I’ll pray, and if you’re new it’s very good to have you. We just go through the books of the Bible and we’ve got a great section in 1 John this evening. So I’ll pray for our time together and we’ll spend some time in scripture.

Lord God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for not only loving us in theory, but loving us in practice. Thank you for demonstrating your love by coming, Lord Jesus, to live and die and rise for us. And God, we pray, that as we study the scriptures today that we would see Jesus clearly, that we would love him dearly, that we would follow him closely and that by the power of your spirit these things would become a reality, not just in the pages of our Bible, but in the moments of our days. God, we are so grateful that you have come to save us from ourselves, that you have loved us enough to embrace us, that our relationship with you is secured by your faithfulness and your grace, and God, I pray today as we study that we would cling to that truth and our faith would be in you, that our hope would be in you, that our trust would be in you, that our eternity would be in your hands and that we would sleep well as people of faith. We love you and we give our time to you in Jesus’ good name. Amen.

As we get into 1 John, for those of you that are perhaps new, I’ll set it up for you. John is Jesus’ best friend. It tells us in John’s gospel, he’s the one whom Jesus loved. Jesus, during his life on earth had three friends that he was closest to: Peter, James and John, who is the author of this book. John was the youngest of all the disciples, and he was like a kid brother to Jesus. These two were just friends. Whomever your dearest friend is that you share your highs and lows with, the person that you really appreciate, that is just the kind of friend that is reliable and dependable, and the kind of friend that you really love and appreciate, and your life has been greatly helped by, that’s the kind of relationship that Jesus and John had. John was there for Jesus’ three years of ministry, his miracles, his teaching. Jesus was there at the foot of the cross – or, John was rather there at the foot of Jesus’ cross when Jesus was murdered. They were so close that Jesus looked down and John was near his mother, and Jesus said, “John, you look after my mother, and mom, John’s going to be the son for you now.” I mean, you know at your death the person that you appoint to look after your mother, that’s your best friend. Okay. Jesus appointed John to look after his own mom. That’s the kind of friendship they had.

Jesus then died, and he rose, and John was the one who saw him risen from death. John went on with the other disciples and eye witness to Jesus to tell the story of Jesus. Jesus ascended back into Heaven, John became a pastor. All of the other disciples, out of that group of twelve, they were all murdered except for John. They tried to kill him, but he didn’t die. And so he continued as a pastor for perhaps a hundred years. He lived a pretty good long life. And the letter that he writes is near the end of his life as Christianity has spread. Some people have been teaching false doctrines about Jesus, there’s confusion in the church. Some people are wondering whether or not they’re even Christians at all because they’re getting so much conflicting teaching. And not unlike our own day, they’ve gotten off of Jesus and they’re talking about all kinds of things and they’re excited about all kinds of things, except for they’ve kind of lost sight of Jesus.

And so John writes this letter to instruct the church about Jesus, to remind them about Jesus. And he says that, basically, the purpose of the book that we’ll look at tonight is that it’s written so that we can know whether or not we’re Christians. What John does is he breaks the book down into three parts. First he says that the most important issue is that you have trust, faith, belief, whatever word you want to use, in Jesus Christ, that he is God who became a man. Okay? So it’s about Jesus, is the central issue.

Out of that are two other issues. If you have Jesus as your God, two things will happen. One, you’ll hate your sin. You’ll want your life to change, you’ll want to be different, you’ll want to stop doing things that you’ve been doing, you’ll want to start doing things that you should be doing. In addition to hating sin, you will love people. You’ll be compassionate and merciful, realizing that you’re a sinner, they’re a sinner, they’re struggling, you’re struggling, God loves you, God wants you to love them as he’s loved you. That’s unconditionally.

And so it’s Jesus is God, we hate sin, and we love people. And those are the hallmarks of Christian faith. Now the most important and the beginning piece is that Jesus is God. And what John is going to deal with tonight is the reasonableness of believing in Jesus is God. And what he’s gonna base this on is testimony. And this is the way our world works. You and I believe testimony. Every time we watch the news, we’re hearing about events and circumstances that we have not personally witnessed. But we’re taking the credibility of a witness’s testimony and report. Likewise, any time we study anything from history, we weren’t there for certain historical events. Many of them preceded our own birth, so we have to take the testimony of eye witnesses and we have to trust that if they are indeed credible witnesses.

