Josh Benner

Tag: Jesus

  • The sustenance Jesus gives to a hungy world. Studying John 4:30-34

    The sustenance Jesus gives to a hungy world. Studying John 4:30-34

    In John 4, Jesus has met a Samaritan woman at a well and told her of the living water that he provides. It’s also a passage where we see this woman respond to Jesus by telling others about him. She’s the first evangelist to Christ in north Israel. 

    The woman asked the people “can this be the Christ?” She certainly doesn’t know everything about Jesus. But she’s gone to her people and told them about this man. She draws intrigue from her people. 

    John 4:30 says: They went out of the town and were coming to him. 

    A heavenly nourishment

    The Samaritan woman has left, and the story takes us back to Jesus and his disciples. 

    31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”

    Natural metaphors

    Jesus refers to food that he has and the disciples do not understand his reference. 

    Throughout John’s Gospel, there are many other instances where Jesus metaphorically talks of something from the natural world in a spiritual way and the audience misses the point. 

    When Jesus was at the temple and he said that they could destroy the temple and he would raise it up in three days. He was referring to his death and resurrection and his body as the true temple of God. The people just thought he was talking about a building. 

    When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus about being born again. Jesus was referring to Spiritual rebirth but Nicodemus thought Jesus was talking about physical birth. 

    When Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman and talked of living water he provided and she initially thought he was simply referring to water. 

    And here again, Jesus refers to food and the disciples are like “did someone bring him a sandwich? Do they deliver pizza over here at the well?” 

    Verse 34

    “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

    Deuteronomy connection 

    Jesus is making a reference to the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 8. 

    The Israelites have been in the desert for 40 years and it has been the Lord who has sustained the people. 

     And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, 

    that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 8:3)

    Jesus finds his sustenance in his earthly ministry in fulfilling the will of God. 

    That is his food. That is his nourishment. Man does not live on bread alone but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Jesus lived in accordance with the divine plan to fulfill the divine mission in the world. 

    What are we living for? 

    The mission of God is everything. 

    Living on purpose 

    I say all the time that the purpose of life is not happiness, it’s knowing and serving God. And we serve him through being part of God’s mission in the world. 

    But my point of that is not that we are called to drudgery and begrudging submission. 

    Rather, the point is that true life is found from the Lord and from serving him. 

    Jesus said “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

    And that should be the food for which we all long. 

    Borrowing an idea from Charles Spuregon, we so often like to think that if we could do exactly what we wanted, if we could orchestrate our lives exactly as we wished, then we would be happy. 

    What this verse is saying is the opposite. 

    Happiness is not about what we want, what we desire, having our way. Happiness, meaning, purpose is found in going away from ourselves and what we want and following the Lord and his will. 

    We are sustained by living for God and his will to accomplish his work. There is no greater sustenance than that. There is no greater nourishment than that. 

    Illustration – hoarding food 

    Jesus says: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

    So often, our focus is on our physical needs. And not just the bare minimum of our needs. We have fridges and pantries. Most of us in this country have days worth of food. 

    I think of coronavirus. When the crisis began, there was widespread reporting of people going to grocery stores. Some were hoarding and buying massive quantities. Locally, stores were running out of food. There’s still a shortage of toilet paper and hand sanitizer. I’m not judging that. I’d be hypocritical. I want to the store too. 

    But I think it’s illustrative of the inherent concern we have for our physical needs. It’s a typical human behavior in a crisis to want to stock up on food. 

    Food is important.

    But I ask: “how different would the world be if the people of God took our Spiritual needs with the same seriousness and urgency as we treated our physical needs?” 

    An urgency to go to God. An urgency to live out our faith. An urgency to rejoice in the goodness of God. To pray to God. To overcome sin. To study God’s Word. 

    Man does not live by bread alone.  

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  • A bad king and the idea of a good king. Studying 1 Samuel 10

    A bad king and the idea of a good king. Studying 1 Samuel 10

    Saul failed to honor God, but Jesus never fails. In the Bible, we see the stories of the various failures of humanity. Man was given the law but we see that we were unable to follow the law. Because of sin. 

    God gives Israel the king that they wanted and we’ll see that he will lead them imperfectly. Because no human king can adequately serve in the role that God serves in. 

    We cannot earn God, we cannot be our own saviors, and Saul couldn’t be the true king because that wasn’t something that a sinful man could accomplish. 

    Yes, we saw that he was chosen and anointed but it didn’t matter who God had picked. A human king was going to bring problems. 

    The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. 

    The good news is that there would be a future king who would usher in God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. There would be a future king who would talk of a kingdom that was not of this world. There would be a future king who would lay down his life for his subjects. There would be a king who would rule and reign and who would show his authority, not only over life and death but over sicknesses and diseases, over nature and storms. 

