Can I Get A Witness? Series

Can I Get A Witness?

Text: 1 Jn. 5:6-12

Introduction

1. Illustration: I love to listen to African American preachers because they preach with such passion. I particularly like it when they really get into and starting singing while they are preaching. Then they say "Can I get a witness?"

2. According to Webster, a witness is "something or someone who serves as evidence or proof," and the Biblical idea of witness would agree with that definition.

3. The world needs a witness of the Lordship of Christ today. It needs:

a. The physical witness

b. The Spiritual witness

c. The ultimate witness

d. Our witness

4. Read 1 Jn. 5:6-12

Proposition: Together with the Scripture and the heavenly witness, we need to be a witness to the truth of the Gospel.

Transition: The world needs to see...

I. The Physical Witness (6a-b)

A. Water and the Blood

1. John begins with a verse that should be in the "hard sayings of the Bible Hall of Fame."

2. He says "This is He who came by water and blood--Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood."

a. What does John mean when he says that Jesus came by water and the blood?

b. Some, like Calvin and Luther, believe he was talking about the sacraments, or what we would call the ordinances, of water baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

c. Others believe that he was talking about the blood and water that flowed from Jesus’ side when he was pierced with the spear in his side at the crucifixion.

d. However, what John was most likely referring to was the water baptism and death of Jesus.

e. These two events encompass Jesus entire ministry on earth and give us physical proof that Jesus became flesh.

3. Let us keep in mind that John is dealing with some false teachers at this time.

a. These teachers said that Jesus was just a man, but that the divine Son of God came upon him at his baptism and left him before the crucifixion.

b. In teaching this, they would have people believe that the divine Son of God did not die on the cross.

4. John is wrestling with a heresy that demoted the cross.

a. John insists that the testimony of the "water and the blood" upholds a full incarnation (that Jesus was fully God and fully man).

b. Life and truth can only be found when a complete incarnation embraces a genuine death on the cross (Burge, NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: The Letters of John, 202).

5. Unless the Jesus that died on the cross was both fully God and fully man then our salvation is still in doubt.

a. If Jesus was not fully man, he could not stand in our place.

b. If Jesus was not fully God, he could not be the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

c. Heb. 9:14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

d. If Jesus wasn’t both fully God and fully man he was just another religious fanatic that got killed, but since he was both he became the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.

B. The Real Historic Jesus

1. Illustration: Pastor D. James Kennedy said in a sermon, “I remember years ago talking to a man in his home about Christ and asking him who he thought Jesus was. He said, ‘Oh, He’s a wonderful man. He was the greatest man who ever lived, the most loving and gracious person who ever walked upon this earth.’

“I said, ‘Let me tell you something I believe will startle you. According to the Scriptures, and the historic Christian faith, Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter of Galilee was and is the eternal Creator of the universe, the omnipotent, omniscient, and Almighty God.’

“Instantly his eyes filled with tears and this man of about fifty-five or sixty said, ‘I have been in church all my life and I never heard that before. But I have always thought that is the way it ought to be – that God ought to be like Jesus’” (Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations and Quotes, p. 486-487).

2. Just as in John’s time, there are deceivers today who would have us believe that Jesus is not who the Bible says he is.

a. They would have us believe that he was just a man.

b. They would have us believe that he wasn’t the Son of God.

c. They would have us believe that he did not rise from the dead.

d. They would have us believe that he is not coming again to judge the living and the dead.

3. However, the physical evidence is overwhelming that Jesus is who he said he was.