Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure

Bigger than the Box: Matthew 26:57-68

Published October 22, 2025 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Matthew 26:57-68 (NCV)

⁵⁷Those people who arrested Jesus led him to the house of Caiaphas, the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders were gathered. ⁵⁸Peter followed far behind to the courtyard of the high priest’s house, and he sat down with the guards to see what would happen to Jesus.

⁵⁹The leading priests and the whole Jewish council tried to find something false against Jesus so they could kill him. ⁶⁰Many people came and told lies about him, but the council could find no real reason to kill him. Then two people came and said, ⁶¹“This man said, ‘I can destroy the Temple of God and build it again in three days.’”

⁶²Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Aren’t you going to answer? Don’t you have something to say about their charges against you?” ⁶³But Jesus said nothing.

Again the high priest said to Jesus, “I command you by the power of the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

⁶⁴Jesus answered, “Those are your words. But I tell you, in the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God, the Powerful One, and coming on clouds in the sky.”

⁶⁵When the high priest heard this, he tore his clothes and said, “This man has said things that are against God! We don’t need any more witnesses; you all heard him say these things against God. ⁶⁶What do you think?”

The people answered, “He should die.”

⁶⁷Then the people there spat in Jesus’ face and beat him with their fists. Others slapped him. ⁶⁸They said, “Prove to us that you are a prophet, you Christ! Tell us who hit you!”

Read Matthew 26:57-68 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

In Jesus’ interrogation after the mob has arrested Him the night before His crucifixion, we see an interesting statement Jesus makes when challenged by the high priest.

All through the trial to determine Jesus’ “death-worthiness”, Jesus says nothing. This in itself is interesting, but what follows it amazes me most every time I read this.

The high priest is fed up with the witnesses’ lies not adding up, he is fed up with Jesus’ silence, and he realizes that if he cannot get some momentum in this case soon, it will crash down around him and the whole arrest will fall back on them. So he challenges Jesus in the strongest way he can: “The high priest said to Jesus, ‘I command you by the power of the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.’” (v. 63b)

The high priest cannot come up with a stronger command. He challenges Jesus to answer about whether He is the Messiah, the Son of God.

But Jesus’ response is interesting. Jesus begins His response in verse 64 by saying “Those are your words.” By beginning this way, Jesus makes a clear distinction that is not directly denying the implication of the high priest’s challenge, but it tells us that Jesus sees Himself differently. And Jesus was different.

The Jews expected a messiah to come who would free them from the Romans and set up Israel as a kingdom that would exist independently for the rest of history. The implication in the High Priest’s challenge is asking if Jesus was that messiah – and Jesus does not confirm those words.

Instead Jesus continues His response by describing the second coming, when He will return with God the Father: “But I tell you, in the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God, the Powerful One, and coming on clouds in the sky.” (v. 64b)

One of the big things I see in this passage is Jesus confirming that He was sent from God, but that He was a different Messiah than what the Jews were expecting. This also prompts me to wonder if Jesus was bigger than the box the Jews wanted to place Him in, He may also be bigger than the box I may try to place Him in.

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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Validating a Decision: Luke 7:18-35

Published October 21, 2025 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: Luke 7:18-35 (NCV)

¹⁸John’s followers told him about all these things. He called for two of his followers ¹⁹and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the One who is to come, or should we wait for someone else?”

²⁰When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you with this question: ‘Are you the One who is to come, or should we wait for someone else?’”

²¹At that time, Jesus healed many people of their sicknesses, diseases, and evil spirits, and he gave sight to many blind people. ²²Then Jesus answered John’s followers, “Go tell John what you saw and heard here. The blind can see, the crippled can walk, and people with skin diseases are healed. The deaf can hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor. ²³Those who do not stumble in their faith because of me are blessed!”

²⁴When John’s followers left, Jesus began talking to the people about John: “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed blown by the wind? ²⁵What did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, people who have fine clothes and much wealth live in kings’ palaces. ²⁶But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, and I tell you, John is more than a prophet. ²⁷This was written about him:

‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare the way for you.’

²⁸I tell you, John is greater than any other person ever born, but even the least important person in the kingdom of God is greater than John.”

²⁹(When the people, including the tax collectors, heard this, they all agreed that God’s teaching was good, because they had been baptized by John. ³⁰But the Pharisees and experts on the law refused to accept God’s plan for themselves; they did not let John baptize them.)