    In his commentary, Richard Phillips points out that Jesus rode into Jerusalem for the final time on Palm Sunday

    Five days later, he would be crucified in that same city. 

    But on Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem as crowds threw their cloaks on the ground. They waved palm branches and shouted “Hoanna,” the Aramaic word for “save us.” They welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem as a conquering king. They gave Jesus the royal treatment that he deserved. He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Saul’s story begins with a man who couldn’t find his donkeys! 

    And that is a powerful metaphor for how Jesus was everything that Saul was not. 

    Israel wanted a king to replace God and so God gave them Saul. But as fallen men inevitably fall, God also gave them Jesus. 

    The idea of a good king

    It’s interesting that we live in a nation that fought a war to escape the tyranny of a king. King George III of England. 

    And yet we have the idea of a good king. 

    We have the idea of a king who is just and loves his nation, and rules for the good of the people. A king who is wise and virtuous. He brings safety and security to the empire. 

    Even though many of the actual human kings throughout time have been incompetent, despotic, and led poorly. 

    Many kings today are actually just figureheads who have little to no real power. 

    But the Lord is the absolute monarch over creation who does rule with perfect wisdom, justice, and goodness. 

    Jesus talked about the kingdom of heaven during his ministry. 

    And for the people of God, Philippians 3:20 says that our citizenship is in heaven. 

    Jesus invites us to live as part of that kingdom. 

    There are so many other kingdoms we want to try to live in. There’s the kingdom of self, the kingdom of politics, the kingdom of money, the kingdom of work. 

    But in Christ, we’re meant to have a heavenly citizenship and to live the rest of our lives on earth as it is in heaven. 

    We want to be the kings and queens over our own lives and say my kingdom come my will be done. But here’s the problem. We’re not good at that. 

    But we have a king who leads well. We have a king who points us to righteousness and holiness. We have a king who laid down his life so that we could be part of his kingdom. 

    And so we live as his kingdom people by knowing God, by communing with him, by serving him, by loving him, and by loving others. 

    Even though the world is fallen, we have the opportunity to live as citizens of God’s kingdom.  

    In the Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis said: “the Blessed will say “We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven, : and the Lost, “We were always in Hell.” And both will speak truly.”

    Who is your king? And where is your kingdom? 

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  • The broken person and the Mission of God. Studying John 4:27-29

    The broken person and the Mission of God. Studying John 4:27-29

    An unlikely missionary 

    At the beginning of John 4,  Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well. The Samaritans were a minority ethnic group who were half-Jewish. In the first century, there was a lot of animosity between the Samaritans and the Jewish people. Samaritans had some theological differences and given their ethnic differences, these fueled the division between the two groups. 

    The Samaritan woman meets Jesus at a well and they start to talk. 

    The woman has had five husbands and was living with a man who was not her husband. So she’s already part of a group who’s looked down upon, and she’s also had her sins exposed. Jesus tells her of the living water that he provides. He tells her of true worship of God. 

    As the preceding section winds down, John records Jesus speaking to the woman. 

    24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” 

    An incredible conversation. 

    Verse 27 suddenly changes the direction. 

    Just then.

    Just then his disciples came back.

    Earlier in the story, we learned that the disciples had left Jesus to go and find food. It’s the reason why Jesus had been alone when he met the Samaritan woman. 

    They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?”

    The disciples want to question Jesus for talking to this woman. Out of respect for Jesus, they keep their mouths shut but they’re wondering “why are you talking with her?” 

    The disciples are not perfect. We see this time and again in the gospels. 

    We see examples of their pride, at times we see them lack faith, and we see here that they are not above prejudice. And they see Jesus talking with this woman. They don’t question it, but they’re thinking about it. 

    Probably giving her strange looks. 

    It was the culture at the time. There was a lot of prejudice against women. 

    There are rabbinic sayings which go back to the first century and talk of interactions between men and women. Some of these sayings are extremely misogynistic towards women. 

    There’s a rabinnic teaching against a man even talking to a woman in public, even his own wife. 

    There were rabinnic teachings which discouraged teaching women to read. 

    I’m not saying that those views were universal to every Jewish person in the first century. But they were within the social consciousness. Every generation has its own areas of sin, and misogyny was a common area of sin in the first century and sadly at many other times. 

    But the Samaritan woman, like everyone else, needs Jesus. She needs to know his love, needs to know his grace. 

    So the disciples didn’t publicly question Jesus, but not because they didn’t want to. 

    The text says that they marveled that Jesus was talking to a woman. Let alone a Samaritan woman. 

