Category: New Testament

Posted in Luke

Mary’s Faith

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.” Luke 1:4

When Elizabeth gives this greeting to Mary I think she is contrasting Mary’s faith in the word of the Lord, to her husband’s unbelief. Before we look at the example of Mary’s faith, I want to look at why sometimes it’s hard to believe.  Zacharias asked this question to the angel who appeared to him and said he and his wife were going to have a baby: “How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.” (Luke 1:18) This question led to this response from the angel: “You shall be unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.” (Luke 1:20)

What was behind Zacharias’ unbelief? I think he didn’t want to become vulnerable again by believing, only to have his and his wife’s hopes for a baby go unfulfilled. The great disappointment of their marriage was that they hadn’t been able to have children. How many times had they prayed and believed God for a child? When they were young I bet their hopes were high and their anticipation was great. When it didn’t happen right away I can imagine they had the local rabbi pray for them, as well as anyone else who was close to them, yet in all their longing and all their praying, there was still no child. Every time they heard a baby cry they were reminded that they couldn’t have children. Every time someone else rejoiced over the news that they were pregnant, they were empty inside, even as they offered congratulations. It is easy when our prayers seem to go unanswered to assume they were not heard, and then in an act of self protection from disappointment, harden our hearts. 

Let’s look at Mary’s faith. She was convinced of God’s love and mercy toward her. (Luke 1:50) She believed that God’s word was true and that it would be fulfilled even if she couldn’t understand how God would do it. (Luke 1:34) She refused to believe that God only did things in the past, but was confident He was present, powerful, and active in her day, wanting to extend His mighty arm for the humble and to fill the desperate with good things from His generous heart. (Luke 1:51; 53) She also had a tender heart that was ready to believe whatever the Lord might speak to her.

Where are you at? Have you hardened your heart because life isn’t working out the way you hoped? Maybe the Lord wants to do something wonderful for you and is waiting for you to soften your heart again.

Posted in Galatians

Redemption!

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“But when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.” Galatians 4:4-5

To redeem something means to bring it back from its broken or ruined state by restoring it.  After our sin, God could have started over, but He chose instead to redeem.

A few years ago we had our VW Passat fixed from a problem it had with overheating.  The first time I drove it after the “fix” was to a place about an hour away where it promptly broke down.  We had it towed from there to a local mechanic who told me the engine was destroyed, and said  he wouldn’t even work on it.  We then had it towed back to our mechanic in Madison.

After running tests on it, our mechanic explained what had happened, and owned their mistake.  He said that he learned in his analysis that there was a catch underneath this specific engine that collected waste, and at some point it had become too much. When the engine was idling it looked fine, so they thought the problem was solved, but when I drove it away the waste was carried back up into the engine and caused the irreparable damage.

It was a 2003 model, so the book value wasn’t much.  He said something like this to me: “I could give you a check for $2,000, and you could put that toward a different vehicle, or you could buy a new engine (at a much reduced cost) and I would put it in for free.”

It would have been easy to take his check, but I still saw a lot of value in that old car.  I chose redemption instead of starting over.  So did God, and it wasn’t cheap.  At just the right time in history, Jesus was born so He could die on a cross and pay for our redemption.  The Son became a Savior, so we could become the very children of God.

This is the “good news of great joy!”

Posted in Luke

Preparation

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“And you, my son, will be called the prophet of the most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord.” Luke 1:76

There had been no prophet in Israel for 400 years.  Maybe Zechariah was a picture of all Israel when he refused to believe the angel who said he had come to promise a child in response to his prayers.  Maybe he was discouraged and had given up on those prayers from long ago when he and his wife were young?

We don’t know, but we do know that the judgment for not believing was silence that lasted the whole nine months of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. The text above records some of the first words he spoke when God loosened his tongue at his son’s (John the Baptist) birth.

When the silence was broken, Luke tells us, “Awe fell upon the whole neighborhood, and the news of what had happened spread throughout the Judean hills.  Everyone who heard about it reflected on these events and asked, ‘What will this child turn out to be?’” (Luke 1:65-66)

God uses silence in our lives to produce a longing for Him.  Are there prayers you have given up on?  Don’t interpret delay as God’s absence or disinterest; He is planning something bigger that is not just for us, but also for those we influence.  John the Baptist’s birth was part of preparing hearts for Jesus.  “God is doing something,” was the feeling in the air.  “We may not know what, but He is moving.”  God is wanting to prepare us in this time for something more than what man is doing or not doing.

Lift your eyes higher than politicians, higher than family, and higher than your own fears and failures.  God is alive and He is wanting to pour out His Spirit in this hour if only we will ask and prepare for Him. (Luke 11:13)

Let’s plan on having the best Christmas ever because we’ve asked God to break through the commercialism and cynicism of our day to reveal Jesus afresh to waiting hearts.  “Let every heart prepare Him room.”