³¹Then Jesus said, “What shall I say about the people of this time? What are they like? ³²They are like children sitting in the marketplace, calling to one another and saying,

‘We played music for you, but you did not dance;
we sang a sad song, but you did not cry.’

³³John the Baptist came and did not eat bread or drink wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon in him.’ ³⁴The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! He eats too much and drinks too much wine, and he is a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ ³⁵But wisdom is proved to be right by what it does.”

Read Luke 7:18-35 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

In Jesus’ main teaching about who John the Baptist was, the gospel of Luke includes a side-note that is worth paying attention to. This side-note reveals a key aspect of human nature and it is one that is very relevant for us living today.

Luke describes how the people responded by saying, “When the people, including the tax collectors, heard this, they all agreed that God’s teaching was good, because they had been baptized by John. But the Pharisees and experts on the law refused to accept God’s plan for themselves; they did not let John baptize them.” (v. 29-30)

This is incredibly important for us to notice, because even before Jesus arrived in the spotlight, John the Baptist’s ministry was creating a distinct dividing line between the people. The common people, that also happened to include people as horrible as tax collectors, accepted John’s teaching and were baptized. This led them to be open and receptive to Jesus’ ministry a few years later.

On the other hand, the Pharisees and religious experts rejected or ignored John’s ministry, and because of this, they ultimately rejected Jesus’ ministry as well.

This draws our attention to a key insight in human nature: It is easier to validate a decision you have already made than it is to change your mind.

The religious leaders had decided that John’s new teaching was not significant, relevant, or worthy of attention, and because of this, they simply validated their previous decision when Jesus steps onto the scene. Their closed minds and attitude towards John led them to be closed-minded towards Jesus as well.

But being open-minded towards John the Baptist led people towards being open-minded and accepting of Jesus – and this group of people was the ones Jesus specifically came for. This group of sinners realized their need for a Savior, and Jesus stepped into humanity to be their “Messiah” for eternity.

In our lives today, we should be open to the people God brings our way and test their teaching with what the Bible has taught us God is like. Being open, accepting, and loving are things God has called us to do for each other, but we are also called to test all ideas based on the God who loved us enough to die for us. It is easier to validate previous decisions than to change our minds, so we must be intentional and thoughtful about the decisions we make.

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Flashback Episode — The Resurrection Marriage Dilemma: Luke 20:27-40

Published October 20, 2025 in Audio Journal Entries

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Every so often, while moving through the gospels, we come across a passage that has the power to radically change someone’s perspective. The passage we are looking at for this podcast episode is one such passage for me.

A number of years ago, while studying this passage using Reflective Bible Study, I noticed a phrase in Luke’s version of this event that is not in Matthew or in Mark, and this phrase radically shifted my view about God, about death, about the future resurrection, and about the idea of perspective within the Bible. In other words, this passage pushed me to pay closer attention to the perspective of who is sharing the message within each Bible passage, and in Jesus’ case, we must pay attention to whether He is sharing from humanity’s perspective or from God’s perspective. While Jesus can share from either, it seems that Jesus usually draws us to pay attention to God’s perspective.

The extra phrase that is found within Luke’s gospel also may have stood out to me when I read it simply because I have never heard anyone else mention it, or draw attention onto it prior to my studying it. It is almost as if this is a forgotten or intentionally ignored phrase in a passage that doesn’t get much attention, simply because it challenges most people’s views about death and the resurrection. In short, this passage challenges all three major views regarding the state of those who have died without really touching directly on this topic.

Let’s read what happened and then unpack what we can learn from what Jesus taught. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 20, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 27, Luke tells us that:

²⁷Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. ²⁸“Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁹Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. ³⁰The second ³¹and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. ³²Finally, the woman died too. ³³Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

Pausing briefly, I am always a little humored at both the framing of the Sadducees dilemma, and at the ultimate question they ask. Luke has opened by saying that the Sadducees do not believe in a resurrection, but then they ask Jesus about what happens in the scenario they share at the resurrection.

I suspect that the Sadducees, who only regarded the Old Testament books Moses wrote as spiritually authoritative, had used this marriage dilemma as their reasoning for rejecting the resurrection. Because of this marriage instruction, it created a problem for when multiple brothers returned to life.

