When I was practicing accounting, you know, the most intense time of the year was tax season. And it would get busier and busier and busier. January leading to February.
February would get busier. March would get busier. Leading all the way up till, does anybody know what date it would lead up to? April 15th, depending on where it fell.
But April 15th, up to that point, and it just accelerated with time. And what we had in our offices, you know, you just put more hours in up until that April 15th time when then you filed a whole bunch of extensions on April 15th is what you ended up doing. But at first, I thought it was annoying and then I started enjoying it.
A partner from the firm who had retired always liked to show up on April 15th. Really casual, would go office to office, talk to all of us. And, you know, you could tell how relieved he was that he was not doing tax returns in a frantic manner, like all of us, that he was interrupting and he would come in our offices and he would love to say, today is the penultimate day of tax season.
Meaning, it is the day before the ultimate day, the penultimate day. So, that is when I learned the word penultimate and learned that that day is important and he liked to come in and I don’t know if he wanted to just show off that he knew a bigger word than the rest of us or just to encourage us to get over the hump. To say there’s only one day left.
Today is the penultimate day of our series out of 1st John. Next week, we will conclude the series out of 1st John. We will then celebrate Trinity Sunday and then we’re going to be in Lent.
Does it seem like it’s been that long since Christmas? Today, I say that it’s the penultimate day because you take what John has been talking about in 1st John 4 and last week we started in 1st John 5 and he kind of has that and he’s been wrapping it up and trying to finish it up nice and neatly. And today, on the penultimate day, he introduces a case for Jesus Christ. I mean, he’s been showing the case for Jesus Christ, but he introduces a new thing to add new proof and evidence that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus, one of his greatest arguments is that he is incarnate, that he came in the flesh, and that if you don’t believe Jesus came in the flesh and that the Son of God came in the flesh, then you are missing a vital, important part of faith.
On this penultimate day of the sermon series, Hello God, How Can I Really Know It’s You? John gives us one more thing on how we can really know it’s God. Will you stand as you are able? We’re going to look at 1st John 5 starting in verse 6 and go through 13. This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only, but with water and with the blood.
It is a spirit who testifies because the spirit is the truth. There are three that testify, the spirit, the water, and the blood, and the three are in agreement. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater.
For the testimony of God is this, that he testified concerning his Son, the one who believes that in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in the Son.
He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
The word of God, inspired by God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. You may be seated.
One of the coolest things I always couldn’t believe is my dad used to be able to, and he did this with so many dogs over the decades, train them to go out and get the paper and bring the paper back in. Why do you think he doesn’t do that these days? No paper. No paper.
The paper has declined. We have, over the years as Americans, changed the way we receive news. I mean, from the time that print came out, the printing press was made on paper, became the most popular way to receive our information, to find out what’s going on in our community, in the world.
And we would do that. My grandfather, when I was a kid and he was retired, would read every single page of the Clay Center Dispatch that came out six days a week. And he would know what was going on in Clay Center and around the world.
Now, today, it’s just a little bit different. And it started kind of happening over time. There are many reasons why people may or may not read the newspaper or may or may not get their best source of news from the TV.
Now, originally, that started fading because of, you might think it’s because of two words called fake news. But I believe it originally started fading because people would tune in to the evening news. And if you could get that news online, then the evening news was not news.
It was called old news. Or if you get the paper in the morning, you’d already seen it before. So it’s old news.
And we want that information quicker and quicker and quicker and quicker. Now, to counteract that, news changed from being news and unbiased to wanting to shock us or get us stirred up so that we would want to receive that information. So it isn’t just like Walter Cronkite back in the day when everybody watched him, everybody trusted him.
And everybody understood that what he was telling you was unfiltered, unbiased news. So when that news would come in now, you have to do what? Fact check it. Oh, my goodness.
And the interesting thing is, according to a recent Pew Research poll, a large majority of U.S. adults, 86% say that at least sometimes they get the news from a smartphone, a computer or tablet, including 57% who do so often. These figures are almost identical to the share of those who got news from digital devices in 2023. So the digital media has picked up so much that there seems to be a trend of a percentage of people who are getting their news from digital devices.
They’re the most common way, digital is the most common way to get news, although a majority, 63%, say they get news from television at least sometimes. Who gets news from television at least sometimes? That’s almost everybody, at least of us old people. I mean us adults.
When asked which of these platforms they prefer to get news on, 58% say they prefer a digital device far higher than the share who prefer a TV, 32% relatively few Americans refer to radio or print. Now, when we would go to, if you want something to go on the radio or in the newspaper, they also have websites that you have to make sure this stuff goes on because people are more apt to go to their website than the actual printed thing. News across digital platforms.
There are several pathways Americans use to get digital news. Websites, apps, search engines are the most common. About 2 3rds of adults at least get some of their news this way, a little more than half, 54% sometimes get news from social media and 27% say the same thing about podcasts.
