10 How the Spirit, Water, and Blood Testify to Jesus (1 John 4:20-5:12)

Speaker: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word, our serious Bible study applied to real life. Today is November 13th, 2013. Our passage is 1 John 4, 20 through 5, 12. And our teacher is Krisan Marotta. This is the tenth message in our series on the book of 1 John. Krisan Marotta: Good morning. So let me just review where we are. So I always like to set the stage in the book. Remember, John is writing to uh encourage his readers in the true gospel. So he's one of the last surviving apostles. There are many heresies creeping up in the church. The eyewitness generation is dying off, and he's writing to say, here's how you can tell the true from the false. So he starts out by saying, We were the eyewitnesses, we were the ones who were with Jesus, we saw him, we walked with him, we were there, we have firsthand experience, and we were given this special commission to teach what we learned. So you can trust the voice of the apostles. And then he begins in 1.5, God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. So he starts with the premise that God is holy, completely right, completely good. There is no evil, no darkness, no shadow, no brokenness. And therefore this is what we can know. In chapter 1, he tells us genuine believers will know they are sinful. So we'll have a particular attitude towards sin. We'll know what it is, we'll recognize it, we'll acknowledge it. And then in chapter 2, he gives us three things. He says genuine believers will hunger and thirst for righteousness. All the language he uses is love the things of God. They will not love the things of the world, and they will confess that Jesus is the Christ. And then in chapter three, he gives us two more. He says they will, genuine believers will pursue a lifestyle of holiness, they won't pursue a lifestyle of sin, and they will show a self-sacrificing kind of love, a love that's willing to love regardless of what it gets back. Then in chapter four, I think he changes the focus a little bit. He starts, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. And I think now he's saying, okay, what about teachers? What about people who stand up and say, This is what Jesus actually said and this is what he didn't? What about them? He says, Don't believe everything that gets taught in the name of Jesus Christ. Instead, he gives us, he says, basically, those genuine teachers will all will love with this same kind of love that we've just been talking about, the self-sacrificing love, and they will confess that Jesus is the Son of God. And then he summarizes chapter 4, that's where we're going to pick up. We're going to start in 4, 19, 20, and 21. So he summarizes that section and he says, We love because he first loved us. If someone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love the God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. So he repeats his original exhortation says if we are children of God, we will seek to be like him, and we will love those who love him, and we will love the things that he loves. That's that should be familiar, because we've been talking about a lot. So at the heart of what God did for us is change us, transform us into people who love holiness, love righteousness as God does, we hate sin as God does, we grieve over our sin, and so we will necessarily be the kind of people who love what God loves. And if we would not have this if God had not loved us first. So he we get this as a gift from Him and as He changes us. So then He says, Well, if someone says I love God, in other words, if someone claims to be a believer and hates his brother, he's a liar. For the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love the God whom he has not seen. So he's saying, okay, God's abstract. It's real easy to claim, well, I love God in the abstract, whoever he may be, or whatever God that is. Um but when we're faced with flesh and blood people who are becoming more and more like God and who resemble him and who try strive for the things God values, if we hate those people, then how can we claim to love God? So brothers, I think, by definition, here are those who are other believers, those who want to be like God, who are becoming more like him. And he's saying if I claim to love God and then I'm faced with a tangible kind of flesh and blood person who strives toward the things of God, and I mock him for it, or I hate him for it, I ridicule him for it, or I think he's, you know, adult or unsophisticated or something, then who am I kidding? What how can I claim to love God if I don't love the people that exhibit the same character he does? And I suspect probably the false teachers were in some way making an appeal to say, well, we love God, and then we're despising and mocking those who are faithful to the teachings of Jesus. So they're probably claiming, well, we're the one, we're the real ones who love God. And you should be like us, and John's saying, look, their claim isn't credible if they are mocking or hating the people who love God. So you can't love God and hate his people. So when Jesus was with us, he was the visible representation of the invisible God. He's not here anymore, physically present. What do we have in his place? We have his people, and to a greater or lesser degree, we reflect his character and his values or his love. So we're the isn't that theory? We're the next best thing. But the good news is God is getting us there. So the followers of Jesus are the ones who are being changed, who are being transformed, who are beginning to love the way God loves, to exhibit his grace, his mercy. And if you claim to love God and you hate the people who are reflecting that, your claim isn't credible. And that's pretty much the same issue we saw earlier in chapter two. It's not really a new idea. So, what's new in this section? What's he