Ever feel like life’s promises—even God’s promises—are just too good to be true? In this week’s message, we dive into 1 John 5:4–13 and discover how God gives us real evidence for our faith. “God’s Witness Grows Confidence”—that’s our big idea, and we’ll explore how the Spirit, water, and blood are God’s proof that His promises can be trusted, even in your hardest moments.
In this service:
Whether you’re wrestling with doubts, longing for hope, or just need to be reminded that God’s love is real and proven, this message is for you.
Big promises invite big doubts. John supplies three converging witnesses so believers can know—really know—that God’s bold claims stand up in real-world pain.
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
6 …The Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
8 …the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.
9 …the testimony of God is greater… 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.
11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life… 13 I write… that you may know that you have eternal life.
BBCC Verse of the Week: 1 John 5:13 (ESV) 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.
Is What We Believe That Important?
Many in modern society don’t seem to think that one’s choice of a particular religious belief, or no religious belief, is an important decision. It certainly isn’t viewed as a life-or-death matter. But rejecting the offer of eternal life in Jesus Christ is not a morally neutral. John says that whoever hears the gospel and refuses to believe it implicitly calls God a liar, for the Christian witness to the gospel has its ultimate origin in God’s witnessing revelation that Jesus is his Son who was sent to atone for our sins (5:10).
John’s teaching corrects a smorgasbord approach to belief in God that is just as popular today as it was in the first century. We live in a world with many religions, and we increasingly rub elbows in our workplaces and neighborhoods with the people who practice them. Many of these religions teach and practice good moral principles, and our colleagues and neighbors may be very fine, upstanding people. In fact, they may be nicer and better people than some of the Christians we know! It may be tempting in today’s social climate to “water down” the gospel of Jesus Christ, denying the need for atonement for sin or emphasizing the common moral principles that Christianity shares with other religions. Against the polite, but erroneous, belief that all religions lead to God, Jesus states, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
It is no accident that these three terms, “way,” “truth,” and “life,” are coupled in this statement. As a religious belief, only Jesus is the way to God because only Jesus atoned for sin and then rose victorious from his grave. Only Jesus came from God, as God enfleshed in a human body like ours, and he came to reveal the otherwise unseen and invisible God. Therefore, any spiritual truth claims not based on this revelation of God in Christ are just whistling in the dark. Finally, Jesus is the life, first because his own eternal life as a member of the Godhead was enfleshed in his human body (1 John 1:2), and second because his human body arose from the grave. It is through his eternal life that we live (cf. John 14:19).
John’s purpose in writing the letter we know as 1 John was to bring assurance of eternal life to his readers, who were apparently being exposed to a “water only” gospel. He points out the necessity of a “water and blood” gospel that embraces the cross of Jesus and doesn’t preach just the teachings of Jesus, or the blessings of Jesus, or the spirit of Jesus, as many seem inclined to do today. A “water only” gospel might satisfy some for this life, but its value stops at the grave. For it provides no assurance of reconciliation with God, no atonement for our sin, and no promise of life after death. – Karen Jobes
The importance of this verse [verse 9] is that it declares explicitly what has so far only been hinted, namely that God is the subject and Christ the object of the threefold testimony. The Spirit, the water and the blood all testify to Christ, and the reason why they agree is that God himself is behind them. The three witnesses form, in fact, a single divine testimony to Jesus Christ, which God has given. The perfect tense indicates the continuing validity (in itself and through the Spirit) of God’s historical testimony to Christ. It is God who testified to his Son in history, in the water and the blood, and it is God who testifies to him today through his Spirit in our hearts. Moreover, it is because (hoti) the witness is divine, that we ought humbly to receive it. For we accept man’s testimony, when it consists of the evidence of two or three; how much more, then, should we accept the testimony of God which is itself threefold and which, because it is God’s, is greater than any man’s? -John Stott
[T]hose who are truly sorrowful for their sins, and yet trust that these are forgiven them for the sake of Christ; and that their remaining infirmities are covered by his passion and death; and who also earnestly desire to have their faith more and more strengthened, and their lives more holy; but hypocrites, and such as turn not to God with sincere hearts, eat and drink judgment to themselves. 1 Cor. 10:19-22; 11:26-32, Ps. 50:14-16; Isa. 1:11-17
– Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 81
For next week – read 1 John 5:14-21 Pastor Samuel Sutter // sam@BBCCOnline.org
