Reflective Bible Study

As we continue into the second half of our first chronological year looking at Jesus’ life and ministry, we arrive at a passage where the disciples ask Jesus an interesting question. While this question might not be the first question we would ask Jesus if given the opportunity, I suspect that if the significance of our questions were ranked, the question Jesus’ disciples ask Him would be really high on the list.

The question these disciples ask is about how they should pray. Two of the gospels record Jesus sharing model prayers, and while each gospel shares a similar prayer, Matthew’s gospel seems to get more attention, while Luke’s gospel focuses in on the personal relationship that we can have with God through our prayers. I believe both prayers are significant, so while our time together will focus on Luke’s version of Jesus’ model prayer, what I say regarding Luke’s version will likely be equally valid if looking at Matthew’s.

With that said, our passage and prayer is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 11, and we will read it using the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us that:

¹ One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

² Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this:

‘Father:
    May your holy name be honored;
    may your Kingdom come.
³ Give us day by day the food we need.
⁴ Forgive us our sins,
    for we forgive everyone who does us wrong.
    And do not bring us to hard testing.’”

And that’s it. There is no formal close to the prayer. No “Amen” or anything like that. Luke records Jesus’ example prayer as being very short and sweet. Immediately following this prayer, Luke shares Jesus illustrating the truth that we should be persistent in our prayers with a short parable.

While it would be tempting to jump forward and focus time on Jesus’ parable, if we do so, we might miss out just how profound Jesus’ model prayer in this passage is! While I’m sure there are more things worth identifying in Jesus’ prayer than what we have time for, allow me to share six ideas in Jesus’ prayer that can help anyone who is struggling with wanting a better prayer experience.

The first idea worth pointing out is in Jesus’ opening word. Jesus opens His prayer by calling God His “Father”. This is a relational term, and something we can relate to in our physical lives. You and I have fathers who helped bring us into the world, and we have God as a spiritual Father who is looking out for us in ways that we couldn’t even begin to imagine.

While some people might dismiss this frame simply because God the Father was Jesus’ Father, that misses the simple detail that Jesus is instructing His followers how they should pray. Jesus tells us to call God our Father!

Next, Jesus continues with a statement of humility and respect by saying, “May your holy name be honored”. Our names are a part of our identity, and while we use them to communicate with one another in our physical lives, they carry with them a spiritual element that extends beyond something merely physical. God’s name is similar. We can use it to identify Him, but His name is part of His identity, and it is very spiritual and significant.

Jesus telling us to give honor to God’s name is important, because we are acknowledging that we understand who He is, and in contrast, who we are. God is a huge God, and we are microscopic in His presence, similar to an ant standing in front of a 50 foot tall giant. This makes it that much more awesome that God would be interested in us enough to send Jesus into the world of humanity!

Following talking about God’s name, Jesus shares a statement about God’s role: “may your Kingdom come”. God is a king, and He rules a kingdom that is much greater than any “earthly kingdom”. God’s kingdom spans both the physical and the spiritual worlds, and it is an always-expanding kingdom.

The third statement also brings with it the notion of free will, opening up a transition to the next half of the prayer. God’s kingdom is not forced onto anyone’s heart, but the request to see it come is one we ask to have happen, and when we ask God to bring His Kingdom to us, I believe He is more than happy to bring it. While God has partially hidden His kingdom during this age of sin, as disciples praying to God, we long to see Him end this doomed, sin-stained age and recreate our world into a place where His kingdom is clearly visible.

The first three details in Jesus’ prayer are all about God. Within one sentence, Jesus has focused our attention on who God is, on His relationship with us, on our relationship with Him, and on God’s ultimate role in the affairs of the universe.

The next half of Jesus’ model prayer transitions onto what God can do for us, and it follows a similar progression as the first half did.

The first phrase in the second half of this model prayer acknowledges that God is our provider: “Give us day by day the food we need”. Echoing God’s role as our “Father”, we ask Him to provide us with everything we need, just like a father would. This isn’t asking, or providing for everything we want, but asking for the things we need, and doing it on a day-by-day basis. A parent wouldn’t give their infant three months worth of food and then leave them to fend for themselves, and neither would God dump more on us than we are able handle. “Day by day” is our motto, as we move forward through life with God by our side.

