Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure

Prioritizing Like Jesus: John 15:1-17

Published June 12, 2024 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: John 15:1-17 (NIrV)

¹“I am the true vine. My Father is the gardener. ²He cuts off every branch joined to me that does not bear fruit. He trims every branch that does bear fruit. Then it will bear even more fruit.

³“You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴Remain joined to me, and I will remain joined to you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain joined to the vine. In the same way, you can’t bear fruit unless you remain joined to me.

⁵“I am the vine. You are the branches. If anyone remains joined to me, and I to him, he will bear a lot of fruit. You can’t do anything without me. ⁶If anyone does not remain joined to me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and dries up. Branches like those are picked up. They are thrown into the fire and burned.

⁷“If you remain joined to me and my words remain in you, ask for anything you wish. And it will be given to you.⁸When you bear a lot of fruit, it brings glory to my Father. It shows that you are my disciples.

⁹“Just as the Father has loved me, I have loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. In the same way, I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹I have told you this so that my joy will be in you. I also want your joy to be complete.

¹²“Here is my command. Love each other, just as I have loved you. ¹³No one has greater love than the one who gives his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command.

¹⁵“I do not call you servants anymore. Servants do not know their master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends. I have told you everything I learned from my Father.

¹⁶“You did not choose me. Instead, I chose you. I appointed you to go and bear fruit. It is fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you anything you ask for in my name.

¹⁷“Here is my command. Love each other.

Read John 15:1-17 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

Has God ever challenged you with a difficult person?

Or has God ever brought someone into your life who pushed you to grow – regardless of whether you wanted that growth or not?

If there is ever a passage that challenges us regarding our attitude and priorities about other people, it is this one. Many people really like this passage applied to others, but when we really dig in to apply this to ourselves, we run into some very challenging implications.

The part of this passage where this comes to Jesus’ big point is in verses 12 and 13: “Here is my command. Love each other, just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than the one who gives his life for his friends.”

We love these verses when others apply Jesus’ teaching because it feels nice to receive excellent service and to receive gifts. However, when applying the verses to us, things get significantly harder.

The standard that Jesus gives, and the one He set is placing your friends’ lives ahead of your own life. There is no getting around this simple truth. Jesus set our lives ahead of His own life by dying a death that He did not deserve – for people (us) who did not deserve it. And He calls us to do the same if we wish to remain in His love. (v. 10)

This is very counter cultural to even today’s Christian world. The Christian self-help movement likes to make us think that our priorities should be God first, then ourselves, then others. After all, isn’t this way healthier and less likely to cause burnout?

Perhaps, but what often happens in the God-myself-then-others priority structure is that others get the leftovers, and over time, we turn inward and our backs face those who need our help.

The flipside is also damaging. Jesus never modeled a life where He didn’t take time alone to recharge. Praying alone all night, sneaking away from the crowds, and sending the crowds away were all part of His balancing act. The danger to the God-others-then-myself priority structure is that we lose our identity and our connection with God because others will have a tendency to push God to the side.

This passage does not teach an others-first or even a self-first mindset. Instead, it teaches a God-first perspective. The time we spend with God is the most valuable time we can spend. [Period]

Time spent with God is restorative to our health, it recharges our identity, and it reprioritizes our focus onto the things that God wants us to focus on. By spending time with God, He will direct us to His ministry for us – a cause that we can dedicate our lives to that helps others. What is left afterwards is self, and in reality, the more time we spend with God, the less important our “self” time will be. Our time spent with God is restorative and it should be our focus.

Jesus modeled a God-first, Others-second attitude. Self wasn’t even in His equation. If Jesus placed others first, as His followers, we should too!

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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The Not-So-Last-Minute Escape: Matthew 2:1-23

Published June 11, 2024 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Matthew 2:1-23 (CEV)

¹When Jesus was born in the village of Bethlehem in Judea, Herod was king. During this time some wise men from the east came to Jerusalem ²and said, “Where is the child born to be king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

³When King Herod heard about this, he was worried, and so was everyone else in Jerusalem. ⁴Herod brought together the chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses and asked them, “Where will the Messiah be born?”

