1 John 5 - Part 3

Well, let me go to the Lord in prayer. Father in heaven, we're thankful for your word. We're thankful that your word is always true, that it's sufficient, that it's infallible. It is inerrant and it is beautiful. Help us to open your word and to understand it the way that you have made it for us. So we pray your spirits help.

We also ask for Andrew, Charlie's dad. We know that he's having health issues. He's not doing well right now. We're thankful for his testimony of salvation in Christ and the generations that have flowed from that. We pray for his comfort right now and that those who are taking care of him would be able to help him in the best ways possible. In Christ's name I pray.

Amen. Alright, turn to 1 John 5. It's 1 John chapter 5. It is the fifth and last chapter in the little book of 1 John. If you imagine the little book of 1 John is like a stick of dynamite that is packed with explosiveness in a small package. And it can explode into many different areas.

Let's read the first, let's just read the first ten verses. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves those born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. We're in 1 John 5, now we're in verse 3. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome because everyone born of God overcomes the world.

And this is the victory that overcomes the world. Our faith, who then overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the son of God. this is the one who came by water and blood jesus christ not by water alone but by water and blood and it is the spirit who testifies to this because the spirit is the truth for there are three that testify the spirit the water and the blood and these three are in agreement.

Even if we accept human testimony, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony that God has given about his son. Whoever believes in the son of God has this testimony within him. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given about his son. So if you weren't here the last 12 to 16 weeks, or particularly the last two weeks, we are in chapter 5 of 1 John, and what we just looked at the last two weeks in the first five verses was the idea that those who believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, will love the father they'll love all of god's other children and that the way that we exhibit that love and demonstrate it and live it out is by following the commands god has given us commands towards god and commands towards one another that he has given us so that we know basically we know what we're doing and in doing so we have victory over the world the flesh the devil because the world is effectively always trying to tell you to do the opposite of what God would want.

And so when we obey God, we overcome the world. So now in verse 5, it says, Who overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. And so that loops back to the first verse where it says, Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. but then we get to verse 6 this is the one who came by water and blood Jesus Christ and so what is happening in verse 6 John is identifying for us who Jesus the son of God is so if you're going to believe that Jesus is the son of God you're going to have to know who Jesus is you're going to have to know what it means to be the son of God there are a lot of people in this world that believe in something called Jesus.

And not every one of those people are people who believe that Jesus is the son of God and have eternal life. And so John takes the time to identify who this Jesus is for us. In verses six through eight. so what I want to remind you of is the importance of understanding context when you study the bible when whenever you're reading any bible verse whenever you're reading a passage of the bible there's a context there's a there's a surrounding thing going on in that writing that tells you what any one sentence or verse or even word could be about that's why the same word used in multiple spots in the Bible doesn't always mean the same exact thing in every one of those spots.

And so we're going to try to use the context that believing that Jesus is the Son of God and the testimony talked about in verses 9 to 10 to help us understand what's going on in 6 through 8. So I going to start by asking you what is going on in verse 6 when John says this is the one who came by water and blood Does anyone have any thoughts on what that could mean water and blood Baptism? And then the sacrifice on the cross?

Good. Any other submissions? There's a lot of ideas that people have had over the years. Yeah, it's tough when the first guy gets it right, though. I'm going to tell you about four things that I think this could mean, that people have said it could mean, and then I'm going to tell you why I agree with David, that I think that we can actually understand it.

And what it can't mean is that it doesn't matter. All right. So you can't read the Bible, get to a difficult passage and say, well, it just doesn't matter what it means. You can say that. But I think you'd be wrong for thinking it doesn't matter. It may not affect whether you are saved or not.

It may not be obvious to you how understanding a passage affects your Christian life or how you minister to others or. Anything like that. But it is true that all of scripture is God breathed and is profitable and is good for doctrine, for reproof, for teaching, correction of in righteousness. And everything that you believe will affect your life in some way or other.

