Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure

Accepting the Invitation: Luke 14:7-24

Published April 20, 2022 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Luke 14:7-24 (GW)

⁷ Then Jesus noticed how the guests always chose the places of honor. So he used this illustration when he spoke to them: ⁸ “When someone invites you to a wedding, don’t take the place of honor. Maybe someone more important than you was invited. ⁹ Then your host would say to you, ‘Give this person your place.’ Embarrassed, you would have to take the place of least honor. ¹⁰ So when you’re invited, take the place of least honor. Then, when your host comes, he will tell you, ‘Friend, move to a more honorable place.’ Then all the other guests will see how you are honored. ¹¹ Those who honor themselves will be humbled, but people who humble themselves will be honored.”

¹² Then he told the man who had invited him, “When you invite people for lunch or dinner, don’t invite only your friends, family, other relatives, or rich neighbors. Otherwise, they will return the favor. ¹³ Instead, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the handicapped, the lame, and the blind. ¹⁴ Then you will be blessed because they don’t have any way to pay you back. You will be paid back when those who have God’s approval come back to life.”

¹⁵ One of those eating with him heard this. So he said to Jesus, “The person who will be at the banquet in the kingdom of God is blessed.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to him, “A man gave a large banquet and invited many people. ¹⁷ When it was time for the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who were invited, ‘Come! Everything is ready now.’

¹⁸ “Everyone asked to be excused. The first said to him, ‘I bought a field, and I need to see it. Please excuse me.’ ¹⁹ Another said, ‘I bought five pairs of oxen, and I’m on my way to see how well they plow. Please excuse me.’ ²⁰ Still another said, ‘I recently got married, and that’s why I can’t come.’

²¹ “The servant went back to report this to his master. Then the master of the house became angry. He told his servant, ‘Run to every street and alley in the city! Bring back the poor, the handicapped, the blind, and the lame.’

²² “The servant said, ‘Sir, what you’ve ordered has been done. But there is still room for more people.’

²³ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go to the roads and paths! Urge the people to come to my house. I want it to be full. ²⁴ I can guarantee that none of those invited earlier will taste any food at my banquet.’ ”

Read Luke 14:7-24 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

This journal entry’s passage has a lot of things that stood out to me. For this entry, let’s look at the the group we will call “the impulse guests”. The impulse guests in this parable are the ones that are invited at the last minute – quite literally. In verses 23 and 24, we see the master telling his servant to bring anyone he can bring. The master wants a fully attended party.

The master’s attitude here is interesting. While many people believe God to be in heaven, with the gates locked, and only admitting a select few individuals who have met some criteria, this parable seems to indicate the opposite. Instead of keeping people out, the master is trying to include as many as possible.

Really the only way to be excluded from God’s Kingdom according to this parable is to reject the invitation. It seems as though the only way to reject the invitation is to not value it highly enough to simply show up.

The people who are invited at the last minute have no time to “get ready”. They simply are invited to come. This places an additional twist on what we might traditionally think: We must get “good enough” before going to God, but this parable places its emphasis on going to God and letting Him change you on His terms.

My many years in church, mixed with my analytical nature, really wants to make it seem more complicated. But the only place that this thinking gets me is potentially placing myself in the crowd of people who were formerly invited, and who didn’t accept the invitation – which for the record is not where I want to be.

Are you overly complicating God’s simple invitation?

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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A Fourth View on Death: Mark 5:35-43

Published April 19, 2022 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Mark 5:35-43 (NLT)

³⁵While he was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. They told him, “Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.”

³⁶But Jesus overheard them and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.”

³⁷Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn’t let anyone go with him except Peter, James, and John (the brother of James). ³⁸When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and wailing. ³⁹He went inside and asked, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.”

⁴⁰The crowd laughed at him. But he made them all leave, and he took the girl’s father and mother and his three disciples into the room where the girl was lying. ⁴¹Holding her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Little girl, get up!” ⁴²And the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around! They were overwhelmed and totally amazed. ⁴³Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone what had happened, and then he told them to give her something to eat.

Read Mark 5:35-43 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

In the event surrounding the death of Jairus’ daughter, Jesus makes a startling and counter-cultural statement. This statement even stands counter to what many people believe today.

When Jesus arrives at Jairus’ home, the girl had already died, and it may have been minutes, or perhaps even an hour since her last breath. The people in the first century may not have had the benefits of modern medicine, but they did understand death, and they knew what to look for to identify when someone had died.

