Reflective Bible Study

As we continue into Luke’s gospel, we come to what might be the most Christmas-themed passage in the whole Bible. However, just because many of us have read or heard it as recently as last month, doesn’t mean that there aren’t truths tucked in it that are relevant for us regardless of what time of year we are in.

Let’s start reading this passage, and pause when we get to an interesting point or idea. We’ll be reading from Luke’s gospel, chapter 2, using the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 1, we read:

¹ Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. ² This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³ And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. ⁴ Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, ⁵ in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. ⁶ While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. ⁷ And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

When I read this passage, I’m not sure if it is the traditional Christmas story that makes me think this, or if it is my mind that wants to condense the time frame. I don’t know how long Roman registration took for each person when they were doing a census, but in my mind, I always imagined that Jesus was born sometime during the night they arrived. But nothing in this passage hints at this idea, or even that the manger Jesus was laid in was out in a stable or cave with animals.

By the time the wise men arrive in Matthew’s gospel, which was actually a separate event from the shepherds, Matthew describes them going to a house, which might indicate that Jesus was born in the house of an unknown person.

I wonder if because there was no room in the inn, one of Joseph’s relatives offered to let them stay with them, or perhaps a friend of the innkeeper. However, this homeowner didn’t have anything prepared for a newborn, so this couple went out and got a manger from their stable so that the newborn could have a safe place to lay.

Let’s keep reading and see if we can see any other interesting details surrounding this event. Picking back up in verse 8, we learn that:

⁸ In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; ¹¹ for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 
¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest, 
And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

Let’s pause reading again here because two ideas stood out to me. The first thing I’ll draw our attention to is how the angelic choir praised God. Most of us are probably familiar with the King James Version of this message, but the NASB gives the last phrase a different angle. While the King James reads, “And on earth peace, goodwill toward men,” the NASB describes this message as, “And on earth peace among men with whom He [God] is pleased.”

This is a fascinating distinction because as I read and compare the various translations, most translations read more similarly to the New American Standard Bible than the King James. This means, at least to me, that God wishes there to be peace among those with whom He is pleased, and if we desire to be pleased by God, we probably should desire His peace to fill our lives. It also might imply that God dislikes those who disrupt peace, whether this be in a society, a faith community, or between countries.

The other thing I noticed while reading this is in the first angel’s message. The original angel messenger begins his message by saying, “I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people”. This stands out in my mind because the good news about Jesus is good news for everyone, not just one particular race or group of people. Jesus came for everyone, and while there are those who reject Him and those who hate Him, Jesus entering the world as a human is great news for everyone because even though Jesus isn’t accepted by everyone, most everyone would agree that something needs to change with the world we live in.

Jesus came the first time to give us a way to benefit from His coming the second time. God has promised that our current earth, with all its issues and problems, is only temporary. God has promised a recreated “new heaven and new earth” with all the flaws of our current world fixed. The only way any of us can experience this is because of Jesus’ first coming, and while there might be an exception or two, even most of those who reject Jesus would not want the current flawed world we live in to continue forever.

The first coming of Jesus is good news of great joy for all people, and the shepherds wanted to know more. Picking back up in verse 15, we discover that:

¹⁵ When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶ So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. ¹⁸ And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

When the shepherds find Jesus, we don’t have any indication about where they found the young couple. It could have been a house, a stable, or simply near a tent and a fire to stay warm. The details surrounding where Jesus was born are less relevant than we might think. What truly matters is why Jesus came, that Jesus came, and what we will do in our own lives because Jesus came.

Our current world won’t continue forever. God has promised us a place in the new heaven and new earth and we can accept this gift and promise by choosing to accept and believe in Jesus. Looking at life from the big picture, this should be our highest goal each and every day of the year. Will you intentionally choose Jesus every day along with me?

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 place Him first each day of your life. While life can get busy and distractions are guaranteed, intentionally make God first in your life, because from the perspective of eternity, a relationship with God is the most important thing we can have!

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, place God first by intentionally spending time with Him each day in prayer and by personally reading your Bible. Don’t take a pastor or podcaster’s word for it. Discover what the Bible says for yourself by opening up the Bible and reading it for yourself!

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 I read the opening of Jesus’ story from the gospel of Luke, I am amazed at a number of things he includes. In this episode’s passage specifically, several key parts stood out as I read it in preparation for this episode.

