Reflective Bible Study

Over our past year of podcasting, we have moved through the gospel of John looking closely at each event John includes. This episode marks the conclusion of this year and the last episode where we focus in on John’s gospel. This also means we will be focusing in on the grand finale of John’s gospel.

The event we will be looking at for this episode began in our last episode. The last chapter in John contains one last fishing miracle and we stopped reading as Jesus and a group of disciples had sat down on the shore to eat breakfast after Jesus had shown up and turned their unproductive night of fishing into a miraculous catch.

Our passage for this episode picks up at the end of this meal, and it focuses on Jesus’ conversation with one disciple who may have believed he was no longer worthy to be a disciple. Let’s read about what happened.

Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 21, and we will read it using the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 15, John tells us that:

¹⁵ After they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than the other disciples do?”

Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus told him, “Feed my lambs.”

¹⁶ Jesus asked him again, a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus told him, “Take care of my sheep.”

¹⁷ Jesus asked him a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Peter felt sad because Jesus had asked him a third time, “Do you love me?” So Peter said to him, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”

Jesus told him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸ I can guarantee this truth: When you were young, you would get ready to go where you wanted. But when you’re old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will get you ready to take you where you don’t want to go.” ¹⁹ Jesus said this to show by what kind of death Peter would bring glory to God. After saying this, Jesus told Peter, “Follow me!”

²⁰ Peter turned around and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved. That disciple was following them. He was the one who leaned against Jesus’ chest at the supper and asked, “Lord, who is going to betray you?” ²¹ When Peter saw him, he asked Jesus, “Lord, what about him?”

²² Jesus said to Peter, “If I want him to live until I come again, how does that concern you? Follow me!” ²³ So a rumor that that disciple wouldn’t die spread among Jesus’ followers. But Jesus didn’t say that he wouldn’t die. What Jesus said was, “If I want him to live until I come again, how does that concern you?”

²⁴ This disciple was an eyewitness of these things and wrote them down. We know that what he says is true.

²⁵ Jesus also did many other things. If every one of them were written down, I suppose the world wouldn’t have enough room for the books that would be written.

With this last verse about Jesus having done many other things, John’s gospel ends.

As I look over how John concludes his gospel story, I am struck by a theme that the entire Bible contains, but a theme that is really exemplified in this last event John includes. The theme I see in this passage is redemption.

Of all the disciples’ failures throughout the entire gospel record, the most famous one is likely Peter’s denial. I cannot think of another failure greater than this in all the gospels. However, while all four gospel writers focus in on how Peter denied Jesus on the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, and how all four gospels include Jesus predicting Peter would do so that very night, only John’s gospel includes Peter’s redemption.

While I don’t know why only John included this event, I am glad he did, because it makes for the perfect conclusion to the gospel story. Jesus’ most famous and outspoken disciple, fell the farthest, but even with his failure, Peter was not beyond God’s grace or Jesus’ forgiveness!

Even though Peter had let Jesus down at the point when Jesus would have needed Peter the most, at least by the world’s standards, Jesus is more than willing to forgive Peter when given the chance.

I had thought about including a brief bit about how Jesus and Peter’s discussion use different words for love, and how each of these three questions echoed Peter’s three denials. I had thought about drawing attention onto how each of Jesus’ three challenges builds on the ones shared before it, and how each of these three challenges are similar but also distinct. I had also thought about drawing attention onto Peter’s question to Jesus about John.

However, at this point of our episode, with the major theme of redemption in view, I don’t think these nuances are as significant as the huge theme of redemption. While Jesus asked Peter three questions, Peter gave Jesus three responses, and Jesus challenged Peter three times with similar tasks, the biggest takeaway I can find in this passage is in the two words Jesus tells Peter after all of this. Verse 19 ends with Jesus’ big invitation to Peter: “Follow me!”

Jesus had called all of His disciples to follow Him early on in His ministry. However, Jesus extends this additional invitation to Peter most likely because Peter believed he had blown it and failed.

However, Peter’s second invitation is different from the first. While there are plenty of similarities between both of Peter’s invitations, Peter’s second invitation comes with all the knowledge of failure, and all the history Peter and Jesus had together.

In a similar way, for some people, beginning a brand new life with Jesus is amazing and exciting. For someone who has never followed Jesus before, stepping out in faith with Jesus feels like the beginning of an amazing adventure.

However, someone who has been a Christian for a period of their life but then fallen away might feel as though they have lost their chance. Being a Christian, then leaving for any reason might make one feel as though they will never be welcomed back.

If I just described you, understand that you might feel exactly like Peter did: Peter felt like a failure. In many ways, Jesus’ questions to Peter may have felt as though Jesus was rubbing in the failure.

However, at the end of Jesus questions for Peter, Jesus offers Peter a second chance to follow. Jesus knows that Peter’s story wasn’t over, and that Peter’s failure was something that He could use to transform Peter into the evangelist He created Peter to be.

In your life, I don’t know what you have gone through, been through, or how many times you have failed God. However, I do know that like Peter, Jesus is willing to invite you back if you are willing to return to Him. John ends his gospel story with the redemption of the disciple who failed Jesus in the most public way, and before history has come to a close, Jesus wants to redeem you out of wherever you are and into a new life with Him!

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 return to Him if you have fallen away or failed Him. Know that like Peter, Jesus’ second invitation to you has no false pretenses. Jesus invites us back to Him even when we have failed because that is who Jesus is and that shows just how much God loves us. If you have doubted God’s love, let Peter’s redemption remind you that God loves you even when you fail Him.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow personally closer to God. With a personal relationship with God that is built on prayer and study, discover how God wants to use you to impact the world for Him, and discover how with the Holy Spirit, your life can be an amazing witness for God even if you have failed Him in a major way.