gonna add as we get into chapter five? I think up to this point he's been talking about who will inherit eternal life, and his answer is those who trust God, those who understand their sin and long for a savior and find that savior in Jesus Christ. And the new thing he's really gonna hit in chapter five is who was Jesus and how do we know? So 420 and 21 kind of raise the question: well, who is my brother? If I'm if I'm supposed to love my brother, then who is the one who loves God? How do I know if I have loved the right people? And 5.1 is going to answer that. So we're let's look at 5.1 through 5. So I think he's basically following off of what he just said in 4.20, and it raises the question, who is my brother? Who's the one who loves God? And he answers in 5.1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and observe his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is victory that is overcome the world, our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Okay, so just to sum up, he says, to love the Father whom we haven't seen involves loving his children whom we can see, and that raises the question, well, who are his children? Who are my brothers and sisters in Christ? And his answer is basically anyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ. So as we talked about what it means to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and you're trusting him for his salvation. So 5-1, whoever believes that Jesus Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of him. So if you think about it, that's not a very exclusive group. You know, that that's a pretty expansive group, but if we kind of tend to make it more exclusive than it has to be. You know, we think, oh, well, we're Presbyterians, so we can't love the Episcopalians or, you know, the Methodists or something, or, or okay, maybe we'll include other Protestant denominations, but only if they're Republicans, or only if they're Democrats, or only if they're middle class, or only if they're white. You know, we put all these restrictions and boundaries on it. And John's point is, no, they love God, they love Jesus, that's your family. Um, whoever and wherever they are, it's anyone who believes, all those other barriers that we like to erect, that's that is not uh not an issue. Now, I don't think he's saying that our love is limited to the family of God, but he's saying it must at least include the family of God. So it begins with the family and expands outward. And that raises the question, okay, so you've given me this great big group of people, and you've told me anyone who believes is my brother, but how do I know if I'm loving my brother? Because, you know, sometimes our fellow believers are the hardest people to love. And I think he answers in 5, 2, and 3, how do you know? By this we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and observe his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. So I think in this, he goes on to say, Well, how do I know if I love my brother? And he's gonna say, You keep his commandments. Let's talk about that. Because sometimes, I don't know about you, it's sometimes believers are harder to love than non-believers because we expect so much of them. We expect each other to to follow this high standard of righteousness. And if if other believers let us down, we take it much more kind of personally than um than we would if it's a non-Christian. If it's a non-Christian, we kind of say, Oh, yeah, well, what do you expect? But believers, we expect a lot of each other. And we sometimes we love the Bible and we disagree about it, and how to apply it, and or we offend each other, or sometimes we have to hold each other accountable and that's no fun. Um, or you know, you feel we rebuke each other or admonish each other. So it's hard, I think, to love other believers. And sometimes we just, you know, say stupid things, you know, and went. So how do I know? And his answer is, you know that we love the children of God when we love God and observe his commandments. And I think the idea of that when we're acting out of a desire to do the right thing, so keeping God's commandments is basically trying to do the right what would righteousness dictate, what would holiness dictate? So, in other words, my actions arise out of d a desire to obey God's word, to do and say the right thing, and to follow the path that holiness would dictate, even if it's uncomfortable. I mean, even if it means I have to say unpleasant things or hold someone accountable or or um rebuke them or something, sometimes to be to do and say the right thing, we have to upset our sisters or offend them, or risk at least offending them. But I think part of what he's saying is if your actions are motivated by a desire to do the right thing, to speak the truth in love, as Paul might say, to seek their best, even if it means you risk the friendship, then you're you're on the right track. Now, sometimes, you know, we're just being selfish or thoughtless, uh, and we've been hurt and we've been hurt back. I don't think that, I mean, we're all gonna do that. That doesn't, if you've if that's happened to you, welcome to the club. You know, we're all on the same side of the line there. So don't that doesn't disqualify you. But I think he's saying over it doesn't mean you'll be perfect 24-7 all the time, but that the tenor of your life should start changing so that you want to do the right thing, you want to obey his commandments, and you begin to do all those one another things that the by the New Testament talks about bearing each other's burdens, loving one another, speaking the truth to one another, um, holding each other accountable, encouraging, edifying, admonishing each other. And that's how you know. So then he says this really tricky phrase, and his commandments are not burdensome. It's like, oh yeah, because we've just talked about way how high the standard