Reflective Bible Study

Part way through Jesus’ ministry, He shares a broad series of parables about God’s kingdom, and with these simple illustrations, we can discover some amazing truths about God’s kingdom. These illustrations have a way of actually showing us, regardless of the place we are in history, what God’s kingdom is like.

Both the gospels of Matthew and Luke include two short parables that are often grouped together. While many people will often default to Matthew’s gospel when reading them, let’s look at Luke’s version of these parables, and discover what we can learn about God’s kingdom through these two simple, but also profound illustrations.

We will be reading from the gospel of Luke, chapter 13, using the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 18:

¹⁸ Then Jesus said, “What is God’s kingdom like? What can I compare it with? ¹⁹ It is like a mustard seed that a man plants in his garden. The seed grows and becomes a tree, and the wild birds build nests in its branches.”

²⁰ Jesus said again, “What can I compare God’s kingdom with? ²¹ It is like yeast that a woman took and hid in a large tub of flour until it made all the dough rise.”

We’ll stop reading here because in these two parables are several profound thoughts.

The first idea that jumps out at me when I read this is a similar theme that is present in both parables. This theme says that God’s kingdom is growing or expanding. When we look at the first parable, the mustard seed, which happens to be among the smallest seeds around, grows into a well-sized tree. In the same way, God’s kingdom started very small, and it has been growing and expanding ever since.

In a similar way, the yeast parable describes a woman hiding yeast in a tub of flower. Chances are the yeast, when it was mixed into the flower was completely hidden, but when water was added to make dough, there was no denying that the yeast was present, because the yeast made the dough rise. Just like in the first parable, the tiny amount of yeast needed might seem insignificant when compared with the whole tub of flour, but it had a disproportionate affect on the dough. This is similar to the tiny mustard seed being insignificant, and similar to God’s kingdom appearing insignificant at first, but growing and affecting the world around it.

While the theme of growth is present in both parables, and because of this, we can conclude the theme of growth is a strong theme present in God’s kingdom as well, we can uncover more themes than just this shared one tucked within each parable when looking a little closer.

In the first parable, found in verse 19, Jesus says God’s kingdom “is like a mustard seed that a man plants in his garden. The seed grows and becomes a tree, and the wild birds build nests in its branches.”

Tucked in the mustard tree’s growth is a benefit we can discover. Jesus describes how wild birds will build nests in this tree’s branches. This seems like unnecessary information if Jesus simply wanted to tell those present about the growth nature of God’s kingdom, unless Jesus shares this as a way of describing one purpose for this growth.

In the case of a mustard tree, when it is grown, it exists as a place for wild birds to build their homes and rest. The wild birds are not opposed to the existence of the tree, but instead, they value its presence. In the same way, when God’s kingdom expands and affects the world around it, I believe God meant for this expansion to be beneficial for all those involved. When Christianity comes into an area or a region, it should enhance the lives of those present, it should love those who are present, and it should be something that is so beneficial that those in the area where it exists would hate to see it leave.

With this description, I see the church having failed in many ways. There are plenty of examples of unloving Christians. I am sure you may have met one or two in your life at some point. However, I want to point out that a Christian who is not loving, generous, and genuinely interested in helping those around him or her is not actually a Christian. When Jesus Christ walked this earth, He loved others, He was generous towards those who came to Him, and He was genuinely interested in helping those around Him, and this is who He called His followers to be.

If Jesus’ followers returned to this ideal, we could eventually shake off the hate-filled, and hostile stereotype that we as a whole have been branded with. The stereotype we should aim for is one where we forgive others too many times, love and care for others in over the top ways, and put others ahead of ourselves whenever we can. If we had a stereotype like this, we would be more accurately representing Jesus in the world around us.

But let’s shift over to the other parable. In verse 21, Jesus describes God’s kingdom “like yeast that a woman took and hid in a large tub of flour until it made all the dough rise.” In this description, we see the growth and expansion being internal and hidden. When the dough is first made, it is a small clump, but with the yeast present, the dough as a whole expands. Unlike the mustard tree that grows out of the ground, the yeast affects the entire area it was placed in, which in this case is the flour, water, and other ingredients placed in the dough.