Because Moses clearly gave this instruction while not clearly drawing attention to the concept of a resurrection, in the Sadducees eyes, this dilemma logically concluded that resurrection was not valid because marriage is. In the Sadducees eyes, this dilemma made marriage, and all the legalities surrounding it, incompatible with the resurrection.

However, let’s read Jesus’ reply and uncover what we can learn about both these significant topics. Continuing in verse 34:

³⁴Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. ³⁵But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, ³⁶and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. ³⁷But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ³⁸He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

³⁹Some of the teachers of the law responded, “Well said, teacher!” ⁴⁰And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

I am continually amazed at Jesus’ response, because His response challenges everyone present, while also subtly affirming a difficult to accept belief.

As Jesus opens His reply, He both challenges the belief that the resurrection is a fantasy while also subtly validating the detail that marriage and resurrection are, in the framing of the Sadducees dilemma, incompatible. However, Jesus stresses the detail that the resurrection that He promises marks the end of marriage, and this also draws us to understand exactly where we are in history. Since marriage is still something that occurs today, regardless of what you believe about marriage, its existence places us clearly before the resurrection and before the age to come.

In Jesus’ eyes, resurrection is a clear promise and something we can look forward to experiencing!

Next, Jesus challenges the belief that death is simply a transition into heaven. This is because the Sadducees question and dilemma is framed at the resurrection, and Jesus’ reply is also framed as being at the resurrection. Before the resurrection, the Sadducees dilemma makes perfect sense because before the resurrection contains marriage. If those who have died are conscious and living in heaven awaiting resurrection, the scenario that the Sadducees give is a valid concern, because all seven brothers were married to this woman.

Jesus’ reply frames this dilemma as not a dilemma because everything in His reply happens on or after the resurrection transition. The state of those who are dead prior to the resurrection is equal to nothing, or at the very least, it lacks consciousness and interaction with others. (Remember that if those who have died are able to see each other, then the Sadducees dilemma is a valid logical argument.)

In Jesus’ eyes, the Sadducees dilemma is not valid because there is no consciousness between death and the resurrection.

The third major belief that Jesus challenges in this passage is that death is a sleep waiting for resurrection. While in many other places death is referred to as a sleep, Jesus’ final statement in this passage appears to take aim at this belief as well. Jesus’ final words in this response are “He [referring to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob] is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

This third challenge is valid because if God sees all people as alive, even after their bodies have long decomposed, then they must exist somewhere. It is less relevant the state of their existence as the fact that they exist separately from the breath and the dust that is not given any specific or special designation.

In Jesus’ eyes, everyone, regardless of whether they are alive or dead, is alive in God’s eyes.

All three major views of death are challenged in this short passage. I suspect this is why almost no one talks about this event. To bring up the Sadducees dilemma means putting a target on yourself and on your belief about death and the resurrection.

However, how can we reconcile this?

Is there a view of death that is compatible with all three challenges?

I believe the answer is a clear yes, even if this view will likely never be popular. The answer to this viewpoint is seeing history as a timeline. The answer is seeing history as His story – specifically as God’s story.

To reconcile this in my own mind, I needed to start somewhere. Since the most common metaphor for death in the Bible is sleep, I started there. Death is described as sleep more than any other way in the Bible that I am aware of. However, the typical understanding of death as a sleep leaves out one major idea. Death as a sleep leaves out history’s timeline.

God has a clear record of history because history is His story. Because God exists outside of time, all He must do to see people as alive is to go to the part of His story that they are in. This does not mean that people now dead or who are not yet born are currently alive from our perspective. Instead, this means that God merely moves to a different part in history to see them as alive.

Does this mean that we no longer have any freedom of choice? Some people believe this, however I do not. Only if I knew God’s perspective and could see my future would I surrender all choice. God knowing what I will choose does not mean I don’t freely choose it. Since I don’t know my future, I have the freedom of pressing forward with the freedom of choice.

What does this mean then for the resurrection? With the timeline perspective of history, the resurrection is simple. God has planned a sequel to the story that sin corrupted, and this sequel is the New Heaven and New Earth. The resurrection then becomes the transition moment when God closes this book of history, and pulls all His people from our current story into His sequel. Because God is outside of time writing history, He has the power to pull characters from any point in His story into His sequel and He chooses to do that for His people!

