Reflective Bible Study

As we continue moving through John’s gospel, we come to another place where Jesus challenges the crowds, and from the context of this event, this crowd included a number of Pharisees. It is fascinating in my mind when reading this event to discover that the challenge the religious leaders bring to Jesus looks like a valid challenge on the surface. However, for these religious leaders’ challenge to be valid, they would have to reject much more than they would like to admit.

With that said, let’s read about what happened and about the challenge these religious leaders give Jesus.

Our passage for this event is found in John’s gospel, chapter 8, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 12, John tells us that:

¹² Later, Jesus talked to the people again, saying, “I am the light of the world. The person who follows me will never live in darkness but will have the light that gives life.”

¹³ The Pharisees said to Jesus, “When you talk about yourself, you are the only one to say these things are true. We cannot accept what you say.”

¹⁴ Jesus answered, “Yes, I am saying these things about myself, but they are true. I know where I came from and where I am going. But you don’t know where I came from or where I am going. ¹⁵ You judge by human standards. I am not judging anyone. ¹⁶ But when I do judge, I judge truthfully, because I am not alone. The Father who sent me is with me. ¹⁷ Your own law says that when two witnesses say the same thing, you must accept what they say. ¹⁸ I am one of the witnesses who speaks about myself, and the Father who sent me is the other witness.”

¹⁹ They asked, “Where is your father?”

Jesus answered, “You don’t know me or my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father, too.” ²⁰ Jesus said these things while he was teaching in the Temple, near where the money is kept. But no one arrested him, because the right time for him had not yet come.

²¹ Again, Jesus said to the people, “I will leave you, and you will look for me, but you will die in your sins. You cannot come where I am going.”

²² So the Jews asked, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he said, ‘You cannot come where I am going’?”

²³ Jesus said, “You people are from here below, but I am from above. You belong to this world, but I don’t belong to this world. ²⁴ So I told you that you would die in your sins. Yes, you will die in your sins if you don’t believe that I am he.”

²⁵ They asked, “Then who are you?”

Jesus answered, “I am what I have told you from the beginning. ²⁶ I have many things to say and decide about you. But I tell people only the things I have heard from the One who sent me, and he speaks the truth.”

²⁷ The people did not understand that he was talking to them about the Father. ²⁸ So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, you will know that I am he. You will know that these things I do are not by my own authority but that I say only what the Father has taught me. ²⁹ The One who sent me is with me. I always do what is pleasing to him, so he has not left me alone.” ³⁰ While Jesus was saying these things, many people believed in him.

In this passage, Jesus makes some very bold claims. And the religious leaders present were quick to challenge Jesus’ claims based on the detail that they did not see anyone else validating these claims.

This challenge is one of the better challenges the religious leaders could think of, because any secondary witness validating Jesus’ claims could immediately be challenged, judged, and likely discredited. Because of this, I suspect this is why Jesus didn’t remind them of John the Baptist, who made the same claim about Jesus. I also suspect this is why Jesus didn’t pull out the secondary witness of the scripture, because it would cut to the heart of their belief, and this wasn’t likely the right time for that.

Instead, Jesus counter-challenged the religious leaders on the detail that His secondary witness is God the Father, and that only those who knew Him would also be able to recognize the Father. Jesus subtly dismisses the religious leaders’ challenge by giving them a secondary witness but also telling them that they are unlikely to ever know Him.

Jesus emphasizes that without faith in Him, specifically faith in Jesus, everyone present, and we could also say everyone at any point in history, will die in their sins. Only through Jesus is a made way for us to trade our sins away. Jesus offers to take the punishment for our sins and in return, He offers us the life that He deserved – a life that can begin today and extend into eternity.

However, in this event, and in what Jesus shares, He makes a powerful set of claims that are easy to miss. In verses 15 and the first part of 16, Jesus tells those present that: “You judge by human standards. I am not judging anyone. But when I do judge, I judge truthfully, because I am not alone.”

