father or mother more than me are not fit to be my disciples; those who love their son or daughter more than me are not fit to be my disciples. ³⁸Those who do not take up their cross and follow in my steps are not fit to be my disciples. ³⁹Those who try to gain their own life will lose it; but those who lose their life for my sake will gain it.

⁴⁰“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹Whoever welcomes God’s messenger because he is God’s messenger, will share in his reward. And whoever welcomes a good man because he is good, will share in his reward. ⁴²You can be sure that whoever gives even a drink of cold water to one of the least of these my followers because he is my follower, will certainly receive a reward.”

Read Matthew 10:16-42 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Jesus concludes His first big commission to His disciples by describing them as His representatives. In an interesting chain of statements, Jesus describes how people can truly help God, and this help comes through how we treat His followers. Jesus concludes this set of instructions by saying, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes God’s messenger because he is God’s messenger, will share in his reward. And whoever welcomes a good man because he is good, will share in his reward. You can be sure that whoever gives even a drink of cold water to one of the least of these my followers because he is my follower, will certainly receive a reward.” (v. 40-42)

In essence, the principle Jesus is sharing with His followers is that God rewards people based on how they treat His followers. This principle is profound, encouraging, and challenging.

The profound truth in Jesus’ words is that how people treat God’s followers is symbolically equivalent to how they treat Him. This is profound because it is a very practical measure for how God views human interaction. Someone who claims to believe God but who does not welcome or help people they know are His followers is rejecting God through their actions.

This is also encouraging for us as believers. If someone rejects us because of our belief in Jesus, this truth teaches us to not take it personally. In reality, the person rejecting us is really rejecting God, and we are free to move on in life. Perhaps it wasn’t the right time for them, or maybe we just planted some seeds that the Holy Spirit will grow later in the person’s life, but regardless of what God’s big picture is, when we face rejection because of our belief in God, we can move on freely because Jesus tells us they are rejecting God and not just us.

However, this principle is incredibly challenging too. The truth Jesus has shared has implications around how we as followers of Jesus treat other followers of Jesus. If we love sinners like Jesus did, but we are hostile towards those who are in the church, we are falling into the negative side of this teaching. While Jesus did share some harsh words aimed at the religious leaders in the first century, He was never hostile towards them. Many of the leaders were hostile towards Jesus, but Jesus didn’t return their anger. If we are to be like Jesus in this matter, we too are challenged to love and be kind towards those who are in the church – whether they believe the same doctrines as we do or not; whether they like the same style of music as we do or not; and whether they are friendly towards us or not.

The big truth in this conclusion to Jesus’ first big set of instructions for His followers is that how we treat others, and how they treat us when we are Jesus’ representatives on earth, is equivalent to interacting directly with Jesus in each and every case. This truth frees us up to not take rejection personally, and it also challenges us to be more kind and loving towards followers of Jesus who may look and act different from us.

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