Josh Benner

Author: the Josh Benner Blog

  • Russia and Ukraine- Where is it goiing?

    Russia and Ukraine- Where is it goiing?

    It’s crazy how fast the world can change. While the Russian invasion of Ukraine last week was not a surprise, I still find it surreal that there was relative peace over there a few days ago. 

    Like so many, I’m struck by the senselessness of it all. Russia has invaded another sovereign nation in an unjustified and unprovoked attack, and the exact reasons why still aren’t entirely clear. Was it purely for conquest and to take back former Soviet territories? Was it to make a power play against NATO? There’s no obvious reason (that I’ve heard) as far as natural resources or great strategic advantage that makes this move make obvious sense. 

    The opening days of this war have been a debacle for Russia. Even if they overtake Kiev, it already seems apparent that they will never be able to occupy Ukraine among fierce resistance efforts and a global community who is increasingly coming to the support of Ukraine. It seems that Putin underestimated Ukraine and overestimated his military. The Russians were ill-prepared and ill-equipped for this invasion and to weather a strong resistance. 

    Putin’s miscalculation has done incredible damage to Russia. Looked upon as one of the world’s super powers, this botched invasion has made Russia’s military look incompetent. 

    But what happens next? Putin has talked of a nuclear alert in his military, though many see this as little more than saber rattling. It’s still a scary prospect. 

    All the while, the people of Russia will suffer for this. I feel bad for both Ukraine and Russia. I feel sorry for Russian soldiers who were thrown into a pointless war. It’s estimated that the Russians have lost more soldiers in less than a week in Ukraine than America lost in nearly nine years in Iraq. The world has ratcheted up economic sanctions against Russia. Russian citizens are going to suffer consequences for a war that I have no doubt that the average Russian never wanted to fight. 

    And certainly, I feel bad for the people of Ukraine who have had their lives and country turned upside down. 

    In America, for the first time in a long time, I feel like we all agree on an issue that matters. Russia had no right to do what they did. It cannot get much more clear cut of a country being in the wrong. 

    I’m not an expert. I’m just sharing my thoughts and observations today. On this day, I’m hopeful that it won’t escalate into a massive global war, but sadly, I could be wrong. But the concern that I have is still that it’s going to get worse before it gets better. What happens with Russia when this is over. Do we just absolve Putin of war crimes? 

    Will the western world cut Russia out of the club? I mean, after we figure out how to get away from Russian oil and gas. Or will we continue to condemn and sanction Russia and still be a customer? 

    Wisdom of the Crowd

    There’s this idea called Wisdom of the Crowd which is about how a greater number of inputs from people is closer to the right answer than what the average individual person would be. The classic example is if you have a jar of jellybeans and are asked to guess how many beans are int he jar, you might end up being way off. But if you have 50 guesses, 100 guesses, and if you average those guesses, it’s often pretty close to accurate. 

    I feel like the average person knows that we need to get off of Russian oil. Sadly, politicians often do not have the wisdom of the masses. 

    Thanks for reading. 

  • Grumbling: when we forget God’s goodness

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    In the Book of Exodus, God had worked in mighty ways for the Israelites. He had brought a series of plagues against the Egyptians. He dramatically parted the waters of the Red Sea. Once the Israelites were in the desert, God continued to lead. But through a series of uncertain events, the Israelites continued to respond by grumbling.

    They ran low on water. Israel grumbled. God provided water. They didn’t have food. Israel grumbled. God provided food. After all that the Lord had done, the people should have trusted that God would provide.

    But their struggle is one that we too can have. In spite of all of the ways how God has provided for us, blessed us, sustained us, in a time of adversity, it can be easy to fall into grumbling and doubt.

    But this isn’t God’s desire for us. He wants us to live in faith. We can be so quick to forget what God has done, how he’s blessed us.

    Forgetting can lead to unbelief and faithlessness.

    Let us actively remember the blessings of the Lord in our lives.

    We forget about his past blessings and forget about his future promises.

    And so we grumble.

    God is the Lord of our past, present, and future.

    God has promise all of his children a wonderful and glorious future.

    And between now and then, he has not abandoned us in the desert.

    God is God of your life today.

    If you’ve placed faith in Jesus, you know that you’re a sinner, saved by grace, and know that Jesus saved you, you have that to thank God for.

    Ad that’s the most important thing of all.

    He redeemed you. He saved you from the penalty of sin. To remember that the Lord is good. The Israelites lose sight of that.

    To remember that God made everything and that everything belongs to him.

    You’re here today. Which means that God has provided for you up to this point in your life. For some of us, it might not have always been easy.

    There might have been times of real hardship.

    But we’ve made it to this moment.

    It’s easy to forget.

    For some of us, when a blessing gets answered, we might celebrate for a moment, but it can be easy to just move on to the next thing to stress about.

