Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure

Changing Names: Mark 3:13-19

Published July 24, 2026 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Mark 3:13-19 (NIrV)

¹³Jesus went up on a mountainside. He called for certain people to come to him, and they came. ¹⁴He appointed 12 of them so that they would be with him. He would also send them out to preach. ¹⁵And he gave them authority to drive out demons.

¹⁶So Jesus appointed the 12 disciples.

Simon was one of them. Jesus gave him the name Peter.

¹⁷There were James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John. Jesus gave them the name Boanerges. Boanerges means Sons of Thunder.

¹⁸There were also Andrew,

Philip,

Bartholomew,

Matthew,

Thomas,

and James, son of Alphaeus.

And there were Thaddaeus

and Simon the Zealot.

¹⁹Judas Iscariot was one of them too. He was the one who was later going to hand Jesus over to his enemies.

Read Mark 3:13-19 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Near the beginning of His ministry, three of the four gospels describe the point when Jesus chose the core group of twelve disciples. However, Mark’s gospel includes a detail that the other two gospels don’t, and this detail fascinates me.

Within the twelve disciples, there was a smaller group of three disciples, and this small group, from the point when Jesus called the disciples together, was set apart from the rest. Mark draws our attention onto this distinctive detail at the beginning of his list of Jesus’ chosen twelve. He tells us, “So Jesus appointed the 12 disciples. Simon was one of them. Jesus gave him the name Peter. There were James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John. Jesus gave them the name Boanerges. Boanerges means Sons of Thunder.” (v. 16-17)

From the point when Jesus chose the disciples, He gives three of them new names. Simon (not the Zealot) was given the name Peter. Then the brothers James and John were given the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder.

Perhaps the names Jesus gave related to the place each of these disciples were in when He called them. Maybe when Jesus first met Simon, the name Peter fit him better, and it is possible that Jesus met James and John while they were arguing/debating with each other.

Or maybe, Jesus didn’t rename these three disciples because of who they were when He met them. What if Jesus gave these disciples new names because of what He saw these three men becoming? What if Jesus looked at Simon-Peter, and before Simon even knew what God had in mind for him, Jesus could see his place in God’s master plan? What if James and John would ultimately rock the course of history with their gospel, their preaching, and their life’s witness?

While the reason for Jesus giving these three disciples new names is not shared directly, we do know that He did it for a reason. Just because we don’t understand or have an answer for this question doesn’t mean that He acted illogically. Jesus had a reason for renaming these three disciples and it may be a question we have to wait for heaven to get answered.

But changing names doesn’t stop with these three disciples. When Jesus returns and we enter into our new lives with Him, He promises each of us a new name. The name Jesus will give to us will be a part of us, rich with significance, and it will identify who we are in Christ throughout eternity.

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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Lost Like a Coin: Luke 15:8-10

Published July 23, 2026 in Audio Journal Entries

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Coming immediately following our parable about the lost sheep, Jesus continues by sharing another similarly themed parable that is set in a different context. While the previous parables we looked at focused on a sheep getting lost, or perhaps wandering off, this second parable involves finding something that was lost that could not really get lost on its own.

Let’s read the parable and discover what happened. Our passage is found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 15, and we will read it from the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 8, Jesus continued by saying:

⁸ “Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!’ ¹⁰ In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

When reading this short parable, I am intrigued by the detail that while a sheep could wander off and get itself lost, a coin can’t really lose itself. Sure, if the coin is bumped off of a table, gravity helps the coin fall and get the energy to bounce and/or roll away from the table, but after the coin has stopped moving, it will stay in the spot it stopped until it has been found by someone or something. On the surface, it sounds as though in this parable, God is capable of losing something.

However, this illustration Jesus told does not teach this. This illustration is not a parable that describes the kingdom of heaven in a traditional sense. When looking specifically at this parable, the emphasis is not on the losing, but on the type of joy that is experienced when what was lost has been found.

