Reflective Bible Study

As Jesus began His public ministry, we discover that one of the places He begins is right in His hometown of Nazareth. While Nazareth was not the first place Jesus had performed a miracle or done something significant, before stepping onto the public scene in a big way, we learn that He went back home to Nazareth, and when the Sabbath arrived, He headed to the synagogue to worship.

This event is significant because it is one of the first places where Jesus clashes with the religious leaders in His ministry. All this happens because of a powerful message Jesus shares about His ministry to His hometown synagogue.

Our passage is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 4, and we will be reading from the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 16, we learn that:

¹⁶ Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. On the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue as he usually did. He stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. Jesus unrolled it and found the right place. There it is written,

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me.
    He has anointed me
    to announce the good news to poor people.
He has sent me to announce freedom for prisoners.
    He has sent me so that the blind will see again.
He wants me to set free those who are treated badly.
¹⁹     And he has sent me to announce the year when he will set his people free.”

²⁰ Then Jesus rolled up the scroll. He gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were staring at him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this passage of Scripture is coming true as you listen.”

²² Everyone said good things about him. They were amazed at the gracious words they heard from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

If we were to stop reading this passage right here, we might assume Jesus was welcomed back into His hometown spiritual community with open arms. However, I believe that Jesus could tell that at this point, the “praise” of those in the Nazareth synagogue and the good things they said about Him were shallow compliments. I believe Jesus knew the hearts of those present and that there was an unspoken sense of jealousy for what Jesus had done in a neighboring town.

I also believe Jesus knew that these Jews living in Nazareth, which happened to be one of the most secular towns in the nation of Israel, were among the guiltiest of racial arrogance. This meant that these Jews looked down on the gentiles that lived all around them, and this also meant that they didn’t love their neighbors like God had instructed His people to do through Moses’ writings.

So while Jesus heard their compliments, He knew their hearts, and He knew what message they really needed to hear.

Picking back up in verse 23:

²³ Jesus said, “Here is a saying you will certainly apply to me. ‘Doctor, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me this. ‘Do the things here in your hometown that we heard you did in Capernaum.’ ”

²⁴ “What I’m about to tell you is true,” he continued. “A prophet is not accepted in his hometown. ²⁵ I tell you for sure that there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah. And there had been no rain for three and a half years. There wasn’t enough food to eat anywhere in the land. ²⁶ But Elijah was not sent to any of those widows. Instead, he was sent to a widow in Zarephath near Sidon. ²⁷ And there were many in Israel who had skin diseases in the days of Elisha the prophet. But not one of them was healed except Naaman the Syrian.”

Pausing our reading again, Jesus challenged all those present with very strong words that cut straight to the core of their racial arrogance. First, Jesus tells them clearly that while they may have said nice things about Him, they weren’t the least bit likely to accept Him for the prophet He was – not to mention the Messiah that God sent.

Next, Jesus pulls two of the most widely respected prophets in Israel’s history, and He draws the illustration that these prophets, under God’s direction, helped gentiles while appearing to ignore the Jews.

It is in this message where we find a powerful truth about God and about Jesus: Jesus came to help those people who are most in need who are also seeking and accepting of Him. In Elijah’s case, God directed the prophet’s steps to that secular, gentile town, but the widow placed God first by first helping Elijah and then she welcomed him into her home.

In Elisha’s case, I wonder if any of those living in Israel actually came to Elisha to be healed? If none came because they believed their situation hopeless or a punishment, then God would have been unlikely to have reached down to heal them. However, a gentile was willing to try the God of the Hebrews out and because of this, He was healed – even if He was doubtful at first about the instructions he received.

The undercurrent of this message is clear: God loves gentiles as well as Jews. This truth was challenging to those present in this synagogue because they lived in a religious culture that looked down on those who were not on the inside. The last portion of this passage tells us how they responded. Starting back up in verse 28, we learn that:

²⁸ All the people in the synagogue were very angry when they heard that. ²⁹ They got up and ran Jesus out of town. They took him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They planned to throw him off the cliff. ³⁰ But Jesus walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Those present were unwilling to accept Jesus’ message, and they would rather kill Jesus and face the consequences of murder than accept the reality that God loves gentiles too.

This is powerful to think about because this means that any “Christian” who does not love someone from another worldview, another political party, or even another denomination, is not acting as Christ instructed us to.