⁵They told him, “He will be born in Bethlehem, just as the prophet wrote,

⁶’Bethlehem in the land
    of Judea,
you are very important
    among the towns of Judea.
From your town
    will come a leader,
who will be like a shepherd
    for my people Israel.’”

⁷Herod secretly called in the wise men and asked them when they had first seen the star. ⁸He told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, let me know. I want to go and worship him too.”

⁹The wise men listened to what the king said and then left. And the star they had seen in the east went on ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰They were thrilled and excited to see the star.

¹¹When the men went into the house and saw the child with Mary, his mother, they knelt down and worshiped him. They took out their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh and gave them to him. ¹²Later they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, and they went back home by another road.

¹³After the wise men had gone, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Hurry and take the child and his mother to Egypt! Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is looking for the child and wants to kill him.”

¹⁴That night, Joseph got up and took his wife and the child to Egypt, ¹⁵where they stayed until Herod died. So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “I called my son out of Egypt.”

¹⁶When Herod found out that the wise men from the east had tricked him, he was very angry. He gave orders for his men to kill all the boys who lived in or near Bethlehem and were two years old and younger. This was based on what he had learned from the wise men.

¹⁷So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet Jeremiah had said,

¹⁸“In Ramah a voice was heard
    crying and weeping loudly.
Rachel was mourning
    for her children,
and she refused
to be comforted,
    because they were dead.”

¹⁹After King Herod died, an angel from the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph while he was still in Egypt. ²⁰The angel said, “Get up and take the child and his mother back to Israel. The people who wanted to kill him are now dead.”

²¹Joseph got up and left with them for Israel. ²²But when he heard that Herod’s son Archelaus was now ruler of Judea, he was afraid to go there. Then in a dream he was told to go to Galilee, ²³and they went to live there in the town of Nazareth. So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “He will be called a Nazarene.”

Read Matthew 2:1-23 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

At the end of every Christmas story that follows the wise men’s journey, we are presented with Joseph, Mary, and Jesus’ escape to Egypt. I’m not sure why my mind has created this picture, but I’ve often imagined the scene that the little family is leaving through the south gate of the city when the guards are arriving at the north gate to enter and kill the children.

But if we read closer at what Matthew describes in his gospel, I see a different scene taking place. If the wise men’s visit was during the day, then most likely, that same night both groups had their respective dreams. The wise men dreamed that they should not return to Herod and Joseph dreamed about the need to escape to Egypt. (v. 12-13)

Joseph didn’t waste any time. He packed up his family and they set out that night.

What Matthew does not mention is how much time passed before Herod realized the wise men had chosen to not return. “Later they [the wise men] were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, and they went back home by another road.” (v. 12)

“When Herod found out that the wise men from the east had tricked him, he was very angry. He gave orders for his men to kill all the boys who lived in or near Bethlehem and were two years old and younger. This was based on what he had learned from the wise men.” (v. 16)

The time between the wise men taking the different road and that information reaching Herod may have been days or weeks. It is even possible that Joseph and the family were crossing the border into Egypt on the actual night the slaughter happened in Bethlehem.

But maybe, from what we know about Herod in this event, the king had sent spies to watch the wise men and report on their actions and their direction. It is even possible that if there were spies following the wise men, they learned the exact location where the family was living. However, as soon as the wise men took the road that didn’t lead back to Jerusalem, the spies realized they weren’t headed back to Herod and they left to give their report.

With this information, the escape most likely happened a day or two ahead of the slaughter if there were spies watching the wise men, or perhaps even a week or two if Herod was simply waiting for their return.

This detail in the Christmas story tells me that God has everything planned out in detail, and He is not surprised by what is going to happen. God knew Jesus’ life was in danger long before Herod even knew of Jesus’ existence and He made a way for the family to escape the slaughter. This means that nothing that happens in my own life is a surprise to God. While not everything that happens is good, God is able to take the bad and salvage it into something good if we let Him.

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Flashback Episode — Fear and Greatness: Mark 9:30-37

Published June 10, 2024 in Audio Journal Entries

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Continuing the theme we have been focusing on for the past few podcast episodes, we come to another passage where Jesus tries to warn His disciples about His upcoming death. However, this passage contains a unique detail in it which might shed light on why the disciples were so ignorant of Jesus’ repeated warnings.

