Category: New Testament

Posted in 2Corinthians, John, Matthew, Romans

Hidden Treasure – Part Two

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” Matthew 13:44

Yesterday we saw that the treasure of God’s unconditional love is hidden from our experience when our identity is in our performance. The second treasure the gospel reveals is salvation in Christ, yet this remains hidden from our experience when we cling to unbelief.

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would convict the world of their sin “because men do not believe in Me.” (John 16:9) No one minds believing in the historical existence of Jesus or in the inspirational teaching and example He gave. What people struggle with is that He claims to be the Savior. (The name Jesus means savior)

To believe in Jesus as Savior means I’m not a good person who just needs a little instruction and encouragement. I am a sinner who needs saving. Really believing in Jesus means that I am no longer the hero in my own story which is why the self-righteous often persist in unbelief even when God has given them ample evidence that they are sinners.

Some people struggle with the simplicity of receiving salvation as a gift, yet this is the only way one can experience this treasure. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) Think of someone who loves you and has bought you an expensive gift for your birthday. When they give it to you, you don’t try to pay for it, do you? That would be an insult to the giver. You say, “thank you,” and unwrap it and when they see you enjoying the gift they freely gave, it makes the price they paid worth it to them.

God saw our need and paid a very high price (the blood of Jesus) to get us an “indescribable gift” (2Corinthians 9:15) called eternal life. To own it we just have to admit we’re sinners and receive it with the faith of a child. When we begin walking in the relationship that is included in this gift, we bring joy to the One who purchased it for us.

Posted in Luke, Matthew, Romans

Hidden Treasure – Part One

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” Matthew 13:44

You can be in the field of church and seldom see the treasure that’s hidden in it. Without seeing the treasure there will be little joy in your faith and your Christianity will seem more of a burden added to your life, than that which removes every burden and gives you joy. So what is the treasure and what hides it from our hearts?

The first treasure the gospel reveals is God’s unconditional love for us, but it is hidden from those who have their identity in performance. It’s very difficult for humans to grasp God’s love because we are used to conditions. Paul says it would be rare for someone to die for a good man, but at least we can conceive of the possibility because a good person deserves to be loved. He goes on to explain God’s love: “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8)

God doesn’t just love everyone; He loves you. Whether you’ve been good or bad in man’s eyes, He loves you. Whether you feel like a success or a continual failure, He loves you. And nothing you can do or fail to do can change that.

The prodigal son (Luke 15) represented the prostitutes, tax gatherers, and “sinners” who felt God would never want them near because of their bad performance. Even when the prodigal repented he planned on asking to be made a “hired man.” The hired man made the wages of a slave but didn’t live in the house. Yet when he returned he received an unexpected welcome and restoration to his father. The Father sees us, even when we’re far away, and when we take a step toward Him, He runs toward us. Is it hard for you to believe that this is how emotional God is over you every time you try to draw near to Him? Ask Him to heal whatever is keeping you from believing in His love.

The older brother missed the party because he thought his good performance earned him something. He represented the Pharisees and Scribes who were listening and thought they were better than other people. Self-righteousness will keep you busy as a Christian, but it will prevent you from experiencing the Father’s love and out of the party of His joy.

Posted in 2Chronicles, Ephesians, Isaiah, Proverbs

Standing Firm in Your Faith

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” Isaiah 7:9b

News that Ephraim and Aram had joined forces to attack Judah resulted in king Ahaz being gripped with fear. The Bible says his heart was “…shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.” (Isaiah 7:2) He would either stand firm in his faith, or he would fall – those were the only two options. In easier more peaceful times you can get by without really believing, but when everything is shaking around you, you either believe God, for real, or you become a victim of fear.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5) When our situation is confusing and intimidating we must lean on God directly, not on our understanding of the circumstances, or even on our understanding of God. He is able to make us stand in the storm, and after we have passed His test, is equally able to speak “peace, be still,” to our situation. When He does the wind and waves of our circumstances will calm down, and we will see the deliverance of God. But it all starts with us standing in faith while everything still looks bad.

