Josh Benner

Category: Christian living

  • Costly grace vs cheap grace

    Costly grace vs cheap grace

    In John 14:16-17, Jesus is foretelling his death. He promises another helper in referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit. In John 14:18-21, Jesus promises that he himself will also return. 

    John 14:18: “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

    When Jesus says I will not leave you as orphans, that seems to have a double meaning. The disciples will not be orphans both because they will be given the Spirit of truth who will be the helper with them forever. And they will not be orphans because Christ himself will return. And at the end of the verse, he says: I will come to you. 

    Scholars have interpreted that last part of the verse in different ways. But the best evidence is that Jesus is talking about the resurrection. That on the night before he was to go to the cross, Jesus was promising his disciples that he would come back. 

    Given what will follow, I believe that is what makes the most sense because Jesus will start talking to the disciples about what is revealed and what the world is blind to, both in light of the resurrection. 

    There is an immediacy to Christ’s coming back which I think fits better with the resurrection appearances. 

    John 14:19: Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 

    Here, Jesus is clearly talking about the circumstances of his death and resurrection. When he says the world will see me no more, it’s referring to the sinful and fallen humanity. Those who are not of God and who are not his disciples. And on the eve of his death on the cross, it is true that the world will not see him again. 

    His resurrection appearances will be exclusively to those who are his disciples or to those who will become his disciples, such as when he appears to Saul. And while the world will not see him again, the disciples will see the risen Lord. This will be covered in chapters 20 and 21 of this gospel. 

    And not only will the disciples see Jesus, they will have life because of Jesus. 

    Because I live, you also will live. 

    Life in Christ has been talked about all throughout this gospel. 

    In John 11, when Jesus’ friend Lazarus had died, Jesus had proclaimed:

    “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 

    The Gospel 

    Again, the world loves to create its own gospel. It loves to undermine the truth. It loves to tell you there are other ways. It loves to tell you that you can make your own way. 

    But the Gospel of John is continually confronting us with the fact that it is Christ and Christ alone who is the way to life and who is the giver of true life. That there is one gospel and this is it. That Jesus would go to the cross and die for the sins of the world. 

    John 14:20: In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

    In the day that Jesus is raised from the dead. On the first Easter, you will know. When you encounter Jesus, you will know. And we too are invited to know the risen Lord. To know that he died, and rose, and lives forever and that life is found in him. We are invited to know him and live in the truth of who he is and what he has done through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

    John 14:21: Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

    It’s noteworthy that Jesus is mentioning obedience to his commands for the second time. When he says whoever has my commandments and keeps them, the point is that it’s not just knowing his commands. It’s also about following….Him. 

    Grace and Law 

    There is this complicated balance within churches of grace and law. Too many churches go too far to one extreme or the other. 

    If you go too far to the extreme of law, you have a church that’s very legalistic and self-righteous. The danger of that is that you can start to withdraw your faith from Jesus and ultimately start to put your faith in yourself. Your goodness, your righteousness. 

    And when you do that, you’ve missed the whole point. 

    You can follow a bunch of rules and not even believe in the gospel at all. Following all the rules is worthless without faith because you’ll never be good enough. 

    But on the other side of the coin, you have churches that go too far to the grace where we lose sight of the commands of Christ and accountability, and repentance 

    The danger of this is that we can start treating grace like it’s a license to sin. 

    God is loving. So it doesn’t ultimately matter what you do because he’s a loving God who loves to love people. 

    This devolves into what Dietrich Bonhoffer called “cheap grace.” 

    And what that means is that it cheapens the gospel, it cheapens what Christ has actually called us to. 

    Quoting from the Cost of Discipleship. I’ve read this before but it’s a classic. 

    Cheap grace 

    “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

    Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

    Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

    Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.” 

    What we need is balance between the two. Now it’s interesting in our passage. 

    And I think the key to balancing all of that is right in our passage. Let’s look again. 

    Jesus says: you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 

    Jesus speaks of his unity with the Father. He’s said similar things elsewhere in this gospel. 

    But what’s unique to this passage is that Jesus also adds and you in me, and I in you. 

