Evers Bible Class - A Gentle Ramble through the Bible

          Before Abraham, I AM The religious leaders are pulling out all the stops to trap Jesus, bring him up on charges (probably heresy or inciting violence or both), and then sentence him to death. First they try to get him to choose between compassion or the very clear Law requiring death for adulterers. They catch a woman in the act of adultery, drag her to Jesus and force him to choose. What do you think he chooses? Jesus completely loses patience with them. The whole rest of the chapter is an “in your face” argument in which Jesus tells the religious leaders that they do not even know God! He winds up telling them, “Before Abraham was born, I AM!” Those are definitely fighting words. They pick up stones to kill him immediately. We cover John 8. A free  Study Guide  is available. A  video version  of the class is available on YouTube. More info at  EversBibleClass.com .

          Show Yourself To The World Jesus reaches back into the Sermon on the Mount to talk about going in through the narrow door--but is he really talking about the same thing this time? Once again there are people who miss the path. Jesus says some interesting things about what will happen to them. Jesus’ life is in serious danger. He’s got to go to Jerusalem for Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, but he must play it smart. He needs to stick to the big crowds, but his brothers (mocking him) urge him to show himself to the world!  We catch up with him when he finally does surface in Jerusalem. He’s causing all sorts of confusion. Is this the Messiah? It can’t be--he’s just an uneducated country bumpkin from Galilee. We cover    Luke 13:10-30    John 7 A free  Study Guide  is available. A  video version  of the class is available on YouTube. More info at  EversBibleClass.com .

          Take Courage And Help Each Other Discipleship 102 gets very explicit and more than a little scary at this point. Some of the disciples may be rethinking their positions.  Do they really want to sell all their possessions, be given the responsibility of sharing God’s love to the people, get arrested, get tried, and probably get beaten or killed? Do they really want to be the ones from whom more is expected? Jesus teaches them what to do when they hurt each other. And he tells a parable to help them remember that when bad things happen to someone it’s not because the people involved are worse than anyone else. Good to know. We cover    Matthew (5:21-26 reprise); 10:19-21,26-34; 18:15-20    Luke 12:1-59; 13:1-9 A free  Study Guide  is available. A  video version  of the class is available on YouTube. More info at  EversBibleClass.com .

          God So Loved The World Discipleship 102 looks a lot like Discipleship 101. Shocking. Jesus clearly teaches the same thing over and over to the disciples. We focus especially on the new material Luke adds here. The sisters Mary and Martha make their first appearance, but the shocker is when one of the most highly placed Pharisees in Jerusalem sneaks out to find Jesus at night. He’s worried that the religious leaders are getting it wrong. He thinks there’s a good chance Jesus is exactly who he says he is. Jesus talks to him of being born a second time, wind that cannot be seen, the judgment and verdict of God, and…snakes? We cover    Matthew (6:22, 25-34 reprise); 10:29; 12:43    Luke 10:29-42; (11:1-13 reprise); 11:24-28, 33-36; 12:22-34 A free  Study Guide  is available. A  video version  of the class is available on YouTube. More info at  EversBibleClass.com .

          The Greatest Commandment The religious leaders are pulling out all the stops to trap Jesus, bring him up on charges (probably heresy or inciting violence or both), and then sentence him to death. First they try to get him to choose between compassion or the very clear Law requiring death for adulterers. They catch a woman in the act of adultery, drag her to Jesus and force him to choose. What do you think he chooses? Jesus completely loses patience with them. The whole rest of the chapter is an “in your face” argument in which Jesus tells the religious leaders that they do not even know God! He winds up telling them, “Before Abraham was born, I AM!” Those are definitely fighting words. They pick up stones to kill him immediately. We cover    Matthew 8:18-22; 11:20-30; 18:1-5; 22:34-40    Mark 9:33-41; 12:28-34    Luke 9:46-62; 10:1-28 A free  Study Guide  is available. A  video version  of the class is ...