The same thing happens with Jesus. We weren’t there 2,000 years ago. We didn’t see it. But John did. And what John is going to tell us is that it is very reasonable, it’s very prudent, it’s very factual to trust in Jesus because there’s a chorus of witnesses who all say the same thing about him. So that’s gonna be our theme tonight. We’re gonna look at Jesus and we’re gonna look at why it is reasonable and prudent for us to believe the testimony that we receive about Jesus. Okay? So, that’s said.

Here’s where he begins, 1 John 5. “This is the one who came by water and blood – Jesus Christ.” So this is what we’re talking about. We’re talking about Jesus Christ. This is the person who will be the subject of our discussion tonight. “He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.” Here he is echoing Jesus who told us in John’s gospel that the spirit will come, the spirit of truth. “For there are three that testify.” Again, here’s the testimony about Jesus. We’re gonna look at these three modes of testifying, “The Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three are in agreement.” The problem is, nobody can agree as to what the Spirit, the water, and the blood is. Now, they all agree that Jesus is God, but nobody knows – could figure out necessarily what the water and the blood is. So I’m gonna try. Okay?

I’ll tell you my opinion, okay? Now don’t send me an email if you say, “Well I got another idea.” Ducky. Ducky for you. Nobody under – ‘cause this is a colloquialism, right? Like, today, the Bible says that Jesus was not rich and he had nowhere to lay his head. Today if we had the hip-hop colloquialism, it’d be, “Jesus had no bling,” right? Jesus was bling-free. And in 2,000 years, if we’d wrote that down, people’d be looking at it and they’d be studying and they’d do archeological digs and they’d do blingology and they’d try to figure out what bling means and why Jesus was bling-free and they’d go, “We don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s something that they all knew what they were talking about, but we don’t know what they’re talking about because this language that they used, they were all in the know, we’re not in the know.” And some of you don’t have cable and you don’t even know what it means, so.

So, so it’s a colloquialism that he just says because the church knew what he was talking about, but we don’t know exactly what it means. Now, some of you, this will bother you. Don’t let it, okay? I’ll give you a few reasons why you shouldn’t let it bother you. One, you went to a public school. Two – there’s a lot you don’t know! Two, Deuteronomy says that the secret things belong to the Lord. There’s things that the Lord knows that we don’t. Not shocking. Isaiah 55 says that his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. He’s smarter than we are. Well, not shocking. 1 Corinthians 13 says we see through a glass dimly. It’s like having spectacles on that are a little dirty and fogged. We see, but not totally clearly. And in addition, Peter, who was the head of the disciples, personally trained by Jesus Christ for three years, says in 2 Peter, he says, “I was reading Paul, man, that guy’s hard to understand, isn’t he?” I go, well, hey, Peter, who wrote the Bible says, “Man, there’s parts that I don’t know where he’s going with it.” You know? So don’t feel bad if you read the bible going, “I don’t get it!” Some of the guys who wrote it are on your team. They, they struggled with understanding as well.

Now the main things in the Bible that we need to know are clear. There’s other things that are not totally clear. This doesn’t mean we can’t know them. It may mean that in time, as we study and grow, that you’ll come to know them. It may mean that one day you die, you stand before the Lord Jesus and you’re like, “What was the water and the blood? What was that all about?” And then it says in 1 Corinthians 13, we’ll know as we’re fully known, and we’ll see in full as we now only see in part. So, here’s one of your first things about studying your Bible. If you’re a perfectionist who has to know everything, this book will just give you a headache. Or you’ll end up being a cult leader thinking you’ve answered all the questions. Okay? It’s okay to read it and say, “This is what it says!” and other times go, “I think this is what it says, but it’s kind of hard for me to understand because that’s a tough text.” This is one of those tough texts.

Okay. So we’ll talk about what is the water and the blood. Okay. Here we go. Some people think that the water and the blood refers to the sacraments of baptism and communion. Calvin and Luther said this. Engh. Maybe. I don’t think so. Some people say, “Well, when Jesus was crucified, the soldier shoved a spear into his side and out came blood and water.” Well, now it seems like they’re playing Where’s Waldo with blood and water in the New Testament. “There it is!” You know? I’m not sure that’s it, either.

