Reflective Bible Study

As Jesus taught the crowds, He frequently challenged them based on their level of commitment. Sometimes Jesus’ challenges were based on His divine knowledge of other people’s thoughts or the state of their hearts. Other times, Jesus challenges the people based on a question He receives or a situation that presents itself.

In our passage for this episode, Jesus challenges all His followers based on a question He receives, and from the answer Jesus shared, we are warned about salvation not being easy and how there will be a group of people who think they are safe who end up being excluded.

Our passage is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 13, and we will be reading from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 22, Luke tells us:

²² Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. ²³ Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”

He said to them, ²⁴ “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. ²⁵ Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’

“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

²⁶ “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’

²⁷ “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’

²⁸ “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. ²⁹ People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. ³⁰ Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”

In this passage, we see a clear warning that not everyone will be saved, even if they wanted to be. This is a challenging thing to think about especially when we know that Jesus came to save all people. Jesus died on the cross to make the way for anyone and everyone to be saved, but when asked how many will be saved, without directly saying so, Jesus strongly suggests that only a small number of people will be included.

However, from Jesus’ sobering response, can we learn anything about those who incorrectly believe they are safe so that we don’t fall into the same trap they did? Absolutely!

The first truth I see in Jesus’ response is that there will be a time when the door is closed. After this point, it appears that those who choose to repent will have decided too late. I will be the first to say that I have no idea when the door for salvation will truly close, but the clear truth in this passage is that we shouldn’t delay or stall choosing Jesus.

Whether the door for salvation closes when we take our last breath, or if there is a separate, distinct time that applies to everyone, the sad truth is that those who come knocking at the door probably would have paid attention and come sooner had they known the door was closing. We avoid making the same mistake they do by choosing today to live for God, and entering His kingdom.

The second truth I see in this passage is that those who knock outside the door are described as people who the homeowner does not know. This means in our own lives that simply knowing about God, about Jesus, or about the need for a saving relationship will not be enough to actually save someone. To put it another way, us knowing Jesus isn’t enough; what matters is that Jesus knows you and I. This is accomplished by intentionally growing a relationship with God. Regular prayer, Bible study, and living a faith-filled life that depends on God is the way we grow our relationship with Him.

In many ways this second truth is more important than the first one because the implication is that if the homeowner recognized those who knocked at the door, He would have let them in. We should not let our relationship with God drift away because life is busy or full of distractions. If we are distracted away from God, we risk Him not knowing or recognizing us when we come knocking at the door.

This is also the case if we knew Him at some point in the past. Even those who are excluded say they ate and drank with the homeowner and know He taught in their streets, but a past relationship isn’t as significant as a present one. We need a strong relationship with Jesus in the present in order to be recognized by God.

The third truth is found in the homeowner’s final reply to those knocking at his door. He tells them in verse 27, “Away from me, all you evildoers!” This statement strongly suggests that doing evil will forfeit your salvation. We’ve touched on this already this year, and it is worth repeating that being saved is a gift we receive through faith, but our actions can forfeit the gift God wants to give us.

Those who find themselves on the outside will be guilty of keeping sin in their lives and letting their sin delay their decision to come to Jesus.

The final truth we will touch on for this episode is Jesus’ concluding remarks. Jesus describes Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but those He was talking to, specifically a group of Jews, being thrown out. Jesus then shares how people will come from all directions of the earth to be a part of the feast.

This strong final theme is that our ancestry, heritage, or any decision we made in the past is not enough to guarantee we will be saved. While many Jews believed that simply being a descendant of Abraham covered any fault they might have in their own lives, we fall into the same trap thinking that a single decision we made in the past is enough to cover any wrongdoing in the present. Simply being a Jew does not mean salvation any more than praying a prayer of confession into the Christian faith means we will always be saved. Each starting point needs to lead to a changed lifestyle and a focus on growing closer to Jesus!

We are saved when we focus on growing closer to Jesus to the point that Jesus knows who we are, when we don’t delay making that choice, when we live each day with our hearts and minds focused on living faithfully like Jesus did, and when we don’t rest on our past decisions or ancestry believing they alone are enough.

