Josh Benner

Author: the Josh Benner Blog

  • Jesus and answers to prayer. John 14:13-14

    Jesus and answers to prayer. John 14:13-14

    In his book “Prayer,” writer Philip Yancey gives examples of some well known prolific prayers. 

    He says that the 17th century English Bishop Lancelot Andrews devoted 5 hours a day to prayer. The 18th and 19th century English minister Charles Simeon rose daily at 4am to pray for 4 hours. -There’s an order of Catholic nuns who pray in shifts and where people form their order are praying all day, everyday. Martin Luther would pray for 2-3 hours, or more, a day. 

    Prayer is a practice that the Bible calls us to and values. Over 650 prayers are found in the Bible. Prayer is something that the vast majority of Americans value. In research polls, I saw numbers ranging from 55-65% of Americans saying that they pray everyday. 

    But there’s often a disconnect. 

    Even though we know it’s important. Even though we do it, for many, prayer is a struggle. The prayer life is not full of joy and expectation, or intimacy with God. Prayer can feel cold and stagnant. It can feel like a waste of time, or feel pointless. 

    There are prayer warriors today, like the people I mentioned a moment ago. But I think that most of us, if we’re being honest, are much more likely to have an unsatisfactory prayer life.  

    But why is this the case? 

    Yancey suggests that the prosperity in our society might also inhibit prayer. 

    We can be tempted to rely on ourselves, our abilities, our talents, instead of prayer. 

    I think that part of the problem with prayer is that American Christians are often not poorly taught about the purpose of prayer. 

    And I think that John 14:13-14 gets at the heart of the Christian prayer life. 

    Prayer passages 

    Jesus says: Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. 

    What does that mean? Does that mean that he will always give us what we want? Some interpret it that way. There are even other verses in the gospels which say similar things. 


    John 15:7: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.


    John 15:16: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.


    John 16:23: Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

    One verse later. John 16:24:Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. 


    And it’s not just in John’s Gospel that we see this. 


    Matthew 21:22: whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” 

    And there are other places to which we could look. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. 

    In that case, I’ll have a mansion. And a private jet. And a private lake. And a fleet of cars.

    But that’s not what the verses are saying. None of these verses actually gives an unconditional promise that all prayers will alway be answered in the way in which they want. 

    Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. 

    That is not an unconditional promise that we can always get what we want in prayer. It’s what we ask in Jesus’ name. And the point of  that is not that just a perfunctory addition of Jesus’ name to a prayer is what causes the prayer to get answered. That wouldn’t be prayer. It would be witchcraft. 

    Just say this incantation. 

    But that’s not what the verse is saying. Nothing in this passage is saying: you can get whatever you want. In fact, this passage is not primarily about us. This is a passage which revolves around God. It’s a passage that is Spiritual. It’s a passage that is missional. It’s a passage that has a heavenly focus. And in these verses, it’s a passage which deals with the glory of God. 

    And in looking at John 14:13-14, I want to look at the object of prayer, the purpose of prayer, the power of prayer. 

    The Object of Prayer 

    Verse 13:Whatever you ask in my name

    As with many other things that Jesus says in his ministry, we can lose sight of how radical his words are. If Jesus isn’t God on earth, and the savior of the world, then what he’s saying here is totally insane. 

    That we are to pray in his name. It’s blasphemous if Jesus isn’t who he says he is. 

    All the people you’ve ever met in your lifetime, I doubt that any of them ever instructed you to pray to them. To invoke their name as a source of blessing in your prayers. 

    But Jesus does. Because he’s the Lord. Whatever you ask in my name. 

    It’s also interesting considering how much time Jesus spends in this passage talking about the Father, and honoring and glorifying the Father. So again, the point isn’t just that we pray for what we want and then just attach Jesus’ name onto it and that’ll cause it to happen. 

    Praying in the name of Jesus is a sacred task. And we should never be flippant about that. 

    Now prayers are often addressed to God, to the Father, to our heavenly Father, to our Father in heaven. But the prayer is in the name of Jesus. He is the one who enables us to go to God in prayer. It is because of his name,  because of the salvation that he brings, because of the life that he invites us into. 

    The Purpose of Prayer 

    Remembering the object of our prayer is Jesus and that he’s instructed us to pray in his holy name and to pray for his holy purposes. 

    In his commentary, Grant Osborne says: “to pray in Jesus’ name means to pray in union with who and what he is, to pray in accordance with his will. Self-centered prayers are not answered.”

    When Jesus is telling the disciples to pray and he gives what we know as the Lord’s Prayer, he says in Matthew 6:10:Your kingdom come, your will be done, 

    We see similar language in Luke 11:2, when Jesus again is talking to the disciples about prayer and he uses the phrase your kingdom come.

    In a different event, in John’s Gospel, Jesus is talking about prayer:  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 

    God is glorified through his son. He is glorified through his sovereign will in the world. He is glorified through his coming kingdom. Jesus answers prayers so that the Father can be glorified through the work of the Son. Prayer is a transformational spiritual interaction between creatures and our creator where we are invited to speak to – and be heard by – the Almighty. 

    Prayer is God inviting us into his presence in adoration of his goodness, in confession of sins, in lamentation for the sins in the world, in thanksgiving for blessings, and in making intercession on behalf of our lives, families, church, and world around us.Prayer should always be in pursuit of God’s will in creation and in our own activities for the sake of the glory of God. 

    So to summarize. Prayer to God is meant to conform our hearts and wills to the will of God for the glory of God. 

    To quote Tim Keller from his book: “Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God.” “God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knew.”

    And so the heart of prayer is not about trying to get God to align with our will. It is to get our will to align with God. It is to surrender to God. It is to let go and let God.