This truth is powerful, because it tells us that Jesus did not come as a judge when He came to earth in the first century. Instead, while Jesus doesn’t claim the role of judge at that point, He does foreshadow that He will judge in the future. This verse brings out the powerful truth that: Our redeemer is also Our Judge.

If you have ever been worried or uneasy about God the Father judging you and that somewhere in your past is an unconfessed sin that could forever separate you from God forever, you should take that worry to Jesus, and understand that Jesus is not only your Redeemer, He is also the Judge. We don’t have a Judge who is unfamiliar with what life is like as a human living in a sinful world. Our Judge understands our lives better than we might be willing to accept, and our Judge gave His life to redeem us.

God loves us so much that Jesus came to take our place. Jesus not only became our Redeemer on the cross, Jesus also happens to be our Judge. This means that Satan’s accusations against us can simply be brushed aside by our Judge when we accept the gift of His sacrifice on our behalf, and let His perfect life cover our sins.

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 today to accept Jesus’ gift in your life. Choose to place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in what Jesus accomplished for humanity on the cross, and ask Him to take your sin-filled past and give you His life in exchange. This prayer is one that Jesus is more than happy to answer!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God and Jesus each and every day. Choose to pray and study personally in order to make your relationship with God personal, and don’t let anyone get in the way of 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 run from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Over the past several episodes, we have covered a set of six parables that together form an interesting theme. While too often, we take one or two parables and pull the themes from the smaller picture, I thought this episode would be a great time to zoom out and look at the logical pattern Matthew takes when telling us these parables.

In Matthew’s gospel, chapter 13, we find more parables than any other single chapter in the whole gospels. From the outline of our year looking at Jesus’ parables, I count 8 parables included in Matthew 13, and the next highest a single chapter comes is 3. So far, we have looked at 7 of the Matthew 13 parables, and in our next episode, we will focus in on the eighth.

While Matthew 13 begins by sharing the significant parable of the farmer planting seed and the four types of soil, the next 6 parables all reference the Kingdom of Heaven, and when looked at as a set, they form a logical, intentional structure.

The first three parables form one set. These parables are the Wheat and the Weeds parable, where the farmer plants wheat and his enemy sneaks in and plants weeds; the parable of the Mustard Seed that grows into a great tree; and the parable of the Yeast Hidden in Flour.

Within this first set of parables, we see several big themes. Within the focus of each of these parables is the theme of growth, the theme that the kingdom needs spiritual water to fuel its growth, and the theme that growth takes time. All three of these parables in our first set touch on all three of these themes.

From this set of parables, we can learn that God’s kingdom is a growing kingdom. While some of the parables allow for setback within the growth theme, these three parables tell us that growth is present.

From this set of parables, we also learn that God’s kingdom needs water to fuel its growth. With this theme regarding water, I am reminded of the Water of Life that Jesus referred to in other places in the gospels. This water of life is something that Jesus gives to those who ask and this water is spiritual water that satisfies our spiritual thirst. In the context of our first set of parables, I wouldn’t be surprised if the water that is needed for kingdom growth is the water of life.

Also, this set of parables focuses us on the detail that the growth of God’s kingdom will take some time. It takes time for a seed to turn into a plant, or a seed into a tree. It also takes time for yeast to rise when it has been mixed into dough. Given enough time, all these situations will equal growth, but they all need time. Yeast needs more than 5 minutes, and a seed needs more than 5 days to fully mature. We shouldn’t expect God’s kingdom to instantly appear in the world today or even instantly appear in our hearts. Instead, we should expect that God leads us on a journey of growth that will take time.

After this first set of three parables, Matthew shares Jesus’ explanation for the first parable, and He emphasizes in this explanation how the harvest this parable refers to is the Day of Judgment when the wicked will be separated from the righteous.

