Reflective Bible Study

As we begin another year looking at the gospels, this year we are focusing in on John’s gospel, and for many people, John’s gospel might be the most powerful of all the gospels in the Bible. I am certain that while we will try to cover as much as we can during the time we have this year, we will barely scratch the surface of what John’s gospel shares about God, about Jesus, and about how much the Godhead loves each of us.

To begin our year in John’s gospel, let’s first look at how John opens his gospel record, because in this introduction, I suspect that we can find some amazing truths about God and about Jesus.

Our passage is found in John, chapter 1, and we will read this introduction from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 1, John begins by telling us:

¹ In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was already with God in the beginning.

³ Everything came into existence through him. Not one thing that exists was made without him.

⁴ He was the source of life, and that life was the light for humanity.

⁵ The light shines in the dark, and the dark has never extinguished it.

Pausing our introduction briefly here, I want to draw attention onto how John frames Jesus as the source of all life and light. According to John, Jesus was the key to the creation of this world and Jesus is our Source of life.

While it might be easy to spiritualize this detail away by focusing forward onto what Jesus would do for us through His death on the cross, John’s big point here is that there wouldn’t have been a human race for Jesus to die for if Jesus hadn’t created us.

Reading this introduction to John’s gospel amazes me, because from how John frame’s Jesus’ role in creation, Jesus willfully created the reason He would face the cross. While we might think that God the Father created the world and humanity, and then sent Jesus to clean up the mess sin made, John’s introduction frames Jesus being our Creator and the rest of this gospel frames Jesus as our Redeemer as well. Jesus is the reason every human is alive because Jesus is our Creator.

However, John’s introduction isn’t finished yet. Continuing in verse 6, John tells us that:

⁶ God sent a man named John to be his messenger. ⁷ John came to declare the truth about the light so that everyone would become believers through his message. ⁸ John was not the light, but he came to declare the truth about the light.

⁹ The real light, which shines on everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world came into existence through him. Yet, the world didn’t recognize him. ¹¹ He went to his own people, and his own people didn’t accept him. ¹² However, he gave the right to become God’s children to everyone who believed in him. ¹³ These people didn’t become God’s children in a physical way—from a human impulse or from a husband’s desire to have a child. They were born from God.

Pausing again, as I read how John frame’s Jesus’ purpose for coming into the world, John tells us Jesus “gave the right to become God’s children to everyone who believed in him.” To clarify this idea, John tells us this isn’t a physical change, such as from a human impulse or husband and wife relations, but a spiritual one. We could conclude that when we believe in Jesus, God adopts us into His spiritual family.

This detail is significant when we read the next portion of John’s introduction, specifically the portion we will end with. Picking back up in verse 14, John continues sharing by saying:

¹⁴ The Word became human and lived among us. We saw his glory. It was the glory that the Father shares with his only Son, a glory full of kindness and truth.

¹⁵ (John declared the truth about him when he said loudly, “This is the person about whom I said, ‘The one who comes after me was before me because he existed before I did.’”)

¹⁶ Each of us has received one gift after another because of all that the Word is. ¹⁷ Laws were given through Moses, but kindness and truth came into existence through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God. God’s only Son, the one who is closest to the Father’s heart, has made him known.

Let’s stop reading here because John has emphasized some big ideas that I don’t want us to miss. In the last portion of verse 14, John tells us that God the Father’s glory, which He shared with Jesus, is a “glory full of kindness and truth”.

John tells us that we receive amazing gifts and blessings because of who Jesus, also known as “the Word”, is and because of who we are to Him. While God blessed the world with His law through Moses, God revealed His kindness and truth through Jesus.

This detail is incredibly important for us to pay attention to. John tells us that God’s glory is full of kindness and truth, and John has already set the stage with an invitation given to all humanity to become adopted into God’s family. If we are to accept this invitation into God’s family, we should also expect that we will be transformed into reflecting God’s glory in the world around us. God’s glory does not judge, put down, or condemn others. God’s glory shines the light of kindness and truth.

I believe the order of these words is important. While some people might think that truth should come before kindness, it is very easy for truth to be shared outside of the context of kindness and for the hearer of the truth to interpret it in an unkind way. This is why I believe John wrote kindness, or grace, first.

Instead of the age-old cliché of loving the sinner while hating the sin, we should love the sinner first, before sharing the truth that God loves the sinner regardless of their sin. Too many sinners have their identity wrapped up in their sins, and hating the sin is seen in their eyes as hating the sinner, regardless of what we might say.

However, God loved us while we were actively sinning against Him, and we can know this to be true because Jesus came to die for us. God put kindness and grace first, before challenging us with the truth that God sees us as more valuable than our actions, our potential, and our sins. God’s glory is filled with kindness and truth, God’s glory is seen in Jesus, and as followers of Jesus, we are called to reflect this glory as well.

Truth shared in an unkind way is more damaging than simply being kind and extending grace. Jesus modeled kindness towards sinners, and He was kind and gracious towards all who understood they were sinners before calling them out of their sin.

Jesus modeled this gracious attitude towards us, because whether we like to admit it or not, we all have sinned and fallen short of God’s ideal. The sooner we realize that we are not any better than anyone else, the sooner Jesus can transform our lives with His glory, kindness, and truth!

