Can I Get a Witness?

Intro and Structure

As I said last week, John is a bit of a complex writer. Much of his work has multiple layers that take lots and lots of time to unpack and grasp fully. But one of the beautiful things about how John writes is that he tends to build these layers with simple structures of grammar and vocabulary. Which helps us to at least get an idea of what he is trying to say. There is a saying that goes around in reference to John’s Gospel that says “it is shallow enough for a toddler to cross and deep enough for an elephant to swim in.” And I think this holds true for his letters as well. At first read it seems that the message is straightforward, but further inspection reveals a complex and brilliant piece of literature that is both pastoral and deeply theological. It reveals an author who is clearly concerned for his audience both the original hearers of this letter and us who read it today.

One of the main emphases of this letter is that John wants his audience to know the truth and to be confident, to have certainty, that they belong to God. He wants them to hold on to what they know is true and to not be swayed by the many different ideas and doctrines that are popping up all over the place. It is clear as you read through this letter that some of these deceitful ideas have found their way into the church and have begun to separate the fellowship. Even their own members have embraced new beliefs about Jesus that are misguided and they are actually in opposition to Jesus Christ, in fact John coins the term anti-Christ referencing those who are in opposition to Jesus. What we can know for certain is that there are people among this church that are attempting to bring in a different Gospel and a different message about Jesus. This is why John spends the majority of the letter reminding his readers about the basic elements, the foundational truths of the Good News because some false teachers are attempting to tear it apart.

Three Witnesses: Water, Blood and Spirit (vs. 6-8) The Means of the testimony

Jesus Christ is revealed through his baptism, crucifixion and the Holy Spirit at work in the heart of the believer.

Our selected passage for this mornings sermon begins in verse 6 and goes through to verse 12, And the opening verse seems to cause a real problem for many commentators and biblical scholars. It is not entirely clear exactly what John means when he says that Jesus Christ “came by the water and the blood (1 Jn. 5:6).”

There are a few important things to unpack here. The first one being the word “Christ.” Now, I know we all are familiar with this word and maybe even have a good understanding of what it means, but I think it is worth considering what it does as a part of this verse.

The word Christ is equivalent to the word Messiah. Messiah means “Anointed One” and specifically in the ancient Israelite context it referred to the Anointed One of God who would save God’s people and bring them back into fellowship with God. The word Messiah, which means the same thing as Christ in the New Testament, is more like a job description that it is like a name. But having said that…

Has anyone ever traced the origins of their last name? For a lot of popular last names they find their origin in the work that our ancestors did. Names like Smith, Brewer, Miller, Fowler, Mason and others, indicate that at some point in the history of our families one of our ancestors had that occupation. That was their job, that was the work they came to be known for. People were known by the job they did and the role they played in society. Their job, what they did, beca,e the thing that they were known by.

The word “Christ” functions in a similar way, though not as a name, but as a descriptive word that tells us what the anointed one was all about.

For many Israelites the exact method the, the Messiah, the Christ, would use to save God’s people was very much tied to how earthly systems functioned. The Christ was supposed to come as a conqueror with an army and beat back the opposing rulers. But God has a different plan in mind.

As we read the biblical story we get the theme over and over and over again that the strife of God’s people is so often tied to their choosing to live in a way incoherent with his. They consistently choose a life of disobedience to God’s Law and this separates them from God. As we pay close attention we see that the real problem that needs to be fixed is not the Empires or the oppressive regimes, but the deeply rooted darkness and evil that pulls people further and further away from God. Sin needs to be dealt with. This is why Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah, is such good news. To attach the word Christ to Jesus means that this is how God is going to save his people.

When John says that Jesus Christ has come by water and by blood, how we should hear that or read that is closer to Jesus Christ has been revealed in the water and the blood. That God has made him known to us through these things.

Now I want to stop here and unpack these two things quickly: the water and the blood. When John says that Jesus Christ came by water and blood he is making reference to the baptism and the crucifixion. Jesus baptism, recorded or alluded to in all four gospels, is the moment that we most clearly see his Spirit filled ministry beginning. This ministry of course culminates in the cross, where Jesus gave himself as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. The baptism and the crucifixion are two proofs, or modes that God has used to make Jesus Christ the Son of God known to us.

And the second part of verse 6 reminds us that these are not just cold hard historical truths, these are not just data points that we should store in our memory, but actually God’s holy spirit tells us about the truth of these things as they matter to us for our salvation and relationship with God. Often in John’s writing the Holy Spirit is connected to convicting us about the truth or telling us the truth.

You might notice that he writes a similar type of statement about the Holy Spirit in chapter 4. For John this is the main focus when it comes to the activity of the Holy Spirit. The role of the Holy Spirit is thought of in different ways depending on the tradition that you come from. And to be fair, there are many things that the Holy Spirit does. But here in John’s letter it his focus is on the testimony that the Spirit gives. By this he means the inward ministry of the Spirit in the life of each believer. We see similarities in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians in chapter 12:3 when he says that nobody can confess Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

I actually had a conversation with a student a couple of months ago. He had just become a Christian and he was telling me what he believed, about Jesus Christ and that he wanted to follow him, and then he said “But I don’t think I have the Holy Spirit.” I think sometimes we expect the Holy Spirit to be a miracle worker, to fill us with fire and to bring us into these great spiritual experiences. And the Spirit does that, but we often forget that the first thing the Spirit does in our hearts is to convict us of the truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he has come and reconciled us to God.

The water and the blood, the baptism and the crucifixion are the means that God uses to testify to us about Jesus through the inward work of the Holy Spirit.