The second phrase in the second half of Jesus’ model prayer brings us to our next layer of need: forgiveness. “Forgive us our sins, for we forgive everyone who does us wrong.” Just like the second statement in the first half of Jesus prayer that framed God as holy, we now acknowledge our need for forgiveness, and this is forgiveness that we understand is not our right to receive. God is holy, and He is not required to forgive us. We demonstrate that we want His forgiveness by forgiving those who have done us wrong. God has promised to forgive us of sin, but His promise is based on our choosing to forgive others who have wronged us.

The last statement in Jesus’ model prayer echoes back to God’s role in the third statement of the introduction. Jesus finishes by saying, “And do not bring us to hard testing” which relates to God’s role as a guide for our lives as we choose to be a part of His kingdom. As we are given responsibility, God watches how we handle the task. We could call this a test and it is God’s right to send tests our way.

This last phrase acknowledges God’s right to test us because He is King, but it also requests that He choose to not test us with hard challenges. Just because we have asked does not mean that our request will be granted, but simply making the request helps keep our focus on God.

Everything in this example prayer is completely focused on God – even the part where Jesus tells us to be forgiving towards others. The first part of this prayer focuses on who God is, and the second part focuses on how we continually need God present in our lives.

There is no closing for this prayer, which suggests that our connection to God should always remain open. Just like we don’t want to end our relationship with Him, there is no reason to “hang up the phone” on our conversation either.

After sharing this prayer, Jesus shifts His focus onto how we should be persistent in our prayers, and persistence when praying is important. Jesus wraps up this teaching by reminding us that God the Father may be compared with an earthly father, except that God the Father is the role model and in every way we can imagine, He is better than any and every earthly Father.

Jesus wants us to see God the Father as our Heavenly Father: specifically as Someone big enough to tackle any problem we face, but also personal enough for us to share life with.

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. Understand that God wants to be your Friend, your Father, and your Forgiver. Recognize these three roles that God wants to have in your life and use them as motivation to intentionally seek God more.

Seeking to know God is best done by intentionally spending time with Him, through prayer, and by personally studying the Bible for yourself. Through the pages of the Bible, discover a God who is passionately in love with His people and that He desperately wants you saved and in heaven 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 outright reject where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Part way through Jesus’ ministry, the religious leaders began being extra tricky with their questions. While they could not deny that Jesus was able to work powerfully, they simply did not trust someone who was unwilling to be as judgmental as they were, and they did not believe someone sent from God would surround Himself with people who were the worst in society.

However, part of me wonders if not all the religious leaders were as opposed to Jesus as the stereotype that we often see. While many, perhaps even most, of the leaders did not like Jesus, I am curious if there were many leaders who simply remained secret, or undercover, followers. While I’ll save my thoughts about undercover disciples for another time, with how the gospel of Luke records the passage we are looking at in this episode, it is unclear whether the question being asked of Jesus is a setup for a trap, or if it is simply a religious leader looking for clarification on an idea.

We can find this event in the gospel of Luke, chapter 10, and we will be reading from the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 25, Luke tells us that:

²⁵ An expert in the Law of Moses stood up and asked Jesus a question to see what he would say. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to have eternal life?”

²⁶ Jesus answered, “What is written in the Scriptures? How do you understand them?”

²⁷ The man replied, “The Scriptures say, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.’ They also say, ‘Love your neighbors as much as you love yourself.’”

²⁸ Jesus said, “You have given the right answer. If you do this, you will have eternal life.”

If the passage and conversation were to have ended right here, this would have been a powerful, but also simple lesson on how we should orient our lives. Even though the conversation moves forward with a follow-up question, too often we get caught focusing on the powerful details of what comes next that we miss the simplicity of what Jesus just confirmed in the religious expert’s words.

Jesus has just described eternal life being possible if one has followed these two principles flawlessly.

However, perhaps the religious expert answered in this way because he had heard Jesus give this answer before, or maybe this religious leader wanted to justify himself regarding who he chose to love. But whatever the reason, Luke continues in verse 29, giving a hint at self-righteousness from this religious expert. Luke tells us:

²⁹ But the man wanted to show that he knew what he was talking about. So he asked Jesus, “Who are my neighbors?”

³⁰ Jesus replied:

As a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, robbers attacked him and grabbed everything he had. They beat him up and ran off, leaving him half dead.

³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road. But when he saw the man, he walked by on the other side. ³² Later a temple helper came to the same place. But when he saw the man who had been beaten up, he also went by on the other side.

