Category: Matthew

Posted in Hebrews, Matthew

Watch!

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.” Matthew 24:42-43 

The word watch means to “keep awake” and be “spiritually alert.” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary) It is the main instruction Jesus gives to His people about the end times. So how does one watch?

First, I think it is important to realize how easy it is to fall asleep spiritually. The flesh or carnal nature is weak and when it’s in control of our lives we go to sleep. It can be hard to recognize you’re asleep because you can still be busy doing stuff, maybe even religious duties. But when we put our identity in doing instead of in the Lord Himself, we start falling asleep spiritually.

Jesus said we have to “keep watching,” so we have to ask ourselves regularly: Have I fallen asleep? Do I find myself compromising in situations that I wouldn’t have in the past? Have I stopped reading the Bible and praying on my own? Do I think most about this world or the one to come? Am I more concerned about what people think or about what God thinks? These are important questions because they warn us when we’re getting sleepy.

If you’re fairly certain you’ve fallen asleep then tell yourself it’s time to wake up. Sound the alarm and don’t hit the snooze button or turn it off until you are all the way out of bed. Take time to repent and ask the Holy Spirit to fill you again. Consider fasting a meal or a day to grab a hold of eternal life in a determined fashion. I’m struck by this verse in Hebrews, “There is a Sabbath rest for the people of God… so make every effort to enter that rest.” (Hebrews 4:9-11)  It really is a paradox – we are fully awake only when we’re resting in Christ’s finished work. Once we’re awake we need to “keep watching.”

Posted in Galatians, Matthew

Keeping the Bats Out 

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’: and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” Matthew 12:43-45

We had a bat problem in our house in Montevideo, MN. There’s nothing creepier than a bat slithering into your house and flying around in your bedroom.   I remember being awakened one night, and then commanded by my wife to “do something” while she left the room and made sure the door was shut. She snuck a broom back into the room a few minutes later, so I wouldn’t be completely defenseless.

The bat was dealt with that night, but the next morning came with a more difficult problem to solve: how did the bat get in? We ended up hiring a company who came out to bat proof our house. A few days later I was sleeping peacefully when I thought I heard something swooshing around the room. My first thought was a bat but I comforted myself that we had already solved that problem. Surely it’s only a dream.

I wasn’t dreaming. The morning after fighting with the second bat, I called the bat proof company and they assured me that they would come back out and that I didn’t need to be alarmed because this sort of thing happens all the time. He told me something like this: “When bats get evicted from a house they circle that home for up to three days trying to find a way back in. We will find the new way they snuck in and plug it and continue to do so until they find a different home.”

If you’re a believer, the enemy can’t possess you, but if you believe a lie he can bring oppression. When you and I grab hold of the word of God in any area he loses his hold temporarily, but he doesn’t give up easily. He will circle and persecute and test the truth we started believing because he wants his place of influence back.

When we actively believe the truth we plug up any holes that would allow the enemy’s influence back into our lives. Paul told us to “stand firm in our freedom and not be enslaved again to any yoke of bondage.” (Galatians 5:1) So stand firm in the truth and don’t let the bats back in!

Posted in John, Matthew

Shutting the Door

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“When you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:6

Think about the words “shut your door.” Are we too available to this world and to the people of this world? Are we so connected that we struggle to shut the door on human contact to make ourselves fully available for fellowship with God? Bob Sorge says: “God’s not disappointed in you when you fail to spend time with Him alone; He’s disappointed for you.” He has so much to give us in the secret place. We lose our fear of man, we hear His whispers, He changes our desires, He adjusts our perspectives, He removes our weights, and of course, He hears our prayers.

Sometimes people do get alone with God and find their time disappointing because they don’t feel they really make a connection. Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:23) If you are a believer the Holy Spirit lives in your spirit and that is where God wants to meet you. Sometimes we close the physical door but we have trouble closing the door of our souls (mind, will, and emotions) so that we can really commune with God in our spirits.

