1 John 5:1-12

Discussion Questions

1. Compare & contrast the two viewpoints regarding whether being reborn is a cause of our faith or the result of it. What do you think are the strongest arguments in support of each?
2. What are some of your favorite ways God has revealed Himself to us through nature?
3. Similarly, what do you think are some of His most important revelations to us through scripture?
4. Could you default less to “Get off my lawn” and more toward “Grace and peace to you”?
5. How can you rely more fully on His witness, through nature and His word, to love Him and His children?
6. What are some good examples of when the Church has properly demonstrated the love of God to the world?

Transcript

Good morning, friends. We study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel. If you’d like a paper copy to follow along with, just raise your hand, and it shall be delivered to you. If you would prefer instead to follow along with your device, if you look on the screen, you can see our wi-fi info. You can hop on our wi-fi. And if you wish, you can scan that QR code and get all the notes and quotes.

Today we’re continuing our study of 1 John, which we have called “That You May Know.”  And we’re going to study through the first 12 verses of chapter 5, and I’m calling it “Can I Get a Witness?”

We’ll be peppering that phrase throughout. So, our summary statement on the message of 1 John is on the next slide, and I know we show this every week, but it’s important, and I think it bears seeing every week. In our sermon prep meeting this past week, we remarked that since John thinks these things bear repeating, we think they bear repeating. So, this is our summary message of 1 John.

God wants you to rejoice in the knowledge and understanding of his love for you, which has been displayed vividly in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And God wants us to share his love with one another.  Amen. That is the “why” of 1 John.

We’ve been comparing John’s teaching here to a circular or spiral staircase, and you might call it the spiral staircase of the Christian life. We keep coming around and around and around again to these same topics. But again, if John thinks it bears repeating, we think it bears repeating.

And speaking of spiral staircases, back in March—I can’t believe it’s been three months already—while we were in Israel, we went and took a look at the ruins of the Fortress of Masada, which is on top of a mountain, if you will. It’s about a thousand feet up above the desert floor. And there’s two ways to get to the top of Masada. You can ride up a cable car, kind of like Lookout Mountain down in Chattanooga, or you can walk up the mountain. There’s a series of switchbacks and stairs and steps. And it’s not straight up, but it’s pretty rigorous. It’s a thousand feet of climb in about a mile and a half. So, Sam and I and about a dozen or so other folks on the tour decided we were going to hike up the trail and one of the people that went with us was Tammi Rhoton’s dad, Jack, who is 80 years old. And as we were getting ready to leave, Tammy grabbed Sam and said, “You got to watch out. Keep an eye on my dad on this hike. It’s hot. It’s dry. It’s steep.” And we said, okay, we’ll keep an eye on Jack,” which we did for about six minutes till he left us in the dust, literally. He scampered up that incline like a mountain goat. He was the first one to the top. It was amazing. And when I think of where John was when he wrote this letter, I think of Jack, lean and spry and wiry. They’re about the same age, about 80 years old. Jack, if you’re watching online, good morning. I want to be like you when I grow up!

All along in this spiral staircase, John keeps connecting loving God with loving our brothers. We can’t get away from the two. If one, then the other. And last week, Jim taught us through the end of chapter 4 where it said, “If you don’t love your brother who you have seen, how can you love God who you have not seen?” Well, so in today’s passage, not only does John connect that love of God and love of neighbor. But then, he’s also connecting belief and faith, belief, and obedience together. Then, he connects the dots between belief and obedience to love of God and love of neighbor.

And he’s essentially saying that we can’t believe in Jesus without loving God and his children. And we can’t love the Father without obeying his commands. Belief and obedience, love of God and love of neighbor.

