Reflective Bible Study

On the final day of a festival Jesus went to in Jerusalem, the gospel of John tells us a statement that He makes, which both divides the crowds listening to Him, and it is a statement that prompts the religious leaders to call for Jesus’ arrest. While the statement Jesus says is powerful and challenging, how the people react, including the Pharisees, reveal their character and their hearts. When we think about it, just like the passage we are about to read does, when we bring Jesus into a conversation today, those present are likely to polarize into groups who believe in Him and those who don’t.

Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 7, and we will be reading from the New International Version. Starting in verse 37, John tells us that:

³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” ³⁹ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

⁴⁰ On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”

⁴¹ Others said, “He is the Messiah.”

Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? ⁴² Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” ⁴³ Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. ⁴⁴ Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

Let’s pause reading here to look at a couple things that have just taken place.

First, Jesus makes a challenging statement about Himself from the scriptures. Jesus tells those present, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” This statement is powerful and challenging, and it is a promise that we can depend on.

However, it’s interesting in my mind that John then inserts a note saying that this was a promise that would be granted in the future, after Jesus was glorified. Nothing in Jesus’ words themselves speak to this being fulfilled in the future, or in the present. This makes me wonder if John’s insertion draws our attention onto a bigger truth that we can use to understand Jesus’ promises.

John immediately explains that Jesus’ promise would be fulfilled at a later date, and John says that this would be a date after Jesus was glorified. This makes me wonder if other present-tense-promises are things we can claim today, but things that might not be fully realized until a later date.

This is something that I will think about as we move forward through reading the gospels.

However, the big thing to note in this passage is that Jesus’ statement about Himself challenges those present. Some people believed Jesus to be the Messiah, others believed Jesus to be the Prophet who would come before the Messiah. Some people, as we will soon see, believed Jesus to be a fraud and impostor. There is no denying that Jesus polarized people.

It is interesting that the crowd debates among themselves regarding Jesus’ credentials. No one ever asked Jesus about His birth, to discover that He was indeed born in Bethlehem, and that His mother and “father” were descendants of David. Perhaps the culture they lived in was different from our culture today; perhaps those living in the first century didn’t move or travel as much as we do today.

Now, 2,000 plus years later, where someone lives is not likely to be the place where they were born. I was born in Canada, but have lived in plenty of places that were not my birth town.

The crowd was clearly torn, because they knew Jesus had God’s Spirit on Him because of the healing and miracles, but He also didn’t add up to their picture of the Messiah.

Continuing in verse 45, we learn that temple guards were paying attention, looking for an opening to arrest Jesus.

⁴⁵ Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

⁴⁶ “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.

⁴⁷ “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. ⁴⁸ “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

⁵⁰ Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ⁵¹ “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

⁵² They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

Let’s stop reading at this point in the passage. John describes Nicodemus subtly trying to put a pause on the rest of the Pharisees’ judgment. Even though Nicodemus is dismissed, we can learn some interesting things about these Pharisees through their response to both the guards and to Nicodemus.

Firstly, when the guards return empty handed, they are immediately accused of being deceived by Jesus. The Pharisees challenge the guards by describing the crowd in the temple as a “mob that knows nothing of the law”. This description is false on a number of levels, most notably because those present at the temple during this festival would only have been there if it was because of the law. The law included certain festivals where all Jews would travel to Jerusalem to worship, and during this festival, the temple and streets in Jerusalem would be filled with the most devout and religious Jews in their faith.

Also, by describing the crowd of people present as a “mob”, the religious leaders claim they are emotionally drawn to Jesus in an irrational way – and that they are prone to become violent at any moment. If that were the case, the guards would have had reason to arrest Jesus, but when they return empty handed, they tell the Pharisees that no one has spoken like Jesus has, they don’t even hint at Jesus rallying people together for a single purpose or for violence. Because of this exaggeration, the Pharisees show their emotionally irrational rejection of Jesus.

The last way the Pharisees’ description of the crowd falls flat is when we compare it directly to what the crowd says when they are debating about Jesus. The crowd displays knowledge of the law and the prophets when they talk among themselves about Jesus being a descendant of David and from the town of Bethlehem. This detail shows that the crowd, or should I say the “mob”, understands the Messianic prophecies enough to wonder about who Jesus is.

When we look at Nicodemus’ challenge to the Pharisees, we find an interesting angle. Nicodemus knows that Jesus’ actions have all been positive and a blessing to others, so he tries to use that angle to diffuse the tension in the room.