Our emotions, anxieties, and continual thinking can keep us from true communion. Shut the door! Ask the Holy Spirit to help you and become comfortable with the fact that God lives in you. The challenge is to live from our spirits, so that the presence of God and the word of God dominate our souls instead of our carnal nature. When we take time to shut the door to have alone time with God it gets much easier to shut the door of our souls during the day when we need to drink from the Spirit.

The cool thing about disconnecting from this world and its relationships is how much more we will have to bring to them when we reconnect.

Posted in 1Peter, Matthew

God’s Timing

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God and in due time He will exalt you.” 1Peter 5:6

Timing is very important to God. We want everything right now. I remember when our daughter Christina was only about three years old holding up her cup toward me saying, “Daddy, get me some milk.” Wanting to teach her good manners I replied, “What do you say, Sweetheart?” I’ll never forget that cherubic face that seemed to be a contradiction to her demanding tone as she uttered only one word: “NOW!”

It is the pride in us that demands God and people to do what we want them to do, now. God is gracious and loves us more than we can imagine, yet He wants more for us than we often want for ourselves. We think about our short term circumstances while He thinks about our long term character. Our Father wants to break off our pride, so that we can take on the beauty of His Son who is “meek and lowly of heart.” (Matthew 11:29)

One way He does this is timing. In our text the words, “due time,” are a translation of the Greek word, “kairos.” “Chronos” is the Greek word that measures epochs and periods of time, but “kairos” is a specific point of time; “an opportune time,” “at the proper time,” or as the NIV translates, “in due time.”  They all mean the same thing: “In God’s timing.” Ours is to humble ourselves knowing that God’s hand is mighty and able to do whatever we have asked, if we will only wait for Him instead of trying to manipulate things ourselves.

The next verse gives us instruction on how to humble ourselves: “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” We are to rest in His love and know that He is going to be active in taking care of what we have trusted to Him while we wait expectantly.

Posted in Matthew, Romans

Our Mutual Debt

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.  So, as much as I am able, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are in Rome also.” Romans 1:14-15

How can Paul owe people he has never met?  There are two ways to owe a debt (Timothy Keller’s commentary on Romans): one is when someone lends you money and you owe them until it is repaid; the other is where someone gives you something to give to someone else.  Until you have given them what was entrusted to you for them, you are in their debt.  This is how Paul, and we, are in debt to all those who have not heard the gospel.  Think of when UPS is given a package for someone else.  They could be said to be in debt until the package is delivered and signed for.

To all those God has graciously saved, He has given a charge: “Go into all the world and make disciples of everyone.” (Matthew 28:19-20)  “Go” is to be understood as plural because He is speaking to the redeemed community.  Go together, and take the gospel that has saved you, and give it to everyone in the world for My sake.

I don’t like being in debt; but if I have a debt, I certainly want to know about it.  In Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol, Scrooge’s dead business partner, Jacob Marley, appears to Scrooge as a ghost with a chain he must carry around as a punishment for how he lived on earth.  Scrooge feels the chain is unfair.

“You were a good man, Jacob.  A man of business.”

At this Marly screams his response, “Business!  Mankind was my business!”

Marley had a debt while on earth even if he didn’t own it.  We don’t get to bury our heads in the sand and say to ourselves, “that’s not my problem.”  If you are a real Christian, it is your problem.  We have a mutual debt to reach the nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Let’s own it together and then pray to the Lord of the harvest, “Send us to fulfill whatever assignment you have for us to fulfill.” (Matthew 9:38)

Posted in Matthew, Psalms

Mary’s Worship

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“In Your Presence is fullness of joy…” Psalm 16:11

Have you ever had a one-way friendship?  Someone you genuinely like, but whenever they contact you it’s only because they need something?  They are so busy and focused on their own lives that they may not realize they treat you like a means to an end instead of like a true friend.  Once in a while, true friends just want to be with you with no other agenda except to be together.  In our weekly prayer meeting we begin by emptying our thoughts, worries, and desires at the cross and just worship for a half an hour.  The goal is not to get something but to just be with Him.