So if you're wrong about something, whether you understand it or not, you you're not doing something right. And so we want to try to tackle hard passages and consider what others have said and recognize when there's a passage that is not of primary importance. So this is one where you would be free to have different opinions on what it actually means.

And you probably aren't even going to live very differently than the person next to you. But we have to be careful because it is true that we should believe what God has said. So option one, turn to John 19. John is the apostle who wrote in John 19, chapter 19, verses 32 to 37, the following. The soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus and those of the other.

It says when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they didn't break his legs. That's important because that's fulfillment of prophecy from Psalm 34. John says instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and immediately blood and water flowed out. And so there are some people that see water in the blood in First John, chapter five.

They think of John talking about blood and water flowing out. And and they think, well, he's obviously referring to that. I actually think it's a nice image. And then it follows up with John saying the one who saw it referring to himself has testified to this. And his testimony is true. He knows that he is telling the truth so that you may also believe.

And so back to first John five, if you recognize that that after John describes the water and the blood in verses six through eight, he says, if we accept human testimony, the testimony of God is greater for this is the testimony that God has given about his son. He starts talking about testimony over and over. So I can see how this option is attractive as what the water and blood could mean.

I don't think so, and I'm not going to tell you all the reasons why I don't necessarily agree with this one. I just think the baptisms one is better. But I really like the imagery that's given here. Another option would be that the water refers to cleansing of renewal. renewal. So like in Ezekiel 36, when God says that he's going to sprinkle water on you and give you a new heart, that's something that people have postulated, that water and blood are references to his humanity.

So when it says he came by water and by blood, some people would think that's the the water of the amniotic sack. Right. We say what do we say when a right before a woman gives birth? What's the sign that things are coming? Right. She broke her water.

Right. Her water broke. And so the idea that Jesus truly came in the flesh because he came through the womb and because he had blood flowing through his veins, he was a true human, which would be a good refutation of the Gnostic heresy that we know John was was working against as well. And so whichever ones of those or if you have other ideas you believe, I'm not convinced that any of them are even of tertiary, third-level importance for what we're doing.

But I think that it's fun to dig into these things. So now option four is the one that I believe John is referring to, Jesus' baptism. And he is referring to Jesus' death on the cross when he says, this is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood. And so if you'll turn to Matthew 3. I love hearing the pages turn.

I want to look at why baptism is in view here in my opinion and why I think it's in view especially because it's a testimony Matthew 3, 13-17 would somebody like to read it? Levi? sure then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan of Job to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him from saying, I need to be baptized by you and do you come to me But Jesus answered him let it be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness Then he consented And then Jesus was baptized Immediately he went up from the water Behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God ascending like a dove, and coming to rest on him.

And behold, the voice of heaven said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am at peace. if you look at Mark 1 and Luke 3, don't turn there now, you're going to see almost identical explanations of Jesus' baptism. And then if you look at John 1, which we're going to go to, you will also. I don't want to place too much importance on this, but this is one of the few events of Jesus' life that is recorded in all four Gospels.

To me, that's impactful. It tells me that it was important that they didn't want anyone who received even a partial New Testament to miss these facts. So what we see in Matthew three is that Jesus gets baptized, which just my little Baptist slant on everything here. He was already circumcised. So if circumcisions the new baptism, he really didn't need to do all that.

He was already entered the covenant as a kid, but he got baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Why did Jesus get baptized? To fulfill prophecy. Well, here, let me ask you this. What are some reasons Jesus did not get baptized? Was it for repentance of sin?

I heard mumbling. No, it wasn't, was it? Was it because he needed to be cleansed? No, Jesus got baptized to fulfill all righteousness, it says. He says that to John. Jesus is our example in the new covenant of what we ought to do.

And even a positive command of God that has no real basis in morality, we have to obey. And Jesus obeyed all the positive commands for us as well. But at the time he was baptized, what we see is the spirit descending like a dove and the spirit lands on him. And a voice from heaven says, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Well, sorry to make you go back and forth.