“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then…” (Ephesians 6:13-14a) If God tells you to do something, do it, but after doing it, only “stand firm.” Don’t worry, don’t strive, don’t doubt, don’t wrestle… just stand. Evil will take its swing at you and me, and God will allow it, but if we stand in our faith, it will come to nothing. Believe in God’s promises; trust in His character; and then “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf.” (2Chronicles 20:17)

Posted in 2Timothy, Habakkuk, Hebrews, Psalms

Long Term Joy

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places.” Habakkuk 3:17-19

God wants you and I to have a joy in His love and union with us that transcends our circumstances. Habakkuk is declaring an absolute freedom from God having to do anything a certain way or give a certain outcome. God is Sovereign and it doesn’t matter what’s going on in my life or on this planet, it really doesn’t change anything. He loves me, He delights in me, and His joy and salvation are my strength. Whatever faces me, God will show me how to walk on my “high places,” or as the Amplified version says, “make me to walk (not stand in terror, but to walk) and make (spiritual) progress upon my high places (of trouble, suffering, or responsibility)!”

We live in a culture that is addicted to short-term pleasure and has often lost the ability to sacrifice for long term joy. Paul said that in the end times people would be “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…” (2Timothy 3:4) God is all about pleasure, “at His right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11), yet He is more concerned about the long term than the right now. This is a problem for us because we want pleasure now, and if we aren’t having it we can be tempted to think that God has left us or is somehow mad at us because obviously, in our minds, “He’s not blessing me now!”

Yet to become godly we will go through much suffering, internal and external, and often be called to sacrifice short term success in man’s eyes for Christ’s sake. We can resent this, or like Moses, we can by faith “see Him who is invisible” and choose to embrace ill treatment with the people of God rather than live for the passing pleasures of sin. (see Hebrews 11:25-27)

God does care about what we’re going through. He cares so much that He will not short-change a process that He knows will lead to our long term joy.

Posted in 1Corinthians, Revelation

Passing God’s Tests

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Revelation 2:10

This is kind of a disturbing passage. These are people God is pleased with, yet He is allowing a time of testing at the hands of the devil in which they will be put in prison. Do you feel like you are in some type of prison right now? A situation that you can’t change, an affliction that you can’t remove, or some type of thorn in your flesh that God doesn’t seem to be delivering you from? I want to encourage you, it’s just a test. God wanted the church at Smyrna to know that He, the One who loved them, was allowing it, and that He had rewards for those who passed it. How do you pass God’s tests?

  1. Know that God has limited them. Jesus said there would be a beginning and an end – it would last 10 days and then be over. When you are in a test it is tempting to despair because it feels like this will be the rest of your life. Don’t worry, this too will pass. We can’t shorten God’s tests but we can lengthen them by having a horrible attitude. (See Israelites in the desert for 40 years) 1Corinthians 10:13 promises that in all temptations (same Greek word as tests) “God is faithful; He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
  2. Don’t be afraid. Satan works through fear and God works to free us from fear. Trust God in your prison and don’t give into fear. Oftentimes the purpose of the test is to get us in a situation where we would normally be afraid, so that we can learn to walk in faith. 
  3. Be faithful. Keep doing what you know is right even if it doesn’t seem to be working. Keep praying, reading, loving, and obeying – God wants to see if we will be faithful when things are rough, or if we’re only fair weather Christians. What’s the worst that can happen – you dying? Jesus said to be faithful even to the point of death. What’s so bad about being home with Jesus forever in the eternal city where the streets are made of gold, and where we rule and reign with Him for all eternity?
Posted in 1John, John, Philippians, Psalms, Romans

The Will of God

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and accomplish His work.” John 4:34

Consider with me three things about the will of God: the delight, the cost, and the result.

