Josh Benner

Category: Christian living

  • The living water Jesus provides. John 4:10-19

    The living water Jesus provides. John 4:10-19

    In John 4, Jesus is traveling through Samaria[] and encounters a woman at a well. He asks for a drink. At first glance, that might seem reasonable enough but by interacting with a Samaritan woman, Jesus was going against cultural norms. 

    As the passage continues, we discover that it’s ultimately not a story about water. 

    Living water

    In verse 10, Jesus will totally change the subject from well water and instead point the woman to who he is and what he has to offer. 

    Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

    Jesus points out that she doesn’t know who he is. He’s not so much judging her for that, but he’s directing her to what she should be asking of him. 

    Jesus uses the phrase gift of God. The Greek word for gift which is used here is found 11 times in the New Testament. Each time, it refers to a gift which has been graciously bestowed by the Lord.

    Jesus is referring to the gift of eternal life which comes from God through Jesus and the lifelong Spiritual renewal which was to be bestowed upon people through the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that if this woman recognized who he was and knew what the gift of God was, she would want this gift, and that he would have provided living water. 

    Quite the statement to make to a person he’s just met. 

    But what does he mean? What is living water? I think there are two facets to that answer. 

    First, the living water of which Jesus speaks is a reference to the Holy Spirit. That’s clear based on what Jesus says in John 7. 


    John 7:37-39

    “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive

    The Holy Spirit is undoubtedly rooted in the essence of living water. But I believe that this passage is implicitly getting at the work of all three persons in the Trinity in our salvation and sanctification. 

    All three persons are active in the process. If you don’t have faith, you don’t have the Holy Spirit, you don’t have living water. And if you don’t have God’s Holy Spirit, then you don’t have faith. You have not been born again, you do not have eternal life. 

    But the way to get living water is through the gospel and faith in Jesus. 

    Missing the point

    The woman responds in verses 11-12:

    “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”

    She misses the point! She looks at what Jesus has said in merely naturalistic terms.She considers the depth of the well and that Jesus doesn’t have any vessel to collect water.

    How is it that Jesus could provide fresh water without the tools. How is Jesus to get water? Let alone living water? 

    It seems laughable. It seems like he’s making an impossible promise. They’re at Jacob’s well. Jacob, this venerated figure from the Old Testament. To the woman, it seems like he’s saying that he’s somehow greater than Jacob. 

    The irony is that Jesus is better than Jacob. And the water he provides is greater. 

    Verses 13-14:

    Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

    The water from the well will merely satisfy a physical need. But what Jesus is saying is that he provides the water that fulfills our Spiritual needs. It’s the water of salvation. It’s the water of grace. It’s the water of forgiveness. 

    And that when you believe in Jesus and trust in Jesus, the effort we put into justifying ourselves, the effort we put into trying to be good enough for God is forever quenched. 

    You must keep drinking regular water, returning to the well, the sink, the fridge, the water bottle. But Jesus eternally quenches our need for life and salvation with the living water that he provides because the water that he gives becomes a spring of water. 

    Because it’s from God and not our own efforts or merit, we cannot exhaust the supply. 

    The water that Jesus provides flows through the human soul. 

    And it wells up to eternal life. 

    And again, for Jesus, this language doesn’t come out of the blue. 

    Living water in the Old Testament

    Jeremiah 17:3 refers to the Lord as a fountain of living water. 


    Isaiah 12:2-3 talked of a future time when the Lord would bring deliverance to his people and draw water from a well of salvation.  

    Behold, God is my salvation; 

    I will trust, and will not be afraid; 

    for the Lord God is my strength and my song, 

    and he has become my salvation.” 

    3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 

    Jesus gives us access to the living water and it is through Christ alone that we can have this living water because the only way we can have it is for him to give it to us. 

    Jesus has just told this woman something amazing. 

    The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

    The woman at the well and Nicodemus

    In John 3, Jesus meets a Pharisee named Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a prominent Jewish leader and an expert in the law. He’s heard of Jesus and has come to find out more. 

    Jesus tells Nicodemus: 

    “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). 

    Nicodemus also misses the point. He takes this rebirth literally. John 3:4:

    Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 

    Just like Nicodemus, who when he was told that he needed to be born again, and responded by questioning how he could enter a second time into his mother’s womb, this woman is still merely looking at this as physical water. 

    Verse 16, Jesus changes the subject, but in doing that, he helps the woman see that he’s not merely talking about water.  

