Month: May 2021

Reflection on Matthew 17:22-27

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Scripture

“We don’t want to offend them, so go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin. Take it and pay the tax for both of us.”

Observation

Jesus again tells the disciples that He will be handed over to His enemies. He will die, but on the third day He will be raised to life.

They arrive in Capernaum where collectors of the Temple Tax come. Peter asks Jesus what to do. Jesus tells him to go fishing and he will find a silver coin in the mouth of the first fish he catches. This will be enough for the tax for both of them.

Application

As the Son of God, Jesus did not need to pay taxes, especially the tax for the upkeep of the Temple where people worshipped him.

Yet He does pay the tax, and on this occasion He does it with a miracle.

What is Jesus doing with this miracle? I think that He was having some fun, sending Peter off to wet a line and providing what was needed in a way that Peter would enjoy. If only all of our taxes and bills could be paid through our leisure activities!

Jesus is demonstrating here that whatever our needs are, He will supply them. We don’t have to be stressed because He sees the need before we do, and He knows how He will meet that need- even if it is through fishing.

Prayer

Thank you Lord for the reminder that you have all my needs covered. All I have to do is rest in you. Please help me to remember that. Amen.

Quote for the Day

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Those who are afraid of being defiled by the world have little faith in the power of the blood of Jesus that continually flows to keep us clean and the power of the Holy Spirit within us to guide, protect, and empower us to make a difference. Bill Johnson

Ephesians 4:25

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Here is my commentary on Ephesians 4:25. I am publishing these once or twice a week, but you can read all of the available articles at our web-site, http://www.new-life.org.au

Ephesians 4:25

“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbour, for we are all members of one body.”

In the previous section, Paul talked about putting away our old nature and putting on the new nature in Christ. We are ”created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” He gives specific instruction in how the new nature should replace the old.

In this verse, he addresses the issue of truth and falsehood.

We are to put off falsehood and speak truthfully to our neighbours.

Some translations use the word lying here, but the idea is broader than that. Yes, we are to put away deliberate lies, but there are many ways to deceive, and all of them are opposed to God.

Deception is any attempt to cause someone to believe something that is not true. That includes lies ( whether “black” or “white” lies), omissions or half-truths, using words in such a way as to make a seem better than we really are.

We must always speak truthfully to our neighbour, even if it seems difficult or costly.

We are followers of Jesus who called himself “ the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Therefore, we are committed to truth-telling by virtue of the nature and authority of Christ.

Our culture is sometimes described as post-truth, that is sceptical or indifferent about issues about truth and falsehood. The argument is that there is no objective test of truth, and it is an obsolete concept.

Regardless of whether you seek truth or deny truth, the law of gravity still operates regardless of your opinion. It can be fatal to ignore some truths.

The Nazi propagandist Goebbels is credited with the statement that any lie repeated often enough becomes true. In our age of information saturation, people lack time or desire to investigate the veracity of political and commercial claims, and so blatant lies tend to become accepted as true.

We are not to live in this cynical way. We must remove all forms of deception and seek to be people of truth.

Paul now gives the reason for this as “ we are all members of one body.” This then raises the question “who is my neighbour?”

It might seem that Paul is limiting his definition of neighbour to fellow Christians. We have a duty to our Christian brothers and sisters to walk in honesty. Deception is about taking advantage of other people for our own game.

We must not use deception or falsehood in anyway in connection with the Christian family.

But Paul does not generally use the word neighbour to describe Christians. Jesus made it clear that to love our neighbour is to love everyone that we might interact with.

If we adopt this definition of neighbour, then Paul’s command here is open-ended. We must deal truthfully with everyone and not just our fellow christians.

In all of our business dealings, our family relationships, our friendships and so on, we must always speak truthfully.

This can be painful when we are filling in tax forms or don’t have enough cash to pay for items at a stall with an honesty box. It becomes very costly when we break the law and and are not caught.

Paul relates this commitment to truth in all situations to being a part of the Body of believers. God’s people are people of truth. Together we follow Christ, and He requires us to walk in truth. If one part of the Body is tainted by falsehood then the whole body is weakened.

Key points in this verse:

  • We are to put off falsehood
  • We must speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
  • This commandment flows from the nature of Christ
  • We have to speak the truth always, not just within the church

Reflection on Matthew 17:10-21

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Scripture

“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’, and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

Observation

Jesus’ disciples ask Him why the teachers of the Law say Elijah must return before the Messiah comes. Jesus tells them that Elijah had already come, but they killed him, and they will do the same to Jesus.

At the bottom of the mountain, they meet up with a man with a demonised son. The other disciples had failed to do anything for the son. Jesus commands the demon to leave, and the boy is healed. When the disciples ask Him why they were unable to remove the demon, Jesus says “You don’t have enough faith.”

Application

it only takes a tiny amount of faith to work miracles in God’s kingdom. A mustard seed is a tiny thing, but that amount of faith is enough to move mountains and to remove demons.

