Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
In the letter of 1 John, it is stated that God has given a testimony about Jesus Christ. The testimony is that Jesus came by water and blood, and the Holy Spirit testifies to this truth. There are three witnesses: the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and they all agree. This testimony is important for Christians to have assurance that they belong to Jesus. The testimony assures believers of eternal life in Jesus. The Holy Spirit helps people understand and believe this testimony. If you have your Bibles, do grab them and make your way to the letter of 1 John. We'll find ourselves in this epistle this morning in 1 John, chapter 5. And for our Scripture reading in particular, we will be in 1 John, chapter 5, verses 6 through 12. 1 John 5, verses 6 through 12. And these are the words of the God who cannot lie. This is He who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. Not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. For this is the testimony of God, that He is born concerning His Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe has made him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony that God has born concerning His Son. And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life, and the grass withers and the flower fades. Let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we praise You even for the words that we just read that whoever has the Son has life. We praise You for how this is so. It is by His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension into heaven, the pouring out of His Spirit. And so here we are. We pray once again that You would give us eyes to see, give us ears to hear, the understanding to know that this testimony is not just heard, it is in us, the testimony of eternal life. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. You may be seated. Well, it was just last year that Prince Harry of the British royal family was summoned to give a testimony in London's High Court. That was an occasion that garnered all kinds of attention, but not for the reasons you might suspect. Not because the media just loves Prince Harry and they seize every opportunity for a photo op to print in our American tabloids, no, the attention was out of historical significance because Prince Harry's testimony marked the first British royal to give a testimony for well over a hundred years. It is extremely rare for a monarch to give a testimony. It's only happened a handful of times for hundreds of years in the British royal family. And so when Prince Harry took to the witness stand, his testimony had the ears of the masses. Well, this morning, John shows us the even greater testimony because we get to see the testimony, not of just some prince, not of some monarch, no, we get to see and hear the testimony that the king of kings himself has borne, that God himself has borne witness. Now that may sound a little odd at first. We tend to not think of God as giving a testimony. Testimonies are for man to do. If you grew up in church for any amount of time, I'm sure you've probably heard men, women, even children recounting their testimonies. Here is how I was lost and now here is how I was found. Here is my story, so to speak. And so it may find it strange to say that God gives testimony, that maybe it's beneath him or somehow unbecoming of God to do so. But perish that thought because John shows us this morning not only that God has given a testimony, but that he has given us this testimony for us and for our benefit. If you've not been with us, we've said throughout 1 John that this is a letter all about Christian assurance for the church to possess a resilient, internalized confidence that we really do belong to Jesus Christ, that I can say I am his and he is mine. And so I can think of no better way for John to conclude his letter than by telling Christians that what you are believing in is the very testimony of the God who cannot lie, that what your faith rests upon is no fairy tale, it's not the myth of man, it's not a social convention. No, rather, you are putting your faith in the very witness of God himself. In fact, a few things should produce more strength and stability for the Christian than the testimony of God himself. And so we'll walk through this short letter in three parts. We'll look firstly at the testimony itself, secondly, the testifier, and lastly, those testified to, who are the recipients of this witness. And so I'll get the very simple main point, which is that God has testified to eternal life found in his Son. So firstly, let's hear the actual testimony itself. If God is bearing witness, we should ask the question, okay, well, what or about whom does he bear witness? And you can see we get our answer right away in verse 6. John writes, this is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. Not by water only, but by the water and the blood. So simply put, Jesus Christ is the subject of God's testimony. However, while we have our answer, this is certainly not a simple answer. It's a little confusing at first read because you've got this strange language that Christ came and he came by water and by blood. What does that mean? Well, we've rejoiced to have a number of new births at our congregation, even as we just had a baptism this morning. But every mother knows that a new birth comes by way of water. There's always some degree of water loss when a mother gives birth. And perhaps that's what John has in mind here. He's been at pains to show that Jesus really is God in the flesh, God