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

Intentionally make the choice to accept Jesus into your heart and life today. This is the most important single decision you can make. But don’t stop there. After making this decision, be sure to then intentionally choose to focus on growing closer to Jesus and spend time with Him each day. Focus on developing that personal relationship so that when the end comes, God will know you and open the door for you if you are not already inside.

We learn and grow closer to God and Jesus through prayer, through studying the Bible for ourselves, and through living a life of faith and dependence on God. If you need help with any of these areas, be sure to reach out and I am happy to help where I can. The important thing for each of us is to make our relationship with God our own and to not let anyone else get between us and 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 let Satan trick you into leaving where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

At the end of a long twenty-four hours and the end of a tiring night of fighting the wind while crossing the lake, Jesus and His disciples arrive at Gennesaret. However, while some of the gospel writers have stopped giving details, Matthew and Mark include a few verses about what happened after they landed.

While it would be very easy to skim over these verses in favor of a more glamorous miracle, I wonder if you’ll catch some interesting details in these three verses that remind you of miracles we have already looked at.

Our passage is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 14, and we will read it from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 34, Matthew tells us that:

³⁴ They crossed the sea and landed at Gennesaret. ³⁵ The men there recognized Jesus and sent messengers all around the countryside. The people brought him everyone who was sick. ³⁶ They begged him to let them touch just the edge of his clothes. Everyone who touched his clothes was made well.

Do you remember earlier this year we spent an episode that focused on a woman pushing her way through a crowd just to touch the edge of Jesus’ garment? When reading our passage for this episode, this miracle comes to mind. This got me thinking about where the woman’s miracle took place. While the gospels aren’t real explicit about where the synagogue leader who Jesus was going to help lived, when we read the broader context, we can conclude that that set of miracles likely happened in Capernaum.

I then did a quick search and discovered that Gennesaret and Capernaum were neighboring cities on the north side of the Sea of Galilee. What we read in the three summary verses we are focusing on in this episode is likely a direct result of the miracle we read about where the woman pushed her way through the crowd. All these miracles show us one big, clear theme: Faith, when added to just a sliver of Jesus, is capable of extraordinary miracles. The faith of all these people, when mixed with a momentary touch of Jesus’ garment experienced healing.

However, while looking up Gennesaret, I discovered that another prominent miracle happened here, and this other miracle is one that we looked at earlier this year as well. While Matthew and Mark are the gospels that give us the summary we are focusing in on in this episode, Luke, chapter 5, shares a different miracle that happened at Gennesaret.

Luke’s Gennesaret miracle is where Peter and the other fishermen disciples get a miraculous catch of fish. It is likely that while Jesus may have been raised in Nazareth, the group of most famous disciples, specifically Peter, Andrew, James, and John very well could have grown up in Gennesaret. This is where their fishing business was centered, and it was where Jesus invited them to become followers and “fishers of men”.

While some might think that it is too great of a stretch to take, my mind clearly sees a connection between the miraculous catch of fish miracle, and the miracles we see included in these transition verses. While it would be easy to connect the passages by saying that both events include faith, it is significant in my mind the type of faith that each of these events display. When we look at both of these events and the faith that each includes, we discover that each event and each miracle has faith built on the foundation of another person’s experience or word.

When we look at Jesus asking Peter to go out fishing when it was the worst time of day for catching fish, Peter takes Jesus up on the challenge. The little bit of faith Peter had, whether it was based on seeing if Jesus would be right or proving Jesus wrong, Peter and the other fishermen take Jesus at His word and experience a miraculous catch of fish that should not have happened.

In our transition passage of miracles, we discover that this region likely had heard about the woman’s almost secret miracle, and they were willing to claim the truth that if touching Jesus’ garment healed someone else, then touching it personally would be enough to heal me. All the sick people who were brought to Jesus simply wanted to touch his garment because they knew in their hearts that this simple act would heal them.

This makes me wonder something about faith: When we see people demonstrate faith in Jesus, does it show more faith to think Jesus can touch them and heal them personally, or does it display more faith to simply believe that touching the edge of His garment will make them well?

As I think about this, I imagine that those who believed that touching the edge of Jesus’ garment had more faith. If we were to imagine the formula for a miracle as the sum of two element: Jesus and faith, the more we increase Jesus, the less faith we would need, but the more faith we have, the less Jesus we would need. However, this does not necessarily mean that Jesus is not needed for a miracle to happen; it simply means that it would take an extraordinary level of faith to overcome the absence of Jesus.

