Josh Benner

Tag: Jesus

  • Water and Spirit. Studying John 3:1-8

    Water and Spirit. Studying John 3:1-8

    In John 3, Jesus is approached by a leading religious teacher named Nicodemus. Nicodemus had heard of Jesus and his teaching and wanted to learn more. Jesus would tell him that he had to be born again. 

    In John 3:4, Nicodemus says: 

    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?”

    Water and Spirit

    In John 3:5, Jesus will elaborate further and say to Nicodemus: 

    Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

    Water and Spirit. 

    Jesus has said unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).

    And Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 

    They’re both obviously important in what Jesus is saying about how one can enter the Kingdom of God. 

    But what do they have to do with each other? Because they’re both connected to seeing and entering the kingdom of God. 

    The key to answering that question is found in Ezekiel 36. In that passage, water and Spirit are both present, and it says that the Lord will give the believer a new heart. 

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

    God giving his Spirit and a new heart. 

    “I will sprinkle clean water on you” 

    “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.” 

    “I will put my Spirit within you”  

    Where Jesus says we must be born again, it is by the Holy Spirit that we are born again. Jesus justifies by his perfect life and by his blood and it is the Holy Spirit who indwells the believer. It’s not up to us to save ourselves.

    The rebirth is through the Holy Spirit. 

    New theological term. This is referred to as baptism of the Holy Spirit. 

    Baptism of the Holy Spirit is different from water baptism. 

    That idea is first mentioned in John’s Gospel in John 1:33 when John the Baptist is speaking of Jesus and says: 

    He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

    All four gospels make this same point. That Jesus brings a filling of the Holy Spirit to such an abundant degree that it is a baptism. 

    It is a privilege which all Christians share, as we see in 1 Corinthians 12:13: For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body

    This indwelling of the Holy Spirit is foretold in the Ezekiel passage. 

    And Ezekiel isn’t the only passage. Joel 2:28: 

    it shall come to pass afterward,  that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh

    This initial pouring out of the Spirit happens in Acts 2 at Pentecost. 

    All Christians have the Holy Spirit because all Christians are born again, which is of the Spirit. And all Chrisitans are baptized in the Holy Spirit at the moment they come to faith. 

    There is no way to be a Christian without these events happening in your life.

    Romans 8:9-10 is a great passage which communicates this idea. 

    9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

    The Spirit sanctifies us, he sets us apart.

    Romans 8:11: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. 

    The Spirit works to transform a believer: 

    2 Corinthians 3:18: we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 

    Spiritual life can only come through the Spirit. That’s what Jesus means in our passage when he says in John 3:6: That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

    The flesh begets worldly sinful life. The Spirit begets Spiritual life, the new life that God promises his people. 

    There are many other things which the Spirit does in the life of a believer. All three persons of the Trinity are active in the gospel. We can’t just look at the love of God without the work of the Christ who died for a sinful world. 

    And we can’t discount the work of the Holy Spirit because without the Holy Spirit, a person does not have faith in the gospel because true faith in the gospel means a person has the Holy Spirit. 

    We must be born again. 

    Titus 3:4-6: 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior

    Salvation and the Spirit go together. 

    Jesus is the one who died for sins. But we are given new life through the Spirit. A person who truly has faith has the Spirit. 

    And once you have the Spirit, you cannot lose it. In fact, it’s because we need a work of the Holy Spirit that we can have assurance of salvation. Because it is God who works in us through the Spirit. 

    Jesus has said that we must be born of water and Spirit. Returning to our passage in John 3. 

    Is John 3 talking about water baptism? 

    Some take that to refer to water baptism. It seems logical. But there are a few things to keep in mind: Water baptism is not mentioned anywhere else in this passage. The Great Commission and the command to baptize have not yet been given. 

    Just because water is mentioned does not mean that baptism must be in mind. In our next chapter, John 4, Jesus talks of the water he provides and how the one who drinks of it will never thurst. In John 7, Jesus talks of the living water which he supplies and in that Jesus is using water to refer to the Holy Spirit. 

    Jesus criticizes Nicodmeus for not understanding what he’s saying. If he’s referring to water baptism, that rebuke makes little sense. How would Nicodemus be expected to understand the ordinance of water baptism before it had been given to Chrsitians? 

    But it would make sense to expect Nicodemus to understand Ezekiel 36. 

