Getting to Know Jesus: Jesus and the Law
Jesus said He did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. What does that mean for us today? In this post, we’ll look at the Law of Moses, the New Covenant Jesus established, and what it means to live by God’s unchanging moral standard.
A Seed of Promise: the First Gospel, Genesis 3:15
Skimming the surface, Genesis 3:15 seems straightforward, but once we dig deeper, we find a Seed of Promise hidden in its depths. Not only is Genesis 3 a picture of the sacrifice Jesus would make 2,000 years later on the cross, but it is the promise of a future Savior: the first Gospel. Genesis 3:15 also is the reason, we are the enemies of Satan and why he will go to any length to destroy us.
Believing God for Answered Prayer: Having Faith Like Elijah
Does prayer really accomplish anything? How do I have faith my prayers will be answered? Those are good questions that aren’t without an answer. James 5:16 tells us that the “prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” and then demonstrates the awesome power released through prayer using the story of Elijah, an Old Testament prophet.
Walk By Faith Not By Sight
Faith compels you to act in ways that you never would have expected like building a boat to save yourself from a flood when it has never even rained, or fighting a giant that everyone is too scared to fight, or believing a promise that in the natural, just doesn’t make sense.
Everyone is Called to Pray
Everyone is called to regular prayer but not everyone prays regularly. Prayer is just an afterthought for many – hidden away until some test or trial forces us to bring it out of hiding and dust it off. What we fail to realize is that without prayer, we will not walk in the complete victory God has made available to us. According to the Gospel Coalition: The Bible mentions prayer 650 times The Bible records God’s answer to prayer 450 times The Bible shows us 25 instances of Jesus praying during His earthly ministry The Bible records Paul discussing prayer 41 times The Bible is our instruction manual for living. Like with any instruction manual, we shouldn’t ignore, or skip-over instructions that the “instructor” considers important enough to repeat. Let’s say you’re assembling a desk but choose to ignore the repeated instruction to check that the pieces face the right direction; you shouldn’t be surprised when the desk drawers won’t open and close correctly (OK, there may be a desk in my house like this…). How is not following the instructions of the Bible any different? If the Bible repeatedly instructs us to pray and we ignore these instructions, we shouldn’t be surprised when our lives just don’t work the way they should. If the number of times the Bible talks about prayer doesn’t convince us of the importance of prayer, then maybe this will: the Son of God and the man who wrote 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament prayed and repeatedly instruct us to pray. Jesus “went up on the mountain by Himself to pray” (Matthew 14:23), “…spent the whole night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12), “in the early morning…got up… went away to a secluded place and was praying there” (Mark 1:35),”and fell on His face and prayed” (Matthew 26:39). Paul tells us to “pray continually” (1st Thess. 5:16), “devote [our]selves to prayer” (Colossians 4:2), “be…faithful in prayer” (Romans 12:12), and “…in everything, by prayer and petition…present [o]ur requests to God” (Philippians 4:6-7). We are to be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1), and Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). Jesus prayed often. We, as imitators of Christ, should also pray. We should “armor up” with the Word!
The Beatitudes: Happy are the Merciful
The Beatitudes, eight short teachings found at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, lay the foundation for the rest of Jesus’ teachings and are fundamental to understanding Jesus. The Beatitudes not only give us the spiritual roadmap to true happiness, but they set out the character traits of citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. Character traits of the Kingdom of Heaven are set out in the first four Beatitudes and include being poor in spirit, mourning, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and meekness. The fifth Beatitude flows naturally out of the first four. When a person recognizes their spiritual bankruptcy, mourns their sins, hunger and thirsts for God’s righteousness, and submits to the direction and control of God, then their character begins to change; it starts to reflect the nature of God. Mercy is an attribute of God’s character. The closer a person becomes to God, the more merciful towards others that person becomes. Mercy is the Greek word eleemon and means kind, compassionate, sympathetic, and merciful. Merciful people display compassion; they want to ease others’ suffering not just to appear “charitable” or to receive a benefit, but because they genuinely empathize with their plight. Like meekness, today’s world tends to view mercy as a weakness, as something undesirable. Our culture roots for the person who serves their enemies vengeance instead of serving them forgiveness. Our culture says, no mercy, you don’t deserve it, so you shouldn’t get it. Thankfully, the Lord is merciful. David said, “let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great. Do not let me fall into human hands.” 2nd Samuel 24:14 God’s Mercy The Old Testament describes God as merciful. Psalm 103:8 says, “The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.” The faithful love of the Lord never ends! “His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. Lamentations 3:22-23 We all need God’s mercy. We are all sinners. (Romans 3:23). We all deserve punishment for our sins. But because God loves us, He gave us a way to be forgiven of our sins. He sent His son Jesus who took our punishment upon himself. (Romans 6:23) Because of what Jesus did for us, we receive God’s mercy. Paul sums God’s mercy up for us in Ephesians 2:4-10 NLT, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them”. The more we understand our sinful condition, the more we appreciate the value of God’s mercy – mercy we do not deserve but that He gave us anyway because He loves us. His love lifts us from our sinful condition and seats us with “Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…” Mercy of Jesus Jesus being the image of the invisible God, was also merciful. He showed mercy to the poor, the outcast, the sick, the blind, the deaf, the dead, the tax collectors, and prostitutes. Matthew 9:36 tells us that when Jesus “saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Another verse says, “Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” Matthew 14:14 Jesus also wants us to be merciful. Jesus twice quoted Hosea 6:6 “…show mercy, not offer sacrifices.” The first time was in response to the Pharisees questioning Jesus about him hanging out with “tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.” Jesus responded, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Matthew 9:12-13 The second time was after the Pharisees protested Jesus’ disciples “harvesting grain on the Sabbath.” Jesus said, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ Matthew 12:7 Jesus took notice of the Pharisees’ tendency to care more about looking like good Pharisees than focusing on the more important aspects of the law – justice, mercy, and faith.” Matthew 23:23 In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus shows us what mercy should look like in the lives of kingdom citizens. Jesus told an expert at religious law that he must “love your neighbor as yourself.” The expert asked, “and who is my neighbor?” ” Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this