This also means that regardless of how someone identifies themselves as, as Christ’s ambassadors to the world, we are to love them for who they truly are. Everyone living and breathing today is a descendant of Adam who is a descendant of God, which makes everyone, regardless of what they say or think about themselves, a child of God. Even if we dislike someone else, we are called to love them because Jesus loved them and because Jesus died for them too.

Jesus came to fulfill a bigger mission than the Jews believed God would send His Messiah to do. The Jews believed the Messiah would come to build them up as an independent nation like they were centuries before. Instead, God’s Messiah came to make the way for everyone who accepts Jesus to be adopted into God’s family and God’s kingdom in the new heaven and new earth.

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

Intentionally take time to seek God first in your life and choose to look at those in your life as people who God loves. Regardless of what they do, know that God loves them because of who He is and not because of who we are or who they are. God loves you, me, and them enough to let Jesus come and die for us, and this is because God really wants all of us to be with Him in heaven!

Also, always be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself. A pastor or podcaster can definitely give you things to think about, but never let your personal relationship with God slide to the sidelines while feeling spiritual because of a church service or audio recording. God wants a personal relationship with you, and one aspect of this relationship is time with you spent in prayer and in the Bible. If you need help with this, I’m happy to help you get started, or restarted, on your walk with Him.

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 I have read from the gospel of Matthew, it seems as though Matthew, while he was a tax collector, may have had a childhood goal of being a Rabbi or religious expert. When reading his gospel, time and time again, he draws our attention to how an act or event in Jesus’ life fulfills one or more prophecies.

Reading this gospel helps draw our attention onto just how many prophecies about the Messiah there were, and Matthew helps us discover prophecies that we might not have thought of as being prophetic of the Messiah’s ministry.

Perhaps you have noticed this in Matthew, but if not, a couple of episodes ago, we focused in on some of Matthew’s prophecies surrounding Jesus’ birth, and in this episode, Matthew brings out another prophecy that is fulfilled when Jesus begins His ministry.

Our passage for this episode is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 4, and we will read it from the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 13, Matthew tells us that:

¹³ Jesus left Nazareth and went to live in the city of Capernaum. It was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali. ¹⁴ In that way, what the prophet Isaiah had said came true. He had said,

¹⁵ “Land of Zebulun! Land of Naphtali!
    Galilee, where Gentiles live!
    Land along the Mediterranean Sea! Territory east of the Jordan River!
¹⁶ The people who are now living in darkness
    have seen a great light.
They are now living in a very dark land.
    But a light has shined on them.”

In these few short verses, Matthew brings our attention to where Jesus would begin His ministry, and he shows us specifically how this act was in direct fulfillment of prophecy. Whether Jesus chose this location because of the prophecy, or because God directed Him there because it was the home of a number of His first disciples, we don’t really know for sure, but regardless of the reason, this act sheds light on the focus of Jesus’ ministry.

Capernaum was a fishing hub on the Sea of Galilee and while it was part of Israel, it held a greater number of Gentiles in it than many other parts of the country. This is interesting, because while we might think Jesus began or centered His ministry in an area where there was a high percentage of Jews, this is not the case, because even the prophecy states that Galilee was the part of Israel where Gentiles lived. Gentile is simply a broad term for anyone who is not Jewish.

This was likely one of the first counter-messianic things that Jesus did in His ministry that didn’t line up with the traditional view of the coming Messiah. The popular thought among the Jews at that time was that the Messiah would come, rally the Jews together, throw off Roman oppression, and reestablish the nation of Israel as a permanent country that would never again be overtaken.

If Jesus would have been this type of Messiah, then centering the beginning of His ministry in an area that doesn’t have as many Jews in it does not make sense. For this military-messiah model to work, Jesus should have centered His ministry in the southern portions of Israel, where there was a greater concentration of Jews – as well as Jerusalem and all the Jewish leaders.

However, Jesus came as a Messiah for humanity, not just as a Messiah for only the Jews. It seems as though Jesus intentionally chose Capernaum because of its higher concentration of Gentiles. Perhaps there were more Gentiles in the city than Jews, or maybe it was a 50-50 split at the time Jesus was there. In the little research I did, I could not find an answer to this question.

However, what I do find interesting about this event is that by choosing Capernaum, Jesus is intentionally saying that He has come to reach not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles. In this act, it is like Jesus is saying publicly that He values both the Jews and the Gentiles. Jesus valued the Jews because Capernaum was located in Israel and Jesus valued the Gentiles because Capernaum may have been one of the more Gentile-filled areas of the nation.