³³ A man from Samaria then came traveling along that road. When he saw the man, he felt sorry for him ³⁴ and went over to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. ³⁵ The next morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, “Please take care of the man. If you spend more than this on him, I will pay you when I return.”

³⁶ Then Jesus asked, “Which one of these three people was a real neighbor to the man who was beaten up by robbers?”

³⁷ The teacher answered, “The one who showed pity.”

Jesus said, “Go and do the same!”

In this illustration, Jesus describes a situation that was very believable – well, until you get to the part about the Samaritan helping the man. Actually, this might not be too unbelievable. While the Jews and Samaritans hated each other, the ethnicity of the man who was left dying on the road is open for debate. Perhaps because this man was not clearly of Jewish descent was the reason the priest and temple helper ignored him.

However, the more likely reason was that helping the man who was dying would cause these religious men to be unclean, and it would impact their responsibilities in a negative way. They ignore the situation because it would negatively affect them personally.

On the other hand, the Samaritan was not overly concerned with keeping himself clean. Instead, he saw an opportunity to help and he had the means to do something. Not only did he have something to treat the injured man’s wounds with, he also had money to pay for the care of the man when leaving to continue his journey.

In this event, Jesus defines the role of a neighbor as someone who acts like a neighbor rather than someone who is literally a neighbor. Being a neighbor in God’s eyes is based upon how we act towards someone else and not simply who we happen to live next to.

I have heard speculation that the religious expert answered the way he did at the very end of this illustration because he could not bring himself to say the word Samaritan in a positive light. It is possible, even likely, that this religious leader was among those who were most condescending towards those who were Samaritans, and it is possible that this leader had asked for a definition of neighbor in hopes of getting some type of pass or loophole out of helping those in the social group that he most despised.

But no such response came, and regardless of if the religious leader answered the way he did because he didn’t want to say the word Samaritan or whether there was another reason that we don’t know, the way he does answer is pretty profound in itself. This religious expert’s answer is entirely framed on the notion of practical, active help. Everything Jesus described that the Samaritan did could be summed up in the descriptive phrase “showing pity” and showing pity for those we come in contact with is how we can be neighborly like God intended. “Showing pity for others” as described by Jesus in this illustration, is the same as loving others as we love ourselves because this love is active and it interrupts our plans for the benefit of others.

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

Choose to obey the best you can the two commandments Jesus validated in the religious leader’s response. Intentionally love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love others as you love yourself. Choose to act like a neighbor to those who need help regardless of whether you actually are their literal neighbor or not.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself, and let God touch your life, open your eyes to the world around you, and give you the love for others you need to be able to be the neighbor He created you to be.

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 ignore where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

If you have ever found yourself with priorities that were misplaced, or if you have ever focused on something that you should have ignored, the passage we will be focusing on in this podcast episode may be worth paying attention to.

The passage we will be focusing in on for this episode comes at the end of a significant adventure Jesus sent his followers on. While we often think of Jesus’ followers as being unnumbered large crowds, or a small group of 12 disciples, the group Luke draws our attention to is somewhere between these two extremes.

In this event, Jesus welcomes back 72 of His followers who He had sent out in pairs as missionaries, and when they return, something significant stood out in my mind with Jesus’ welcome-back message.

Our passage for this podcast episode is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 10, and we will be reading it using the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 17, Luke tells us that:

¹⁷ When the seventy-two came back, they were very happy and said, “Lord, even the demons obeyed us when we used your name!”

¹⁸ Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. ¹⁹ Listen, I have given you power to walk on snakes and scorpions, power that is greater than the enemy has. So nothing will hurt you. ²⁰ But you should not be happy because the spirits obey you but because your names are written in heaven.”

This welcoming back message from Jesus is amazing. Leading up to this conclusion, Jesus had commissioned 72 of His followers to go to the neighboring cities and towns to share the great news about the Kingdom of God. When these followers return, they genuinely appear amazed and grateful for the power that God gave them when they used Jesus’ name.

In a similar way, in our own lives, it is very easy to get caught up focusing on our gifts, talents, abilities, connections, and our resources or resourcefulness, but while this is our tendency, Jesus challenges us like He challenged His followers.

This is because our tendency is to focus on us and what “we” have been given or blessed with. If we look closely at what these followers say in verse 17, we can see this hinted at. Luke tells us Jesus’ followers returned saying, “Lord, even the demons obeyed us when we used your name!”