Atomic faith, nano-scale faith, microscopic faith – -how ever we picture it, the smallest quantity achieves miracles.

Paul says that we all have a measure of faith – whether it is a mustard seed or a whole forest of faith doesn’t matter.

Where had these disciples gone wrong? Perhaps the problem was that they copied Jesus’ words or actions but did not appropriate the power of God.

Real faith has its focus on God, not on the problem being dealt with. It is reliant on the Holy Spirit, not on a method or on getting the words right.

Faith in God changes lives.

Prayer

Lord, please help me to grow in faith in you, so that I can trust you to remove the greatest of mountains. Amen.

5 Ways Another Pentecost Will Surprise Us by J. Lee Grady

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J. Lee Grady writes:

5 Ways Another Pentecost Will Surprise Us

Grady-FIMB

When people staged surprise birthday parties for me in the past, I usually figured out their plans. But two years ago some friends organized a party without my knowing, and when I walked into the room I was totally shocked. There were banners, balloons, a cake and 30 people—and I didn’t see it coming. This must be how it felt to be one of the disciples on the day of Pentecost.

Jesus told His followers they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit, but He gave them no clue about when or how. The key word in Acts 2 is “suddenly,” found in verse 2. When they were gathered together they heard the sound of wind; they saw flames of fire; and they began to speak in languages they didn’t know. The commotion attracted a huge international crowd. After Peter preached, 3,000 people decided to believe in Jesus. And none of this was rehearsed.

We will celebrate Pentecost this year on Sunday, May 23. Are you ready for another surprise? On the first Pentecost, heaven literally came down. The Holy Spirit “filled” the room (v. 2) and “filled” the disciples (v. 4). That’s because they needed supernatural power to do the work Jesus commissioned them to do. The church can’t do its job if we are filled with ourselves; we must be empty and surrendered, so God can work.

We are overdue for another heavenly visitation. As I have read and reread the book of Acts this year, I see five blessings of Pentecost that we need today:

1. We need the rushing wind of new life. Acts 2:2 says “a noise like a violent rushing wind” filled the upper room where the disciples prayed. The sound was evidence of the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. Just as the Spirit brooded over the waters of creation to bring life (Gen. 1:2), the Holy Spirit breathed His life into dry bones and brought forth a living church.

We need this new life today. The church is dry. Our congregations are aging. Many churches today haven’t baptized a new convert in years. We can’t jumpstart new life in our churches with programs, nice buildings or slick social media promotions. We need heaven’s wind to resuscitate and revive us. Lord, send the wind again!

2. We need the fire of God’s holiness. There was no giant pillar of fire standing nearby on the day of Pentecost. In the time of the New Covenant, the flame rests on each person. The fire burns much closer to us. The Holy Spirit comes to live inside of each of us, and the flame rests on every head. Every believer is ignited with a holy passion for God.

We will not impact our wayward culture unless every Christian carries the fire inside. Not only does everyone need to be filled with the Spirit, but we must also learn to maintain the fire and never quench it. This requires that we crucify our ungodly desires and develop close intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Lord, send the fire again!

3. We need the tongues of supernatural anointing. I hear a lot of talk about the Holy Spirit these days, but words can be cheap. In the New Testament, the disciples had more than words—they had the demonstration of supernatural miracles. They had what the Bible calls “the manifestation of the Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:7). One definition of “manifestation” is “a perceptible, outward or visible expression.”

Many Christians today have gone so long without seeing the reality of God’s healing power that they don’t even believe God heals today. But God never unplugged His power; we short-circuited it with our unbelief. People need to know that the same Jesus who makes lame beggars walk and blind men see is still working in us. Lord, send Your miracles again!

4. We need bold preaching that produces conversion. The miracles of wind, fire and speaking in tongues were important. But the biggest miracle happened when Peter, a flawed man who had denied Jesus three times, preached a bold sermon. Peter had many weaknesses, yet the Spirit worked through him anyway. He “raised his voice” (v. 14) and bravely defended his faith.

This is a lesson for us all. You may speak in tongues, but if you don’t use the Spirit’s power to reach lost souls, you have cheapened the definition of a Pentecostal. We often say that tongues is the initial evidence of the infilling of the Spirit. But if someone isn’t bold to witness, they can’t be full of the Spirit. Lord, give us souls again!

5. We need the miraculous unity of the Holy Spirit. Before the day of Pentecost was over, people from all over the Roman Empire had come to know Jesus Christ—people from Egypt, Libya, Mesopotamia, Rome, Persia and beyond. Peter had prophesied this miracle when he said the Holy Spirit would fall “on all mankind” (Acts 2:17). Pentecost is not Pentecost if it does not break down racial and cultural barriers. The Holy Spirit is grieved by racism and classism. Lord, break down the walls again!

I hope you are praying for another visitation of Pentecost. We can’t predict what it will look like exactly, or where it might begin, but our hearts should be desperate for God to unleash it.