    16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 

    This woman has had five husbands. And she has a sixth man who she lives with that’s not her husband. 

    Jesus knows. But she doesn’t know him. She’s never met him. Yet, he knows her background. He knows her situation. He knows her story. And in that, Jesus reveals to her that he’s not just some guy making grand claims. He reveals that he’s not just talking about water. 

    19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

    Before this, the woman thought that Jesus was trying to offer her a way to an easier life. Never having to get water again. 

    But in Jesus showing that he knew her, he knew her life, and that he was pointing to something far greater. 

    The Samaritan woman and Nicodemus

    Two stories. 

    Two encounters that Jesus has with two different people. 

    When considering these two stories side by side, it’s striking that these two people could not be more different. 

    Nicodemus is prestigious. The woman is part of a group who was hated.

    Nicodemus is an expert in the Law. The woman has her sin exposed. 

    Nicodemus seeks Jesus out. The woman stumbles upon Jesus. 

    Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. The woman finds Jesus in the middle of the day. 

    He’s a man. She’s a woman. 

    Nicodemus is mentioned by name. She’s simply called the Samaritan woman, or the woman. 

    Nicodemus never quite understands what Jesus is telling him. The woman grows in knowledge of who Jesus is throughout the passage. 

    But the one thing that they have in common is that they are both in need of Jesus. 

    The offer of salvation is there for both of them. The offer to be born again, the offer for living water. It’s for both of them. And not just for them, but the offer is for the whole world. To know Jesus, to follow Jesus, to believe in Jesus. 

    No matter how moral and righteous someone like Nicodemus was, Jesus told him “you must be born again” and that “unless one is born of water and Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 

    No matter how sinful the Samaritan woman was, Jesus could say to her: If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

    No matter how righteous Nicodemus was, he still needed the saving grace of Christ. 

    No matter how much the Samaritan woman was looked down upon by society, Jesus still deemed her worthy of his grace. 

    Because we are all equally in need of grace. We are all dead in sin. And Jesus died for all who believe in him and his gospel. 

    With the gospel, you’re never so good that you don’t need grace, and you’re never so bad that you can’t have grace. 

    Are you going to the well of trying to justify yourself? Are you going to the well of self-righteousness?

    Or have you believed in Jesus and been given the living water of eternal life? 

  • The woman at the well. Studying John 4:1-9

    The woman at the well. Studying John 4:1-9

    In John 4, Jesus is on the move. He’s left Judea and is journeying into Galilee. He’s venturing out of Jewish territory. 

    John 4:1-2 says: 

    Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 

    First thing I want to focus on is where the text says that Jesus had to pass through Samaria. That’s relevant because it will be the location of our story today. There actually more than one route Jesus could have taken. But where the text says Jesus had to pass through Samaria, it’s an indication of the divine will. Jesus had to go this way because it put him in a place to have a divinely appointed meeting. 

    John 4:5: 

    5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

    John makes a reference to Jacob and Joseph. In the Old Testament, Jacob is the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. And the region to which Jesus has traveled is an area of land that had been owned by Jacob and given to Joseph.  We see that in Genesis 48. It’s this land to which Jesus has come. 

    The humanity of Jesus

    John 4:6:

     6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. 

    When the text talks of Jesus being worn from his journey, it is a reminder to us that Jesus is human. During his earthly ministry, he experienced fatigue. We see him sleep. We see times where he eats and drinks. Times where he goes off by himself to be alone. He was fully man. 

    This verse tells us it was the sixth hour. That’s relevant to the story. In first century Jewish time keeping, the first hour was sunrise, so in it being the sixth hour, it’s around noon. 

    All of this is setting the scene for what follows. 

    John 4:7:
    A woman from Samaria came to draw water.

    Background on Samaritans 

    We need some background. 

    When we were looking at passages in Isaiah over Christmas, one thing we talked a lot about was how Israel split into two kingdoms. You had a northern and a southern kingdom. 

    In 722 B.C, the northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians. 

    Thousands of the Jewish people from the northern tribes were deported from their land. The Assyrians procreated with the Israelites, and so you had an ethnic group who was half-Jewish and half-Assyrian. 

    That is the ethnic group which became known as the Samaritans. There are still Samaritans today. It’s a very small community of about 800 people and they mostly live in Israel. There are some very significant distinctions between Jewish people and Samaritans. 

    Samaritans do not believe the entire Old Testament is scripture. They only believe in the first five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 

    Since they do not believe in the entire Old Testament, Jerusalem is not the sacred place to them that it is to other Jewish people. Because if all you have are the first five books, the Jewish people had not yet reached Jerusalem. 