Jesus teaches all of us that the resurrection is defined at the transition between the current age and the age to come. The age to come is marked by the absence of marriage. This means that the age we are currently living in as the same age as Jesus spoke, since marriage is an issue and a topic of discussion today.

However,this age filled with sin isn’t all we have to look forward to. God is planning a sequel, and He wants you and me to be a part of it!

As we come to the end of a longer podcast than what I was planning, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As always, intentionally seek God first in your life. Choose to ally yourself with Jesus and accept Jesus’ gift that He offers, which is a place within His sequel.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself. On any subject or idea you hear, see, or read, take the idea and filter it through God’s Word. Don’t take my word, or any pastor, speaker, author, or podcaster at face value. Study out your beliefs and let God push you into discovering His truth. If you haven’t studied the different angles of beliefs about death, perhaps this episode is an invitation or challenge to do so. Like me, you may be surprised about what you can discover.

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

Flashback Episode: Year in Luke – Episode 42: When the Sadducees bring Jesus a question, discover how their question challenges every major view of death, of resurrection, and of what state we are in between these two events.

Learning from Andrew: John 1:35-51

Published October 17, 2025 in Written Journal Entries

Focus Passage: John 1:35-51 (CEV)

³⁵The next day, John was there again, and two of his followers were with him. ³⁶When he saw Jesus walking by, he said, “Here is the Lamb of God!” ³⁷John’s two followers heard him, and they went with Jesus.

³⁸When Jesus turned and saw them, he asked, “What do you want?”

They answered, “Rabbi, where do you live?” The Hebrew word “Rabbi” means “Teacher.”

³⁹Jesus replied, “Come and see!” It was already about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with him and saw where he lived. So they stayed on for the rest of the day.

⁴⁰One of the two men who had heard John and had gone with Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. ⁴¹The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and tell him, “We have found the Messiah!” The Hebrew word “Messiah” means the same as the Greek word “Christ.”

⁴²Andrew brought his brother to Jesus. And when Jesus saw him, he said, “Simon son of John, you will be called Cephas.” This name can be translated as “Peter.”

^43-44The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. There he met Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Jesus said to Philip, “Come with me.”

⁴⁵Philip then found Nathanael and said, “We have found the one that Moses and the Prophets wrote about. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

⁴⁶Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

Philip answered, “Come and see.”

⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said, “Here is a true descendant of our ancestor Israel. And he isn’t deceitful.”

⁴⁸“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”

⁴⁹Nathanael said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God and the King of Israel!”

⁵⁰Jesus answered, “Did you believe me just because I said that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see something even greater. ⁵¹I tell you for certain that you will see heaven open and God’s angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man.”

Read John 1:35-51 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

One of Jesus’ better known disciples was Andrew, and periodically we find him appearing by name in the various gospels. However, in the passage we are focusing in on in this entry, we have the first glimpse of this man who was one of the first disciples. When looking at what this passage tells us about Andrew, we see someone who we can definitely learn from.

The first thing we can see is what is implied at the beginning of this passage. Andrew was one of John the Baptist’s followers. He had paid attention to John’s preaching and knew that John was simply a forerunner for the promised Messiah that would come. It seems to me like Andrew followed because he wanted to learn who the Messiah was. If anyone would proclaim the Messiah, it would be the person God sent to announce Him – and Andrew knew this was John the Baptist’s role.

So when John does announce Jesus to be the Messiah, we can learn something else about Andrew.

The second thing we can learn from Andrew is the first thing He does – which is to leave John the Preacher and follow Jesus the Messiah. For Andrew, following Jesus was an intentional choice, and he and an unnamed disciple (who may have been John, the author of this gospel) chose to follow Jesus before Jesus called them to be disciple-apostles. Each of us must decide to intentionally follow Jesus and this often will happen prior to Jesus calling us to fill the role He created us to live.

The third thing we can learn from Andrew is the first thing He does after finding out where Jesus was staying. In verse 41, we read, “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah!’ The Hebrew word ‘Messiah’ means the same as the Greek word ‘Christ.’” Andrew instinctively went and found someone and brought them to Jesus.

So in what we learn from Andrew, we have three stages of discipleship: Choosing to learn the identity of the Messiah is; choosing to follow the Messiah; and choosing to invite others to join the Messiah’s movement. Where are you in these stages?

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