    Baptism IS important, but baptism is an action that is symbolic of your inward faith, a faith where God has poured his Spirit upon his people. Baptism does nothing if you are not ultimately born again. And that’s true regardless of if someone believes in believer’s baptism or infant baptism. The baptism must ultimately be accompanied by faith. 

    Given his study of the Bible, given the promises of God giving his spirit, given the Ezekiel 36 promise of a new heart, for all of these reasons, for Nicodemus, it should not be a logical leap that a new birth, a new life would be necessary in truly coming to faith in God.

    We often miss this point too.

    The Bible constantly talks of the necessity of faith, the Bible constantly talks of our sin. Throughout the gospels, we see constant references to Jesus’ death for our sin.

    And yet we so often face the temptation to think our standing before God is based on ourselves.

    Verses 7 and 8, Jesus says: 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’  8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 

    Jesus gives an illustration based on the weather. 

    Jesus was telling this to people before modern meteorology. 

    But even still, to the average person, we don’t really know how the wind works, or what causes its changes. Yet we feel it, we see the impact it has, we hear it. 

    Jesus says “so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  

    The point is that there is evidence of the work of the Spirit in the life of a believer. We don’t always understand how the spirit works but his work in the life of a believer is evident. 

    And I again refer us back to Ezekiel 36:27:

    I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

    Israel was given the law and continued to sin. In the new covenant, God gives his Holy Spirit and it is by his Spirit that we are enabled to follow his laws.

    God works within his own people enabling us to do the will of God. That is a tremendous grace which God gives to the world. 

    That’s not to say that you will never sin again. That’s not to say you will never struggle again. At the moment you come to faith, you are justified before God by the justifying work of Christ. You’re forgiven in an instant, indwelled with the Holy Spirit. But the rest of life is meant to be a journey of growing in faith and holiness. 

    You must be born again

    Have you been born again? Has your life been changed by the gospel? 

    God does a heart transplant whenever someone comes to faith. He gives a new heart. Do you have joy in the Lord? Love for God? Are there areas where you’ve seen fruit in your life?

    Do you have confidence in God’s goodness and his promises? Do you have a greater appreciation for the weight of your own sin? Do you feel like your life has been oriented around God?

    Being born again results a life that is transformed because it is not about our strength to live in a Godly manner but God works in us.

    So that is the command which Jesus has given. That for a person to enter the kingdom of heaven, being born again is necessary. Again, it’s not just my opinion on the subject. 

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  • Sermon: Jesus, Peter, and the Priest – John 18:12-27

    Sermon: Jesus, Peter, and the Priest – John 18:12-27

    This passage goes back and forth between two simultaneously occurring stories. You have Jesus arrested and taken before the high priest meanwhile Peter tries to follow Jesus, gets cold feet, and denies Jesus three times. It’s a contrast between Jesus standing up to the authorities to the truth of who he is and Peter folding and denying even knowing Jesus. It’s a passage about faith, our fallenness, and the savior who forgives.

    Sermon transcript

  • Cleansing the temple. Studying John 2:13-17

    Cleansing the temple. Studying John 2:13-17

    Passover in the first century 

    In Jesus’ day, at Passover, it was a time of year when Jewish people from all over the Roman world would come to Jerusalem to observe this sacred holiday. 

    Imagine that you’re a Jewish person in the first century and you’ve gone to the temple for Passover. It’s not a temple. It’s THE temple. 

    And then you see a man you’ve never seen before. You don’t know who he is. Maybe you can’t even hear his words, but he has some sort of whip that he’s made and he’s driving the merchants away from the Temple. He’s driving the oxen and the sheep away from the temple. 

    Jesus in the Temple

    John 2:13:

    The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 

    The opening of this passage ties the story to a time of year. It’s Passover. Passover is an annual Jewish holiday which celebrates the Jews being freed from Egyptian slavery at the beginning of the Exodus. It would also be at the time of Passover when Jesus was crucified. 

    At this time, Passover was celebrated in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was, and is, a monumentally important city. It had been the capital city of God’s Promised Land during the Israelite Kingdom. 

    And Jesus goes to the Temple. 

    Throughout this Gospel of John, the apostle makes several references to various Jewish holidays. And he frequently makes references to Passover. We see it here in chapter 2 as well as John mentioning Jesus being part of the Passover festivities in chapters 6 and 11. 

    John is referring to different years. 

    John tells us what Jesus sees. Verse 14: In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 

    As I mentioned, Jewish people would have come from great distances to celebrate Passover. And part of Passover involved making various animal sacrifices. 