What does God do during this time of concentrated worship?  It doesn’t matter because it’s not about us, it’s about Him.  No doubt He will transform us and bless us with a new joy in His presence, but that’s His agenda, not ours.  We just want to be with Him and pour out our worship and thanksgiving for who He is.  Even the disciples said, “Why this waste?” (Matthew 26:8), when Mary poured out her costly perfume on Jesus.  The great temptation of the church today is to make God and our worship a means to an end instead of the main event.  Please listen to Jesus’ response to Mary’s worship: “Wherever the gospel is preached I want this story told.” (Matthew 26:13)

Finally, in this act of worship, Jesus saw the response God is looking for to the gospel.  Abandoned worship that isn’t looking at its watch or at the crowd for approval; someone who just wanted to spend herself on Jesus for His sake.  I want to join Mary’s worship, don’t you?

Posted in 2Corinthians, Acts, Matthew, Revelation

The Open Floodgates

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2Corinthians 3:17-18

A few years ago I was part of a region-wide worship night and we were singing, “Let it Rain.” As the congregation sang: “Open the floodgates of heaven,” the worship leader kept singing, “The floodgates of heaven are open.” She had the words wrong.

Then it hit me. She was the one who had the words right. Sometimes the songs we sing are a reflection of the theology we are currently believing and not how it really is. I am familiar with the: “Open the floodgates”, theology; let me explain.

God wants to pour out His Spirit, in this view of things, but He can’t. If the church was repentant enough, prayerful enough, worshipful enough, and desperate enough, He then would open the floodgates of heaven and there would be a revival. This is a heavy message and produces Christians who strive harder and harder only to fail again and again. I know, I’ve been that Christian.

Now let’s look at what is true. “Let it rain, let it rain; the floodgates of heaven are open, let it rain.” We still must value and ask for the rain of God’s presence because He wants to be wanted and will allow us to do church without Him if we think we don’t need Him. (See Revelation 3:15-20) But we don’t need Him to open the floodgates of heaven, He already has. Jesus’ blood opened heaven for us, the veil has been torn down. (See Matthew 27:51)

God pouring out His Spirit in and through us is not a difficult thing; it’s the normal Christian life. As His favored sons and daughters, we have easy access to all the riches of His table and can easily drink from His river of delights, if we’ll only believe. The floodgates are open, and it’s His express purpose to pour out His Spirit on all flesh that we may speak of the glory of God as those who encounter Him regularly. (Acts 2:17-19)

This describes  the type of Christians we’re increasingly becoming.  Favored children, carrying His very presence, and reflecting His glory wherever we go. What a great adventure to be on!

Posted in Matthew

Healing and the Kingdom of God

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“And having summoned His twelve disciples, He gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of sickness…And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons; freely you received, freely give.” Matthew 10:1; 7-8

Several years ago, while living in Montevideo, Minnesota, I had a vivid dream about Divine healing. I was in Walmart (in the dream) when I recognized a woman from our church who was walking with another woman who had one leg that was injured. The woman from our church was a brilliant light for Christ and filled with faith as to what God could do, and I knew if she saw me she would ask me to pray for her friend.

I wasn’t in the mood. So instead of going toward her I was planning a get away, so she wouldn’t see me. Too late. She saw me and immediately came toward me with a big smile on her face. “Would you pray for my friend?” she asked. After agreeing to do so, we went into a room that was right off one of the side aisles (remember, this is a dream), and I began to pray.

This is where things got interesting. I started to pray for her leg and I was filled with the love of God for this person. I could feel the anointing of God go through my hands and knew she was healed but that wasn’t what gripped me. It was God’s intimate love for people in pain. I woke up with the presence of the Lord still resting on me.