    Romans 12:2 says: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 

    Prayer is meant to have time set aside to put our focus on God. To focus on his goodness and his will. There are a million stresses, a million frustrations, a million questions everyday. But in prayer, it’s meant to be a time with God. Again, we so often don’t take time for that. Is it any wonder that we’re so often so worried and anxious? 

    In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis said: 

    “The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.”

    Your kingdom come, your will be done. 

    It’s not “my kingdom come, my will be done.” 

    Spirituality in prayer 

    We should pray for our needs, for our loved ones, for our church, for our nation, for people in our lives. We should pray and thank God for the many blessings he’s given to us and to confess our sins before God. 

    We often look at prayer from a material perspective, but prayer has a greater spiritual aspect to it. That God cares more about our spiritual blessings than stuff.  He cares more about our sanctification and spiritual formation than our comfort or ease. 

    Early in the Book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul says: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

    God cares about our faith and faithfulness, he cares about our holiness. 

    We don’t always know the specifics of what God’s will is. And I think we can get too caught up on that sometimes. 

    It’s God’s will that we love him. It’s God’s will that we pursue holiness, that we have faith, that we worship him, that we don’t sin. It’s God’s will that we love one another. Those things alone really provide a pretty good life to how we’re to live. 

    There are certain prayers that God will always answer. God will always answer our prayers when we turn to Christ for salvation. 

    Romans 10:13: “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 

    God always gives forgiveness when we seek it. 


    1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

    God grants wisdom when we seek it. 

    James 1:5: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

    As we pray for God, there are so many other things we can pray for. That we would know, love, and honor God more fully with every day of our lives. We can pray that we would grow in the knowledge of God, day by day. We can pray that we become ever greater witnesses to the world of the love and grace of our God. 

    We can pray for opportunities to reach people with the gospel. And we can pray for our church. For the people. And that we grow as people and as a church. 

    Those are just a few examples. 

    Prayer teaches us humility before God. That we are not in control. We are not in control of our own lives. We are not in control of our circumstances. It teaches us that what we go through, we can go through it with God. Prayer is a time to sit with God and bask in his glorious goodness and to reset in him. 


    Psalm 46:10 says: “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

    The Power of Prayer

    Verse 14: If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. 

    Verse 14 is almost identical to the beginning of verse 13. In both places, the point revolves around Jesus granting requests which are asked in his name. Given what Jesus has said in verse 13, and grounding the reason in the glory of God, he reiterates that the prayer which is made in his name he answers. 

    And so as we begin to wind down, I think it’s important to remember the power of prayer. 

    God answers prayers. And the more in tune we are with the will of God, the more discernment we have, I think the more we see God answering our prayers, out of his goodness. 

    Our God is a good God. 

    Unanswered prayers 

    But we must also understand that not all prayers are answered in the way we want. Even some of the good things we pray for. A person healing from an illness, or recovering from an injury. We’re finite. We don’t always know or understand why a certain prayer has gone unanswered. 

    And those can be some of the hardest experiences we have in life. The world is ultimately fallen. And no matter how faithful we are, no matter how faithful a church is in prayer, there is still sin, and sorrow, and sickness, and death. 

    Sometimes we don’t get what we pray for. And we don’t know why. And it doesn’t make sense. But again, at the heart of prayer is meant to be a reliance in God. Sometimes a prayer is not answered because of the timing. 

    In the Book of Habakkuk, there is wickedness and destruction in Israel. The prophet has taken his plea before the Lord. 

    God says in Habakkuk 2:2-3:“Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; 

    Sometimes a prayer isn’t answered because God will because God’s will was to do something else.  

    “God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knew.”

    Can you trust that? Sometimes it’s hard. 

    Job said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21)

    In the book of Second Corinthians, Paul talks about some sort of malady he had been suffering. We don’t know specifically what the issue was. Paul simply refers to it as a thorn in the flesh. It’s generally assumed it was some sort of health issue and not a literal thorn. 

    But Paul talks about praying for relief. 

    2 Corinthians 12:7-9: a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

    His grace is meant to be sufficient for us. That prayer was unanswered because God would be glorified through Paul’s affliction. And indeed there are immense challenges that we go through in life that are not good, but that God uses them to shape us into who we become. We don’t always know why God does or doesn’t do what we think he should. And explanations that people try to give us often don’t make us feel much better. 

    In the Book of Isaiah, the Lord says: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 

    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (isaiah 55:8-9)

    Sometimes people can grow cynical towards God because of that. We question why he doesn’t answer a certain prayer. But the reason why he answers any prayer is because of his goodness. We don’t inherently deserve anything good from God. 

    But he does so much good in the world and for his people. 

    The greatest problem of our world is not a lack of goodness on the part of God. It’s the sinfulness of humanity.

    The story of George Mueller 

    George Mueller was a British evangelist and pastor whose life encompassed most of the 19th century, living from 1805-1898. He’s probably most remembered for his orphanages in the working class town of Bristol. 

    Thousands of children passed through Mueller’s orphanages. Mueller famously never asked for money, but relied on prayer for God’s provision. Some of the stories are absolutely incredible.

    In his life, he wrote down more than 50,000 prayer requests that were answered by God. 

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  • Miracles and belief. John 14:11

    Miracles and belief. John 14:11

    In John 14:8, the Apostle Phillip says: Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.

    For many of us, that’s a relatable request. I think we all have times where God can seem distant or hard to find. 

    One of the ways God is made known is through miracles.

    As Jesus continues to respond to Philip, he says in John 14:11: Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. 