is, and um how you know none of us get there on our own. So, what does he mean by they're not burdensome? I think the idea is they're not a burden because you love them. They're keeping them is now part of your character and your desire. So, let me give you an example. I think I may have told you before, um, I really do not like asparagus. I don't know why. My husband thinks I'm crazy, but I just never really liked it. And if you give me a plate of asparagus to eat, it would be a burden. Because I don't like it. But if you gave me this nice fancy chocolate dessert, not a burden at all. I could I could eat the whole thing because I love it. There's something about me that loves chocolate and hates asparagus. You know, I love to sew, I hate to clean, so cleaning's a burden, sewing is not. Because it's in my nature, it's who I am, and I think that's what he means. When you become a child of God, he gives you this desire to obey, this desire to keep his commandments. And the more you love him and love his commandments, they're not a burden because you want to do them. They're like the fancy chocolate dessert, it's what your heart desires. So keeping his commandments aren't a burden because that's part of the joy of being his child. Now, it doesn't mean it's going to be easy. Not being a burden does not equal easy. Um it may be very challenging, it may be very hard or difficult, but there's there's kind of a joy or a confidence of knowing you're on the right track. You're you're doing what you ought to do, no matter how hard it gets. And just kind of as an aside, one way to I think to confirm your spiritual gift is to figure out where you can serve without burnout. Um, so we all have a kind of a job description, if you will, or a calling as a believer, and it's a good calling is like a mission or vision statement. It has teeth, it rules things in and rules things out, and I think our calling can be like that. There are thousands and thousands of good and worthy projects out there and ministries you could be involved in, and your calling set kind of sets the priorities to say, I can accept that and I can say no to that. I'm called to this and not that. And refusal doesn't mean the project isn't unworthy or necessary or good, it just means it's outside my calling. And I know probably to some of you that sounds like you know heresy. How could you possibly say no to a good and worthy project? And I would say that's the difference between being called and being driven. Being driven, you take on everything that comes along and everything that needs to be done. Being called, you take on only what God asks you to do. And if you try to take on every worthy project, I would say, watch out, you're in danger of being driven. And that leads to burnout. Um, but being called leads to joy. So when you find your calling and when you're doing it, you love it, and you may be exhausted at the end of the day, but you're not burned out. There's a famous line in the movie, Chariots of Fire. You all remember that movie, or is it getting too old? Eric Liddell was an Olympic runner and he was a missionary, and someone says, Well, why don't you just give up running in favor of mission work? And he says, When I run, I feel God's pleasure. And I always love that because it's like when you're doing your calling, you feel God's pleasure. It may be hard, it may be, you know, you may be exhausted, you may be stretched and challenged, and you may feel like you're gonna break, but you feel God's pleasure. And I think that's the idea behind you keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. They're part of what you've been called to do, and there's a joy in it, uh, even when it's difficult. And again, that's not to say it's easy, smooth, worry-free, no difficulties. Um that's uh that all that may be true. It may be difficult, anxious, and it may be a struggle, but it can still be your calling. So I think his commandments become burdensome when we try to keep them as a means of pleasing God. So when we start thinking I have to do all this to please God or to show him I'm worthy or to justify my existence, then it becomes a burden because we're trying to keep them on our own re out of our own resources. And I think that's what John's talking about here. Okay, so then four and five, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. So born of God is just, I think, a phrase for genuine believers, those who trust him. The world, again, is everything and everyone opposed to God. And I think he's saying, left to ourselves, we would reject Jesus. We would hate God, we would hate the things of God, but um, God has changed us so that we overcome that. We now love him. I think the parable of the vineyard owners makes the same point where they keep the master of the vineyard keeps sending servants to the tenants, and they keep killing the servants until finally he sends his own son. And I think that's us. Unless God works in our lives, we would reject everything about him, even to the point of killing his son, but we overcome it how? By faith in Jesus. So it's being born again. Who is the one who overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. And I think the Son of God is synonymous with as the Christ or as the Messiah. He uses those interchangeably throughout the letter. So how do you know when you're winning, if you will? How do you know when you're overcoming the world? If you have faith. And remember back in chapter two when he talked about old men, young men, and fathers, and he said the young men had overcome the world, and I told you they overcome it by their faith? See, I read ahead. This is where that comes from. So Satan's goal is unbelief, and you overcome that, or you win by persevering in the faith. So who is the one who has faith? He's the one who overcomes the world, and it's faith in what? Believing that Jesus is the Son of God, the promised