But the first thing Jesus says when He arrived is startling, and perhaps even a little offensive. After entering Jairus’ home, Jesus sees what is happening and He asks, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.” (v. 39)

The people in that era believed in the resurrection at the end of time, but they did not believe resurrection was possible in their lifetime. They saw the girl’s death as awful and tragic. Some may have even believed that this girl truly had no future hope. These people had rejected the idea of the resurrection.

But Jesus steps into this scene and He makes the startling statement: “The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.” (v. 39)

This statement even flies in the face of what many people believe today. The pendulum has swung from not believing in any form of resurrection (something that many people believe today) to believing that death is simply the continuation of life in a different form – whether that form is given through reincarnation or whether that is simply a new ‘spiritual’ form in heaven. Many people today believe one of these three ideas: death is an immediate and final end to life, death is a transition into another life form (reincarnation), or death simply means being immediately translated into heaven.

But Jesus defines it differently. What the people are calling death, Jesus says is not death – only sleep.

What if the sleep we experience each night is a metaphor God placed into humanity for what death is like? In this passage, Jesus describes what we believe to be death as a sleep.

This means we now have a fourth option for understanding death: it is a spiritual sleep. In this viewpoint, all those who have died are simply waiting for God’s voice to wake them up. When God speaks life, a massive resurrection would take place.

Part of me believes that Jesus gives us this fourth option as a way of giving us hope. All other viewpoints on death can be made to appear cruel and unjust. Even immediately going to heaven, while it sounds good, ultimately concludes with either those in heaven ignoring what is happening on earth, or them being glued onto watching all the evil taking place with no way of stopping it.

Death as a sleep is the most loving picture God could give us because it is filled with hope. When his daughter had died, Jesus tells Jairus in verse 36, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.” When we experience death, Jesus says the same thing to us: “Don’t be afraid. Place your faith, your hope, and your trust in Me, and I’ll keep you safe for eternity.”

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Flashback Episode — Giving God the Glory: Luke 7:11-17

Published April 18, 2022 in Audio Journal Entries

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Up to this point in Jesus’ ministry, we have seen Him heal those who were sick, those who were disabled, and those who were possessed by evil spirits. However, as we come to the miracle we will focus in on in this episode, Jesus enters a completely new area for miracle working, and this all begins with Jesus feeling sorry for a widow who needed help.

Let’s read our passage to discover what happened. Our passage is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 7, and we will be reading from the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 11, Luke tells us that:

¹¹Some time later, Jesus went to a town called Nain. His disciples and a large crowd went along with him. ¹²He approached the town gate. Just then, a dead person was being carried out. He was the only son of his mother. She was a widow. A large crowd from the town was with her. ¹³When the Lord saw her, he felt sorry for her. So he said, “Don’t cry.”

Let’s pause reading here for a moment, because what Jesus feels and what He does appear to conflict with each other. In about the same breath, Luke tells us Jesus felt sorry for the widow, and He tells her to not cry. Crying when one has experienced loss is about the most natural thing that we can do.

However, I believe Jesus wants to teach us something about God and about loss that we don’t often think of. Regardless of what Jesus is about to do in this passage, the perspective Jesus has is one that focuses on eternity. While Jesus is about to raise the dead boy back to life, even if Jesus had not done so, we can trust and know that when we believe in Jesus, we are guaranteed a future life at the resurrection. Death in this life is not the end, even if death in this life feels like a huge loss.

After telling the widow to stop crying, Jesus then does the truly amazing miracle. While Jesus had healed people of any and every sort of illness or disability, what comes next takes His ministry to a new level. Continuing in verse 14:

¹⁴Then he went up and touched the coffin. Those carrying it stood still. Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” ¹⁵The dead man sat up and began to talk. Then Jesus gave him back to his mother.

¹⁶The people were all filled with wonder and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” ¹⁷This news about Jesus spread all through Judea and the whole country.

In our passage, not only does Jesus raise this young man back to life, we discover in this miracle a revelation that those present make that is truly profound.

While one might begin to put the focus on Jesus as the source of this resurrection miracle, the crowd present has a slightly different response. On realizing what had just taken place, Luke describes the people present as being “filled with wonder” and praising God. In this miracle, God received the glory and the credit, not Jesus. Luke quotes the people present saying, “A great prophet has appeared among us. God has come to help his people.”