    The sacrifices had to be animals that were healthy, without blemish, without defect. But if you were traveling from a great distance, tending to an animals and keeping them unharmed and healthy as you journeyed could be a pretty daunting task. 

    So what many would actually do was buy an animal at the temple. 

    Defiling the temple

    So that’s the first group. People who are selling the livestock. 

    The text also refers to money changers at the temple. What that’s referring to is that when people would give money to the temple, it had to be the appropriate currency and so they could exchange their coins for the appropriate coins which would be used in Jerusalem…for a fee, of course. 

    So between people selling livestock, and money-changers, the Temple grounds became an area of commerce at Passover. 

    That’s a problem. 

    Verse 15-16: 

    And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”

    So Jesus drives the merchants out of the Temple. 

    When is the temple cleansed?

    One other thing which should be noted. While we’re at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus and he’s clearing out the temple. 

    In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we see Jesus clearing out the temple, cleansing the temple at the end of his ministry. 

    In Mark and Luke, Jesus’ cleansing the temple actually precipitates the religious authorities seeking to have him crucified. 

    At the end of the temple cleansing in Luke 19, it says:

    And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him (Luke 19:47).

    Why is the story found at two different times? 

    Some scholars have argued that John moved the story up because he’s more concerned with themes than chronology and that he did this for theological reasons. 

    I think there’s a simpler solution. 

    I believe Jesus cleansed the temple on two different occasions. Jesus does it here in John 2 at the beginning of his ministry. Then he does it again a couple years later and it is that later event which is recorded in the other gospels. 

    If you compare the story in John to the story in the other gospels, the things Jesus says are different, the sins Jesus is exposing are different. John did not move up an event. He is describing an entirely different event from the other gospels.  

    Once again, John’s Gospel ends by saying that Jesus did more than could ever be recorded (John 21:25). It’s certainly possible that Jesus cleansed the temple more than once. 

    To say that John just moved the story up overlooks that John actually focuses a lot on timing.

    Do not make my father’s house a house of trade

    Jesus drives the people out and he says: “do not make my Father’s house a house of trade” (John 2:16). 

    The merchants are taking a sacred space and commercializing it. Jesus has righteous indignation at what they’re doing. It’s not that selling livestock or charging a fee to exchange currency are inherently bad things in themselves. 

    But it’s the misuse of the temple property that is an offense to Jesus. 

    Undermining the sacred 

    As a society, we often overlook the sacredness of life and institutions. 

    Marriage is sacred but nearly half of them end in divorce. Our world doesn’t treat it as sacred, set apart, and from the Lord. 

    Life is sacred. But in America, nearly a million babies are aborted every single year. More and more states are legalizing euthanasia for people who are terminally ill. In European countries who allow euthanasia, there’s an increasing push to allow euthanasia for young, able bodied people who suffer from depression. That’s not meant to criticize people who have depression, but to criticize a society who would give justification and legal legitimacy to a person opting to end their own life. Life is sacred. 

    The name of the Lord is sacred, but people throw that around and curse by it. We must have reverence for God. 

    And that’s one of the mistakes that cultural Christianity makes. We make God someone we casually approach. We couldn’t approach him at all but for the work of Christ. We were so unholy, so unworthy that it took Jesus’ death to make us worthy. 

    And for that, let us praise the Lord. 

    But may we not lose sight of the holiness of God because Jesus brings redemption. Let the work that he has done, the price that he has paid, the grace that he extends further deepen our appreciation and reverence for God’s sacred character and righteousness. 

    You can never have too high a view for the holiness and sacredness of God. Jesus is at the temple and they’ve turned it into a marketplace. 

    While churches might not do that specific thing, there are still many things which American churches do which totally undermines the sense of reverence which we should have for the bride of Christ. 

    Churches often pander to the culture to try to get people in the doors. 

    I recently asked members in a theological Facebook group of the most ridiculous gimmicks they’ve seen churches resort to. 

    One church did a guns and Jesus study where they had a brief devotional and then went shooting. 

    One church turned their sanctuary into a haunted house for halloween. 

    A pastor did an advent series where he wore a different costume every week including a Frosty the Snowman one week, Buddy from Elf another week, etc. 

    One church did a several weeks long sermon series on the Tim McGraw song “live like you were dyin.”

    There are pastors who have ridden into worship on motorcycles, hoverboards, and segways. 