    And we can go through so much of our lives grumbling, complaining to God, feeling like he hasn’t given us enough.

    For the Israelites, they’ve seen God act in mighty ways, but then they go right back to worrying.

    The Israelites face difficult situations. And they choose to grumble instead of trust.

    Part of the root of a grumbling heart is one that loses sight of the sovereignty of God.

    I mentioned earlier that it was God who had led Israel to their circumstance between the Egyptians and the sea. It was no accident.

    It was God who was leading the Israelites in the desert. It’s so easy to lose sight of the divine hand of God at work in our lives. Israel did. In our passages, they actually don’t even grumble directly to God. They actually grumble to Moses and his brother Aaron.

    As if it was their fault.

    Nothing happens outside of the sovereign will of God.

    And while they might have directed their complaints to Moses and Aaron, the real displeasure of the people was with God.

    God is God of all circumstances.

    Grumbling is a lack of trust in God. Grumbling is feeling like God hasn’t give us enough. It’s a sense that perhaps God isn’t good.

    Grumbling is turning away from God. It’s complaining to others, it’s ignoring the goodness of God, and is not rooted in the truth of the character of the Lord.

    We don’t like the unknown.

    Israel didn’t know how they’d get water, they didn’t know how they’d get food. And even with the promises and presence of God, they didn’t know how it was all going to work out.

    At a certain point, you need to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

    I think we sometimes look at the Old Testament. We see the things God did there and think “well yeah, it’d be easy to believe back then.” But people still often struggled, even when seeing incredible signs and miracles that the Lord was doing.

    Because it’s not constant wonderment and awe. We live in the real world and it’s really imperfect.

    But when we don’t know what’s going to happen, when we don’t see the clearest path of how we’re going to get to a destination, let me challenge you today.

    Instead of doubting or being a catastrophist, instead look to God and see how he’s going to work.

    Do you have a situation in your life right now? That’s causing you stress? That’s robbing you of joy? That’s distracting you from God and where you’re tempted to grumble?

    Let me challenge you in that situation to consider that the same God who’s blessed your life, the same Lord who came into the world and died so that you be reconciled to him, the same God who has made you eternal and glorious promises is also your God for today.

    Thanks for reading! If you liked this post, please share and subscribe.

    Originally published June 6, 2018.

  • Sermon: The prayer before the storm – John 17:20-26

    Sermon: The prayer before the storm – John 17:20-26

    Jesus points to the love and unity of himself and God and explains it as both a love that Christians are invited into and an evangelistic tool that the church has in reaching the world. The Church is the place where all are welcome to worship the living God and that is meant to be a community where all can feel loved and welcomed.

    Sermon manuscript

  • The lost art of lament

    Lament is a topic that is often overlooked in American churches (especially in predominately caucasian churches). 

    LAMENT IN THE BIBLE 

    Lament is very common in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. We see it as a theme throughout the prophetic books, and the Bible has more books on prophecy than in any other genre. We see it in places like Job, Ruth, and Ecclesiasties. 

    LAMENT IS NOT WHINING

    It’s not complaining. It’s not grumbling. Lament is an expression of grief and sorrow. Lament is based in the reality of who God is. Lament is based in a high view of the goodness of God in a fallen world. 

    LAMENT VS GRUMBLING 

    Grumbling is not based in reality and doubts the goodness of God. In the Psalms, lament is the theme of more Psalms than any other subject. And that is the hymnal of the Old Testament!

    We also see lament in…Lamentations. A book literally named after lament. We see elements of lament in the New Testament as well. For example, Matthew 5:4 says “blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” And the mourning that Jesus talks about is mourning sin, grieving the sin that is in the world. Jesus lamented in the garden, when he asked God “if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).

    LAMENT IS HONEST 

    With the times where people lament in the Bible, God never rebukes them for lamenting.vThe heart that cries out “how long O Lord” isn’t criticized for asking.vIn the dialogue of our hearts with God, we must always be honest with how we feel. 

    Lament applies to struggles we face, times where we feel lonely or betrayed. Times where we have poor health. We can lament other hardships that we face. We can lament our own sins. God knows your thoughts and your heart. We need to be honest with God. We need to be honest about the hurt that we feel. About the distressing nature of sin.We need to be honest with God about the struggles we’re experiencing. We need to be honest about the harshness we see in the world around us.

    The temptation can be to keep a stiff upper lip, to remain stoic. To give the outward appearance that we’re fine. And I think that we can be tempted to want to appear strong. But the problem with that is it doesn’t make you weak to hurt. It makes you human. Lament is an important aspect of the Christian experience in a fallen world. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

    Originally published May 10, 2018 

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  • Water into wine and the glory of Christ. Studying John 2:11

    Water into wine and the glory of Christ. Studying John 2:11

    In a previous post, I covered the story in John 2 of Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding feast. In this post, I’ll look at the conclusion at that story which discusses the significance of that event. 

