1 John 5:6-12
1 John - Walking in the Light of God’s Word • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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There was a song that came out in the 90s by Avalon called “Testify to love” which has a chorus which says “For as long as I shall live, I will testify to love, I'll be a witness in the silences, When words are not enough, With every breath I take, I will give thanks to God above, For as long as I shall live, I will testify to love”.
My question to you today is “Can I get a witness?”
Who today in 2025 is going to testify to love?
We have Alpha coming up, who’s going to testify to love?
To testify - μαρτυρέω, to bear witness, to give evidence to, its from this word we get martyr - It is a very strong word and has the sense of testifying in court where your life is on the line - one who holds to and dies for their beliefs, its costly. John who wrote 1 John knows this - his own brother was martyred for standing up for this truth.
The OT showed the importance of multiple witnesses:
15 One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
The more evidence there is from more witnesses the more the truth is recognised.
The more people a person comes into contact with who shares their authentic faith, the more the truth of a God of love who changes lives becomes.
So let’s look at todays passage:
6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.
So why “Water, blood and Spirit?” and how do they testify about Jesus?
We have the witness of Jesus Baptism: Water
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
The Triune God is revealed and give testimony about the Son at His baptism: as the Father affirms Jesus before the world as His beloved Son. That Jesus though fully human, was also fully God.
The Father’s voice speaks out from King David’s OT prophecy written about 1000years before Jesus’ birth:
7 I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father.
DL Akin speaks of Jesus baptism that:
“Some have pointed out that, being sinless, Jesus had no need of being baptized. He does not belong there. And that is true. He no more belongs at a baptism for repentance than He does on a cross for sinners. In both events He identifies Himself with the sinners He came to save. Our Lord’s baptism says, “Look at the Holy Spirit of God descending on Him and anointing Him.” It says, “Listen to the voice of the Father and His announcement concerning Him.” Jesus was not a mere man. He is the Son of God who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)” DL Akin
We have the Witness of Jesus Crucifixion: the blood
God provided significant witnesses concerning the crucifixion:
There was darkness across the land from noon until three o’clock
45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land.
“the curtain of the sanctuary which separated people from God was split in two from top to bottom” and there was an earthquake
51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split
A number of Old Testament saints were raised and appeared to many revealing the reality of death no longer having power, that there is now resurrection life for all who trust in Jesus:
52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
And these events led a hardened Roman centurion to exclaim, “This man really was God’s Son!” (Matt 27:54; Mark 15:39).
Jesus is the eternal Son of God who entered this world in time and space and died in our place a substitute, His sinless life for our sinful life. Paying for the wages of sin to gift us with His eternal life.
2 He gave his life to pay for our sins. But he not only paid for our sins. He also paid for the sins of the whole world.
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
“His death was not an accident. It was not an act of martyrdom. It was a divine, saving substitution for sinners with redeeming value and worth.” DL Akin
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
And Jesus said in John 19:30 those amazing and powerful words: IT IS FINISHED!
Sin is defeated, death has no power, shame, guilt, done with, pain, sickness, power of satan OVERCOME! CONQUERED! IT IS FINISHED! AMEN!
SO We have the Witness of Jesus Baptism & Crucifixion but also
We have the Witness of the Holy Spirit:
8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.
Just like Deuteronomy declaring the need for 3 witnesses to confirm a truth:
“In verse 8 the Spirit is mentioned first because it is He who testifies to us through the water and the blood. But all three are in agreement: Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.” DL Akin
26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.
So how does the Holy Spirit testify to us?
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
When we receive Jesus into our lives we receive the Holy Spirit. He will testify and reveal God’s truth to us. The Holy Spirit also testifies that we are God’s children
16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
and if vers 15 is says that by Him we can cry Abba, Father (Romans 8:15)
SO We have the Witness of Jesus Baptism
We have the Witness of Jesus Crucifixion
We have the Witness of the Holy Spirit
We also have the Witness of the Father:
9 We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. 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.
Jesus said in:
36 “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me.
What were the works that testify that Father God sent Jesus?
In 1 John 3:8 we read that
8 …The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
Jesus declared His mission in:
18 The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed One, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity], 19 To proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound.]
Jesus came to destroy the devil’s work.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Jesus said to His Father “Not my will but yours be done”
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Jesus chose obedince which led to His death on the cross so we can have this life to the full.
Jesus came to do His Fathers will
20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
And again in:
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
When Jesus was questioned by John the Baptists followers Jesus said:
4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
Jesus in doing the work of His Father, bears witness of being sent by His Father. To not accept Jesus, is to not recognise Father God. Jesus the Way the Truth and the Life is a stumbling block for many and blessed is anyone who accepts Jesus.
SO We have the Witness of Jesus Baptism
We have the Witness of Jesus Crucifixion
We have the Witness of the Holy Spirit
We have the Witness of the Father
Finally We have the Witness of Eternal Life:
11 And this is the testimony: God has given 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.
Eternal life is not just after we die, eternal life starts the moment we receive Jesus.
Having Jesus, the Son of God, equals having eternal life. This is God’s testimony. This is God’s gift
“God has given us eternal life” 1 John 5:11).
“and this life is in His Son” and again it is found in no one else
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
In fact, to have the Son is to have life. To not have the Son of God means you do not have life. Having the Son of God equals life. Not having the Son of God equals spiritual death. To not have the Son means you are a walking, talking dead person. You are a spiritual corpse in a physical body.
13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.
So this whole passage testifies to love, Jesus Baptism speaks of love, His crucifixion, the Spirit bears witness to love, the Father demonstrates His love, and God’s free gift of eternal life testifies of love.
But as mentioned before:
“The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time.” Carl F. H. Henry.
14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?
We have an enemy who wants us to keep silent. Who wants to take away our voice. Who does not want us to present the Word of Life to a dying world.
It says in:
11 They triumphed over him [the enemy] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
It is through the power of Jesus blood, His sacrifice on the cross, when He defeated sin and death, and our words as we testify to His love, as we become His witnesses, His martyrs where we do not put our love of this life before God, where we do not shrink from dying to self, do not shrink from rejection, do not shrink from persecution, do not shrink even from death itself in declaring Jesus to our families, to our friends, to our neighbours, to our colleagues, to our classmates.
My question to you today is “Can I get a witness?”
Who today in 2025 is going to testify to love?
