Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure

Giving Evidence of Our Faith: Matthew 9:27-34

Published April 22, 2026 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Matthew 9:27-34 (NASB)

During one of the healing miracles that Jesus performed, we can find an interesting dialog that Jesus has with a couple of blind men. Matthew tells us in his gospel that these blind men found Jesus and were following Him crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” (v. 27)

Matthew doesn’t tell us how far Jesus traveled that day or at what point the blind men found Jesus, but when they ultimately came to the place they were going to stay the night, the blind men came up to Jesus to be healed. Jesus asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” (v. 28a)

They both responded, “Yes, Lord.” (v. 28b)

On one hand, the answer to this question should be obvious. These men had followed Jesus crying out for mercy from Him. This would mean that they knew He was capable of healing them, and it would seem that they were pretty persistent with their desire to be healed. When Jesus asked them if they believed He is capable of healing their sight, the counter question back to Jesus easily could have been, “If we didn’t believe this, why would we have followed You here?

But on the other hand, I think this miracle might have a lesson for the disciples attached to it. These men clearly demonstrated their belief through their actions. They had followed Jesus requesting help for miles, and it is only after the trip had finished that Jesus acknowledges their presence. I am sure Jesus was aware of their presence before arriving. These men may have even been disruptive in their attempts to get His attention. However, it is only after Jesus arrives at the house they were staying that He comes over to talk with them.

The big key I see in this passage that makes me think this was a teachable moment for the disciples comes with what Jesus says as He is touching their eyes. “Then He touched their eyes, saying, ‘It shall be done to you according to your faith.’” (v. 29)

The proof for the blind men’s faith had been demonstrated in what they had done leading up to this miracle, and the result of their conversation with Jesus and His touch blended with this faith to give the ultimate result: “And their eyes were opened.” (v. 30a)

Jesus attached the effectiveness of this miracle to the faith of the men making the request. While faith isn’t directly visible in every miracle Jesus performed, we can see that faith is a key ingredient in many of Jesus’ healing miracles.

One lesson Jesus may be teaching here is that faith that is strong enough for miracles will also be a faith that is visible to others. Hidden faith is not a powerful faith. Powerful faith gives evidence for its existence. The blind men didn’t care who knew they wanted Jesus’ help, they simply followed Jesus asking for help until Jesus was ready to acknowledge them. Their persistence proves their level of faith.

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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Planting Doubt: Matthew 4:1-11

Published April 21, 2026 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Matthew 4:1-11 (GNT)

¹Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the Devil. ²After spending forty days and nights without food, Jesus was hungry. ³Then the Devil came to him and said, “If you are God’s Son, order these stones to turn into bread.”

⁴But Jesus answered, “The scripture says, ‘Human beings cannot live on bread alone, but need every word that God speaks.’”

⁵Then the Devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, the Holy City, set him on the highest point of the Temple, ⁶and said to him, “If you are God’s Son, throw yourself down, for the scripture says,

‘God will give orders to his angels about you;
they will hold you up with their hands,
so that not even your feet will be hurt on the stones.’”

⁷Jesus answered, “But the scripture also says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

⁸Then the Devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in all their greatness. ⁹“All this I will give you,” the Devil said, “if you kneel down and worship me.”

¹⁰Then Jesus answered, “Go away, Satan! The scripture says, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!’”

¹¹Then the Devil left Jesus; and angels came and helped him.

Read Matthew 4:1-11 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

The more I read the gospels’ record of Jesus’ temptations at the start of His ministry, the more amazed at the various nuances present in both the temptations Satan uses against Jesus, and the responses Jesus gives. One of the things that stand out as profound is the conditional nature of each temptation and this is because in each temptation, Satan phrases it as a challenge to who Jesus is.

Both Matthew and Luke include this little nuance in how Satan words his temptations, but for simplicity, we’ll just look at Matthew’s gospel. Matthew tells us that Satan’s first temptation was, “If you are God’s Son, order these stones to turn into bread.” (v. 3b)

The second temptation Matthew shares is, “If you are God’s Son, throw yourself down…” (v. 6a)

Matthew’s gospel concludes these three temptations by sharing the devil offering Jesus the world. Satan said, “All this I will give you, if you kneel down and worship me.” (v. 9)

In each of these temptations, Satan tries to plant doubt in Jesus’ mind regarding His mission. In the first two temptations, the challenge is for Jesus to prove that He really is God’s Son. In the third temptation, the challenge is for Jesus to abandon the mission of the cross. Satan essentially offers Jesus a shortcut, but the trap with this shortcut is that it would cause Jesus to sin, and by doing so, it would invalidate His ministry. The doubt that Satan tried to plant in Jesus’ mind with the third temptation is that the path of the cross would be too difficult to face.