This passage is one of the few that come before Jesus was alive, and it focuses in on Jesus’ relatives and the birth of John the Baptizer. As the passage opens, John has just turned eight days old, and he is taken to be circumcised and named. Let’s read what happened. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 1, and we will read from the New International Reader’s Version. Starting in verse 59, Luke tells us that:

⁵⁹ On the eighth day, they came to have the child circumcised. They were going to name him Zechariah, like his father. ⁶⁰ But his mother spoke up. “No!” she said. “He must be called John.”

⁶¹ They said to her, “No one among your relatives has that name.”

⁶² Then they motioned to his father. They wanted to find out what he would like to name the child. ⁶³ He asked for something to write on. Then he wrote, “His name is John.” Everyone was amazed. ⁶⁴ Right away Zechariah could speak again. Right away he praised God. ⁶⁵ All his neighbors were filled with fear and wonder. Throughout Judea’s hill country, people were talking about all these things. ⁶⁶ Everyone who heard this wondered about it. And because the Lord was with John, they asked, “What is this child going to be?”

Prior to this passage, some pretty miraculous things had already happened. When the angel came to Zechariah, he took the elderly priest’s voice away because Zechariah did not have faith in God’s promise.

This begins a string of extra-ordinary events that lead up to John’s birth. For somewhere between 9 and 12 months, depending on how quickly Elizabeth became pregnant, we have a mute priest, and this in itself draws attention to John the Baptizer and who he would become.

The first thing that really jumps out at me is how the relatives were pushing to name the child Zechariah, after his father. This speaks to how the relatives felt about Zechariah, and specifically that they wanted to honor him. By proposing the name Zechariah, it is like these relatives wanted to remember the father when looking at the son.

However, what happens next is also interesting. Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth spoke up and she told the relatives the name that Zechariah had shared with her. Not only is this an example of a woman speaking up for God’s plan in the Bible, it is also an example of good communication between spouses in the Bible as well – especially in a situation where communication would be a little more challenging.

Zechariah would have had to have written out what happened, and write out that the angel wanted the child’s name to be John. It may have been a very challenging time in their marriage, but coming out on the other side, after John’s birth shows us that Zechariah and his wife were united. In this event, they are among the first to have a firsthand look at God stepping back into the forefront of “His-Story”. We tend to think of wise men or shepherds being the first to know, but aside from Mary and Joseph, Zechariah and Elizabeth knew that Mary’s baby would be special even earlier.

To bring even more confirmation to John’s extra-ordinary entrance into the world, immediately after he was named by his father in writing, note the legal tone in this event, his voice was immediately restored, and the first thing he did was praise God. Zechariah lost his voice questioning God, and he praises God when his voice is restored. All this drew attention onto John the Baptizer, and what his life would become.

And this leads us to a statement in this passage that inspires me.

In the middle of verse 66, we read the phrase, “The Lord was with John”. This phrase inspires and challenges me because it prompts me to ask myself, “What would I do if I knew that God was with me?”

If I knew 100% that God was with me, would that change any of my actions or my current direction?

Because of the events that surround this phrase about God being with John, I wonder if the silence and muteness of Zechariah could be compared with how God is often times by our side.

It is not as if Zechariah could not communicate. He could — it was just through nontraditional means. Zechariah likely had to write everything out that He wanted to share with others.

In a similar way, rarely does God verbally communicate with us. Instead, there are things that He inspires people to write down, and events where we can look and see His leading and direction in. God seems to communicate more through us looking at the evidence than He does directly, verbally, and/or visually.

Everyone in Zechariah and Elizabeth’s story were forced to look at the evidence. While Zechariah received the angel’s visit and message, everyone else was forced to simply view the evidence of his muteness and let it give weight and authenticity to his story. The evidence drew attention to the event, and it makes me wonder if Zechariah had not questioned, and not been struck mute, if people would have paid more or less attention to this extra-ordinary birth.

All this is to help us understand that sometimes God chooses to communicate silently, through the evidence that we can see if we pay attention, instead of visibly and audibly stepping into view. Perhaps He knows that most people are not ready to see Him, and that is why He is more “subtle” in His methods.

As we come to the end of this 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 keep your eyes open to looking for evidence of God’s communication. He wants us to find Him, and that will only happen if we are actively looking.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn more of what God is like and how He has revealed Himself in the past.

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

As we begin another year moving through the life of Jesus, most of Jesus’ birth story will be fresh in our minds, and some people might even be sick of hearing about it. Hopefully this isn’t you, because I’ve been amazed that looking at Jesus’ birth story outside of the official Christmas season has prompted me to see amazing insights that I might not have noticed if I only paid attention to these verses one month or so out of a year.