But if you look back at first John five, the testimony that overcomes the world in verse five is he who believes that Jesus is the son of God. So now what we have, I think, at Jesus's baptism in all four Gospels is you have an explanation that the baptism itself, not being something he had to do for any kind of Old Testament cleansing. He didn't have to do it because he had to show his repentance or anything like that.

This baptism was the testimony that God wanted to place right here on Earth, that this was his son. Jesus was his son. And in John chapter one, we have a few more things going on at his baptism that don't happen in the other three gospels. There's an Old Testament, an Old Testament, there's an old heresy called adoptionism. You don't remember the names of all these, but this one, that one's a little easier.

And the heresy of adoptionism is what is a form of what's called a proto-gnostic heresy, which is just an early first gnostic heresy. So John's been writing about Jesus coming into the world. And in adoptionism, the people who held to that, what they said was, Jesus was a real person born of Mary, but he wasn't God. And then at his baptism, the spirit descends on him and adopts him.

And now the son of God has basically possessed this human, almost like an angel or a demon would. And and then before he went to the cross. The spirit left him. So that was the teaching that is documented, that people were believing and hearing about that John would have been aware of. And so one of the reasons I believe that this is about baptism is when John says, this is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ.

And then he says, not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. I think it's a direct contradiction of this heresy that says he he came at the time of the water, but then the spirit left before the blood was shed. so in John 1 let's read 29 to 34 do I have a volunteer or do I have to just call out a name Jason Steve go ahead the next day he saw Jesus and he said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world this is he who might have said back beneath comes a man who breaks before me because he was before me I myself did not know him but for this purpose I came back out of the water that he might be revealed to Israel. And John bore witness.

I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water sent me. He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain. This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have bore witness that this is the Son of God. So you see again at his baptism, you see a testimony that this is the Son of God, which is exactly what John's referring to in 1 John 5.

And the very first verse, what does John call Jesus? The Lamb of God. What would that have drawn in the minds of everyone who heard John at the time and anyone who would have been John the Baptist that is And remember his name was John the Baptist not John the Methodist or John the Episcopalian So there a lesson there But John the Baptist says this is the Lamb of God Everyone who heard him and everyone who read John the Apostle would have thought about what when they heard Lamb, Lamb of God?

The sacrifice. And what would have come with every sacrificed lamb? What would have come out of that lamb that was essential? Yeah, they would have immediately thought about a blood sacrifice being necessary for the atonement of sins, for forgiveness of sins. So for everyone who had eyes to see, everyone who God had made born again by this time, who only had the Old Testament, they would have been able to hear John say the Lamb of God and they would have heard.

That's the sacrifice that God always promised that he would provide for my sins. That's what they would have understood. Maybe not in the depth that we can, of course. We have the New Testament. And we have two millennia of spirit-led people writing things for us to read and learn about the scripture. We have heresy after heresy in the last 2000 years that the church has confronted and written clear refutations of early first century.

People who believe these things were certainly quite blessed by God to have their eyes open to understand the significance of Jesus fulfilling everything that Moses had written about him. So turn to Matthew 21. In Matthew 21, Mark 11 or Luke 20. By the way, if anybody wants my notes, I have a lot of things that end up in my notes that don't end up in the teaching.

I'll be happy to share those. And if you've missed any of the sessions from me or any of the previous chapters, all of this is available on Spotify and iTunes and those kinds of things. If you want to listen or re-listen to something. But in Matthew 21, this is repeated in Mark and Luke as well. There's a passage starting in verse 23. Somebody want to read? trying to get people active.

Go ahead, Jason. 23 to 27, real loud. When Jesus returned to the temple courts and began to teach, the chief priest and elders of the people came up to him. By what authority are you doing these things, they asked. And who gave you this authority? I will also ask you one question, Jesus replied.

And if you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. What was the source of John's baptism? Was it from heaven or from men? They deliberated among themselves and said, If we say from heaven, people ask, Why then did you not believe him? But if we say from men, we are afraid of the people, for they all regard John as the prophet.