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 reflect God’s glory by being kind to everyone God has brought into your life. Choose to give people the benefit of a doubt and to extend grace even if grace isn’t what we deserve. We give others grace and kindness because God has blessed us with His grace and kindness.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and move closer to God in your life. The best way to learn what God is like is by opening the pages of your Bible and looking at Jesus. Jesus came to show us what God is like, and how much He loves each of us.

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!

As we begin our year looking at Jesus’ parables, it would be good to begin by answering the question about why Jesus used parables when He spoke to people. While parables are fascinating and simple illustrations, there are plenty of other ways of sharing God’s truth, many of which are clearer and simpler to understand, while others are more complex and less relatable.

Fortunately for us living today, the disciples asked Jesus why He used parables when speaking to the crowds, and most of the gospels include Jesus’ answer to this question. While it would be easy to speculate why Jesus used parables, let’s let Jesus answer this question for us.

Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 13, and we will read it from the New Living Translation. Starting in verse 10, Matthew tells us that:

¹⁰ [Jesus’] disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?”

¹¹ He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. ¹² To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. ¹³ That is why I use these parables,

For they look, but they don’t really see.
    They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.

¹⁴ This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says,

‘When you hear what I say,
    you will not understand.
When you see what I do,
    you will not comprehend.
¹⁵ For the hearts of these people are hardened,
    and their ears cannot hear,
and they have closed their eyes—
    so their eyes cannot see,
and their ears cannot hear,
    and their hearts cannot understand,
and they cannot turn to me
    and let me heal them.’

¹⁶ “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. ¹⁷ I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.

In His response, Jesus not only answers their question, but He also shares that He was fulfilling prophecy while doing so. Jesus used parables to share truth in a simple, yet challenging way. While parables are simple sounding illustrations, we must be paying attention in order to understand what Jesus is teaching.

Jesus’ response tells us there is a difference between looking versus seeing, and hearing versus listening or understanding. In verse 13, Jesus summarizes a key idea in Isaiah by saying “For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.”

In order to understand Jesus, we must not only be looking and hearing, but we must also be seeing and listening.

However, how is it possible for someone to be looking but not seeing, or hearing but not actually listening? Isn’t the definition of looking actually seeking something out, and isn’t hearing necessary for learning?

It is in this subtle concept that we discover an amazing truth about what Jesus likely warns us about in these parables. While these illustrations are simple, the temptation is to read them, pull out a theme, and then discard the parable. This is looking and hearing with a closed mind, and it is what the religious leaders were good at doing in the first century.

When Jesus stepped into history, there was expectation in the culture about the Messiah appearing. However, the expectation was so exclusively focused on one understanding of prophecy that Jesus simply didn’t fit the expectation. Jesus ultimately was rejected because the religious leaders had closed their minds to any other understanding of prophecy. As we spent a whole year looking at, without covering everything, the Old Testament is filled with prophecies that Jesus did fulfill in His lifetime, including prophecies that Jesus could not have directly influenced while here on earth.

But because Jesus didn’t fit the picture of the Messiah that the religious leaders were looking for, they rejected Him. These religious leaders give us a model for looking but not seeing, and hearing but not really listening. The religious leaders looked with an agenda, and they filtered their ears with their ideas about who they believed God would send.

Jesus’ warning in His answer is that more understanding will be given when we listen to Jesus’ teaching, and we will have “an abundance of knowledge”, but when we don’t listen, even the little understanding we think we have “will be taken away”.

We live in a world today that has pushed Jesus and His teachings to as far on the sidelines as it can, and we are seeing the fruit of this decision. Without Jesus’ teachings that affirm creation, we are left wading through theories about our origins that keep getting disproven. The problem isn’t the theory; the problem is with the assumptions that are used to form the rules that define what theories are acceptable. By rejecting Jesus, knowledge may be increasing, but understanding is being lost.

Without Jesus’ teaching on all the subjects that this world struggles with, we are left with a world that is growing more chaotic, more polarized, and more hostile than it has been in a long time.

Jesus shares the solution in His response. In verses 16 and 17, Matthew quotes Jesus saying, “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.”

When we look with open eyes for Jesus and when we listen to Jesus, we will be blessed. Seeing Jesus means that we are looking for examples of ways God is working in the world today, not just supernaturally, but also through His people. Listening to Jesus means that we hear His teachings with an open mind and we apply the themes and lessons He shared into our lives. This is the simple recipe for gaining knowledge about God, and it is the framework for our focus on the parables during this year of podcasting.

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

As I always open these challenges by saying in one way or another, continue to seek God first and let Him lead and guide you as you walk through life. Don’t just look with a closed mind at what God may be doing, but open your mind and see what God is doing in the world around us. Don’t just selectively hear what you want to hear, but listen with an open mind and bring what you have learned to the Bible to discover if it is truth.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, keep praying and studying the Bible for yourself to discover what the Bible really teaches and to grow your own personal relationship with God. While studying the Bible isn’t the last or only step when growing a relationship with God, combining prayer and Bible study are the only way to have a strong, solid foundation for 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 deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!