This detail is incredibly relevant for us today. If miracles work based on this formula, and provided that the miracle will bring God glory, then our faith in this life is critically important. If we read about miracles in Jesus ministry where little faith is present, we can see Jesus is clearly present. This is the case for the miracle of the miraculous catch of fish. Peter likely had no faith, but only a desire to prove Jesus wrong. Any faith that was present was likely just enough to follow through with the actions of fishing to get his point across.

The next stage of faith is displayed by the sick people in the next time we see Gennesaret mentioned in the gospels. They have a lot of faith based on the evidence they had seen and heard about Jesus, and this means that their faith only needed to touch something connected with Jesus to be healed.

This doesn’t look too good for us living today, because the closest we can come to touching something of Jesus’ is by connecting with a group of people who are His followers – specifically people who are reflecting His character. This is something we can and should do, but it doesn’t mean that we can skimp at all regarding our faith. Instead, this means that we would need extraordinary faith in order to see miracles in our lives, and while this may sound discouraging, in our case, we have another option.

For those of us living 2,000+ years later, we have the option of leaning into the Holy Spirit for both our connection to Jesus and for our source of faith. With a Holy Spirit connection, we can have both the faith we need and the connection we need to see and experience miracles in our own lives. The big test of our faith is actually choosing to step out in faith that we will get answers and see the miracle.

I will be the first to say that sometimes the miracle doesn’t happen the way we’d expect it to, and other times, the miracle we are asking for doesn’t happen. However, the big thing for us to remember is that all the miracles Jesus did brought glory to God, and all the miracles we see Him doing today will ultimately bring glory to God as well. While it takes faith and trust to believe God knows what He is doing, we can have faith that every miracle we see today is given to help bring more people into a saving relationship with Jesus for eternity!

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

If you are uncertain how much faith you have or how much faith you need, don’t let your questions or doubt stop you from seeking God and from stepping out in faith. God rarely gives people the end picture before they have begun, and this is because knowing the end from the beginning, God knows we would either chicken out of His plan for us, or we’d get arrogant and try to push our own way. Learn to trust God and walk with Him one step of faith at a time!

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to continue growing personally towards God. God wants a personal connection with you and prayer and Bible study are two of the best ways to grow this connection!

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

One thing I am amazed by when I read the gospels is how Jesus loved and helped people in need regardless of what cultural or society wanted to pressure Him into doing or not doing. It would seem that in Jesus’ eyes, any interpretation of the Law that wasn’t framed in a loving way could be laid aside in favor of doing some type of loving action.

In our walk through the gospels this year, we come to a great example of Jesus doing exactly this: Jesus appeared to set the Law aside in favor of loving someone who needed help. This event can be found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 13, and we will be reading it from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 10:

¹⁰ Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the day of rest—a holy day. [A quick side-note I’ll insert here is that most translations simply say Jesus was teaching on the Sabbath in this verse.] ¹¹ A woman who was possessed by a spirit was there. The spirit had disabled her for 18 years. She was hunched over and couldn’t stand up straight. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her to come to him and said, “Woman, you are free from your disability.” ¹³ He placed his hands on her, and she immediately stood up straight and praised God.

¹⁴ The synagogue leader was irritated with Jesus for healing on the day of worship. The leader told the crowd, “There are six days when work can be done. So come on one of those days to be healed. Don’t come on the day of rest—a holy day.”

¹⁵ The Lord said, “You hypocrites! Don’t each of you free your ox or donkey on the day of rest—a holy day? Don’t you then take it out of its stall to give it some water to drink? ¹⁶ Now, here is a descendant of Abraham. Satan has kept her in this condition for 18 years. Isn’t it right to free her on the day of rest—a holy day?”

¹⁷ As he said this, everyone who opposed him felt ashamed. But the entire crowd was happy about the miraculous things he was doing.

When reading this event, I am amazed at the mindset of the synagogue leader. From what happens, we can conclude the synagogue leader believed Jesus to be a doctor by trade who also happened to have a great grasp of the scriptures and public speaking. If the synagogue leader didn’t like Jesus, he would not have permitted Jesus to teach at the synagogue that day, but he also didn’t believe Jesus’ occupation to be more than a physician, because when someone appears who needs healing, he classifies this as Jesus’ “work”.