incarnated, born of woman. So maybe the humanity of Christ is what is in view. That would certainly help combat those Gnostics who would deny that truth. But notice John makes it a point to say in this verse that Jesus came not by water alone, but by water and blood, this pairing of water and blood that he emphasizes. And so more likely, John means the waters of baptism paired with the blood of crucifixion. For it was at the baptism of Christ in Luke 3 that those heavens opened up and the words sounded forth from above, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. God's direct testimony from above that this is his anointed, beloved Son. So he came by water, but he also came by blood. It was the Apostle John himself who wrote in John's Gospel that as our Lord Jesus hung upon the cross, recall that part of the story where that Roman soldier took his spear and he pierced the side of Jesus with his spear and at once comes forth water and blood, blood and water from his side, fulfilling what we just read from Zechariah. They will look upon him whom they have pierced. This testimony is true. Blood and water, water and blood, this fountain flowing from Christ's side. It was John Calvin who said that Christ's side became a fountain of blood and water in order that the faithful could know that cleansing is found in him. Christian, would you be clean? God has given his testimony that here is the fountain to cleanse sinners of their sin, that sinners plunged underneath this fountain truly lose all their guilty stains. But you may say, no, you don't understand. I have the stains of serious sins. I have shameful sins. I have gross sins, indecent sins, complex sins that no one understands. My sins cannot be purged. My stains cannot be washed away by just blood and water. Friend, hear God's testimony. There is the one who came by blood and water, and here is the fountain that cleanses away the sin of any and all who come to him by simple, childlike faith." Well, to persuade us further, John not only tells us of the testimony concerning Christ, he says, let me tell you now about the one who gives the testimony. Right? After all, testimony is only as good as the giver. We have our own expression today of consider the source. If the source is not trustworthy, then, of course, neither is the testimony. And so we get to see this testimony, and not from a Roman historian, it's not a crowd of people, it's really not even John himself. You see, at the end of verse 6, he tells us that the spirit is the one who testifies because the spirit is the truth. John now calls the Holy Spirit to the witness stand because no doubt you could have been there at the crucifixion of Christ. You could have seen with your very own eyes blood and water flow from his side, and you could have said, oh, wow, yet another criminal has been crucified under Roman power. This particular criminal named Jesus claimed to be a Messiah, but clearly he's not a Messiah. After all, he just died a shameful death at the hands of his enemies. This man is nothing more than a rebel of a failed revolution. There were many who thought that then, just as there were many who think it now. And so what, or better said, who leads man into the truth, the truth that that Roman centurion said, truly, this is the Son of God. But John tells us it's the work of the Holy Spirit. The third person of the Trinity drops the scales from man's eyes to behold the King in his beauty, to see the Lord's Messiah. It says, Paul says, the natural man. You and I on our own cannot receive the things of God because they are spiritually discerned. The Holy Spirit must quicken our mind, cut our hearts, give us the eyes to see the truth. And so in verses 7 and 8, we get to see how the Spirit goes about this work, how he goes about giving this testimony. One of the things that the Old Testament law required was the account of two or more witnesses. If he just had a single witness, that would not be enough for a credible testimony. It's interesting, when Christ is brought up on trial, he has many witnesses, several false accusers, and yet their accounts do not align. Well, here John says we have no less than three witnesses, and those three witnesses agree. In verses 7 and 8, John says, there are three that testify, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood. These three agree. Greek's even better here. The Greek just reads, these three are one, as if to say, not just they agree, they're so aligned in such consensus, you could say they are one. There is no disparity whatsoever in their testimony of Christ. Now, unlike many who are reluctant to do the work of testimony, if you're like me, you get that letter in the mail that summons you to jury duty, and your heart sinks a little bit. Well, unlike that, the Spirit loves to bear witness, for it was the Holy Spirit who anointed Christ to do the work his Father gave him to do, to destroy the kingdom of darkness and to accomplish our redemption. The Spirit loves bearing witness. It's sometimes said, with all reverence, that the Spirit was the best friend of Jesus Christ. His closest companion was the Holy Spirit. As Jesus himself said, the Spirit will bear witness about me. Now, sometimes in court cases, they bring in an expert witness, that someone by virtue of their training, their education, their skill set, their opinion is deemed expert. Well, I trust you could see, it would be far too weak to say that the Spirit is an expert witness who renders his opinion, because John says the Spirit not only testifies to the truth, as amazing as that is, no, he