         Transfiguration Things start to get real. Jesus gets explicit with the disciples. Who do you think that I am? Really? What if I tell you I am going to be arrested, tried, tortured, killed, and then after three days, rise again? If you want to follow me, you’ll have to take up your cross and give up your life. Uh, nope. The disciples aren’t ready to hear that. Jesus is the Messiah king who’s going to crush Israel’s enemies, right? Is that what “rise again” means? Jesus tries twice to convince the disciples he’s about to die. Doesn’t work. Peter, James, and John see Jesus start to glow. They see Elijah and Moses talk to him. They hear God say, “This is my beloved Son, listen to him!” Still, they do not understand. We cover    Matthew 10:32,37; 16:21-28; 17:1-23    Mark 8:31-38; 9:1-32    Luke 9:22-45 A free  Study Guide  is available. A  video version  of the class is available on YouTube. More info at...

         More Chiasms Jesus heals a deaf-mute by spitting. We remember we heard this weird technique just a few verses ago. Then he feeds 4000 people with a few loaves. Wait a minute. Are we having deja vu? Could this be a chiasm? We follow Jesus and the disciples to Caesarea Philippi and knock down a popular but faulty myth. We also examine the “sign of Jonah” from a little different angle. It is in this passage that Jesus first uses the word “ekklesia”--later translated as “church.” We cover    Matthew 12:38-45; 15:29-39; 16:1-20    Mark 7:31-37; 8:1-30    Luke 9:18-21; 11:29-32; 12:1-3 A free  Study Guide  is available. A  video version  of the class is available on YouTube. More info at  EversBibleClass.com .

        Woe to the Hypocrites! After that eating flesh and drinking blood stuff, Jesus loses a bunch of disciples. Perhaps sensing that his following is shaky, scribes (religious lawyers) and Pharisees from Jerusalem travel to confront Jesus. They criticize him for allowing his disciples to eat without making sure their hands are ceremonially clean. Hah! They get a lot more than they bargained for when Jesus answers. In fact, after excoriating them and calling them a brood of vipers, Jesus and his remaining disciples need to lay low in Gentile country. But his reputation precedes him, and Jesus has a fascinating exchange with a Gentile woman who refuses to be cowed by this Jewish prophet. We cover    Matthew 15:1-28, 23:13-39    Mark 7:1-30    Luke 11:37-54    John 6:60-70 A free  Study Guide  is available. A  video version  of the class is available on YouTube. More info at  EversBibleClass.com .

       Flesh and Blood Jesus’ ministry shifts into a different gear. He continues to heal anyone who asks him, but the miracles he does begin to expand in scope and purpose. Jesus begins coming out as the Messiah. He feeds more than 5000 people from a little kid’s lunch bag. Then he walks on water, scaring his disciples half to death. But even scarier than that, he starts talking about how anyone who follows him must eat his flesh and drink his blood. What do we do with that? We cover    Matthew 14:13-36    Mark 6:30-56    Luke 9:10-17    John 6: 1-59 A free Study Guide is available. A video version of the class is available on YouTube. More info at EversBibleClass.com .

      Sending The Twelve    Jesus’ ministry shifts into a new and more dangerous phase. John the Baptist is beheaded by Herod, and Jesus sends his disciples away for a bit. But he’s not sending them for a well-earned rest. No, he’s sending them to spread the Good News, and he gives them the jurisdiction to heal all sorts of inner and outer illness, including raising folks from the dead!   His instructions are more than a little scary and have implications for us as Jesus-followers. We cover         Matthew 10:1-36, 40-42; 13:53-58; 14:1-12 Mark 6:1-29 Luke 9:1-9 A free Study Guide is available. A video version of the class is available on YouTube. More info at EversBibleClass.com .

