From the end of February to the end of May 2026, I led a weekly class studying the historical Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes, using the book by Kenneth Bailey of that title as our textbook, along with the Bible. Each week the Zoom students and I met for at least 90 minutes and each week we had some takeaways. Those follow here, as well as the Video link to the entire 12-video series playlist at the end.
Takeaways from Bailey studies
Lord’s Prayer (Lessons 1-2)
1) God is the reason we live and move and have our being and he longs to be with us, tonight in Singapore and some of us in Australia, and wherever you are.
2) God is our Father, not only mine only, but ours. We are in community together with God as our Father, not our Guru or Shaman. It’s a personal relationship but not a private one.
3) The cross is God’s perfect resolution to the agony of a loving Father separated from a sinful humanity.
4) It is God’s Word and God’s heart which together inform the words of Yeshua
5) Prayer is acknowledging that there is a God, and you are not He.
6) The King will rule over us when we surrender our lordship of our lives and live as his subject
7) Where Yeshua is, there is the Kingdom
8) God will supply; will you trust him in all matters?
9) God will forgive, in proportion to the forgiveness we extend to others.
10) Faith is the assurance of things hoped for that are not yet apparent. Without faith it’s impossible to please God. With faith, you can move mountains of doubt, of fear, of resentment, and share faith, with one another.
Birth of Jesus (Lesson 3)
1) Gentiles in the family of God are not an afterthought. From the beginning, God has wanted all the earth to praise him. Same can be said of women. (really … all people!) No one is left out.
2) Hospitality is normal for God’s people; table fellowship is standard in biblical community, especially as relates to evangelism
3) Don’t let convention rule in your experience or theology, but let the Spirit of the Lord guide you
4) Suffering is as much a part of the Christmas story as the pastels and soft Silent Nights that are usual. Herod’s murders, even Simeon’s prediction of the piercing soul support this.
5) Depositing biblical information is a big part of discipleship in these days. Listen, learn, inwardly digest the Word of God, and then pass it on. Who knows if it will work, or when it will work.
The Beatitudes (Lesson 4)
1) I say the church did not add the persecution language here. And that the words of Jesus are Spirit and Life, authoritative and will never pass away.
2) The word meek does not mean weak. A strong person will turn the other cheek, a weak one will run away. Bailey says, “this is in harmony with being angry over injustice inflicted on others.”
3) The beatitudes are not if/then sentences of causation. Kingdom people already are living in the now/ not yet Kingdom and as such are living these attitudes. We win if we follow Jesus in his sentiments for ‘the other’ and in his actions towards them.
4) Righteousness is doing right, thinking right, living right. Paul wrote the Romans that the “Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (14.17)
5) Happiness is the (super)natural byproduct of staying on the straight path
6) Don’t live with the schoolmaster; go with the others to the Messiah of life. Don’t stop with Moses and die outside the Promised Land. Go with Yeshua and live in the blessed state of the now/ not yet Kingdom.
The Dramatic Actions of Jesus (Lessons 5-7)
1) Jews, Gentiles, women, men, barbarian, slaves, Sythians, Malaysians, Singaporeans, free people, Americans, Aborigines, Labour, Tories, Liberals, those who watch that other TV network, EVERYONE is welcome to the table of the Lord. Everyone is invited. No one should be left out.
2) Anyone who prevents others will attract God’s judgment.
3) Whether you are crying in desperation or hiding in curiosity—He sees you, calls you, and saves you.
4) Real encounters with Jesus will produce visible change
5) Just because a blind man cannot see Jesus, that doesn’t prevent Messiah seeing the blind man. There is hope for each of us, no matter our conditions and circumstances. We are seen and known by the Almighty.
6) Different biblical accounts of the call of Peter corroborate the story rather than demonstrate weakness.
7) The call of Peter isn’t one time; it continued through the Gospels, and even into the book of Acts as he is called to serve the Lord all the days of his life
8) (a repeat of Bailey’s 6th point in this chapter) “When Peter is confronted with a value system and a set of commitments radically different from his own, he is attracted, awed and challenged to make a choice, and he does so the rest of his life.”
9) As Yeshua taught, “A prophet is often without honour in his own hometown” (Luke 4.24) Don’t be surprised if your close friends give your new beliefs a miss.
10) Each of us has a call on our lives to serve the Lord with gladness, with singleness of heart, with a full heart.