Our passage for this episode is found in Mark’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read from the New International Version. Starting in verse 30, Mark tells us that:

³⁰They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, ³¹because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” ³²But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.

³³They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” ³⁴But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

³⁵Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

³⁶He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

In this passage, I find it interesting that Mark tells us that the disciples “did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it” when referring to Jesus teaching them and warning them about His upcoming death.

This teaches us that fear can stop us from asking the questions that God wants us to ask, and to push forward along the path God wants us to take.

However, why would the disciples be afraid to ask a simple question?

From what we have looked at so far, it seemed as though while Jesus stressed this warning and this prediction, the disciples remembered how Jesus challenged Peter when Peter challenged Jesus on this point. Jesus went so far as to call Peter Satan because of this lack of understanding. I wonder if some of the fear that the disciples had was because they didn’t want to be called out for not knowing or believing. This detail challenges us with the truth that pride in our lives can stop us from asking the questions God wants us to ask because we are afraid of what others might think of us.

We might be afraid because the question might sound inappropriate, because it reveals our ignorance or that we weren’t paying attention, or because we are simply scared of what the answer might be. Many things can stop us from asking the questions God wants us to ask, but we shouldn’t let fear control our journey with God!

This passage also hints at another reason the disciples did not understand Jesus’ clear warning about His upcoming death. When Jesus asks the disciples what they were arguing about while He was trying to teach them on the road while they were traveling earlier that day, the disciples refuse to answer because they knew they had argued about who was the greatest. While Jesus was trying to share with them what would happen soon, the disciples were too busy deciding who would take what place in the kingdom they believe Jesus would set up after overthrowing the Romans. The disciples had fame and status on their minds while Jesus was trying to teach them humility and that He would be crucified.

To help emphasize the point, Jesus called a child to Him and He uses this child as a clear visual illustration. Drawing our attention onto this point, remember that Jesus is in a home in Capernaum with His disciples. Remember also that Jesus doesn’t want everyone to know where He is because He wants more time to teach the disciples. This prompts the question: Where did this child come from?

Prior to reading this here, I had always pictured this event happening in a field, on a hill, or somewhere out in the open with crowds present. However, while there was at least one other time Jesus invited children to Him like that, in this passage and event, Jesus and the disciples were in a home with a closed door.

Two probable answers for this question come to mind. The first answer is that this child and his family had chosen to follow Jesus and they were included in the larger circle of disciples. One of the gospels mention a group of 72 followers of Jesus, and it is possible that this child was one of these followers, or that He was with his parents who were part of this larger group.

The other answer to this question about where the child came from is that the home Jesus was staying at might have had children in it. From other parts of the gospels, we can conclude that several of the disciples lived in Capernaum and we know that Peter was old enough to be married. If Jesus and the disciples were visiting Peter’s home, it is possible that this little child was Peter’s son or daughter.

However, while it may be fun to speculate about who the child is specifically, this detail is less relevant than who this child represents. While we can speculate about the details of this child, the bigger challenge is Jesus’ big idea: In order to be great in God’s eyes, we must welcome, help, and serve those who society believes are last.

While culture today seems to place an extraordinary focus on children, this was not the case in the first century. Prior to Christianity, children were seen as the lowest in society and in some cases, children were not even named until after a certain age because of high infant mortality and parents not wanting to get too attached.

Jesus’ challenge to His followers is to focus on service over status and look for ways to step down rather than step up. While many worldviews and religions stress the goals of stepping up, Jesus challenges His disciples to step down and serve. Stepping down is how we are seen as great in God’s eyes, and it is how we best represent Jesus.

When we welcome those who society has rejected, Jesus tells us we are not only welcoming Him too, but we are welcoming God, who looks down at this planet and sees all life as special and significant. Regardless of what culture tells you, in God’s eyes, you matter and regardless of what you might believe about yourself, Jesus came to redeem you from the punishment for your sins.