Messiah. And I don't know about you, but I find that very comforting because he doesn't say you have to be perfect, he doesn't say you have to be a super spiritual Christian, do everything right, you know, always have your happy face on, always look good to everything, never have a struggle or a care. He says you just have to believe. You just have to get through those trials and at the end of the day, come out with your faith intact, and God has promised He will do that for you. So I don't know about you. I have a tendency to start thinking that it's all up to me, and I get what I call the Elijah complex. Because you remember at one point in Elijah's life he got very discouraged and he says, Okay, God, I'm the only one left. I'm the only one trying. And he goes and he sits under a tree and he says, Just take me now. Because I'm it, no one else is there to help me. It's in 1 Kings 19. He thinks everyone else is slacking off, and he has to do it all. And God kind of teaches him, you know, actually, I'm the one doing it. Um, you know, you're not alone. And that's part of overcoming the faith, the faith that this is a gift of God, that it's not my efforts, it's not my self-work, it's not me mustering up the resources to impress God, that all whatever successes we have are a sign of God working in our life and are the result of Him changing us. Um so it's not me who overcomes the world, it's God who is in me. I think the other great picture of that is Exodus 17, when the Israelites were moving out of Egypt and they move into the desert and they're fighting the Amalekites, and the battle is really furious, and all the forces of Israel against all the forces of the Amalekites, and the Amalekites are winning, and Moses goes up to the top of the mountain and he raises his rod, he lifts his arm to heaven. Remember this story? And as while he's got his hands up, the Israelites begin to win. And as long as he keeps his arms up with the rod extended, they win, but as his arm gets tired and he lowers his arms, the battle turns against them and they start to lose. And that keeps being repeated until it's obvious that they're only going to win if he keeps his arms up. So Aaron and her come and they stand on each side and they hold his arms up and the battle is won. And that story always confused me until I figured out this is a symbol of God's, of our dependence on God. And he's saying, You will win when you depend on me. You will win when you have faith, when you overcome the world. So he's giving them very physical evidence that their success is not in their own efforts, not in how great a warrior they are, not in their battles or the sharpness of their swords. Their success is in trusting God, depending on him. And I think that's exactly what Paul's or what John is saying here. You overcome the world with faith. The battle is won by faith. And that is a gift of God. So I don't know about you, but I find that very comforting. So 1.5 kind of explains then, well, who are my brothers? He says, those who believe that Jesus is the Christ, and we love them by beginning to love them the way God loves, keeping his commandments, seeking to obey, striving for that lifestyle of righteousness. But the next question that he hasn't really answered then is, well, Jesus who? How do we know which Jesus we're talking about? And I think 6 through 12 is where he clarifies that, where he really comes down to say, how do we know that it's so fired, all fired important that we believe Jesus was who he says he was, and that's what he's gonna point out in 6 through 12. So in 5.6 he says, the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is truth. So we're gonna figure out what he means by water and blood and the Spirit and testifying. But I think the context of this is how do we know what Jesus were supposed to believe and why is this so important? And he's saying you want to believe in Jesus who was affirmed to be the Son of God at both his baptism and his death. On the cross. Not just his baptism, but both of them. And I think water is a shorthand to refer to his baptism, and blood is a shorthand to refer to his death on the cross. So not with water only, but with water and blood, he's saying, seeing Christ baptized isn't uh is um not the only witness we have. We also have his death on the cross, which was very problematic for the heresies of John's day, because the Messiah, as they understood it, was not supposed to die. He was not supposed to be humiliated, especially by Gentiles, the pagan Romans, and die on a cross in a way that's cursed. I mean, that just wasn't supposed to happen. That was a huge stumbling block for them. For us, it's old news. You know, we're 2,000 years later, we're like, yeah, well, of course. But um think about it from a Palestinian Jew in the first century to say we're asked that this Messiah we've waited thousands of years for, who's gonna rule on David's throne and his etern his kingdom will never end. You want me to believe he was killed? You want me to believe that the Romans of all people killed him? That's just not the way they thought it was gonna work. So it takes faith to see that Jesus' death on the cross was not a defeat, that this was part of the plan, that this was exactly what the Messiah was intended to do. So I think part of what John's doing is countering the Gnostic claims that Jesus was only a man. There was a man named Serinthius who was propagating the view that Jesus was just a normal man, and at his baptism, the Christ Spirit, is what he called it, descended on him, and then at the cross, the Christ Spirit left him, so the Christ never died. The Christ never died and was resurrection. He just came and kind of inhabited this man, Jesus, and then he left before that dying part. And John would say, No, that you don't get it. The one who died on the cross was truly the Christ, the Son of God, and he's the same one that was