And believe it or not, the higher the percentage of using digital media for gathering information, the lower the age. There is no look of shock in this whole congregation. So these numbers will probably go up at some point in time too.
And I’m saying all of this because there are a couple of things that can happen when you’re gathering information. I was listening to a Kansas City radio talk station and they were sharing news and I was giving Holly a ride and I was saying, listen to this, I can’t believe this all happened today. And she said, that happened yesterday.
I felt old and out of it. Another thing that can happen is on social media, if you try to get your news only from social media, you gotta make sure of the source and you also have to double check it with other things. You don’t know how many times I’ve been scanning through there this week and they talk about things like Travis Kelsey announces his retirement.
Is that true? No. No. They talk about things like the chiefs are making these moves and none of them were, there’s so many of them that are false and you read it and then I have to go out to the digital Google and check that and it doesn’t say anything about that.
It talks about all these contracts. It talks about all these things that are happening politically and things that are done and I have to go out and search on that and make sure that’s really true because you don’t know how many sites they go through and then you get to learn that one of them is called Kansas City Chiefs Fan Hub or something like that and they always have fake news. Sometimes it’s satire but I don’t understand how it can be funny.
But you wouldn’t believe there are thousands of people who go through there and they respond and they go, no, I can’t believe it or that person is horrible because of the headline on there and you usually know there’s something up when it just gives you a blurb but then you have to go down into the comments and click to go to a different site and that’s called clickbait. Clickbait is a term for something that is age old. A term where people come up and they twist things because they want to have news, because they want to get people’s attention.
It’s not a new thing. When John was talking to the churches, there were people coming in who said, yeah, I know you’ve heard this about Jesus but did you know this? Did you know this? Did you know that there’s no way He could have really come in the flesh? Did you know that God would not send His only Son, that God could not come in the flesh? Did you know that Jesus might not be needed for salvation? And the churches would receive that news and it would start to stir and it would start to see and things like that still happen today. That there’s new things presented, new news about Jesus, new things that are provocative and a lot of it is just clickbait.
But it gets people stirred up and it gets people upset and it gets people to read whatever they have or listen to whatever show they have or to even start receiving and adopting these things about Jesus. Now, as you know from us studying 1 John 4 and 5 and because you all went back and read the whole book of 1 John, you see everything John was talking, why are you looking at me like that? John said this, at the very beginning in 1 John, he said, what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life, and this life was manifested and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us, what we have seen and heard and we proclaim to you also so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
these things, these things we write so that your joy may be complete. I mean, that’s quite a testimony where John is saying, hey, we were there, we saw it, we touched the wounds, the scars in the hands and feet, we were eyewitnesses to the miracles of Jesus Christ, we were eyewitnesses to what Jesus taught about Himself and we sat there with Him in the dark by the firelight, learning about Him, growing closer to Him, trusting in Him more and more and we brought you this testimony, but then others came in and brought you other testimony and now you’re doubting what we taught you, you’re doubting who Jesus is, you’re doubting if He could really be the Son of God, you’re doubting if He could really be the Messiah, you’re doubting if He could even bring you eternal life, you’re doubting if He came in the flesh. And John is writing all this because he wants them to have fellowship together and he wants that fellowship to be with God and he wants their joy to be complete, not just knocking facts into them over and over and over and saying, nope, this detail is wrong, here’s the detail, here’s the emphasis, here’s how you explain incarnation.
He’s saying, we can be with God here on earth, we can have fellowship with God and we can have that fellowship together and beyond that, as we grow in our faith together, we can have joy that is complete, joy that is perfect, joy that is uninterrupted by any new news that may come in that would try to take us away from God and understanding and knowing who Jesus is. Now, John has been basically introducing evidence throughout this. No, no, no, this is what we taught.
Jesus is incarnate, Jesus came in the flesh and Jesus was here on earth and walked with us and became one of us and loved us so much that he gave everything for us. Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus is our Savior who brings us eternal life. And he says, this is the evidence and he said, we as apostles, we as people who saw Jesus are giving you our testimony, but so easily these other people come in and you’ll believe the testimony of other people.
Now, I want to introduce to you testimony that is evidence from God himself. Now, when we look at the book of 1 John and we see this, this is a part where I read it and it sounded so weird that for so long I’d read it and kind of skip over it going, I don’t get it, it’s weird. What is this? Testimony.
John said this, here’s the testimony. We have the testimony and then it gets even more confusing because the King James is different than every other version where it says, in the King James it says, there are three who testify in heaven, the Father, the Son and the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and there are three who testify on earth, the Spirit, the water and the blood. Now, there is no manuscript past the 1400s.
It looks like it was written in Latin. How that got in there, nobody knows. But if we just stick with the oldest manuscripts we can see and think about what John was talking about.