Some people come along and they just try to isolate the water. Well, what does the water mean? And there’s two primary opinions. Some people think it’s the Bible, everybody’s got an opinion on this thing. But, some people say it refers to Jesus’ baptism. He was baptized in water. That’s what it’s talking about. Maybe. I – I – there’s another position that says that maybe it refers to his birth, that you’re born of water. Jesus teaches this in John 3. He’s speaking to a gentleman named Nicodemus that you’re born through your mother’s water breaking and then – you’re physically born – and then later you’re spiritually born. Any of you been present for the birth of a child? Whoa! It’s – it’s different. It’s – I’ve been present for the birth of four of my children, and I’m the guy who can barely watch ER without passing out, and I’m sitting there for the birth of my children and what’s amazing is when you’re wife’s water breaks, there’s a lot of water. It’s a little troubling. It’s like she sprung a horrendous leak. There’s a lot of water that comes out of the woman. It’s like – the only time I’ve ever seen anything like that is when a hot water tank busts a seal or something, and then next thing you know you’ve got this flood. And when a woman’s water breaks, that’s boom. Out comes the water and then out comes the baby. Maybe it refers to Jesus’ birth.

Now the other thing is blood. What is the blood refer to? Well, most people believe that the blood refers to Jesus’ death because blood usually typifies death. If you’re losing a lot of blood, you’re gonna need to fix that, you know, ‘cause you’re gonna die. You need the blood to stay inside, just as a general rule. It’s always better to have your blood inside. If it goes outside, you’re not doing so good, as a general rule. So the blood probably refers to Jesus’ death. And then the Spirit, obviously, refers to the Holy Spirit. Not a big debate about that.

So here’s my guess, as of right now. It may change later, so don’t, don’t, don’t be troubled. I believe that the water is the testimony that Jesus was born of a virgin. That proves that he’s God. He had no earthly father. He was born of a woman by water. Her water broke, out came Jesus out of the Virgin Mary, his lovely mother. The blood refers to his death. It proves that he was a man, because he died. Humanly speaking, he died. And the Spirit, I believe here, is talking about the same Spirit that helped raise Christ from the dead and also inspires the writing of scripture.

Now what it says is that these three are all in agreement: his birth, his death, his resurrection are all in agreement. They are telling us that Jesus is God who became a man, from his virgin birth to his death to his resurrection by the power of the Holy Spirit. Another way that the Spirit testifies is through the scriptures. A couple hundred times in the Old Testament it says that “the Spirit of the Lord came upon me” or “Thus says the Lord,” and the prophet speaks on behalf of God. Peter explains this to say that we didn’t have people making up the Bible as they went along, but they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. That’s why 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all scripture is God-breathed.

I believe, though, that the way that the Spirit testifies is many ways. It was at the baptism of Jesus, when the Spirit descended upon the Father – from the Father to the Son. It is through raising Christ from the dead, it is through enabling Mary to conceive as a virgin, Jesus whole life is marked by the continual testimony of the Holy Spirit, from his birth to his sinless life, to his death, to his resurrection, the Spirit is involved in all of that. The Holy Spirit is empowering Jesus for his sinless life and his ministry, and that is all faithfully recorded in the Bible. So this is the work of the Spirit. We’re getting the testimony of the Spirit. He’s giving us God’s perspective as to Jesus’ person and his work.

So here’s the point. The witnesses come in and they testify. We’re looking at Jesus’ life. His birth – was he born of a virgin? Well that would make him God. Did he die? He did die. Did he rise? He did rise. What does that mean? That he was God, just like you said. He builds upon this testimony. He talks a little further about testimony. And I’ll say this is very, very important because you and I take testimony all the time. And what we wanna do is investigate the testimony surrounding Jesus to see if it’s indeed reasonable and credible. So, he goes on and he says this, “We accept man’s testimony.” I’ll just stop right there. You and I do this all the time. We do this all the time. That’s why if you get in a car wreck, you get out of your car, and you get a notepad and a pen and you’re trying to get everybody who was an eyewitness to give you their name and phone number, unless you are the one who ran the red light and then you drive away quickly. Right? We need eyewitness testimony because it’s credible, it’s truthful, and it verifies that which indeed occurred. So we accept testimony from man.