This framing is interesting, because it is about the lowest bar one could have for accepting Jesus. By this point in Jesus’ ministry, the religious leaders could not deny the fact that Jesus could heal virtually any disease. Those in the temple likely were getting tired of unclean people asking to be cleared for entrance back into society – and it probably irritated some of them knowing that Jesus was behind each healing. The religious leaders could not disprove Jesus was a miracle worker – especially with regard to healing others.

However, these religious leaders did not want to take any further steps towards Jesus. They wall themselves off from the truth by simply framing Jesus as a very skilled doctor. Doctors “work” like other professionals do, and that meant that they needed to take the Sabbath off like other professional laborers did.

But when we look at Jesus’ ministry, healing was more like a hobby than a profession. While Jesus healed countless people, and exponentially more people than the Bible had room to include, Jesus seemed to focus equally on teaching the crowds about God’s kingdom, and helping give people opportunities to praise God.

Jesus came to challenge those who thought they had their lives spirituality figured out, and to love those who needed love and help. In the case of this passage, Jesus’ response to those who were upset at His healing frames God’s love perfectly. Jesus frames this healing by saying in verses 15 and 16: “Don’t each of you free your ox or donkey on the day of rest—a holy day? Don’t you then take it out of its stall to give it some water to drink? Now, here is a descendant of Abraham. Satan has kept her in this condition for 18 years. Isn’t it right to free her on the day of rest—a holy day?”

This simple challenge elevated this formerly crippled woman’s status not just to the status of healed, but Jesus points out that she is a descendant of Abraham, just like they are, and elevates her status to one of an equal member of society. In contrast, the livestock that the Jews owned probably didn’t carry the same designation. There wouldn’t be any way to truly know or track whether that synagogue leader’s ox or donkey had descended from Abraham’s ox or donkey – and it was hypocritical for the leaders to be kind to their livestock when they were not willing to be kind to one of their own.

But challenging these religious leaders was not the reason Jesus healed this woman. When we look at the context of the story, Jesus only speaks out after they show dissatisfaction for what He did. Unlike some other times we read about in the gospels, there is nothing in this passage to indicate that this miracle was a setup.

Instead, when I read this event and this miracle, I see the reason Jesus performed it hinging on the healed woman’s response to the healing. Verses 12 and 13 frame this miracle and the woman’s response perfectly: “When Jesus saw her, he called her to come to him and said, ‘Woman, you are free from your disability.’ He placed his hands on her, and she immediately stood up straight and praised God.”

We discover that the first thing the woman does following being healed is that she praises God. What better reason for healing her could there be? Jesus healed this woman because He knew she would praise God. This woman had the right focus. Jesus didn’t heal her to get credit or to get people looking at Him; He healed her so that those who were present could praise God with her!

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

As you move through life, look for opportunities where you can praise God. While you might not witness a firsthand miracle on a Sabbath day, there are plenty of other things we can be grateful and thankful to God for. When a blessing from God comes to mind, let’s give God the credit and the glory that He deserves.

Also, be sure to always pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God each day. Regular prayer and Bible study are two of the best ways to grow your relationship with God on a strong foundation, and we make it a personal relationship when we personally study. Pastors or podcasters can give us things to think about, but never let me or anyone else get between you and Jesus.

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!

Immediately after the miracle where Jesus fed the crowd of over 5,000 people, we discover that He sends the disciples away. At the very end of last week’s passage, John told us that Jesus perceived that the people wanted to crown Him King and it is likely that the disciples would have not objected to this in any way. However, Jesus knew that being crowned an earthly king, while flattering, was not within God’s plan for glorifying Him before the people. Jesus also knew that being crowned King would ultimately not give honor to the Father.

This information sets the stage for our focus passage in this episode, and it leads into another miracle that is our focus for this week. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 14, and we will read it from the God’s Word translation. Starting in verse 22, Matthew tells us that:

²² Jesus quickly made his disciples get into a boat and cross to the other side ahead of him while he sent the people away. ²³ After sending the people away, he went up a mountain to pray by himself. When evening came, he was there alone.