    For this post, I want to focus on the second part of that verse. Where Jesus tells Philip to believe on the account of his works. Now under the umbrella of works, it could certainly be the righteous life Jesus lived and the teaching that he gave. 

    But within John, I think the works more specifically refers to his miraculous signs. That those are what authenticate a heaven-sent ministry in the world. 

    The first sign that Jesus does in John’s Gospel is when he turns water into wine at the Wedding Feast at Cana. And in response, John’s Gospel gives the post-script: 

    John 2:11:  This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. 

    Jesus did not turn water into wine simply to help out at a wedding feast but it was a display of his glory. And all throughout the first half of John, we see these signs that Jesus does. Healing the sick, feeding multitudes, walking on water. And before going to the cross, his greatest sign is when he raises Lazarus from the dead in John 11.  

    All of them done for specific reasons in pointing to Jesus, who he is, and the heavenly ministry he was advancing in the world. They show his power and dominion. They show fulfillment of Old Testament  prophecies of the things which would happen in a Messianic age. 

    They confirm and authenticate who Jesus is. And so in Jesus’ response to Philip, what he is telling Philip is that those miraculous signs are a legitimate reasons to believe in Jesus. 

    And certainly the greatest miracle of Jesus, his resurrection from the dead was still to come. Miracles are a reason why we too can believe in the  Lord. The resurrection is the basis for our faith and what we believe. It is the heart of the gospel and the purpose of the gospel. It’s the greatest authenticator on Jesus, who he was, who he said he was, and the fulfillment of his promises to the world. And it because of his resurrection that we have the hope of eternal life and the forgiveness of our sins. 

    Just as Jesus told the apostle Philip to look at his works, that we too can look at his works and his greatest work as a reason to believe as an example of God revealing himself to the world. 

     “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 

    God is still at work in our world. Miracles still happen today. 

    Miracles 

    I’ll define a miracle as an extraordinary event with supernatural intervention intended for divine purposes. Miracles defy explanation along scientific or rational grounds. They’re transcendent. 

    A 2010 Pew research study found that 80 percent of Americans believe in miracles. A 2004 survey by Louis Finkelstein for the Institute for Religious and Social Studies of the Jewish Theological Seminary surveyed 1,100 doctors and found that three-fourths of them believed in miracles and more than half thought that they had witnessed a miracle. 

    Doctors. Who are the most highly educated people in our society and who are also those who are those who are treating those battling sicknesses and diseases. In another survey, 38 percent of Americans claim to have personally experienced a miracle. 

    That’s tens of millions of people. Are all of those legitimate miracles? Probably not. But there are mysterious and undocumented healings and situations that defy medical explanation. 

    I’m not talking about some prosperity gospel preaching faith healer charlton who’s enriching himself or herself to a crowded auditorium in doing a glorified magic show that they call faith healings. 

    But what about the people who are under medical supervision and they experience healings that defy medical explanation and which run contrary to how human bodies respond to treatment? 

    Miracles should be an encouragement to us. They should give us hope that God is working and active in the world. When we’re tempted to mirror the words of Philip and say: show us the Father, and it is enough for us

    We have the miraculous signs during the ministry of Jesus and the ways in which the Lord intervenes in the world today. And so I’d like to share two miraculous stories. 

    A pastor healed in real time

    Duane Miller was a pastor in Texas who came down with a case of the flu in 1990. 

    Preaching on Sunday, his throat was bothering him and his voice sounded hoarse and scratchy. He eventually recovered from the flu but his voice remained scratchy and strained. And it stayed that way. 

    The flu virus had damaged his vocal cords. And just to be heard, with his damaged vocal cords, Miller had to scream at the top of his lungs. He saw specialist after specialist. The issue still didn’t improve. The following year, Miller resigned his position as pastor. 

    Being able to talk…Is pretty important for being a preacher. Over nearly three years, he visited 63 specialists. An international consortium of throats specialists who reviews records from particularly difficult cases told him that his voice would never improve. 

    By 1993, Miller and his family had moved to Houston and were attending a large Baptist church. He was asked to teach an adult Sunday school class. He resisted, but people in the class promised to suffer through his raspy voice. 

    Being a large church, the Sunday school class was very big and so they recorded the audio of the Sunday school class. In the lesson, Miller was talking about the subject of healing and saying that God does not always bring healing in this life while teaching from Psalm 103: 

    2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, 3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 

    I share a video that was taken from the Sunday school where the pastor’s voice was restored. You’ll notice how raspy his voice is. And the clip shows the audio of what he is saying, but pay attention when he says “I have had, and you have had in times past pit experiences.” 

    In mid-sentence, Miller’s voice was restored. He says “I don’t understand this right now” as emotion starts to overcome his voice and you start to hear people who had witnessed this being to clap and cheer. 

    Upon later medical evaluation, doctors said that Miller’s voice had fully recovered. Even the scar tissue disappeared. Miller later returned to ministry and nearly 30 years later, his voice remains normal.

    Hospice patient restored

    In the Case for Miracles, Lee Strobell interviews New Testament scholar Craig Keener who’s a professor Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky. 

    I consider Keener to be one of the best New Testament scholars in the world. A former atheist who found faith, Keener wrote a 2,000 page two volume book on miracles which gives numerous case studies from around the world. 

    In Case for Miracles, Keener talks about the well documented story of a Chicago area woman named Barbara Cummisky Snyder who was diagnosed by the Mayo Clinic, one of the world’s leading hospitals, with progressive multiple sclerosis. 

    Keener has interviewed Barbara and two physicians who treated her. 

    In the book, a board certified physician who treated Barbara and who had performed over 20,000 operations called ed her “one of the most hopelessly ill patients I ever saw.” 