baptized. And if you think about it, the the death and resurrection of Jesus move Christianity out of the realm of theology and philosophy and into history. So you it separates Christianity from all other religions. You can call it bunk, you can call it delusion, but if the resurrection happened, and there's very, very good evidence that it did, then we have to deal with it. It changes everything. If Jesus rose from the dead, then all the thoughts that, well, he was just another good man, or he was just one prophet among many, or you know, he was just a good teacher, or he was just enlightened, that you can't ask that question anymore. It's no longer a matter of my personal preference, it's a matter of, well, if he raised from the dead and he said he was God, and this is the way we get to God, then who was he? We have to deal with that. And if you want, Josh McDowell wrote a book called The Resurrection Factor, which just kind of goes through all the historical evidence. If you want more on that, uh I recommend that book. But let's look at what he means, let's gonna go on with this spirit and water and blood stuff. So in 5, 7, and 8, for the there are three that testify the spirit and the water and the blood, and the three are in agreement. So he's basically gonna say we have these three independent testimonies that bear witness to the identity that Jesus was the Christ. So, what does he mean by that? So I I told you the water, I think, is his baptism. And uh if you have your Bibles, we're gonna look back into the Gospels for a minute. So remember, something remarkable happened at his baptism. A voice from heaven affirmed, this is the one. This man, Jesus of Nazareth, is a Christ. So this is in the Gospel of John. I'm gonna start in 28 and go to 34. It says, These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. That's John the Baptist. The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This is he on behalf of whom I said, After me comes a man who has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me. I did not recognize him, but so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water. And John testified, saying, I have seen the spirit descending as a dove out of heaven and remained on him. I did not recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God. So John the Baptist is the last Old Testament prophet, and he says, God told me, here's how you can recognize the Messiah. This is what's going to happen. When you see the Spirit descending on him and remaining, this is the one, this is the Messiah. And John says, That's what God told me, I saw it happened, and this is the one. So there's our first testimony, and that's part, I think, what he means by we have this testimony of the Spirit, that it came, it rested on him. We had the last prophet before Jesus saying, This is the one, and he confirms, This is what God told me, I saw it happened. Then in Matthew 3, this is 13 through 17. Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan, coming to John to be baptized him. But John tried to prevent him, saying, I have need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? But Jesus answered him, answering, said to him, Permit it at this time, for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he permitted him. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him, and behold, a voice out of heaven said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And the other synoptic gospels are roughly the same on this account. And I think for us it's easy to read that because we've heard it so many times, go, yeah, voice from heaven. Really? I mean, how often do we get a voice from heaven? God speaking from the sky? You don't get much clearer than that. I mean, this is direct, explicit revelation that God Himself says, this is the one. And I think that when God, when John says the water testifies, he's referring back to these instances and saying, at his baptism, we had this direct evidence from God that this is the one. This is the person he was talking about. All those prophecies are going to be fulfilled in him. Okay, now let's look at the blood reference, because I think that refers to his death on the cross, but again we have divine testimony. This is in the Gospel of John chapter 12, and only John's Gospel records this incident. He says, Now there were some Greeks among those who were going so Jesus they're talking to Jesus, and Jesus is going to start talking about his death, just to set the stage. So John 12 20, there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast. These then came to Philip, who was from Beth Seda of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip came and told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Now my soul has become troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I came to this hour. So he's saying, Look, my death is coming, it's just about here. How can I turn away from it? And then this is John twelve twenty-eight. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came out of heaven, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. So we have another voice saying, Yes, the cross is coming, it's part of the plan, and I'm going to glorify you through it. John twelve twenty-nine. So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thunders, and others were saying an angel had spoken to him. And Jesus answered and said, This voice has not come for my sake, but for your sakes. Now judgment is upon the world. Now the ruler of the ruler of this world will be cast out, and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. But he was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which he was to die. So this whole conversation is about the cross coming, and again we have a voice from heaven saying, I will glorify you on the cross. This is part of the plan. So we have twice this divine testimony that this Jesus is the one. He's