Josh Benner

Tag: Bible

  • Wanting to replace the true king. Studying 1 Samuel 8:1-9

    Wanting to replace the true king. Studying 1 Samuel 8:1-9

    I’m a sports fan. It can be easy to be disappointed in your teams. At the end of the season, there’s always only one champion. 

    More often than not, that’s not your team. Some teams wait years or decades to win titles. Some never even have. 

    Maybe your team has had a down year or a few down years, and you start to think about the coaches, and to think “this guy is terrible! What we need is a new coach.” 

    But sometimes the coach isn’t the issue. 

    Wanting to get a new coach can be an easy fix. You can’t get rid of the whole team. But you can fire a coach. 

    But so often, the new coach doesn’t seem to do much better than the old coach. Because sometimes the issue isn’t the coach. Sometimes the issue is the entire organization and a poor culture and an owner who won’t spend money and a front office that’s inept, and when everything else is bad, there’s only so much a good coach can do. 

    We can do that in life sometimes too. We can be reactionary and constantly changing things. 

    You look around a bookstore and one of the biggest sections are the self help books For a person who is not rooted in anything, they can be susceptible to drifting around and going from one philosophy to another. One life coach to another. One guru to another. All the while, just spinning the wheels. 

    I’ve seen people do that with faith. Someone grows up and maybe they have a nominal church background, but they’re not particularly religious. And then they start following the ways of the world and they end up disillusioned and unhappy. And they meet some Christians or start going to church. And they like it. For awhile. 

    But then something happens. Maybe they were misguided and thought that everything should be easier because they’re a Christian. The false gospels of the world can be appealing and the church becomes less and less appealing. I’ve sen people go full circle from not being Christians to being active in the church to not considering themselves Christians again. 

    And they keep searching. Onto the next thing. 

    . 

    When things aren’t going well spiritually or when life isn’t going the way you feel like it should, we can face this temptation to think we need to make a change with who’s leading our lives.

    In 1 Samuel 8, the Israelites decided that they wanted to make a change. God was on the throne. The glorious and gracious Lord. But Israel decided that he wasn’t what they wanted, and they asked instead for an earthly king to rule over them. They thought that taking God off the throne would somehow lead them to better results. 

    Teams can change coaches. That may or may not go well. But when people go away from God, that will always lead to misery and death. 

    Understanding First Samuel 

    By the time we come to 1 Samuel 8, Samuel is getting on in years. He’d served as a prophet and judge in Israel. His sons were set to replace him but there was a problem. They were wicked and the people did not want them. 

    While Samuel had been a great and Godly man, verse 3 says:

     “but his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and prevented justice.” 

    So Samuel is a great man. His kids aren’t. I’m sure you’ve seen that story play out before.  

    So we have an issue. 

    Trying to dethrone the true king

    The Israelites want a king but the issue is that they already have a king. The Lord God is their king. 

    God had ruled over Israel. He had led them in victories, he had miraculously led them out of slavery in Egypt. He had done the impossible. He had provided for his people as they wandered in the desert, he had brought them to the land. Everything the Israelites had in life was because of what God had provided for them and done for them. 

    Beginning in verse 4, a counsel meets to review the situation. They looked at Samuel’s sons who were going to replace him and they see how rotten they are and they don’t want them to have influence. 

    And they ask Samuel to give them a king, just like all of the other nations, as verse 5 will tell us.

    4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

    It’s almost like the stereotypical conversation that almost every teen has had with a parent, “but all my friends are doing it.” 

    But God hadn’t chosen Isarel, he hadn’t brought them from slavery, he hadn’t given them this land, just so they could be like all of the other nations. 

    It’s the same way with us and the gospel.

    We are desperately sinful and when we come to faith in Jesus, we come to him in a desperate need. He is gracious to forgive us. God shows his love in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). 

    But Jesus doesn’t save us just so we can continue to have the same struggles, just so we can look, live and act like everyone else around us. He transforms hearts and minds and souls and lives. 

    The Israelites were a people who had fallen into idolatry, they had worshiped other gods. They had been disobedient, they had repeatedly violated the laws of God. And here they have a desire to change the system.  They want a king to rule over them. 

    And again while the idea of a king wasn’t inherently sinful, we will see in this text that Israel’s motivations for wanting a king were sinful. 

    The people say, “But all of the other kingdoms are doing it. They all have kings.” But their kings are all corrupt! They’re pagan nations! 

    In verse 7, when Samuel has prayed to God, the Lord tells him that the people haven’t rejected Samuel, they’ve rejected God.  

    And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

    And again, God’s people are called to be different. During the exodus wanderings, the word of the Lord comes to the people and God says in Leviticus 20:26:

    You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

    But here the Israelites want to be like all the other nations.

    I think we too can sometimes want something that isn’t inherently bad or sinful. But WHY we want it shows a heart that is sinful. 

    Why people buy the Prius

    Sometimes people can want something but the motivation isn’t great. Perhaps you’ve done something nice for a person before, but the reason wasn’t really altruism. The reason was because you wanted them to owe you. Or perhaps you’ve said nice thing to a person before but it was to try to butter them up.

