Reflective Bible Study

As we begin our special two-part finale for our year podcasting through Luke’s gospel, let me first wish you a very merry Christmas to you and your family and friends. I hope that you are able to spend time with people you love and I hope that you are healthy over this entire winter season as well. I know I definitely don’t like being sick, and often, when the temperatures turn cold, I start catching a cold, which is aggravating.

However, as we moved through this year looking at Luke’s gospel, one big theme we saw was that sick people who came to Jesus did not stay sick people. Luke is one gospel which loved to draw our attention onto Jesus healing peoples’ physical and spiritual illnesses.

Luke also includes the most detail about the events of Jesus’ birth, as well as John the Baptist’s birth too. With that said, let’s begin our review of our podcast episodes from this past year and focus in on some of the biggest and most profound insights that we uncovered. For time considerations, I might have to skip over some insights because it is always difficult to pull these lists down to a manageable length.

Starting off our year review, let’s look at what we learned in episode 2, which focused in on Gabriel’s visit to Zechariah to promise this elderly couple a child. In our discussion, we discovered that while Zechariah’s silence likely lasted less than a full year, it served as an amazing symbol for God being silent, before stepping into history in a big way through John the Baptist and through Jesus. Zechariah’s silence also served as a sign for everyone present that God was doing something in their midst. Lastly, this sign of muteness served as a reminder to Zechariah himself that God’s promise to him was real!

Jumping ahead to episode 4, we looked at Jesus’ dedication in the temple as a baby, and were awed by the realization that before Jesus had fully stepped into history, and actually barely after He had even entered this world, Simeon, led by the Holy Spirit, forewarns Mary that Jesus’ life as a Messiah would end in death. Jesus would die before she would.

Moving forward to the next episode, episode number 5, we looked at Jesus staying in Jerusalem when He had turned twelve. In this event, we concluded the truth that it is easier to lose Jesus than it is to find Him! One day without Jesus may ultimately result in three days of searching and worry to find Him again!

Skipping over some great episodes we don’t have time to touch on, we move forward to episode 10, where four friends bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus to heal him. In this episode, we learned that sometimes God will validate a message He sends with a miracle. However, don’t expect this to be God’s default method. In the gospels, this might be the only time Jesus uses a miracle to prove a spiritual point. It’s also worth remembering that if God was specifically punishing this man for a sin in his past, there would have been no way for Jesus to heal him against God’s will!

Moving ahead to episode 12, Jesus warns His followers about judging others and He shared a parable about two homes with different foundations. In this event and episode, we ultimately learned that the only thing that matters from eternity’s perspective is what God thinks and how God judges. Jesus has promised us that we can change the measure God uses to judge through the way we interact with others.

Jumping forward to episode 14, Luke includes an event early in his gospel about Jesus’ feet being anointed at Simon’s home. In this episode and event, and within Jesus’ response to Simon and his guests who looked down on what took place, we discovered that the reason we know context matters is God associates with sinners. Jesus came into this world because God loves sinners. While God doesn’t love the sin, that isn’t going to stop Him from seeking out the sinner.

When God forgives our sin, it is like He erases our debt and all that is left is the essence of who we are that He loves. What we do, what we look like, or what is in our genes is not relevant when discussing God’s love.

Jesus assured this woman that her sins were forgiven, because He wanted her to move forward in a new life with God without the cloud of her past weighing her down. Jesus wants us to know that God has forgiven us because He wants us to begin or continue our lives with Him without the sins of our past weighing us down. God wants to redeem us out of sin and into new, eternal lives, with Him!

Continuing our pattern of looking at even numbered episodes, which is something I just noticed but didn’t plan, we arrive at episode 16, where we looked at Jesus casting out a legion of demons and sending them into a herd of pigs. In this episode, when we looked closely at the details, we discovered that God allowed the demons to kill the pigs, but these demons did not, or maybe even could not, kill this man. I wonder if Satan had dispatched a whole legion of demons to kill this man and the closest they could get was driving him from society.

However, nothing could stop Jesus from reaching this man. Nothing Satan could do could stop this from happening. While the demons weren’t restricted from killing the pigs, they were powerless to kill this man under God’s protection. It didn’t matter how many demons were present in this man, God’s protection of this man’s life was clearly stronger.

When Jesus wants to heal a life, free a life, or change a heart, the best Satan can muster is no match for a single command from Jesus’ mouth. And from what Jesus did for us on the cross, nothing Satan can muster can steal eternal life away from those God has chosen and called!

We finally break from this pattern as we move forward by jumping ahead and stopping at episode 19. In this episode, we focused on Jesus sending out the 72 disciples to the surrounding towns and villages and we learned that Jesus challenges us to not become proud about the words we speak, because we are simply a messenger for Jesus. In the same way, we should not take rejection personally, because those who reject us aren’t rejecting us as much as they are rejecting Jesus and God.