Posted in John, Romans

The Condition of Mercy

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“I will have mercy on those I have mercy…” Romans 9:15

There is a tradition of theology that believes there is no condition human beings can meet to receive God’s mercy.  They believe that before time, God sovereignly chose those who He would have mercy on.  These are the elect and believe in Jesus only because God chose them to believe in Jesus.  Paul’s argument in Romans 9 is key to this theology: “It does not depend on man who runs or wills, but on God who has mercy.” (Romans 9:16)

Although I have many friends in this tradition, I disagree with their interpretation of the argument Paul is making in Romans 9.  I believe Paul is using dynamite to blow up the present Jewish thinking before laying down God’s provision for mercy.

The Jews are certain that God has to give mercy to those who are seeking to follow the law.  Paul makes it clear that God doesn’t have to give mercy to anyone.  He is the Potter and we are the clay, and the clay doesn’t have the right to question the Potter about what he’s making.  Even if God arbitrarily chooses to make some of us objects of His mercy, and others objects of His wrath, we would have no “right” to question Him.  God decides who He has mercy on, not us.

So who does He choose?  Paul comes to his point: “So the Gentiles who weren’t seeking to be right with God, found Him.  Why?  Because of faith.  While the Jews who were seeking to be right with God, didn’t find Him.  Why?  Because they sought Him by works instead of by faith.  They stumbled over the great rock in their path.  God warned them of this in the Scriptures when He said,  ‘Behold, I place a stone in Zion that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall.  But anyone who believes in Him will never be disgraced.’” (Romans 9:30-33)

God is not arbitrary!  He sent Jesus to die for the world, and anyone who believes in Him will receive the mercy of God and eternal life. (John 3:16)  Those who reject Him will stumble over the One who was sent for them.  The whole argument Paul makes doesn’t conclude until the end of chapter 11 where He gives God’s heart one more time: “For God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so He could have mercy on everyone.” (Romans 11:32)

Jesus didn’t just die for the elect; He died for everyone!  If we meet His condition for mercy we can be assured that we are one of those He chooses.

Posted in Ephesians

Receiving God’s Love

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“For this reason I pray to the Father… that your roots will go down into God’s love and keep you strong.  And may you have the power to understand… how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is.” Ephesians 3:14; 17

A few years ago I had the privilege of doing a youth retreat in another city.  During a session I called a young woman out and asked her name, then gave her this word: “When Samuel went to the house of Jesse to anoint one of his sons as king, Jesse had overlooked his son, David.  David wasn’t even invited to the feast.  But God’s eye was on David; God saw him and God wants you to know that He sees you.”  Later that night, after I preached, I invited any who wanted to drink of the Spirit to come up and receive prayer.  This young woman came up and when I prayed the Holy Spirit touched her in a dramatic way as He was touching many others.

 I didn’t know what God was doing in her until the pastor of that church was driving me back to the airport on Monday morning.  He told me that she had told her mom on the way to church (we were back from the retreat by then) that she had a new peace and felt different.  Her mom shared this with the pastor because to her this was a miracle. She had sent her daughter on this retreat out of desperation.

This girl had grown up in a single parent home and had become wild and agitated all the time.  There was nothing the mom who loved her could do to help.  Others had tried to help, but it didn’t seem to change anything.  Yet God saw her.  God spoke to her.  God touched her and that changed everything.

 Maybe you’ve been overlooked by people and have felt small and rejected.  Please know God’s loving eye is on you.  Why not open up your heart again and ask Him to speak to you and touch you in a new way?

Posted in Hebrews, Mark, Matthew, Revelation

Wake Up!

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“You have a reputation of being alive but you are dead.  Wake up!… Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly.  Repent and turn to Me again.  If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.” Revelation 3:1-3

 The Christian life is a long journey at night.  God has ordained that we would have to choose Him in a world of moral darkness that is opposed to the gospel, so that those who choose Him in the dark will never reject Him in eternity when we see Him in the light.  But we have to stay awake!

 Presumption put the church at Sardis asleep.  They had a reputation of being alive, probably gained by past experiences of life and reflected by a doctrine of life, yet in reality, they had become dead.  Like the foolish virgins (See Matthew 25) they presumed that the oil they received at the beginning would be enough, so they didn’t bother to keep their relationship with God fresh.

 America is one of the most dangerous places in the world spiritually.  I’ve had missionaries tell me that they are glad they don’t live here because life is so easy and busy in America that they find it difficult to stay spiritually awake.  On the mission field they sense their absolute dependence on God’s protection and provision so it’s easy to trust Him day by day, but here they find the urgency to seek Him is lacking.

 The enemy seeks to put the church to sleep by the cares, worries, and pleasures of this life. (Mark 4:19)  Do you have a strategy to stay awake?  When I drive at night I make sure there is a passenger to help keep me from dozing off.  I believe God has given the church to be that spiritual passenger for each of us. (Hebrews 10:24-25).  There’s something about gathering together and hearing the word of God that reminds us of who we are, who God is, and of what’s truly important.  Are you part of a group where someone regularly asks you if you’re still awake?

Posted in 2Corinthians, Ephesians

The Call to Sexual Purity

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one husband—Christ.  But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent.” 2Corinthians 11:2-3

 Why has God given us sexual desire and attraction to the opposite sex and then commanded that we control that desire and attraction to save it only for our present or future spouse?  To get to the why of sexual purity we have to go back to why God made sex in the first place.  When we understand what it pictures we will more easily be able to accept and even delight in His call to sexual purity.

