Bearing Witness in Heaven and on Earth

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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I'm gonna ask you to remain standing for the reading of the Word taken from 1st

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John in chapter 5. I'm gonna read verses 1 through 8.

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This is God's holy and infallible Word. Whoever believes that Jesus is the

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Christ is born of God. And everyone who loves

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Him who begot also loves Him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love

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God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep

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His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.

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Who is He who overcomes the world but He who believes that Jesus is the

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Son of God? In our section for today, verses 6 and following, this is

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He who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ.

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Not only by water, but by water and blood and it is the

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Spirit who bears witness because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven, the

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Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one.

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And there are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, the water and the blood.

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And these three agree as one. May the

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Lord bless our time as we study His Word. Please pray with me now. Oh, Lord, help us to believe in the truth.

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Help us to believe that Jesus is the Christ and that he's come in the flesh, that he lived a sinful, sinless life, that he became sin for us, that you were satisfied with his efficacious atoning death on the

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Christ, on the cross. You saw Christ risen.

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You saw him ascended and reigning and ruling even now. Oh, Lord, help us to believe these things.

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And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Please be seated.

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I'm going to get this out of the way at the outset because I'm not going to devote attention to it during the body of the message.

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This is a very controversial section of scripture. This is the portion of scripture that is known as the

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Yohannin comma, and there's great dispute about whether a sizable portion of our section is part of the best manuscripts.

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I am going to preach it straight and I'm not going to pretend or act as if I believe that I need to withhold this information because I believe all of the information given in the text is 100 percent true.

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There are many questions that could be raised and asked about the Yohannin comma, but I am not going to give much attention to it.

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I do know it's there. I know all about the problems, but I have little ones in the church and I don't want to spend a lot of time and we spend a lot of time on controversies.

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That becomes the focus of the sermon and we talk about the controversy and we miss the big point.

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What God is trying to communicate to us in Christ. So I know the Yohannin comma issue is there and I'm plowing through.

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The Apostle John in his first epistle here is eager to have his hearers have a genuine faith in Christ and an objectively defined assurance of that genuine faith in Christ.

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It doesn't feel like it all the time. And first, John, he's not trying to kick us out of the kingdom or out of the church.

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He's actually trying to deepen our roots within. He wants us to have increasing confidence in our faith, really increasing confidence in Christ.

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Today in our text, he supplies witnesses that testify that Jesus is the

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Christ and whoever believes that, as we've already read, is born of God and those born of God love the people of God and they keep his commandments.

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They don't find his commandments to be burdensome because by faith they have victory and have overcome the world.

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But today, maybe your life doesn't look or sound as victorious as it's presented in the first half of 1

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John 5. What if you are not loving God with all of your heart?

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And all of your mind and all of your soul and all of your strength as we pray, what if you do not love your neighbor as yourself?

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What if your heart is cold here, even though it's been stoked with liturgical elements that should have helped you?

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Maybe your heart is cold here. Your love for God may have grown cold, your love for the brethren may have waned.

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Keeping his commands for you feels burdensome. What do you do in times like this?

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Subjectively, your faith is not looking so great. Your personal testimony is checkered.

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There's some bad mixed in with the good. Brethren, you need better witnesses to assure you of God's love and the certainty of his salvation in Christ.

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We need to hear of the steadfastness of God's love, the provision of Christ.

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We need to hear about the promise of truth and sanctification by his spirit.

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So today we're going to deal in some objective realities about our cherished faith in Christ.

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For those of you who are taking notes today, each of the verses has a point in which you could build some notes if you are interested in doing that.

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And the first one is found in verse six. It says, Jesus came by water and blood.

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What does that mean? Jesus came by water and blood. Secondly, in verse seven, we're going to hear that there are three that bear witness in heaven, the father, the word and the

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Holy Spirit. And as a side note, I would put on your notes in case I don't give it much attention to as I should.

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Salvation is a Trinitarian work, a Trinitarian work.

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Three bear witness in heaven, the father, the word and the Holy Spirit.

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And finally, in verse eight, there are three that bear witness on earth, the spirit, the water and the blood.

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Jesus came by water and blood, verse six, three bear witness in heaven, verse seven, three bear witness on earth, verse eight.