    That we will be in Christ. That when we have faith in the gospel, we are united with Christ. That’s not to say that we are Christ, or are somehow deified. 

    But we are forgiven in Christ. We are loved in Christ.We have union in Christ.  

    Jesus and the Father have perfect unity with each other. And we have a share of that when we are in Christ. Now we are still human and still sinful so it is not yet the perfected union that it will be. But we are in Christ and Christ is in us through the Spirit. 

    And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 

    That to love Jesus is to be loved by God. Because Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the one whom God sent. Jesus is the one who goes to God on our behalf. Jesus is the one who sits at the right hand of God. 

    Again, John’s Gospel does not give wiggle room. Jesus is not just a great teacher. 

    He is the way, the truth, and the life, and he is the one who gives us the privilege of being loved by God. 

    And Jesus says he will love us and manifest himself to us. 

    That we will have a greater and greater sense of the truth and love that are in Christ, as a result of having the Spirit, as we live for Christ and walk with Christ. 

    And that is why our lives matter and what we do matter. 

    Because our lives are not our own. When we truly know Jesus, when we truly love Jesus, that Jesus changes us from the inside out. True faith creates a new person who can never again be the same. 

    And the world does not understand that message. 

    The world thinks Christianity is just a guy telling people to be good, and mocking that idea because anyone should be able to figure that out on their own. 

    Christianity is living a new Spiritual life in Christ to the glory of God. 

    And because we’re still finite people living in a fallen world, we will do that imperfectly, and the good news is that there is grace and forgiveness when we fail. 

    But the costly grace of the gospel is that Jesus calls us to live for he who paid the ultimate price for our forgiveness. 

    And that’s either beautiful to you or detestable. 

    It’s either the wisdom of God or it’s an absurdity. 

    But what is it to you? Is it the bedrock on which to build your life? And is it shaping who you are?

  • Another Helper. John 14:15-16

    Another Helper. John 14:15-16

    In 2019, Merrill Lynch and Age Wave did a survey on Americans over the age of 55 on the subject of end of life planning. 45% of those over the age of 55 did not have a living will. 

    And when it came to having a living will, an advanced directive in terms of end of life decisions, and a power attorney, that applied to just 18% of those surveyed over the age of 55. You might think “well maybe those legal affairs aren’t equally relevant for everyone.” 

    That may be. But in the same survey, nearly half of respondents – 43 percent – expressed worry that they lacked an advocate to look out for their interests at the end of their life. Planning for death is not an enjoyable task. 

    On the night before he was to go to the cross, Jesus was telling the disciples of the provision he was going to make for them when he was gone. He knew the agony and torture that awaited him. But here he is thinking about his disciples. 

    He was going away to the Father, but Jesus told the disciples that he would not leave them as orphans. In John 14:15-21, Jesus talks about two provisions which he made for the disciples. 

    The promise of the Holy Spirit, and the promise of his return. 

    1. The Promise of the Holy Spirit 

    Jesus tells his disciples: If you love me, you will keep my commands. 

    D.A. Carson points out that this is actually the first time in the Gospel of John where Jesus has called the disciples to love him. Jesus has talked of his love for the Father, and the Father’s love for him. Jesus has talked of his love for the disciples, and he’s called the disciples to love each other. 

    He’s talked about the importance of loving the Father. He’s talked about eternal life. But here he talks of the importance of loving him. 

    And love results in keeping his commands. Truly knowing Jesus, truly getting it with the gospel results in a life that is changed by the gospel. And so as a result of verse 15, Jesus continues speaking.

    John 14:16-17: 

    16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 

    Studying the word “paraclete” 

    In verse 16, Jesus says that he will give another Helper. 

    That’s the word the ESV uses. It comes from the Greek word “paraclete.” And the way that word is translated varies quite a bit in English Bibles. 

    NASB, and New King James Version also translate the term as “helper.” The King James says “comforter.” NIV and NLT say “advocate.”  The Christian Standard Bible says “counselor.” The Message says “friend.”

