Untitled Sermon (44)

A couple of things to say about the assassination attempt on President Trump.

Violence is never the answer. When Peter took out his sword and lopped off the ear of Malchus, Jesus rebuked him. Why? Because violence of this sort is always evil. This is the stuff of the fall. It is not the stuff of the kingdom of God. This is not how the kingdom of God is ever brought about.

And so as we pray for our political leaders. We pray for their safety. We pray for grief that might surround them. We pray that the enflamed rhetoric in our nation would calm. We pray for unity. We pray that American idea of moving history through votes and persuasion instead of violence and guns.

We thank God that the bullet did not kill former President Trump. And we also grieve the loss of precious human life. We grieve a life turned towards violence. And we grieve innocent bystanders, caught in the crossfire of political hatred. May God have mercy on our nation and may peace prevail in this midst of this unspeakable evil. Lord, help us.

The second thing to say is that our service from this point forward will transition and that might feel slightly awkward. But this is our VBS Sunday, when we celebrate what Jesus is doing in the life of children, we celebrate the week of VBS we had. Do you know how as adults we sometimes have to put on a happy face with our children so that the weight of the world doesn’t come crashing down on a little heart and mind that can’t understand it?

Well that’s today. But the reality is that we also aren’t pretending. The gospel really is greater than anything we might face. There is always a better story. Dysfunction, hatred, violence, etc. doesn’t get the last word—Jesus does. And because of this we can have some element of rest. That doesn’t mean that we don’t mourn or grieve or even appropriately work for justice and as much of the kingdom of God as possible in this fallen world.

But we can, at least for a moment, let that abiding joy rise to the surface and celebrate what God is doing. We can, through the Spirit, have that peace and patience and goodness dictate our time here—and we can let the hopefulness of children guide us.

We had a great week at VBS. We know of a few kids who were asking very good questions about the gospel and some even spoke of wanting to follow Jesus. What a wonderful thing to celebrate.

One of the things I love about children’s ministry is the challenge. In order to teach a child you need to be able to get into the mind of a kid—how are they thinking about this concept? And you might say something like “Jesus is the door”…of course we mean that Jesus is the entry point of heaven—Jesus is the means by which we go to heaven. But the kids are picturing something entirely different.

They have a harder time picking up metaphor. But as we progress intellectually we can understand things like symbols. But even still sometimes symbols change their meaning…and so we can end up being just as confused.

“Don’t touch that dial”

“Drop a dime”

“Hit the hay”

“Twenty-three skidoo”

“Burning a CD”

Today with this text we’re going to have some difficulty with these phrases—even if you’ve been in church for a long time. If you haven’t been around church much—then there are going to be quite a few words in here....you might even want to twenty-three skidoo.

1 John 5:6–12 ESV

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.

If you’ve been in church for awhile you might have a few clues as to the meaning of some of these phrases. We talk a good deal about water and blood and testimonies and the Spirit.

But what specifically does John mean here. We’re talking here from verse 5 about “Jesus the Son of God”. And it is he who “came by water and blood”.

What does that mean?

First, we need to set it up to see what John is saying here and then try to fill in the blanks. John says, “not by water only but by water and the blood.”

Whatever he means by these it appears that the opponents agree with Jesus coming by water…but they do not agree with Jesus coming by blood.

So what are these symbolizing?

Quite a few different theories through the years. Immediately some say oh water, blood. Baptism and Lord’s Supper. But that doesn’t really make sense of the text does it?

Another and this one has been around for awhile too…that when Jesus was crucified they pierced his side and water come out. And so what John is saying he’s kind of combining these two and saying that Jesus really truly died. That’s plausible and seems to fit but would that little reference to a historical event have been picked up by his readers? I don’t know? Did “the water” carry the meaning of the water coming out of his side? Not typically.

Another option and this is the majority view these days is that it is a reference to Jesus’ baptism and his death and that the false teachers are very much on Jesus’ mind. You see there was a teaching around this time---mostly promoted by a dude named Cerenthius—that the Spirit came upon Jesus at His baptism (he wasn’t divine before then) and then at the crucifixion the Spirit left Jesus so that only the man Jesus was nailed to the cross.

John, then, would be saying that the Jesus at His baptism was the same Jesus at His crucifixion. That’s a pretty plausible understanding, but if I’m being honest something about it doesn’t quiet satisfy me. It doesn’t seem to quite fit with what John is saying...”this came by” doesn’t seem to exactly fit His baptism.