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What does it mean that Jesus came by water and blood in verse six?

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There is a great diversity of opinion about this. There are many views.

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I'm going to give you five of those views. I'm going to show you what I believe to be the emphasis in verse six and how some of the other views are incorporated into the rest of the body.

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So they're not completely false. That makes sense. The first view is that water and blood refer to the sacraments of baptism and Lord's Supper.

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And I'm excited about that as the the meaning of this. But I think that comes later in the section.

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I don't think it's the primary focus of verse six. I believe it to be true, however. The second view is that the water and blood refers to the blood and water that poured out of Jesus side on the cross.

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Some good merit, some important things happening there at the cross. I don't believe that's primarily what's happening in verse six, a very significant event.

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Third, the water and the blood are reference to Jesus's baptism.

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By John and his atoning death on the cross, his blood, the water in the blood tied to Jesus's own baptism and his atoning death on the cross.

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That's what I think verse six is. That's my opinion. The fourth view, water and blood as a reference to natural birth, making the case for his real humanity.

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This is usually panned as insignificant. I believe this is woven into our section as well.

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I don't believe it's the emphasis of verse six, but it's in verses six through eight, at least secondarily.

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And finally, some good internal evidence, water and blood as a unit here reflect the

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Jewish understanding of the body as composed of water and blood, analogous to John's statement back in verse chapter four, verse two.

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By this, you know, the spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.

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I brought this in several months ago, but it probably bears some repeating.

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One of the elements of the false teaching and why it's so harped upon by John about believing that Jesus came in the flesh, there was a pre or early

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Gnosticism that was in vogue. We see it in Paul's letters. There's a good chance that John is writing even to Ephesus.

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We see it in Colossae. We see some elements possibly in Ephesus dealing with this early form of Gnosticism.

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And what it means is this. The body and matter are evil.

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And the spirit is good. And so there were some who could not comprehend, certainly from a

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Greek background, could not comprehend the notion that the divine could also be human.

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And so one of the perspectives was that Jesus's son of God status and children, this is an error.

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Parents, make sure you clarify this question comes up later. I'm speaking now of the error. Do not believe this.

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This is the error that the spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism and he's the son of God in that role.

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And then the spirit leaves him just before his death so that his divinity could not be compromised.

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You lose the gospel if you believe that. Jesus is the son of God and the son of man.

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He doesn't have a force of spirit over him for a period of time to fulfill this role and then returns to some humanity.

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He is the second person of the Trinity come in the flesh.

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That's why I think the water and blood reference to natural birth is important.

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Jesus broke the waters of Mary when he was born.

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And Jesus lived an entire life as the son of God and the son of man.

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He was a child who was the son of God and the son of me was a teenager. He was a younger man who was the son of God and son of man.

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And so this particular issue is very central to John's life and his argumentation.

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Let's go back to John's gospel really quickly. I'm not going to have you turn to a lot of places.

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I have a lot of the verses down that you don't have to turn there.

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Why is he so emphatic in his gospel to describe

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Jesus as God in the flesh? I think this reason is at least part of it.

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He understood the word to be the divine wisdom of God, and the idea of the

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Greek Lagos was not lost or hard on the people. What was really hard for the

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Jews and the Greeks and all the unbelievers to believe is that the divine wisdom is incarnate in Christ.

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That's why we have to believe with John that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.

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He's God who's taken on humanity to save his people from their sins.

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Listen to the language of John's gospel, the prologue. In the beginning was the word.

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The word was with God and the word was God. Now, you can imagine a

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Greek person loving this part, thinking, yes, the divine wisdom. He's with God.

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I get it. I'm with John here. All things were made through him.

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Very personal, corporeal almost, right?

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He's a person. He's without a body yet. He's incarnate, not incarnate in this description.

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He's the creator. And without him, nothing was made that was made.

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The man, the baby that broke Mary's waters, who comes by water and blood, is the creator of the universe.

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This is what John is saying. In him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness.

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The darkness does not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God whose name was

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John. John's very important in our text here today. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.

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That was the true light, which gives light to every man coming into the world. Now, I want you to pay close attention again.

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Jesus is the light of the world. He is the great I am. He comes to the world.