    Something that’s good but for the wrong reasons. 

    In 2007, the New York Times did a survey on owners of the Toyota Prius, the Hybrid car with low emissions that can get upwards of 50 miles to the gallon!

    In the survey, they tried to find out the biggest reason why people were buying the Prius. What was the number one reason? 

    Was it lower emissions? No that was the fifth most popular answer. What about the amazing gas mileage? That was just third. There had been different incentive and tax credits for buying the efficient car. That was the second most popular reason. 

    Number one reason, according to the article “makes a statement about me.” 

    So the number one reason wasn’t that people cared about the efficiency of the car. It was that they cared about people THINKING they cared about the clean running car. 

    If that isn’t the spirit of our age! Not actually caring. Just caring about people thinking you care. 

    Nothing wrong with the car. But wanting it because it’s a status symbol is a bit silly. 

    We can be fickle. We can care about our image and what others think of us. We can want certain things which aren’t inherently bad but for bad reasons. 

    I know when a person is single and wants to be married, marriage can become an idol. Marriage is a good thing. It’s given to us by God. But if we look to it as something that will totally fulfill us and give our lives meaning, we can make an idol of it. It’s not a bad thing, but we can distort it. 

    People can do it with accomplishments. Maybe a certain degree someone is striving for. Maybe a certain job someone has spent years working for. Again, those aren’t bad things. Ambition isn’t bad. 

    But it’s wanting a good thing for bad reasons when we think that we’ll finally be happy when we get it.

    For the Israelites, they began with a desire. They want a king to rule over them. That was their vision of flourishing. They thought a king would be the one to make their lives better. 

    But they wanted that over the true king, the Lord. 

    Even today, sometimes we do this. We put trust in a person over trust in God. Most prominently, we do that in the world of politics. We can look to people being as being our hope. 

    Certainly there’s nothing wrong with taking an interest in politics or what’s happening in our society. But it is a problem when we make people out to be our hope. When we trust in men. 

    But God is still the king. 

    In the Old Testament, we constantly see God sovereignly working through the nations and through time to achieve his will. God moves the kingdoms of the world at his pleasure. 

    We might not covet a king the way the Israelites did, but far too often we can look at a leader as though they are the key. 

    And they’re not. 

    God did not stop being God between the time of these ancient Israelites and today. 

    Wanting someone in office because you think he or she has policies that are good is one thing. But it’s entirely different from thinking we need that person. That becomes idolatry. There is no man or woman who is our hope. 

    The Lord is our only hope. And it is He who is the king and who sits on the throne. Don’t look to earthly kings when we have a heavenly king.

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  • 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. 

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  • The Spirit without measure. Studying John 3:34-36

    The Spirit without measure. Studying John 3:34-36

    In John 3:34-36, we see the final words of John the Baptist written in the Gospel of John. In this passage, John is giving powerful insights about Jesus and his relationship to God. 

    John 3:34 says: 

    For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. 

    This verse tells us that Jesus has been sent by God. That is important to understanding how The Apostle John treats the idea of mission in his gospel. The mission of God is a theme which runs throughout the Bible. 

    When I say mission, I mean God’s work to restore sinful humanity to himself and the work of the church in spreading the gospel through which humanity is saved. 

    Different writers emphasize different elements of the mission of God. One thing that John talks about throughout his gospel is the idea of being sent by God. It’s mentioned dozens of times in this book. 

    And while the idea is present in the other gospels, it’s nowhere near the prevalence that we see of it in the Gospel of John. 

    We first see talk of God sending one for ministry in relation to John the Baptist. 

    John 1:6:

    There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 

    None of the other gospels use the word “sent” in conjunction with John the Baptist. Luke says the word of the Lord came to John. Mark says “John appeared, baptizing” (Mark 1:4). Matthew 1:3 says:  In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Jude

    But in the Gospel of John, he was sent. 

    And we see that Jesus has been sent. 

    Jesus has been sent into the world to do the work of the Father. John 6:38:

    For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

    We see in this gospel that the way in which we treat Jesus is tantamount to the way which we treat God. John 5:24:

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

    We see a culmination after his resurrection. He’s talking to the disciples and similar to the Great Commission at the end of Matthew, Jesus says in John 20:21: 

    Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

    It is after Jesus had fully fulfilled the divine plan for his ministry in the world that the one who was sent becomes the sender. And that then puts the onus on the church to fulfill the mission of God. 

    We weren’t sent to do this mission alone. Jesus has given a helper. And the same Spirit who was at work in Jesus during his ministry has been given to all who believe in the gospel to work for the mission of God in the world. 

    The Holy Spirit has been present so far in this gospel, but he’s talked about with far greater frequency in the later part of this book than in the opening chapters. 

    But in the ministry of Jesus, we see all three persons of the trinity at work for the divine plan, and the same is true within the church today. 

    Where it says that Jesus has the Spirit without limit. There were prophets throughout the Old Testament who were endowed with the Holy Spirit for their specific ministry. 

