Josh Benner

Author: the Josh Benner Blog

  • Why we need to pursue God everyday

    Do you have an area in your life today where you’re tempted to doubt God’s goodness?

    Life is hard. There are challenges we face.

    For some of us, it’s health. For some of us, it’s in the relationships we have. Maybe there’s a lot of conflict either with a friend or a neighbor or a family member. But things are just really tough. And maybe you’re in a situation that you just don’t like.

    In the Exodus, the Israelites constantly complain about not having enough, things not being good enough, life not being easy enough.

    For the Israelites, God works all of these signs and wonders. Miraculously redeems them.

    Brings them to the edge of the Red Sea.

    They complain. “Why are we going to die out here?”

    Miraculously God parts the waters. Brings them across. Wipes out the greatest army the world had ever known.

    They get into the wilderness and they don’t have food.

    “Why were brought out here to die?”

    God provides food.

    They don’t have water.

    “Why were we brought here to die?”

    God gives them water.

    Blessing after blessing after blessing. And continually losing sight of all of that.

    They send out scouts who SEE the land and they’re like “Woah, this place is even better than advertised. This place is amazing!” But the people hear about the people in the land, “we can’t beat them. We can’t do it. It’s too much, it’s too hard.”

    It’s easy to judge them. To think, “Wow, the Israelites just didn’t get it.”

    But we often have more in common with the Israelites than we like to admit to ourselves. Their responses are so…human.

    What is your view of the Lord’s blessing? Is it gratitude and thankfulness?

    OR ARE YOU NEVER HAPPY BECAUSE IT’S NEVER ENOUGH, NEVER CLOSE ENOUGH TO WHAT YOU WANT? NEVER WHAT YOU THINK YOU NEED?

    Eye on the prize.

    It’s what the Israelites never figured out during their wanderings. They didn’t learn how to enjoy God.

    God can be enjoyed in all circumstances and situations.

    We don’t have to wait until we get through a certain challenge. We don’t need to wait until we get to a certain level of Christian maturity. We don’t need to wait to enjoy God. We can rejoice in his goodness and majesty and dominion and holiness today.

    We can and we must.

    OR ELSE, WE’LL BE LIKE THE ISRAELITES. CONTINUALLY SEEING THE BLESSINGS OF GOD AND NEVER ENJOYING ANY OF IT BECAUSE WE ALWAYS HAVE SOMETHING ELSE TO LOOK AT TO WORRY ABOUT.

    They were walking in the wilderness but were so often not really walking with God.

    Let me ask you: how’s your Spiritual life today?

    For the Israelites on their wanderings, they had such little joy in God, trust in God, and love for God.

    That’s not the life God wants us to live.

    In time where you’re struggling and not finding joy and delight in God, and when God seems distant to you, how are you doing, Spiritually?

    How’s your devotional life?

    I’ll go out on a limb that it’s struggling, that you’re probably not taking it as seriously.

    Am I wrong?

    If you look back on times where you Spiritually snuggled, were those also the times when you were most serious about pursuing God daily?

    It takes a daily pursuit.

    You can’t take your foot off the gas.

    But it can be hard sometimes. It’s hard for me sometimes.

    It needs to be part of our daily life. Spending time in God’s word, spending time in prayer, having a worshipful heart towards God. And it needs to be part of our life to have a mind that is set on the things above, a mind that is devoted to God, the things of God, meditating on God, rejoicing in God and in his goodness.

    Clearly the Israelites struggled with that on their wanderings. Always finding reasons to complain about what they had been given. Never happy.

    That’s not saying it’ll all become easy.

    But we can experience all of that with God or without God. Rejoicing in God or complaining about God.

    How are you doing today?

    God needs to be the focal point of your day.

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  • Peace be with you – John 2o:19-23

    Jesus appears to the disciples on the first Easter evening. In this passage, we see that Jesus is the one who brings peace because he is the one who was wounded for our forgiveness. And because of the gospel, for those who believe in Jesus, there is a new mission in the world as we go into the world as his people, enabled by the Spirit to spread the good news of the gospel of forgiveness to the world.

    Sermon manuscript

  • Jesus and eternal life – studying John 3:16-21

    Jesus and eternal life – studying John 3:16-21

    The result of belief 

    In John 3:16, Jesus says: 

    God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

    One of the things that this verse teaches is that belief in the son is necessary. Our society really struggles with that idea. 

    I know that 75% of Americans identify as Christians but when you talk to people about their beliefs, far too many people seem to think that Jesus is this really good guy and that most of us are pretty good too and we’re going to get the benefit of heaven because we’re good and he’s good and wants to bless us. 

    That’s not the gospel. 

    The gospel is that Jesus is good. You’re not. He died in your place. Believe in him as your Lord. 

    Eternal life is reserved for the one who believes in Jesus.

    John refers to eternal life more than any other writer in the New Testament. We saw it referenced in our passage last week when Jesus was talking about his crucifixion. 

    John 3:14-15:

    And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 

    It is through his death and resurrection that we have eternal life. 

    Couple more noteworthy examples of Jesus talking of eternal life. John 5:24: 

    Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 

    We are spared eternal death when we turn to Jesus. 

    In John 10, Jesus talks of himself as the good shepherd and talks of eternal life when he says: 

    27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. (John 10:27-28)

    There he is, among other things, talking about the relationship he invites us into. 

    The eternal life which Jesus offers to all who believe in him is both a future promise but a present reality. 

    It’s not that those who believe in Jesus are eligible for eternal life or may get eternal life. 

    But the person who believes and trusts in Jesus as Lord and savior HAS eternal life. 

    And that assurance is there because it is in the work of Christ that the gift of eternal life is given. 

    It’s an eternal promise which also bears present-day results in the life of a believer. 

    That’s actually how the passage ends in verse 21. 

    whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” 

    Not sent to condemn

    Continuing to speak about the salvation which comes through Jesus. 

    Verse 17: 

    For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 

    Verse 17 is not saying that there is no condemnation ever. It’s saying that condemnation was not the purpose for Jesus coming into the world. 

    Jesus came into the world to bring salvation. And that salvation comes through his life, death, and resurrection. 

    Part of what I love about this passage is how simple it all is. 

    Some passages are difficult to understand and are enhanced by a lot of digging into historical context. Some passages are best explained when comparing them to numerous other Biblical passages. 

    These verses are simple enough to understand just through honestly reading them for what they say. 

    God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

    What do you believe in? 

    Is it that Jesus is the Son of God and through him and him alone we have eternal life? Or do you believe in something else? Is your faith in Jesus? Or is it in yourself? 

    We’ve seen the love of God. We’ve seen the result of believing in Jesus. 

    We close this passage with a warning of the consequences of unbelief in Jesus.

    The consequences of unbelief

    John 3:18:

    Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already

    We again are reminded of the catalyst for eternal life. Believing in Jesus. No matter what you do, what you say, how you live, none of that gives you standing before a Holy God. 

    It’s believing in Jesus. Whoever does not believe in Jesus is condemned because there is no other way to God. 

    Jesus did not come to bring condemnation, but you are already condemned and dead in your sins without him. 

    That’s your starting point. 

    So we can either turn to Christ and find life or we can reject Jesus and still be dead. 

    If we could earn our way to God, then God would not have needed to send his son. 

    This passage is not saying “believe what you want.” It’s not saying you’re pretty good.

    It’s saying the opposite. John 3:19-20:

    19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

    Those two verses sum up the human condition apart from Christ. It confronts us with reality. We are dead apart from Christ. 

    We either believe that or we don’t. We either believe Jesus is the way or we don’t. 

    What do you believe? Jesus is the light, the truth, the goodness, the salvation which has come into the world. And in a dark world, a world of sin and death, Jesus shines. 

    People loved darkness rather than the light. 

    This is why the world needs Jesus. Because we love our sin more than we love the righteousness of God. 

    A lot of sins make us feel good in the moment. 

    Being drunk can feel good at the moment. Looking at things you shouldn’t look at online feels good at the moment. Gossip feels good at the moment. Selfishness and doing whatever you want to do feels good at the moment. 

    A lot of sinful behaviors feel good. Don’t look at me like you don’t look at me like you have no idea what I’m talking about. 

    That’s why the world loves them. The Bible is the realest book that’s ever been written. 

    And in Hebrews 11:25, it talks about the “fleeting pleasures of sin.” 

    It’s not calling sin good. But it is saying that sin is often pleasurable. At least for a season. At least for a little while. If sin didn’t feel good, then the world wouldn’t love it so much. It wouldn’t be a problem. Nobody grudgingly sins. Nobody sins like it’s a chore that you have to do. “Ok, I guess I’ll say this really nasty thing about my coworker.” Nobody has to work at being prideful. 

    No kid had to be taught to sin. It comes naturally. 

    Eve wasn’t tempted with something she thought was bad. It was the promise of knowledge. David didn’t see Bathsheeba and think “oh what an ugly woman.” The world loves sin. 

    Some of those things might be different for different people. But make no mistake. We love sin. Again, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying that that’s a good thing.It’s a horrible thing. It’s why we are condemned and separated from God. By the grace of God, there is redemption. 

    But the world hates the light of the gospel, because the light exposes sin. 

    The world is dead in sin. That’s the bad news.

    But there is good news. 

    Borrowing a quote from Kent Hughes in his commentary on John that I’ve slightly modified. 

    God. The greatest being.

    So loved. The greatest act. 

    The world. The greatest company.

    That he gave. The greatest act. 

    His only Son. The greatest gift. 

    That whoever believes. The greatest offer.

    In him. The greatest savior. 

    Shall not perish. The greatest promise.

    But have. The greatest certainty.

    Eternal life. The greatest hope.

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  • The Old Testament and believer’s baptism

    The Old Testament and believer’s baptism

    Baptism is not this arbitrary practice that Christians just decided to start doing. 

    During the ministry of Christ, John the Baptist had a ministry where he was the forerunner to Jesus and he baptized with a baptism of repentance. 

    But John the Baptist didn’t invent baptism. Before he was born, baptism was being practiced. When a non-Jewish person – a gentile – converted to Judaism, they made him or her get baptized. 

    And if you go back further, while you don’t have baptism in the Old Testament, you do have various washing rituals both for ordinary people and for the priests which were meant to show purity and to prepare a person for various religious activities. 

    Especially in a book like Leviticus, there’s this strong emphasis on cleanliness and purity and avoiding that which is unclean. All of that was meant to show the purity which a holy God requires. 

    In Exodus 19, before the giving of the Ten Commandments as part of the covenant with Moses, the Israelites were told to wash their garments. 

    There are also Old Testament passages which seek a deeper cleansing from God. 

    In Psalm 51, as David reflected back on his terrible sin of having an affair with a married woman, he prayed to God for cleansing. 

    1 Have mercy on me, O God, 

    according to your steadfast love; 

    according to your abundant mercy 

    blot out my transgressions. 

    2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, 

    and cleanse me from my sin! (Psalm 51:1-2)

    7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; 

    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. (Psalm 51:7). 

    David sought that cleansing. Baptism is a symbol of sin being washed away. 

    Jesus died for our sins and when we believe in him, we are washed clean but not only that, we are united with Christ. We are dead and raised in Christ. 

    Baptism is a symbol of that. 

    Romans 6:4-5: 

    4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 

    5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 

    Baptism points us to that. It points us to the gospel. It points us to the death and resurrection of Christ. 

    Baptism also points us to the Church. That’s another reason why I teach believer’s baptism. Because of the theology of the church itself. 

    What is the Church?

    I’m not talking about a building. I’m not even talking about this church. 

    What is THE Church? 

    The Church is comprised of all who are part of the body of Christ. The true church are those who have faith in Christ.  

    Colossians 1:18-23 talks of the imminence of Christ over his church when it says:

    And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 

    21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast

    The true church is a church comprised of faithful believers in the gospel. 

    It is true that in the Old Testament, you had an ethnic Israel. 

    But the Old Testament also talked of a future time when God would usher in a new covenant where the people of God would be set apart based on faith, not ethnicity. 


    Jeremiah 31:31-33: 

    31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 

    So in that passage, it is pointing back to the Old Covenant and how the Israelites repeatedly broke it.  The passage is also pointing forward to a future time of a new covenant that will be different from what came before. A distinguishing mark of this covenant is that God will put his law in his people in their hearts. 

    That is pointing to people who are true believers. 

    And then in the same passage, the very striking verse is verse 34: 

    34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” 

    What the passage is saying is that in this time of a new covenant, God’s people will know him. It is clear from the Old Testament, that you had many in Israel who were not walking with God, who didn’t love or honor God. 

    But that is not the case with his new covenant community. They shall all know me. 

    You’re not in the new covenant if you don’t know the Lord. In a few minutes, we’re going to take communion. That’s the other sign of the new covenant. Everything in communion revolves around remembering. Remembering the blood of Jesus shed for sins, his body broken for our sins. It’s for people who know and believe in the gospel. 

    There are churches that have hundreds of members on their rolls and a tiny fraction of those people come or have anything to do with that church, but they were baptized one time.

    I do appreciate arguments for infant baptism. But a danger in some churches is that for churches who teach things like salvation through baptism or baptism literally washing away sin or baptismal regeneration, it can give a false since of eternal security to a person who is faithless and cares nothing for the things of God. 

    And again, there are different positions for infant baptism. Not everyone who believes in infant baptism believes that the baptism itself saves. But there are those who do. And when we believe that a baptism can save a person apart from faith, we are resorting to works.

    We also run the risk of turning baptism into a superstition. 

    Ezekiel 36 

    Another key Old Testament passage which looked forward to a new covenant people of God who would have the Spirit of God and live lives for God is Ezekiel 36. 

    What metaphor does Ezekiel use to describe this new spiritual life? Water

    Ezekiel 36:25-27: 

    25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

    The Spirit is talked about as a cleansing in water. It is the Spirit of God in the people of God who have been given a new heart by God and who are enabled by the Spirit to live lives in obedience to God. 

    And this cleansing with water which is compared to the Holy Spirit is for believers. 

    We saw the beginning of that in Acts 2.

    Believers in the gospel have the Spirit of God. The new covenant is people who are united in faith, not united along ethnic or familial lines. 

    Baptism is a response to faith, not a precursor to the hope of future faith. 

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  • Let there be light? What is the light in Genesis 1

    Let there be light? What is the light in Genesis 1

    In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 

    3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. 
    -Genesis 1:1-5

    In Genesis 1, when God says “let there be light,” what does that mean? 

    If you’re a Christian who belives in the Bible, that may sound like a silly question. 

    Light is light! 

    But what is the light on the first day of creation? 

    Genesis 1 doesn’t talk about the sun until day 4. 

    14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. 
    -Genesis 1:14-19

    So then what is the light on day 1? 

    This is a question that theologians and scholars have pondered since before Jesus walked the earth. 

    Explanations people have given

    There are no shortage of explanations. One is that the sun was always shining but that it is not given its function until the fourth day. 

    One ancient view is that God had created another source of light on the first day that he extinguished on the fourth day with the creation of the sun. That might seem far fetched, but remember this. In the Old Testament, when the Israelites are in their desert wanderings, God leads them by a pillar of fire in the sky. 

    Second century theologian Tertullian believed that the light was the glory of Christ. 

    The fourth and fifth century theologian Augustine believed that the light came from the angels. And a number of Biblical texts could be pointed to in support of that view. 

    Psalm 104:4:  he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire. 

    Ezekiel 1:13-14: As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures. And the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. 14 And the living creatures darted to and fro, like the appearance of a flash of lightning. 

    Acts 12:7: And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands.

    Revelation 18:1: After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. 

    All three of those theories point to the light being supernatural, and that the light on the first day is not merely about light in the way we think of light in the modern world. 

    Light is an important image in the Bible that points to moral righteousness. It’s contrasted by darkness which symbolizes what is sinister and evil. Nowhere is this language stronger in the Bible than the Gospel of John, where we see Jesus as the light that shines in the darkness (John 1:5), the true light which gives light to everyone (John 1:9), and the light of the world (John 8:12). 

    In John, we see that men love darkness rather than the light because their works were evil (John 3:19).

    Light and glory

    I take the light in Genesis 1 to be the glory of the Triune God. Genesis 1 does not say that God created this light, because the Lord is eternally glorious. But that God acknowledges the light of his own glory when he says let there be light. 

    Further reading: 

    https://answersingenesis.org/days-of-creation/days-without-sun-what-was-source-light/

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