The passage we’ll be looking closer at as we begin this year needs no real introduction as it is one of the passages that is read almost every time Jesus’ birth story is shared. This passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 1, starting in verse 26, and we’ll be reading from the New International Version of the Bible:

²⁶ In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷ to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

²⁹ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

Let’s pause reading here because I wonder if you or I would have a similar response as Mary. On one hand, the angel Gabriel has just given Mary one of the highest compliments he could have given to her, but on the other hand, there’s still the looming question about why an angel is appearing to her.

Just like you or I would be a little concerned, Mary is both caught off guard and “greatly troubled” at the angel’s words.

Also worth noting is that Gabriel doesn’t start with his customary opening line of “Do not be afraid” until after this first compliment.

Let’s continue reading. Picking back up in verse 30:

³⁰ But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

³⁴ “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

Let’s pause again here because it is worth noting that, at least on the surface, Mary’s question sounds a lot like Zechariah’s question. Earlier in this chapter in Luke, in verse 18, Zechariah asks the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

These two clarifying questions are similar but also very different. Zechariah is hopeful but also doubtful and I think he wants a sign, or something tangible, that he can have to remind him of this promise. Nearing the end of Zechariah’s life, he is uncertain if he and his wife are even capable of having children still, and Gabriel gives Zechariah a sign even if this sign really appears like a punishment for Zechariah’s lack of faith.

But when we shift over and look at Mary, she asks a very similar question but gets a completely different response from Gabriel. Mary asks in verse 34, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

Just like Zechariah, Mary asks a question and follows up with a statement of supposed disqualification. Zechariah believed his age was a limiting factor and Mary wonders about her virginity.

However, tucked in the details of Mary’s reply, I see her asking a logical question and I don’t see any doubt like with Zechariah. It is almost as though Mary is asking, “What is the next step? I’m engaged to Joseph. Is this birth going to come through this marriage, or should I be expecting something different?”

Mary wants more information so she can follow through with God’s plan for her life and the promise that Gabriel is sharing with her. We see this idea the most clearly when we conclude reading our passage and see how Mary responds at the end of her and Gabriel’s encounter.

Picking back up in verse 35:

³⁵ The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. ³⁷ For no word from God will ever fail.”

³⁸ “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

The response Mary gives is worth repeating. She responds to the promise God gives her through the angel with the words “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.”

In Mary’s response, we see an amazing level of humility and willingness to be used by God. Mary models an attitude that we all should have as we start out every day, every month, and every new year. We all should be willing to be used by God and to let Him direct our steps and our path forward.

With all this focus on Mary in this passage, it is easy to miss one verse that shares a powerful truth we should also always remember. The last message the angel Gabriel tells Mary is the statement, “For no word from God will ever fail.” This is a promise every single one of us can hold onto.

When studying the Bible, we find many places where God gives us promises. We can see places where God’s messengers give prophecy, and while we all might have different interpretations for some of God’s prophetic messages, one thing we all can agree on is Gabriel’s promise to Mary: “For no word from God will ever fail.”

As we begin a new year moving through the gospels together, let’s keep this promise in mind. As you and I move into a new year of life together, let’s remember this promise. Gabriel’s promise to Mary is just as applicable to us as it was to Mary living over 2,000 years ago.

God has promised us that He wants us to live forever with Him in heaven, and that became a possibility because of what we just read. Everything that the Old Testament pointed forward to regarding Jesus’ first coming began with Mary accepting God’s plan for her life. God invites us to be a part of His plan for the future. Will we step into His plan for our lives as willingly as Mary did?

As we finish off the first podcast of a new year, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open these challenges by saying, intentionally seek God first in your life. If you have slipped away from God in the past, make today the day you will refocus on Him. Be like Mary and be willing to step into God’s plan for your life even if an angel doesn’t appear to you give you direction.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do in one way or another, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself, because within the pages of scripture, we can find God’s plan for our lives here on earth, and as we study, we will discover God’s promise of an eternal life reward in heaven. This reward comes when we place Jesus first and we intentionally make Him a priority in our lives.

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 begin our second chronological year moving through the gospels, I thought it may be good to tackle something interesting that I found in what many people might call the “most boring part of the four gospels”. This part is not boring because it is confusing. Instead, many people think it is boring because they simply don’t see it as being all that relevant to us today.