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 give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we begin our last regular episode in our year focusing in on Mark’s gospel, we turn our attention onto the last portion of Mark’s gospel’s longer conclusion. As I shared more fully in our last two episodes, scholars have doubts about whether Mark wrote this conclusion or whether this conclusion was added by a scribe later on because Mark’s gospel didn’t seem to have an ending or its original ending was lost.

However, even if Mark didn’t write this conclusion to his gospel, we can learn some powerful insights in how the author of this conclusion summarized the last events in Jesus’ life.

In the last half of this conclusion, we turn our attention to the last great commission Jesus gives to the disciples. While many people focus in on Matthew’s version of Jesus’ great commission, the way the author of Mark’s gospel’s longer conclusion frames Jesus’ message is powerful to focus in on.

With that said, let’s read what this author wrote. Our passage for this episode is found at the end of Mark’s gospel, in chapter 16, and we will read from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 15:

¹⁵ Jesus said to his followers, “Go everywhere in the world, and tell the Good News to everyone. ¹⁶ Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved, but anyone who does not believe will be punished. ¹⁷ And those who believe will be able to do these things as proof: They will use my name to force out demons. They will speak in new languages. ¹⁸ They will pick up snakes and drink poison without being hurt. They will touch the sick, and the sick will be healed.”

¹⁹ After the Lord Jesus said these things to his followers, he was carried up into heaven, and he sat at the right side of God. ²⁰ The followers went everywhere in the world and told the Good News to people, and the Lord helped them. The Lord proved that the Good News they told was true by giving them power to work miracles.

In this last section of Mark’s longer conclusion, we see a number of signs shared that tell us God was with the earlier disciples. This conclusion draws our attention to the miracles that those who believed would be able to do, such as forcing out demons, speaking in new languages, picking up snakes and drinking poison without being hurt, and healing the sick by simply touching them.

While some of the things in Mark’s conclusion’ list the disciples did while they were with Jesus, this seems like a strangely specific list that draws more heavily on the details we find in the book of Acts. While Jesus could have easily predicted this, it seems a little too detailed when we compare it with Jesus’ commissions to His disciples in the other gospels. This list also doesn’t leave room for other ways that God could confirm the message of the gospel.

Perhaps this is just the translation that we are using, but it seems unlike Jesus to use miracles to prove to people that the message they are receiving is from God. This runs counter to both Jesus refusing to offer people in that generation a miracle that proved He was the Messiah, and this runs counter to Jesus’ warning to not blindly believe messages from people who perform signs and wonders.

If we read the portions describing the signs in this great commission and conclusion using the New American Standard Bible, which is the translation we used in our last episode, it describes these miracles in this way: “These signs will accompany those who have believed” is how the miracles are introduced. Verse 20 concludes this message by saying “And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.”

While the New American Standard Bible does not use the word prove, it still frames the way these signs were given as being confirmation of the message. I don’t think I ever noticed this before, but while signs could be given to confirm a message, I don’t see this being Jesus’ model.

Instead, all the miracles Jesus did throughout His ministry were used to help people God loves and to cause people to pay attention, but Jesus intended for His ministry to stand on the words and message that He preached. When the disciples traveled around following Jesus’ return to heaven, the miracles they did helped those God loved, and caused people to take note. The disciples’ ministry and the good news they shared was intended to stand on its own.

This is significant for us to pay attention to for two reasons.

First, if God’s messages will always be validated by miracles, then we have centuries and millennia of messages that can easily be doubted. This includes many of the messages God gave through the prophets in the Old Testament. The Old Testament prophets’ messages were rarely if ever confirmed through miracles. If we set miracles up as a test for whether to confirm whether a message is from God or not, then we will have a good percentage of God’s messages throughout history that could then be claimed to not be inspired. God wouldn’t want this.

Secondly, using miracles as a test sets us up to be deceived if a message is false but a miracle confirms it. If Satan wanted to come to deceive, he would have no difficulty doing things that would appear miraculous. Satan could come helping people, teaching positive, humanitarian messages, and perform miracles and millions would be set up to be deceived simply because they used the miracles as their guide and not the previously revealed truth of scripture. Miracles are capable of being done by both good and evil angels, and because of this, they are a poor test for whether we should trust a messenger.

I wonder if this is why my New American Standard Bible footnotes hinted at theological challenges included in this longer ending of Mark’s gospel. Jesus’ teaching doesn’t suggest we should put much spiritual weight on a miracle worker. Instead, when we see miracles, we should take note, but then judge the value of the message this miracle worker is sharing based on the truth that is included in the Bible.

While Mark’s ending is questionable, and while I can understand why some scholars are concerned with what it suggests, the big truth we should hold on to in this conclusion is that God is with His people.

Jesus’ followers spread the great news of the gospel message, and God went with them as they shared Jesus with everyone they met. Jesus’ early followers dedicated their lives to sharing Jesus with people – even going so far as dying for their faith! I wholeheartedly believe that we are called to share Jesus like these first followers of Jesus shared Him, and that when we step out in faith, we will discover God is with us, helping us every step of the way!

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, continue to seek God first in your life and let Him lead and guide you as you move through life. Choose to place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and in His sacrifice to cover your sins.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to discover firsthand what the Bible teaches. Knowing the Bible is our best defense when discerning truth from error, and when we prayerfully study the Bible, we open our hearts and minds to what God wants to teach us from His Word!

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 give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!