    Instead, the sacred site of worship for the Samaritans then and now is Mount Gerizim. And actually, about half of present day Samaritans actually live there. 

    In the first century, there had been a lot of animosity between the two groups. About 160 years before Jesus had this interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well, a group of Israelite soldiers had destroyed the Samaritan temple at Mount Gerizim. 

    And there was later retaliatory attacks.  

    In John 8, when he’s being questioned, Jesus will be asked if he’s a Samaritan or has a demon (John 8:48), which essentially puts those two situations on the same plain. 

    The Samaritans were looked down upon. These two groups hated each other. 

    Within a generation of the life of Jesus, official Jewish teaching from their scholars ruled that Samaritans were inherently unclean and defiled. 

    In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus gives the Parable of the Good Samaritan. A lawyer is questioning Jesus about the command to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus tells a parable about a man who had been severely beaten, left for dead. A priest and a levite both come by the man and stay on their journey, but it’s a Samaritan who sees the man, tends to him, sees that he gets taken care of. The Good Samaritan is the hero of the story. 

    It’s a spectacular picture of selflessness and love for your fellow man. 

    But when you understand that parable in the context of the hatred that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans, it makes the story all that much more striking. 

    I go into those details because the tensions will also color our passage this morning in John 4. 

    Give me a drink

    So we return to the passage. The woman is coming to the well in the middle of the day. Unusual for her to be coming to the well alone and also at the hottest point of the day.

    It was generally women who would come for water in the morning. The fact that she’s going at an off time alone suggests that she possibly doesn’t want to interact with others. 

    Jesus speaks to the woman at the end of verse 7 and says “give me a drink.” 

    Verse 8 adds the note that Jesus was by himself as his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

    So Jesus asks for a drink. A Jew speaking to a Samaritan. Verse 9, the woman is taken aback. The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” 

    The verse ends with the parenthetical comment that Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 

    These are two groups who do not get along. As he often does in the gospels, Jesus is unconcerned with social customs or taboos. 

    We see Jesus touch lepers. We see him associating with sinners, with those on the margins. 

    Even within his band of disciples, he picks someone like Matthew who was a tax collector, a profession hated by Jews in the Roman world. 

    And here we see Jesus openly conversing with a woman in an ethnic group who was looked down upon.

    So the woman asks how it is that he could ask her for a drink. But Jesus will flip the conversation. 

    Because the matter of ultimate significance in the story is not about her giving a drink to Jesus, it’s about the water he can provide. 

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

  • Eve and the Serpent. Studying Genesis 3:1-7

    Eve and the Serpent. Studying Genesis 3:1-7

    The doctrine of original sin is one that has confounded many throughout the centuries, but especially in recent decades. A talking snake talked Adam and Eve into sinning and that brought condemnation for all of humanity? 

    That is the teaching of the Bible and the event is picked up again and referenced in the New Testament as the event which brought sin into the world (cf. Romans 5:18-19; 1 Corinthians 15:20-21). 

    People question this event. Why would God care so much about people eating fruit of a specific tree? I’d ask why man felt so compelled to disobey? And even now, we continue to question the command! 

    In Genesis 3, we see a paradigm that so often plays itself out in the human heart in regards to our sin. Doubting God’s Word, Distorting God’s Word, rejecting God’s Word, doubting God’s goodness and choosing to disobey. 

    Doubting God’s Word

    Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

    -Genesis 3:1

    This is how the serpent begins the discussion with Eve. At the beginning, he introduces doubt when he questions God’s word and asks Did God actually say ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

    He is introducing the idea that God’s Word is subject to human judgment and opinion. 

    Distorting God’s Word

    In response, Eve goes to far and ends up misquoting what God had said. Genesis 3:2-3 says: 

     2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 

    The problem is that in Genesis 2:16-17, the specific command is: 

    16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 

    So the Lord commanded not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve changes God’s Word by suggesting that they cannot eat or touch the fruit of this tree. There are other distortions in what Eve says, but for this post, we’ll mainly focus on her adding to what God has commanded. 

    Rejecting God’s Word

    Genesis 3:4:

     4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 

    The serpent flatly contradicts God’s Word and denies the weight of the consequences for disobedience. Again, we see how these issues with the scripture work their way into our own decisions. We doubt God’s Word, we twist it to make it say what we want it to say, we disregard it when it’s not what we like. The results this leads to are disastrous. 