The supposedly boring passages we will tackle as this year beings have to do with the two places in the gospels where Jesus’ genealogy is listed. Matthew opens his gospel by sharing how Jesus’ family tree traces its roots all the way back to Abraham, while Luke waits until after Jesus’ birth story to share how Jesus’ family tree traces its roots back to God. Since there are differences in each of the two genealogies, scholars have debated and discussed why this might be. The most likely consensus is that Matthew abbreviated his genealogy to get three sets of 14 names, while Luke shares every single detail and name. Another possibility is that one of the gospels covers Joseph’s family tree, while the other links to Mary, Jesus’ mother, but this is harder to see on the surface.

I might agree that this part of the gospels is the most boring if it were not for one little detail that Luke includes at the end of his gospel’s genealogy. The New American Standard Bible translations tells us that Luke ends his genealogy in chapter 3, verse 38 by saying, “the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.”

This is just a snippet of how Luke shares his genealogy, and while it might be boring to some, what I find fascinating is that Luke does not end by simply saying that Jesus was “Adam’s Son”. Instead, he takes it a step further by pointing out that Adam, the first human, was God’s Son. Regardless of whether you feel the creation story in Genesis is literal or figurative, Luke shares that the first human, Adam, can be known as God’s Son.

There are two angles on this idea that I find interesting.

Firstly, since Jesus came into the world supernaturally and God the Father was Jesus’ true Father, while Joseph took more of an adoptive parent type role, it could be said that Jesus was simply God’s Son in a first generation, direct-descendant sort of way. However, while this is what most Christians believe, Luke extends this idea even further by pointing out that Adam, the first human, was also God’s Son. In this way, Jesus and Adam are like brothers, who have the same Father. This is also why sometimes people will call Jesus the “Second Adam”. This echoes what Luke describes in how he opens his genealogy. He begins in verse 23 by saying, “When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli,” and then it continues on from there sharing names all the way back to Adam, the son of God. Even if you doubt the virgin birth as evidence to Jesus being God’s Son, Luke challenges you to still look at Jesus’ life as though He was God’s Son through a genealogy that takes you back to creation, where God created Adam.

This leads us to another angle on this passage and idea that I find fascinating: If Adam was God’s son, than that makes all of us as descendants of Adam, also descendants of God – the first Father. This is why in some other places in the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as our Brother, and we are all His brothers and sisters. This can only be the case if God is our Father, since Mary is not our universal mother.

However, have you ever really thought of yourself as God’s son or daughter? Christianity uses the phrase “child of God” to describe each of us, but this is too often minimized into being a close-to-meaningless cliché. Instead, what if we grabbed a hold of the idea that we are God’s son or daughter?

If we looked to God as being our True Parent, would that change how we live and/or act?

If we believed that our actions reflect on God like they do onto our parents, would that change how we live each day?

When we look at a young child and how they act and behave, we can definitely understand that some of what we are seeing is the child making a choice. However, we also get to see the results of how the parent has raised the child. We instinctively understand that both nature and nurture go into how a child develops. If we see ourselves as being sons and daughters of God and that He is our Father, then would we think differently?

Like our human parents helped direct the nurture side of our lives, perhaps God could be thought of as directing the nature side of our development. We probably should be cautious as we follow this train of thought because just as our human parents cannot control all of our nurturing as we develop, God probably limits what He ultimately chooses to control on the nature side of our development as well. Both God and our human parents can make choices that relate to our development, but as we grow, we become more independent and make choices on our own. The choices we make can have a positive impact on both our nature, which would be one way to say our biology or our body, and our nurture, which we could describe as our environment.

There is definitely crossover between God the Parent impacting our nature, and our human parents impacting our nurture. Our parents can help or hurt us based upon what they do while we are growing in the womb, and what they feed us when we are young. This is one way that our parents impact our nature, biology side. On the other hand, God chose what parents to bring your way, and he often directs and protects in broader ways than even our human parents can, which definitely impacts the environment, nurture side of our development.

As a parent, I would do well to see myself as a partner with God in my child’s developing, or growing up, years. If both my wife and I see ourselves as being partners with God, then this is the best way to help our children grow into being the adults God created each of them to be.

But this can really only happen if we choose to see ourselves as being parented by God, and as being children of God. This pushes us look at ourselves differently, and it helps us see God more personally than being simply a distant supernatural deity.

As we come to the close of our first podcast episode this year, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life. Intentionally learn to see God the Father as your personal Father, who worked alongside your human parents helping you to become the person you were created to be.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do in one way or another, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself, and keep your mind open to finding ways God the Father reveals Himself as a parent in the passages you read.

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!