After Jesus moved and began His ministry, what did He do first?

Our passage continues and concludes with a summary verse that described how Jesus began His ministry. In verse 17, we read, “From that time on Jesus began to preach. ‘Turn away from your sins!’ he said. ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’”

Jesus’ first big message echoes John the Baptizer’s ministry. Repent and pay attention, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.

This last verse points out something very interesting and important in my mind: In order to come to Jesus, we must turn away from our sins and recognize that He wants to “come near” to us. Moving towards Jesus will never move you towards sin, and moving towards sin will never move you towards Jesus.

In our own lives, God wants to be close to each of us, and He wants to have a growing, personal relationship with us because He sees each of us as special in His eyes. However, He also cannot stand sin, and because of this, He will prompt us to get rid of the sin in our lives so that He can move closer. If we are stubborn and don’t give up sin, then unfortunately for us, He does not move as close. By choosing a sin over a closer relationship with God, we are placing God in second or third place, and making that sin a “god” in our lives – which breaks the first of the Ten Commandments.

God loves us and He forgives us, but His forgiveness is when we have repented and turned away from our sin. I am unaware of a place where the Bible says that God forgives those who are actively sinning. God has chosen to delay punishment, and He chose to come into a world full of sinners to let us know how much He loves each of us, but in order for our relationship with Him to grow, we must be moving away from sin and into a closer relationship with Him.

With that said, as we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open by challenging you to do, intentionally place God first in your life and choose to move towards Him and away from sin. Moving towards God is never the wrong choice from the perspective of eternity and while it might be a challenge to do in your life today, looking back on your decision from heaven will remind you that it was the best decision you could make.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do in one way or another, continue praying, reading, and studying the Bible personally so you are able to get a clearer picture of God. While other people would want you to adopt their opinions about God, choose to base your opinion about God on what the Bible teaches and on what the Bible reveals to us about Him. While the Bible has challenging passages, the more we study out passages we don’t understand, the better able we will be to understand what God is really like.

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

In our last episode, we discussed a passage where John the Baptist declares who Jesus was to the crowd present listening to him, and we learned that a couple of John’s own followers left John to start following Jesus. In many ways, our passage for this episode picks up where that one left off because we now have the opportunity to look back at John the Baptist’s group of followers, and how he responds to Jesus’ ministry growing, and how they perceive John’s ministry being affected by Jesus.

I wonder if John the Baptist surprised his followers with his response. Let’s read about what happened. Our passage is found in the gospel of John, chapter 3, and we will be reading from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 23, we read that:

²³ John was also baptizing in Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. People were going there to be baptized. ²⁴ (This was before John was put into prison.)

²⁵ Some of John’s followers had an argument with a Jew about religious washing. ²⁶ So they came to John and said, “Teacher, remember the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you spoke about so much? He is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

²⁷ John answered, “A man can get only what God gives him. ²⁸ You yourselves heard me say, ‘I am not the Christ, but I am the one sent to prepare the way for him.’ ²⁹ The bride belongs only to the bridegroom. But the friend who helps the bridegroom stands by and listens to him. He is thrilled that he gets to hear the bridegroom’s voice. In the same way, I am really happy. ³⁰ He must become greater, and I must become less important.

³¹ “The One who comes from above is greater than all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and talks about things on the earth. But the One who comes from heaven is greater than all. ³² He tells what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts what he says. ³³ Whoever accepts what he says has proven that God is true. ³⁴ The One whom God sent speaks the words of God, because God gives him the Spirit fully. ³⁵ The Father loves the Son and has given him power over everything. ³⁶ Those who believe in the Son have eternal life, but those who do not obey the Son will never have life. God’s anger stays on them.”

While reading this passage, one big thing that jumped out at me is how John concludes his statement about God’s relationship with Jesus. John tells us the key to both gaining eternal life and losing it. He says, “Those who believe in the Son have eternal life, but those who do not obey the Son will never have life. God’s anger stays on them.” (v. 36)

This is a very powerful verse because in it we have two parallel, and somewhat paradoxical, ideas regarding eternal life. The first of these two ideas is that belief in Jesus, God’s Son, is what is necessary for gaining salvation. This means that no action or set of actions can earn eternal life for us. It is all a matter of belief, and who we choose to put our faith, belief, and trust in.

