Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure

Like Father, Like Son: John 5:16-47

Published October 1, 2021 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: John 5:16-47 (NIV)

¹⁶So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. ¹⁷In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” ¹⁸For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

¹⁹Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. ²⁰For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. ²¹For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. ²²Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

²⁴“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. ²⁵Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. ²⁶For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. ²⁷And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

²⁸“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. ³⁰By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

³¹“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. ³²There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true.

³³“You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. ³⁴Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. ³⁵John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

³⁶“I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. ³⁷And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, ³⁸nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. ³⁹You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, ⁴⁰yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

⁴¹“I do not accept glory from human beings, ⁴²but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. ⁴³I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

⁴⁵“But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. ⁴⁶If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. ⁴⁷But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”

Read John 5:16-47 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

In one of the earlier conflicts Jesus had with the Jewish leaders, we find Jesus sharing some pretty amazing things. Following Jesus healing a paraplegic man at a pool, John shares how the Jewish leaders were upset at the reality that this miracle happened on the Sabbath day.

John tells us that “because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.” (v. 16)

It would seem that had it not been for extreme Sabbath regulations that they had put in place, the Jewish leaders might not have had any issue with Jesus – at least until they became jealous of His popularity. John tells us that in Jesus’ defense, He replied to them saying, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” (v. 17)

Had the Jewish leaders not had this confrontation with Jesus over Sabbath observance, they wouldn’t have had another reason to stand against Him. Because of this response, the Jewish leaders “tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” (v. 18)

The interesting thing in my mind about the initial stages of this confrontation with the Jewish leaders is that Jesus never denies the claim about working on the Sabbath. Perhaps this is because Jesus didn’t believe His actions to be work, or maybe it is because He wanted to draw their attention onto something greater that was happening at that moment in time. If Jesus had gone down the path of trying to redefine the concept of “work” with these Jewish leaders, it would have been a lost cause, because defining “work” was what these Jewish leaders were experts at doing.

Instead, Jesus draws in someone else who works on the Sabbath, and by placing God in the position of His Father, Jesus simply has to lean on the cultural cliché that says “like father, like son”.

Jesus drew the attention of everyone present onto the idea that there is something bigger at “work” regarding Sabbath rest. Jesus did not claim that He wasn’t working, but He also didn’t sweep the commandment aside either. In other places, Jesus elevates the Sabbath away from a list of restrictions for the day, and He instead frames it a day where we are free to do good deeds and help others.

Blending that idea with this one, the message I see in Jesus’ initial response to the Jewish leaders is that the Sabbath was intended to be a blessing, not a burden and the Sabbath should be more about worship than about avoiding work.

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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God’s Two Gifts: Matthew 22:1-14

Published September 30, 2021 in Audio Journal Entries

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As we move through the week leading up to the cross in Matthew’s gospel, we come to a challenging parable Jesus shares with some powerful implications. In this parable, we discover how one group of people gives up their privileged status, and another group gains the invitation to step into the first group’s place.

However, while this sounds simple, perhaps even too simple, the parable we are about to read really contains only two major details we should pay attention to, and these two details are crucial for our ultimate salvation.

Our passage and parable is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 22, and we will read it from the New International Version. Starting in verse 22, Matthew tells us that:

¹Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ²“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

⁴“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

⁵“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. ⁶The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

⁸“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ¹⁰So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Jumping out of our parable for a minute, I want to point out that if Jesus ended His parable here, He would have ended on a high note, at the most positive point in this illustration, but He would have only shared with us one of the two major details we must pay attention to in this parable.

Instead, Jesus then continues in verse 11, saying:

¹¹“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹²He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

¹³“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹⁴“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

In this parable Jesus shared, we started on a high point with a king preparing for a celebration. Things then turn worse when we discovered how those who had been originally invited to this celebration decide to ignore or outright reject the invitation that was theirs. Things then shift back to being positive when the king extends the invitation to everyone regardless of their prior status.