In this second parable, we see God’s kingdom growing inside of each of us and growing in a more hidden way than in the first parable. While we can see the effects of this growth, and other people can see the effects perhaps even more clearly than we can, the growth itself is hidden within us. God’s kingdom in this second parable is hidden in our hearts and lives and it changes and affects our actions and our attitudes. These new actions and attitudes towards our circumstances are evidence that something is growing in our lives, and this something is the “yeast” of God’s kingdom.

Shifting our focus back onto looking at both parables, we can see two more themes and these two themes are connected. In both parables, we see a person intentionally placing the item representing God’s kingdom into the place where it is. In the first parable, a man plants the mustard seed in his garden, and in the second parable, a woman hides the yeast in the flour.

This shared theme says that God’s kingdom is placed intentionally in places where God wants it to grow, and chances are very high that one of the places God has planted a spiritual seed for His kingdom is within your heart. This also means that when we are a part of God’s kingdom, we can know and trust that He has placed us in exactly the place we need to be, and that where we are is where He wants us to be. While we might not know why we are where we are in life, He does and we can trust that He knows best.

The second half of this shared theme is the subtle truth that both seeds and yeast need water to grow. Water helps launch a seeds growth like water activates the yeast in a bowl of flour. Without water, both the yeast and the seed would stay dormant. This means that in our own lives, we must remain connected to the source of water, we might even call this water “the living water” in order to let God’s kingdom grow and expand in our lives. We stay connected to this source of life by intentionally focusing on God and intentionally moving towards God each and every day.

The best ways I know how to move towards God is through prayer and Bible study. With that said, as we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to prioritize Bible study and prayer in your daily routine.

Also, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself. While devotionals, pastors, or podcasts are good places to start, never settle for someone else’s knowledge and relationship when God wants a personal relationship with you. This is why I always recommend that you study the Bible for yourself, and if you need help getting started, I’m happy to help get you on the right track.

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!

Earlier during this year of podcasting through Jesus’ miracles in the gospels, we focused in on a passage where demons came out screaming that Jesus was God’s Son. While it seems like this may have been an isolated incident, it is possible that this detail was more frequent during Jesus’ ministry, and that the gospel writers simply stopped recording the detail because of how common it was. We can see this hinted in a rather generic passage of healings that Mark’s gospel includes.

Our passage for this episode comes from Mark’s gospel, chapter 3, and we will be reading it from the Good News Translation of the Bible. Starting in verse 7, Mark tells us that:

⁷ Jesus and his disciples went away to Lake Galilee, and a large crowd followed him. They had come from Galilee, from Judea, ⁸ from Jerusalem, from the territory of Idumea, from the territory on the east side of the Jordan, and from the region around the cities of Tyre and Sidon. All these people came to Jesus because they had heard of the things he was doing. ⁹ The crowd was so large that Jesus told his disciples to get a boat ready for him, so that the people would not crush him. ¹⁰ He had healed many people, and all the sick kept pushing their way to him in order to touch him. ¹¹ And whenever the people who had evil spirits in them saw him, they would fall down before him and scream, “You are the Son of God!”

¹² Jesus sternly ordered the evil spirits not to tell anyone who he was.

In Mark’s passage, we don’t really learn much that could be called new based on other passages we have looked at so far this year. Previously we have seen Jesus cast evil spirits out, heal people, we have seen evil spirits declaring Jesus to be God’s Son, and we’ve seen Jesus silence these evil spirits. Jesus has also been so crowded in with people listening to Him preach that He has preached from a boat.

There isn’t much new that we can learn from this passage, but while this is the case, there are two things that are worth us focusing in on.

The first thing we’ll focus in on is that when we are living within God’s plan for our lives, God will bring people into our lives that He wants us to reach out to, people that He wants us to touch with His love, and people who will challenge us to grow. When we are living within God’s plan for our lives, don’t be surprised when word gets around about what God is doing through us.

In Jesus’ life and ministry, we see this displayed clearly and visibly in this passage from Mark’s gospel. Mark describes in verses 7 and 8 how this crowd of people “had come from Galilee, from Judea, from Jerusalem, from the territory of Idumea, from the territory on the east side of the Jordan, and from the region around the cities of Tyre and Sidon.”

While this list of places doesn’t mean much to us living on the other side of the world over 2,000 years later, what we can see present here is that within a very short period of time, word spread about Jesus to a very wide region. The word that was spreading related to Jesus’ miraculous healing ability and His counter-cultural message. People spent days traveling to hear Jesus and to get help for a loved one or themselves, and when these people who needed help arrived, Jesus was willing to give them a few moments of God’s time, and touch their lives with God’s love.

