Growth Group: 1 John 5:6-12

The Testimony of God

ICEBREAKER: Favorite courtroom movies?

PRAY FIRST

REVIEW:

1 John 5:1-5 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

Key points:

V1 Believers in Jesus are “born of God”.

God regenerates us - causing us to be “born again” and gives us new life as his children.

V1 Believers will love other believers (“whoever has been born of him”).

V3 Children of God obey and this obedience shows love FOR God.

“For this is the love of (for) God.” WUEST: God (genitive noun) is receiving the love (action/nominative noun) in this verse.

John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

V3 The obedience to Jesus is not burdensome (difficult, taxing, UNDESIRABLY RESTRICTIVE) for believers.

Why? Because believers are a new creation with a new heart and new spirit and is now a “slave to righteousness”.

Romans 6:17-18 “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”

Ezekiel 36:26-27 “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

The new creation wants to serve God!

Pursuing God should be “LIGHT and our DELIGHT.” (Al)

I cannot stress this enough: Our primary motivation for obeying God should not be to “feel good enough for God”. We obey Him because we want to show gratitude for saving us from weeping and gnashing of teeth.

consider the human fallen body that struggles with feeling good or bad

we may feel bad sometimes serving

Nothing we do, even now, will make Him love us more. Nothing we ever do will make Him owe us anything. We obey Him in thankfulness.

“I want you to want to wash the dishes.”

V4 Believers overcome the world.

World = Al: “Satan’s invisible operating system, hordes of demonic forces, fallen angels, that have sided with the devil, corrupted blinded humans, majority mindset that loves lie rather than the truth about Jesus (That he is the Son of God and died for the sins of the world).”

Ephesians 2:1-2 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—”

Believers have overcome the world!

OVERCOME: In 1 John 5:4: Two usages of overcome (past/aorist and present).

PAST: “And this is the victory that HAS OVERCOME the world - our faith”

We have overcome (ACTIVE AORIST) the world when we first placed our faith in Jesus Christ. The victory against sin is secure!

BUT I REMIND YOU NOT TO TAKE CREDIT: Jesus Christ is the “founder and perfecter of our faith”.

Hebrews 12:2 “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

FOUNDER: creator, initiator (Oxford Dictionary)

ALSO, a person who manufacturers articles of cast metals

a FOUNDRY melts metal and puts them into molds

Jesus melted our hard hearts of stone and changes us into the shape he wanted, giving us faith (And a heart of flesh)

So before someone can even go to THE FORGE to be shaped and solidify in the fire of the hearth, the raw materials must be melted by THE FOUNDRY and the FOUNDER is Christ.

It is only our UNION with Christ that makes us conquers. Apart from Him we are the conquered!

Ephesians 2:5-6 “even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”

Romans 6:5 “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

PRESENT: Though the victory is secure, we are still in the middle of the battle. But because of God’s work in us and his Holy Spirit in us, we are able to continually overcome sin in the present tense.

1 John 2:27 “But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.”

V5 Again, the person who has overcome the world is the person who believes that Jesus is God’s Son. He is equal to God. He is God.

John 5:18 “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”

This leads us into the passage tonight.

READ: 1 John 5:6-12 “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 has borne concerning his Son. 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. 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.”

INTRODUCTION:

What is a testimony?

LEXHAM THEOLOGICAL WORKBOOK: A testimony is a statement for the purpose of establishing and recording truth.

What are examples of testimonies? Where do we hear the term?

Testify in Court

who testifies?

a WITNESS

what do they do when they testify?

Talk about something they supposedly have knowledge of

Give your testimony about Jesus - what do you do?

God has a testimony about his own Son. That’s the subject for tonight.

THE WITNESS

1 John 5:6 “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.”

FIRSTLY, John again is telling us that Jesus Christ CAME.

1 John 1:1 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—”

1 John 4:2 “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,”

There are some terms we haven’t seen too often in 1 John before: WATER and BLOOD.

Water is not mentioned in this passage, and blood is only mentioned 1x before this.