      Judgment & Jesus    We switch from the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) to the Gospel of John. John has a completely different viewpoint on Jesus. He is not as concerned with a more-or-less historical account like the others, but is more concerned with presenting Jesus as divine. So it makes sense that he skips a lot of Jesus’ more mundane daily teachings and healings and he adds in several stories that simply aren’t found in the other gospels. We make sure to stay aware of John’s particular lens as we read his account. John’s story of the man born blind leads us to a deep dive into the concept of judgment--what it means in Jesus’ world and what it seems to mean to Jesus. We cover   John 9:1-41, 10:1-21 A free Study Guide is available. A video version of the class is available on YouTube. More info at EversBibleClass.com .

      Healing & Wholeness    I n this class, we find Jesus healing a man (or two?) of a legion of demons, raising a little girl from the dead, and acknowledging to a woman that it is her faith that has healed her--not something Jesus did to her. That’s been a theme with Jesus--asking folks if they want to be healed, giving them agency in their own healing, and always pointing them to God. We also talk about eternal torment in this class. Yikes! We look at all the places in the New Testament where this term is used, and we discover some surprising things. We cover         Matthew 8:28-34, 9:18-26 Mark 5:1-43 Luke 8:26-56 A free Study Guide is available. A video version of the class is available on YouTube. More info at EversBibleClass.com .

      Good & Evil Mixed Together    Jesus tells a whole string of parables to try to get folks to understand that the Kingdom of Heaven is a tiny bit of precious goodness in the middle of a sea of evil. But even though it seems hopelessly tiny, it is more than enough to spread throughout the whole world. Jesus says not to worry about separating the evil from the good. That gets you dangerously close to being judgmental. He says God will take care of evil when the time comes. And in the meantime, we should pay close attention to the weights and measures we use. How we weigh things out for others is exactly how it will be weighed out to us. We cover         Matthew 8:23-27, 10:26, 13:24-52; Mark 4:21-41; Luke 8:16-18, 22-25, 13:18-21 A free Study Guide is available. A video version of the class is available on YouTube. More info at EversBibleClass.com .

      Parables & Women Disciples    After declaring unequivocally to John the Baptist’s disciples that he is the Messiah, Jesus is pressed hard by the crowds. But he somehow manages to really see each person--to heal them in the ways they need healing, and to speak truth to the religious leaders who still cast aspersions on “sinners.” Jesus teaches the people using parables. His disciples aren’t sure this is the most effective way to teach and they challenge him on it. Jesus has a very interesting answer.   Then we meet the women. Not just any women, but disciples, part of Jesus’ inner circle. Who knew?   We cover         Matthew 11:1-18, 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 7:18-50; 8:1-15 A free Study Guide is available. A video version of the class is available on YouTube. More info at EversBibleClass.com .

      Healing, Chosen Family & New Life     Jesus’ teachings and parables are tightly interwoven with healing after healing. We begin at the Pool of Bethesda with the healing of a man who’s been ill for 38 years.   Then we notice a special literary device called an “intercalation” where one story is inserted in the middle of another one. We set the two stories in conversation with each other and together we are able to make sense of Jesus’ seeming rejection of his own family and the scribes’ accusation that Jesus is acting through the power of Satan.  There’s another healing after that and then, for the first time, Jesus raises someone from the dead.      We cover         Matthew 8:5-13; 9:32-34; 12:22-37, 46-50 Mark 3:20-35 Luke 7:1-17; 8:19-21; 11:14-23 A free Study Guide is available. A video version of the class is available on YouTube. More info at EversBibleClass.com .

     Forgiveness & Beatitudes    We finish the Sermon on the Mount today. Jesus talks about forgiving others for their slip-ups and not judging them. He talks about the importance of setting healthy boundaries. He also talks about the importance of staying in our own lane and not trying to fix everyone else. And he reminds us that we actually cannot control much at all, so it’s better to take things one step at a time and trust God with the outcome. At the end we circle back to the beginning and look more closely at the Beatitudes.   We cover         Matthew 5:3-12,33-37; 6:9-15,25-34; 7:1-12      Luke 6:20-26,37-49 A free Study Guide is available. A video version of the class is available on YouTube. More info at EversBibleClass.com .

