Our Father who art in heaven Matthew 6:9

Pay close attention here.  This will absolutely change your life, but if you are not careful, you might think this is just an ordinary Bible lesson of stuff you already know.  So much of Bible teaching and preaching is all things you have heard over and over, so you’re not expecting to hear anything new.  But this was new to me, and I think it will be new for most of you too.

The Bible has two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Still with me?

The Old Testament tells us about God – who He is, what He is like.

He is the Almighty, the Creator of the heavens and the earth.  He is infinite, all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful.  He is holy.  Mortal beings cannot exist in His presence.  Like driving into the sun.  Can’t be done under normal circumstances.

Or as God Himself describes Himself: Exodus 34:6,7 (NASB95) ⁶ Then the Lord . . . proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; ⁷ who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

The Old Testament tells us what God is like. 

The New Testament tells us that this God is our Father.  At least those of us who believe in Jesus.

I remember years ago when Jimmy Carter was President.  He would be holding a Cabinet meeting with all his important staff with Secret Service agents standing at the door, and his daughter, Amy, who was 8 at the time, would simply walk past the guards, enter the room, and go sit on her daddy’s lap while he was conducting the nation’s business.

When Jesus came, He proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God.  No, this was not some kingdom where He was going to sit on a throne some time in the far distant future, and all the world would be in peace and harmony.  This Kingdom of God was a major shift in how things work in the world now.

Yes, God is still God, God Almighty, creator of the ends of the earth.  But He is your Father.

Now this is why God created families.

People talk today about how getting married and having a family isn’t for everybody, except that that is the best picture God can give you about what His love for you is like.  It can be really hard to see God as your Father and what that means unless and until you have experienced that kind of love for yourself.

Now that works both ways.

As children, hopefully we are on the receiving end of a love like that, and as adults, we are on the giving end.

You may ask, what about mothers?  Any love that a father has for his children, mothers have about ten times more. 

So what exactly does that love look like?  What does that mean?

There are two passages in Jesus’ teaching which shed the most light on this.

The first focuses on how much God, or the Father, wants to give us what is good for us. 

Matthew 7:9–11 ⁹ “Or what man is there among you who, his son asks for bread, he won’t give him a stone, will he? ¹⁰ “Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake, will he? ¹¹ “If therefore you yourselves, being evil, know to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

The second passage is in Luke 15, where Jesus tells us about a son who left home to be on his own and who squandered all that he had in reckless living.

He returned home, hoping that he could just work for his father, because his father’s hired hands were doing better than he was doing.

Luke 15:20–24 ²⁰ “So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. ²¹ “And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²² “But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; ²³ and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; ²⁴ for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.

Notice the actions of the father:

His father was looking for him.  No, he didn’t leave home to search him out, but he was waiting expectantly for his return.

His father ran to meet him, he felt deep love for him, he held him and kissed him.

He asked for no explanations, excuses, or promises. 

He then called for a celebration.

Notice too that the man had slaves, but his son was not one of them.  Yes, I am fully aware that Paul and other people in the New Testament regarded themselves as slaves to God.  I can’t teach everything in one lesson, but I think it is more important to see yourself as a child of God first.  Leave that slave talk until you get this down first.

Now we commonly read this passage as a picture of salvation, an event that happened in the past, but we miss its present relevance. 

God wouldn’t have created families to give us an image of fathers and then reveal Himself as father if that only applied to a single event.  There would be no need for the elaborate picture that families offer.

What am I saying here?

I am saying that the greatest joy of being a parent is just being with our children.  I believe what God wants from us most is to just be with us.

Oh, yes, He is everywhere at all times.  Like broadcast waves are everywhere.  But they are not all tuned into the right frequencies.

I thought about titling this lesson: Hanging out with God.  That’s what I have been doing lately.  Hanging out with Jesus.  My older brother.  (Romans 8:29  ²⁹ For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers;)

And hang out with my Father.

I ask Him in the morning: so what do you want to do today?  And I talk to Him like I would talk to anybody who was accompanying me during the day.  About everything.  I think it would be hard for me to pray in public, because I have already been talking to God all along, and it would seem strange then to address Him in some formal way like most public prayers are.