However, his attempt fails because the other Pharisees are blinded to the idea that anything from God could come from Galilee. They choose not to investigate Jesus’ back-story like Matthew and Luke do to discover that Jesus really was born in Bethlehem, and it was from concern over the rulers in the land that Jesus’ parents settled in region of Galilee. These religious leaders also show a limited belief in God because when we are certain that God cannot use something, that He cannot work through a certain action, or that He won’t step in to help us at a certain point, we may be surprised to discover that He does.

Another way to say this is that just because a prophet has never come from Galilee does not mean that a prophet will never come out of Galilee at some point in the future. Perhaps I am missing a scripture reference or something credible that they knew, however I doubt it. I am certain that they based their belief and bias against Galilee on the foundation that no prophets had ever come from that area, so therefore, the belief would be that no prophets would ever come from there either.

This thinking set the Pharisees up to reject Jesus without cause – and we can fall into this trap too. When we close our eyes and our minds to the possibility God could use some tragic event, a certain group of people who are different from us, or even a certain style of music for His purposes, we set ourselves up to be challenged when God decides to use the thing we believe He would not use.

Instead, we should delay judgment and look at the results of what we are tempted to judge and see if people are truly drawn towards God, towards repentance, and towards placing their trust, faith, and belief in Him. If the results are present, I wouldn’t be surprised if God was working through it.

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

Be sure to seek God first and be open to Him working in areas we might not typically expect. Look at the results and the methods, and reserve judgment because we cannot always predict the methods God will use to bring people to Him.

Also, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself. Don’t take my word, or anyone else’s word for anything. Instead, test what I and others say to determine if it truly is what the Bible teaches. A pastor or podcaster can give you things to think about from their own journey with God, but don’t let their relationship with Him replace your relationship.

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 continue in the gospels looking at Jesus’ miracles, we now jump over into John’s gospel, and a miracle that only John chose to include. In this miracle, we discover something amazing about Jesus, about God, and we discover one possible reason why we may not see God’s help in our lives in a more visible way. In this unassuming but powerful passage, we can discover a clue to why we might not see many answered prayers in our lives.

Let’s read this miracle and focus in on what we can learn from what John tells us happened. Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 5, and we will be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five colonnades. ³ Within these lay a large number of the sick—blind, lame, and paralyzed. [It is here that some translations add the last phrase of verse 3 and verse 4, which tells us that they were: —waiting for the moving of the water, ⁴ because an angel would go down into the pool from time to time and stir up the water. Then the first one who got in after the water was stirred up recovered from whatever ailment he had].

After setting the stage in these first four verses, verse 5 begins sharing the details of our miracle:

⁵ One man was there who had been sick for 38 years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the sick man answered, “I don’t have a man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk!” ^9a Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

Let’s stop reading here to focus on what we can learn from what has just happened. While we don’t know how many people were sick around the pool that day, from a simple reading of this event, we see Jesus enter this place where there was a high concentration of sick people, He heals one man, and then He leaves. We might even conclude that Jesus left every other sick person present without healing them since John doesn’t tell us Jesus healed anyone else.

When reading this event, and concluding that Jesus likely left everyone else in their sick, diseased, or disabled state, we don’t see a very “Christ-like” character. We expect Jesus and God to be loving, and isn’t the most loving thing Jesus could do in this situation was heal everyone present? Healing everyone is loving, but healing everyone does not show us an accurate picture of God.

While we don’t like to think about it, there are some times when God chooses not to heal someone instead of healing them. We cannot know all the answers to why this is, but we can trust that when we are able to see the big picture from God’s perspective, we will understand. Some people choose to discount God’s love or His existence because of this dilemma, but this dilemma only is unsolvable when we see this life as all there is to live.

As soon as we frame our world today as infected with sin, and God’s ultimate goal as saving as many people as possible from this sin while also clearly exposing sin for what it truly is so it will never reappear throughout eternity, we can begin to see why sin might be allowed to persist a little longer. God’s ultimate goal and long-term plan is to end this world that includes pain, disease, death, and sin in order to recreate it as perfect and sinless where it will be this way throughout eternity – and God wants to fill this newly recreated world with His redeemed people. If God ends history too soon, then sin may reappear later, which would be bad. Also, if God ends history too soon, then He may lose one or more people who could have been in heaven with Him. God wants as many people as possible in the new heaven and new earth, and He wants sin gone forever, never to reappear.