     God, Money & Power    What does Jesus mean we should be perfect? That’s impossible, right? Nope. If Jesus says something that seems impossible, we are misunderstanding somehow. Jesus continues to teach his disciples how to be disciples. He gives lots of examples and they seem to center around learning to be humble, laying down our pride, and holding our possessions with an open hand. He says we cannot trust both God and money. And Jesus extends that humility into our relationships with others. We talk about what it means to “turn the other cheek.”   We cover         Matthew 5:38-48; 6:1-8,16-21,24; 7:13-23      Luke 6:27-36 A free Study Guide is available. A video version of the class is available on YouTube. More info at EversBibleClass.com .

     Light, Salt, Anger & Lust    Jesus’ premise in the Sermon on the Mount is that he is the light of the world sent to bring Good News to all the people--and we are too. This is what all the Law and the Prophets point towards, and we are to help him fulfill every last one of God's wonderful promises.   But we can’t fake it. We have to start by dealing with our junk, specifically our anger and our lust. We also hear Jesus’ teachings on adultery and divorce in this class.       We cover         Matthew 5:13-32; 19:1-12      Mark 10:1-12      Luke 12:57-59 A free Study Guide is available. A video version of the class is available on YouTube. More info at EversBibleClass.com .

     Bird's Eye View    Jesus needs help. He chooses a leadership team of twelve disciples from among the many following him. Together they travel throughout Galilee, Samaria and Judea teaching and healing. But these bumbling, eager, and confused disciples need training! The Sermon on the Mount and Luke’s similar collection called the Sermon on the Plain are Discipleship 101 as taught by Jesus. We'll spend four weeks digging into this gold mine. But first, we'll do a bird’s-eye view of the material to see if we can identify major themes. (We can!)   We cover         Matthew 5:1-7:29; 19:4      Mark Mark 3:13-19; 10:1      Luke Luke 6:12-16, 20-49 A free Study Guide is available. A video version of the class is available on YouTube. More info at EversBibleClass.com .

    The Tender Messiah    Jesus turns everything upside-down. All those religious rules? Out the window. Burdens are left behind and blessings take their place. With one hand he heals and encourages the people until he's dropping from exhaustion, and with the other hand he absolutely skewers the religious leaders. You don't want to argue Scripture with Jesus! He runs circles around those know-it-alls. He embarrasses them so badly they begin plotting to kill him. And it's all to bring us the good news that God will not judge us. Jesus refuses to accuse us. We are already living eternal life in the pleasure of God. Already. Even back then, before Jesus was crucified.   We cover         Matthew 12:1-21      Mark 2:23-28; 3:1-12      Luke 6:1-11,17-19      John 4:43-54; 5:16-47 A free Study Guide is available. A video version of the class is available on YouTube. More info at EversBibleClass.com .

   Billboards From God    Jesus, as the Messiah, brings the good news of God’s incredible, expansive, urgent love. And God provides miracles of healing to prove that Jesus is telling the truth.  Miracles are billboards from God saying, “Believe what Jesus is telling you!”  The people may not all believe, but the demons and unclean spirits certainly do. We talk about this difficult terminology.     We cover         Matthew 4:23-25; 8:1-4,14-17; 9:1-17      Mark 1:21-45; 2:1-22      Luke 4:31-44; 5:12-39 A free Study Guide is available. A video version of the class is available on YouTube. More info at EversBibleClass.com .

  Jesus Calls Disciples    Jesus has pupils but it isn’t until after John the Baptist’s arrest and a rather spectacular miracle at the wedding of a friend that Jesus begins his ministry in earnest. His miracles make him famous quickly. He begins to call disciples to help him. When Jesus goes back to his hometown and teaches in the synagogue, he makes it clear that he’s the Messiah and that God intends to bless everyone, not just the Jews. That just about gets him killed, and he’s hardly gotten started yet!     We cover         John 2:1-12; 1:37-51      Luke 4:16-30; 5:1-11      Matthew 4:18-22      Mark 1:16-20 A free Study Guide is available. A video version of the class is available on YouTube. More info at EversBibleClass.com .