David Jackman puts it this way in his commentary in the Bible Speaks Today:

“As soon as John has defined the core belief that Jesus is the Christ as the means by which the new birth is brought about, he immediately moves into the inevitable expression and proof of faith’s existence and genuineness, love for God and for his children. Faith that does not lead to love is meaningless. Love that is not based on faith is powerless.”
David Jackman, The Bible Speaks Today

With those last two phrases… Faith that does not lead to love is meaningless and love that is not based on faith is powerless.

Each week, we’ve also been applying those three-part test categories of evidence for an authentic saving faith, signs of life, if you will. If have a living faith, it’s going to look like something, and we are well served in pursuit of a living and active and whole faith to examine these and see how we’re doing in light of them.

Those three categories are the theological test (Do we believe that Jesus is the Son of God?), the moral test (Are we practicing righteousness?), and then the social test (Are we loving others?) And John masterfully weaves all three of those categories into today’s passage. He talks about faith, he talks about love, and he talks about obedience.

As we read through the text, here are some points to pay attention to, kind of two themes. The one theme is the first five verses (v.1-5). And then, the second theme is verses 6 through 12. Faith, faith in the Son as the way to life. Being born of God results in belief in Jesus. Love of God results in love for God’s children and love of God’s commandments. Belief in Jesus results in faith, which overcomes the world. All that is set deliberately against God.

And then the second theme, faith receives the testimony of God. Can I get a witness? The Spirit, the Holy Spirit testifies because the Spirit is truth. The Spirit, the water and the blood, all testify. Believers have this testimony in themselves. And God testifies regarding his son and eternal life. So just keep those in the back of your head as we read through this.

And I’m going to do something a little different today. I’m going to read through the ESV translation first hopefully with minimal commentary. I know, destined for failure. But then, I’m going to read through The Message translation too without commentary. I’m just going to read it straight through, and you’re welcome to follow along if you have the app that has different translations just because I think for this specific passage, boy, The Message really clarifies some of this. So, let’s pray together, church. And then, let’s dive in. Chapter 5 verses 1 through 12.

Lord, we come before you this morning with hearts that may be wholly yours or maybe just somewhat yours. Our hearts may be full of worship, but maybe they’re only half full of worship and half full of other things. But still, God, we come to you. We do worship you. We love you. We hope and trust in you. We pray that you would meet us right where we are and speak to us right where we are. Holy Spirit, you know what each of us needs this morning. And so, we ask that you would meet us. You would teach us. You would fill us, you would heal us. Bring us closer to you and closer to Jesus this morning. Open our eyes to you. In your name we pray. Amen.

All righty. Chapter 5 verse 1: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.”

Okay, right off, there’s a squirrel trail, a rabbit trail, which we’re not going to go down. We’re going to look at it. We’re going to call it what it is, but we’re not going to dive into it. There are some commentators that say being born again is the result of faith. And then, others who say that the reborn life, the newborn life, being reborn, is the cause of our faith. And I’ve read commentaries this week that say each one. I don’t want to get too far down the rabbit hole. Here’s what I know as a pastor who owns some chickens. When I go out in the chicken coop in the morning, if there are no hens there, there’s not going to be any eggs, are there? But I also know that we have four dozen new cute little chicks that we got this spring. And where did those chicks come from? Tractor supply is not the right answer, right? They came from eggs. So, what came first, the chicken or the egg? That’s a little bit of this little squirrel trail, but here’s what we know. Jesus told us that we must be born again if we’re going to see the kingdom of God. And we do know that new life and the faith that comes with new life, all of those are a gift from God. God is the initiator. We are the responder, and we can rest solely in that.

Verse 2: “By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” And you might stop and go, “Okay. What’s that about?” Well, Jesus reminded us. He said, ‘Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ (Matthew 11:28-30). So, when we love God, his commandments, they’re not a duty. They’re a delight. When we love someone, we love doing things that delight them. Are they easy? No. Is the Christian life easy? No. It’s full of joy and it will be full of victory. It’s not easy, but it’s not burdensome.