However, while this answers why God may not always answer our prayers, this event hints at another reason we never actually see answers to our prayers. This hint comes in the additional details setting the stage for this event, and from the formerly disabled man’s reply. In this event, we learned that periodically, and perhaps even somewhat randomly, an angel would stir the waters of this pool and the first sick person into this pool would be healed.

With how John describes this event, we can conclude that everyone at this pool was focused on getting in the water when it had been stirred. The focus of their hope was not on Jesus but on being healed by the pool. Only the man who had given up hope of ever reaching the pool experienced a visit from Jesus who came to heal him. This detail helps explain why Jesus didn’t heal everyone at this pool, and this detail also tells us why we might not see as many answers to our prayers as we would like.

If we choose to pray as a last resort, or if we choose to pray and then look for resolution for our prayers from sources other than God, we shouldn’t be surprised when we don’t see God answer our prayers. If we constantly look for help from places other than God, it’s only logical that we won’t see God helping much in our lives. However, if we pray and we know that God oftentimes works behind the scenes through the lives of other people and through what we might call coincidences, then we are able to see His hand moving in many more places than we first are able to realize. This is why it is easier to look back on our lives and see how God has lead us in the past than it is to recognize how He is leading us in the present.

God wants to answer our prayers, but He also wants us to give Him gratitude, thanks, and love for being our Provider. When we are grateful to God for everything He has done for us, and when we open our eyes to how He often works, we will begin to see answered prayers, blessings, and evidence for His existence everywhere.

While there’s more we could talk about in this event, let’s wait until our next episode to focus in on it. Until then, as we come to the end of this podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Always seek God first and decide today to live a life that is grateful towards God for everything that He is doing. If you struggle with how God could let evil persist in the world today, take this question to Him and let Him lead you to an answer. While I’ve shared some of what I’ve learned in this episode, I’m sure there is more to this answer than what we would have time to cover.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to personally grow closer to God each and every day. The closer you grow towards God, the more His character will rub off on your life and the better you will be at reflecting His love to the world around you. When we are reflecting God’s love in our world, we are living the best lives we can live in spite of the pain, sin, hurt, and hate that rages around 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 are approaching the half way part of the year, and our half way milestone in the gospels, one might think that we would be about half way through Jesus’ ministry. However, this thought is not correct, because as we approach the middle of each gospel, we learn that most of the gospels dedicate a significant percentage of their space focusing on Jesus’ final week leading up to the cross.

However, in our walk through the gospels for this year, we haven’t arrived at this point just yet. Instead, we come to a passage that may have happened several weeks leading up to Jesus’ final week, as He begins to make His way towards Jerusalem and towards the cross.

In this passage, we can get a picture of God’s character, and this picture challenges each of us regarding how we choose to react when faced with other people who are mean to us. Also found in our passage is a great example of a subtle issue that gets various groups of Christian’s pointing their fingers at each other rather than realize that we are all on the same team – especially regarding the issue found in this passage.

Our passage is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 9, and we will be reading from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 51, we read that:

⁵¹ When the time was coming near for Jesus to depart, he was determined to go to Jerusalem. ⁵² He sent some messengers ahead of him, who went into a town in Samaria to make everything ready for him. ⁵³ But the people there would not welcome him, because he was set on going to Jerusalem. ⁵⁴ When James and John, followers of Jesus, saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven and destroy those people?”

⁵⁵ But Jesus turned and scolded them.

At this point in our passage, most Bible translations either exclude a statement, or they include it with a note. The statement in question is this:

 [And Jesus said, “You don’t know what kind of spirit you belong to. ⁵⁶ The Son of Man did not come to destroy the souls of people but to save them.”]

Then all translations finish this passage by saying: “Then they went to another town.”

The reason I draw emphasis on this distinction between how certain translations vary in their recording of this event is because how people treat this discrepancy is very similar to one big theme found in the passage itself.

In this passage, we find Jesus traveling to Jerusalem, and instead of going the long way around to avoid passing through Samaria, He decides to travel through it. Samaritans and Jews had a very hostile history and they were among the most prejudiced people towards each other that we can find in history.

By this point in Jesus’ ministry, the disciples have already traveled through Samaria a number of times, so it doesn’t surprise them that they decide to go through this region again — however, this might be the first time that a Samaritan town has refused their presence.

The reason: Because Jesus was a Jew traveling to Jerusalem for a festival. Whether this town knew who Jesus was or not, they let their prejudice of Jesus’ ancestry get in the way of them experiencing what Jesus could do for them.