The mission of God’s people at every point in history has been pointing people back to what God and Jesus have done for us, and pointing us to His arrival and return. While it may be exciting to have the Holy Spirit with us, we should be even more excited that when we follow God, our names are written in the Book of Life in heaven. In the big picture, it won’t matter what we have done for God. What will matter is whether our names are among those who God is planning on redeeming from sin and bringing with Him into eternity!

Jumping forward to episode 23, we looked at Jesus teaching us about our eyes being lamps for our bodies while He challenges some religious leaders. In this episode, we learned that God wants a personal relationship with us. Any leader, teacher, guide, or mentor who wants to get in the way of you growing closer to God has more in common with these religious leaders that Jesus speaks out against than people God actually sends into our lives.

In the very next episode, number 24, Jesus continued His teaching turning His attention onto greed and worry. Included in the passage we covered in this episode is the parable about the man who was blessed and chose to build bigger barns. This episode taught us a number of very powerful truths that we can use to wrap up the first part of our year-end finale. In episode 24, we learned that when we give up our possessions and give money to help others, we rob greed of its power. Greed has power in our lives when our focus is placed on what we own. When we shift our focus onto selling, giving, and focusing on helping others, greed is robbed of its power in our lives.

The biggest benefit of living a generous life of service to others is that our hearts will be stored with where our treasure is, and when our treasure is stored in heaven, our hearts will be there as well!

God desires your heart and mine. When we live lives focused on serving God, helping others, and storing our treasure in heaven, God gets our hearts as well – and God is the only one who is able to restore a sin-stained heart. God solved the sin problem through Jesus, and He is willing to solve our personal sin problem when we give our hearts to Him!

When thinking about how to wrap up this amazing year looking at prophecies and connections between the Old Testament and Jesus’ ministry, I am a little bit at a loss. This past year has been amazing in my mind, and while it was very daunting going into it, I have been incredibly blessed putting these episodes together. I hope you were blessed by them as well.

As is our custom, we take our last two episodes each year to review some of the biggest and best insights that we covered during this past year of podcasting. This year has no shortage of big ideas. However, before I get too far ahead of myself, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas. In many ways, everything we focused on during this year of podcasting was directly connected in one way or another with the Christmas event, including those prophecies we looked at early on in our year that focused in on Jesus’ birth.

Throughout this year, we discovered that God is in control, and that everything He planned for Jesus’ first coming happened, allowing us to trust and believe in Jesus’ second coming.

Let’s dive into the first half of this year and look at some of the insights we discovered.

In our very first episode, we went back to the very beginning, and looked at how Jesus, the Word of God, parallels the wisdom of God as framed in some of Solomon’s proverbs. The proverb we primarily focused our time on, as well as Jesus while He was teaching the crowds, challenges us to seek wisdom that can only come from God. In this episode, we were reminded of the truth that while living for God in this sin-filled world is not easy or pleasant at times, God promises to send us help through His Holy Spirit and Jesus has promised through His prayer that God will keep His people safe for eternity.

In the next episode, number 2, we looked at Jesus being called the Son of David. However, far from being an exclusive look at who Jesus came to save, in this passage and episode, we concluded that even though, on the surface, it might appear as though Jesus came only for a specific ethnicity or nationality of people, from reading the gospels, and looking at how Jesus interacted with people, it is more likely that Jesus came for people who were interested in allying with the spiritual house of Jacob, which might be different than the literal group of Jacob’s descendants. Jesus talks about God cutting away parts of His vine that don’t produce fruit, pruning the parts that do, and grafting in parts that want to be connected with Him.

According to Jesus, this means that whatever your past happens to be, we can choose today to ally with Jesus and be connected with His Kingdom that God has promised will last forever!

Episode 3 continued the theme of Jesus being David’s descendant, and we looked at how Jesus has two Fathers, though likely not the two fathers you might initially think of. According to Gabriel, Jesus had two Fathers: God the Father, and David, who was also called His father. We could also add Joseph as a third father, since that is where our minds might initially go and since many in the first century likely saw Joseph that way, especially while Jesus was growing up.

With the inheritance that was His, Jesus chose to give up His life so that He would be able to share this inheritance with all his adopted brothers and sisters. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, we not only can be adopted into God’s family, we can also share in Jesus’ inheritance. And this happens when we align and ally our lives with Him, and when we ask Him to cover our sins with His sacrifice.

Jumping ahead to episode 5, where we looked at Isaiah’s prophecy about a virgin conceiving the Messiah, we focused our attention onto the truth that regardless of how we understand Isaiah’s prophecy, everything surrounding Jesus’ birth suggests that Mary was a virgin, and that her pregnancy was a direct fulfillment of God’s promise through the prophet Isaiah.