    Doubting God’s goodness

    The serpent continues to speak in verse 5: 

    For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

    I love how Ken Mathews sums this up in his commentary of Genesis. In the serpent’s rejection of God’s word, he is implying “God is not good and gracious; he is selfish and deceptive, preventing the man and woman from achieving the same position as “Elohim””

    False promises 

    After contradicting God, the serpent explains why the rejection of God’s command will actually be better than obedience. The rest of verse 5 records the serpent saying: your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

    Once again, this plays into the heart of human sin. We doubt God’s goodness. When we sin against God’s commands, we are acting as though God is holding back something good from us or that we know better than God. 

    This way of thinking treats God as our adversary. 

    From temptation to sin

    We see the response of Eve in Genesis 3:6: 

     6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 

    With her eyes, she sees the fruit of the tree is good. In eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Eve is seeking out wisdom independent 

    The serpent had distorted God’s Word but not everything he said was an outright lie. He deceived and tempted eve with half-truths. Indeed the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened. But they were open to recognize their nakedness. Eve thought that eating of the fruit of this tree would make her like god. John Sailhamer observed that instead, Adam and Eve realized they weren’t even like each other as shame and hiding were introduced. 

    In the process of this first sin, we see other issues of the human heart. We see the pride of thinking that she knows better than God. There is also covetousness of thinking that true fulfillment will come from something that Eve lacks. These elements in our decisions to sin and our commissions of sin have played themselves out time and again throughout history. 

    The end of verse 6 mentions that Eve gave some of the fruit to Adam. We’re not sure if he heard the exchange between eve and the serpent, and there’s no indication as to what his thought process was which led to the eating of the fruit of the tree. 

    Sin is introduced into the world. 

    Genesis 3:7 says:

    7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 

    The serpent told half-truths. He had given the empty promise that Eve’s eyes would be opened upon eating the fruit. That part was true. For both Adam and Eve, their eyes were opened, and what they saw was their nakedness. The serpent told her she would be like God. This appealed to our desire for glorification. The serpent told Eve that she would have the knowledge of good and evil. That was true too, but what that knowledge brought was the knowledge that Adam and Eve were now evil. 

    Genesis 3 records nothing good coming of eating this fruit. It’s not depicted as some magical moment of bliss. Their eyes are opened. They have sinned. In their nakedness, they sew together fig leaves to cover themselves. It’s an attempt to hide from their sin. But they cannot hide from an all knowing God. 

    Sources: 

    K. A. Mathews, Genesis 1-11:26, vol. 1A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 236.

    John H. Sailhamer, “Genesis,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1990), 52.

  • Sermon: The Last Breakfast – John 21:1-14

    Jesus provides a miracle for a group of disciples by providing a huge catch of fish for the group and then hosting them for a meal. In John, the ministry of Jesus begins and ends with meals and in this passage, we see it pointing forward to the mission of the church and the work that the disciples will do when Jesus is gone.

    Sermon manuscript

  • He who comes from heaven is above all. Studying John 3:31-33

    He who comes from heaven is above all. Studying John 3:31-33

    31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. 33 Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.
    -John 3:31-33

    We’re continuing in the Gospel of John this morning.

    Last week, we were looking at an interaction between John the Baptist and some of his followers. They’re seeing the early ministry of Jesus and he’s having more success than John the Baptist. We see in John’s response that he is humble to see what Jesus is doing. 

    In all four gospels, John the Baptist is seen prior to the ministry of Christ. In the Gospel of John, John the Baptist is present in the opening prologue and he’s seen as a forerunner to Christ. The last place where John the Baptist appears in this gospel is in section of John 3:31-36. It’s noteworthy that there are a lot of similar themes in John 3:31-36 to what is found in the opening section of John’s Gospel.

    The opening prologue of John’s Gospel tells us many realities about Jesus. That he was in the beginning, he was with God, he is God, he is God who came into the world, he brings the light of righteousness into the world, he makes God known, grace and truth come through him.

    But that passage is also interrupted by telling us about John the Baptist. 

    John 1:6-8:

    6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 

    We see from the outset that John has been sent by God, he’s not the light, he’s a witness to the light. 

    And the opening prologue immediately follows into a section where John the Baptist is ministering and baptizing. He sees Jesus and witnesses to who the Lord is. 

    Just to give a reminder. 

    John 1:29-31. John sees Jesus and says: 

    “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.”