Tim Keller reminds us that we’re not loved because we obey. We obey because we’re loved. I think about Kristen and I… (By the way, Kristen’s in Northern Ireland this morning with the Gettys for the week. She says hello.) When we first started hanging out, even before we were dating, I was a road dog musician, asleep till the crack of noon, and Kristen worked at a record label always up early and in the office.

Well, I started going out with Kristen early in the mornings to help take care of her horse to spend time with her. And was it easy? No, I wasn’t used to getting up early. But was it a delight? Yes, it was a delight because I loved being with her, and I still do. That’s what John is getting at here. God’s commands are not burdensome to us when we love him.

Verse 4: “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world, except the one who believes that Jesus is the son of God?” This idea, this word “overcome,” which is the root word “nike,” like Nike. But nike meaning “victory, overcoming.” John talks about it in a couple of tenses here, like a past tense where it’s already settled, and then a present tense where it’s an ongoing overcoming. We are promised, because of our faith, not the strength of our faith, not the size of our faith, but the object of our faith, Jesus living in us. That’s what overcomes all that is in opposition to God around us.

Verse 6: “This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by the water only, but by the water and the blood.” And here, John, remember, he’s got some heretics, if you will, teaching wrong doctrine. And that’s what he’s countering here. There was a doctrine that people were teaching that said that Jesus was physically a man born of natural marriage between Mary and Joseph, that the spirit of Christ entered Him at his baptism and then left Him when He was on the cross, and he died as just a man. John is countering that false teaching here. And he’s saying that Jesus came by the water and the blood. He was fully God and fully man.

Continuing on, “and the Spirit is the one who testifies because the Spirit is the truth, for there are three that testify, the Spirit and the water and the blood. And these three agree.

What I love about this is the Holy Spirit testifying to Jesus. That’s what he always does. He points to Jesus. And then, the water and the blood, that’s God’s testimony to his beloved Son.

If you remember a couple of times in Scripture, we read when Jesus came up out of the water at his baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove. And there was an audible voice from heaven saying, “This is my beloved son with whom I’m well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). And then the blood refers to Jesus’ death on the cross. As he died on the cross, the curtain in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn asunder, which signified that because of his death, God’s testimony was that there is no more space between me and you. Jesus accomplished that. He tore the curtain.

Verse 9: “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that He is born concerning his son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.” Isn’t that fantastic? Whoever believes in the Son of God, that’s you today. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, you have that testimony of God inside you. That is fantastic.

“Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony that God has born concerning His Son.” And this is just a magnificent summation of the gospel right here in verse 11. And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Can I get a witness? Amen. Whoever has the son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. Wow.

Okay. Take a breath, cleansing breath. And here’s the message version. Of course, feel free if you want to follow along on your device if you have it. Same passage.

“Every person who believes that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, is God born. If we love the one who conceives the child will surely love the child who was conceived. The reality test on whether or not we love God’s children is this, do we love God? Do we keep his commands? The proof that we love God comes when we keep his commandments, and they’re not at all troublesome.”

“Every God-born person conquers the world’s ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the world’s ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the son of God.”

“Jesus—the Divine Christ! He experienced a life-giving birth and a death-killing death. Not only birth from the womb, but baptismal birth of his ministry and sacrificial death. And all the while the Spirit is confirming the truth, the reality of God’s presence at Jesus’ baptism and crucifixion, bringing those occasions alive for us. A triple testimony: the Spirit, the Baptism, the Crucifixion. And the three in perfect agreement.”

“If we take human testimony at face value, how much more should we be reassured when God gives testimony as he does here testifying concerning his Son? Whoever believes in the Son of God inwardly confirms God’s testimony. And whoever refuses to believe in effect calls God a liar, refusing to believe God’s own testimony regarding his Son.

 “This is the testimony in essence. God gave us eternal life; the life is in his Son. So, whoever has the Son, has life. Whoever rejects the Son, rejects life.”

Wow. This is indeed the word of the Lord. Amen.