But all this has been new for me.  I have been teaching a class on the gospel of Matthew, and I am learning more than the class is.  Teaching forces me to think through everything I read, and I understand things better than I did before.

When Jesus came, He started teaching everybody how things are now in the Kingdom of God.  And this God they read about all these years is their Father.  And yours too.  Be conscious of His presence with you at all times and talk to Him like you would talk to your other father if he were to be with you all day too.

 

 

Same Circumstances, Very Different Outcomes Acts 12:1-3

James and Peter were both apostles.  One was killed by an evil king, and one was miraculously delivered from death by that same king when an angel led him out of the jail in the middle of the night.

So what was the difference?

Why was one killed and not the other?  Why was one miraculously delivered from death, and the other allowed to die?  Was that God’s will for the one to die but not the other?  

The account is found in Acts 12:1–3 ¹ Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to cause them harm. ² And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword. ³ When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.

We could speculate why this happened, but the Bible tells us. 

Acts 12:5 (NASB95) ⁵ So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.

Apparently, James was killed suddenly before anyone had time to react.  Peter was imprisoned first, so the Church could respond.

And they responded with fervent prayer.  And that made the difference.

Do we know that?

Yes, because it is a detail in the story that wouldn’t have been added if it wasn’t the missing piece. 

A long time ago, I learned about the Lord’s Prayer.

It’s a prayer that is meant to be prayed every day and early in the day.  I explain all that in other places, but it would be too long here. 

The prayer has a petition: deliver us from evil.  Some translations say ‘evil one.’  It could be translated as ‘protect us from the evil one,’ but the lexicon notes 3 possible different translations for this expression – the evil one, evil, or that which is evil.  I believe translating it as ‘evil’ is consistent with the rest of the Bible, though Matthew twice uses the same expression as a term for Satan.  Cf. Psalm 91:10,121:7, Proverbs 1:33, 12:21

If this prayer is to be prayed everyday early in the day, that means that this prayer is prayed before we encounter evil.  It’s a prayer for protection to keep us from evil happening to us.

Did James pray this when he got up that morning?  We don’t know.  I do know when people are busy and things are going well, we don’t expect bad things to happen.  It seems James’ death was sudden.

Was it God’s will?  Some will say yes, and some will say, maybe not.  The text clearly suggests that if the Church had been praying as fervently for James as they were for Peter, he would not have been killed

The fact is that Jesus taught us how to pray twice (Matthew 6 and Luke 11), and He told us to pray everyday for protection from evil.  Some Bibles say that that phrase is missing from the earliest manuscripts of Luke’s gospel, but it is definitely in Matthew’s.

If Jesus tells us to pray everyday for protection from evil, that doesn’t sound like a suggestion. I think He expects us to.

Does that mean that nothing will ever go wrong in our life? 

Often those bad things are opportunities for good things. 

Now I wouldn’t call this an evil thing, but recently I was trying to do something and cracked a window in my kitchen.  The guy came out to fix it and saw that the window did not stay open by itself.  He offered to fix it.  Now a window that was hard to lift and that wouldn’t stay up by itself and was never going to be fixed opens with a finger’s touch and doesn’t need to be propped up anymore. 

Something that could have been really annoying and ruin my day actually made it better.

But, no, that was not a evil thing.

There is a story in the book of Ezra (chs. 4-6) where the people were rebuilding the temple, and they faced hostile opposition from the neighbors.  The neighbors stopped the work while reporting them to the authorities.  The authorities in turn essentially told the neighbors not only to leave them alone but to help them in some pretty extraordinary ways. 

So what was a case of apparent evil turned into something very good.

But either way, Jesus said we should pray every day early in the day for protection from evil.

Let God figure out the details. 

Just do it, and stop asking so many questions.

 

 

 

 

 

Your Faith Matthew 9:22

Faith is a tricky subject.  Many Christians have experienced deep discouragement, sadness, and guilt, because they believed for something that didn’t happen as or when they thought it should.

I don’t claim to have all the answers.  I like to think I have some.

Seven times in the first three gospels, Jesus told somebody that their faith had saved them.  These were all stories of physical healing.  The word ‘save’ is used in the Bible in more ways than simply a person being saved from sin and hell.  In fact, twice in the book of Acts, this distinction is entirely blurred.  You can’t tell the one from the other.

Matthew 9:22 ²² But Jesus turning and seeing her said, “Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has saved you.”  And the woman was saved from that hour.

Mark 5:34 ³⁴ And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”

Mark 10:52 ⁵² And Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road.

Luke 7:50 (NASB95) ⁵⁰ And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Luke 8:48 (NASB95) ⁴⁸ And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Luke 17:19 (NASB95) ¹⁹ And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”

Luke 18:42 ⁴² And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.”

Acts 4:9–12 (NASB95) ⁹ if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been saved, ¹⁰ let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health. ¹¹ “He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. ¹² “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

Acts 14:8–10 ⁸ At Lystra a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother’s womb, who had never walked. ⁹ This man was listening to Paul as he spoke, who, when he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be saved, ¹⁰ said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he leaped up and began to walk.

I would make the case that physical healing is part of the whole package of salvation.  But that would take a lot longer space.

Suffice it to say, always believe God for healing for your physical, mental, emotional problems.  It may not come as fast as you would like or how you would like.  But expect it to come, and no, I would never say that death is God’s answer.  But, yes, it happens. 

But you will never get anywhere if you keep thinking about what happened to other people or even yourself in the past.  All you have is today, and you are only ultimately responsible for yourself.

Seven times in the gospels, Jesus told somebody that their faith saved them.  Exact same words.  The perfect tense in Greek that emphasizes their present state of wellness. 

I learned a while back.  Pay attention to the gospels.  The life of Jesus, but more importantly, what He actually said and did.

Like Peter walking on the water (Matthew 14), it’s all about focus.  Keeping your eyes on Jesus and not on all the noise and things around you.

On a personal note, I have had cancer three times.

The first time was in 1996.  It was stage 3, and I turned down treatment, and then they said I didn’t need it.

The second time I had a lump on my neck the size of a tennis ball.  That didn’t go away like I expected, so I had treatment.  But I wasn’t clean of the whole thing until after the doctor said he didn’t expect the treatment to make any difference.

Now it’s a different kind of cancer, and no, I haven’t had any treatment.  Another test next week.

I’ll let you know what’s going on, but like Jesus told a man whose daughter had just died: Stop being afraid.  Only believe.  (Mark 5:36)

Are you oppressed? Acts 10:37,38

Acts 10:37,38 ³⁷ You yourselves know the thing which took place throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed, ³⁸ Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

The idea of people being oppressed occurs a lot today in political discussions.  People are either oppressed or oppressors depending on their demographics. 

The Bible talks about oppression a lot but not the kind that politicians do.  You can decide which kind is more important.

In Luke 13, Jesus encountered a woman who was bent over and couldn’t straighten herself up.  And He healed her.  And when a religious leader complained that Jesus had done this on the Sabbath, Jesus responded by noting that anybody would water his animals on the Sabbath, shouldn’t a woman whom “Satan bound for 18 years” be let loosed on the Sabbath? 

We didn’t see the woman’s MRI of her spine.  I am sure she had degenerative discs of the spine and probably severe osteoporosis.  Yet Jesus attributed her problem to Satan and not physical causes. 

The text quoted above says that Jesus healed all who were oppressed by the devil.  He could have just said that Jesus healed everybody, which He did.  Jesus’ goal wasn’t to go looking for people to heal.  Most times they came to Him.  This woman happened to be where Jesus was, and Jesus couldn’t just ignore her. 

The question is whether this text is saying or suggesting that every person that Jesus healed was oppressed by the devil.  Peter’s mother-in-law who had a fever?  How did Jesus heal her?  He spoke to the fever, like it could hear Him.  (Luke 4:39)

Did Jesus heal people who were not oppressed by the devil?  Why would it only mention those who were? 

The fact is that we can’t see spiritual forces, spiritual realities.   When Job got sick, I am sure that if he went to Mayo Clinic, they would have found all kinds of abnormalities in his blood work, but the Bible is clear that all his ailments were from the devil.

Science and medicine are able to treat many of the physical ailments that people have. 

