1 John 5:6-12
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Jesus is the Son of God
Jesus is the Son of God
Good morning my friends!
I hope you are well, we are just a week away from Christmas and one of the most special times of the year.
Don’t forget we have our Candlelight service at 5pm next Sunday evening, it is a special time and I hope you all will come and join us as we read the Christmas story and sing some special Christmas hymns.
It is only 45 mins to an hour. We definitely try to honor your time with us so you still have plenty of time with family and friends.
Next week we will pull away from the story of 1 John and revisit the birth of Christ in our morning service as well. We will return to 1 John the following week.
But for today I want you to come with me as we look at 1 John chapter 5, and today we are going to examine verses 6 to 12.
In our passage today, John has one unique goal, to tell us that Jesus is the Son of God. We wants to make sure all are sure of this message without any doubt.
You see what we believe and say about Jesus is the foundation for all of life.
Your beliefs concerning Jesus will not only impact your life but it will impact and change your life and the lives for those around us.
Now, let me share three thoughts with you today.
The first thought is this my friends...
1. The Testimony of the Water and the Blood...
This passage (Verse 6),my friends is very special, Here John refers to it as a testimony in reference to the person and work of Jesus. It is a confession of sorts if you will. So lets look at verse 6.
6 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.
John has been teaching those He is writing to (and us) the doctrinal truth about Jesus.
He has told us over and over again, Jesus is the Son of God. Now he tells us why we can consider this statement as true.
John tells us Jesus came “...by water and blood...” What does this mean “Water and Blood”? Well it is a testimony of sorts, but why is the testimony of water and blood important?
Well lets look at this in detail.
A. The word “water” that John mentions refers to the beginning of Jesus earthly ministry. His Baptism!
Lets look at the baptism of Jesus. One place it is found is Matthew chapter 3, verses 13-17....
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
This point is what we refer to as the beginning of Jesus earthy public ministry. Up until this time, John the Baptist has been teaching and preaching calling people to repent and believe for the kingdom of God was at hand. We refer to John as the last of the Old Testament prophets.
Now we say the last of the Old Testament, the New Covenant has not been ratified yet. John is the last one who would go before Him, referring to Jesus “in the spirit and power of Elijah...” ( Luke 1:17).
Now, Jesus comes to John there at the Jordan river, and Jesus is baptized and begins His public ministry, and after His baptism we hear the testimony of John that Jesus must increase and he must decrease.” (John 3:30).
John knew the bridegroom was with us, the wedding celebration was drawing close and so His ministry was coming to an end, but the one he prepared the way for was beginning His ministry.
The water baptism of Jesus is an important testimony because we have the announcement of the Father ( this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased) and the Holy Spirit’s presence there, landing on Him as a dove.
It is there that day, we see the Triune God present as Jesus begins the work of redemption in this world, calling for all to believe God’s love that He did indeed send His Son to this world physically to seek and to save those who were lost.
B. Then we come to the Blood. The Blood of course refers to Jesus sacrificial death on the cross.
Blood has always been the necessary means by which sin is forgiven.
From the days of Adam and Eve’s sin were by God took the life of a animal, most likely a lamb to make clothing for them to cover their nakedness. There is the first sacrifice for sin.
As the children of Israel walked with God, it was the sacrificial death of animals that allowed the High Priest to carry the blood into the Holy of Holies to be applied upon the mercy seat for the forgiveness of sin.
But it was all temporary… it lasted but a season… but God had promised all through the Old Testament, that he would send them a Messiah, a Savior… the Christ, the one who would literally save them from their sin.
Jesus did just that, He carried the sins of the whole world upon Himself as the died there upon the cross that day, shedding his blood that our sin might be forgiven.
It is through the water and the blood that the knowledge of Jesus can be affirmed as true...
Why is this so important? Remember, Gnosticism was out there spreading heresies...
Remember John has been battling those false teachers who went out from them denying the incarnation and humanity of Jesus. Coming by both by water and blood refutes their claim.
They claimed Jesus was born an ordinary person and the heavenly Christ descended upon him at his baptism, but left him before his death. So it was only the plain man who died on the cross.
John is teaching that it was Jesus Christ, the Son of God who experienced both the water and the blood, the baptism and the crucifixion as both Lord and Savior of the world.
John offers on last proof that it was Jesus Christ who experienced this....look at the last part of verse 6.
6 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.
C. We know Jesus is the Son of God because the Holy Spirit.
John says the Spirit of God bore witness to these things. The Spirit of God can be trusted since He is truth and speaks God’s truth, as we see in John 16:13! Listen to this verse..
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
So since the Holy Spirit testifies to the person and work of Jesus, we can trust Him and his testimony. He is truth.
My friends we can trust the testimony of Jesus based on the testimony of the water and the blood. And above that, we can trust the Holy Spirit. He leads us into truth and cannot lie..
Now look at verses 7-8 1 John 5:7-8
7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.