There are three who testify. Now, first of all, let’s look at this. To testify.
In the book of Deuteronomy, it tells us this. A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of iniquity or sin which he may have committed on the evidence of two or three witness, a matter shall be confirmed. So how good is one witness in a Jewish court? How good is one witness in our court? Depends how much circumstantial evidence there is to go along with it.
John’s saying, okay, you want this to be official? It’s not just my witness. It’s not just the witness of men. And God has shown us at least three ways in which we are, that there is testimony.
This testimony is submitted not from man, but from God. This testimony of God is something you need to listen to. If you listen to the testimony of man, the testimony of God is greater.
So he said, I’ll produce three witnesses for you. And these three witnesses will stand up to anything over time. These three witnesses will prove to you beyond a shadow of a doubt, I just added that part, that Jesus is real, that Jesus is the son of God, that Jesus came in the flesh.
And he said, the three who testify are the spirit. On earth, we have the spirit of God. John was telling this to the first century church post Pentecost, that they had the spirit.
Now in the book of John, Jesus told the disciples at the last supper, when the spirit, when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the father, that is the spirit of truth who proceeds from the father, he will testify about me. Now, when he, Jesus says this, he’s telling them that if there is a prophet that comes, if there is someone who comes to testify, you know, early on in first John four, he said, test every spirit, unless that person or that prophet says, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is the son of God, and it’s not the Holy Spirit. I have seen so many places where people say things are of the Holy Spirit, when it cannot be, because the spirit will point you to Jesus.
The spirit, in fact, in John 16, at that same discourse, it said, the spirit comes to convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. That unless the spirit is doing that, and then in John 16, 14, also in the chapter of 16, it says, when the spirit comes, he will glorify whatever is popular, whatever is trendy, whatever doesn’t stir anybody’s negative feelings. He said, he will glorify me.
If it is of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit points to Jesus. It points to Jesus Christ, not just once, not just sometimes, but in every single circumstance, if the spirit is of God, it points to Jesus Christ, and it says, Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except through me.
The spirit testifies to Jesus. On a personal standpoint, I’ll also say, I’ve tested this spirit so many times in 50 plus years. No, that’s not true.
Maybe in 30 years, I’ve tested this over and over. The spirit points to the truth of the word of God. Any other spirit says, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait.
We don’t need to do that because that’s not cool in our culture. That’s not cool here. The spirit points to that.
It is the testimony of the spirit that says, we can learn everything we need to know about salvation. We can learn the truth of life through the gospels and through the Bible, and that spirit always points to Jesus. That’s the testimony of God.
The next witness that John introduces is the water. There are so many thoughts about what this could be, but what makes the most sense is when you have water and blood that it puts bookends on Jesus’ earthly ministry. It could be about our baptism, but John’s not talking about our baptism.
The blood could be about our communion, holy communion, but he’s not talking about communion. But what he does talk about can point to those things too. John 1 33.
This is said by another John, John the Baptist. And he said, I did not recognize him, but he who sent me, okay, him is Jesus. He who sent me is the father.
He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, he upon whom you see the spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. Now, another thing that we know outside of John’s writings is that when the spirit came down on Jesus, when he was baptized, the spirit came down like a dove, as John talks about there, and descended upon him and stayed on him. But then the father said, this is my son whom I love with him, I am well pleased.
So God testified through the water and the water, the baptism of Jesus Christ, even though he was perfect and sinless, the baptism began his earthly ministry. So the teaching that we have in the gospels that comes between Jesus’ early baptism and the other end of his ministry is true. All that Jesus taught is true.
All that we witnessed is true. The spirit points to Jesus, the water points to Jesus, and now the blood points to Jesus. Revelation 12, 11, see I copied and duplicated that slide and left John 1, 33, but it’s Revelation 12, 11.
And they overcame him, that’s the beast, because of the blood of the lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. The blood of the lamb is the blood of Jesus. The blood points to Jesus.
The blood points to the perfect, spotless lamb who gave everything so that we might live. The bookends of Jesus’ ministry, his baptism, his death on the cross. The blood of the lamb tells us that there’s more to it, that tells us it’s more than a show, tells us there was flesh there, that there was life, and because he was perfect and gave his life, so we also can live.
That’s the testimony of the blood that we have in Jesus Christ. So John goes on from saying, if you believe the testimony of the spirit that points to Jesus, the water that points to, and the blood that points to Jesus, then you can believe God. But if you don’t believe these three who testify, you have called God a liar.
Because you don’t believe the testimony of God, if you don’t believe the spirit, the water, and the blood that all point to Jesus and all say that whoever has the son has life, whoever does not have the son does not have life, and when you have that life in Jesus Christ, when you have Christ in your life, when you believe the testimony of the father, then you can know and have assurance that you have eternal life.