John has given this brilliant tapestry to us of the threads of faith, love, and obedience in these 12 verses, right? And I’d like to focus just on two things out of this passage: God’s testimony and our testimony, God’s witness and our witness.

This idea of witness is so important, isn’t it? I’ve been thinking about this all week long. There’s a passive connotation to the phrase “being a witness of something.” I’ll talk about that in a second. But there’s also an active connotation to the phrase “being a witness to something or someone” or “being a witness for something.” We are witnesses, boy, to an ongoing nonstop stream of events in our lives, personally in our country, in the culture around us. With social media, it is literally a nonstop stream of curated life events that we are witnessing.

In a court of law, a witness to a crime testifies as to what happened. Same thing if there’s an accident and somebody was a witness to it. In the Bible, Old Testament law required two or three witnesses in a court of law so that not by one person’s fallible or prejudiced testimony an innocent person was convicted of a crime.

Kristen’s dad was a consulting engineer, and he frequently testified in court as an expert witness because he could testify why a bridge collapsed or why a wall fell. And we often hire notary publics, don’t we, to witness an important legal signing of a legal document. And we’ve witnessed major historical events, both fantastic and catastrophic. We witnessed the first man walking on the moon. And then, we witnessed the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger. We witnessed Jackie Robinson making his entrance into the major leagues. Some of us are old enough to remember witnessing where Black men and women could not eat at the same restaurant as white men and women. And yet, praise God, we’ve also been witness to Barack Obama being sworn in as the first Black President of the United States. That’s an amazing witness right there. We witnessed terrorists flying into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. And then, we witnessed first responders running into danger instead of away from it in those same buildings to rescue as many people as they can. We witness births, graduations, weddings, baptisms, funerals, and everything in between. We are all of us witnesses, aren’t we?

What about God? What is God’s witness? What is God’s testimony? What are we to make of it? How do we respond to it? Does that even matter in our culture? I would say, yes, it matters now more than ever in our post-Christian, post-truth, post-reality culture. God’s enduring witness. It stands out even more, doesn’t it?

Galileo once said, “God is known by nature in his works, and by doctrine in His revealed word.” And I would add to that and by Jesus in His revealed self. Can we just say amen to the fact that our Creator has chosen to reveal Himself to us? I mean, my prayer for us is that we might grow more and more aware of that fact in the coming days, the miracle that God has chosen to reveal Himself to us.

He’s not a mysterious force in a cold cosmos. He’s a loving Father who has a name, who created us, who loves us, who desires to have relationship with us. That is amazing that God has chosen to reveal himself to us. He reveals himself to us in nature, through his written Word, and through the person of Jesus Christ.

So how does He reveal himself to us through His Word? I’ve got a few examples here of God’s witness through Scripture. I would also say that, of course, the entire Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to us and we would pay attention to that and try and see the Bible from His point of view and as His testimony.  Public service announcement, that’s why we study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel: to get God’s view in the whole council of God’s Word.

So, let’s just look at a few examples. Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image after our likeness.” Gosh, right away in the first chapter of Genesis, God testifies that He’s created us in His image with intent and with purpose in mind, right? No matter what our culture tells us, we are not random. We’re not a mistake. We are created. Our identity is given. As Pastor Jim says frequently there’s a line that goes right down the cosmos. On this side is God, and on that side is everything else. We’re lumped in with starfish and space, planets and suns.

Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” God’s witness in nature is overwhelming from the Grand Canyon to the Smoky Mountains, from the Alps to volcanoes and glaciers in Iceland, from the Aurora Borealis to just those stunning images we see from the Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope, from bees that fit particular wildflowers to the water cycle, from our DNA, a specific identifier for each one of us given to us by God, to the call of a hoot owl coming out of the woods in the middle of the night. All of that, God’s witness in nature is just overwhelming.