Imagine with me that you misplaced a check for one thousand dollars. This check had arrived as a gift in the mail and you hadn’t gotten the chance to deposit it yet. Whether one thousand dollars is a large amount of money for you or not, I am pretty confident that you would search your house from top to bottom until you found it. If the check was worth two or three months worth of your income, you might not have much of a house left after searching through it to find the lost check.

But continue imagining with me for a moment. Once you have found the check, it’s likely you’d race to deposit or cash it in, and then following that, you would breathe a huge sigh of relief. You may even celebrate depending on how difficult it was to find.

The gist of Jesus’ parable is that a similar joy and/or celebration happens “in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents”.

Part of me wonders if this actually is more accurate to how God looks at many people in the world today than the illustration of a lost sheep. While a lost sheep implies that it was part of God’s flock of sheep at one point in its past, the sheep may realize that it is lost after it wandered off.

However, a lost coin has no awareness of being lost, a lost coin doesn’t have any awareness of its value in the owner’s eyes, and a lost coin has no possible way of being found other than the owner, or someone else, recognizing and rescuing it.

In my mind, this is a better picture of our world today. Most people who don’t know Jesus wouldn’t think of themselves as lost. Most people don’t have any clue how valuable they are in God’s eyes. Most people have no idea that God desires to recognize and rescue them from the sin that is destroying this world.

When the majority of the people in the world believe that if God exists, that He started history then walked away, this belief supports the idea that God doesn’t care about them or the state of the world today. In most people’s minds, God is absent, and we are left on our own. If God exists and if He started everything, that doesn’t change anything today because God is off doing his own thing leaving us on our own.

Except that if that were the case, Jesus wouldn’t have come, and we likely wouldn’t exist. If God wanted a perfect universe, and part of the universe became infected with sin, a distant, uncaring God would simply wipe that part of the universe away. We wouldn’t exist and we wouldn’t have any clue.

This doesn’t mean that we came into existence without God’s involvement. Instead, this means that because we are still alive and breathing, God cares about us. Just as we focused on in our last parable and episode, this parable concludes with the same big idea. Verse 10 tells us that “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Jesus’ conclusion to these parables speaks volumes regarding who we are, who God is, and His plan for our lives. Unlike a coin that has no idea it is lost, we are able to recognize our need for God, we are able to repent, and we are able to return to God after we have gotten lost.

However, the huge truth in these parables is that when we get lost, we are not capable of finding ourselves. Instead, when we are lost, God is the One who finds us. Sometimes God finds us personally, through the Holy Spirit, while other times the Holy Spirit partners with others who God has found to help us return to Him. It is less relevant how God finds us; it is more relevant that when God has found us that we choose to repent, because when we repent, there is a celebration in heaven!

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

As always, continue to seek God first in your life and to place Him as your number one priority. Choose to accept that because you and I exist, that means that God still has a purpose for us being alive in the world today and that He still has something for us to learn and help others in this world tainted by sin. However, also realize that God’s goal isn’t for us to live forever in sin. Instead, it is for all of His people to live forever in a new, recreated sinless new heaven and new earth.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn what God wants to teach you about Himself and about His goals and ideals for your life. God’s view of us is infinitely higher than our own view of ourselves, and we know this because of what God gave in order to redeem us from sin. God gave Jesus to die for us to take our punishment for sin upon Himself.

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

Year of Parables – Episode 30: In a parable similar to the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus describes a parable of a lost coin and how there is a celebration when the coin has been found. Discover how the coin may actually represent us better than a lost sheep and what this says about our world today.

Join the discussion. Share your thoughts on this passage.

The Invitation: Luke 18:18-30

Published July 22, 2026 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Luke 18:18-30 (NCV)

¹⁸ A certain leader asked Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to have life forever?”

¹⁹ Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? Only God is good. ²⁰ You know the commands: ‘You must not be guilty of adultery. You must not murder anyone. You must not steal. You must not tell lies about your neighbor. Honor your father and mother.’ ”

²¹ But the leader said, “I have obeyed all these commands since I was a boy.”

²² When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “There is still one more thing you need to do. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.” ²³ But when the man heard this, he became very sad, because he was very rich.