    John 4:28:

    So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 

    John notes that the woman leaves her jar. It’s interesting that this detail is mentioned. 

    Throughout our study of John’s gospel, we’ve seen this theme of newness, new creation, Jesus as replacing the Old Covenant with the New Covenant. 

    I believe that the detail of her leaving the water jar is mentioned because it’s symbolic of the fact that this woman is leaving behind the cares and concerns of her own nourishment to serve the purposes of Christ in the world. 

    She had come to the well for water, but she’s leaving it having learned about the living water which Jesus provides. 

    So we have this Samaritan woman, who’s had five husbands and who’s living with a man who’s not her husband, someone looked down upon in society, she goes into the town and starts telling people about Jesus. 

    Verse 29: 

    “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

    Jesus has revealed himself to be a prophetic figure who has a knowledge of her life that’s supernatural. He’s claimed to be the Christ, and so she rhetorically asks the people “can this be the Christ?”

    It’s very powerful to consider that this woman from this marginalized Samaritan group is the first recorded person in this gospel to tell people about Jesus in northern Israel. 

    This story should be encouraging to all of us from the standpoint that God also uses broken and sinful people to serve him, to share his gospel and to tell the world about Jesus. 

    No one is ever too broken to know the love of Christ. 

    And no one is ever too sinful, as this woman was. No one is ever too lowly to share Jesus and be used by God to serve God. 

    Serving the mission of God is not just for the spiritual varsity team, but God has ways for all of his people to serve him. 

    And God desires for all of his people to serve him. To be light, to share the gospel, to serve others. To serve God’s mission of the world of being disciples who make disciples. 

    God uses broken people to do his work, and he can use you. No matter where you’re from, no matter what you’ve done. If you’ve wasted time, if you’ve spent years not serving God, it’s not too late. 

    God can use you. Not because of who we are, but because of who God is. And to his glory, he uses broken people to serve his purposes. 

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  • The greater access Jesus gives. Studying John 4:20-21

    The greater access Jesus gives. Studying John 4:20-21

    In John 4, so far, we’ve seen how Jesus brings the greater water, he brings the greater revelation from God. He points forward to a New Covenant which he makes available.

    In the next part of the passage, we see that Jesus also brings greater access to God. 

    Verse 20. The Samaritan woman is speaking to Jesus:

    Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 

    Jerusalem vs Mt Gerizim

    This woman was a Samaritan. The Samaritans were an ethnic group who were half-Jewish. What’s more, they believed only in the first five books of our Old Testament. 

    When she says “our fathers worshiped on this mountain,” she’s referring to Mount Gerizim. To the Samaritan Jews, Mount Gerizim was a sacred place. 

    And there was a lot of hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Samaritans did not believe that Jerusalem was the epicenter of religious life or the rightful site of the temple. 

    Instead they believed then and now that Mount Gerizim was the central locale of meeting with God. Of the roughly 800 Samaritans who are still living today, about half of them live in the area of Mount Gerizim. 

    Mount Gerizim overlooked the city where Abraham first built an altar to God in Genesis 12. There were also Old Testament commands for various celebrations on this mountain once the Israelites began to possess the land. 

    So for the Samaritans, that was the place where you worshiped. 

    It was – and is – the place where Samaritan Jews celebrate the annual festivals such as Passover, the day of atonement, the feast of tabernacles, etc. 

    So I return to the woman and Jesus. 

    She points to the difference between the Jews and the Samaritans as to the proper place of worship. 

    Jerusalem vs Gerizim. 

    Verse 21: 

    21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

    Jesus says “Believe me.”

    The Samaritan woman has the Lord of creation telling her to believe him. 

    It’s not simply me telling a friend to believe me when I share an opinion on football. It’s not you telling your spouse to believe you when you’re suggesting a home improvement. It’s not telling your grandkid to believe you. 

    It’s God telling her to believe him. 

    “The hour is coming.” We’ve noted this before, but when Jesus talks about the hour, he’s referring to the time of his death.

    And what Jesus is saying is that after his death and resurrection, neither of those sites will be the epicenter of approaching God. 

    Jesus provides the greater access. 

    It’s not ultimately going to be about either of those places where we go to meet God, because it is through Jesus that we go to God. He is the true temple. Approaching God is not about a mountain, or a city, or a building, but through a person. 

    We approach a personal God through a personal savior. The irony of the story is that she’s talking about Mount Gerizim vs Jerusalem and which is the greater place to be with God. 

    But she’s never been closer to God than at the moment when she is talking to the Lord Jesus himself. And that is true for all of humanity. Jesus is the meeting place with God. 

    Not only is he the meeting place for how we approach God, he is the greater meeting place. He is the greater temple, because he is not confined to a location. 

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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?