    There are churches which do raffles and giveaways to get people to go. Some churches have even given cars away. 

    The list goes on and on and on. 

    None of those things would be so bad on its own, outside the context of worship and church. 

    But it’s when you feel that preaching the gospel, and teaching the Word of God isn’t enough and needs your own creativity than there’s a problem. 

    In 1 Corinthians 2:1-2, Paul says:

    when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

    Our society says “to each their own,” “live and let live,” “follow your truth,” “whatever makes you happy,” “whatever floats your boat,.”

    All of those communicate a general apathy for the world around us. 

    As Christians, we are not called to apathy. Now we can’t change what everyone does or thinks. But let us not fall into the trap of becoming apathetic to the things which are sacred. 

    Verse 17 says: 

    His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

    That phrase is taken from Psalm 69 which is a Psalm David wrote. 

    Psalm 69 is a lament of the injustices and difficulties of life and of following the Lord. Several verses in that Psalm apply to Jesus and to the church. 

    But in this place, there’s one verse in particular which would be remem

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  • Come and you will see. Studying John 1:39-42

    Come and you will see. Studying John 1:39-42

    In John 1:37, Jesus is early in his ministry and two men (who would become two of his disciples) are following him. Jesus asks “What are you seeking?” (John 1:38).

    Considering who’s asking the question (Jesus), that’s a pretty important question that we must all ask ourselves. What are we seeking? What are we looking to Jesus for? What do we do make of Jesus?

    But the two men instead answer his question with a question. 

    And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), where are you staying?” (John 1:39). 

    They don’t answer the question. 

    As they try to follow Jesus, perhaps it’s too difficult to spell out exactly what they’re seeking but they ask where he’s staying in the hopes of being with him and being able to talk to him and be in his presence. 

    He said to them, “Come and you will see” (John 1:39). 

    The response that Jesus gives is so much more than pointing out his lodgings. He’s answering the question the two men didn’t know how to ask. And in being his disciples, and following Jesus, they would have the answer to what they were seeking in the coming years,.  

    Jesus invites them in. He invites them into a relationship. He invites everyone into a relationship, into knowing him. 

    In the immediate context of John 1, Jesus does invite them to stay with him. 

    So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour (John 1:39). 

    So they go and spend time with Jesus. The text says that they stayed with him that day for it was about the tenth hour. That’s not saying it was 10 o’clock. In this ancient reckoning of time, it was actually around 4pm. In our timeline, that also brings day 3 to a close. 

    They stay with Jesus. It’s the ancient world. They don’t have cars or lights. They spend the night wherever Jesus is staying. 

    John 1:40 says: 

    One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.

    We’re given a name of one of these men who follows Jesus. It’s interesting the author only gives us one of their names. We don’t know for sure the identity of the second of the two men. It is a commonly held belief that the other man is none other than the Apostle John who is the author of this gospel. He never mentions his name in the book. 

    But we’re given the name Andrew and we’re told he’s Simon Peter’s brother. 

    Simon Peter, best known as Peter, would become one of the best known of the disciples, a leader within this group, a part of Jesus’ inner circle. And so Andrew is actually identified by his relationship to Peter. They’re brothers. Even though Peter has yet to be mentioned in this gospel, the Apostle John assumed that his audience would be familiar with Peter. 
    Verse 41 we see that Andrew actually evangelizes his brother and tells him about Jesus: He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).

  • What are you seeking? Studying John 1:35-38

    What are you seeking? Studying John 1:35-38

    The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all give stories of Jesus calling the first apostles. And we see Jesus interacting with some of these same men in this passage. Yet the account in John is different than the accounts in the other gospels. 

    The other gospels all talk of Jesus calling upon fisherman to follow him, and how they immediately leave their nets when called upon by Jesus. 

    That’s not in John. 

    The order in which apostles meet Jesus is different in John. The circumstances are different. 

    Why is there this discrepancy? 

    My belief is that the events in John are recalling when Jesus first met the apostles and that the event in the other gospels recounts Jesus actually calling those disciples to be followers of Jesus. 

    When Jesus meets people like Peter and Andrew in our passage today, he doesn’t call them to be his followers.

    If Jesus meets them in John, and then calls them in the other gospels, it makes more sense of why they immediately leave everything to follow him. Because they already know Jesus. 

    That’s the first of several theological affirmations about Jesus that we will find in this passage is that Jesus is the Lamb of God.