the unique person, the unique Messiah with a unique role to play. So when John says the water and the blood are bearing witness, I think that's a shorthand way to refer to these two incidents where twice a voice from heaven affirmed that Jesus is the Messiah. Now, just in case you're wondering, there are three instances where we have a voice from heaven. The one at his baptism, the one we just read in John 12, and then the third is the Mount of Transfiguration. But I don't think John mentions that one because there were very few people there. The other two were public. There were lots of people there and lots of witnesses, but there were only a handful of people at the Mount of Transfiguration, so I don't think he mentions that one. So he says these three things testify together, the water and the blood, and I think referring to these instances where we get a voice from heaven saying Jesus is who he says he was, and then we get the spirit, and you'll remember in Jewish law, if you have three witnesses, that made it legal reality. You had to have three for it to be uh acceptable. So I find that instance. So let's talk about how the spirit testifies that Jesus is who he says he is. Um, Jesus gives us three different functions for the spirit. So one is to equip the apostles to accurately teach the message and to be his spokesman. So this comes from John, the Gospel of John, chapter 14. This is part of the upper room discourse, and he says to the to the twelve, this is John 14, 26, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. And then later in the same discussion in John 15, 26 and 27, he says, When the helper comes whom I will send to you from the Father, this is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father. He will testify about me, and you will testify also, because you have been with me from the beginning. So he's saying, I'm sending you the Spirit to help you remember everything I've taught you, and I'm giving you this charge. You're going to testify because you are the ones who are with me from the beginning. So if you want to know what Jesus said, you ask an apostle, and he can tell you because he has the special equipping from the Spirit to remember accurately and to have the charge or the calling to proclaim it. And that's how John opened his letter. He said, I am one of these, these eyewitnesses, these reliable accounts, one of the people who has the special equipping to see and remember. And that was one of the functions of the Holy Spirit. So behind the witness of the apostles is the witness of the Spirit, and Peter says the same thing. This is in Acts 5.32. He's called before the Sanhedrin, and they're challenging him for preaching the gospel. And Peter says, We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. So I think he's pointing to that same idea that we are specially equipped, that the apostles were specially equipped to see and understand and teach. So that's one function. The second function then of the Holy Spirit is to work in the hearts and minds of those who hear the message so that they can understand it. So he John opened this letter with his claim that he was one of the eyewitnesses, he was reliable, and now he has you have the Spirit in your life confirming that this is true. The idea is that God is giving you the eyes to see and the ears to hear. So not only do you have this external physical historical evidence, now you have the inner conviction of the Holy Spirit changing your heart, making the words clear, giving you faith, and giving you understanding. And then the third role of the Holy Spirit, this is from John chapter 16, is to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. This is John 16, 7. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. And he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe me, concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see me, and concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged. Now I'm not sure I understand all of that. But I think at least what he's saying is the Holy Spirit is working two ways. It's either convicting you of your sins such that you respond and see the error of your ways and turn to God in faith and ask, cry out for mercy, or you are judged. And I think, you know, so when we for believers, when we hear the truth of the gospel, it makes sense, it squares with this kind of conscience, we might call it, or inner voice that tells us this is true. Um, and then it it convicts us of our sins. So we got we have these independent testimonies. We have the voice of God at his at Jesus' baptism, we have the voice of God saying he will glorify him on the cross, and then we have the Spirit of God at work in our lives giving us the eyes to see. And John is saying, all those things, all those three testify, and they are in agreement. This is this man Jesus is who he was, is who he said he was. So sometimes Christians are accused of having blind faith, you know, and that faith is defined as the ability to believe something you have no reason to believe. And uh, and the more unreasonable it is, and the more unlikely it is, you know, and the more you believe it, then the better spiritual you are. That's just ridiculous. I mean, I you see that in movies all the time where where they portray faith as believing without reason. And I think we can look at least look at a passage like this and say there are really good reasons to believe. And there are very good reasons to believe that Jesus is in the Christ. There's no virtue in believing what you have no reason to believe, and that's not what Christianity is all about. And John's given us three pieces of evidence here: his baptism, his death and resurrection, and then the inner conviction of the Holy Spirit. And he says these are from God Himself. These God is the one behind all these things. Look at verse 9. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. For the testimony of God is this, that he has testified concerning his son. So he's saying, if you're willing to believe what men tell you, how much more willing should you be to believe what God tells you? Because God is truer and more reliable than any man, and what has God told us? That this is his son. So these voices from heaven, we the prophecies that uh that were predicted long before he came and were fulfilled, we have God Himself claiming, This is my Son, this is this is the one. So the voice at his baptism, the voice of a few days before the cross, the resurrection itself, uh, the ascension, we have the miracles he performed during his ministry, all of that are evidence from God that this is the one he said he was. He's saying, Look, we have divine revelation from God himself. Isn't that more reliable than what any man says? And then he sums it up in 10 through 12. The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself, and the one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning his son. And the testimony is this that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son. He who has the Son has the life, and he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. So basically he's saying the one who believes that Jesus is the Christ does so because the Spirit of God is at work in him, convin or her, convincing him, or us, giving us the eyes to see. And the one who does not believe that Jesus is the Christ is calling God a liar because he has not believed what God has told us, both from within and from without. And what has God told us? That if you want eternal life, it's found in Jesus. And anyone who accepts the identity of Jesus as the Son of God will gain that life. If you don't accept that identity, then you will not gain life. So I think he's closing the circle. Remember back in 1.4, he claimed that he was giving us the witness about the word of life and that he was bearing witness about the way to eternal life. And I think he's now, as he gets to the end of the letter, he's coming back to that point and saying, if you want life in the age of ages, if you want life where you are freed from your sin, um, and in the in the kingdom of God, there's one way to gain it, and that's through trusting um in Jesus as the Son of God, as God Himself told us this is the one. So again, he's really hitting on who was Jesus and how do we know and how important that is as a central tenet of faith and as a central tenet of the true gospel versus a false gospel. So we're gonna, he's gonna wrap that up next week with another really difficult section with the sin unto death, the sin not unto death, which has puzzled scholars forever. So we'll try to sort that out. Good luck. Have fun. It's a great section, so don't miss it, it's fun. Um but let me just wrap this up just a little bit, um, just to give it a little bit of application. It's such a big theological statement, it was hard for me to come up with application on this. But um the one thing I would kind of talk, the one thing that came to me is that the testimony of the spirit is not really an emotional feeling. We often get into thinking, if I have the spirit, I have to feel something, some like maybe warm and fuzzy feeling or something. And if I'm right about this, he's talking about the spirit is really the work of the spirit is giving me the eyes to see, is giving me the ears to hear, it's understanding, and that may or may not have anything to do with feelings. I may not feel loved at all. Um, but what I know to be true is that God loved me enough to send his son to die in my place. So I think he's saying we know that Jesus is the Messiah by objective evidence of the historical evidence of the gospel, and by subjective evidence, but that subjective evidence is not emotions per se, it's understanding, it's clarification, it's um seeing, hearing, understanding, and the words ringing true and knowing that they are true. Remember, John talked about how deceitful our hearts were in this letter and how we can mix ourselves up by what we feel, so we can either um kind of manufacture the feelings and think we have to go through the motions of of getting them, um, or we can we can have them and trust in them. And he's saying the feelings may or may not have objective reality to it. But what the Spirit bears witness is what is true, not necessarily how I feel about it. And I think there are times when we have to say, I'm feeling doubtful, I'm feeling despair, I'm feeling unloved, I'm feeling like the door to heaven is closed, my feelings are lying to me. That is not what's true. Um, that what I know to be true is that God sent his son to die in my place. I know what it means to have faith, I know what it means to trust him. That hasn't changed, so I need to ignore my feelings at this point. Okay. So I think I've said all that. All right. Um, let me pray for us and um give you a chance to ask questions. Father, thank you that you do uh testify to your son, and that there is good evidence to believe who Jesus was and that he came to d to die in our place. And we thank you for giving us your spirit, for doing for us what we couldn't do for ourselves, opening our eyes, giving us faith, giving us the ability to see and trust. And I just pray that if anyone here does not know Jesus in a real profound way, understanding who he is and how much he loves her, and how much he came and sacrificed to pay the penalty for her sins, that you would make that real now, that you would show us um who he is, who you are, and how much you've done for us, and that we would have the faith to um to just trust and believe. In Jesus' name. Amen. Speaker: Thanks for listening to Wednesday in the Word. For more information about this message or additional talks in this series, please visit our website, wednesdayintheword.com. We pray that this has been a blessing to you and you will join us again soon.