The Source of the Testimony

The testimony about Jesus Christ comes from God.

Strengthening his case in vs. 9 John says “We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.”

It was common in the ancient world to require any testimony in a court or aother legally binding setting to have two or three witnesses for it to be accepted. In vs. 6-8 John has established that what he has to say about Jesus is at least sufficient to be true based on these man made legal codes. But even more than that, this testimony about Jesus is the testimony of God himself, the creator of the universe, this is His testimony of the truth.

The contrast John draws out here is convicting. It is so easy for us to reduce what truth is to our human proofs. We can learn what it is through logic or experience. We can tend to look for the answers to life’s big questions within ourselves or we listen to what others have to say. It tends to be easier to trust the stuff that we can see, touch or perceive in some way. We tend to trust what makes sense to us. But John appeals to a higher rationale.

This sets up the resulting comparison between those who believe and who do not believe:

1 John 5:10 “Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.”

These words may seem harsh, but given the context that John is writing in it makes sense. With all these different ideas floating around regarding who Jesus was and what the Holy Spirit was all about and who God was, it makes perfect sense that John wants to be crystal clear about what is at stake.

At the time of this letter there were groups adding on to what had Jesus had said or done they would consistently look for new revelations and search for the divine through new spiritual experiences or truths. All the while moving further and further away from the truth of what God has already revealed, the testimony he had already given.

We can find ouselves in that boat too, can’t we? Sometimes, what we want God to be different than who he is, at least we think we do. Maybe we want him to act differently, to answer us differently, or to say something different than what he has said. This is not new. The Church throughout history has faced this, and sometimes it has given in to the “new” way, or a new revelation. Sometimes we face things that we wish God would change or make more exciting or sometimes we just want God to let us live the way we want to live. And I think John would tell us, do you realize who you are dealing with? Do you understand that this, this man Jesus Christ is the revelation of God for us? Don’t you understand?!

It certainly was something that he wants to shore up for his readers, to be clear that what the false teachers, and false ideas about Jesus are doing is making God out to be a liar! God has told us the truth about who Jesus Christ, and denying that truth is not a neutral position, there are only two sides to the question.

John does not say these things to be condemning, or harsh, or to be judgemental. But rather to strengthen those in the church that may feel pressure to concede to the teaching of false teachers who bring another word of their own. Who deny what God has already made clear to the world.

The Content and Result(vs. 11-12)

The content of the Testimony is that God has made eternal life available to us through his Son (Jesus Christ)

In vss. 11 and 12 John clarifies precisely what this testimony is all about. 1 John 5:11–12 “And this is the testimony: God has given 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.”

The outcome of taking God at his word is eternal life. And this brings us back to the problem we discussed at the beginning. The worldly way of looking for the Messiah, the earthly lens only shows part of the story. It would say that the problem is just the wrong guys are in power. Once we figure it out we will get it right. There is definitely a flavour of this kind of thinking in the church John is writing to. But, we know that what John is intent on communicating is that the whole problem in the first place is not that we just have to try harder, or that we have to figure out the way to make things right on our own. He tells his audience that we are sinners in the opening to his letter! He wants them to know the truth, that we are all in the same situation, dealing with the same problem.

The problem for John, and the other New Testament authors, is sin. Sin that takes us out of fellowship with God, that robs us of eternal life that leads to death. This is what the true issue is, all the rest of it is just a symptom of this deeper sickness.

But the testimony of God is a message of hope. Look at verse 11 again “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” We have heard the means by which God gives the testimony through the Spirit who confirms the life and ministry of Jesus for us in our hearts. And we have heard where the testimony comes from, God himself. And now we receive the content, the beautiful, hopeful, wonderful testimony of God that he has given us eternal life, and it is in his Son Jesus Christ. By believing the Testimony of God about His Son Jesus Christ revealed to us through the Spirit, we are brought into eternal fellowship with God. The problem of sin has been dealt with, we have been reconciled to our Creator. Notice that John says that God has Given not that he is giving as if it is not yet complete. It has been given, the work has been done, the gift has been made available. Jesus Christ has atoned for our sin and given us eternal life.

Ending off this section we have another comparison. Similar to the one found in verse 10. Now the stakes are raised even further. To believe the testimony of God about his Son Jesus, to accept the gift of God is to have eternal life. Belief in Jesus Christ and eternal life are inseperable. However, to reject the testimony of God about his Son is to reject life itself. John uses the phrase eternal life and life somewhat interchangeably throughout his Gospel and other writings. For him there is no such thing as life apart from God. And this would be in line with what people like Paul write about. The idea that to be outside of relationship with God is to be in a state of death is a common one in the New Testament. So, this makes what John says all the more urgent. The life, the only true life there is is found in Jesus Christ, God has told us about him by the Holy Spirit.

Challenge

The challenge for me, and maybe you can relate to this, is that I say I believe this, and I think I actually do. But, in many ways I still act like I believe there is a different problem. Or that maybe if I just figure out something new, or chase this new experience, or this new excitement, that next goal I will finally be able to experience life with God. Sometimes my challenge is to believe in the beautiful simplicity of the Gospel. To believe that it really is as simple as believing in Jesus Christ, that he has given himself for our salvation and that by believing in Him I actually now have fellowship with God for eternity. And I forget that this is the daily reality we live in!

What else could I possibly need? But, it is so easy to think we have to reason ourselves into a more intelligent understanding or we have to add something on to the truth that has already been made known to me. What I really need to be reminded of every single day is the truth about the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Whether