    But they were not equipped with all of the knowledge of the Lord. 

    Illustration – U-Haul 

    When I moved to Illinois a few years ago, I  rented the U-haul truck to move our stuff here, driving in St. Louis there were a couple of hills. One thing I noticed when driving that big truck down hill was that it was equipped with a governor which would kick in and would keep the truck from moving too fast down hill. There were limitations. 

    God did not give the prophets unmitigated access to the Holy Spirit. 

    The same is true today. We see a similar idea in Ephesians 4:7:

    grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

    Yet God gives Jesus the Spirit without measure. 

    I think about the electricity which comes into our homes. High voltage power lines can carry electricity that is several hundred thousand volts. It’s taken to substations where the power is reduced but the power of the electricity can still be in excess of 200,000 volts before its reduced at additional substations. But even once you get in town, the power is still several thousand volts as it is further reduced in order to be safe to use in our homes which is generally around 120 volts. 

    You think of all the possible power, and what we have to power our homes is so minor compared to that. But still powerful. 

    If you’ve ever shocked yourself and it still is very painful. The prophets just had small pieces of the divine knowledge. Some might have had 13,000 volts, some might have had 120 volts.

    Jesus is unlimited in what he has been given through the Holy Spirit. Already discussed this morning, but because Jesus is above all and from heaven, he has the divine knowledge and privileges because he himself is Lord. 

    The opening prologue says in 1:18:

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

    God is so holy and righteous that no sinful person can go into his presence. But since Jesus is himself God, he is able to make God known and Jesus is the one who is given the Spirit without limit. 

    John 3:35:

    The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. 

    Some theology. What does it mean that the Father has given all things into the hand of the son? Jesus is fully God and fully man. Jesus is also eternally God. 

    John 1:1-2:

    In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. 

    Jesus has always been God. There was never a time when he was not God. Jesus also has eternally possessed all of the qualities of God. 

    He didn’t give up being God to become a man. He didn’t become any less God. He wasn’t a man who was promoted to a divine status later on. He wasn’t created. He is eternally divine.  

    At the incarnation, when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), Jesus was fully God and fully man. 

    But during the time of his ministry in the world, though he was God, there were aspects of his divine ability which he temporarily laid aside. 

    How exactly that works we cannot understand. There is one being in history who was fully God and fully man and that is Jesus. 

    Again, he is eternally God. 

    And these ideas will unfold more throughout this gospel, but we start to see some elements of the relationship between Jesus and God. 

    Jesus is the one who dies for sins. He bears the divine wrath for our sins. As we’ve already said, he’s the one who is sent. 

    John 5:19:

    Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

    And several other passages in this book. But the Trinity is a perfect relationship between the three persons. So one thing this verse does is it tells us that the Father loves the Son. And while we see throughout this book that Jesus honors God, it is also God who gives all things to Jesus. 

    So Jesus relinquishes some of his privileges during his ministry yet God also grants him all things. Jesus is sent by God and submits to the divine plan while on earth but Jesus is also enabled to fulfill the divine plan through his life, death, and resurrection.  

     Christology is perhaps the most intricate and complicated are of study within theology. 

    So I realize that’s pretty abstract. We’ll have other places in this gospel where the relationships within the Trinity are talked about at greater length. 

    Verse 36:  

    36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. 

    This verse is a summary of the two routes we can take with the gospel. We can trust in Jesus. Believe in him. Place our seal on the truth of his gospel. 

    The promise is eternal life. The consequence for not believing in him is that the wrath of God remains on you. Not a new idea in this gospel, but again, one we must be constantly reminded of. The gospel message itself. 

    Belief in Jesus, and that alone, is what brings eternal life. Without that, there is no salvation. 

    Jesus is above all. We are of the earth. Jesus speaks the Word of God. We create a manmade gospel where we make ourselves our hope. 

    Jesus bears witness to what he has seen and heard as one who came from heaven and who makes God known. As one who has the Holy Spirit without limit. 

    And it is because of who Jesus is that he is the one who has the authority over admission into the kingdom of heaven. 

    Because he came from there and died so that we could go there. 

    It is through him and him alone. 

    Where have you placed your seal? 

    Is your hope in Christ? Or is it in yourself? 

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

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

    The result of belief 

    In John 3:16, Jesus says: 

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

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

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

    That’s not the gospel. 

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

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

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

    John 3:14-15:

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

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

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

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

    We are spared eternal death when we turn to Jesus. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Not sent to condemn

    Continuing to speak about the salvation which comes through Jesus. 

    Verse 17: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    What do you believe in? 

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

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

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

    The consequences of unbelief

    John 3:18:

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

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

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

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

    That’s your starting point. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    People loved darkness rather than the light. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    But there is good news. 

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

    God. The greatest being.

    So loved. The greatest act. 

    The world. The greatest company.

    That he gave. The greatest act. 

    His only Son. The greatest gift. 

    That whoever believes. The greatest offer.

    In him. The greatest savior. 

    Shall not perish. The greatest promise.

    But have. The greatest certainty.

    Eternal life. The greatest hope.

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