11) Don’t skip the narratives or the genealogies or the little markers in the Bible. They could be full of back story not to miss.
12) When God sees, He will see to the situation. Our job as believers is to get him to see. That’s what prayer is all about.
13) The word ‘hallelujah” is missing in this series of stories related to the Blind Man. Let us not miss our chance to shout his praise and proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvellous light.
14) Yeshua’s dramatic action showed the world that he is The Light of the World, the Messiah, even God, the Creator, and we get to know him and be with him forever. He demonstrated it with the blind man. He will be dramatic in action with us!
15) Don’t finish a story before the story is finished. Derek Prince used to say, “When you are looking for a miracle, keep plugged in until it is accomplished.” The blind man’s condition and healing is a testimony to all future seekers “who are with him” to admit our own sin and find sight. I once was blind; now I see.
Jesus and Women (Lessons 8-9)
1) Be sure your sins will find you out (Num. 32.23)
2) Jesus never diminished Torah, he elevated it.
3) Mary’s Magnificat and Hannah’s petition BEFORE they had their baby are signs of faith and deep confidence in the Lord of life
4) When Jesus backs you into a corner it’s for your good and his glory. The sooner you submit, the better for everyone.
5) The first people to announce the Messiah were women. First the Samaritan here, and later Mary and the other women at the tomb, including Magdalena who went and told the brothers “He is risen” God can and will use you, dear sisters, to proclaim his Good News.
6) No one is excluded by race or gender from being a citizen of the Kingdom of God.
7) Gratitude is the key to success in the Kingdom. Make a short list daily and watch it grow through the years.
8) Faith is the victory. It always has been and always will be. Faith is not a ‘good work.’ It’s a pressing in until we find the One who alone can save us and establish our goings.
9) Never allow others to define your stance in the Kingdom towards outsiders or insiders. Jesus alone is the King of the Kingdom and sets the rules and the roles for each of us.
10) Live in anticipation—Jesus is returning. Soon. For you. And for those whom you love. Bring them along by prayer and speaking. Be ready by hope. Hope is faith in the future.
The Parables of Jesus (Lessons 10-12)
1) Parables are designed to trigger conversations and to make the people with wrong behaviour or wrong attitude feel guilty and to change their ways
2) Parables tell one major thing each time, but individuals have various takeaways depending on their own status with the story and the storyteller
3) Jesus is the consummate Good Samaritan, the outsider who saves to the uttermost
4) No man can attain to eternal life by duty or religious activity. God is a gracious giver of the gift of eternal life.
5) Racism against any person because he is born of a people group that is different than me is ignorant and out-of-biblical bounds.
6) Parables often have a shock/ surprise effect and are trying to wake us up to our own errors, lack of compassion, or sin. So that we change our ways.
7) Jesus is the Great One in all our stories who serves us. Masters who serve is not ordinary. All Scripture is history and his Story designed to bring us closer to him.
8) Faith may not be full in you today. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and goodness. Faith(fulness), gentleness, self-control. Faith comes. Stay in the Word and the Word will grow in you. Keep your ear attuned to God’s channel.
9) Look for disciples, others who are not as advanced in the Kingdom as you and bring them along. Invite them. Give them like others gave to you when you started. Share freely.
10) His banquet hall is abundant and lavish, and he wants you to attend and he wants you to invite others to attend. And to make room for them. All the ‘them’ out there.
11) Parables are a great study to remind us of God’s thinking about certain people and populaces in Israel and in our days. They are timeless and cross racial and all sociological barriers.
12) Be careful; they bite. Parables are not safe moral tales; they are designed to expose us!
13) Commit to continue to learn and to be challenged by God to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.
14) You should seek justice and pursue it. Always for others. Let God care for you; seek first God’s kingdom which he delights to give you. Help others live there.
15) Finally, be the younger prodigal son. Not that you should go and live in a pigpen and in wayward living. But rather admit that you are broken and needy. Call upon him while he is near. Say, “Make me” and not “Give me.” Like the blind man of John 9, say, “Who is he Lord that I may worship him?” And then go and do likewise.
THE VIDEOS are edited and each is featured in this Playlist here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCYwmcnbi7TD0urk3QbUYeDSc9Dy0LIKv&si=akAAP7B3kMgQsxul
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