The real “Lord’s Prayer” is not the one we pray, but the one he prayed! Here are some highlights with a few comments:
I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. (John 17.4, ESV)
Jesus referred to God’s work several times in John. “The Father is working, and I am working” in John 5. “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day” in John 9. In this prayer, the work seems to be the men:
I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. (John 17.6, ESV)
In any case, it’s the Father’s work. Not all were healed. Jesus chose 12 and invested in them and a few others.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. (John 17.15 – 17, ESV)
There’s the famous “in the world but not of the world.” There needs to be a sanctification / a separation. But a separation of values even while I am “in the world.”
We are sent into the world. Not called to separate from the world.
As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. (John 17.18, ESV)
Wow. How quickly these things come! I won’t do daily advent meditations quite yet…still too much to share from the end of John’s gospel and my readings from 1 and 2 Thessalonians. But ready or not, Christmas is coming, and it’s a wonderful time of year.
In Jesus we have hope. Friday, I wrote that things do not always go well and cited a friend with pancreatic cancer. My friend Kathleen commented that she just lost a friend to pancreatic cancer. But the Apostle Paul was clear that despite death, in Jesus we have HOPE:
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 1.13 – 18, ESV, emphasis mine)
Yesterday, we observed from the end of John 15 and the beginning of John 16 that things do not always go well. Here are some basic facts from the end of John 16:
His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16.29 – 33, ESV)
In the world you will have tribulation. Fact.
Jesus has overcome the world. Fact.
Jesus came from God. Fact. But the reality of that will be tested as the disciples process the crucifixion.
[Joseph, son of Jacob, said, ] “Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.” Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. (Genesis 40.14, 15, 23, ESV)
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (1 John 4.4, ESV)
The other day I visited my friend who has pancreatic cancer. He’s not doing well. His spirits are good, and he looks good on the outside, but he assured me that appearances are deceiving. The first time I visited him, I had been reading A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles by J.P. Morland, and I prayed for healing. My friend wasn’t healed. Dr. Morland says only about 20% are, and he believes in and practices divine healing and other supernatural manifestations!
Why aren’t some healed? We will never know. “My Father is working, and I am working.” There were A LOT of people at the pool in John 5, and Jesus healed only one. I have two close Navigator friends with cancer. One died a little over a year ago. Another is still here although some of his markers turned the wrong direction recently.
Jesus is clear that things do not always go well:
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. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. (John 15.18 – 20, ESV)
“They will also persecute you.” Life is hard.
Look how John 16 opens:
I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. (John 16.1, 2, ESV)
Why would they fall away? False assumptions. “I’m serving God so things should go well…” But they don’t always.
Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. James 1.2, 3, MSG)
It’s Thanksgiving Day! I hope yours is a good one.
Do you ever wonder what the will of God is? Here’s part of it…
In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5.18, NKJV)
And if you need to thank someone for something, do it! Write that note. Call them on the phone. Regi Campbell, whom I’ve met, and who wrote the marvelous little book About My Father’s Business, wrote this nice piece on Unexpressed Gratitude. In it he quotes Andy Stanley:
Unexpressed gratitude feels like ingratitude.
So again,
In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5.18, NKJV)
I wrote about “abide” a few weeks ago when we saw it in 1 John. Most of the uses of “abide” are in John 15: the vine and the branches (verses 1 – 16). Here are just a few observations with little comment.
“Abide”
Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit…unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me (4)
Whoever abides in me and I in him…bears much fruit. (5)
If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away (6)
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask… (7)
Abide in my love. (9)
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. (10)
I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide… (16)
“If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away” (6) – best we figure out what abide means and do it!
If I’m not bearing “much fruit,” I’m not abiding. (5) (That’s basic mathematical logic: “IF anyone abides in me and I in him, he bears fruit.” Abiding => Fruit. Therefore, No fruit => No abiding.)
There are promises for those who abide:
Answered prayer (7, 16)
Love (9, 10)
Joy (11)
This “abiding” section includes commands:
Abide: “Abide in me and I in you…” (4)
Obey: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love…” (10)
Love: “This is my commandment that you love one another…” (12)
Bear fruit: “I have appointed you to go and bear fruit…” (16)
A rich section. Books, probably libraries, have been written about it. But of all the metaphors Jesus used, this one of abiding as a branch does in a vine seems the most permanent. Jesus is the bread of life, but I can eat bread today and not eat bread tomorrow. He is the living water, and, again, I can take a drink or not. He’s the light, but I can close my eyes or open them. Abiding doesn’t seem like something one can turn on or off.
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples… (John 8.31, ESV)
And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. (1 John 2.28, ESV)
As Thanksgiving week is upon us, and stores have been hyping the Christmas buying season since October, I interrupt our time in John for a very timely message for us all:
Stop buying!
Don’t take it from me, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is urging Americans to put off buying big-ticket items, according to this article in BecomingMinimalist. I encourage you to read the entire piece, which contains these seven helpful steps to avoid succumbing to high-pressure marketing:
Realize the promises of consumerism are always short-lived. I have to quote what they say here because it’s powerful: Every upcoming advertisement during the holiday season will promise you the same thing: a better life. They will work to convince you that their latest product will make you more attractive, will bring you more friends, will create a more beautiful holiday season, or will bring happiness that you can’t find anywhere else. Those promises are false. (Emphasis mine)
Consider the benefits of owning less.
Know that money on-hand will be more helpful to ride out a recession than a purchase at the mall.
Set a budget for this holiday season (and stick to it).
Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.” (Luke 12.15, NLT)
Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life. (1 Timothy 6.17 – 19, NLT)
The record of the disciples’ intimate time with the disciples begins in John 13, and it starts very powerfully.
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. (John 13.1 – 5, ESV)
Jesus knew it was time to go to the cross
He loved the disciples
The devil motivated Judas Iscariot to betray him.
Jesus knew:
That the Father had given him all things
That he had come from God
That he was going back to God
(Therefore)
He dressed as a slave
He washed the disciples’ feet
I went swimming in a public outdoor pool in Turkey once when I was stationed there in the Air Force. For 25 cents, you got two thin towels, about the size and consistency of a third of a single bedsheet. One I used as a towel. The other was my bathing suit. I started with it behind me, tied it around my waist, brought the remainder up through my legs, under the knot I just made. The excess hung down in front and would have made a “towel” suitable for footwashing. I’m pretty sure this is what Jesus did when he “removed his outer garments and tied a towel around his waist.” It was OK for swimming, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be the only guy in a room dressed like that!
You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. (John 13.13 – 15, ESV)
If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. (John 13.17, ESV)
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant… (Philippians 2.5 – 7, ESV)
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)