    “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” 

    Jesus manifested his glory. He displayed his glory. 

    In this passage, John uses the word sign instead of miracle. A sign is miraculous but it’s also meant to point to a greater meaning and purpose for why it’s being done. The Gospel of John actually records fewer miracles than any of the other gospels. For the most part, the signs in John’s gospel escalate in magnitude throughout this book. 

    He starts with turning water into wine. It escalates to healing people. That escalates to Jesus feeding multitudes and calming storms. The last miracle which Jesus does before his crucifixion is when he raises Lazarus from the dead in chapter 11. 

    But this is the first sign. 

    Something else that’s important to understand. I keep talking about different things that Mary, or John the Baptist, or the disciples probably would not have understood at the time. I talk about the theological significance of this event in beginning to show Jesus as a replacement of the Old covenant, of the Mosaic Covenant but the disciples who witnessed this miracle likely would not have understood that. 

    I don’t want to make it seem as though this event would have been insignificant to the disciples.

    The text tells us that this sign manifested the glory of Christ to his disciples. This was a game changer. In seeing Jesus do this, it led the disciples to belief in him. So two major things happen in connection with this sign. We see it as a sign pointing to Jesus’ work of replacing the Old Covenant with a New Covenant, and it was a display of his glory. 

    Both of those are important. 

    For the disciples, it would have been far more impressive to them to have been there, and saw the water, and tasted the wine, than it is to us to read about it. It was an amazing thing that Jesus did. 

    It was a glorious display of Jesus’ power. 

    Obviously mere human language doesn’t convey how truly glorious and awe inspiring these scenes would have to be. 

    Jesus’ entire ministry points us to his goodness and character, to his divinity and dominion. That he is God on earth, and that he is the Lord who takes away the penalty of our sins.

    The glory of Jesus Christ is an idea that we can take for granted. We just attach it to him. “Yes he’s glorious.” But how often do you sit down and think about that? 

    What does that word “glory” mean? To our ears, it’s a churchy word. Glory, glorious.

    The Hebrew word for glory is כָּבוֹד. Which conveys a sense of weight or heaviness, as well as importance. You don’t just casually look at God’s glory and think “oh that’s nice.” 

    It is meant to overwhelm. To cast fear into your heart at this powerful and glorious God. To realize how unworthy we are. And he makes us worthy, he gives us grace. And why? For his own glory. 

     Quoting from Psalm 29:3-4:

    3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters;

    the God of glory thunders,

    the Lord, over many waters.

    4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;

    the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

    Are you living to bring God glory? To enjoy him? To find your identity in him? 

    Jesus revealed his glory. Turning water into wine might not even seem all that impressive compared to the other things that he did during his ministry. But that shows just how glorious the Lord is. Doing so many things throughout the gospels that such an incredible miracle could seem almost underwhelming by the end of his ministry. 

    But it wasn’t underwhelming because it was because of this that the disciples believed in Jesus. The mighty work of Christ. 

    His signs show the glory of Christ. They show why he is to be worshiped. They show that he is worthy of honor, that he is to be believed.

    Jesus turned water into wine. He changed the molecules of water and made them a different substance. 

    His miracles authenticate his identity. And the culmination is his death and resurrection. And because that happened, because his other miracles and signs happened, because he shows his power over all of life, our only acceptable response is to come to him in worship. To realize his greatness. To realize that he is Lord. To bow down before him. To trust in him and his word because of his power.

    The Lord is glorious beyond comprehension.

    And Jesus shows us that in creation. He shows that in his holiness. He shows that in his gospel. Jesus shows that in his ministry and in his power. We see the glory of God in the mighty works that he does.  

    The first miracle John records of Jesus points us to his glory. It points us to his wonder. And it points us to his hour, the hour of his death when he took the penalty of our sins for us. We, who are not holy, who are not glorious, were made holy by the glorious Lord who took our unholiness and ingloriousness upon himself. And what was his sign? 

    Turning water to wine. 

    Jesus turns water into wine. At the Last Supper, on the night before his death, Jesus takes wine and calls it the blood of the new covenant. The next day, he was crucified and it was his literal blood that was shed for sin. 

    He provided the wine for the wedding.  The wedding is significant. In Revelation 19, as the book of winds down, it talks of another wedding feast, a greater wedding feast, the marriage supper of the lamb. And at that wedding, Jesus is the groom. In our passage today, Jesus saves the wedding, but it points to the greater wedding feast and our attendance has been secured because Jesus saved humanity. 

    And it is because of the blood of that lamb, of Jesus, that he is able to sustain the great wedding feast. The groom supplies the wedding. And Jesus as the groom has provided. And that was given to you at the moment you placed your trust in him.

    That his death became your death for you because of his glory. And that no matter what you’ve done, you can be forgiven. Because God is overwhelmingly glorious.

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