So they answered, We do not know. And Jesus replied, Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. Okay, so the same passage occurs in what's called the Synoptic Gospels, the ones that all see things the same, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And Jesus, confronted with these people accusing him of not having authority to say the things he's saying, he responds by asking them about the baptism of John.

So he's referring to when John the Baptist baptized him. This always confused me early on because I got confused with all the Johns. Jesus is saying, when John the Baptist baptized me, and it's well known that the spirit descended like a dove and a voice from heaven came, so everybody knows that this event occurred. No one denied it. Jesus is asking, well, was that from heaven or was that from man?

Now, he doesn't tell them the answer to his question. And he uses this to prove that they have bad intentions about everything they're doing. But what's the implied answer here? From heaven. When Jesus was baptized and a voice from heaven said, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased, this is the testimony from heaven. And so back to 1 John 5, we went through all of that so that I could try to prove to you that David Miller was right, that the water is the baptism of Jesus.

Because Jesus came by water and blood, not by the baptism alone, but by the baptism and his blood has shed on the cross. And that when we get to verses 9 and 10 and 11, and it starts talking about the testimony, the testimony, The whole point of all this is not just to talk about water and blood randomly. It's to prove that the testimony of these things is the testimony that is to be believed so that you are one of the people who can overcome the world.

And so the next testimony or the next witness is the blood. Right. So we said that Jesus came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and blood. And so the reason I think that's the crucifixion is that I think the crucifixion testifies that Jesus is the son of God. I also think this fits the idea of the adoptionism heresy being one of the heresies John was confronting at the time, because it makes sense of the phrase not by water alone, but by water and blood.

And so if we turn to Matthew 27. Matthew 27, this is one of the passages about Jesus's. The fiction, we've already proven that the baptism testified that he was in fact the son of God. Matthew 27, 50, when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he yielded up his spirit. At that moment, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split. the tombs broke open and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised after Jesus' resurrection when they had come out of the tombs.

They entered the holy city and appeared to many people. All this stuff's happening that would, I mean, we'd all just be running to our basements or to my basement if you don't have one, right? That's how we are when things happen. So the centurion's there. He just witnessed this entire thing. The centurion doesn't really care what's going on.

He's an executioner, right? He's got guilty parties who he's been told, I've got to torture these people, basically crucify them on a cross. It's got to be excruciating. That's where we get that word, right? Excruciating is from crux. And so he has to do this job.

He doesn't care who this guy is. He sees a sign that says King of the Jews. He just sees three guys dying naked, right? Shamed. People jeering at him. And this centurion, after he sees this entire event, I don't think it's just, like I don't think the centurion saw the veil tore.

Okay? He's over here. The veil tears somewhere else. He's not observing this. These people that were raised, they were raised later. But earthquakes, things going dark, everything that happened on that cross, Jesus announcing the forgiveness of sins, in other words, to one of the thieves.

And the centurion says in verse 54, truly this was the Son of God. I think it's significant, the wording that he used. Mark 15 says the same thing. I think that the blood refers to the fact that when Jesus shed his blood on the cross, when he fulfilled the announcement that he's the Lamb of God, that Jesus, in fact, proved that he was the Son of God. And the centurion even understood this, which is really phenomenal.

And so who overcomes the world? He who believes Jesus is the son of God. He who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood. I'm back in 1 John 5. I didn't mention that. And it's the spirit who testifies to this because the spirit is the truth.

So now we have the blood testifies, I believe, to Jesus being the son of God. We have the water testifying. And now we have in who has King James? Anybody? Thank God. That really just makes things easier.

The King James, again, in this version of First John, right here, there's all these extra words, like two whole sentences. And they really don't fit well. And I think that the people that translated the Bibles that we all have in this room got it right. And said that's not part of the original Bible because it actually confuses everything in the text.

