Gods Star Witness

I John 5:6-12 “God’s Star Witness”

I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that we get to open God’s Word together this morning. The bad news is that we don’t have John’s original letter of I John in front of us today. All of us have an English translation of I John. If you have the KJV, you have a translation that was made in 1611, and updated in language and spelling in the 18th and 19th centuries. Perhaps you have the NASB, ESV, or NIV, which were all translated in the last 50 years, but, again, a translation. If you compare the KJV or the NKJV with other translations, you will notice a substantial difference in our text today. I’ve got to address that first, so we know what text we are actually reading and studying together.

Now that we’ve established what text we should actually read, let’s read it together.

You’ve probably all read about it…or watched it on TV. The judge enters the courtroom. All rise. The judge sits, the people sit. The jury has reached a verdict. The defendant is guilty on all counts. The jury found the evidence compelling beyond a reasonable doubt. The forensic evidence, the video footage. The testimony of the police officers, and the testimony of the key eyewitness who saw the crime.

John is using very similar language here in our passage. The language of a witness or testimony. In the OT, decisions were made on the basis of 2 or 3 witnesses. John calls for the witnesses to testify about Jesus Christ. At face value, this passage might seem a bit confusing, but John’s argument is straightforward.

1. God testifies about His Son through the historic reality of his baptism and death, and through the Holy Spirit.

2. We receive God’s testimony by believing in His Son.

3. When we believe/have the Son, we have life.

I’m going walk us through how we can receive God’s testimony.

1. God testifies about His Son (6-8)
In verses 6-8, John talks about the water and the blood. It seems that the false teachers who were trying to deceive John’s readers believed that Jesus came by water. John says, no. Jesus did not come by water only. Jesus came by water and the blood. What does water mean?

It seems best to understand water as referring to either Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist or the baptism the Jesus and his disciples did. Both of them talk about Jesus’ earthly ministry. Both are associated with the giving of the Holy Spirit. Early in the letter, John talks about how his readers had received the Holy Spirit, and how the false teachers had not. The false teachers were fixated on Jesus coming by water, probably because it had to do with the giving of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus coming by blood, is referring to his physical death. The false teachers denied that Jesus had come in the flesh. If this was so, Jesus could have not shed his blood—died—for our sins. Jesus’ was not just by baptized. He died on the cross for our sins.

John goes on to say that the Holy Spirit also testifies about Jesus Christ. And he agrees with the water and the blood. The Holy Spirit is the internal testimony to Jesus, and Christ’s baptism and death are the external, historical testimonies to Jesus. It’s like being pregnant. I wouldn’t know, really. But you can ask my wife. I can only see the external testimony to my wife being pregnant. I can see that she is sick and tired. I know she is sick and tired of being sick and tired. The results of the blood tests, the sonograms, hearing the heartbeat: all these are external testimonies to the reality of the pregnancy. But, the internal reality is felt only by my wife. She feels and knows that she is pregnant. In a short time, the baby will start to move and kick.

That’s what’s happening here. The Holy Spirit is the internal witness we have of Jesus. He confirms in our hearts exactly what we find in the gospel accounts: the historical facts…the truth of Christ’s ministry, death, burial, and resurrection. Look back at 2:20. This anointing is the Holy Spirit who confirms in us the truth of God’s Word. The Holy Spirit is God’s star witness to Jesus Christ.

2. We receive God’s testimony by believing in His Son (9-10)
The next step, then, is to receive the testimony of God. Believe what he has said about his Son. Believing in Jesus internalizes the testimony God gives about His Son. Verse 9 talks about receiving the testimony of men. It makes sense for us, at times, to believe what other people say. You are going to trust what some random guy on the street says or are you going to believe a trusted friend? While there are people that tell the truth, God is an even more reliable witness. If you don’t believe God’s witness about His Son, you are a liar.

Do you believe what God has said about His Son? Or do you believe what is convenient for you to believe? Or what you have heard from a friend? Open the Bible and hear what God has to say about His Son…and believe it!

3. When we believe/have the Son, we have life
This is how amazing God is. Part of the testimony about His Son, and is that WE can have life in his Son. If we believe the Son, we have life. How? Life is in the Son. If we are united by faith to Jesus Christ, we have life. This is very basic to John’s teaching, and basic to what it means to be a Christian: we have eternal life in Jesus.
Eternal life is not given to us. We are given Jesus, and with him we have eternal life. Without Jesus, we have eternal condemnation in hell. With Jesus, life.

What does it mean to live? Have you ever heard college students talk about their woes of going back to college after their summer or Christmas break? Yeah, life is rough. You get the summer off, a week for Thanksgiving, almost a month at Christmas, and another week in the spring. Cry me a river of tears. College can be hard, but you normally don’t have the complexities of marriage, children, and taking care of a house. When they get out of college, you can welcome them to real life.

What does it mean to really live? For some, really living is when the last kid leaves the house and takes the dog. Or retirement is really living. You try to do all the things you couldn’t do when you were working. But now you have the time, but your body doesn’t have the energy!

For John, there are two realities. The first is the reality of sin, death, the devil, hell. Darkness. Death. The other is life, heaven, God, his kingdom. Light. Eternal life. You are in one reality or the other. If we have Jesus Christ, we are firmly rooted in the reality of God, his kingdom, and eternal life. We experience now a little of the eternal life we will have forever. If you have Jesus, you are really living. It’s just going to get better. If you don’t have Jesus, you are not living. You are in death, and it’s just going to get worse.

Jesus says in John 10:10- “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” For those who do not have Jesus, the twilight of this earth will grow darker in death and end in the blackness of hell. For those who have Jesus, the twilight of this earth will give way the increasing brightness of the glory of heaven.

“He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life.”