What is fascinating about these temptations is that they echo the temptations Satan throws at each of us. All Satan needs to do is to challenge our status as children of God, which usually will either cause us to doubt God, or it will cause us to overreact and test God.

The temptations are powerful because while they try to cause sin, they are also trying to plant doubt. Too often, Satan’s temptations are successful at both causing sin and planting doubt, but when we know what he is up to, we can be one step ahead of his next attempt.

God gave Jesus to give His life for each of us. This allows us to be adopted back into God’s family. Never let a temptation plant doubt in your mind that God loves you and wants you back in His family!

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Flashback Episode — Missing the Messiah: John 7:1-13

Published April 20, 2026 in Audio Journal Entries

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As we continue moving through John’s gospel, after John has finished sharing about the crowd Jesus challenged and how almost all of Jesus’ followers left Him, John moves to focusing on Jesus being at home with His brothers and away from His disciples. We don’t have much context for what set the stage for this event, however what John shares in this event is fascinating.

Our passage for this episode comes from John’s gospel, chapter 7, and we will read it from the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 1, John tells us that:

¹ After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. ² Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. ³ Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. ⁴ For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” ⁵ For not even His brothers were believing in Him. ⁶ So Jesus said to them, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. ⁸ Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.” ⁹ Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee.

Pausing reading briefly, I am amazed at this event and at Jesus’ short conversation with His brothers. As I wonder and imagine the details of this scene, I suspect that Jesus’ disciples had already left to go to the feast in Jerusalem, and this is why Jesus was alone with His brothers.

However, the phrase that really jumps off the page at me is a statement Jesus’ brothers tell Him in verse 4: “For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly.” This statement speaks volumes about where the heads and hearts of Jesus’ brothers were. The statement Jesus’ brothers make is completely true, but this statement also entirely misses the direction of Jesus’ life and mission.

When Jesus’ brothers share this statement, it is solid logic: If someone wants to be known and have a following, they won’t hide their lives away. If someone wants to be known by others, they must step into a spotlight, or at least step out in some way. This statement, given in the context of the whole message Jesus’ brothers tell Jesus, lets us know that Jesus’ brothers did not understand Jesus’ mission as the Messiah. In the minds of Jesus’ brothers, the Messiah needed to be very public and the Messiah needed to be focused on attracting followers in order to kick Rome out of the nation.

However, Jesus understands something that His brothers don’t. Jesus understands that fame and popularity are two very bad motivators. What Jesus’ brothers don’t understand is that Jesus is not interested in being known by the world – at least at this point in His ministry. Instead, Jesus is more interested in fulfilling God’s mission for His life, and God’s mission is one that is both incredibly personal, as well as incredibly sacrificial. Jesus’ mission for His life ultimately gives life to those around Him and to those who accept Him.

In contrast, the mission the first century culture had for the messiah was that he would overthrow Rome in their nation, and this mission required lives to be lost in order to succeed. Jesus’ ultimate mission only had one life to be given, and this life was His own.

Because of this, Jesus opts to sit this festival out, because He knows His time has not yet come, and likely because traveling with His disciples or His brothers will draw too much attention onto Himself.

However, after Jesus’ brothers leave for the feast, John continues in verse 10, saying:

¹⁰ But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret. ¹¹ So the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and were saying, “Where is He?” ¹² There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, “He is a good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray.” ¹³ Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews.

In this passage, Jesus travels to this festival alone, and as anonymously as possible. At the start of the feast, the Jews were actively looking for Him, but they did not find Him. While this feast was happening, people were talking about Jesus and debating among themselves about how important Jesus really was.

At other places within the gospels, Jesus described how He would divide people. This last part of our passage hints at how Jesus divides people. In all this subtle whispering, we see this division take place. One group describes Jesus as a good man, while other people believed Jesus to be leading the people astray.

However, it is interesting from how John describes these whispered debates that neither one of these two groups understands Jesus’ ultimate mission or goal. Instead, the group that believes Jesus to be a good man might not believe much more about Jesus then this.

In an interesting twist, by this point in John’s gospel, Jesus has amassed a huge crowd of followers and pushed them all away. This detail allows this debate to flourish about Jesus because those who believe Jesus to be a good man can focus on all those Jesus has helped and healed, which is a sizable amount, while those who believe Jesus to be leading people astray can focus on the unbelievable claims Jesus made while teaching. Both sides of this debate have different sets of proof, but neither one appears to take any steps towards believing Jesus to be God’s Messiah.

This is the same in our lives today, except that there are now three groups of people. In our world today, there are people who are actively opposed to Jesus and God, and this includes many who simply claim God doesn’t exist and Jesus is not the same person that the Bible describes. Those who believe this line of thinking make up one group.