And I don't think it belongs there. But for purposes of teaching, 1 John 5, I think it's relevant to let people know that there is a what's called a textual variant here. Where some people's Bibles will show some different language because there were different texts they were working from. but what we see in first john five six and seven is the spirit testifies with the water and the blood and what are what are they testifying of we already talked about that it starts in verse six that he is the son of god so turn to Romans 1 Romans 1 verse 4 Somebody want to read that for us nice and loud Romans 1, 4.

Romans 1, 4, Jake, real loud. And we are prepared to be the Son of God in power, holy in the spirit of holiness, high in his resurrection, and in the dead, to be the breath of our Lord. Yeah. Just just a couple of proof texts to show that the spirit also testifies that Jesus is the son of God. We've already seen the spirit do that, I believe, at his baptism.

Of course, people would say that the father, but the spirit and the father work together. And so the spirit testifies that Jesus is, in fact, the son of God. And then now, John five is Andrew in here. OK. So Andrew is going to preach this exact text today. that I think is also a perfect text to help us see that the Spirit testifies that Jesus is the Son of God.

So what we're trying to show is that the water and the blood testify Jesus is the Son of God. Not the water alone, but by the water and the blood he came, it says, and these three agree. So there's agreement between three things, three witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the blood. And these three agree, and we know that their testimony is true, is what John tells us.

So let's see, does the Spirit say the same thing? In John 5, 39, I have a different version than some of you, but follow along. You pour over the Scriptures in verse 39, or you search the Scriptures, Jesus says. He says, because you presume that in them or by them you can find eternal life or you possess eternal life. And then Jesus says this. These are the very words that testify about me.

Now he brings a pretty rough accusation. He says, you refuse to come to me to have life. I'll let it I'll let you pour over that one. But if the scripture that Jesus is referring to testifies about him. So he's talking about basically the whole Old Testament now. Right.

He's saying he says you search the Bible, which at their time was just the Old Testament. And he says, you search it because you think you're going to find eternal life in it. So these people had some concept that we need to study the Bible. Right. They were religious. And he says, they testify about me.

Well, who wrote the Bible? Say it with some spirit, Mike. There you go. Good. Yeah, the spirit. The spirit is who inspired the writers, the men who wrote the Bible. and maybe even some women, I'm not sure.

But the people who wrote the Bible were inspired by the Spirit. And so we always believe that there's a human author, but also a divine author of all Scripture. And so when we read Scripture and it says basically anything, we can say God says that. And so because we can say God says that, we can say the Spirit says it because the Spirit is God. He's the forgotten person sometimes or the person that people make too big of a weird deal out of.

That's a different problem. But the Spirit is the one that testifies to Jesus, and he testifies through the entire Old Testament Scripture. When the Spirit said, I will put enmity between your seed and the woman's seed, but the seed of the woman will one day crush your head. He says this to Satan, but you'll bruise his heel. Who's he talking about? Jesus the spirits testifying that Jesus would come and he would one day crush the head of Satan so in John 5 John continues we'll go down to verse 45 he says do not think that I will accuse you before the father your accuser is Moses or the law your accuser is Moses in whom you have put your hope You put your hope in the law and in your ability to keep the law He says but if you had believed Moses if you had believed the things Moses had written he goes, you would believe me because he wrote about me.

And so Jesus is telling them, you act like you believe Moses because you read the rules in the law You try to keep them all and you tithe your mint and cumin and all the little details that really are all the ones you think you can keep. And he says, but if you actually believed Moses, you'd already recognize me. Like Jesus made no bones about the fact that people should have known who he was.

And you're guilty if you don't. So turn back to 1 John 5. there is a theme running through the book of John that is not entirely explicit all the time until the last verse of the whole book where John says little children keep yourselves from idols and one of the goals that John has is to have people continuously have their focus on how God has revealed himself perfectly through both creation and scripture the reason we don't get it all the time through either of those is because of our problem not God's. But John wants us to be able to see that there are idols out there.