says the Spirit is himself the truth. The Spirit of truth loves to bear witness, and the question for you is, do you love to receive it, to treasure it up in your hearts? Because we can, indeed, grieve the Spirit by unconfessed sin, by our unrepentance, by our pride. And that's just where John goes next in verse 9. You see, he says there, if we receive the testimony of men, let's just ask John's question, do we receive the testimony of men? There have been some great thinkers who have gone to great lengths to say, no, man's testimony is never credible. But just think how the world runs on testimony, our entire judicial system, for instance. Every confirmation hearing of a political leader, a scientific journal, any and every biography ever written. Or just think of normal, practical, everyday life. You showed up here this morning at 10.30ish a.m., well, how did you know that? Well, the only way you knew that is some person somehow communicated that information to you, and you believed it. And we can multiply examples, but all of us live life based on the testimony of men. Now, John is not naive. He's not saying that all testimonies are equally valid. But what he is saying is that we are creatures of witness. We simply could not live life apart from person-to-person statements. So he takes that point from verse 9, and he says, if we receive the testimony of men, and we do, then don't deceive yourself. The verse continues, the testimony of God is greater. Just to set up what John does next, I remember once during a wrestling practice, we were doing this particularly nasty move. When your opponent has you so trapped, so contorted, that you really can't even move a single limb. I remember being so trapped, thinking, well, at least I can blink my eyes. That's the one thing I can move on my body, because I'm so knotted up. Well, John has now so wrestled man as to pin him into a crisis of faith, saying, if you believe man's testimony, and you do, how could you turn around and deny the God who cannot lie, the God who is truth himself, specifically, as the verse continues, how could you do anything other than believe the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his son? Let's be clear on John's point, because our God bears witness about many things. For instance, all of creation bears witness to God. You simply could not go anywhere on this globe and not encounter the witness of God. If you wanted to be particularly cheeky or snarky, and a skeptic asked you, hey, point to me some evidence of God's existence. Well, a perfectly fine answer would be, actually, it's impossible for me to not point to something that does not bear witness to the glory of God, because all of creation, every person, every sunset, every idea, every hill, every valley, whether sky or skyscraper, all of creation bears witness to God. So I'm sorry, I actually can't find you something that does not bear witness to God. And John would not disagree, but that is not his point. Notice specifically, John says, verse 10, God has borne witness concerning his son. And so it raises the question, okay, well, how has God done specifically that, testified about his son? Well, certainly he did so at the birth of Christ, that those angels showed up saying, glory to God in the highest. We covered his baptism, that there that voice said, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. He certainly did so at his death. God bore witness that my son has accomplished all the work he gave me to do. But friends, we are entirely right to see that the climax of God's testimony regarding his own son was that Sunday morning when God raised up the Lord Jesus Christ to everlasting life. That you could think of the tomb as God's pulpit. And there, God preached his sermon to the world that this is the Lord's Messiah. And the climax of that sermon was the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If you think, well, maybe we're getting a little too carried away here, a little too fanatical with the resurrection, just consider Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians, that if Christ is not raised from the dead, then you are still in your sins. In fact, you are without hope. Your faith is worthless and futile, and Christians, we, are of all people the most to be pitied. If Christ has not been raised, then you should abandon the faith and never return. Why is that so? Because the resurrection of Christ uniquely vindicates the Lord Jesus, that he really did fulfill all righteousness, that he really was the only one qualified to bear the wrath of God unto sin, to rise again to everlasting life. And if Christ is not raised, then Christianity is a sham, because that was the final verdict of God's vindication of his beloved Son. So we've seen the testimony of Christ. We've seen the testifier that is God himself. And that's all well and good, but that is not enough, because the whole point of bearing witness is to fortify faith. Testimony produces trust. Indeed, wouldn't it be odd, let's say there's this court hearing, you go through all the rigors of selecting juries and hiring attorneys and cross-examining and deliberating evidence, and right before the final verdict, the judge says, well, that was fun. Let's all go home now. I'm sure you'd probably want to go home at that point, but you'd probably also say, wait a minute. The whole point of what we're doing is to reach a resolution. We need to respond to these testimonies. Well, how much more so when it comes to God's testimony, that it summons man to the response of unreserved faith in Christ? If John stopped