Sermon 1 John 5:1-13 Testimony of God

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City

Sermon 1 John 5:1-13 Testimony of God

May 17, 2015

            This will be my final sermon in a series drawn from the important New Testament book of 1^st John.  It's possible that an aging disciple of Jesus, John the son of Zebedee, wrote this to a church experiencing division as a result of false teaching concern the Gospel of John.  We have seen that the Son of God in whom we believe for eternal life is a flesh and blood human being named Jesus of Nazareth.  And we are children of God who learn about God by imitating Jesus.   To imitate Jesus we must love God and love one another.  Today we will ask the important question “How do we know this to be true.”  And the answer will be “by the testimony of God.”  We will get to this, but first let's pray.

            May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our rock and redeemer.

1 John 5:1-13  5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the[a] Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9 We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God,which he has given about his Son. 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 

            The second century Christian writer, Irenaeus, wrote an interesting story about the disciple of Jesus named John, the son Zebedee.  According to Irenaeus, sometime in the late first century or early second century an aging disciple John fled from a public bath house in Ephesus.  As he ran from the building he was heard to say, “Let us save ourselves; the bath house may fall down for inside is Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth.  (Eusebius (Hist. 3.28.6 and 4.14.6))

            Obviously the disciple John and Cerinthus disagreed over something.  And this could be the source of division in the church of First John.  Cerinthus was a Christian teacher at the end of the first century and the beginning of the second.  He was concerned about how Jesus could be both man and God at the same time.  This didn't make much sense to him.  He thought that since God is a spirit it didn't make much sense to talk about his birth or death because spirits are neither born nor die.  So Cerinthus came up with an idea.  First, he didn't believe in the virgin birth.  Jesus, he thought, must have had two natural parents, Mary and Joseph.  Cerinthus then speculated that God's spirit came upon Jesus at his baptism when the dove came down from heaven.  This Spirit gave Jesus extraordinary powers to do things like walk on water and calm storms.  According to Ceninthus, this Spirit must have left Jesus before his death because spirits don't die.  And now even though Jesus is dead and buried he sent this Spirit to us for comfort and power.  All this sounds ok, but according to the disciple John, run for your lives whenever you hear it because the roof may fall down.

            According to 1 John, Cerinthus is a false teacher because he taught that Jesus was just a human with an extra helping of the spirit of God for part of his life.  1 John says that Jesus was both a flesh and blood human being and God for all eternity.    For Jesus to be with us at the end of time he must have been there at the beginning.  And if we have any hope at all in our resurrection to eternal life,  Jesus must have been resurrected from the dear.  The question we have is “how do we know which one is true?” To know whether or not something is true we need some witnesses.  And we need to hear some testimony.  So let's first turn to the Holy Spirit.

            John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”[f]

            The Holy Spirit did not come down on just an ordinary man to give him extraordinary powers.   The man, Jesus, was already the Son of God. The Holy Spirit came down as a dove in order to show who the Son of God was.  And so it is the testimony of the Holy Spirit that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God.

            So far we any one pretty reliable witness, but are there any others.  There is another, and according to 1 John this is the water and the blood.  Let's see how the water and blood testify to the identity of the Son of God. 

John19:33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe.

            The crucifixion of Jesus was witnessed by the disciple he loved.  And later, after the resurrection, Jesus returned to this disciple who exclaimed, “7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” (John 21:7)

            And so the testimony of the water and blood is that the Son of God was not some spirit who flew away before the crucifixion.  Rather the Son of God was crucified on a cross and resurrected from the dead for all to see.

            So we have heard from the Holy Spirit that Jesus was the Son of God before his baptism.  The water and blood testify that he remained the Son of God after his death.  The testimony so far indicates that Cerinthus was wrong.  But there is one more witness to hear from, Almighty God.

            God's testimony is written directly on our hearts.  We know that Jesus is the Son of God because God has given us the faith we need to believe it.  Every time someone passes through the baptismal waters we are reminded that Jesus is God's Son who was present at creation.  Every time we lift up the cup in communion we are reminded by his blood of his resurrection and promise of eternal life.  Our salvation depends on a human being the Son of God because only a human could pay the price for our sins.  Our salvation also depends on the Son of God being God because only God can forgive sins.  So the Son of God must be both human and God to pay for and forgive sin.   The Gospel of John puts it this way.

John1:  9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

            Cerinthus's ideas were rejected by the church because Jesus had to be both God and man to achieve our salvation.  This is what it mean to call Jesus the Son of God.  The promise of scripture is that if you truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God, both God and human, you will receive eternal life.

            And this brings us to Ascension Sunday.  Jesus, both man and God, is in heaven right now sitting a God's right hand.  Just as Jesus was resurrected from the dead to eternal life so too will all who believe, be resurrected to eternal life.   Let's pray.

            Father in heaven, we thank you for the enormous gift of Jesus.  We believe that he existed with you before creation and will be with you at the end.  We believe that he came to earth as a human and died for our sins.  We also believe that he rose from the dead leading us to resurrection and eternal life.  We thank you for this gift and pray in his name.  Amen.