Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure

The Present Life and the Promised Life: Luke 17:20-37

Published April 26, 2023 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Luke 17:20-37 (NIrV)

²⁰ Once the Pharisees asked Jesus when God’s kingdom would come. He replied, “The coming of God’s kingdom is not something you can see just by watching for it carefully. ²¹ People will not say, ‘Here it is.’ Or, ‘There it is.’ God’s kingdom is among you.”

²² Then Jesus spoke to his disciples. “The time is coming,” he said, “when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man. But you won’t see it. ²³ People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ Or, ‘Here he is!’ Don’t go running off after them.

²⁴ “When the Son of Man comes, he will be like the lightning. It flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. ²⁵ But first the Son of Man must suffer many things. He will not be accepted by the people of today.

²⁶ “Remember how it was in the days of Noah. It will be the same when the Son of Man comes. ²⁷ People were eating and drinking. They were getting married. They were giving their daughters to be married. They did all those things right up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

²⁸ “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking. They were buying and selling. They were planting and building. ²⁹ But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven. And all the people were destroyed.

³⁰ “It will be just like that on the day the Son of Man is shown to the world. ³¹ Suppose someone is on the roof of his house on that day. And suppose his goods are inside the house. He should not go down to get them. No one in the field should go back for anything either. ³² Remember Lot’s wife! ³³ Anyone who tries to keep his life will lose it. Anyone who loses his life will keep it.

³⁴ “I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed. One person will be taken and the other left. ^35-36 Two women will be grinding grain together. One will be taken and the other left.”

³⁷ “Where, Lord?” his disciples asked.

He replied, “The vultures will gather where there is a dead body.”

Read Luke 17:20-37 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

In today’s journal entry, we’ll touch on one of the illogical things that Jesus tells us in this verse, and uncover something interesting about how Jesus saw life. Here’s what Jesus said that doesn’t make a lot of sense:

“Anyone who tries to keep his life will lose it. Anyone who loses his life will keep it.” (v. 33)

All too often, we will read this verse, and do one of two things with it:

We ignore or discount it. It doesn’t make logical sense, so let’s not pay much attention to it.
We apply it to the subset of people who give up everything and enter the “mission field”, traveling to dangerous places in the world to spread the good news about Jesus. For those who don’t travel, they must be “trying to keep his life.”

Both of these ideas fall short. Both takes on this passage miss one important thing: the context of the verse.

The immediate context is the day Jesus is “shown to the world” (v.30), which in the broader context would mean His second coming. The next immediate context is what reaction we will have when we see it (v. 31). Jesus says to not go back, and to not pick up anything when going.

Then Jesus shares one of the shortest verses in the Bible as an example that needs very little explanation: “Remember Lot’s wife!” (v. 32)

The story of Lot and the escape from Sodom can be found in Genesis 19, and verse 26 tells the fate of Lot’s wife: “But Lot’s wife looked back. When she did, she became a pillar made out of salt.”

There is a lot of foreshadowing included in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, but in this journal entry, I want to bring just one big, overarching idea to our attention: What matters most is where our heart is.

Lot’s wife looked back, not because she was looking to see if there were fireballs coming down from heaven, but because her heart was back with the life she had back there.

Those of us who are willing to lose our lives (the stuff and status we have built) when God calls us at the end of time, those will be the ones who will gain eternal life. Those whose hearts are focused on what is being lost and left behind, or those who are trying to bring baggage along will lose their lives.

Jesus’ instruction in verse 31 is clear: “Suppose someone is on the roof of his house on that day. And suppose his goods are inside the house. He should not go down to get them. No one in the field should go back for anything either.”

Our stuff only matters in the present life. Don’t trade the present for the promised life to come!

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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Choosing the Cross: Luke 22:66-71

Published April 25, 2023 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Luke 22:66-71 (GW)

⁶⁶In the morning the council of the people’s leaders, the chief priests and the experts in Moses’ Teachings, gathered together. They brought Jesus in front of their highest court and asked him, ⁶⁷“Tell us, are you the Messiah?”

Jesus said to them, “If I tell you, you won’t believe me. ⁶⁸And if I ask you, you won’t answer. ⁶⁹But from now on, the Son of Man will be in the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne.”

⁷⁰Then all of them said, “So you’re the Son of God?”

Jesus answered them, “You’re right to say that I am.”

⁷¹Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We’ve heard him say it ourselves.”

Read Luke 22:66-71 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

In many ways, the events that happen during the night Jesus was arrested form an interesting picture of God’s character. When we read about how Jesus was brought before individuals and groups of people in order to make a case for His death, we see that it was almost impossible for them to do – that is, unless Jesus chose to give them something they could use to build their case against Him.