Those present for this miracle describe Jesus as a prophet, which is another way of saying a messenger for God, and they even push past this idea by saying that God has come to help His people. In a subtle way, these people give Jesus honor by recognizing God working in His life. These people recognized that with the arrival of Jesus, God had come to help His people.

This truth extends much further than these first-century Jews realized. Jesus’ arrival in history marked God coming into History to save all His people. God’s people in the context of our discussion include both those who were faithful, loving Jews, as well as God’s people who were not Jewish.

With the arrival of Jesus, we now have a picture of God that we can place our faith on. Prior to this, the sacrifice of an innocent animal as a sin offering foreshadowed what Jesus would do. Those who lived before the cross looked forward to the sacrifice God would make on their behalf through the sacrifice of the lamb. Even if the first-century Jewish culture had misinterpreted the Messiah’s role for His first coming, they had kept the sacrifices intact, and through all the legalism present in that era, we still can see the theme that something else would take the punishment for our sins.

I don’t believe these witnesses of Jesus’ first resurrection miracle could have responded the way they did without the Holy Spirit’s help. Since this was the first time a resurrection miracle had happened in Jesus’ ministry, it is rational for us not to see anything about faith in Jesus displayed through this event. However, faith in Jesus isn’t the only source of Jesus’ miracles.

In this passage, we can see Jesus raise this dead boy to life not just for the benefit of his widowed mother, but that through this event, God would receive the glory. In a similar way, I wonder if we would see more miracles in our lives if we intentionally pushed for the glory to go to God and not to ourselves. While it is easy to take credit for our part in something amazing, God should be the recipient of the majority of our praise, if not all of it.

Jesus healed people as a way to show people God’s love for us, and Jesus healed people in miraculous ways that changed peoples’ lives for the better. In our own lives, we should live seeking to give God the glory and to show people God’s love through how we live, act, and help others. Christians should not be known for their political pursuits, but for their prayerful, personal love for others.

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 keep seeking God first in your life and be sure to give Him the credit and the glory for the things He has blessed you with. God has blessed all of us in so many more ways than we even can realize, and it isn’t too much to stop and acknowledge the blessings we recognize. Also, intentionally show your thanks to God by loving others. God loved the worst member’s of humanity, and as His followers, we are called to do the same.

Also, be sure to always pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn more about God and to personally grow closer to Him each and every day. While a pastor or podcaster can give you ideas to think about, filter everything through the truth you find in God’s word and let Him take and transform not only your heart, but your life as well.

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

Flashback Episode: Year of Miracles – Episode 16: When Jesus meets a funeral processional outside of a small town, we discover this situation is prime for a miracle that goes beyond anything Jesus has done up to that point, and we discover a miracle that focuses our hearts and our thanks on God.

Disobeying Jesus’ Command: Mark 7:31-37

Published April 15, 2022 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Mark 7:31-37 (NIV)

³¹Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. ³²There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.

³³After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. ³⁴He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). ³⁵At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

³⁶Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. ³⁷People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Read Mark 7:31-37 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

If there was one thing Jesus seemed to say on multiple occasions, it was to keep quiet about something He had done. Usually this “something” was about some healing or miracle, but in most places where Jesus wants someone to remain silent, there must have been a reason for making that request.

But the interesting thing about Jesus’ requests like this is that it seems that the more He told people to be quiet about it, the more they spread the news. The passage we are focusing on even says this: “Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it.” (v. 36)

It appears as though Jesus wants to help people, but that He doesn’t really want His reputation to simply be the Healer who put all the doctors out of business. We could stretch this to say that Jesus eventually will do this, since in heaven and the new recreated earth, there will be no need for doctors or nurses as an occupation.

But then why would Jesus want people to stay quiet about what He was doing?

Perhaps it was because Jesus wanted to be known for more than a miracle worker. Perhaps Jesus wanted to avoid attracting a crowd of people who were only there because of what He could do for them. Jesus was not interested in seeking glory, popularity, or fame for Himself. Instead, it seems that He wanted to keep pointing people upward, to God.

But even with the crowd disobeying Jesus, we can learn something: The more we do for God, the more people will take notice. When we are walking along the path God has laid before us, people will notice us, but we should not seek after the fame or glory that people give. We must always remain focused on the glory that comes from God.

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