I’m not entirely convinced by it but there is another view that what John is talking about here is the birth and death of Jesus. Water is symbolic of his birth—kind of like in John 3. And the blood is a reference to His death. According to this view, John isn’t really speaking against the false teachers as much as framing a Christian theology of Christ. As one commentator says:

Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians, Volume I: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on Titus, 1–2 Timothy and 1–3 John 1 John 4:1–5:17—Probatio, Part 3: The God of Love, the Christ of Faith, the Spirit of Truth

Thus the three great witnesses here are the birth and death of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. These are the things that most confirm God’s love and activity in the world and for believers. Jesus came to the world through his birth and through his death, and he comes now through the Spirit.

It’s difficult to decide 100% on what the specific reference is to. But I don’t know if we necessarily have to know exactly what the water and blood are a reference to. Regardless of where we land on these they are all saying something basically similar.

Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. His birth, death, and giving of the Spirit is what is required for us to have life. And so what John is doing then is showing a testimony...

He’s saying that Christ from birth to death—or baptism to death if you will—testifies that He is who God said He was. God spoke at His baptism “This is my beloved Son” and He spoke at His crucifixion “I have glorified you and will glorify you again”. And the Spirit—who always points to Jesus testifies as well. The witness is credible.

Now one more side note here. Some of you, if you are reading from the KJV or the NKJV will have a little more in verse 7 than what I read.

King James Version Chapter 5

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

Why in the world would we take that out of our newer Bibles? I mean that’s a wonderful Trinitarian statement…are we trying to deny the Trinity in our modern translations. No, not at all. The question is whether or not this is in the original text.

And I don’t want to chase this rabbit too far…but it doesn’t appear in any of the earliest manuscripts we have. But here is the nail in the coffin for me. You know in the early church when they were debating about all of this Trinitarian stuff? When they were battling those who denied Father, Son and Spirit as “one”…why not just bring this verse out and say “Wham!!!”

But it’s not there. There are no references in the early church fathers to this verse. Why would they not use a verse that clearly and undoubtedly teaches the Trinity. Because they didn’t have it. It wasn’t in their Bible. It was a later addition and most likely not in the original.

I’m happy to discuss this more…and if I’m given the time maybe I’ll write about that next week sometime…but for now lets just jump back into the text.

Verse 9…if we receive the testimony of men on two witnesses why wouldn’t we receive the testimony of God on three witnesses. And God has borne witness about His son.

If you don’t believe this then you are making God a liar. If you deny that Jesus is who He says He is…if you deny his birth, his death, etc. then you are calling God a liar. Because God has said, “This is my beloved Son.” God has said, “I have glorified and will glorify”.

If we say, “Yeah, I don’t think so. I don’t think Jesus is fully human. I don’t think Jesus is fully divine. I don’t think Jesus actually died on the Cross. I don’t think the Spirit is given and testifies.” If we deny that we’re calling God a liar. That is what John is saying.

And this is the testimony, that eternal life comes through the Son. If you do not have the Son you do not have eternal life. It’s interesting to me what happens in my mind when I read this text…I think my focus goes to a place different than John’s. I hear “do not have eternal life” and I immediately start thinking about hell…as if John’s main point here is “how to avoid hell”…but I think it’s really the opposite… “how to have eternal life”.

Eternal life isn’t just quantitative—as in “forever”. But it’s also qualitative. The kingdom of God is that which all of our hearts long for.

There is a German word that describes this. Fernweh (Fairn-vay) It means a longing, a pain, an ache for a far-off country. Wanting to go somewhere that you’ve never been. It’s a yearning for something bigger, something better. It’s both a positive and a negative yearning—yearning for bad to not exist and for peace/shalom and only good to exist. I think that’s a longing God has implanted in every one of us.

And sometimes on earth we catch little glimpses of this, of the kingdom of God.

We see little sparks of healing…like when a get kids one of those implants and they can hear for the first time and they light up when they hear mom or dad’s voice for the very first time.

We see little traces of reunion and unity…like when soldiers return home, surprising their little boy or girl. There is one that gets me every time. This little kid is blindfolded doing karate or something…and they replace his karate instructor with his dad who just returned…the little boy is sparing with him and then something, his voice, his touch, something lets him know that it’s his dad…he drops his blindfold and you just see sheer joy on his face, contentment....home. Yeah, that’s a little slice of heaven.

We can see a preview of things to come with sunsets, holding hands, your bride walking through the doors, seeing a child born, and sometimes in little things like a really good burrito, or when the Royals are clicking on all cylinders, or when its deafening as the lights go out and the Chicago Bulls introduction happens and they say “Michael Jordan” and everybody just goes crazy.