Following this explanation, Jesus then shares three short parables that also include some shared themes. These last three parables together form our second set of parables. These parables are the Treasure Hidden in a field, the Merchant looking for fine pearls, and the Fishing Net catching both good and bad fish to be sorted.

In this second set of parables, we discover the big themes that God’s kingdom is best viewed from God’s perspective, that God’s kingdom is willing to wade through a lot of inferior things in order to find that which it sees as valuable, and that God’s kingdom sacrifices in order to gain what it desires.

Within the parables of the treasure, the pearl, and the fishing net, we might be tempted to take these parables and read them from our perspective, believing we are the ones who are searching for treasure, seeking pearls, and sorting bad and good things from our lives. While none of these things are bad to do, these parables should be viewed as being from God’s perspective, since the clear explanation of the parable of the fishing net is given from God’s perspective and all three of these parables are explanations of the kingdom of heaven.

With God’s perspective, we discover how valuable we really are in His eyes, leading us to the other two big themes found in this second set of parables.

When looking at all three parables, we discover God’s kingdom is willing to wade through a lot of inferior things in order to find that which is valuable. While a case can be made for the parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl as being less about pulling everything together and sorting, these first two parables in our set have the element of patience included.

In the man’s case, while he might have not expected to find hidden treasure, he had a plan when he discovered it. There was a lot of dirt that was worthless in this man’s eyes, but one mound of dirt had a treasure, and when he discovered what mound of dirt that was, he was going to purchase it no matter what.

In the next parable in this set, the merchant was used to seeing, evaluating, buying, and selling products. The parable of the Merchant has a stronger theme of filtering because a good merchant is a salesman who only purchases items he believes he can sell, and he has learned this skill from experience and from wading through a lot of inferior items. When the exceptional pearl came past this merchant, he immediately knew its value, and he would not stop selling until he had enough to purchase it.

The parable of the fishing net has a clear theme of filtering and sorting, because that is what the fishermen do with what is caught in their nets.

Our final big theme for the last three parables is that when the valuable item appeared, God’s kingdom gives up everything to acquire it. The man with the treasure sold everything he had, similar to the merchant selling all that he had as well. In the parable of the fishing net, the time is spent collecting everything and making sure all the valuable fish were saved.

This big set of 6 parables begins with a parable about sorting wheat and weeds, which Jesus describes as a judgment scene, and these 6 parables end with a parable describing sorting good and bad fish in a judgment scene. In the middle point of these parables, Jesus gives the big explanation of the first parable that God’s kingdom will allow the good and bad to grow and live together until the point of the judgment. Up until the fishing net collected all the fish to sort out the fish, both the good and bad fish lived together. God’s kingdom will ultimately sort out the bad from the good when the judgment happens.

The second and fifth parables have a similar but also significant focus, and this shared theme is that the size of an item does not dictate its value. Whether the kingdom is small like a seed or a pearl, God sees what it can be, not what it is right now. The seed is capable of becoming a great tree, and the pearl can become the focal point of an exceptional necklace. God measures our value through our potential, not through our current circumstances.

The third and fourth parables have a hidden and internal focus, because God’s kingdom is something that lives inside of us and when God’s kingdom is alive within us, it shines through us blessing those God brings into our lives.

I believe Matthew arranged these parables with a very structured and logical thought when he wrote his gospel record, and I believe Jesus shared these parables because He was leading the disciples towards better understanding God’s kingdom truth!

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

As always, continue to seek God first in your life and let God teach you about His kingdom as you move closer to Him each and every day letting His kingdom enter your heart and mind. Be sure to place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus knowing that Jesus is the way to experience God’s kingdom in our lives today as we are preparing for eternity.

Also, intentionally and regularly pray and study the Bible for yourself to keep your personal connection with God strong. Never let anyone else get between you and God’s Word or between you and living out God’s mission for your life! Live each day for God’s kingdom grounded in the truth of God’s Word and blessing others with God’s love!

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 abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!