One of the world’s most-watched sporting events begins today, November 20, 2022, the World Cup. I was in Quito, Ecuador, during the 1994 World Cup. There were seven local television channels, and all seven covered the games. It’s a really big deal. And it’s a matter of international interest why it’s being held in tiny Qatar, a small Muslim nation on the Arabian Gulf.

Jason Gay, writing for the Wall Street Journal captures most of the issues in his usual entertaining style here. Mistreatment of migrant workers tops the list, and other issues include Qatar not buying into the current LGBT narrative and whether or not notoriously inebriated soccer fans can get all the beer they want in a country that frowns on alcohol.

I’m exercised about how FIFA, soccer’s corrupt governing body, is trying to handle the controversies. Here’s what FIFA officials are saying:

At FIFA, we try to respect all opinions and beliefs, without handing out moral lessons to the rest of the world. One of the great strengths of the world is indeed its very diversity, and if inclusion means anything, it means having respect for that diversity.

No one people or culture or nation is “better” than any other. This principle is the very foundation stone of mutual respect and non-discrimination. And this is also one of the core values of football.

Diversity I agree with, but “No one people or culture or nation is ‘better’ than any other.” ??? All countries and cultures have flaws, but some are built on oppression. Iran = Denmark, for example? Russia = Canada?  

And one Wall Street Journal reader observed:

“At FIFA, we try to respect all opinions and beliefs, without handing out moral lessons to the rest of the world.” – a FIFA official

Great. Except the WC isn’t being played “at FIFA,” it is being played in Qatar. A place that definitely does not “respect all opinions and beliefs,” and has no problem handing out moral lessons to the rest of the world.

I’m not sure what the takeaway is. I hope the games go well. As always, I hope the US team goes on to the second round. And maybe we need to remember how God views the nations:

¹  Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
²  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
³  “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
⁴  He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. (Psalm 2.1 – 4, ESV)

¹⁵  Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
¹⁶  Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
¹⁷  All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. (Isaiah 40.15 – 17, ESV)

Speaking of believing, today’s text gives one pause…It’s one of the most remarkable paragraphs in the Bible:

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. (John 14.12 – 14, ESV)

If I’m not doing “greater works,” is it because I don’t believe? Or because I’m not asking? Twice Jesus said:

• Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do (verse 13)
• If you ask anything in my name, I will do it (verse 14)

Peter, for example, believed as shown in Acts 3 and Acts 9.

And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. (Acts 3.4 – 7, ESV)

But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. (Acts 9.40, 41, ESV)

It would be just like Peter, wouldn’t it? “Jesus said that if we believed, we could do greater works, did he not?” So went confronted with a lame man, Peter didn’t think twice about it: “Rise up and walk!” And when informed about a death, “Tabitha arise.” Jesus did it! Why can’t I do it? Jesus said we could!

And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” (Matthew 21.21, 22, ESV)

We wrote a couple of days ago about the resurrection of Lazarus and resulting belief/unbelief of the people and the leaders. The theme continues in John 12.

So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” (John 12.35, 36, ESV)

“Believe in the light that you may become sons of light.” But they didn’t.

Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.” (John 12.37 – 40, ESV)

It’s all about believing. Some do. Some don’t. If you and I do believe, thank God for that.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2.8, ESV)

 

This blog is for those of us who speak in public: let’s keep it short, shall we? And if your pastor tends to think more is better, you might share this.

I was struck by two sentences in an article entitled “Lincoln’s Vision of Democracy” by Allan C. Guelzo, published in the Wall Street Journal, November 8, 2022. What struck me had little to do with the main points of the article, which is worth reading. Rather, I was struck by the contrast between the two speakers at Gettysburg. It sets up this way:

The featured orator would be the august Edward Everett. But for the actual dedication sentences—a “few, appropriate remarks,” as David Wills described them in his invitation letter—the organizers turned to Lincoln.

Later the author remarks:

Lincoln’s address at Gettysburg wasn’t an explosion of rhetorical fireworks. That kind of speaking was reserved for Everett’s 13,000-word oration, teeming with classical allusions to Thucydides and Pericles but without a single sentence anyone could remember afterward. – emphasis mine

13,000 words! My longest book has about that many words, as I recall. It took two hours to deliver, “without a single sentence anyone could remember afterward.”

By contrast, Lincoln’s speech was 271 words in this version and lasted about two minutes. And part of it was incorrect. Lincoln said, “The world will little note nor long remember what we say here…” True about Everett’s speech but not about Lincoln’s!