In episode 6, which also focused us on prophecies surrounding Jesus’ birth, we discover that Jesus would also be known as Immanuel, which is a name that means, “God with us.” In this episode, we discovered that while we might not have a clear, direct, or repeated use of the name Immanuel within the gospels to describe Jesus, every time He healed, helped, or moved God’s kingdom forward, He fulfills this prophecy being God’s representative to humanity.

When we step into the life and plan God has placed before us, we can fulfill a tiny portion of God being with us. When we help other people and show God’s love in the world, we are God’s representatives and we are able to help people understand God’s Immanuel promise that He is willing to be with and help His people!

In episode 7, where we focused in on Bethlehem being the place where the Messiah would be born, we discovered that everything in Jesus’ birth story shines the light on what otherwise would be normal and insignificant. While God is capable of using us for great things, more often than not, any and every great thing He uses us for will be built on the foundation of the simple, ordinary, not-glamorous habits that simply draw us into connection with Him.

Jumping forward to episode 9, we looked at Jesus being called out of Egypt. In this episode, we were reminded of the truth that from a spiritual mindset, we were born into a tyranny, into a world that is filled with sin. Some might metaphorically equate this with the spiritual nation of Egypt. When God calls us to Him, He calls us to come out of the tyranny of the world, and into a life that is closer to Him, into a life that is lived to a higher standard than many of those living around us, and into a life that leaves the past, with its spiritual baggage, behind.

Starting in episode 11, we shifted out of Jesus’ birth story and onto Jesus’ ministry, beginning with a couple prophecies concerning John the Baptist. In episode 11, we learned that through Jesus, we all have been given a second chance. Through Jesus, our slate of past sins has been wiped clean. Because of Jesus’ first coming, we can look forward with joy to Jesus’ second coming, and the ultimate end of pain, disease, sin, and even death. Let’s take the second chance we have been blessed with and use it to bless others while giving God the glory.

In the next episode, episode number 12, we looked at some prophecies that focused on Elijah being sent to prepare the way for Jesus’ arrival. While John the Baptist steps into the role of Elijah during His ministry leading up to Jesus, we also discovered in this episode that when we lead people to Jesus, not only are we increasing the number of people who will be saved, we are also living our lives in the spirit and power of Elijah.

Jumping forward to episode 15, which drew our attention onto who Jesus’ ministry would focus on, we were encouraged with the truth that if we have at times felt distant, alone, abandoned, or in need of God’s light, love, and/or encouragement, then we can frame the prophecy from this episode as one Jesus fulfilled. Jesus came to people who felt like this, and Jesus called people who appeared to be the least religious. Jesus loves those who society has rejected. Jesus loves those who are abandoned. And Jesus invites those who the world has given up on to come follow Him, and let Him transform them into the people He sees.

Continuing our jump forward, this time to episode 19, we looked at a passage and prophecy that appears to describe Jesus’ mission and ministry. In this episode, we discovered that Jesus lived the requirements of the law so that when we fail at these same requirements, we have an intercessor who understands our situation. Jesus paid the penalty for breaking the law so that we can be given the reward He deserved while He freely took the punishment we deserved. The Law, mixed with grace led Jesus to and through death, and when we ally and align ourselves with Jesus, we have the assurance that He is able to lead us to and through death, and into an eternal life with Him.

Moving forward to episode 21, we read a prophecy about people hearing but not understanding Jesus’ message or ministry. In this episode, the prophecy we looked at described a scenario where a group of people think they can see, hear, and understand, but they have written off actually applying what they believe is being shared. Because they have written off any level of application, they choose not to return, which ultimately results in them losing out on healing, greater perception, and deeper understanding. By intentionally living out God’s plan for our lives today, together we will grow into being the people God created us to be, and we will ultimately be welcomed into God’s kingdom, specifically into the New Heaven and New Earth, when Jesus returns.

To wrap up this first part of our two-part finale, let’s look at things we discovered during Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which we cover in episodes 22, 23, and 24. In these episodes, we discovered that forgiveness is a key piece of God’s character. We can take this prophecy as a promise that even though our past is filled with the stains of sin, mistakes, and regret, God is more than willing to adopt us into His family, and He is willing to purify us and make us one of His children. God loves you and He loves me, and Jesus made possible the way for God to show His love for each of us through what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

Also, without considering God’s perspective, it’s easy to judge Him, but any judgment given in this way is flawed at best, because it only allows for half a perspective, or perhaps even less than half a perspective.

And to wrap up this first part of our finale, let’s remember that while the religious leaders should have been the group to have recognized the amazing significance of what Jesus was doing, they had let their minds and hearts harden against Jesus because He did not fit their pre-built picture of the Messiah.

God loves us, and His big goal is redeeming you and me from the grip of sin!