here and said, that's all I wanted to share, let's all go home for Easter brunch, then something is very off. God's testimony is like an arrow shot into the heart of man. And so you see John pulls back his bowstring in verse 10, and he says, whoever believes, there is the point, whoever embraces and receives the testimony of the Son of God, that person has the testimony in himself. You see, we're already parting ways with the modern idea of testimony. That's a strange way to talk. We don't speak of having a testimony inside of us. We might hear it, but it's not in us. But such is the nature of saving faith. Because saving faith does not just assent to some basic facts. It does not just agree that, yes, Jesus was a real person, yes, He really died on the cross, I'll even grant that He rose again. I hold those facts to be believable. Well, that is not saving faith. Because the crown of saving faith is that man rests in the Son of God, embraces the truth that I am a sinner under God's wrath and condemnation, and that He has provided the one and only Savior in His risen Son, and I cast myself into His mercies. And that's why John can say, this testimony is in us. And to those who do not have this testimony, John shows the logical consequence of unbelief in the second half of verse 10. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning His Son. John is affectionately known as the Apostle of Love. And we've seen why throughout the letter. He truly loves love. But the title, Apostle of Love, coming close behind that and would be fitting for John would be the Apostle to the Liars, because this is now the fifth time that John has called out the liar by name. Now to call someone a liar is, as the expression goes, Zim's fighting words, right? How many Westerns have broken out in a saloon fight because some dude called another dude a liar? If you're going to call someone a liar, those are strong words, and so you better either have a strong hook or a strong defense ready to argue. And I cannot speak to John's right hook, but I can speak to his strong defense in calling man a liar, because he gives us his premise in verse 10. Here is his reason, that God has borne witness about His Son. What more can He say than to you He has said? As Romans 1 says, Jesus was declared to be the Son of God by His resurrection. That is God's testimony. And therefore, if you don't believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the only logical consequence is that God's witness must be false, and God must therefore be a liar. You can imagine a person objecting to John, or even to my words right now, saying, no, I didn't say that. Those words never came out of my mouth. I never said that God is a liar. All I said was, let's consider that all roads lead to heaven. Let's consider how modern scholarship has brought into question the authority of Scripture. Let's consider how irrational it is for a man to rise from the dead. Let's consider man's psychological need for religion and how that leads him into delusions. That's all I'm saying. But I never said that God is a liar. And John says, friend, you didn't have to. Your unbelief said it for you. Indeed, it is a terrifying thing to stand before God and call God a liar. We can imagine it as the very height of man's pride. And it shows us just how great is the simple grip upon man's heart, that he would rather call God a liar than repent and confess. In man's pride, he would rather accuse God than accuse himself. Milton said it well. Man would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven. And, friends, this is why Scripture says, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. May God be found true and every man a liar. But when we humble ourselves before God, what does He do? Does He lord Himself over us? Does He say, no, it's too late and too bad for you? No, He says, here is grace upon grace. Here is forgiveness of sins. And John spells that out for us in the final verse. It's as if he unlocks the treasure chest, opens the lid, and shows us the treasure of God's testimony that is ours by faith. Verse 11, he says, this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life. That is a testimony unlike any other. What is it? Answer? Eternal life. What is eternal life? As Westerners, we tend to think of things in a very linear fashion. So when I say eternal life, maybe what pops into your mind is just an endless duration of time, right? One moment after another moment after another moment that extends forever. And that's not entirely our fault, right? We sing songs like Amazing Grace that have lyrics like, when we've been there for 10,000 years. What's after that? Another 10,000 years. And that's certainly not wrong. Much of the glory of eternal life is that it is everlasting. But we're right to think of eternal life, not just in terms of quantity, but very much in terms of quality, that God does not just give us length of days. He gives us the most blessed of days. Because eternal life is life without the encumbrance of sin, the drag of our fallen nature. Without the decay of the body. Without the specter of death. And above all, life lived in perfect fellowship with God and with His people. We need to see here, God gives us this life simply by giving us Himself. We are not to separate life from the author of life. It's not like eternal life is one thing over here, and then there's God way over there. Kids, let me ask you a silly question. Kids, if I offered you gum, would you say, no, I don't want the gum, I want the gum wrapper? If I offered you candy, would you say, no, I don't