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Prayer
The Testimony of God
“The Spirit, the Water, and the Blood”
Last week we looked at a passage of Scripture that showed us where our victory comes from.
Our victory is a victory that comes by faith in the Son of God.
We overcome the world when we believe in Jesus.
But this week, we turn to the concluding thoughts of John in this letter.
Blindfolded Man Feeling An Elephant
Anytime a Christian claims an absolute, take for instance, “Jesus is Lord!”
A common response is, that’s your view.
People will often explain that Christianity is wrong because religions are like a man who is blindfolded and they are asked to feel an elephant.
Some grab the trunk and think it is long and tube like.
Some grab the ear and think its something floppy.
But in this example everyone gives, the person who makes such claims are always the one who sees the picture completely perfectly.
The person who claims that all truth is relative is the only one in that example which is not blind.
SO how does a person know they have found the truth?
Is there anyway a person can know their confession of “Jesus is Lord!” is credible?
Since God's testimony is greater than man's;
we must believe upon the Lord Jesus and so have life.
Upon what is a person’s confession founded?
How does a person arrive at such a conviction?
We will seek to answer both of these questions today…
Upon what is a person’s confession founded?
This question is getting at if we as Christians have any good reasons for believing the message of Jesus.
Because if like we saw in the beginning illustration, we are all blindfolded and cannot see anything then it would not give any good reasons for belief.
The Nature of the Testimony
This first section is seeking to give validation for the reasons we have for belief.
The reason that a person’s believe a certain truth is vital.
Skeptics have often criticized Christians as being people of blind faith.
But I have also heard Christian’s boast in the fact that we have “blind faith”
A dictionary definition of blind faith is “belief without true understanding, perception, or discrimination.”
That is NOT what Christian’s have.
Find God, Find Truth
“The Three Witnesses”
Upon what is a person’s confession founded?
John’s response would most simply be: TESTIMONY.
That is what we need to confirm and validate a confession.
We need witnesses to a particular confession.
1 John 5:6 (ESV)
This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ;
The Water
“Baptism”
The Water - likely refers to the baptism of Christ.
A historical event which took place in a place and time.
And John picks up the baptism imagery by saying that Christ has come through “water”
This declaration from God the Father over God the Son by the witnessing of God the Holy Spirit is critical to understanding who Jesus is.
The Trinity is on full-display in these verses, the three persons acting and displaying the ONE nature/essence.
Now this may not mean much to us on the surface, but we need to remember that John’s Gnostic opponents have been saying that Jesus was not really human.
They had been saying that the Christ came on Jesus at His baptism and left Him at His crucifixion.
They had been saying that Jesus was a super-human, mainly that He really didn’t have a physical body.
1 John 5:6 (ESV)
This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ;
The Blood
“Crucifixion”
The Blood - Likely referring to Christ’s death on the cross.
And John is hammering home to these Gnostic opponents that Jesus is truly God and truly man.
He is NOT merely a shadow of man.
He is fully and completely man and yet fully and completely God.
The Christ did not leave Jesus at His crucifixion, rather He is the Christ as His very nature.
As we think of these images that John is painting, it is hard not to think about Jesus on the cross.
Even in referring to this cross scene, John is trying to show these believers the validity of the confession they believe.
He is trying to show them that people have witnessed this.
Reminding these believers against what the Gnostics have been saying, that Jesus was truly come in the flesh.
Now we need to be careful not to draw this out too far.
But to simply recognize that Jesus has come by “water” through baptism, and by “blood” in His cross.
1 John 5:6 (ESV)
This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood.
John is again hammering home, it was not simply by the “baptism” that God spoke over Him, but by the blood as well.
Christ truly did suffer and die in the flesh.
But listen to what John goes on to say about this…
The Spirit
“The Truth”
Finally, the Spirit is said to have testified to this truth.
He does so in three way.
First, the Spirit testified to Jesus’ earthly ministry.
Secondly, the Spirit testified to the fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture, as well as the writing of the New Testament.
Even the breathing out of the Holy Spirit after His resurrection.
And thirdly, like we have seen before the Spirit confirms within the hearts of believers.
Upon what is a person’s confession founded?
We can shout out with the Apostolic witness, TESTIMONY.
Our confession is founded upon testimony!
It’s NOT your testimony.
It’s NOT my testimony.
It’s NOT our churches testimony.
It’s ultimately God’s testimony.
Which is why when a leader fails in some gross immoral way, we don’t become ruined.
This is why even if we have a hypocritical neighbor who claims he is a Christian, our faith is not shaken.
We don’t become ruined because our faith ultimately is NOT in a person’s testimony.
Our confession is grounded upon the testimony of The Spirit, The Water, and The Blood of Jesus!
Textual Question
“Who Changed My Bible?”
But compare that to any of our modern translations.
What is said in 1 John 5:7-8 in the KJV and NKJV is true.
The issue is NOT that they are presenting some false ideas in these passages.
Who changed my Bible?
The change we see here has nothing to do with the Bible changing because they are modern.
It has nothing to do with people maliciously trying to deceive us.
It has everything to do with a pure desire to see the actual text be represented.
This does NOT mean we throw out any of these Bible translations over this.
I want to address this, and I know some of you may snore at this but some of you desperately want to know why there are differences like this.
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