The second thing we are reminded of in this passage is that unless Satan disliked having his evil spirits possessing people, the simple fact that a person possessed by an evil spirit being caught near Jesus gives evidence for God being stronger than Satan. Every time Jesus encounters an evil spirit, the evil spirit loses. The only option an evil spirit has when faced with Jesus is try to do something to discredit Jesus’ authority – and in this passage, as with ones before, the option is to declare the truth about Jesus.

If we are primed to distrust Satan, then we immediately distrust anything that comes from his mouth – even if it is the truth. We should distrust Satan, but it is best to simply ignore anything he says because it is guaranteed to be a blend of truth and lies and it will be difficult for us to discern the truth from the lies. In place of ignoring Satan, we should intentionally focus more on studying the Bible, and on discovering what it teaches us about God. When we grow closer to God, we begin to reflect Him in our lives, and we will be better able to see the devil’s tricks.

When we look at this passage and what it reminds us about Jesus, we discover that God is more powerful than Satan; that every time an evil spirit encounters Jesus, Jesus wins; and that God is more than willing to bring people into our lives for His purposes.

God has a big plan in place for history and the end of sin, and when we look at how Jesus lived His life, we discover that God loves each of us, and that Jesus came to redeem us from the sin that has trapped us.

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

Always seek God first and let Him lead you through life. Intentionally grow closer to Him in order to see the traps and the lies Satan is spreading through the world. Remember that Jesus is infinitely stronger than Satan is and that Jesus invites us to be on His winning side.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself, to learn and grow each day in your faith and knowledge of God. Choose to filter everything culture wants to convince you of through the pages of the Bible to discern its true value.

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!

While Jesus traveled around teaching and preaching, we learn early on that Jesus loved to use illustrations, metaphors, and parables while sharing truth with the crowds. However, part of me wonders if this was unusual for a teacher to do in first century Jewish culture. The reason for this thought is because of a question the disciples ask Jesus about His parables, and because they ask Jesus this question, we are able to see an amazing picture of God within Jesus’ response.

While three of the four gospels describe this event, let’s read it from Matthew’s gospel, chapter 13, using the New Living Translation. Starting in verse 10, immediately following Jesus sharing a parable with the crowd:

¹⁰ His 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 Jesus’ reply, we find several interesting ideas. First, Jesus responds that His use of parables is to fulfill prophecies and predictions about His life. The Old Testament writers, specifically the prophet Isaiah, had foreshadowed Jesus coming and teaching people who would not understand His message. Isaiah’s prophecy also tells us why. Isaiah says that the hearts of the people are hardened and that they have closed their eyes.

Many of those living in the first century, including most of the religious leaders, fit this description. Whether they were more politically motivated than spiritually loving, or whether they had simply distorted their view of the Messiah that God would send into a picture that Jesus wouldn’t come close to fitting, we find many of those living in the first century rejecting Jesus.

However, while sharing this almost hopeless look at Isaiah’s prophecy being fulfilled around them, Jesus’ message also includes the remedy. It is worth noting that Isaiah’s description of how the religious leaders in the first century could miss the Messiah is a trap that anyone can fall into following Jesus’ time on earth. Yes, even people living today, thousands of years after the first century can miss Jesus by being closed minded, having hard hearts, and by closing their eyes to Him.

What then is the remedy Jesus shares?

The remedy is found in verse 12, where Jesus tells the disciples: “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.”

In this verse, we find the remedy begins by “listening” to Jesus’ teaching. In the context of this verse, listening means more than simply hearing. Jesus makes this distinction in the following verse where He says, “They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.” (v. 13b)

The challenge for everyone listening to Jesus’ message is to not simply hear it, but to actually apply it. When you “hear” something, you might remember it later if it was interesting in some way, or you could forget it hours, or even days later. In contrast, when you “listen” to something or someone, you have given them your attention and you are truly interested in what they have to say. Listening involves our concentration, and it is the first step in gaining an abundance of knowledge.

The next piece of listening to gain understanding is having our eyes open, and our hearts willing to be drawn to Jesus. When our hearts are hard, the only lasting solution is Jesus. If we listen to Jesus’ teaching with a skeptical mind, unwilling to even try following His recommendations, or even with a critical attitude looking for a way to discredit His message, then we will never truly know Jesus – and His message will not be understood. The religious leaders in the first century fell into this trap.