You have your own, I’m sure.

I’ve said in the past how thinking about heaven used to be really boring to me, because I just pictured us all like angels in heaven playing harps and wearing diapers. And I don’t really like harp music and while it seems cool to float on a cloud for a bit…eternity feels like a really long time.

But what if heaven is really like it says in Revelation that a new heaven and a new earth come down…the new Jerusalem…and it’s really a bit like life here but without all of the sin and the stuff that makes us miserable and fearful and our hearts aren’t dull anymore and we are able to be captivated more and more and more.

As I get older I keep thinking man this life isn’t long enough. I don’t get my kids for a long enough time. It all goes by so fast. You could spend decades having your children laying on your chest, watching some silly cartoon, looking out at the snow falling, hearing snow birds chirping…and just drinking it all in.

What if that is eternity? Just all of this with the constant and known presence of Jesus. And we’re riding dinosaurs and playing golf and digging for diamonds and exploring the world and doing it how it was supposed to have been in the beginning where we are working and keeping this beautiful garden and God walks with us in the cool of the day.

I mean think about the fact that God is eternally joyous. And that all of the good and happy things in life God created and He knows how to make us happy and to make us exceedingly joyful even when we are marred by sin and sadness and suffering and our capacity for sustained joy is rather dull. What if in heaven each day he expands our capacity for joy a little each day and then fills it again and again and again and again? And this is what it means for all eternity.

And so John says, “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” He’s saying if you’re connected to Jesus this is all yours. He is the door. He is the gatekeeper. He is the One by which we gain access to all of this. If you have the Son you have life. It’s yours.

Whoever has the Son has life…and so that means that in a very real sense we have eternity with us even now. It’s an already but not yet. That’s why we see the glimpses that we do. That’s why even when the news is so bleak, and we fear for the future of our country, and all of that stuff…we know there is a better story that is laying overtop of this one…at present it seems to be in the background but we know that it’s there and we know that it’s ours.

And so John, as he always does, draws it back to Jesus. You see that is why it matters that we have a right view of Jesus. Not just that we have our doctrine correct, or that we pass a test. Yay, I know all the facts. But that we actually know and have a relationship with the real Jesus.

Maybe this is a silly illustration but let’s picture that you’ve got a tour guide to a grand adventure…and there are fifteen different tour guides at the start of this thing but only one of them has the key. And you’re given certain facts about them, you get to spend a little time with each to see if they square up with what you’re told about who has the key, and the owner of the whole joint even says “this is the key-holder”, and you have a little wand that beeps when its waved over the key-holder.

But there are all of these other voices and each of these other tour guides are really convincing and some are quite delightful, some know exactly what you are longing for, and they play on these emotions, and some of them are really tricksy. They give you a pen and one of this “My name is” stickers and tell you that if you just write down the name of the key-holder and put that little sticker on whoever you’d like, well you’ll be quite fine.

This all is what John is saying. He’s saying there is only one key-holder to this grand adventure we call eternal life. You don’t get to grab a Sharpee and put the name of Jesus on whoever you want…you don’t get to make this up as you go along...

If God hadn’t revealed Himself to us we might be forgiven. If it’s all just a big guessing game then maybe we could say…you know just make the best guess that you’ve got. But no, God has revealed Himself, He has spoken to us by His Son, He has testified, He has given us eyewitness testimonies, He has given us a Spirit who testifies. You have all of this…and it’s all shouting Jesus…and you’re putting the wand over each one and it’s saying “this is the key-holder!”

What are you going to do with that?

John wants us to realize that if we have Jesus if we have a relationship with Jesus, if we are connected with Jesus, if we hear God’s testimony about Jesus and say, “Yep, that’s true…He is the Son of God. Fully God, fully man who died in our place...” Again, not just reciting facts but saying....”I’m going on the adventure with this guy…I’m connected to Him…He’s my tour guide”....John is saying, you have eternal life. He has the key. You’re with him.

If you are…well, breathe a little easier and know what awaits you. That should change everything about how we lived today. It should change the way we respond to things like political assassination attempts, it should change the way we do everything, the way we fight our battles, all of it. The way we hope with a cancer diagnosis. It changes everything.

And if you aren’t…if you aren’t connected to Jesus…John is saying to us…the Spirit of God is saying to us...”This is my beloved Son”. Don’t fall for an imposter. Don’t try to make your own way. Believe in Him. Trust in Him.

There is only one name under heaven by which men will be saved, the Lord Jesus Christ.