To contrast this first idea, we have the second one which might sound on the surface as if it cancels the first idea out. John tells us that “those who do not obey the Son will never have life”. (v. 36b)

It would seem that this second idea stresses obedience as a requirement for keeping eternal life. This means that faith alone cannot assure us of eternal life if we believe our actions, attitude, and obedience are irrelevant. This passage strongly suggests that while actions cannot earn us salvation, our actions can forfeit the salvation that we were once given.

This passage describes the foundation of two of the biggest “church” words we have today that are not explained often enough. These words are justification and sanctification.

We can explain justification with the first portion of our passage. Justification tells us that we cannot do anything to earn eternal life. Instead, we recognize that sin has infected our lives, and Jesus came to live the life we couldn’t because of sin, and Jesus offers us His reward for the perfect life He lived because He took our punishment when He didn’t deserve it.

The act of justification is this exchange: We accept Jesus’ reward for His perfect life and He takes the punishment for our imperfect lives. This exchange makes no logical sense. God did not have to step in to offer justification for anyone. The only reason this happened is because of God’s character of love. God loves humanity with every aspect of Himself, and because of this, we are given the gift of justification – the opportunity of receiving God’s reward for a perfect life when we do not deserve it. Justification happens at the moment we choose to accept God’s gift through Jesus into our lives and our hearts.

The second portion of our passage describes the other big theological word, which is sanctification. While justification became available to all of humanity the instant Jesus died, sanctification is the way we respond to the gift of justification. Sanctification is based on where we focus after accepting God’s gift. It is also how we choose to sacrifice our lives and our desires in regard to God’s plan for our lives.

Sanctification involves giving up the things in our lives that don’t draw us closer to God in favor of the things that do. Sanctification also draws us to focus on God and become more like Him. The closer we draw to God, the more His light and love can shine through our lives.

Both justification and sanctification involve our free will and our freedom of choice. God doesn’t justify us if we choose to reject His gift, and God won’t sanctify us if we are not willing to give up sin in our lives. This is where John’s statement about obedience is applied. Obeying Jesus after we accept His gift is how we are sanctified. After accepting Jesus into our hearts and lives, we are still free to reject Him in the future.

This is where many Christians get stuck. When we accept Jesus, nothing Satan can do can steal us away from Jesus, because Jesus defeated Satan. However, we are still free to walk away from Jesus and give up the gift we once had received. God isn’t going to drag anyone kicking and screaming into heaven.

Instead, we show God and the world around us that we have accepted Jesus’ gift by living in obedience to His will. Accepting Jesus is an internal choice, but what we do with this choice that is visible to others is how we make our decision public.

This idea is one of the biggest concepts in Christianity and we’ve only really touched the surface of it. What really stands out in our passage is that before Jesus has really stepped onto the public scene in a big way, we find John the Baptist sharing this big truth regarding faith and action; and regarding justification and sanctification. “Those who believe in the Son have eternal life, but those who do not obey the Son will never have life. God’s anger stays on them.” (v. 36)

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life. If you haven’t accepted God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus, do so today. Simply make the choice to acknowledge that you cannot earn salvation on your own and that you need Jesus to take your place. At the moment you make this decision, know that you have been justified and that Jesus’ reward is yours.

Then, as I always challenge you to do, be sure to pray, read, and study the Bible for yourself, and intentionally focus on drawing closer to God and Jesus through what has been revealed in the Bible. Let God’s word and His truth affect your life and apply and obey what He teaches you about Himself.

And as you learn, grow, and move towards Jesus, never stop short of where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him, because when we decide to stop when God is calling us to come, we ultimately begin drifting away from Him. Drifting away from Jesus is how we forfeit the gift of eternal life, and that is why it is so important that we choose to keep moving towards God and keep focusing our hearts, minds, and lives on Him!

As I read the gospels, and the different events in Jesus’ life, one theme that runs through many different stories is how Jesus took a different perspective on life than the people living within the first century, and His attitude was different. However, if you have ever wondered if Jesus got angry, you need to look no further than our passage for this episode. While Jesus was often kind while also confident, we rarely ever get a glimpse of Him losing His temper so to speak. Usually, Jesus is the calm collected one – that is until this passage comes around.

In our passage for this episode, Jesus enters the temple in Jerusalem and He sees it turned into a marketplace. Let’s read about what happen. Our passage can be found in the gospel of John, chapter 2, and we will read it from the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 13, John tells us that:

¹³ It was almost time for the Jewish Passover Feast. So Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple courtyard he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves. Others were sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵ So Jesus made a whip out of ropes. He chased all the sheep and cattle from the temple courtyard. He scattered the coins of the people exchanging money. And he turned over their tables. ¹⁶ He told those who were selling doves, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered what had been written. It says, “My great love for your house will destroy me.”