While many were simply willing to ignore Jesus, most of those who actually listened chose to listen with an agenda. They listened looking for reasons to criticize and discredit Jesus, and focusing on Jesus’ message in this way does not allow your heart to be drawn to Him. Listening in this way actually hardens your heart more.

The contrasting solution is to listen with an open mind and a willing heart. While having a hard heart might make it difficult to want to try Jesus’ way, the only way to fix a heard heart is to move towards Jesus and be open to His fixing, melting, or even replacing your hard heart as the case may be. In my case, I think my heart actually had to be spiritually replaced because of its hardness.

To wrap up Jesus’ solution, we are challenged to expect Jesus’ message to change your life as you focus on Him and His words. Expect to receive more knowledge, understanding, and even love for others as you listen, focus, and apply what Jesus teaches in your life. Expect to understand Jesus’ parables as you read and dwell on each of them and what they teach us about God’s kingdom, and God’s character.

We see this expectation in the last portion of the passage where Jesus tells us that those who see and listen are blessed. He tells those listening that: “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.” (v. 16-17)

Jesus concludes by drawing our attention to the detail that many of the prophets who came earlier in history would have loved to have lived in the first century, but they didn’t. In the same way, there is part of me who would have loved to have lived in the first century to have met Jesus face to face while He was alive on earth. However, this in itself doesn’t mean that hearing or reading Jesus’ words will increase our knowledge and understanding, even though the prophets from earlier in history believed it would.

Our trust in Jesus and the expectation of more knowledge and understanding comes within His promise that we began with: “To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge.” (v. 12a)

We expect to learn from Jesus because we believe His promise and we listen to and claim His message here as a foundation for everything else we will learn, discover, see, and hear in the Bible. Jesus spoke in parables to make it easy for those who were listening to understand the truth about God, and to make it challenging for those who were simply hearing with closed hearts and minds, and/or with an agenda, to understand His message.

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

Be sure to focus on Jesus first in your life. Be sure to really listen to Him and His message in a way that prompts and challenges you to apply it into your life. While many of Jesus’ teachings don’t seem to make sense if analyzed on the front end, by testing out Jesus’ teachings in our own life with a desire to see a change, God’s way will not disappoint. I truly believe that you will discover a new picture of God.

Also, as you focus on Jesus in your life, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself. While a pastor or podcaster can give you ideas to think about, only through pray and personal Bible study will you get direct access to the Holy Spirit. While I know the Holy Spirit can teach us through other people, we limit our growth if we rely exclusively on others for God’s truth. This is why I always encourage you to personally study the Bible, because in many ways, regular prayer and Bible study is one of the more challenging habits to form and maintain.

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 be tricked into leaving where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we transition more fully into Jesus’ ministry and the miracles the gospel writers include, we discover that the religious leaders began to dislike Jesus. In our last episode, Jesus appeared to challenge their view of God being the only source of forgiveness, and this didn’t sit well with them, even if Jesus was more than willing, and able, to help people with His healing ability.

While we could call the religious leaders jealous of Jesus, jealousy covers some of their feelings, but not all of them. While there likely were some religious leaders who wished to have Jesus’ ability to help others, I think that most disliked Him for directing the people to a different view of the scriptures and of prophecy. They also disliked Jesus for not thinking that the things they believed were important were important.

The miracle we will be focusing on in our passage for this episode is one of these early miracles that challenged the religious leaders regarding their beliefs. While they could not argue with Jesus’ logic, they disliked the angle Jesus chose to share His message. Let’s read what happened.

Our passage is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 12, and we will be reading it from the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 9, Matthew tells us that:

⁹ Jesus left that place and went to a synagogue, ¹⁰ where there was a man who had a paralyzed hand. Some people were there who wanted to accuse Jesus of doing wrong, so they asked him, “Is it against our Law to heal on the Sabbath?”

¹¹ Jesus answered, “What if one of you has a sheep and it falls into a deep hole on the Sabbath? Will you not take hold of it and lift it out? ¹² And a human being is worth much more than a sheep! So then, our Law does allow us to help someone on the Sabbath.” ¹³ Then he said to the man with the paralyzed hand, “Stretch out your hand.”

He stretched it out, and it became well again, just like the other one. ¹⁴ Then the Pharisees left and made plans to kill Jesus.

