As we begin our special two-part finale for this year of podcasting, first off I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. I hope that in the midst of all the festivities, you are able to remember this as the time Jesus stepping into our world, and that this only matters because of what we have just finished focusing on during this previous year of podcasts. Without the cross, Christmas would lose all meaning, and the cross, which we have just finished focusing in on this past year, would not have happened without Christmas.
Without any further delay, let’s dive into some of the biggest and best insights, at least in my own mind, that we discovered this past year focusing in on the cross. As always, we discovered so much that I had a difficult time narrowing down this list to a manageable length.
We’ll start off by focusing in on what we learned in episode 1. Episode 1 drew our focus onto Jesus receiving a special gift, and the giver being criticized by those present due to the supposed cost of this gift. In this episode, we summarized the following lesson for our lives: While we are called to help others, the truth of this life is that the most generous person who doesn’t have a relationship with Jesus will be worse off when this life ends than the person who could have been more generous, but they chose instead to focus on and grow towards Jesus. We might not always feel God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit’s presence, but we know from Jesus’ challenge that this is where we should focus our attention.
Moving forward into episode 2, we focused on Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, and on a peculiar message Jesus shared when He saw Jerusalem and wept. We discovered in this event that: When we depend on God and lean on Him for guidance, He will teach us what to say, and He will bring us His peace. While Jesus wept when realizing that the city He loved would ultimately be destroyed, He still loved the city and the people living within its walls. Even if our own lives cause Jesus pain, He still loves each of us and He wants to help heal our hurts.
Jumping ahead to episode 4, we discovered some amazing lessons related to prayer in the unfortunate end of a fig tree that looked leafy, but was being unfruitful. In this episode, we concluded that: We are called to pray with faith in God; with forgiveness in our hearts; with no doubt that God loves us, that He wants to answer our prayers, or that He wants the best for us; and with the trust that He answers our prayers the moment they leave our mouth. After we pray, we should eagerly look for answers He has given and expect to see them show up in our lives when the time is right.
Episode 5, which has Jesus kicking the commerce out of the temple also taught us a lesson about prayer. We discovered that: Prayer is all about coming before God, and submitting ourselves to His will. While prayer can include requests for help from God, prayer is inherently focused on God and not on ourselves. An exclusively self-focused and self-serving prayer is unlikely to be answered ever.
Moving into Episode 6, we learned a powerful truth from a challenge Jesus received from the chief priests and leaders about where Jesus received His authority. In this episode, we discovered that: Knowledge that is not applied is worthless. It is harder for an arrogant follower of Jesus to be saved than it is for the most sin-filled, evil person who decided to change, come to God, and repent. Anyone who believes they don’t need to repent has just placed themselves in the same group these religious leaders are in, and this group risks losing their salvation. An arrogant pride stopped the religious leaders from discovering and accepting Jesus, and arrogant pride in our own lives and hearts risks our own salvation.
Episode 7 continued this theme in the parable of the evil tenants, which challenged us with the truth that: God gives everyone the freedom to choose Him or not. God is looking for a people who will return His portion of fruit to Him. The challenge for us to remember is to be fruitful towards God, and to return His portion of what He has blessed us with, otherwise God may move to focusing on a different group than the one we are in.
Jumping up to episode 10, where Jesus is challenged regarding marriage and the resurrection by a group of Sadducees, we learned that: God has the perspective that everyone is alive, but that is because He can see all points of history. This doesn’t mean that everyone is conscious at all points in history. Instead, our perspective mirrors the first part of Jesus’ reply: We look forward to the resurrection, when God the Creator and Re-Creator, pull everyone from their respective endpoints in history’s timeline into a brand new timeline called the New Heaven and New Earth.
In this same episode, we also learned that: In the new age without sin, Jesus tells us that there won’t be marriage, but I’m sure that is because it will have been replaced with something even better.
Moving up to Episode 15, we learned from an answer Jesus gives to His closest disciples that: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” From this episode and this promise, we discovered that: This promise is powerful because it reminds us that whatever happens in this life, and whatever Satan tries to throw at us to take our focus off of God, in the end, Jesus’ words and His message will survive. Jesus’ words last forever. Jesus’ words last longer than sin. Jesus’ words bring eternal life.
Episode 16 draws our attention onto an illustration of wise and faithful servants being rewarded. We discovered that: It’s possible that Jesus’ return will be after we have died in this life. It is not up to us whether we will be alive when Jesus returns, or resurrected when He appears. Instead, God brought us into the world at the time He did because He has a task for us to accomplish. All of God’s wise and faithful servants will be saved when Jesus returns, and this includes both those who are living at the time He returns, and those who have been awaiting resurrection.
Jumping forward to Episode 19, we read Jesus’ big conclusion to His end-time teaching which included a sobering parable about sheep and goats. From this illustration, we learned that: When we are called to help others, we are called to help in ways that are not repayable. The motivation of our hearts matter and the reason for our love is crucial. In order to be welcomed into heaven, we must be saved internally, because of our faith in Jesus, and we must display our faith and thanks to God for His gift by helping others in ways that are not easily repaid. This is living out God’s character in the world, and it’s His challenge to each of His followers!
In the next episode, Episode 20, we looked at Judas Iscariot plotting His betrayal with the religious leaders. In this episode, we are reminded that: God and Jesus gave Judas Iscariot every opportunity to change his heart and his life, but he refused. Through the negative of Judas Iscariot’s betrayal, we have Jesus’ sacrifice for us, and we have the amazing news that His death gives us the opportunity for a new life with Him. God is able to turn negatives, even the betrayal of His own Son, into amazing good for His Story of redemption!
To follow up what we discovered in Episode 20, jumping forward to Episode 22, we saw that Jesus washed Judas Iscariot’s feet, and in Episode 23, we saw Judas Iscariot having one last opportunity to reject the role of the betrayer. We saw that: If Judas refused the bread, Satan would not have entered Him, and it is possible this would be the beginning of Judas letting Jesus into His heart. Judas had the choice whether to accept the bread from Jesus, and Judas accepted both the bread and the role of betrayer in one instant. Judas Iscariot was not forced to accept the role of betrayer. God did not predestine him to this role. Jesus did not invite Judas to be a disciple on the condition that three years later, he would betray Him. Judas chose the role of betrayer with his own free will, and simply because God saw this happen, and because it was predicted before the events took place, everything hinged on Judas’ choice to accept the bread.
In a less negative way, we discovered in this powerful episode that: By accepting Jesus into our hearts and lives, we are also accepting the One who sent Jesus, and this is God the Father, and His Holy Spirit.
Let’s wrap up this episode by focusing on the last thing we discovered from Episode 23: Even though God knows us so well that He knows what we will choose, we still have the freedom to choose when the moment comes. When we face temptation, regardless of our past, we can choose a new path moving forward. While our past lives might be full of sinful decisions, Jesus came to take care of our past when we choose to accept Him into our lives, accept the One who sent Him, and to turn away from the sin in our past. Jesus came to give us a new life with God, and God is inviting us to grow with Him for eternity.
Don’t ever let yourself abandon or chicken out of the new life God has called you to live!