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Verse 10, he was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him.

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He came to his own and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God.

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Remember our text, born of God, children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory.

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The glory is of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of him and cried out, saying, this was he of whom

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I said, he who comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me.

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And of his fullness, we have all received and grace for grace, for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

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No one has seen God at any time, the only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father, he has declared him.

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John wants to silence the false teachers because they're preaching a different Christ and therefore a different gospel.

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This crazy notion is even a little bit in our time today. There are people who kind of almost believe this in the church, that the spirit comes upon Jesus at his baptism and that's kind of when he becomes the son of God.

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And then I hope they don't believe the other part of that divine essence departing just before the crucifixion.

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Again, children, that is the error. Now let's turn back to our text. Jesus does not merely appear to be human.

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He was truly flesh and blood. Nor was he only

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God's son during his baptism and ministry. Jesus, when he was helping his earthly father

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Joseph build stuff, he was the son of God and the son of man there too.

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As God's son, he did not escape the full range of implications of being human.

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He shared the full human experience of living and dying.

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Jesus was born, Jesus was baptized, and he was crucified to cleanse us that we might be

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God's children. Let's look at our text again.

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This is he who came by water and blood. Not only by water, but by water and blood.

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I believe this is baptism and crucifixion. Matthew 3 says this.

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This is the account of the baptism. I'm going to read a couple of these of Jesus.

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And it's interesting. John's appeal to the witness of Jesus in his baptism is a defense of his divinity and full humanity.

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We too must objectively look back to baptism. We too must objectively look back to the cross.

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I'm not feeling very Christ -like today, you might say. Look unto Jesus. Look to the cross.

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Look to the one who suffered and died. Place all of your trust in him. You can't put any confidence in yourself.

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Your emotions fade, your thoughts wane. Objective realities.

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Jesus is the Christ. Now here's John's defense, I believe. This is from Matthew 3.

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When he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water. Children, this is very exciting.

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This is an incredible moment. The three persons of the Trinity have broken through, and they're going to be present and visible and speaking at the baptism of Christ.

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There are three witnesses that bear witness in heaven. The Father, the Word, the

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Son, and the Spirit. When he had been baptized, Jesus comes up out of the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the

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Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying this, this is my beloved

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Son in whom I am well pleased. John was an eye and ear witness to this.

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The baptism, he heard the voice, he saw the Spirit descending like the dove, he saw the

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Lord, the King of glory in the water. He recognized that the

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Father's stamp of approval is on him. He knew Jesus not to be anything but a man and God himself in the flesh.

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Without division. John's account of this himself from the first chapter of his gospel.

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The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold, the

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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom

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I said, after me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me.

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I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water and John bore witness saying,

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I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove. And he remained upon him.

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I did not know him. But he who sent me now children, he's referring to the father to baptize with water said to me upon whom you see the

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Spirit descending and remaining on him. This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

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And I have seen and testified that this is the

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Son of God. Psalm 2, seven says,

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I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, you are my son.

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My son today. I have begotten you. Luke chapter three, another account of the baptism.

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When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus was also baptized.

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And while he prayed, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him.

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And a voice came from heaven, which said, you are my beloved son. And you,

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I am well pleased. Back to our text.

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John knows this historic, objective reality.

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He knows that the descent and alighting and remaining upon Jesus bears witness and testifies.

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Look at our text. The last part of verse six, and it is the spirit who bears witness because the spirit is truth.

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Our catechism says that God is a spirit. Infinite, eternal, and unchangeable.

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And his being wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

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God, the Father himself is truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

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The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. The truth is a character and attribute of God.

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God cannot lie. The testimony of the three from heaven is that Jesus is the

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Christ. The word made flesh is the Christ. The second person of the

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Trinity has come down. He is the Christ. If that weren't enough evidence,

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I give you the Mount of Transfiguration. Guess what? John was there too.

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James, John, Peter were all at the

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Mount of Transfiguration. I'm going to read this account. I don't need you to turn there. I'm going to go quickly. Jesus took

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Peter, James, and John, his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them.

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And his face shone like the sun. And his clothes became as white as the light.

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And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here.

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If you wish, let us make here three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.