    It’s such a rich and multi-faceted term that I think English translations struggle to capture the full meaning of the word.In a sense, all of those translations are right because they all capture different aspects of the meaning. The Spirit is all of those things. He is our helper, comforter, advocate, counselor, and friend. 

    Instead of talking about which one of those words is best, I think it’s helpful to take a moment and get a sense of how the word is used in the Bible and to allow that to paint the picture of what the paraclete, the helper, does. 

    Also, it’s worth nothing that Jesus says “another helper,” and he says that because he too is a paraclete. Jesus is the first helper. It is the Spirit who is the second helper who will come after Jesus has gone. 

    The Greek word paraclete is used four times in John’s Gospel and once in 1 John 2:1. And that is the extent of the usage of that term in the New Testament. 

    Atchafalaya river 

    In the book Creature of the Word, the authors give an illustration about a river in Louisiana called the Atchafalaya. It’s an important river for industrial and commercial activities. But it is totally dependent upon the Mississippi River. 

    It’s a distributary that breaks off of the Mississippi, but otherwise has no other water source. So if the water on the Mississippi is high, the Atchafalaya will be high. If the Mississippi is low, the Atchafalaya will be low. But ultimately, the Atchafalaya owes all that it has to something outside of itself. 

    The river achieves what it achieves because of its source. So it is with the Holy Spirit. End of verse 16. Jesus has talked of how he will provide this helper, this paraclete. To be with you forever. 

    Jesus had an earthly ministry that lasted for a finite amount of time. It was short. About three years. But he gives the Holy Spirit which we will have forever. 

    When Jesus was saying these words, that had not yet been realized. The disciples had not yet been indwelled by the Spirit. 

    Theology – Holy Spirit 

    In the New Covenant, the people of God, who have faith in the gospel will have the Spirit of God dwelling in them. And so when Jesus says If you love me, you will keep my commands, that is ultimately true due to the work of the Spirit. 

    Love for Christ, obedience to Christ, and the Holy Spirit will all work together in New Covenant. Because it will be the Holy Spirit who enables people to obey Christ. 

    The world so often misunderstands the heart of the gospel, and of the Christian life. 

    And sadly still, too many Christians misunderstand this. And what we misunderstand is the Spiritual aspect of faith. The Bible is not teaching us “just be good and God will love you.” That’s what the world often thinks Christianity is. And again, too many Christians think that way too. Strive to be good enough. 

    That is exactly what the gospel is not. 

    We are saved by grace. 

    But. 

    For a person who truly has faith, they have the Spirit and the Spirit works in them. And it is that which results in a life that is changed by the gospel. 

    Christianity is not YOU be good enough so God will accept you. 

    It’s that you’re not good enough. But on the merit of Christ, God will accept you. And for the person who truly has faith in Christ, they have the Spirit, and it is the Spirit who works goodness through them. So we are not saved because of our own goodness. But to have a life that is unaffected by the gospel shows that someone doesn’t truly have the gospel. 

    That is why Jesus says If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 

    Because in the New Covenant, the time we’re in now, true love for Jesus is in the Spirit. 

    The Holy Spirit has a ministry which carries on the work of Christ. 

    Without its source, the river dries up. 

    -It is by the Holy Spirit that we are born again when we have faith in Christ. 

    -The Holy Spirit teaches us and points us to truth and to righteousness. 

    -The Holy Spirit bears fruit in our lives which enables true believers to live according to the virtues which were valued and exemplified by Christ. 

    -The Spirit equips us with Spiritual gifts to use in order to serve God and build up his kingdom. 

    -The Spirit does convict us of sin while also working to sanctify and transform us to greater love for God.

  • Sermon: Calming the storm – Mark 4:35-41

    Sometimes Jesus meets us in the storm. In this passage, the disciples find themselves out on the Sea of Galilee when they get caught up in a ferocious storm. Why are they there? Because Jesus had them get on the boat. Where’s Jesus? He’s asleep on the boat. But when he wakes up, he will respond in a way which will leave the disciples with fear and awe, as they question “who is this?”

    Sermon manuscript

  • 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.