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)
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)
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)