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And while he was speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And suddenly a voice came out of the cloud saying,

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This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.

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Hear him. When the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.

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But Jesus came and touched them and said, Arise and do not be afraid. When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

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Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them saying, Tell the vision to no one until the

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Son of Man is risen from the dead. Three witnesses in heaven.

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They bear witness of the Christ, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You can understand how animated

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John is when these people, these so -called teachers, false teachers though they be, would say that Jesus didn't come in the flesh.

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Our text continues. It's the

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Spirit who bears witness because the Spirit is truth. There are three witnesses that bear witness in heaven.

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The Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one.

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What a great defense of the Trinity. Right there in the scripture.

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Right there. It's there. Father, the Son, and the Spirit. But it continues.

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It says there are three that bear witness on the earth. The Spirit has been in every one of the verses.

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The Spirit is the one who's declared that Jesus is the Christ. The Spirit is what caught

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John's attention originally in the baptism. The Spirit's descent upon him. The Spirit is the one who gives us all truth and guides us into all truth.

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And here in this testimony on earth, the Spirit confess another witness bearing.

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He is here with us. The Spirit bears witness even here on earth because Jesus has left the

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Spirit for us. He says, if you love me, keep my commandments.

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Does that sound familiar? So our text is riddled with that. This is from John 14. And I will pray the

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Father and he will give you another helper. That he may abide with you forever.

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So the Spirit can be a witness from heaven and a witness on earth because of his abiding with us.

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Because of the promise of Christ. The Spirit of truth he's described as in John 14.

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Whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him.

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For he dwells with you and he dwells in you. I will not leave you as orphans.

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I will come to you. Whoever believes that Jesus is the

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Christ is born of God. He's going to send his Spirit.

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Later it says, when the helper comes whom I shall send to you from the Father, the

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Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me.

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For you theology nerds, wow, what a defense of the eastern position on the filioque controversy.

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Says it right there in John 15. I think it should say and the son, but right there on the text.

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Side note. He will testify of me. And you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.

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This is what John himself is doing. Bearing witness. John 16 says, and when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

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How's your life today? Is it reflective of a pure love of God?

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Do you purely love and perfectly love the children of God? Was there any indictment in the praying through the

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Ten Commandments today? Do you love God? Do you keep his commandments?

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Are his commandments now burdensome? Today, if there be any imperfection in your conduct in life, let there be a perfection in your belief and faith in the witnesses.

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The testimony of God himself and the three that bear witness on earth.

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For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the son of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out,

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Abba, Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

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That answers the question about the witness, doesn't it? Spirit himself bears witness that we're children of God.

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The baptism of Jesus, John points to as definitive proof of divinity because of what he saw and experienced there.

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And then there's the blood, the blood of the cross. Don't all these things speak to Jesus, the truth?

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Spirit reveals it to us. The waters of baptism, the washing of the word, the cleansing that comes, the outpouring of the spirit typified in baptism.

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Isn't that fitting for here as a witness? And what about the blood?

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The blood of Christ washes away all of our sins. What about the sacrament of the

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Lord's Supper and this connection? So today, if your faith is weak, believe the objective realities.

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Jesus is the Christ. He's the son of God. Salvation is found in him alone.

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Recall your own baptism. Whenever that was, the promises of God were given to you in baptism.

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And here today, as we do every week, we come to the table and objectively we learn and hear again that Christ died for sinners like us to bind us to him and to one another forever by the spirit of truth, by this

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Trinitarian work, the father sending, the son accomplishing, the spirit applying the work of redemption to us.

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I'm so glad our faith is built on reality, not our feelings or how it's going.

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You may have blown it, but today I urge you to put all of your confidence in Christ.

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There's witnesses in heaven. There's witnesses on earth. Amen. Let's pray together.

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Oh, Lord, we thank you for the truth. We thank you for the signs and the seals and the substance of these things.

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I pray you'd pour your spirit out on us that we would be inculcated in the truth.

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That our objective believing would be turned into joyful feeling.

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That when our confidence wanes, we'd have even greater confidence because we turn back again and look to you, to your promises.

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We thank you for a stable and sure salvation that cannot be shaken by anything.

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Lord, I pray that you would bless these, your people, and ask this all in Jesus' name. Amen.