¹⁸ Then the Jewish leaders asked him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do this?”

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “When you destroy this temple, I will raise it up again in three days.”

²⁰ They replied, “It has taken 46 years to build this temple. Are you going to raise it up in three days?” ²¹ But the temple Jesus had spoken about was his body. ²² His disciples later remembered what he had said. That was after he had been raised from the dead. Then they believed the Scripture. They also believed the words that Jesus had spoken.

We’ll pause reading at this point because I want to draw our attention to something. So far in this passage, we see Jesus getting angry, a prophecy being fulfilled, a demand, an intentional misunderstanding, a prediction of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and confirmation of a future point of where individuals believe in the scriptures and in the words of Jesus.

When Jesus became upset and He chased the moneychangers away, whether He planned for it in the moment or not, He was fulfilling a prophecy about His love for His Father’s house.

When the Jewish leaders demanded a sign to prove Jesus’ authority, it is amazing that Jesus actually responded to them with an answer. In most other places in the gospels that are similar to this, Jesus sidesteps the issue or turns the tables around. Perhaps He answers because He is extra emotional at the moment, or perhaps He is simply being a little respectful of the religious authority.

Either way, Jesus purposely responds in a way that creates a misunderstanding among the leaders and Him, and in a way that will be understood more fully later. Had Jesus said that He meant His body, the Jewish leaders probably would have happily taken Him up on the challenge right there. If Jesus wanted to prove His authority by dying, they would be happy to help – as they were probably just as irritated at Jesus as He was at the scene in the temple.

However, Jesus predicts His death and resurrection in these verses, and it is only after the events happen several years later that those present understood the message Jesus was communicating. John writing these words many years or decades after the resurrection draws our attention to how Jesus’ statement is fulfilled, and how this prediction prompted many people to believe in the following years.

In the last part of this passage, I was surprised to find another place where it says that Jesus didn’t trust people. In John 5, we read a similar idea that Jesus pushes back at the Pharisees who dislike the miracle He performed on the Sabbath, and here in our passage for this episode within John, chapter 2, we see another place where John gives us a clue into Jesus’ attitude and focus. Picking up reading in verse 23, John continues by saying, “Meanwhile, he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast. Many people saw the signs he was doing. And they believed in his name. But Jesus did not fully trust them. He knew what people are like. He didn’t need anyone to tell him what people are like. He already knew why people do what they do.”

In this transition set of verses within John’s gospel, he shares a little bit more about Jesus, and how Jesus interacted with others. John shares that Jesus did not fully trust others, because He knew what people were like in their hearts. Perhaps this guarded living was noticeable to others, or maybe it was only visible to the closest disciples, or maybe Jesus simply shared it with John. Whatever the case, this information is significant because we can better understand who Jesus was when we have it.

If Jesus began to trust people as they trusted Him, then there would be the strong temptation for Jesus to be caught up in the popular, military Messiah belief that was believed at the time. If Jesus was as trusting towards others as they were to Him, He may have been swept up and carried forward on the path that people believed He should take instead of the one He knew God had planned for Him instead.

Instead, Jesus was extra intentional about where He placed His focus, and that included being more guarded towards people since almost no one living in the first century understood the full extent of His mission. Even though Jesus predicts His death and resurrection, and as He shares more clearly and plainly as He gets closer to the cross, it is really only after the events actually happen that the disciples actually understand what was predicted would happen. Before this, Jesus must remain guarded because the popular beliefs about Him were too entrenched in people’s minds.

Also included in this event is another demonstration of Jesus shifting focus. The Jewish leaders wanted Jesus to do something to prove Himself, or another way of saying this would be to draw attention to Himself, but Jesus was more interested in pointing the attention elsewhere. When the leaders demand a sign, Jesus draws their attention to the temple, and while He figuratively means His body, the words He used also directed focus onto God’s house.

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

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to align your life and your will with God’s plan. Like Jesus did, intentionally keep your focus on God’s plan and avoid being swept up with what the world would rather we focus in on.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn who Jesus really is instead of taking someone else’s word for it. While pastors, authors, speakers, or even podcasters can give you ideas to think about, choose to take everything you read, see, and hear and test it against the truth God has revealed in the Bible. Use the big themes of the Bible as a guide for your life and as a test for whether today’s ideas are worth paying attention to.

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!