The second group of people are those who believe Jesus to be a good man and a good teacher, but that history has exaggerated His life and His ministry. Those in this second group know slivers of Jesus’ life and ministry, but they are not open to letting Jesus or God change their lives.

These first two groups are direct descendants of the two groups debating in our passage in John’s gospel.

To contrast these two groups, we have a third group, and this group believes Jesus to be the Messiah, and that Jesus is the way God stepped into history to show His love for us. This third group, which began with Jesus’ disciples shortly after Jesus returned to heaven, changed the first century world. I am a part of this third group, and if you’re not a part of this group yet, consider yourself invited to join. Those who have placed their hope, faith, trust, and belief in Jesus and His sacrifice for us on the cross can begin a new life with God today, and our lives with God extend forward into eternity!

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 your faith, your hope, your trust, and your belief in Jesus and in what He accomplished for humanity on the cross. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are giving the opportunity of a new life with God, a life that we don’t deserve, but a life that God offers to us as a gift if we are willing to accept it. If you haven’t accepted God’s gift yet, this is a challenge to do so today!

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to personally grow closer to Jesus each and every day. Through personal prayer and study, discover just how much God loves you and how God showed His love for all of us through what Jesus did for us! While some people point to acts of God that sound negative, angry, or hostile, we should filter all the claims through Jesus. Jesus gives us the best picture of God we can know, and because of this, the best place to begin studying is with Jesus!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Flashback Episode: Year in John – Episode 16: When challenged by His brothers about being known, Jesus pushes back and decides to go to a Jewish festival anonymously instead of publicly with His brothers or His disciples. Discover why this is and why this matters to us living today!

A New Perspective: Matthew 13:44-52

Published April 17, 2026 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Matthew 13:44-52 (GNT)

⁴⁴“The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man happens to find a treasure hidden in a field. He covers it up again, and is so happy that he goes and sells everything he has, and then goes back and buys that field.

⁴⁵“Also, the Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man is looking for fine pearls, ⁴⁶and when he finds one that is unusually fine, he goes and sells everything he has, and buys that pearl.

⁴⁷“Also, the Kingdom of heaven is like this. Some fishermen throw their net out in the lake and catch all kinds of fish. ⁴⁸When the net is full, they pull it to shore and sit down to divide the fish: the good ones go into the buckets, the worthless ones are thrown away. ⁴⁹It will be like this at the end of the age: the angels will go out and gather up the evil people from among the good ⁵⁰and will throw them into the fiery furnace, where they will cry and gnash their teeth.

⁵¹“Do you understand these things?” Jesus asked them.

“Yes,” they answered.

⁵²So he replied, “This means, then, that every teacher of the Law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of heaven is like a homeowner who takes new and old things out of his storage room.”

Read Matthew 13:44-52 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

To wrap up a section of parables, Matthew draws our attention onto three short parables Jesus shares. While these parables are often broken apart, with the first two separated from the third, it is only when we place them together that we see a bigger picture of what God wants to share with us.

While Matthew 13 starts with a parable designed to help us understand the other parables Jesus shared better, I think these last parables in this long set help us understand another key point behind many of Jesus’ other parables.

This concluding set of parables has the Kingdom of heaven being represented by a treasure hidden in a field that a man finds, by a merchant on the lookout for fine pearls, and by a fishing net that catches fish of all kinds. These parables are all connected by saying “Also” and they all describe a characteristic of one thing: The Kingdom of heaven.

But one parable is different from the others.

Part of the reason I believe these parables have been broken into two sections is because the third parable (unlike the first two) contains the explanation, and it isn’t a very pleasant conclusion for those who are not saved.

When we cut off the third parable and focus in on only the first two, we get the impression we must be constantly on the lookout for treasure and pearls, and that we must sell everything we have in order to acquire the treasure we find. There is an element of truth to this interpretation of the first two parables, but it stops us short of a powerful truth that the third parable brings.

If we focus in on the third parable in this set (the one focused on the fishing net), and we specifically look at how Jesus explains it, we see a parable that is shared from God’s perspective not ours.

This has the power to completely change how we look at any parable Jesus shared because if Jesus opens it by saying it’s about the Kingdom of heaven or the Kingdom of God, you can be sure God will show up – and the parable probably is given from His perspective and not ours.

This means that the first two parables can also be applicable from His perspective. God is working in a field and He finds a treasure. He sells everything He has to get that treasure. God is continually searching for valuable pearls, and when He finds one, He sells everything He has to get that pearl. God was willing to purchase all of humanity back through the death of His Son so that He could sort and save all who have chosen Him. Buying us back from sin cost God everything – and He would do it again because that is how much He values each of us!

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