John 1:29, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” God’s witness through His plan of redemption, it is simply poetic, isn’t it? It’s a painting of a landscape that no eye has yet seen. It’s a symphony being played that no ear has heard yet except for God. It is magnificent.

Matthew 3:16, “This is my beloved son with whom I’m well pleased.” God’s love for his son witnesses to the never-ending love and devotion of the Trinity and the Father’s love for the Son is a witness to us of the sacrifice made by God on our behalf to win us back and to redeem us.

Hebrews 1:3, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of his power.” This is God’s testimony of revealing Himself to us. If you want to know what God looks like, look at Jesus. He’s the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

And then, lastly John 20:31, “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” All of God’s witness and testimony is funneled down to this very thing. God reveals himself to us for this very reason so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, in so believing, we might have life, capital L life, in the name of Jesus. Can I get a witness?

Well, so now what? Okay. If God has witnessed to us in all of these ways, how do we respond? What do we make of it? What is our witness? Just a reminder that in the same way that we’re all witnesses in the passive sense, we’re called to be witnesses in the active sense our lives. Our lives are a continuous testimony of something, each one of us. What are we saying? What are our lives saying?

Russell Moore once said,

“The message of our gospel witness and public engagement cannot be, ‘You kids get off our lawn!'”
Russell Moore

Which is kind of humorous, right? But I’ve got to say, man, that’s often my response to life, to culture, to traffic on the highway.

So often, my response is not, “Grace and peace to you in the name of the Lord Jesus.” It’s words that I can’t repeat from the pulpit. Some form of, “You kids get off my lawn!” I honestly believe that we are called to more than that. We are called to testify to something greater than that, to life. The life that is living in us, that is what we are called to testify to.

Remember verse 10 of our passage that read “Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.” Man, that is strong. When we walk out of that door today and get in our vehicles, we are carrying the testimony of God in ourselves. When we go eat lunch or take a nap, we’re carrying that testimony in ourselves. When we go to work tomorrow, we are carrying that testimony of God within ourselves. That is so strong. And I hate to break the news to you, but we’re entering that election cycle for the next 18 months, aren’t we? As if conversations regarding race and sexuality and gender identity aren’t hard enough already, here we are just throwing the gasoline of the election cycle, onto that roaring fire. So, what are we going to do? It’s an honest question. What are we going to do for the next 18 months? What if we had something to offer that was not more vitriol, not more antagonism?

Trevin Wax puts it this way,

“The times when the church has been most relevant in its witness is when believers counter the world by lifting something more beautiful in its place.”
Trevin Wax

Whew, that’s good. Isn’t that good? Can I get a witness? Do we have something more beautiful to offer the world, the watching world around us? I suggest that we do. It’s the testimony of God living inside us, the testimony that there is something more than the circumstances of our lives, good or bad, more than our political leanings, more than our weaknesses and failings, even a stronger testimony more than our strengths and our successes.

It is the beautiful one, Jesus, who is living inside us, and that is the beautiful testimony we have. I’ll close with this last quote and a verse. Some of you might know this is my favorite quote. I can only use it once a year. And I told Kristen I was going to use, and she said, “Didn’t you use it already? So, I went back through all my sermons, and I hadn’t used it.

So, here it is from Madeleine L’Engle, which I just love. This fits so well with Trevin Wax’s quote:

“We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”
Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith & Art

Can I get a witness to that? I’ve said, “Oh my gosh, are we living like that?”

From that David Jackman quote, “Faith that does not lead to love mean it’s meaningless. And love that is not based on faith is powerless.” Friends, that is how we are called to live and witness and testify to that beautiful life living in us.

For this last slide, would you read this? It’s verse 11. Would you guys read this with me? That’s so powerful: “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.”

Amen. Let’s pray, church.

Oh Lord, take our minds and think through them. Take our lips and speak through them. Take our lives and live out your life. Testify through our testimony. Jesus, take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you, and guide us ever by your Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.