There's false prophets, there's false teaching and that we need to know who the true Jesus is. So the true Jesus is the son of God. Who became incarnate at his conception. You know, Jesus didn't become incarnate at his birth, right? like we're going to celebrate Christmas next month and we're going to accidentally over and over we're going to say things like when Jesus was born the incarnation happened the incarnation happened at the moment that he was conceived his birth is very important and we celebrate that but Jesus became incarnate he's the son of God and this is testified to by his baptism it's testified to by his death on the cross his atoning work and the blood that he had to shed.

He had to really die. You can't have a Savior who didn't really die. And it's testified to by the Spirit and everything the Spirit tells us about him. And so, those of you who are Old Testament gurus will remember that in the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy 19.15, don't turn there now for time's sake, we're told that when a matter is to be established, It has to be established how?

Who remembers? Say it louder, Kathy. Yeah. Two or three witnesses, it says. Nobody's going to be put to death on the testimony of one witness in the Old Testament law. Right.

And so John, I think, is actually appealing to this idea that not only do we have the witness of his baptism, which which everyone should have known, wow, this is a big deal. Right. We have his death, which in a sense you can include his burial and resurrection. All are encompassed in the idea that Jesus died and that his blood was shed. And we have the spirit constantly testifying to Jesus.

And I believe what John is telling us is that he has two or even three witnesses now to a fact. And that if you are going to be an honest person who actually thinks you're following God, you need to believe that Jesus is the son of God on the basis of these two or three witnesses. And then he's going to go on and we'll do this next week and talking about how unbelievably solid these witnesses are, or at least one of them for sure, and that we should believe it.

And so on the basis of two or three witnesses, every matter must be established. So turn to Hebrews 10 Hebrews 10 Hebrews 10 quite frankly should be one of the most frightening passages that you ever read even if you're a Christian although if you're a Christian hopefully along the same lines of where John's leading understanding these testimonies and believing them will eventually lead you to assurance. But it can also be frightening when you read the warnings that God gives.

Hebrews 10, 28 and 29. Paul says, anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God. There's that language again, the Son of God, who has profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him and insulted the spirit of grace.

So I'll submit to the apostle Paul writes, but the author of Hebrews, who ultimately is the spirit of God, says if you reject the Son of God, you're proclaiming the blood of the covenant, which is one of the witnesses, right? And you're insulting the spirit of grace, one of the other witnesses of the three witnesses that John refers to. And so because the spirit has testified so clearly of who Jesus is, and then in addition to all the clear things that God has written about his son.

Jesus came and fulfilled all righteousness. He had miracles happen around him, like at his baptism, the speech from God, along with his own authority that he exercised at his own will whenever he wanted. He had his blood shed on the cross, his proclamation that he could forgive sins. Everything he did was perfect. It was a perfect fulfillment of every testimony that anyone could have ever asked for for proof that he is the Son of God, the Messiah, the one who could come and forgive sins.

And he demands, whether you agree with it or not, whether it makes sense to you or not, whether it feels good to you or not, whether it offends your sense of what you like or not, that you are to believe it, and if you do not believe it, you are in sin. And you are culpable for that sin before him. So thankfully, I stand in a room full of people who have personally testified to this.

So we get to enjoy worshiping this God who did everything perfectly and in such a way that we can have, I think, certainty that our faith is in something actually more real than the pew in front of me. I'm more sure that Jesus is returning one day than any of you are even in this room. He is the most real thing there is. And you can have comfort in that.

Let me pray. Again, any questions or comments you have afterwards is fine. And if anybody wants notes or wants directions how to find the teachings, I'll help you with that as well. Father in heaven, we bless your name because you are perfect and holy and righteous and good, and you have done everything necessary in your son Jesus to provide redemption for sin.

And so we pray today for those that come among us who have not yet tasted and seen that the Lord is good, that you would do that work in their hearts, that you would use us as instruments to lead people to Jesus and for your glory. Help our worship to be accepted through the beloved Jesus Christ today. In whose name I pray. Amen.