While some might say that the focus is still rightfully being placed on God or Jesus in this statement, there are ways of sharing this idea that don’t include the words “us” or “we”. As an example, these followers could have collectively said, “Lord, the demons fled when they heard your name.”

By including the words “us” and “we”, there is a subtle hint drawing the focus onto the disciples, which then pulls it away from God. While it is not wrong for other people to look at us as followers of Jesus hoping or expecting to see Jesus, as followers of Jesus, our goal should not be collecting people we can call “our followers”.

Instead, the goal for someone who is following Christ is to point other people to follow Christ. If others follow Christ and simultaneously look up to us, then that is their decision. This is not something we should seek or strive for.

This is the subtle trap in how Jesus’ followers responded.

However, I find it interesting that Jesus doesn’t lead into His response by correcting them. Instead, Jesus opens His response by drawing attention to Satan being a defeated enemy, before then beginning to redirect their focus.

For each of us, while it is easy to get caught up focusing on what God has blessed us with, Jesus challenges us to focus on where we stand with God.

Above everything else, the primary reason for us to be happy is not because of the gifts God has given us in the present, but because of the big gift He has assured us of in the future. Every gift God could give to us today, aside from a strong relationship with Him, is nothing when compared to what He promises us when He returns. And more importantly, the primary focus of this life is to realize that we need God’s help. We ask God for help when we put our faith, hope, trust, and belief in Him, and this is the way we accept God’s promised future life in a new heaven and new earth.

Jesus’ message to His followers in this passage is significant. Jesus sees the subtle temptation and opening for pride to take hold in these followers and He shifts their focus back onto one that is aligned with God’s perspective.

It is interesting in my mind that Jesus focuses on the promise and assurance that His followers names are written in Heaven. This not only points these followers onto their future rewards, but it also subtly helps shift their perspective away from the present, earthly perspective and onto an eternity-focused, heavenly perspective.

When we intentionally stop and focus on life from the perspective of eternity, we are better able to understand many of the challenging areas of our lives in this sin-filled world. While it is a little obvious to say out loud, God knows that while bad things happen to innocent people in our sinful world, humans cannot abuse anyone out of heaven. The only way we forfeit heaven is if we choose to reject the gift Jesus offers to us.

Humans cannot abuse anyone out of heaven.

It is unfortunate that while Christians have a responsibility to share Jesus with others, too often, we do a poor job at it. However, Jesus is greater than even the broad Christian Church. For the two thousand or so years before the Jewish nation stepped into history, and before the 1500 years or so between the formation of the Jewish nation and Jesus launching the Christian movement, God has moved through individual lives leading people into realizing their need to depend on Him.

As Christians, we can easily misrepresent God and Jesus, but it would be foolish for us to think that God is surprised by this. Nothing we do can surprise God. When we screw up, God is ready with a backup plan.

For thousands of years, the devil has tried to abuse people out of heaven, but God is bigger, God is stronger, God is smarter. He won’t let Satan’s abuse separate or steal away those those He loves from being connected with Him.

God wants us to view life through His eyes, through the lens of eternity, and when we do this, we are able to understand many things regarding our present life and we are able to stay connected with Him even when times in this world get tough.

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. Purposefully seek to learn what He really is like in order to better be able to see life through the lens of eternity. Only when we look at life from the perspective of God can we begin to understand some of the challenges and pain that life brings our way.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself. The best way to learn about God is by starting with the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and focusing on learning about Jesus. Jesus came to show us what God the Father is like, and a picture of God that doesn’t reflect Jesus is a bad picture of 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 be tricked into abandoning where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Picking back up were we left off last week, we find Jesus teaching in the temple during this same festival. However, now our passage for this week focuses on the conclusion of Jesus’ preaching in the temple during the festival that He snuck into unannounced, and in this conclusion, Jesus restates some of the key ideas we focused on last week, while also pushing the crowd further.

Let’s let John tell us how Jesus circles back around to His key point. We will be reading from John’s gospel, chapter 8, using the New International Reader’s Version. Picking back up in verse 21, John tells us that:

²¹ Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away. You will look for me, and you will die in your sin. You can’t come where I am going.”

²² This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘You can’t come where I am going’?”

Pausing our reading briefly, Jesus says almost the exact same thing as He said in our last episode’s passage, but this time, the Jews instead wonder if Jesus is planning on committing suicide with His statement. Last week, they thought He would be traveling to some other part of the world, and now they have decided that Jesus must mean something different.

