3 witnesses that affirm and confirm the truth of the message and mission of Jesus...

At the church where I serve we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled Connect. During this series, we are looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of 1 John. During this series, we are discovering the components that make for true connection and community, along with the landmines that keep us from true connection and community. And as we go through this series, our hope and our prayer is that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our heads, hearts, and hands, in a way that moves us to the place where we can experience the connection and community with God and one another that we were created and designed to experience. 

This week I would like for us to look at the next section of this letter that has been preserved and recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of 1 John, we will see John reveal for us another timeless truth when it comes to how we can experience the connection and community with God and one another that we were created and designed to experience. So let’s jump into the next section of this letter together, beginning in 1 John 5:6-8:

This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷ For there are three that testify: ⁸ the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.

To which we say “What?” I mean what is John talking about here? To come to the place where we can wrap our minds around what John is communicating in these verses, we first need to understand the context in which these verses occur, along with some terms and phrases. First, let’s take a minute to understand the context.

Last week, in 1 John 5:1-5, John revealed the reality that true community and connection with God results in love for those who are a part of the family of God. John proclaimed that true community and connection with God results in love for those who are a part of the family of God because true community and connection with God will demonstrate the depth of their connection with the invisible God by how they treat the visible around them. John revealed the reality that loving God and loving others who are a part of the family of God are inseparably related. And just as our love for Jesus should produce love for other followers of Jesus, our love for Jesus should produce obedience to the commands and demands of Jesus, including loving other followers of Jesus.

John proclaimed that true community and connection with God results in love for those who are a part of the family of God because Jesus entered into humanity to provide an opportunity for humanity to enter into a new covenant, a new agreement between God and humanity. A new covenant that was driven by the love of God to follow two commands that encapsulated God’s commands to humanity: Love God supremely and love one’s neighbor as themselves. A new covenant that was designed to overcome those things in the world that were hostile to God and placed themselves in opposition to God.

John proclaimed that true community and connection with God results in love for those who are a part of the family of God because it is our confident trust in what God has done for humanity through Jesus that produces a life of devotion and trust in Jesus that provides victory over those things in the world that are hostile to God and place themselves in opposition to God. And it is in the context of proclaiming the victory that Jesus provides over those things in the world that are hostile to God and place themselves in opposition to God that John begins this section of his letter by pointing its readers once again to Jesus, as the One who came by water and blood.

Now this leads us to the first phrase that we need to define and understand, which is the phrase “Came by water and blood”. With his phrase, John is pointing to what Jesus did during His earthly life to provide humanity the opportunity to enter into this new covenant, or agreement between God and humanity. You see, Jesus proclaimed the message about the kingdom of God and how one could enter into that kingdom as a result of this new covenant between God and humanity.

And as Jesus proclaimed the message about the kingdom of God and this new covenant between God and humanity by which one could experience true community and connection with God, people responded by being baptized so as to publicly proclaim that they identified with His message. John is reminding the readers of his letter throughout history that Jesus entered into humanity and was baptizing people who identified with Him as being the fulfillment of God’s promise of a Messiah who would usher in this new covenant between God and humanity that would result in true community and connection with God.

By contrast, when John refers to Jesus coming by blood, he is pointing the readers of his letter to Jesus death on the cross, in our place, for our selfishness and rebellion. As John pointed out earlier in this series, Jesus laid down His life in our place for our rebellion to satisfy God’s right and just response to our selfishness and rebellion and to remove the guilt that comes as a result of our selfishness and rebellion.

John is reminding the readers of his letter throughout history that Jesus death on the cross, in our place, for our selfishness and rebellion provides the opportunity for all humanity to be forgiven of their selfishness and rebellion and experience the community and connection with God that they were created for as a result of entering into a new covenant, or agreement between God and humanity. Thus, John is pointing to the things that Jesus did in His life here on earth, both in His message of a new covenant or agreement, between God and humanity, and His death and resurrection that provided the opportunity for humanity to enter into that new covenant or agreement, between God and humanity.

John then reminded the readers of his letter that “It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.”  When John refers to the Spirit, he is referring to the Holy Spirit. As we discovered earlier in this series, when John uses the word testifies, this word literally means to confirm or attest something as being true. In 1 John 2:26-27, John revealed the reality that it is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the life of a person who has a genuine and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus that will confirm and affirm the teaching of true teachers of the message and teaching of the letters that make up the Bible.

John is calling the members of the church at Ephesus to remember that they have the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, who is true and proclaims the truth about the truth of the message and mission of Jesus that was revealed through those who were baptized in response to His message and through Jesus death on the cross, in our place, for our selfishness and rebellion. John then hammered his point home in verse 7 and 8 by proclaiming that “there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.” Now that leads us to the third phrase that we need to understand, which is the phrase “there are three that testify”.

With this phrase, John is pointing the readers of his letter back God’s message to the Jewish people that is recorded for us in a section of a letter in the Old Testament of the Bible called to book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 19:15, we see God say the following to the Jewish people:

A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.

John’s point is that unlike the false teachers who had left the church at Ephesus and were trying to influence others to leave the church at Ephesus, there were three witnesses that confirmed and affirmed the message and mission of Jesus to provide humanity the opportunity to enter into a new covenant, or agreement between God and humanity that provided true community and connection between God and humanity.  John’s point is that was the message of Jesus and the baptizing of those who identified with His message as being the fulfillment of God’s promise of a Messiah;  it was Jesus death on the cross, in our place, for our rebellion, to be raised from the dead never to die again; and it was the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, who is true and proclaims the truth about the truth of the message and mission of Jesus, that provided the evidence of the truth the message and mission of Jesus to provide humanity the opportunity to enter into a new covenant, or agreement between God and humanity that provided true community and connection between God and humanity.

And as John pointed out, the testimony of these three were in agreement. In other words, there was no space, there was no gap in the testimony. The testimony of Jesus message and mission that resulted in the baptism of those who identified with Jesus, the testimony of Jesus death on the cross, in our place, for our rebellion, and the testimony of the Spirit of God consistently pointed to the truth of the testimony of God. And as John continued to write this letter to early followers of Jesus at the church at Ephesus, we see John continue to contrast the message of the false teachers who had left the church at Ephesus and were trying to influence others to leave the church at Ephesus, with the message that he and other leaders in God’s new movement in history that we know today as the church were proclaiming.

We will look at that comparison tomorrow...