The delight. David said that when Messiah came He would proclaim, “I delight to do Your will O My God, Your law is within My heart.” (Psalm 40:8) In the text above we have Jesus saying that the will of God is His hidden food, sustenance, and supply. Jesus’ yoke was easy and His burden was light because He never measured Himself by anything or anyone else – it was enough to do the will of God. Life can be very complicated, but when your passion is the will of God the questions change. It is no longer “what will I choose to do,” but only, “what is the will of God so I can obey.” Deciding to do God’s will, whatever it is, answers a thousand other questions for you. For instance, you don’t have to decide whether to forgive someone or not. You always forgive because He’s forgiven you.

The cost. Jesus prayed, “not My will, but Yours be done.” He didn’t finish the work God gave Him to do until He said, “It is finished,” on the cross. He did work for us that we couldn’t do for ourselves which is why the beginning of us doing the will of God must be putting our faith in Christ. But there’s a cross for us as well if we really want to accomplish God’s plan. Romans 12:1-2 says, “In view of God’s mercy, present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” We must offer ourselves before God as a sacrifice willing to do anything, before we will be able to walk out the specific plan He has for us.

The result. Because Jesus obeyed He was given the highest Name and the greatest place in all the universe. (Philippians 2:11) When we do the will of God we end up sharing in His glory forever and ever. “The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.” (1John 2:17)

Posted in Luke, Psalms

Perseverance

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” Luke 11:7

Jesus is teaching about prayer and He tells this story of a friend who seems unwilling to help. In Luke 18 He again is talking about prayer when He describes an unjust judge. In both instances the point is perseverance in prayer. “Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” (Luke 18:1)

You and I need to be confident in who God is and how He views us because prayer is a battle. I think Jesus is giving us insight on emotions we will face when God delays answers to our prayers. We may feel like God is sleeping and telling us to go away because we’re bothering Him. We may feel like God is a callous, unjust judge who doesn’t care about our needs, but only His own kingdom. What do we do when God’s character is attacked in our minds and emotions?

Jesus told us to press through them and keep praying because God isn’t like that, and those feelings are not reliable. The truth is that He is the friend that sticks closer than a brother, who never slumbers or sleeps. (Psalm 121:4) I read a plaque on a wall recently that said: “When you go to bed, leave your problems with God. He’s going to be up all night any way.”

Fight through the accusations that God isn’t just and keep praying and believing because Jesus assures us that God does hear our prayers. “Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:7-8)

In essence Jesus is saying this: “God will be faithful to do His part, the real question is will we be faithful to do ours’?” Our part is to have faith in the character and promises of God even when our circumstances seem to contradict them. Will the Son of Man find us persevering, or will we give up?

Let’s stir ourselves to pray and not waver in the midst of our trials and emotions.

Posted in 1Peter, Romans

Pregnant with God’s Purposes

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“We know that creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time…In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” Romans 8:22; 26-27

Effective prayer is like pregnancy. Humility recognizes that we don’t really know what to pray so it starts by asking, “God, what do You want to do in this situation?” As we open our hearts in sincerity and surrender, the Holy Spirit plants in us the very word of God concerning the situation we’re praying about and we become pregnant with the answer.

God’s Word to us, Peter says, is an imperishable seed that will stand forever. (1Peter 1:23-25) The only question once God has impregnated us with His purpose is will we persevere with Him in the place of prayer and agreement until heaven’s purpose becomes a reality on earth? There is a weight when we carry His purposes; there is an inward groaning when the very opposite of what we have prayed seems to be happening. Will we continue to travail until God’s full purpose is accomplished or will we give up and allow that vulnerable seed to be aborted before birth?

“If God wants to do something why doesn’t He just do it?” you may ask. He chooses to co-labor with us and has purposed that His plan will not be done on this earth unless someone on earth wants it, prays for it, and does whatever is necessary to birth it. Why else would He tell us to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven?”