The mistake is seeing all physical ailments as entirely physical that can only be treated by physical means.  Not many people are able to deal with physical ailments spiritually, but I think a good first step is seeing that life is not all just the things that we can see and measure in a lab.  And our outcomes are not limited to what scientists and doctors think or say.

Yes, I had chemotherapy for lymphoma, but it didn’t go away until after I had reached stage 4, and the doctor essentially gave up any hope that the treatment was going to make any difference. 

Never lose hope for physical healing, and whatever you do to get it, make God your first hope and option and not your last.

 

 

 

 

Forever Children John 1:10-13

John 1:10–13 (NASB95) ¹⁰ He [Jesus] was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. ¹¹ He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. ¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

1 John 3:1 (NASB95) ¹ See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

Theoretically, God could have created the world very differently from the world He did.  Most animals reach adulthood within a year or so.  But human beings take far longer than any other living thing to reach full maturity.

And why might that be?

Because God see us, at least those of us who believe in Jesus, as His children.  Those of us who are adults now don’t usually think of ourselves as children of somebody else, but certainly not as children as all.  We like to think of ourselves as equal to our parents.

But to God we are always His children.

And this is why we have families.  So we know, understand, and always remember the feelings of childhood, because to God we are always there.

This is why when our children grow up, there are more children, the grandchildren, to capture again the idea of what it means to be a kid.

I venture to say that one of the hardest parts of being a Christian is getting and having this sense of family, that we are God’s children, He is our Father, and a Father delights in his children. 

We are always more focused on how we are doing.  Are we good enough?  Did we not fail at this or that? 

Yes, we know that our salvation is not in jeopardy when we sin, or fail, but we can’t help but think that God is not pleased with us.  We screwed up on something, and now He has to chastise us, for our good no doubt, but we have lost the sheer delight of childhood, of just loving to be with our parents and their doting love over us. 

We have families to teach us about God.  We have the Bible to tell us what it’s like, but we often need to see what it looks like.  Families aren’t perfect, but it’s the best we have.  Somewhere, whether it’s as a child, a parent, a spouse, we know what it feels like to be loved, unconditionally.  And God loves us more.

Impossible is the Norm Numbers 13:27,28

Numbers 13:27,28 (NASB95) ²⁷ Thus they [the 12 spies] told him [Moses] and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. ²⁸ “Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there.

Maybe the biggest challenge in life is to look at circumstances, or what you could call, life as it really is, and to know what circumstances should be accepted as they are and which ones should and can be changed.  And many of them will look impossible to change.

Our Bible text is Numbers 13:27,28.  God had promised His chosen people a land to live in, a land flowing with milk and honey.  They were slaves in a foreign country, and He brought them out through a series of miracles, culminating in an event which was a picture of Jesus’ death on our behalf to redeem us from sin and slavery and death.

But it wasn’t just enough to bring them out of their bondage.  He wanted them to live in a land of abundance, this land flowing with milk and honey.

When they arrived at this land, Moses, their leader, sent out 12 spies to look at the land and report back to them what they saw.  The verses at the top [we read] were the beginning of their report.  The descendants of Anak, a race of giants, were there.  Like Goliath, only a lot of them.  The cities were well-fortified, and though the land was everything they were told it was, taking the land would be impossible.

I venture to say that that is the norm, and we should get used to it.

Things that look impossible to us are not impossible with God.  Well, yes, we know all that.  God can do anything.  Our problem is believing that He will.  Or even wants to.

All things are possible to the one who believes.  Mark 9:23

Well, there are a lot of impossible things in the world.  Can we believe for any of them? 

The Bible contains stories about a lot of ‘impossible’ things happening, but they are not random wonders like a magician doing tricks.  God has a mission in the world, and we are not to judge its viability or the chances of its success by whether it seems plausible or not. 

We are to look to God and the Bible to see what God wants to do in the world and then look to God to make it happen without being sidetracked by how impossible it might be.  The classic example of this is Peter in Matthew 14:22-33, where Peter actually walked on water, albeit briefly, as long as he could keep his focus on Jesus and not on the impossibility of what he was doing. 

But I am saying, expect that a lot of the things that you will think God wants you to do will look impossible with no chance of success that you can see.  Now you need to keep your focus on God and not on the impossible thing that needs to be changed.