Pausing briefly, if you remember, two episodes ago, Mark’s gospel had set the stage for the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 with Jesus wanting to go and rest with His disciples. However, because of what had happened, we see in Matthew’s gospel that that night, Jesus rested and prayed alone while the disciples were crossing the lake without Him.

However, that night without Jesus was not peaceful for the disciples. Continuing reading in verse 24, Matthew shares that:

²⁴ The boat, now hundreds of yards from shore, was being thrown around by the waves because it was going against the wind.

²⁵ Between three and six o’clock in the morning, he came to them. He was walking on the sea. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. They said, “It’s a ghost!” and began to scream because they were afraid.

²⁷ Immediately, Jesus said, “Calm down! It’s me. Don’t be afraid!”

²⁸ Peter answered, “Lord, if it is you, order me to come to you on the water.”

²⁹ Jesus said, “Come!” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he noticed how strong the wind was, he became afraid and started to sink. He shouted, “Lord, save me!”

³¹ Immediately, Jesus reached out, caught hold of him, and said, “You have so little faith! Why did you doubt?”

³² When they got into the boat, the wind stopped blowing. ³³ The men in the boat bowed down in front of Jesus and said, “You are truly the Son of God.”

In this miracle, we see some amazing themes and truths we can relate to in our own lives. After a whole night of rowing without making any progress, Jesus sees that the disciples need help. While I don’t know if any of them tried to command the wind and waves to be calm like Jesus had done earlier in His time with them, the disciples are trying in vain to cross the lake when it seems as though everything is working against them.

In this detail, we can see the idea that when we are not with Jesus, everything we try to do for Jesus is in vain. Without Jesus’ help, we are at the mercy of the waves of this life and at the mercy of the winds of culture. While we might be able to make progress on our own, any progress we do make would be nowhere near the progress that could be made if we were with Jesus. Without Jesus, the boat only reached a few hundred yards from the shore, which is not much progress when you are trying to cross the lake. But after Jesus entered the boat, reaching their destination was easy.

Also in this miracle is the powerful example we see in Peter. When all the disciples are fearful at the appearance of Jesus walking towards them on the water, only Peter has the courage to challenge Jesus on His claim, and in my imagination, before Peter even realizes it, he is jumping over the side of the boat and walking towards Jesus.

From what I’ve heard preachers and others say when describing this event is that Peter took His eyes off of Jesus, and this is what prompted him to start sinking. Some people have said that Peter’s downfall was when he looked back to see if the rest of the disciples were watching, which implies a prideful attitude that would lead to his sinking.

However, I don’t see anything in this event that hints at Peter looking back. Instead, all we see included in this event leading up to Peter’s sinking is two things. Verse 30 tells us that when Peter “noticed how strong the wind was, he became afraid and started to sink.” This statement is probably one of the most powerful statements in the entire Bible that relates to losing faith.

Note that there is nothing wrong with noticing how strong the wind was, but when we let the supposed strength of the wind exceed the faith in the power of God, we sink. In Peter’s noticing how strong the wind was, we could conclude that he took his eyes off of Jesus, but all it might have taken is a wave to break his concentration, or a splash of water.

Peter didn’t need to take his eyes off of Jesus to know that the wind and waves were strong. He had spent the entire previous part of the night rowing against the wind and waves. The critical phrase for us to pay attention to is Peter becoming afraid when walking towards Jesus. When Peter’s fear became greater than his faith, the only thing left was gravity, which pulled him down into the water. When our faith takes a second place seat to our fear, nothing we do will be successful. Faith is powerful, and faith plus Jesus is unstoppable.

As we move through the coming days, weeks, and months this year, remember to keep your faith stronger than your fear, and step forward with your faith into the life God has called you to live!

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

Always seek God and place Him first in your life. Intentionally move forward in life with a strong focus on growing your faith. Live intentionally with a faith that is stronger than your fear and when you mix this faith with Jesus, nothing Satan does can stop you from living the life God has called you to live.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and mature your faith in Him. God wants a personal relationship with you, and a personal relationship starts when you personally spend time with God praying, reading, studying, and listening to what He wants to share with you. A personal relationship with God is way more powerful than simply leaning on others for your spiritual knowledge.

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 scared out of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!