In response, because the town rejected them, two of Jesus’ closest disciples make the suggestion about calling fire from heaven to destroy “those people”.

This passage clearly shows prejudice of both sides, and each side believes they are justified in their actions or suggestions. Both the disciples and the Samaritans fall into an “us vs. them” trap – and if we are not careful, we too can fall into this same trap.

One way this trap has captured the spotlight recently is certain groups of people taking offence at modern translations for “removing” certain key verses or passages. This passage is one great example. The questionable phrase fits completely, and it even helps the dialog of the event. The statements in question give us a frame of reference for how Jesus scolded the disciples for their statement.

The trap for us today is falling into an “us vs. them” mentality because if we see modern translators removing text from the Bible, we might begin distrusting all modern translations because they have been “tampered” with. I recently read an article that focused on this issue.

While I cannot speak for all translations present in the world today, I will say that the majority of the translations that are well-known, modern translations have teams of people much smarter than I who are heartfelt Christian men and women. These people would be appalled at the idea that they are tampering with the text.

Instead, what we are discovering, is that as ancient manuscripts are being discovered and dated, we are learning that the early copies of the writings, including our passage for this episode, actually do not include any details about how Jesus scolded the disciples. Jesus very well could have said the statement in question, but when Luke wrote His gospel, he didn’t include it.

What happened at some point in the manuscript copying process is that a scribe, wanting to help make the idea clearer for those reading, pulled a similar teaching from John’s gospel, and he included it in our passage to help us see God’s character better. It is probable that the scribe looked at John, chapter 3, verse 17, which says “God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17)

No one on either side of the debate doubts the statements which were added on whether they align with God’s character. In this regard, we are all on the same team. Also, both sides of the debate want the most accurate translations of the Bible available and shared with others. This also makes us all on the same team.

Where we are left to debate is whether we should include the additional insights and cross-references that some well-meaning scribes included as they were copying the Bible. Most passages in question are included in other portions of the Bible. An example of this would be if Matthew included a detail that Luke didn’t. A scribe copying Luke’s gospel who also knows the event from Matthew’s gospel may have included Matthew’s detail in Luke’s version to help Luke’s version be better. In the early years of manuscripts, it was not as easy to compare between translations or gospels as it is today, so we can and should thank these early scribes for their work keeping the scriptures alive throughout the early parts of Christian history. This makes these early scribes part of our same team.

Prejudice doesn’t help anyone. The Samaritans miss out on Jesus because of their prejudice, and the disciples are scolded because they were prejudiced as well. Jesus modeled the right response at the close of this event. Everyone agrees that after scolding the disciples, Jesus and His followers “went to another town.”

Not all towns in Samaria were prejudiced against Jesus, and Jesus uses this opportunity to teach His followers to not be prejudiced towards others even if they reject us. Instead, we should simply move on.

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

Be sure to model Jesus’ attitude in this passage. If other people hurt our feelings or reject us, we shouldn’t get mad or revengeful. Instead, we should simply move on. Know that we are all on the same team – especially those of us who have placed Jesus first in our lives.

Also, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself and trust that God has kept His message safe for the thousands of years of history we have been keeping track. If you are doubtful about a translation, the best place to go is to the original manuscripts in the original language they were written in. However, if you don’t know the original languages like I don’t know them, then the next best place we can go is to other translations. When we have lots of translations available in our own language, we are able to see a bigger and clearer picture of what the original said when we don’t know the original language of the text. By using lots of translations, God is able to keep His message alive and relevant for us living over 2,000 years later.

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 doubt yourself into leaving where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Coming immediately on the tail end of the miracle we read about in the last episode, we learn about another miracle that Jesus did, and this miracle both prompts the praise of those present, as well as the ridicule of the religious leaders. In three short verses, we discover an amazing miracle, the people taking notice, and the religious leaders immediately discounting the divine nature of Jesus’ power.

Let’s read what happened then dive into what we can learn that is both interesting and applicable for our lives today. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will be reading from the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 32, Matthew tells us that:

³² As they were going out, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to Him. ³³ After the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke; and the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” ³⁴ But the Pharisees were saying, “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”

When reading this miracle, one of the first things that stand out in my mind was that in most of the previous demon-possessed miracles, the evil spirits scream or cry out about Jesus being God’s Son or that they know who He is. However, this miracle is different, because this demon apparently caused muteness.

