Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

Text:

This advice I’ve been giving you for the past few months has always sounded backwards at first. Today’s advice is no different. How do we usually hear this advice? But this morning I’m going to challenge that advice at least to some degree. The problem with that advice is that we’re encouraged to evaluate our message based on how the person we’re talking to will receive it. But sometimes the message we need to bring isn’t the message someone wants to receive. The message we need to bring people is the gospel.

And it’s a nice message! But since people don’t often want to hear the gospel, they’ll label our message anything but nice. But we must still share the gospel with them.

So if you don’t have anything nice to say, say it anyway! Share the gospel.

“This is he who came by water and blood–Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. 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. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:6-13)

The passage I read begins by giving us information about Jesus (v. 6). He was born by water and by blood, and the Spirit testifies regarding Him. Why does the text give us this information? We need to back up a verse to find out (v. 5).

In order to overcome the world and be saved, we must believe in Jesus, that He is the Son of God, and therefore God in the flesh, who came to save us from our sins. Then John goes on to describe how we can recognize this Jesus (v. 6a). Sometimes the Bible uses phrases that are hard for us to understand.

How are we to understand the water and the blood? They could be referring to Christ’s birth. Both water and blood are present during the process of being born. I remember the birth of my own children. I was offered the opportunity to catch them myself. But I didn’t want to deal with all the water and blood! Jesus was born in the same exact way. So the water and blood could be referring to His birth.

But the text seems to be naming this event of water and blood as something that sets Jesus apart, and His birth wouldn’t really set Jesus apart as unique, because we’re all born. Obviously, Jesus’s birth was unique because He was born of a virgin. But that aspect of His birth isn’t mention here. So I don’t think the water are blood are referring to Christ’s birth.

The water and the blood could be referring symbolically to Christ’s dual nature as fully God and fully man. Jesus was fully God, perfect in every way, like clear, pure water. And Jesus was fully man, being descended from Adam just as all of us are. But these again do not seem to fully explain why John mentioned these specifically here. Because even though Christ’s divine and human natures point to Jesus being the Son of God, neither of these usually convince us of the idea that Jesus is the Son of God prior to us believing that He is the Son of God.

No, I think water and blood in this passage refer to specific events in the life of Jesus that clearly show Jesus to be the Son of God. The water refers to His baptism. Christ’s baptism marked the beginning of His ministry. At His baptism, the heavens opened, the Spirit descended upon Him, and the Father spoke from Heaven. But many people have been baptized, so how does this really set Jesus apart? Well, the circumstances of His baptism were certainly unique. But ultimately, it doesn’t. But Jesus didn’t come just to get baptized (v. 6b). Jesus came to die.

The blood refers to His death. Jesus being born, being baptized, ministering, teaching, and healing are all awesome things. But all of them would have been meaningless had Jesus not died on the cross. The death of Jesus on the cross fulfilled what Jesus came to do. We are all sinners who deserve death and separation from God. There’s nothing we can do to earn God’s forgiveness. So God Himself came down in the form of a man, never sinned, and died in our place, so that if we would trust in His death, we would inherit His life.

And the Spirit testifies regarding this Jesus (v. 6c-8). At Christ’s baptism, the Spirit descended upon Jesus is a unique way. Because of our sin, we cannot recognize the Son of God for who He is. So Jesus not only came in the form of man, not only revealed His divine nature at His baptism, not only worked miracles and taught with authority and healed and ministered by His power, and not only went to the cross and died for our sin, and not only rose from the dead, but since we still could not get it through our heads that Jesus is that Son of God, that Savior, God also sent His Spirit to testify to hearts regarding Jesus, telling us, “That’s Him. Trust in Jesus.” So anyone who comes to know Jesus as Savior does not do so based on their superior knowledge or their reasoning, but because the Spirit has testified to them regarding Jesus (v. 9).

And yet God uses us as a part of the process of winning people to Christ (v. 10). Your testimony is a powerful witnessing tool. For someone to not believe your testimony, it is the same as them calling God a liar. There’s no such thing as a weak testimony. Our testimonies are all basically the same (v. 11). God saved me, a sinner, by His grace through faith in what Jesus did for me on the cross. The details may be different, but the message is the same. It’s the message of the gospel that changes lives, not the details of our lives.

It’s the message of the gospel that changes lives, and gospel message is shared through your testimony (v. 12). We need to be faithful to get that message out. People will not trust in Jesus and be saved unless we share the gospel with them.

When we embrace the gospel, we can be sure of our eternal home (v. 13). Heaven and Hell are real places. There’s a lot at stake here. We should all be convinced that what we believe is true. And if we truly believe that Jesus is the Savior, we will share it, even with those who don’t want to hear it, because we know that this is the good news. And even if they don’t think it’s a nice message, it’s the message they need to hear and embrace to be saved.