In our passage, the Pharisees in this synagogue could not argue with Jesus’ logic, but they also disliked the angle Jesus reframed the discussion. Up to this point, these religious leaders had focused entirely on the list of things that shouldn’t be done on the Sabbath. They had very detailed lists and definitions of what would be considered work verses something that was acceptable.

Because the religious leaders already knew the only answer they would accept, when Jesus tells them a different answer, they make plans to kill Him. It is unclear whether this was the beginnings of the plot to kill Jesus, or if Jesus subtly avoided these early attempts to kill Him, similar to what He did in the Nazareth synagogue when the leaders there wanted to throw Him off a cliff.

However, in Jesus’ answer and in the miracle itself, we discover an amazing perspective on the Sabbath. When discussing the Sabbath with most Christians living today, the impression one gets is that it was entirely negative, it was oppressive, it was nailed to the cross, and/or it is something that God gave exclusively to the Jewish nation and we don’t have to bother with it today. Very few Christians see the Sabbath as a specific day of the week and the perspective that this day has been given as a gift to us.

But in Jesus’ response, we see the contrast with what the religious leaders of that day believed, and we see how Jesus’ response contrasts what many Christians believe about this day today.

The Pharisees present in this synagogue likely had staged this scene to challenge Jesus on this point. The Pharisees ask Jesus to directly answer if healing someone on the Sabbath is breaking the Sabbath day’s rest.

However, Jesus doesn’t answer the question as directly as they would have preferred. First, Jesus shares the illustration of a sheep falling into a hole and how everyone present would agree that it is okay to lift the sheep out. Even if someone else was passing by, it would be okay to help because no money was being exchanged, and because this sort of thing was a spontaneous need.

Then Jesus shifts to remind us that human beings are worth much more than sheep. While there is a push in the world to think of humans as being equal to the animals, in God’s eyes, there is a difference in value. God doesn’t see animals as worthless, but He sees animals as having value, and humans as having a greater value.

Not to go on too far of a tangent, but God values animals more than we do, and He values us as humans so much that Jesus came to give His life for us! This is the measure of value God uses to value humanity. Jesus didn’t become a cat, dog, monkey, or even an insect to save those creatures, but He did come to earth as a human to save each of us!

To draw His answer to a clear conclusion, Jesus states that it is perfectly acceptable to help other people on the Sabbath. Jesus then uses less effort than one would use to lift a sheep out of a hole by telling the man to extend his hand, and in this action, the hand was healed.

When viewing the Sabbath, Jesus saw it as an opportunity to rest, remember what God has done for us, and a day where we can be free to help each other. In Jesus’ eyes, the Sabbath is a gift given to a perfect world at the conclusion of creation week, and there is no reason to even think that this gift would only be for a small segment of His creation, or even that this gift wouldn’t be present in the perfectly recreated new heaven and new earth.

The Sabbath as a gift brings with it opportunity not oppression, and it should be a day where we remember God and give thanks to Him for what He has done for each of us.

These religious leaders saw the Sabbath as a day dedicated to God, and one that God wanted His creation to honor and respect. While this isn’t a false idea, the picture they painted of God is that He was keeping track of how well or poorly His people were respecting this day, and their belief was that if the people disrespected it too much, God would become angry and kick them out of their land. This did happen in the nation’s history, but they misrepresented God’s love and grace by emphasizing the legalism because they feared God would do it again if they kept disobeying Him.

The Jews twisted God’s gift and made it a curse, and most Christians believe that Jesus erased both the blessing and the curse of Sabbath when He came. However, this miracle doesn’t say anything about the Sabbath being removed or erased. Instead, Jesus elevated the Sabbath back to being a gift for humanity, and a day that we are free to help each other while giving thanks to God.

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

Continue to seek God first in your life and choose to honor His Sabbath as a day of rest, and as a gift given to us where we can remember what He has done for us while spending time with others. Choose to see Sabbath as an opportunity for a closer relationship with God and not as an oppressive rule from a cruel deity.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn what God really wants to teach you. If you haven’t studied the Sabbath and its significance in God’s eyes, then that would be a great topic to study. The Bible gives us everything we need to be able to see the Sabbath as God sees it, and we also can learn exactly what day of the week it is. Choose to accept God’s Sabbath over what tradition wants to claim was changed or done away with.

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!