Part of me is curious about how those who were present and listening to this parable responded when Jesus shared how the king opened the invitation to anyone and everyone. This major detail in this parable is vitally important for us to pay attention to. This major detail draws our attention onto a gift that God offers to each of us. While I don’t know if God would have opened this gift to everyone if those who were originally invited had accepted their invitations, because this first group rejected it, it gives anyone and everyone who wants to the choice to accept the invitation.

This parable draws our attention onto the amazing gift God offers to each of us when He invited us to be a part of His family, and to take part in the celebration when Jesus returns to bring God’s people home.

If we stopped reading here, this parable would end with the best news possible.

However, Jesus continued sharing, and things take another turn downward. When the king arrives in the banquet hall, he sees a person who isn’t wearing wedding clothes, and he throws this man out.

On the surface, this sounds both reasonable and ridiculous. The reasonable side of this is that this is the king, and he can do what he wants. If the king didn’t like how someone was dressed, he is perfectly within his right to kick that person out of his home and his event.

However, this also sounds ridiculous. When we look at how the parable progressed prior to this point, those who ultimately are in the banquet hall are those people who woke up that morning with no thoughts or plans of heading to the king’s banquet. All those present are last-minute invitees to this special event. Those present represent anyone and everyone from the rich to the poor, the good to the evil, and the well connected to the social outcasts. In this parable, those present come from any and every background, and they are all miraculously wearing wedding clothes when the king arrives.

The only way this detail makes sense, especially when reconciling this with the realization that not everyone present would have been able to afford appropriate wedding clothing, is that the king gave the guests wedding clothes on their arrival. With this detail in place, we discover how the king is fully within his rights to throw someone out who had refused the second portion of his gift. The king had given everyone an amazing gift of an invitation and he gave each person present the gift of wedding clothing.

In this parable, we discover how God gives each of us two gifts. God first gives us the gift of an invitation into His family and into His special event. If you’re worried about whether you are in the first group of invitees or the second, don’t worry about this. All you need to know is that you have been given an invitation. Everyone in this parable received an invitation to this wedding banquet!

This first gift requires a choice, and we must choose whether we will accept this gift or not.

The second gift present in this parable is the gift of wedding clothing. It is completely possible to accept the gift of an invitation but reject the gift of wedding clothing. The person who the king throws out for not wearing wedding clothes may have believed he had wedding clothes on, he had on the best clothes he had, or that the clothing one wore to this event wasn’t significant. Regardless of the reason, this man is thrown out for rejecting the second gift.

If you are concerned about whether you have accepted the gift of wedding clothing, this might be something to look into. The gift of wedding clothing is Jesus’ righteousness. The gift of clothing is defined for us in Revelation as the righteous acts of God’s people. In one of the most symbolic books of the Bible, John gives us the definition of this metaphor.

The second gift is a challenge for each of us. The second gift challenges us regarding where we place our focus and our hope. With the gift of clothing, are we going to come before God showing Him what we have done for Him with the attitude of trying to build ourselves up, or are we going to come before God thanking Him for what Jesus blessed us with and how nothing we do could ever repay His generosity?

For some reason, the man in this parable who is thrown out decided that He could appear before God with his own righteousness, and this cost him his salvation. I might be understating this when I say “Don’t be that guy!”

Instead, choose to accept God’s two gifts, both the choice and the challenge, and live your life as a thank you to God for everything He has blessed us with, both through what Jesus did for us, and through what Jesus is still doing for us each and every day!

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, be sure to intentionally seek God first in your life and let Him give you the two gifts that matter the most. Make the choice to accept His invitation and accept God’s challenge to replace your life and character with Christ’s life and character. This is only possible with God’s help and it is the best way we can say thank you to God for giving us what we easily don’t deserve.

Also, pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God each and every day. God wants a personal relationship with you and He doesn’t want a relationship where you filter Him through the thoughts and opinions of others. Choose to make your relationship with God personal by choosing to spend time with Him on a regular, frequent basis.