    Jesus is the Lamb of God 

    John the Baptist calls Jesus the Lamb of God. 

    The sacrificial system was instituted in the Old Testament to show the price which needed to be paid for sin and that sin needed to be atoned for. Sin required a blood sacrifice. It was a complicated and rigorous system. Sacrifices provided temporary atonement. Certain sins required certain sacrifices. 

    Sacrifices also required worthy animals. A person couldn’t just pick out an old goat that was about to die. It had to be a healthy animal without blemish. All of that was meant to point to the greater sacrifice. Jesus is the perfect and spotless lamb who is the true and worthy sacrifice. 

    And so John calls Jesus the Lamb of God. He is the one who was sacrificed to atone for the sins of all who believe in him. 

    Continuing in our text. John the Baptist hast just made this statement about Jesus and then:

    The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus (John 1:37).

    Pointing to a great teacher

    John points to Jesus. With a respected religious leader like John, that would have been unthinkable. No one wants to lose people. A teacher doesn’t want to lose students. A dentist doesn’t want to lose patients. A hair stylist doesn’t want to lose clients. 

    But John is happy to point his people to Jesus. He’s happy to lose his followers to Jesus, because that’s his entire purpose. Pointing people to Jesus. The text says that they followed Jesus. Verse 38: Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” 

    Quite the question Jesus asks. 

    There’s a double meaning. It flows into the story when two men start following Jesus to ask “what are you seeking?” or “what do you want?” 

    But it is also a probing question for anyone who seeks to follow Jesus. 

    What are you seeking? 

    “What are you seeking?”

    What do you want from Jesus. There are many reasons why people try to find religion or turn to Jesus. But not all of them are good reasons. If you’re a follower of Jesus, why are you following him? 

    Being a follower of Jesus is an end in itself. You follow Jesus because you get…Jesus. 

    You get God. That is the greatest promise that the Lord gives to us. Unworthy sinners are invited to know the God of the universe. Sadly that’s not always the real heart behind a person’s desire to know Jesus. 

    What are you seeking? 

    Some people follow Jesus because they have all sorts of issues and think life will get easier. And for awhile, that might be true. But you’re still you. You’re still a sinful person. You still have various habits and areas of sin that aren’t productive. And life is still hard. 

    You get Jesus. What about when the going gets tough? Because the going will get tough. 

    And then where does that leave you? For some, they’re left disillusioned with faith because it didn’t give them what they wanted. 

    But the mistake was that they were looking for the wrong thing. Some are led to Jesus because they’re sold a false gospel and believe that material blessing and physical health are both always the will of God for a believer. 

    It’s often called the prosperity gospel. It’s not Biblical Christianity. It turns our desires to stuff and not to God. There are often blessings which result from the Christian life and living according to Biblical wisdom. But that is not meant to be the basis of being a follower of Christ. 

    Because the struggles still come. If our hope is rooted in what we think Jesus will give to us, it leads to a faith that is superficial. Plenty of Christians can see the flaws in prosperity theology. Yet we’re often still drawn to it. Especially in America. 

    Why? 

    Because, in our heart of hearts, there’s a temptation to think that we deserve things to be good because we like to think we’re good. We pray, we serve, we give, we try to follow God. 

    We do these things and so it can be tempting to be angry with God when things don’t go the way we want them to. 

    The Bible does not promise the Christian life will be easy. It promises the opposite. 

    You can find verses on suffering in almost every book in the New Testament. Most notably, it was Jesus who was unjustly tortured and executed. He told his disciples in John 15: If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

    The Apostle Paul was impoisoned multiple times in his life and later executed for his faith. He said in Romans 5:3 we rejoice in our sufferings.

    Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians from jail, and was later executed. John the Baptist who’s in our passage this morning. Executed. The apostles named in our passage this morning: all of them were martyrs. 

    The world hates the gospel. 

    The Christian life is hard. And life is hard. 

    What are you seeking? 

    Certainly I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with blessings. Christians often times do enjoy blessings in life, because God is good and gracious. 

    Living Godly lives and living according to Biblical wisdom is the best way to live and so that often bears fruit in life. 

    But what about when it doesn’t? 

    Many faithful people follow the Lord throughout their entire lives and continue to suffer and struggle. What are you seeking? I’m not saying we should desire a life of hardship of drudgery. 

    That’s not the life God wants for his people. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. But if Jesus is your everything, you can find joy even in hardship, even in suffering, even in sorrow, even in pain.

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