The way the passage ends sums up our big truth. After Jesus’ response, the religious leaders said to each other, “Why do we need any more testimony? We’ve heard him say it ourselves.” (v. 71)

Other gospels draw our attention onto how Jesus remained silent during the trial, and how the witnesses that were being brought in were either sharing non-death worthy charges, or they were not consistent in what they had to say. If Jesus simply chose silence, the leaders could not have built a credible case.

However, this was the point in history that Jesus actually chose to die. Nothing in His response to the leaders was “death-worthy”, but He knew that they would build their case around whatever He said, and that an “unjust” crucifixion would make the way for all humanity to be saved. By crucifying Jesus, who did not deserve death, these religious leaders actually opened the way for Salvation to come to humanity. While they are often portrayed as the bad guys in this event, they are actually the key people God used to show us how much He loves us even when we have rejected Him.

Jesus chose the cross for each of us, and He chose the time in the broad span of history. Nothing was going to accelerate that time from coming, and nothing would delay it from happening either. The cross was 100% Jesus’ choice and His plan to rescue us!

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Flashback Episode — The Double Miracle: Matthew 9:18-26

Published April 24, 2023 in Audio Journal Entries

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A short while after Jesus called Matthew to be a disciple, we discover a set of two miracles that display some unusual characteristics. Neither miracle is really like the other, but without both of these miracles put together, neither one would be as significant.

Let’s read what happened and then look for some things we can learn from this event. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 18, Matthew tells us that:

¹⁸While Jesus was saying these things, a leader of the synagogue came to him. He bowed down before Jesus and said, “My daughter has just died. But if you come and lay your hand on her, she will live again.” ¹⁹So Jesus and his followers stood up and went with the leader.

²⁰Then a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years came behind Jesus and touched the edge of his coat. ²¹She was thinking, “If I can just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”

²²Jesus turned and saw the woman and said, “Be encouraged, dear woman. You are made well because you believed.” And the woman was healed from that moment on.

²³Jesus continued along with the leader and went into his house. There he saw the funeral musicians and many people crying. ²⁴Jesus said, “Go away. The girl is not dead, only asleep.” But the people laughed at him. ²⁵After the crowd had been thrown out of the house, Jesus went into the girl’s room and took hold of her hand, and she stood up. ²⁶The news about this spread all around the area.

In this event and this set of two miracles, we discover among other things, that Jesus was focused on helping each individual exactly how they needed help. It is also interesting in my mind that Matthew really summarizes this event and these two miracles.

In the other gospels that include this event, the synagogue leader who asks for help asks Jesus while His daughter is still sick and not dead yet. The other gospels also draw out the woman’s healing and her desire to remain hidden. In the other gospels, it seems that Jesus stops everything to discover the woman who touched His garment, and it delayed His progress to the synagogue leader’s home to the point that messengers were able to arrive and tell the synagogue leader that his daughter had died.

While Matthew summarizes many things about both these miracles, one thing Matthew does not skip over is Jesus’ reaction to the funeral musicians and those crying. Matthew also does not skip over sharing the woman’s thoughts and her belief that simply touching the edge of Jesus’ clothing would heal her.

Matthew includes the detail of the woman having faith in perhaps the least significant action she could think of. Touching the edge of Jesus’ clothing is pretty insignificant, but she believes that is all she needs to be healed. She may have been embarrassed about her condition, and would rather not have to explain it to a bunch of men why she was needing to be healed.

However, Jesus doesn’t want her faith or her miracle to be lost in the commotion of Him going to help someone else. Jesus stops just long enough to make sure she was healed and to draw attention onto her faith and her story so that we would be able to read and know it from what was recorded. If Jesus had not stopped, this woman’s miracle would have never been known outside of a handful of people.

Matthew also does not summarize or minimize Jesus’ reaction to those who were preparing for a funeral at the synagogue leader’s home. Jesus tells them all in verse 24, “Go away. The girl is not dead, only asleep.” However, those present laughed at Jesus. They knew the girl had died. A doctor had probably already called the time of her death a short while earlier.

However, I wonder if Jesus intentionally set the stage for this event by making sure that He hadn’t arrived before the girl had died. I wonder if Jesus wanted to challenge the faith of everyone present and if He wanted to teach us that death is nothing to be feared. When we read the Bible, we cannot get around the metaphor, both in the gospels and in the other parts of the Bible, that death is compared with a sleep.

In the context of Jesus’ statement here, those who viewed death viewed death as the end of life, with no immediate hope of a resurrection. If those present had believed in an upcoming resurrection, it is likely there wouldn’t be any tears present. It is clear in this event, that the crowd of mourners and funeral musicians did not have faith that Jesus could reverse death. Because they didn’t have faith, I believe this is why Jesus kicked them out of the house.