By “water and blood”.

Water = Refers to Jesus baptism at the Jordan.

Blood = Jesus was killed by crucifixion. He shed blood (and interestingly also water).

QUESTION: Why do you think part B of the verse says NOT BY WATER ONLY?

According to 1 John 5:6 there’s a reminder that Jesus didn’t just come with his baptism, but he completed the payment for our sins at his death on the cross.

John 19:30 “When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

QUESTION: DOES GOD HAVE A RELIABLE WITNESS TO TESTIFY TO THESE TRUTHS?

Who is the witness?

Yes! The Spirit is truth!

Who better than to tell us about God than God’s Spirit Himself!

1 Cor 2:10 “these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.”

Not only is the Spirit truth, but He can also search the depths of the infinite God.

In fact it’s deeper than that. He is God, part of the Triune God.

SO HOW RELIABLE IS HE?????? HE’S PERFECT.

THE EVIDENCE - lets get back to “the water and the blood”

1 John 5:7-8 “For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.”

QUESTION: What do you think this is saying?

The Holy Spirit is in agreement with Jesus baptism and his crucifixion.

BLUF: Jesus IS a real human being and also God. These actual events in history establish and emphasize this truth!

These are pivotal moments in Jesus’ life as the Anointed One/Messiah that were seen publically!

Examine the water baptism:

Matt 3:15 “But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.

Matt 3:16-17 “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; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.””

The baptism and the Holy Spirit empowering Jesus was the beginning of his ministry (Wuest)

Regarding blood: the crucifixion event

Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

“It is finished.” The suffering for our sins.

Luke 24:6 “He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,”

Luke 24:7 “that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.””

All of this testimony and evidence points to Jesus being the Son of God incarnate who suffered on the cross.

NOTE: Some have taken this verse to support the Trinity because of different translations.

KJV: For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

NASB and NIV say basically the same as the ESV.

THE TRIAL

1 John 5:9 “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.”

TRIAL EXAMPLE: Let’s pull verses 6, 7, 8 and 9 together through an illustration.

We are the jury receiving testimony from witnesses from 2 sides of an argument.

v9 says “If WE receive” - that’s us.

The “testimony of men”

This could be an incorrect view of Jesus like gnostics - this seems to be more of what the context is. They say that Jesus was just a Spirit. OR another belief was that divinity entered Jesus at the baptism and left him at the crucifixion.

OR…it could just be normal everyday things people say that we accept - like the laws of physics or how the country was founded.

In any case those testimonies of men are just that, from men. It’s man’s testimony.

But God has a perfect testimony in his Perfect Reliable Witness.

His PERFECT Holy Spirit testifies TO US that God’s SON (v9), Jesus Christ (equal to God according to John 5), was baptized as a human being and shed blood as a human being to pay for our sins.

SMALL APPLICATION: God’s testimony is “on record”. The Holy Spirit testifies to Jesus being the Son of God (baptism and crucifixion testimony. Holy Spirit is the subject matter expert on God.

So we have to ask ourselves…do we fully and wholeheartedly believe it? Or do we believe certain “testimonies of men”?

What are some testimonies of men today?

Money is worshipped

Bible is archaic by church

Pick and choose from the Bible

Victim and cancel culture, woke culture

Science - not necessarily wrong

Mysticism? - based on subjective experience

Big bang theory/Evolution

Other religions

But to believe God’s reliable witness means what? What implications does this have to believe in God’s testimony about Jesus?

A person who believes the Holy Spirit’s testimony is changed. Regenerated. Saved. Therefore…

Your whole world view is then shaped by Jesus’ actions.

If what He says is true…we owe everything to Him.

If what He says is true…then how much of our lives do we give to Him?

All of it

All the time

All the resources

All of our mind

All of our heart and soul

What this looks like is everything that 1 John has been talking about in Chapters 1-4: Walk in the light, know who Jesus truly is and teach it correctly, loving your brother who you see right in front of you.

NEXT TIME: ARE YOU HOLDING BACK? WHY?