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 step down and serve those who society looks down on. Never believe yourself to be above another person, but instead, choose to see the world as a place God has placed you in so you can help, serve, and be a light of God’s love to those He brings your way. While everything in culture focuses on building oneself up, choose instead to focus on building others up while giving glory and credit to Jesus.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each day. While pastors, authors, speakers, or even a podcaster can share or challenge you with interesting thoughts, take everything you learn and test it against the truth in the Bible. God wants a personal relationship with us and a personal relationship is best grown through spending time together. God does not want our relationship with Him to be dependent on anyone else.

Instead, bring your questions, your concerns, and your fears directly to God and let Him help you walk through the challenges of this life with Him by your side.

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 afraid of going where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Flashback Episode: Year in Mark – Episode 24: While traveling with the disciples, Jesus tries again to tell them what will happen to Him, but the disciples are too busy having an argument with each other to pay attention to Jesus’ words. Discover what the argument was about, and how Jesus later challenges the disciples about what they discussed and debated.

Facing Judgment Day: Matthew 10:5-15

Published June 7, 2024 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Matthew 10:5-15 (NIrV)

⁵Jesus sent these 12 out with the following orders. “Do not go among the Gentiles,” he said. “Do not enter any town of the Samaritans. ⁶Instead, go to the people of Israel. They are like sheep that have become lost. ⁷As you go, preach this message, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ ⁸Heal those who are sick. Bring those who are dead back to life. Make those who have skin diseases ‘clean’ again. Drive out demons. You have received freely, so give freely.

⁹“Do not get any gold, silver or copper to take with you in your belts. ¹⁰Do not take a bag for the journey. Do not take extra clothes or sandals or walking sticks. A worker should be given what he needs. ¹¹When you enter a town or village, look for someone who is willing to welcome you. Stay at their house until you leave. ¹²As you enter the home, greet those who live there. ¹³If that home welcomes you, give it your blessing of peace. If it does not, don’t bless it. ¹⁴Some people may not welcome you or listen to your words. If they don’t, leave that home or town, and shake the dust off your feet. ¹⁵What I’m about to tell you is true. On judgment day it will be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

Read Matthew 10:5-15 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

At the close of Jesus’ instructions to His disciples before He sends them out on a missionary journey during the middle of His time on earth, Jesus tells them how they are to interact with the towns they meet.

Jesus first described what they were to do, and then He described what they shouldn’t take with them. Jesus finishes by describing how they are to interact with the people and towns they come to. He says, “When you enter a town or village, look for someone who is willing to welcome you. Stay at their house until you leave. As you enter the home, greet those who live there. If that home welcomes you, give it your blessing of peace. If it does not, don’t bless it. Some people may not welcome you or listen to your words. If they don’t, leave that home or town, and shake the dust off your feet. What I’m about to tell you is true. On judgment day it will be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.” (v. 11-15)

In His concluding remarks, Jesus makes a statement that is almost startling. “On judgment day it will be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.” (v. 15)

Jesus closes by basically saying that anyone who refuses the messengers who God has sent them is in worse shape than the worst towns in the ancient world. Sodom and Gomorrah were so bad that God personally intervened and destroyed them. Jesus basically describes those who refuse to listen to the messengers God has sent as being in worse shape than these horrible, ungodly locations.

Within this idea, I see two themes present. One theme is a warning; the other theme is a promise.

The warning I see in this idea is that those who don’t pay attention to God’s messengers have no hope for the future. While it may appear on the surface that they are wise to reject God, when judgment day arrives, they will have no defense.

However, with this warning is a promise for another group of people: Those God has sent as messengers. God’s messengers throughout history have not been received well. Those God has sent will always have people who oppose them. Since God’s messengers always faced opposition, and since Jesus Himself faced opposition, I see no reason to believe it will be any different in the future. God’s messengers will face opposition.

The promise for God’s messengers in this idea is that even when we are rejected, God will stand up for us when judgment day arrives. God will fight for those who claim Jesus and His sacrifice.

All of God’s followers have an advocate in Jesus. Jesus paid the ultimate price and faced ultimate rejection when He was crucified. None of it was what He deserved, but He chose it for you and for me. When history finally ends and judgment day arrives, Gods followers and His messengers will know that they chose the right side.

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