With the emphasis on death, the Jews now wonder if Jesus is talking about death rather than extended travel.

However, Jesus continues in verse 23 with a clearer answer, and John tells us how Jesus answered:

²³ But Jesus said, “You are from below. I am from heaven. You are from this world. I am not from this world. ²⁴ I told you that you would die in your sins. This will happen if you don’t believe that I am he. If you don’t believe, you will certainly die in your sins.”

Pausing again, but only very briefly, here in verses 23 and 24 is a simple explanation of salvation. The criteria Jesus shares for experiencing salvation is that we must believe Jesus the One God sent, and believe that Jesus is the Messiah God promised, and our belief must include our faith and trust being placed onto Jesus. If we don’t believe, then Jesus tells us like He told those present in the temple that we will certainly die in our sins.

Continuing in verse 25:

²⁵ “Who are you?” they asked.

“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. ²⁶ “I have a lot to say that will judge you. But the one who sent me can be trusted. And I tell the world what I have heard from him.”

²⁷ They did not understand that Jesus was telling them about his Father. ²⁸ So Jesus said, “You will lift up the Son of Man. Then you will know that I am he. You will also know that I do nothing on my own. I speak just what the Father has taught me. ²⁹ The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.” ³⁰ Even while Jesus was speaking, many people believed in him.

We’ll stop reading at this verse because I want to really draw our attention onto the side-note John has just inserted. In verse 30, John tells us that “Even while Jesus was speaking, many people believed in him”. This is significant in my mind because while the crowd was confused at what Jesus was saying, their confusion did not hinder their belief.

This is not the case for everyone. Some people use their lack of understanding to be the cornerstone of their reasons for not believing, but the challenge with this line of thinking is that rarely in any other case do we need to know all the answers to believe.

For example, if we are driving down a street and we come to a stoplight, do we need to understand how electricity and relays work in order to understand what makes the different colored lights switch back and forth? Do we need to stop everything else we are doing and do all the research necessary to come to a full understanding of how the stoplight works before believing the color of light and the position of the light are instructions we would be smart to follow?

Or do we simply need to know that red means stop, green means go, and yellow means a red light is about to come?

I think that faith and belief in Jesus are very similar to how we should view our trust in a simple stoplight. While one or two reasons and answers are sufficient to begin our belief, it is only after we begin to obey the stoplight’s instructions for us that we really understand the benefits that obedience offers. While one can rationalize that they don’t understand why the Bible advises people to live a certain way, or they try to discount it as an archaic or dated way to live, only by truly living a life that is obedient to the Bible will one fully learn why the Bible’s way is superior.

While the Bible does not discuss technology or electricity, it does give a full spectrum view of human relationships, and society structures, and time and time again, even with sin factored into the equation, the Bible’s plan is the most solid. Also, while the Bible doesn’t speak to technology, it doesn’t tell us to stay locked in the past. It simply points us to the best way to live during whatever century we are living in.

Jesus concluded His statement to the Jews and the crowd in the temple by saying that He did nothing on His own, and that everything He did was pleasing to the Father. I wonder if we could say the same about our lives living over 2,000 years later. If God were to look down at the world today, which is a very different looking world than it was when Jesus walked on it, would He approve of how we are living, and how we are representing His Son to those who are longing for Godly love?

Through the way Jesus lived His life, everything He did included the Father and the Holy Spirit. While we don’t always see this in our own lives, the question I challenge myself with is whether I would continue doing what I am currently doing, or living how I am currently living, if I truly believed that God the Father and the Holy Spirit were right next to me. Would the Father approve of my life, and would my life, both the online and offline portions of my personality, reflect Jesus accurately?

As Christians, we are called to represent Jesus, and the only way we can do this well is if we understand how Jesus lived, and then intentionally model His character in our world today. While it might seem strange or uncomfortable to do, only after we have committed and begun obeying Jesus’ words will the Christian life be truly Christ-like.

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

Intentionally model Jesus and choose to obey Him even if you don’t have all your questions answered. Choose to obey, then keep your eyes open for why God would recommend for people to live this way. Like I described earlier in this episode, obey God like you obey a stoplight, because only by obeying can we better understand why it is best to obey the stoplight’s instruction.

Also, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself and look for principles that you can apply into your life. While some parts of the Bible are technically dated, because society and technology have changed, the principles the Bible shares are timeless, and it is these principles that we are challenged to apply in our own lives regardless of the point in history in which we live.

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!