My friend the late Skip Gray said, “A sermon does not have to be eternal to be immortal.”

The more words that are spoken, the more smoke there is in the air. And who is any better off? (Ecclesiastes 6.11, MSG)

Let your words be few. (Ecclesiastes 5.2, ESV)

It’s hard to figure out the persistent unbelief of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, but Jesus never seems to give up on them. For example, consider the raising of Lazarus as recorded in John 11. It starts this way:

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha…So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. (John 11.1 – 6, ESV)

“He stayed two days longer” even though Jesus loved the family. Why? So he could do the resurrection miracle. Why? So God would be glorified and the Son of God would be glorified. Why? As I say, to give one more chance for people to realize who Jesus was and believe in him. So what happened?

When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” …So from that day on they made plans to put him to death. (John 11.43 – 53, ESV)

Many believed…others told the Pharisees who saw Jesus as a problem to be solved, not the son of God to be followed. Jerusalem…the place where no good deed goes unpunished.

When [Peter and John] were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. (Acts 4.23 – 28, ESV)

Today we have an inspirational 2-minute video that supports one of the better-known metaphors that Jesus used:

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers… My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (John 10.1 – 5, 27, ESV)

Do the sheep really recognize their shepherd’s voice? See for yourself.

¹  The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
²  He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
³  He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. (Psalm 23.1 – 3, ESV)

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18.37, ESV – emphasis mine)

John records a lot of misconceptions that the crowd had about Jesus:

The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” (John 7.45 – 52, ESV)

So many misconceptions: 

• No prophet comes from Galilee
  • First, Jesus wasn’t from Galilee; he was born in Bethlehem as predicted.
  • Second, Jonah was from Galilee. Jonah was from Gath-Hepher (see 2 Kings 14.25), and Gath-Hepher was in Galilee! Therefore, some prophets do come from Galilee.
• No authority or Pharisee believes in Jesus
  • But Nicodemus does. (See the conversation above as well as John 19.38 – 42)

And that’s the end of the chapter. No consensus. No mass conversions. Some believe. Some don’t. And the religious leaders are outright opposed.

And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not. (Jeremiah 45.5)

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you… (John 15.18 – 20, ESV)

What was the crowd’s perception of Jesus? Among other things…

About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning when he has never studied?” So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.” (John 7.14 – 16, ESV)

It’s a presumption that Jesus had never studied! He hadn’t studied under one of their known teaching rabbis, apparently. That’s an interesting choice by the Father. Jesus may have wanted to study. That’s what the incident at the Temple was about when he was 12. But God preferred that his Son be a layman! I wrote about this before.

Of course, they said the same thing about the apostles in Acts chapter four.

The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. (Acts 4.13, NLT)

What can we learn here? I don’t want to put down seminaries, but it’s apparent that Jesus himself and his original followers presented themselves as laymen. Only Paul had studied under a rabbi, but that teaching was medium useless. (His exposure to the Old Testament wasn’t useless, but he wouldn’t have learned anything from Gamaliel about Jesus.)

The major lesson is that God can and will use any of us!

Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now therefore hear the word of the LORD…” (Amos 7.14 – 16, ESV)

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” (Mark 16.1 – 3, ESV)

My wife, June, and her friend Phoebe were asking a similar question when they met at a restaurant the other day. June had two 50-pound bags of wheat in her car that we had picked up for Phoebe, who lives in Denver. “Who is going to transfer the wheat from June’s car to Phoebe’s car?” We all prayed for an angel.

While they were having lunch and studying the Bible together, a man walked up and said, “Are you all women of God?” They replied, “Yes, we are!” The man continued to talk with them and somehow the subject of angels came up, and June responded, “As a matter of fact, we asked the Lord to send us an angel, are you him?”

He laughed and said, “What do you need done?” Within a few minutes, he had transferred the wheat! Mission accomplished…by an angel whom God sent. An angel who introduced himself as “Pastor Steve.”

An angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. (Matthew 28.2, ESV)

I’ve already posted today’s Veterans Day blog: God Values Warriors. But I can’t not post what my son Mark sent to our granddaughter’s school for their Veterans Day Assembly this morning.

As Mark wrote:

Lt. Col. Robert Ewell, USAF ret. (color photo)

MW4 Hugh “Mac” MacDonald, US Army ret. (B&W photo with helicopter)

Grandfathers of Kesley Ewell

“We were soldiers once, and young.” – from the title of a book by Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway