Josh Benner

Tag: john

  • We have found the Christ. Studying John 1:41-45

    We have found the Christ. Studying John 1:41-45

    1. Jesus is the Christ 

    I’m doing a study in John 1. In John 1:35-51, we see a series of affirmations about Jesus made by his first disciples.

    In this section, Andrew has been pointed to Jesus by John the Baptist and has spent time with Jesus and he tells his brother “we have found the Christ” (John 1:41). 

    The words Messiah and Christ mean the same thing. Messiah is Hebrew, Christ comes from Greek but they both mean anointed. This anointing referred to Old Testament offices such as the king, the high priest, and some of the prophets. They were anointed with oil at the beginning of their ministries.  And the promised one who God would send was also said to be anointed, and so Andrew goes to his brother and says that they have found the anointed one. 

    That’s not saying that Andrew knew everything that the ministry of Jesus would entail or that he yet understood the sacrificial death which Jesus would die. He just sensed a special anointing in Jesus. 

    Kings, the high priests, and prophets. People did not understand in the first century that Jesus would come and fulfill all three of those offices. But through his ministry, that’s what we see. 

    Jesus is a king

    Jesus is the king in the line of David.

    The kingdom of God that Jesus ushers in is a theme in the gospels.

    In the Gospel of Luke, when the angel appears to Mary and tells her that she is going to give birth to Jesus, the angel talks of Jesus in Luke 1:33 and says: he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

    Revelation 21:15 speaks of Jesus and says: 

    The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.

    A king is one who rules, and Jesus is the king of kings who rules and reigns with eternal sovereignty. 

    Jesus is a priest

    Jesus is also the high priest. The priest in the Old Testament was the mediator between God and man who offered sacrifices. Jesus is the ultimate and great high priest. He is the one who is worthy to bring us to God and who is able to offer the true sacrifice. Himself. 

    Jesus is a prophet

    And Jesus is a prophet. A prophet is one who speaks the Word of God, one who foretells the future, and one who speaks with authority. Jesus does all three of those things in his ministry. 

    He speaks with authority. His ministry shows that he has authority over nature and over life and death. 

    There’s a passage in Deuteronomy 18 which foretells of the greater prophet.

    Deuteronomy 18:15: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 

    Jesus fulfills that text and he comes in fulfillment of all three of those offices. 

    One thing that’s important to understand about these anonited offices in the Old Testament is that hey were fulfilled in separate people. 

    The king was not a priest or a prophet. The priest was not a king or prophet. The prophet was not a king or a priest. The first king of Israel, a man named Saul, did irreversible damage to his reign by trying to take on a priestly function. 

    But all three of these offices converge on Jesus. 

    The anointed one, the messiah, the Christ. 

    Jesus meets Peter. Verse 42. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter). 

    Another disciple. The words “cephas” and “Peter” both mean rock. This is a foretelling of the leadership that Peter will have. Right from the outset of of his ministry, Jesus is stating this of Peter, although there’s no further elaboration here. 

    John 1:43 says: The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 

    That’s the only person in this passage to whom Jesus says “follow me.” We also find out that Philip is from the same town as Andrew and Peter. Just as Andrew was quick to tell Peter about Jesus, Philip will tell someone else about Jesus. 

    Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (John 1:45).

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  • 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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  • The ministry of John the Baptist. Studying John 1:23-28

    The ministry of John the Baptist. Studying John 1:23-28

    This post is a continuation of a study of John the Baptist in the Gospel of John. John the Baptist is found in all four gospels and is a figure who was prophesied in the Old Testament and who would come as a forerunner to Jesus. He discusses that divinely given ministry in John 1:23-28. But before we study that passage, it’s helpful to look at the context of the preceding section. 

    19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

    -John 1:19-22

    While John isn’t answering in the affirmative to any of his questions, that does not mean he’s insignificant. 

    Verse 23: He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said

    That text from Isaiah 40 is applied to John in all four of the gospels. Isaiah 40 is a passage talking of a future time of deliverance for the people of God. It’s an incredibly hopeful passage. It talks of God’s faithfulness to his people in spite of their sin. It talks of God’s restoration. 

    The heart of what this is getting at for John is that his purpose is to call people to repentance and preparation for the coming Messiah. They ask John about his baptism. 

    25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

    Baptism was instituted in the New Testament for followers of Jesus. But baptism was not a foreign idea prior to that time. 

    In the first century, when non-Jews would convert to Judaism, they would sometimes do something similar to baptism which was meant to be a cleansing ritual to symbolically wash away impurity and sin. 

    A difference with John was that he administered baptism. The leaders question his authority. Hhe responds by turning the question right back to his purpose in the world. John 1:26-27:

    26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”

    John says that it points to someone who’s shoes he’s not worthy to untie. In other words, he’s unworthy of even doing the most menial and humiliating task. John would need a promotion in order to be worthy of untying Jesus’ sandals. 

    John has authority to baptize because it’s been given to him by God but that baptism is meant to point to something greater. 

    A once in history ministry

    John the Baptist had a ministry to do for a time in history. He was not perfect. He was just a man. He lived a shorter life than Jesus. Much of his life was spent in seclusion. But he was faithful. Yes, we don’t have the ministry that John the Baptist had. He had a once in history ministry. He was the forerunner to Jesus. 

    But just because someone has a different ministry or a different way to serve, that doesn’t mean that the ways you can serve the Lord are insignificant. No one would know who John the Baptist was without Jesus. Jesus is the thing that gives relevance and meaning to his life. 

    But for anyone who’s a follower of Jesus, that’s the case. It’s Jesus who gives meaning. 

    John’s ministry was to point people to Jesus. But that’s the ministry in which every follower of Jesus still shares in. Pointing people to Jesus in word and deed. Following where the Lord leads. Walking in faith. Standing up for the truth of God. 

    Those things are a call which all Christians share. 

    In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus talks of John the Baptist and says: 

    I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28).

    No one before John was greater than he. Yet Jesus says that for those who come after, the one who is least in the Kingdom of God is greater. The reason isn’t because we have anything great in ourselves. It’s because we have a fuller picture of who Jesus is and a fuller picture of God’s revelation to the world. 

    John did have a once in history ministry to fulfill but he didn’t live long enough to see the fruition of Jesus’ ministry. He never heard about the resurrection or saw the risen Christ. 

    What are you doing to serve the Lord today? It can be tempting to think that we don’t have what it takes to serve God. It’s not about your own abilities and your own power. John the Baptist was an effective minister without a lot of resources. 

    You don’t have to have a lot of money to serve God faithfully. John the Baptist certainly did not have that. He came from the wilderness. Other gospels tell us that John wore a garment made of camel’s hair. You don’t have to have all of the degrees and credentials. John the Baptist didn’t have that….he came. from. the wilderness. 

    You might think you’re too old. John the Baptist had a ministry that was shorter than Jesus’s. His public ministry was incredibly short lived. You don’t have to have decades of ministry to have a ministry that matters. 

    You just have to follow the Lord, to love the Lord, to serve the Lord. 

    What are you doing to serve the Lord? What are you living for? 

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  • Sermon: The Ministry of the Holy Spirit – John 16:4-15

    Sermon: The Ministry of the Holy Spirit – John 16:4-15

    Throughout the Gospel of John, we see Jesus pointing to the activity and ministry of the Holy Spirit. On the night before going to the cross, Jesus will give his last major teaching on the work of the Holy Spirit when he’s gone. We learn that the Spirit comes in fulfillment of God’s promises, he brings conviction of sin, and he points believers to truth.

    Click here for sermon transcript

  • The world did not know him. Studying John 1:10-11

    The world did not know him. Studying John 1:10-11

    He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
    -John 1:10-11

    The God who created the world was not recognized by his world. 

    The only appropriate response to the Lord entering into creation would be to bow down and worship him, to behold his glory, to listen to his teaching, to bask in the glow of his light. 

    But the world was so sinful that that was not what happened. 

    He was despised and rejected. His teachings led many to hate him. And his teachings still do that. The world is often offended by the very words of God on earth. 

    The world hates the gospel. 1 Corinthians 1:18 says: For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God

    People dislike the exclusivity of Jesus. They dislike that they have to turn to him for salvation. People dislike his moral teachings which expose our sin. The world loves its darkness, and when the light of Christ shines on our darkness, many reject the light. 

    everyone who does wicked things hates the light

    John 1 says that the world did not know him. 

    The world did not know what they had. 

    Undercover Boss 

    I used to enjoy a show called Undercover Boss. 

    It was a reality show that would feature leaders within companies, such as founders, CEO’s, vice presidents, or other executives going undercover within their own companies. 

    The show featured leaders for companies like Subway, True Value, Build-a-Bear, and even the Chicago Cubs. 

    Throughout a week, they would spend a day in various entry level positions within the company. They would work alongside typical employees. They would get a sense of the work they were doing.

    But for the employees, they would be working with the most powerful person in the company and they had no idea. It’s not that the undercover boss was their boss, he was everyone’s boss. He was their boss’s boss’ boss’s boss. 

    And they had no idea. 

    Sometimes they’d complain about corporate policies or explain ways to work around the rules, not knowing who they were talking to. They were with the head of the company and didn’t even know it. 

    I think of Jesus coming into the world and I’m reminded of a similar irony in that people were interacting with the God of the universe and were mostly oblivious to that fact. 

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

    Jesus came to his world. It was his creation. And the world did not know him, the world did not respond to him as it should have, the world did not worship him. 

    And it’s doubly ironic by the fact that Jesus came to the world that he made in order to die to save a world that was sinful. 

    How sinful? 

    So sinful that the world didn’t even accept our own creator when he came into the world. Many did not recognize Jesus for who he was. 

    Thanks for reading! If you liked this, please share and subscribe. This post is part of a series on the Gospel of John.