What does this dream mean? I felt like the Lord was saying two things:

  1. His end game is not the healing presence of God in our sanctuaries but in the streets. We need to encounter God at church and learn how to minister in church, but He wants us to have a much bigger vision because most of the people He wants to reach don’t currently go to church.
  2. Healing is not about His power but about His love. Jesus wants to reveal His intimate love for people by touching them in very tangible ways. His healings are not just going to make those who are healed fall in love with Him – they are going to make those who are used to bring the healing fall more in love with Him than ever before.

Let’s draw near to the King so we can learn to carry the kingdom everywhere we go!

Posted in Luke, Matthew

The New Wine

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” Matthew 9:17

God was not able to pour out His Spirit in fullness under the Old Covenant. In fact, He put a veil between His manifest glory and mankind because of their sin. If sinners got too close to His holiness, judgment would break out as it did many times when they were under the cloud of His presence in the wilderness.

God didn’t love His people any less under the Old Covenant, but His touch of blessing was limited to people’s obedience to the law. The law was the old wineskin and the wine it held was limited to a few people (kings, priests, and prophets) and was only poured out while they performed their functions.

In our text, Jesus is answering a question the Pharisees had. They wondered why Jesus’ disciples weren’t keeping the fasts they kept. Jesus announced that a change had taken place with His coming. After He was gone His disciples would fast again, He explained, but it would be for a different reason. Under the Old Covenant one fasted in hopes of receiving favor; under the new covenant a person can fast as one who already has favor.

The new wineskin is the new covenant Jesus made with the Father. He died in our place so that we can be forgiven and be adopted as the very children of God. The new wine can be abundantly poured on anyone who believes in Jesus because His shed blood removes the judgment our sin would have automatically triggered under the Old Covenant.

Jesus’ death and resurrection frees His Father to pour out the Holy Spirit and allows us to receive more of Him as often as we ask. Jesus said: “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask (and continue to ask) Him.” (Luke 11:13)

Own your identity as a child of God and use this favored position to ask for more of heaven’s wine. This wine is key to lasting joy and healing unlike the stuff that can only give a short buzz and is often followed by a hangover.

Posted in Acts, Isaiah, Mark, Matthew, Philippians, Proverbs, Romans, Titus

Getting Back on the Wall

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“No longer will they call you Deserted, or name you Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah (My delight is in her)…for the Lord will take delight in you.” Isaiah 62:4

Yesterday we gave several ways those God genuinely sets on the wall (in a place of authority to pray) fall off of it. Today we look at how to get back on it. “A righteous man falls seven times, and rises again.” (Proverbs 24:16)

  1. Accept your calling. Romans 11:29 tells us that God’s “gifts and call are irrevocable.” Just because you don’t like the place God has given you, or feel like you’ve failed at it, doesn’t mean you get a new call. Our lives won’t work until we embrace God’s plan and flow with it. “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” (Acts 26:14)
  2. Forgive as you stand praying. “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive your transgressions.” (Mark 11:25) If we insist on justice, eventually God will have to give us the justice we want for others. (See Matthew 7:1-4) We don’t need someone to be sorry for us to forgive them. If we do, forgiveness will always be difficult. Here’s why – let’s say someone does say they’re sorry for the way they’ve treated you. How will you know if they’re really sorry? And even if they appear to be sorry, are they sorry enough? If they’re sorry enough, will that for sure mean they’ll never do it again? All we need to forgive is to remember that the greatest injustice didn’t happen to me; it happened to Jesus. The truly innocent Lamb of God died in my place – that’s injustice. Part of my worship is to lay my injustices at the foot of the cross and freely forgive those who hurt me. This is part of what it means to know Jesus “in the fellowship of His suffering.” (Philippians 3:10)
  3. Embrace your identity. The strength to stay on the wall is not in seeing your prayers answered; it’s in the fact that God’s delight is in you. We are favored sons and daughters not because of our works, but because of His great mercy toward us in Christ. (Titus 3:5-6) We don’t gain favor by praying; we pray from His favor. Our great reward is not in what He does for us, but in our relationship with Him. Until we grasp this reality it will always be hard to stay on the wall.