    Numerous doctors had agreed with the diagnosis. She was high school aged when originally diagnosed. Barbara battled these health issues for 16 years. She spent months in hospitals. 

    She loss the function in one of her lungs. Her other lung operated at less than 50 percent capacity. 

    She had lost control of her bowels and had to have catheters and colostomy bags attached to remove bodily waste. 

    Legally blind. She was on a feeding tube. Eventually she need continuous oxygen. She had a tracheotomy. By 1981, she hadn’t walked in seven years and was bed-ridden. Her hands and feet had strained into deformed positions. She went on hospice in 1981 and was given less than six months to live. 

    One day, someone called Moody Radio Station and asked people to pray for Barbara. More than 400 people wrote letters to Barbara’s church saying they were praying for her. On Pentecost Sunday 1981, Barbara’s aunt came to her home to read some of the letters to her. 

    Barbara would later say that she heard a man’s voice tell her to get up – though there were no men in the room. “Get up and walk.” 

    Barbara stood up, removed her oxygen and began to walk on legs that hadn’t supported her body weight in years. Breathing fine, her vision was restored. 

    That night, Barbara attended church with her family at Wheaton Wesleyan Church. 

    During the service, when the pastor asked if anyone had any announcements, Barbara walked to the center aisle and walked toward the front of the sanctuary. 

    Upon further medical evaluation, Barbara’s lung function had been fully restored. 

    At the time of writing the Case for Miracles, 35 years had passed since Barbara’s recovery without a recurrence of her illness. 

    Her case so defied explanation that two doctors who treated Barbara each wrote books about her case. 

    God is working.  

    Conclusion 

    There are times in his goodness that God supernaturally intervenes. 

    Why not always? A skeptical person might ask. Because the world is fallen and sinful. We don’t deserve any of his grace. So instead of asking why he doesn’t eternally do what we think he should do, we should be thankful for the glimpses we get of God’s power and to remember the goodness of a God who loves us and who is active in the world. 

    Furthermore, God never says that he will always bring every miraculous intervention that we might want in this life. 

    It is in heaven that: He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

    Also, if God always did what we wanted him to do, he wouldn’t be God. We would be. But he is greater than us. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. 

    In John 11, when Jesus learns that his friend Lazarus is ill, he does not immediately go to him. 

    He says: 

    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” (John 11:4).

    Jesus knew that Lazarus would die and he knew he was going to raise him. 

    On a much smaller scale, I think of Pastor Duane Miller who we talked about earlier. Losing his ministry and spending three years with those voice issues. Not the worst thing that’s ever happened to someone. 

    But undoubtedly a grueling experience. 

    He went through some difficult seasons in those three years. 

    But God had a plan to use him for a tremendous purpose in impacting people’s lives all over the world with his testimony. 

    God is good. 

    And he is working.

    We don’t always get the miracle we’re hoping for. 

    But God is no less good. He is no less at work in the world. He is no less sovereign. 

    All things really do work for good for those that love the Lord (Romans 8:28). 

    And we must remember the Lord’s goodness. 

    Philip pleaded: 

    Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.

    But that’s often not so simple. 

    People are fickle. We’re sinful. 

    A person can see something that they think if miraculous yet not really appreciate the source. 

    A person can hear about something miraculous but not really have their life transformed by it. 

    Because it’s not just about seeing something impressive, or unexpected. 

    At the end of the day, we’re called to faith and belief in this great God. 

    Remembering God. His goodness, his gospel, and his faithfulness. Everyday. 

    The miracles of life can stir and encourage our faith. But we must also pursue a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. 

    Living lives where we remember what God has done. Not just the big, spectacular moments, but how he has sustained us and our families throughout our lives. 

    And appreciating what God is doing today. 

    Throughout the Old Testament, it’s constantly pointing back to the Exodus. The Passover meal was to be celebrated annually. Really with all of the Old Testament holidays, they were meant to remember. To remember various ways in which the Lord had blessed his people. 

    And what does Jesus say at the Last Supper? When he breaks the bread? 

    “Do this in remembrance of me.” 

    For as long as we eat the bread and drink the cup, we remember his death until he comes. 

    We’re called to remember the greatest miracle of the New Testament, Jesus’ glorious resurrection from the dead. 

  • Evidence for God in nature. Studying John 14

    Evidence for God in nature. Studying John 14

    “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 
    -John 14:8

    This is the plea from the Apostle Philip. I think it’s one that many of us can relate to. At least at times. 

    So honest. So sincere. Life is hard. And faith can be hard sometimes. 

    And it can be easy to look at the stories of the Old Testament and the stories of God audibly speaking to prophets or displaying glorious signs to the Israelites and to think “It would be so much easier to believe if I could have those glorious displays of divine power.” 

    In this post, my focus is on Philip’s plea and the question of why God does not more dynamically reveal himself to us? Wouldn’t that be so much easier? 

    If God wants people to believe, why not just appear? And to be sure, God could compel everyone to believe in him. He could appear in the heavens and do thunderous signs 24/7 or he could have designed people with a brain which  would naturally believe in him. 

    But that is not how God created us or how he has ordained things. Now the Bible does teach that God does wants people to believe in him. 


    2 Peter 3:9 says:  The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.


    not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

    So God does want us to believe. But at the same time, it’s important to realize that God is not desperate for us to believe. 

    Now we are not left empty-handed. Just because God does not always appear to us in the way in which we might think would be best, that does not mean that God is unknowable. 

    General revelation 

    In theology, there’s a term called General Revelation. 

    That is the idea that God does reveal qualities of his divine nature through creation. 

    Creation itself points to God. 


    Psalm 19:1 says: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 

    In Psalm 8, David marveled at the Lord’s creation: 

    O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. 

    3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 

    The Bible teaches that nature itself bears witness to God. 

    In Romans 1:19-20, Paul says: what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world

    God reveals himself through his world. 

    I think it’s the reason why we get a sense of awe when we see a beautiful sunset, or see the mountains, or the ocean or look up to a star-filled sky at night. 

    God can be known. 

    And there’s his creation. 

    It screams to us that it was made by a creator. There are dozens of arguments that philosophers, theologians, and scientists have developed through the centuries in pointing to the existence of God. 

    And while none of those arguments gives absolute proof of the existence of God, the cumulative weight of the arguments gives only one plausible answer. A creator God. My plan is to talk about some of those arguments this week and next week as we study this passage. 

    And I want to give two arguments for the existence of God. 

    I’ve always found these types of arguments to be very edifying and confirming to consider that the God we believe in really is rational and reasonable. 

    Cosmological argument 

    Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

    The universe began to exist. 

    Therefore the universe has a cause. 

    It’s my goal to make this explanation clear. Whatever begins to exist has a cause. That idea is taken for granted in literally every other domain of our lives. We never observe anything contrary to this. 

    None of us are worried that we’ll be sitting in church and a giraffe will just spring into existence out of nowhere. None of us are worried that under our bed  se right now, a dump truck has just popped into existence. None of us are worried that the next time we’re driving, we’ll be cut off by another planet or universe springing into existence. 

    None of us have ever had extra money just materialize in our wallets, as much as we might like that. Why? Because nothing comes from nowhere.

    And yet, some want to treat the very existence of the universe as if that is what gigantic exception, and that nothing happens unprovoked or out of nothing, except for the entire universe. 

    That’s the first premise. 

    We all know that whatever begins to exist has a cause. But we move to the second point. 

    The universe began to exist. 

    I find this fascinating, but that is something that is increasingly agreed upon by cosmologists and physicists. A century ago, the conventional wisdom was that the universe was eternal. It was known as the steady state theory. 

    But as equipment and telescopes have gotten more sophisticated, and instruments for measurement have gotten more sophisticated, there is more and more evidence that the universe had a beginning. 

    And how does the Bible begin? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). 

    And that is what happens in creation. That there was literally nothing. And that all time, space, matter, and energy began. 

    From the fact that the universe is still expanding, the universe is still cooling off, and from the laws of thermodynamics, it all implies a finite beginning of the universe. And there are other reasons from math and science that point to the universe having a beginning. 

    Therefore, the universe has a cause. 

    Whatever the cause is would have to be powerful. Whatever the cause is would have to be immaterial, because the cause created all matter. Whatever the cause is would have to transcend time because the cause created time. It is God who is the uncaused cause. Powerful, immaterial, transcendent of time. And I will argue in my next point that whatever the cause is would have to be intelligent. 

    Why? 

    Because the way the universe is ordered. And that is my second argument for the existence of God. 

    Intelligent Design 

    There’s a famous analogy from an 18th-19th century philosopher named William Paley called the watchmaker. 

    If you were walking through the woods, and you found a watch, and you look at the ways in which the gears interact with each other, the precision of the second hand ticking away, you would not suppose that the forces of nature had just happened to create that watch. 

    You wouldn’t think through thousands or even millions of years, just given the weather, the laws of physics, and erosion, that nature would just happen to form a functional watch. 

    A friend of mine once went to Mount Rushmore and he took a video of himself looking at the mountain and he joked that it was incredible that through just the wind and erosion, that the faces of four of our great presidents would appear in that mountain. 

    Obviously that was a joke because Mount Rushmore was planned. And obviously any rational person would know that the watch was also planned. Also designed. 

    The delicate balance of life. The laws of physics, chemistry, and biology. The predictable regularity of these laws in our world. The complex balance of life in our ecosystem and the way it all works together. It’s astounding. 

    The fact that we have a world which is capable of supporting and sustaining life is astounding. And that it is more plausible that it is the product of design than change. 

    Now with life on earth, a person could attempt to explain away design and argue that everything just evolved to exist with the conditions we have. Or maybe the laws of science are simply what governs the universe. 

    But the issue is so much deeper than that. 

    Where do the laws of science come from? The laws of physics, chemistry, biology? If there used to be nothing and now there’s something, did those laws create themselves? 

    Over the last couple of generations, physicists and astronomers have noticed more and more the great precision and fine-tuning with which our universe is governed by laws. There are about 30 constants where even miniscule changes would either make the existence of the universe impossible, life impossible, or which would greatly alter the way in which we live. 

    I think that should be encouraging to our hearts. We’re not here by accident. 

    Physicist Paul C. Davies writes; 

    “To see the problem, imagine playing God with the cosmos. Before you is a designer machine that lets you tinker with the basics of physics. Twiddle this knob and you make all electrons a bit lighter, twiddle that one and you make gravity a bit stronger, and so on. It happens that you need to set thirtysomething knobs to fully describe the world about us. The crucial point is that some of those metaphorical knobs must be tuned very precisely, or the universe would be sterile.” 

    So the universe just sprang into being randomly and all of those incredibly precise scientific variables just happened to be perfectly set for the universe and life to be possible?

    To give one example. Gravity. If the gravitational force was altered by more than 1 part in 10×40, stars would not exist and neither would we. 

    That’s a difficult number to wrap our minds around. Imagine that you had a tape measure that was stretched all the way across the universe. It’d be a long tape measure. Billions upon billions upon billions of inches long. 

    And the entire tape measure represents different gravitational force strengths. And the tape measure is set to a specific place. 

    If you were to move just one inch in either direction on that measure, our life would not be possible. 

    And there are numerous other examples from physics and cosmology that if they were altered to the most minute of degrees, would make life impossible. I would argue that believing all of that happened by random chance is a bigger leap of faith than believing in God. 

    Creation points to a creator. 

    So with general revelation and the arguments we have for the existence of God, when the question arises of “why doesn’t God just reveal himself?” 

    He does. Just maybe not always in the way we’d prefer. It can be tempting to think “If only I had this piece of evidence, it would be easier to believe.” 

    But never underestimate the pride of the human heart. In the Bible, we see plenty of activity of God with the Israelites during their Exodus wanderings. They still sin and rebel. Because just because you believe something is true does not mean that your life is changed by it. 

    God does not want us to give a vague ascent that “Yeah, I guess I believe you exist.” Millions of people smoke cigarettes knowing how bad they are. 

    We know all sorts of truths we disregard 

    I think most people are smart enough to know how to succeed in all sorts of areas of life. How do you succeed in school? Study. Work hard. Pay attention. Ask questions when you’re unsure.Same with succeeding in a job. Work hard. Be proactive. Take pride in what you’re doing. 

    People don’t always do that. Succeeding in marriage. Time. Communication. Sacrifice. Love. People don’t always do that. Half the marriages in America end in divorce. 

    And we can know God, but people don’t always want to do that. Why?

    As Jesus said in John 3:17. Because men love darkness rather than the light. 

    The Apostle Paul sums up this condition of the human heart and its refusal to acknowledge God in Romans 1. I quoted part of this verse earlier but to give a fuller picture of what Paul is saying: 

    what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

    The issue is not that we have a lack of reasons to believe in God. But just thinking God exists is not what it’s all about. Because the God who created the universe is powerful, immaterial, transcendent, intelligent. 

    And personal. “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 

    Philip says this to Jesus on the night before Jesus went to the cross. 

    Jesus 

    And so instead of coming to us in thunderous glory in the clouds and speaking to us with a voice from the heavens, instead, we have a God who became one of us. 


    John 1:14: 

    14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

    God invites us to know him. God invites us into relationship with him. And it is Jesus who makes God known. 

    John 1:18: No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. 

    God appeared to the world in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The God who created time entered time. The God who created history entered into history. The God who created man took on flesh. 

    And that’s the response that Jesus gives to Philip in verse 9: Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 

    All this time. Philip had seen Jesus. He had seen his righteous life. He had personally heard his teaching. He had seen the word who was made flesh and dwelt among us.When Jesus had done his first sign at the wedding feast at Cana, it revealed his glory.  

    And still, Philip felt like he needed a greater sign. Jesus is the greater sign. He is the fuller revelation of the truth of God. He is the one who makes the Father known. There was no greater sign. 

    Jesus shows God, he is the way to God, because Jesus is one with God. 

    John 14:10: Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.


    In her book “Stay Salt,” Rebecca Pippert writes:

    One sunny day I was stretched out on the lawn … when I noticed that some ants were busy building a mound. I began to redirect their steps with twigs and leaves. But they simply bounced off and started a new ant mound. I thought, This is like being God! I am redirecting their steps, and they don’t even realize it!

    At one point, two ants crawled onto my hands and I thought, Wouldn’t it be funny if one ant turned to the others and said, “Do you believe in Becky? Do you believe Becky really exists?” I imagine the other ant answering, “Don’t be ridiculous! Becky is a myth, a fairy tale!” How comical, I thought–the hubris of that ant declaring that I don’t exist, when I could easily blow it off my hand.

    But what if the other ant said, “Oh, I believe that Becky exists!” How would they resolve it? How could they know that I am real? I thought. What would I have to do to reveal to them who I am? Suddenly I realized: the only way to reveal who I am, in a way that they could understand, would be to become an ant myself. I would have to identify totally with their sphere of reality. I sat upright, and I remember thinking, What an amazing thought! The scaling-down of the size of me to perfectly represent who I am in the form of an ant! I know; I would have to do tricks! Things that no other ant could do!

    Then it hit me: I had just solved my problem of how finite creatures could ever discover God. God would have to come from the outside and reveal who he is.

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  • Sermon: Become as I am – Galatians 4:12-20

    We live in a world where there is a lot of religious chatter, and many opinions. It can be hard to sift through it to get to truth. In this passage, Paul expresses his concern for the Galatian Christians who had been led away from the truth of the gospel by false teachers who had instead preached a self-serving message.

    Sermon manuscript

  • The way to God. John 14:1-7

    The way to God. John 14:1-7

    Our society does not handle death well. I believe that at least part of the reason is that most of us don’t really deal with seeing death. A century ago, most people died at home. 

    Now, according to a Stanford study, only about 20 percent of Americans die at home and most people die in hospitals or nursing homes. 

    A century ago, it was much more common for a funeral to be at a person’s home. The family would clean and dress the deceased. Sometimes you’d have several days with a dead person in their former home. 

    You saw death. 

    People lived shorter lives. 

    In today’s America, funerals are becoming less common. With modern day practices, when there’s even a funeral at all, the focus is on making a person look lifelike. Funerals are not generally handled by families. It’s been outsourced to funeral homes who handle the process. Funerary practices are an essentially universal human custom. 

    But it’s becoming increasingly popular for some Americans to opt for nothing. No funeral, no memorial, no visitation, no celebration of life. 

    We don’t handle death well. For many, it’s an uncomfortable and taboo subject. But for Christians we should not grieve as others do who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). 

    In John 14, while Jesus is looking ahead to the cross that awaits him, he is bringing comfort to the disciples in talking about the promise and hope of heaven which is found in Christ. 

    It’s the Last Supper. In the preceding passage, Jesus has told the disciples of his impending departure. Peter has questioned this and said that he wants to go with Jesus. 

    Jesus says that Peter cannot go with him and predicts Peter’s denial. It’s important to remember that because chapter 14 is the continuation of what precedes it. It’s the same stream of thoughts as we saw at the end of chapter 13. 

    The main idea of this passage is that Jesus is the way to life in a dying world. 

    Jesus presents the reason for our hope

    John 14:1: “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

    Jesus begins by giving a command. Let not your hearts be troubled.

    Because the human heart is often troubled. For the disciples, Jesus knew that they had a harrowing experience on the horizon of seeing their Lord go to the cross and taken away from them. 

    We have many troubling experiences in our own lives. We can have anxieties over our health or the health of our family members. We can be stressed about the state of affairs in our world. We can be troubled by the things we fear. 

    And as for the disciples, Jesus has the same message for us: Let not your hearts be troubled. 

    Easier said than done. 

    Stop it! 

    There’s a comedy sketch that I really like with Bob Newhart. He’s playing a psychiatrist and a woman comes to him seeking help. 

    She tells Newhart that she has this fear of being buried alive in a box and how crippling this fear is and how it’s interfering with her quality of life. 

    Newhart reassures her and says that he has two words for her that she can use to deal with her fears. 

    The woman in the skit takes out a pen and paper and Newhart growls at her “stop it!”

    She’s bewildered.

    Newhart explains that she doesn’t want to go around being afraid of being buried in a box. 

    So stop it. 

    As the sketch progresses, she talks about other fears she has, and Newhart continues to give the same advice “stop it.” I think the humor of the skit is that that’s how we can sometimes treat the problems of others. 

    Stop feeling that way, stop thinking that way. 

    That’s easier said than done. 

    At the last supper, in a very trying situation, Jesus commands his disciples “Let not your hearts be troubled.” 

    I think we can have that “stop it” attitude sometimes in the church. To hide. To say things are fine when they’re not. To say we’re ok, when we’re not. To feel this pressure to always seem to have it together. 

    Let not your hearts be troubled. 

    Jesus said it. He commands it. We don’t want to be disobedient do we? But how do we follow that command? I think we can make the mistake of acting like the Bible calls for us to be stoic. Not showing emotions. 

    But that’s not what Jesus is calling us to. 

    In fact, in the gospels, we see that there were times when Jesus himself was troubled. 

    A troubled savior 

    In the preceding chapter, right before Jesus predicts his betrayal, John writes in 13:21: 

    After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit

    Again in John 12:27, when Jesus is looking forward to the time of his death, he’s praying to God and says: “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.”

    Jesus was troubled sometimes. Life is troubling sometimes. Jesus isn’t calling us to just muster up the strength to act as if we’re fine on the outside.Because Jesus isn’t calling us to appearances. He’s calling us to reality. 

    To not have troubled hearts and then Jesus gives the commands: Believe in God; believe also in me.

    I take both of those to be imperative commands. We are to believe in God and to also believe in Jesus Christ. We need both. To believe in God without believing in Jesus as the Son of God and savior of the world is to not believe in the greater revelation of the truth of God to the world. 

    Believing in Jesus without believing in God is to disbelieve in the one who sent him and the God whom Jesus reveals. And as the chapter further unfolds, Jesus will give his richest teaching of the Holy Spirit so far in this gospel. 

    And so the antidote to the troubled heart is the truth of God. Not just some vague ascent “Yeah, I believe in God.” But having the Lord be your rock, be your strength, be your hope, and your joy. 

    Going to the Lord in our struggles. Gong to him in prayer. Filling our minds with the truth and knowledge of who God is. Going to him in faith. 

    In Philippians 4:6-7, Paul says: do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

    The Lord is who is meant to be our comfort in times of trouble. 

    Jesus prepares a place for his people 

    Verse 2: In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

    Verse 2 is one of those Bible verses that’s really beautiful in its simplicity. It’s a wonderful idea and even the words have a nice ring to them. 

    In my Father’s house are many rooms. 

    Now I think we can get too caught up in the house metaphor. What’s the house like? What does it look like? How big is the house? Does it have a finished basement? 

    That’s beside the point. The point is more that heaven is the abode of the Lord and that it’s a place where there is sufficient space for the people of God to reside. Heaven is heaven because that’s where God is. 

     Jesus talks of preparing a place for his people. Once again, what does that mean? 

    Is he the foreman on a construction project? He was a carpenter. Is he building a place? 

    I agree with D.A. Carson’s interpretation that the preparation for a heavenly abode has more to do with Christ’s redemptive work of going to the cross, his death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is those which signs our heavenly mortgages. 

    But that is another reason why our hearts should not be troubled. 

    Because we have a savior who has given us an eternally glorious inheritance. 

    Life is not for the faint of heart. There’s so much junk that we have to deal with. There is so much we see that can bring us down. There is so much sin and moral decay that can make us cynical. There is so much that is wrong in the world. And there are so many horrible things that we can suffer through.

    But Jesus promises his people a future in the house of the Lord. 

    I think too many of us do not spend enough time thinking about heaven. That is our hope. That is what we were made for. And Jesus went to the cross so that we can have eternal life in heaven. 

    The Bible says that heaven is a place where God makes all things new. 

    Revelation 21:1-2: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

    The Bible says that heaven is the place where all the pains of this world are taken away. 