Here the Holy Spirit, the water and the blood converge and all agree that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah and the Son of God who came to redeem man from their sin.
And according to OT law, the witness of one was not trustworthy, but the witness of 2 or 3 was said to be dependable and true as we see in Deut 19:15!
Do you trust these testimonies?
Now this moves us naturally on to the next thought in this passage.
2. God is Trustworthy...
I think it goes without saying, but we as the body of Christ hold to and count it as truth… God is trustworthy.
Let’s consider this thought today.... Join me and lets look at verses 9-10 1 John 5:9-10
9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. 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.
My friends, listen to what John says here… In the Jewish scope of the law, the testimony of two or three men are accepted. Their testimony is considered truth. Right.. that is what we just talked about when I referenced Deut 19:15 Lets look at that verse
15 “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.
John says here is we receive the witness of two or three men, and consider that to be truth… Would we also count God’s witnesses as truth?
Yes! The testimony of God is considered more trustworthy given His divine attributes. right? Yes and even John says plainly here God’s testimony is greater.
And John comes down and says it all falls to belief. Do you believe God, do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?
And if you say Yes, I believe Jesus is the Son of God then essentially you are testifying that God’s testimony about the Son is true and right.
In fact, if you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, you already trust God and have received the testimony of Jesus in your heart.
Remember, being a child of God, we know that His Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. We know (inner peace and know it is true) Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God who saves sinners.
A great theologian Alfred Plummer said this.... “The external witness faithfully accepted becomes and an absolute internal conviction...”
So a simple question we can ask is this.... Do you believe God is trustworthy and honest? Yes, yes we do, no doubt, right?
Then we believe God’s testimony is true as well with no doubts.
Now we come to one last thought my friends this morning, the truth of which we see in verses 11- and 12 and it is this...
3. Life is in the Son.....
Ask yourself this question; Why has God told us about the Son? Because there is life in the Son, Jesus is the means unto Salvation.
This is the message that John is sharing with all who would hear...
Lets go back and look at the last two verses in our passage, verses 11-12.
11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
When you look at this here is what we see.... We have the previous testimony, what we have looked at thus far and the result of all this is simply… God loves us and extends eternal life to us...
How does the Father do this? Jesus!
God’s testimony is that His Son is the only means, the only way whereby one can be saved and have eternal life.
Do you remember what John said in John 14:6!
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
God approved of His Son and declared Jesus is the way to the Father, and thus eternal life.
Now consider that… twice in scripture God declared that he was pleased with the Son. Remember God said at His baptism, Matthew 3:17
17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
And then later at the Mount of Transfiguration, Matthew 17:5
5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
God the Father was pleased with the Son and had appointed Him as the only means by which a person could be saved and be found acceptable in sight of the Father.
Now think of this, what does it mean to be acceptable in the sight of God?
It means to be found not guilty in His presence, to be found innocent.
But we are guilty by nature, we are dead in our trespasses and sins Eph 2:1. So we were guilty, there was a penalty placed on us because of our guilt. we deserved death.
But remember Paul in Romans 5:8
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
We could not atone for our sin, we could not settle the debt we had but Jesus did for us.
Jesus took our place and laid down His life, Phil 2:8 tells us..
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
He laid down His life, took our punishment upon His own body, bearing our sin that we might be saved. My gracious 700 years before Jesus entrance into the world, God spoke of Jesus work through the prophet Isaiah… Isa 53:5
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
He took our punishment, our guilty that we were made justified, innocent in front of the Father and thus we are saved and welcomed into the Kingdom of God.
Praise the Lord, He took my punishment and yours that we could be saved and be pronounced not guilty.
We have life because of Jesus… Lets go back to verse 12 1John 5:12
12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
John tells us plainly, whoever has the Son has life and if you do not have the Son, you do not have life.
To possess the Son is to possess life and all its fullness. That is what Jesus told us, right.. "...I have come that you might have life and have it to the fullest…” John 10:10b
So what matters in life is your relationship with the Son!
You see my friends, this life is not something you will receive in the future, it should be your current possession. That is why we preach knowing Jesus here. You must make the decision to follow Jesus while in this life… Everything begins and ends in what you do in this life.
If you trust Jesus in this life, you will have life… but if you reject Jesus, if you put him off you may be slip out of this world when you least expect it and will not know the life that he freely offers.
The greatest question my friends is simply this… Do you know Jesus today?
Don’t you dare say I have got time, because we do not know the day or hour of our demise, but we can know the moment of our salvation. If we say now, and trust Jesus as our Savior, today is the day of our salvation and we will know for certain that we have the Son and thus we have life.
If you do not know Jesus today, please do not wait.
Do not wait!
And maybe you are here and you know you have not lived for him. Repent and do better… Remember John tells us in 1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We will forgive and you can start today as a new day.
And this morning if you need prayer, please come and let us pray for you today.
Do not wait and do not put off...
Let’s pray