Perhaps the Pharisees saw this as an opportunity to claim what they decided to claim, namely that Jesus is simply one demon casting out another demon using Satan’s own power. After all, this claim only works if there isn’t a counterclaim being made. Imagine for a moment that the demon coming out of the man claims that Jesus is God’s Son, as many of the other ones had done, and the Pharisees respond by claiming Jesus is just another demon. In an odd twist, we’d be forced to logically side with the demons in their claim because the Pharisees claim would be less believable.

This scenario would be like a person named Bob telling you he is mortal enemies with a guy named Sam, while Bill standing in the corner counters with the claim that Bob and Sam aren’t enemies, but brothers.

In this situation, we’d be better off trusting the claim of those involved and rejecting the third party unless the third party has some strong evidence to back their claim up. In the case of Jesus verses the demons versus the Pharisees, the most logical conclusion is to accept that in this one instance, the demons may actually be truthful.

While Jesus doesn’t respond directly to the Pharisee’s challenge in this passage, they do make the claim again, and at that point Jesus does respond. While I haven’t looked ahead at our schedule yet, I’m pretty sure that event is coming up.

However, what does this mean for us living today?

In my own mind, this event challenges me to check my own motives when I want to claim someone or something is leading people towards God or away from Him. While there are clear examples of each, a gray area does exist where it is difficult to decide on. The example of a gray area is if we see someone who is believing one truth about God and one lie about God leading others to also believe the one truth and one lie. Is this person helping others, or harming them? Sure the new believer is being helped because of the truth, but the lie is not helpful, and, depending on the person and situation, if the lie is exposed as false, will that also negatively affect the close truth, leading to the newly converted person rejecting both?

I honestly don’t believe anyone aside from Jesus knows 100% of the truth, but I also know that the more certain we are about a specific belief, the more closed-minded we can become. I am very likely guilty of being closed-minded on certain subjects as well. Being closed-minded isn’t an issue if the belief is the truth, but when we cannot say we are 100% certain of all truth, then it would be better to remain open-minded, because God is more than willing to teach those who come to Him to learn His truth.

I will be the first to not judge anyone for bringing others to Jesus while believing both truths and lies. There are likely those who believe me to be an example of one such person. In this regard, I am happy to let God judge and sort out the details. However, I am also well aware that there are dangers in following anything other than the Bible. History has proved repeatedly that when the Bible is filtered through anything else, people are deceived and they give up on God’s truth. This is why I try to let the Bible teach as much as possible in these podcast episodes, and these blog posts and podcast episodes actually are ways I challenge myself to let the Bible teach me personally.

Tradition is only as good as it is grounded in scriptures. If a traditional belief or idea counters what the Bible teaches, then we must discard the tradition in favor of the Bible in order to have a clear conscience. The Pharisees were blinded to seeing who Jesus was because they had placed their traditional understanding of the scriptures ahead of a clear reading of it – and because they rejected Jesus in favor of their traditions, they couldn’t help but claim that Jesus was using Satanic forces to heal others rather than using God’s power. If they admitted Jesus was from God, then they would have incriminated themselves for rejecting Him.

The same thing can happen to us today if we filter our reading of the Bible through our tradition. If we only read the Bible looking through the lens of our tradition, we will miss, ignore, discount, or simply reject scriptures that teach the opposite. Those less trapped by tradition in this passage stood in wonder and amazement, saying in verse 33, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel”. These people were less focused on keeping tradition and more focused on paying attention to what God was doing through Jesus right in front of them.

Almost every tradition has roots in some scattered scriptural references. Many of today’s traditions began because of cultural pressure and compromise. Ultimately, traditions are never corrected because of pride. When rejecting a tradition in favor of a Biblical truth, expect pressure from others. Following tradition is easy, but tradition caused the people who should have recognized Jesus, namely the religious leaders who knew the prophecies and the scriptures the best, to reject Him instead. Tradition threatens us in the same way today when we don’t remain grounded in God’s Word!

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

Always seek God first and choose to focus on letting God’s Word be your filter for life. Intentionally push back against tradition until you are 100% certain it is Biblically centered. If there is even 1 verse or passage that does not support a tradition, then you cannot be 100% certain of it.

Also, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself in order to let the Bible be your guide and your compass. While other people can give you ideas to think about, their ideas are only as good as they align with what the Bible teaches. Ideas that run counter to the Bible are worthless from the perspective of eternity. As always, let the Bible be your guide and your filter for life.

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!