It is also interesting that if those present believed the girl to be in a much better place now that she had died, then they may have been sad at her death, but they wouldn’t have wished for her to be brought back to life. In this frame of view, Jesus resurrecting anyone, including Himself, would be one of the cruelest things for Him to do.

I don’t believe it is a coincidence that death is referred to as sleep in the Bible. The Bible contains many metaphors that God has written into the details of our physical world to teach us about spiritual truths. I believe sleep teaching us about death is one such truth.

While there are many physical and biological reasons for sleep and how our brains need sleep to function well, the spiritual component of sleep is simply rest from our daily work. If the day represents our life and sleep represents our death, then there is nothing to be afraid of when we ultimately lay down to rest at our life’s end because we know morning is coming. Following our rest in death, morning brings us a resurrection into a new life with God.

Whether we are close to death in this life or whether we have a lot of life left, we can know and trust that with whatever happens, God has placed us alive on this earth for a reason. We can know and trust that when we have accomplished what He has placed us here to accomplish, He will let us rest in peace until morning comes and the trumpet of resurrection sounds.

While we don’t know the rest of this girls story, what we do know is that from that moment forward, her life was a clear gift from God. This girl’s story would be significant and important in God’s eyes, because He had given her a new life, and her new life foreshadows our new lives when we are resurrected at Jesus’ return!

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 place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and in His promise of a new life with God. While our new life with God begins at the moment we choose God, our ultimate new life with God begins at the moment He returns to take us home!

Also, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself. Don’t take my word, or any pastor, author, speaker, or podcaster’s word for any spiritual truth. Instead, test everything through what the Bible teaches to discover God’s truth for your life with 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 abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Flashback Episode: Year in Matthew – Episode 17: While on the way to help a synagogue leader, Jesus gets to shed light on an almost missed miracle while also setting the stage for an even more amazing miracle still to come. Discover how neither of these two miracles would be the same without each other and without Jesus drawing our attention onto God’s truth and love.

A Little Bit of Faith: Mark 5:21-34

Published April 21, 2023 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Mark 5:21-34 (NCV)

²¹When Jesus went in the boat back to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him there. ²²A leader of the synagogue, named Jairus, came there, saw Jesus, and fell at his feet. ²³He begged Jesus, saying again and again, “My daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so she will be healed and will live.” ²⁴So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed Jesus and pushed very close around him. ²⁵Among them was a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶She had suffered very much from many doctors and had spent all the money she had, but instead of improving, she was getting worse. ²⁷When the woman heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his coat. ²⁸She thought, “If I can just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹Instantly her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed from her disease.

³⁰At once Jesus felt power go out from him. So he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

³¹His followers said, “Look at how many people are pushing against you! And you ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

³²But Jesus continued looking around to see who had touched him. ³³The woman, knowing that she was healed, came and fell at Jesus’ feet. Shaking with fear, she told him the whole truth. ³⁴Jesus said to her, “Dear woman, you are made well because you believed. Go in peace; be healed of your disease.”

Read Mark 5:21-34 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

In some of the events in the gospels, I try to distance myself from the disciples’ reaction. Perhaps this is because I know the end of their story, and things make a lot more sense looking back on what happened.

But in other events, such as the one in this passage, even knowing the end of the story doesn’t change the reality that I probably would have said the exact same thing to Jesus that the disciples did.

In this event, a woman is trying to be secretive and anonymous about getting Jesus to heal her. In her mind, she doesn’t need Jesus’ time, touch, or even His attention. All she needs is a moment to touch the edge of Jesus’ robe – and she gets her chance.

But Jesus is too aware of what is happening around Him, and He stops the crowd with the question, “Who touched my clothes?” (v. 30b)

This is where I can relate with the disciples. Not only is the crowd surrounding Jesus and pressing in on all sides, but Jesus is trying to make His way through the crowd on a mission to save a little girl.

When Jesus stops everything with that question, I would be right with the disciples countering Jesus’ question in the same way they did: “Look at how many people are pushing against you! And you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” (v. 31)

But Jesus knows what was happening around Him, and that not all touch is equal. Jesus knows the difference between a bump in the crowd and a healing touch that is filled with faith.

To the disciples and the crowd, there was no way of distinguishing these two types of contact. On the outside, there would be no way to tell this.

But on the inside, both the woman and Jesus knew what had taken place. While the woman’s illness was internal, so was her healing. While she wanted to stay anonymous, possibly because she was embarrassed about her condition, Jesus places her up as an example to all about how powerful her faith was.

Jesus wasn’t saying this simply for the crowd’s benefit. He wanted His followers at that point and throughout history to understand that a little bit of faith can go a long way, and when that faith has been placed in Jesus, He is able to multiply it into everything we need: from healing and health, to community and security, and even to strength when facing trials. This woman needed physical healing and emotional healing, and Jesus helped her with both in a way that helps us see God’s character through Jesus.

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