²⁴ Jesus looked at him and said, “It is very hard for rich people to enter the kingdom of God. ²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶ When the people heard this, they asked, “Then who can be saved?”

²⁷ Jesus answered, “The things impossible for people are possible for God.”

²⁸ Peter said, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.”

²⁹ Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, all those who have left houses, wives, brothers, parents, or children for the kingdom of God ³⁰ will get much more in this life. And in the age that is coming, they will have life forever.”

Read Luke 18:18-30 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

In this passage, several things stood out to me. The one I want to focus on in this journal entry is the concluding remarks in verse 22:

“When Jesus heard this, he said to him, ‘There is still one more thing you need to do. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.’” [emphasis/italics added by me]

The big idea that jumped out at me is that Jesus is inviting him to be a disciple, and since this invitation was later in Jesus’ ministry, this invitation could cause jealousy among some of the earlier disciples similar to the parable of the workers – since they all would receive the same reward. (Matthew 20:1-16)

The same could be said of us today. We are late in the world’s history, but we know that it isn’t too late for us to accept the invitation. We don’t know what ultimately happened after the leader returned home, but we can imply that he second-guessed following Jesus because of what Jesus asked him to do.

Today, Jesus is still inviting people to follow Him. The decision that matters most for us today is accepting the invitation and not focusing on when we are in history, the parable of the workers, or what others might think of our decision.

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Wanting God’s Help: John 5:1-15

Published July 21, 2026 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: John 5:1-15 (HCSB)

¹After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ²By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five colonnades. ³Within these lay a large number of the sick—blind, lame, and paralyzed [—waiting for the moving of the water, ⁴because an angel would go down into the pool from time to time and stir up the water. Then the first one who got in after the water was stirred up recovered from whatever ailment he had].

⁵One man was there who had been sick for 38 years. ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷“Sir,” the sick man answered, “I don’t have a man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”

⁸“Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk!” ⁹Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

Now that day was the Sabbath, ¹⁰so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It’s illegal for you to pick up your mat.”

¹¹He replied, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹²“Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked. ¹³But the man who was cured did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴After this, Jesus found him in the temple complex and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” ¹⁵The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Read John 5:1-15 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Of all the miracles and healings Jesus performed, one stands out in my mind as fascinating and perplexing. The gospel of John shares this miracle with us and he describes it taking place during one of the Jewish festivals (most likely a Passover).

The thing that makes me intrigued about this miracle is that it seems as though Jesus ignores many of the others. John opens this event by saying, “After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five colonnades. Within these lay a large number of the sick—blind, lame, and paralyzed”. (v. 1-3)

Perhaps John simply doesn’t include the detail that Jesus began healing all those who were present there, but what John does include is Jesus’ interaction with one individual. John tells us, “One man was there who had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to get well?’” (v. 5-6)

While the answer to Jesus’ question seems obvious, it has profound implications. This man had been sick for almost four decades of his life, and it might seem as though it was about time. However, perhaps the man had begun to accept his disability and had resigned himself to living the rest of his life next to that pool. Perhaps seeing others healed before him had cut deep wounds and made him lose hope. After 38 years of trying without success, Jesus’ question to this man takes on a new level of significance.

The disabled man may have given up hope and decided in his heart that he couldn’t get well. When Jesus came and asked him the question, we see an interesting angle of compassion that I don’t believe I have seen anywhere else in the gospels. As far as I can tell, this is the only miracle that Jesus prompts with a question – asking the sick individual if they want to be healed.

This event tells me that Jesus, while He wants to heal and help people, will not intervene in the life of someone who is unwilling to receive help. I believe that if the man had responded that he preferred the charity and the life he had become accustomed to by the pool, then Jesus would have moved on to the next person. Jesus honors our choice and free will above His power to heal.

The theme that I learn from this miracle is that the first step to letting Jesus heal/help me is by wanting His help. No matter how much help He sends my way, if I don’t want to receive it, the help does no good. When asking God for help, if we haven’t received the answer we are looking for, perhaps He is asking, “Do you really want my help?”

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