    Revelation 21:4: He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 

    I hear politicians talk. A lot of them put out these utopian ideas of what society can be. There can never be a perfect society because the world is fallen and imperfect. 

    But when we are glorified in the presence of the Lord, there will be no sin, or pain, or death. Jesus is the way to life in a dying world because he prepares a heavenly place for us. 

    Jesus promises a return to his people

    Verse 3: 

    And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

    There’s a logic to verse 3. If I go and prepare a place for you 

    The second part of the statement is I will come again and will take you to myself

    Jesus did go to prepare a place for us. It was necessary for him to go and prepare a place for us. And because he has gone to prepare a place for us, we can have assurance that he will come again and take us to be with himself. 

    That there will be union with Christ. In theology, the doctrine of the last things is called eschatology. It’s the study of the last things, coming from the Greek word “escatos.” 

    And John 14:3 is the clearest statement that Jesus makes in the gospels of his return. Now there are a lot of different eschatological views in churches and among theologians. But one thing that’s not disputed in the church is the reality of Christ’s literal, bodily return. 

    And this idea is really an essential element of our faith. That as sure as Jesus came into the world at the incarnation, Jesus will come again. As sure as Jesus is risen from the dead we have the promise that Jesus will come again. 

    The second coming is a necessary event in bringing all of the promises of Christ to their ultimate fulfillment. Without that, we have no reason to hope in Christ. And without that, Jesus is a liar. 

    Jesus says that he will come again to bring us to himself so that where I am you may be also.

    Jesus prepares a place for us. And Jesus will come again for the purpose of uniting his people to himself so that they can have access to the heavenly place that he has prepared for us. 

    Jesus provides the way to heaven

    Jesus has just talked of the heavenly place he is preparing for his people and his return. 

    Verse 4, Jesus says: And you know the way to where I am going.”

    Now it’s true that they know the way literally. As Jesus will say in a couple of verses, HE is the way. 

    And they know Jesus. And so they know the way, literally, to where he is going. 

    He has also told them the way that he is going to get to heaven and his glorious return. It is by way of the cross, his death, and his resurrection. 

    But that’s not so obvious to the disciples. 

    The Apostle Thomas speaks up in verse 5: Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

    Is there a more important question that a person can ask? 

    Verse 6:  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

    Jesus is the way. This is the sixth of the seven I am statements that Jesus gives in John’s Gospel. Jesus is THE way. He’s not a way. He’s not the best way. Jesus is the way to God, the way to heaven, the way to forgiveness. It’s an absolute claim that Jesus makes. 

    The blind men and the elephant 

    Now that is an idea that is not popular in our postmodern world. The exclusivity of Christ. But that’s what Jesus says. That he is the one way to God. There are many who say that there are lots of ways to God.

    Many like to believe that getting into heaven is about how good a person is. 

    There are people who treat religions like they’re all basically teaching the same things and that none is truly better or worse than another. 

    It reminds me of the parable of the blind men and the elephant. 

    In the parable, three men who are blind come up to an elephant. Each of them comes to a different part of the elephant and has a different experience of the elephant. 

    One man feels the trunk. It’s swings around and he feels the power in the trunk. Another man comes to the side of the elephant. It’s massive, like a wall. Another man is at the rear of the elephant. Kind of unpleasant and smelly. They all have experiences that are true but none of them has the full picture. 

    That’s how some treat religions. Like they all have a piece of the truth but none of them fully has the truth. 

    The problem with that parable is that it’s assuming that you yourself see the full elephant and have the knowledge that they don’t have the full truth. 

    I think the idea that all roads lead to God appeals to our modern western sensibilities. I hear people say statements like those often. That no religion is any more true than any other. You know who disagrees with that? 

    Other religions! 

    So for people who want to say that all roads lead to God impose an absolute upon all the religions of the world that they almost universally don’t teach in order to avoid saying someone is wrong. 

    It’s saying that you have a greater understanding of absolute reality than all the world’s religions. 

    I think that’s actually pretty arrogant. 

    It’s one thing to say what one religion teaches on a particular topic. It’s another thing to speak for all religions. Especially when it’s something that they do not teach. It’s certainly not what the Bible teaches. It’s not what the Lord Jesus teaches. 

    He doesn’t teach that you can go any way. Jesus is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. No one comes to the father except through him. The fact that Jesus is the truth and the life flows from Jesus being the way. Jesus is the truth. He is the ultimate revelation of God in the world. 

    His word is truth. Jesus is the life. He is eternal. 


    John 1:1-2 says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.

    Jesus has life in himself. 

    John 5:26 says that Jesus has life in himself. In John 11:25, Jesus said that he is the resurrection and the life. And Jesus is the one who gives eternal life. 

    Jesus says “No one comes to the Father except through me.” 

    Because Jesus is the way to the Father. He’s the one who fulfills the father’s will and atones for the sins of the world. Jesus has said “I and the father are one” (John 10:30). John 1:18 says that while no one has ever seen God, Jesus makes God known. Whoever has seen Jesus has seen the Father (John 14:9). Jesus is the one to whom the Old Testament points. 

    A lot of these same ideas are summed up at the end of our passage in verse 7: If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 

    There’s no middle ground with Jesus. He didn’t intend for there to be.Either you believe he is the savior of the world who reconciles us to God or you don’t. 

    But you cannot believe that Jesus is the way and believe there are other ways. Because when there are other ways, Jesus’ way makes no sense. 

    When there are other ways, Jesus’ life and ministry makes no sense. The cross makes no sense when there are other ways. Jesus died for humanity to show us that there is no other way. Jesus is the way to God, the revealed truth of God who gives us life with God. And the response to him is to follow his way. 

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