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 be tricked out of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Year in Matthew – Episode 39: In a challenging parable Jesus shares, discover how God gives us two important gifts, and how our salvation depends on us accepting the gift of a choice and a challenge!

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Testing Jesus in Your Life: John 7:10-24

Published September 29, 2021 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: John 7:10-24 (NASB)

There are several points we could talk about in this passage, but one really big idea that I want to focus on in this post are Jesus’ words in verse 17: “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.”

This verse jumped off the page at me because it is so simple, but also so profound. Those who are doing the will of God are the ones who will be able to clearly tell whether Jesus’ teaching is from God or whether Jesus was false. It is by obeying God that we are able to test Jesus’ truth, and by obeying God, He will make it clear to us the nature and role Jesus should have in our lives.

Too many people want to talk, preach, or speak a powerful message, and many can inspire and motivate large crowds. The real test though isn’t what someone says, but what they do. Actions are more important to God than intentions. We cannot be perfect as Christ is perfect, but we can be willing to be used by God to bring joy to others, and we can admit that we need Jesus and His sacrifice to bridge the gap sin created between God and us.

It is by doing God’s will that we are able to bring clarity in our lives regarding Jesus and His teaching.

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Using Our Pain: Matthew 8:1-4

Published September 28, 2021 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Matthew 8:1-4 (NCV)

¹When Jesus came down from the hill, great crowds followed him. ²Then a man with a skin disease came to Jesus. The man bowed down before him and said, “Lord, you can heal me if you will.”

³Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man and said, “I will. Be healed!” And immediately the man was healed from his disease. ⁴Then Jesus said to him, “Don’t tell anyone about this. But go and show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded for people who are made well. This will show the people what I have done.”

Read Matthew 8:1-4 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Early on in Jesus’ ministry, we learn about a miracle He did for a man with a skin disease. Matthew’s gospel places this event after Jesus’ famous “Sermon on the Mount”, and specifically as Jesus was coming down from the hill.

What makes this healing unique in my mind is what it says about the man requesting healing, and more importantly, what this healing says about Jesus’ character towards those who are hurting. Matthew sets up this event by writing, “When Jesus came down from the hill, great crowds followed him. Then a man with a skin disease came to Jesus. The man bowed down before him and said, ‘Lord, you can heal me if you will.’” (v. 1-2)

The thing that I find amazing about this request is that the man is completely open to the possibility that Jesus might not want to make him well. He acknowledges Jesus’ healing power, but he also recognizes that there might be a purpose for his condition that God wants to still use. In a very unique and spiritually mature way, this man, through his request, is open to whatever God’s will is for his body, whether it is to continue living with disease, or whether it is healing.

However, in response to the man’s request, Matthew tells us that, “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man and said, “I will. Be healed!” And immediately the man was healed from his disease.” (v. 3)

This miracle is amazing in my mind because it tells me that God’s first plan for all of us (we could call this “His will”) is that none of us are sick. The man asks what God’s will is regarding him being healed and the response is both quick and clear that God wants to make him well.

But this might not be the case for everyone. In the world today, sometimes there are people who get sick and they don’t get better. Sometimes sickness ultimately leads to death. This passage clearly states that this is not God’s will (i.e. God’s first plan), but it does allow for God to use the place we are in for His glory.

Perhaps He wants to plant a seed or leave an impression on a doctor or nurse through interacting with you, or maybe He has a divine appointment in mind with a fellow patient. God may even be protecting us from something worse. It’s truly hard to know in the moment what God’s reasons are, but whatever reasons He has, chances are that we won’t be as aware of them in the moment as we will be when we are looking back later.

When we look back on our lives, even if it is looking back from heaven’s perspective, things usually look clearer. We are better able to see how God directed His will through our pain to bring about His glory. It is never God’s will to make or keep anyone sick, but while sin exists in the world, God is able to use sickness that comes for His glory.

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