want the candy, I want the candy jar? If I offered you a cupcake, would you say, no, I don't want the cupcake, I want the little napkin that holds the cupcake? No, of course not, right? Kids, keep that same focus. Jesus is eternal life. Don't say, I want eternal life, say, I want Jesus Christ, who is eternal life. And that eternal life starts today. It's not just a future reality, it is the present possession of the Christian. Notice verse 11 does not say that God will give us, no, it reads, God gave us eternal life. We, of course, wait the consummation, but as Colossians says, we have already been raised up with Christ and seated in the heavenly places. And so John gives us his final formula in the final verse. This life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life. And if you don't have the Son, then you do not have life. This was the death of our first parents, that by their sin, they forfeited communion with God. And by not having their God, they did not have life. To be exiled from Eden is to be exiled from life. And so comes the second Adam, by water and blood, saying, I am the resurrection. If you're here this morning and not a Christian, hear John's words. If you do not have the Son, you do not have life. And you may be saying, what do you mean? I am a living, breathing, thinking person. I have goals and dreams and desires. I have accomplishments and accolades. I have people who love me, and I love them in return. I've got all the stuff of life. But John says, no, you do not. All those things will pass and fade away. Your desires and dreams will be dashed or swallowed up in irrelevance. Your accolades will lose all meaning. Your cherished memories will be eaten away, and people who love you will simply become dead people. Abundant life, abundant life is found in Christ and Him alone. And the only way to have Him is to receive Him in simple, childlike faith. Well, as we close, let us lay up in our hearts three uses of this awesome portion of John's testimony about God's testimony. Firstly, and hopefully it's obvious, that we go and bear this testimony in word. God's testimony becomes our testimony. We are His witnesses, and we bear that witness with our words, that we have the very words of truth. From the workplaces to the neighborhoods, you have the words of truth. And words have fallen on hard times, it seems, in evangelicalism that sometimes said that Christians spread the gospel by their actions, not by their words. And certainly, empty talk without action is no good. But so are actions without any words. Well, we just read from Revelation that the saints have conquered by the word of their testimony. We are a people of words who bear witness to the word of life. Secondly, it is indeed true, we bear witness not just in word, but in deed, in our everyday lives. Throughout this letter, John has said that the way that the church loves one another bears a profound witness. I've got a friend who's an avid runner, and he told me a story that he was recently out on his ordinary jogging route, and a man just pulled up in his truck to stop him. Now this man was not a runner. To put it delicately, he was heavyset. But the man said to my friend, hey, I just wanted to say, I've been passing by you regularly for months now while you're on your run, as I drive by in my truck, and I've noticed your dedication to running, so much so, it's motivated me to start running. If this guy can run this much, surely I can at least start. Now again, all my friend was doing was just being faithful to his routine. That's it. It's not like he was wearing a T-shirt that said, everyone must run like me. And so it is for the Christian's testimony that as we go about our lives of ordinary faithfulness, the faithfulness as husbands and fathers, as wives and mothers, as widows and singles, as employers and employees, whatever station we are in, living lives of faithful, courageous boldness, and as we do open our mouths, our words are now backed by a faithful testimony. And so let us bear witness in word and in life, and lastly, of course, even in death. Because as we read, the saints conquer by the testimony of their word, but that second part, by loving not their lives even unto death. Our Lord came by blood and water, and we follow in His train, and bear witness to it in our sufferings. And such suffering can be low-grade, right, being mocked and marginalized for the faith. It can be high-grade, being persecuted and punished. But through it all, we bear witness that we are sharing in the sufferings of Christ, becoming like Him in our death, that by all means we may attain to the resurrection of the dead. And church, how could we not? Our God has already testified to eternal life by raising up His Son on that third day. Let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we indeed do praise You, that You are the God who is not silent, that You have sounded forth Your witness in all of creation. But we praise You specifically. You have borne witness concerning Your Son, saying, This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. And we see just how well pleased You are that death did not keep Him down, that death could not hold Him down, that You raised Him up and vindicated Him, bestowing upon Him the name above every name. And we praise You that we, by faith in union with Christ, have already died and already raised up with Him to be Your witnesses here upon the earth. We pray that that would be so among us, that You would give us Your Spirit in abundance to do exactly that. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