Are you just surviving day to day or are you pregnant with God’s purposes for your life? Women that are pregnant don’t do things others do and don’t eat things other people eat because they don’t want to injure the baby. They limit their freedom because they don’t want to put what they are carrying at risk. Are you conscious that your life is not just about you, but about the One you are carrying and the purposes He has for you on this earth?

Now that’s something to pray about!

Posted in John, Luke, Revelation

Living on God’s Time

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“When He (Jesus) approached Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for Peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes…you did not recognize the time (kairos) of your visitation.” (Luke 19:41-42; 44b)

Yesterday we discussed the difference between sequential time (chronos) and God’s special time (kairos). How do we live on God’s time?

  1. We have to recognize the trap of becoming enslaved to chronos time. I am a very scheduled person and it’s easy for me to define success as keeping all my appointments and fulfilling all my priorities for any given day. God wants to free me from that mindset, so I can begin to look more and more for His kairos appointments. Jesus was the master at this. He would often be interrupted on His way somewhere, but instead of driving on, He would recognize the timing of God and minister to the interruption. This is how many were healed and delivered in the gospels. He said that His secret was only giving Himself to what He saw the Father doing. (John 5:19)
  2. We need to recognize our utter dependence on God to “see.” Most of the Jewish people missed what God was doing in their day and then it became “hidden” from their eyes. The Laodiceans were also “blind,” yet Jesus promised, “eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see” (Revelation 3:18) if they would only repent. Why couldn’t they see? They had stopped acknowledging their continual dependence on God and had said in their hearts, “I need nothing.” To see we must continually humble ourselves and recognize we need God’s grace to see what He is doing.
  3. We need to fear God enough to respond quickly and wholeheartedly when a kairos opportunity is available. Jesus wept when He entered Jerusalem because His people had missed the time (kairos) of their visitation and had missed the mercy God wanted for them. The Israelites missed the kairos of God when they were on the edge of the promised land. When they finally decided they wanted to go in, the opportunity had been removed and it was too late. Let’s not hold back when opportunities are open to speak, or love, or give, or pray. Let’s seize the kairos of God and make sure Jesus never has to weep over us for the mercies we missed.
Posted in 1Peter, Acts, Galatians, John, Mark

God’s Timing

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“It is not for you to know the times (chronos) or dates (kairos) which the Father has set by His own authority.” Acts 1:7

Two of the Greek words for time in the New Testament are “chronos” and “kairos.” Chronos is the word for sequential time which is how mankind usually thinks about time. There are twenty-four hours in a day, seven days in a week, and fifty two weeks in a year. We make plans and appointments in sequential time and live our lives trying to fulfill them.

Kairos is a word we don’t have one English word to describe. It is not sequential time, but rather, God’s time for something to happen. 

Vine’s Expository dictionary gives this distinction: “Chronos marks quantity (of time), kairos, marks quality.” (554) So how does recognizing God’s kairos time practically make a difference in our lives? Let me give a number of ways.

  1. Although we live in sequential time our priority should be kairos time. Jesus waited for God’s time to go to the feast while his unbelieving brothers had no such concern. “The right time (kairos) for Me has not yet come; for you any time is right.” (John 7:1-2) 
  2. We should not be frustrated by our present difficulties but can have confidence that if we keep doing what’s right, the time (kairos) will come when we will see God’s deliverance. “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God and in due time (kairos) He will exalt you.” (1Peter 5:6) “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time (kairos) we will reap a harvest if we don’t give up.” (Galatians 6:9)
  3. History has a purpose and a direction way bigger than us, so we should be able to put all of our minor irritations in perspective.  Jesus died at the “right time” (kairos) for us (Romans 5:6); and we can be assured that Jesus will come back in God’s “appointed time” (kairos – Mark 13:33).
  4. As we respond to God’s dealings with us with a spirit of repentance, He desires “times” (kairos) of refreshing to come to us from the presence of the Lord. (Acts 3:19)