    In John’s Gospel, as the ministry of John the Baptist, the divinely sent forerunner comes to a close, it’s the end of a section in this book. And in that sense, it’s fitting that this section would make so many allusions to the opening prologue. 

    Because we’re learning about Jesus in the opening prologue. It’s telling us the glorious truths about Jesus. But Jesus isn’t yet present in the story in the opening section. It is after the opening prologue where we’re actually seeing Jesus living out what has been said about him. 

    John the Baptist comes onto the scene prior to Jesus’ ministry but here John’s ministry ends and we’re seeing that what he has borne witness to is true. 

    I know I’m talking a lot about John the Baptist so far, but make no mistake. This section is ultimately about Jesus. 

    As John fades from the story, this passage concludes with his words last week in 3:30: 

    He must increase, but I must decrease.” 

    In John 3:31, John the Baptist is speaking: 

    He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.

    The text says that Jesus comes from above and is above all. The end of this verse will also speak of Jesus and say that he who comes from heaven is above all. 

    First thing I want to focus on is that word “above.” I think this will be helpful to understanding the passage. 

    Jesus is above all yet he is contrasted against John the Baptist. “He who is of the earth belongs to the earth.” In a sense, John the Baptist is a representative for all of humanity in that line. 

    A similar idea is expressed in Paul’s writings when he looks at the role of Adam as a representative for sinful humanity. 

    1 Corinthians 15:47-49:

     47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 

    So there is sinful humanity which has no hope. 

    To be of the earth is to not posses the qualities that Jesus has. It’s to speak in an earthly way. It’s showing our imperfections. With as important of a ministry as John the Baptist had, he was still ultimately a fallen person. 

    But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus is different. The earth is sinful and fallen. Humanity is incapable of redeeming itself. 

    But Jesus comes into the world with a ministry which is from above. 

    Verse 32:

     He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.

    The “he” in verse 32 is Jesus. Jesus bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. 

    To what does Jesus bear witness? It’s to the heavenly truths as one who is above all. Jesus is the word who existed in the beginning. In a world where no one has seen God, Jesus is the one who makes God known. 

    Again, referring back to the first chapter. John 1:18: 

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

    And while Jesus came into the world to reveal the truth of heaven, that he is the light of the world who brings us to God through his life, death, and resurrection, the world has largely rejected this gospel. 

    Again comparing this idea to the opening prologue. 

    John 1:10-11: 

    10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 

    It is a hyperbole, an exaggeration of speech when John says that “no one receives his testimony.” 

    Obviously there are people who receive Jesus’ testimony. We wouldn’t be here if not. But it’s a wonder that the whole world does not accept his testimony. 

    God came to earth, he had a life full of miraculous activities, he died and rose, He comes in perfect fulfillment of the Old Testament. Yet many do not believe in him. You have several ancient non-Christian historians who write about him but there are those who deny if Jesus was ever even a real historical figure. 

    It’s that the world wants to be blind to the righteousness of God. 

    John 3:19-21, Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus: 

    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. 21 But 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.”

    So we have those who do not receive the testimony of Jesus. We see that contrasted in the next verse of our passage. 

    Verse 33:

    Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.

    Compare that to John 1:12: 

    to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

    Whoever believes the testimony of Jesus, of his life, his teachings, his ministry, his identity as God and man, his role as the savior of the world, his death which was died for sinners, the life that he was raised to, whoever receives his testimony, whoever trusts in Jesus sets his seal that Jesus is the Lord and trusts in God and his promises.

    Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.  To trust in Jesus is to trust in God. John calls that setting ones seal that God is true. Even today, official documents often times come with an affixed seal. 

    If I were to try sell you some property and it was a handwritten note, that might seem a little..illegal to you. But when you own a home, or land, or a vehicle, you have official documents that have official seals from the state or the county on them. Same thing with documents like a birth certificate. There’s an official seal that comes on them. 

    Well in the ancient world, official seals were also important on documents. The seal could be very telling as to who the sender was and what authority they had. This was especially significant in a time when a lot of people could not read. 

    What this verse is saying is that the person who receives the testimony of Jesus, the one who believes in Jesus is staking their very soul on the truth of who Jesus is. 

    This verse is really a packed theological statement. 

    To trust in Jesus is to place your eternal security and hope in his gospel. Have you? Where’s your seal? 

    Do you trust in yourself? In your goodness? And Jesus is there off to the side? 

    Or is he the Lord of your life? Do you look to Jesus as the one who is above all and who came to be with us on earth so we could be with him in heaven? 

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