 In the text above, Paul says we are called to be the bride of Christ and have only eyes for Him; pure and undivided in our devotion.  In Ephesians 5:31-32 he says: “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.  This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.”  So marriage was created to speak of this higher relationship with Christ and human beings.

 The two become one not by intercourse but by this “leaving” all others, and this “joining” to only one another.  The two becoming one flesh, sexual intercourse, consummates and celebrates that shared devotion to only one another.  Why did God make sex fun?  Why did he give us desires that are fulfilled in this act of passion?  Because it represents the spiritual pleasure available to us in our union with Christ.  There is fullness of joy in His presence.  But our union to Him is not based on spiritual pleasure, but on His devotion to us and our singular devotion to Him.  Spiritual pleasures make it easier to stay devoted to Him, and it strengthens our resolve.  It makes our relationship more than a duty; He is our delight.

 God created sex within marriage to sweeten our commitment to our spouse, so they wouldn’t be our duty, but our delight. Our singular commitment to them pictures for all the world to see our commitment to Christ who left His Father’s home, took on flesh, died and rose again, just so we could be His forever.

Posted in 1John, 2Corinthians, John

Assurance of Forgiveness

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1John 1:9

 When we come to Jesus in simple faith and trust Him for our salvation we become “righteous,” or right with God.  The gospel isn’t about what I can do for God, but about what God did for me on the cross.  “He who knew no sin (Jesus), became sin, in order that we (I) might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Corinthians 5:21)

 Yet as Christians we are still broken in many ways and that leads to unplanned sins.  God’s presence and power are in us and as we walk with Him He is gradually healing us, but it is a process and not an immediate result.  Until we’re completely healed (which actually won’t be until heaven!), we’re going to need many new beginnings.  God knew this, so He promised to forgive us along the way.

 His forgiveness is “just” in His eyes because Jesus already died for those sins.  He doesn’t arbitrarily forgive sins just because He loves us; He forgives us when we’re in Christ because the full punishment for sin has already been paid.  Because of Jesus, the only sin that can’t be forgiven is the one we are unwilling to confess. (See John 9:41)

 Be honest and be humble.  Keep short accounts with God and know that He is gradually healing you on the inside, so you won’t have to confess the same things over and over forever.  As we’re healed in one area, however, He will start shining His light on another.  All we have to do is keep walking in the light (John 1:7) which is another way of saying we simply need to walk with God.

Posted in Acts, John

Assurance of Answered Prayer

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.” John 16:24

 There is fullness of joy in partnering with God.  To pray in Jesus name is to pray on behalf of His interests, kind of like the ambassador of a country.  An ambassador transacts business for the country they represent with the full backing and authority of the place they were sent from. Jesus has sent us into the world (John 17:18), and He wants us to know that all of heaven is behind us as we seek to honor Him.

 In the text above, Jesus tells us where assurance in prayer will come from: using His name.  When we pray in our own name we base our confidence on how deserving, or undeserving we feel we are, and that’s usually based on how we’re feeling that day, or on how we have performed recently.  This is a recipe for doubt.  If I have to achieve a certain spiritual feeling, or live a life that “deserves” God’s blessing, I will never have full assurance in prayer.

 But if my access has nothing to do with me, but only about how good Jesus is and how complete His sacrifice was for me on the cross, then it becomes easy to believe.  Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I have I give to you, in Jesus name rise up and walk.” (Acts 3:6)

 God wants us to possess Jesus’ name and our position in this world as His ambassadors.  He wants every one of us to know the joy of partnering with Him every day.  We’re called to nothing less!

Posted in 1John, John

Assurance of Salvation

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“The testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.  He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son does not have the life.  These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” 1John 5:11-13

Assurance of salvation begins with the sinner’s prayer and the name of Jesus on our lips, and it grows as the nature of Jesus transforms our lives from the inside out. Salvation isn’t in a prayer, an altar call, or in a baptismal tank; it’s in a Person.  “He who has the Son has the life.”  Jesus said, “I am the way and truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except by Me.” (John 14:6)

God doesn’t want us to live trying to be accepted by Him.  We get to start the Christian life with assurance that salvation is not about our performance, but Jesus’ perfect sacrifice on our behalf.  We begin being accepted, forgiven, loved, and favored as God’s very own children. (1John 3:1-3)  To be in God’s family and to take His name is a great privilege, and God’s will for each of us.

But we must remain in Jesus to be saved.  We can’t reject the ongoing relationship and expect that an event in our past will save us; that’s presumption and produces a false assurance.  Jesus said it this way, “If anyone does not remain in Me they are cut off like a branch that withers and is thrown into the fire.” (John 15:6)

Jesus is the Friend of sinners and He takes all that come to Him just as they are. (John 6:37)  But we must receive Him just as He is, and He is both Savior and Lord.  We can’t take the benefits of forgiveness and reject the call to follow Him.  Here’s another way of saying it:  We can’t just add Jesus to our life and expect to be saved.  Jesus must become our life, and following Him must be our primary identity.