Now let me talk about the testimony of Jesus’ life, and particularly his resurrection. Okay? I’ll tell you about some different people who were human witnesses to Jesus’ life and ministry and they all testify in agreement. Okay? First was his mother Mary. Okay. Mary, what we see of her is that – I mean, she birthed him, she raised him. When he was murdered on the cross, she was present, standing beneath his cross. When he rose from death, she saw him and then he ascended back into Heaven and what we see of Mary, the last portrait, is in the Book of Acts, where she is with the other Christians, the 120 Christians that existed in that day, and she’s is praying to her son, as God. So we have the, the witness, the testimony of Jesus’ mother.

How many of you are mothers? Anyone here ever worshipped their child as God, sinless deity? No. Right? My mom was here at the nine. I love my mother. We’re very, very close. She knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am not sin-free, okay? I mean – to get your mother to worship you as sinless deity, you would need to prove it in a big way, like a resurrection, for example. Jesus’ own mother worships him as God. Not only that, I think this one is even more compelling, so do his two brothers. Two kid brothers. How many of you are the kid brother? You ever look at your big brother and say, “Lord God Almighty.” No. You say other things that I can’t say in church to your big brother, but to get your two brothers to worship you as God, your two little brothers? I have two little brothers. They don’t think I’m God. They’ve tried to kill me and send me to him, but, but to get them to be convinced that I’m God – okay, Jesus’ brothers were James and Jude. They did not believe that he was God until after they saw him resurrected from death. And then James went on, and Jude went on, to each write a book of the New Testament bearing their name. James became a pastor at the church in Jerusalem. He became a very influential preacher and pastor, and they murdered him. They took him up to the top of a building, threw him off. He didn’t die, so a laundryman came out with a club and beat him over the head and murdered him because he would not recant that his brother was God who had risen from death. That takes extraordinary evidence – some people say, “Well Jesus just tricked a lot of people.” Your mother and brothers. Who knows you best? Who sees you for what you really are more than your mother and brothers? No one.

So Jesus’ mother is a witness, saying, “He’s God.” Jesus’ brothers are a witness, saying, “He’s God.” In addition, there were crowds, according to 1 Corinthians 15 of upwards of 500 people at one time that saw Jesus. Huge crowds of people. They all saw him risen from death as God. Additionally, Jesus’ friends saw him as God. People like Thomas, who said, “I don’t believe.” And Jesus said, “Well, here’s the scars in my hands and in my feet and in my side. It’s me.” Including John, who’s the author of this great book. John was an eyewitness when the – when the day of resurrection came, Peter and John were running to the tomb because they heard a report that Jesus wasn’t there. They were going to investigate. For some reason, I don’t know if Peter was high-carb and thick around the middle or just smoked or what, but John was faster than Peter and he got to the tomb first, and John was the first one at Jesus’ empty tomb. So John is an eyewitness to the resurrection.

So you got Jesus’ mother, brothers, huge crowds of strangers, friends, enemies alike, Jesus’ closest friends, additionally Jesus’ enemies were eyewitnesses to his resurrection. Men like Saul, who was basically the Osama Bin Laden of his day. He murdered Christians because he felt that they were against God and they should be put to death. The first time that we see Saul in the New Testament he’s murdering the early church deacon named Stephen. Stephen prays for his salvation; God answers that prayer. A few chapters later Jesus comes back down from Heaven after his resurrection and ascension. He knocks Paul to the ground and tells Paul that he’s God. Saul becomes Paul; Saul goes from a murderer of Christians to a pastor of Christians. He goes on to write almost half of the New Testament books and he is murdered for his belief that Jesus rose from death.

John’s point is this. His mother, his brothers, strangers, crowds of hundreds, his dearest friends, and even his bitter enemies all sing as a chorus of witnesses in absolute unity he is God. He rose from death. He is God, just as he said. John said, “We believe human testimony.” Okay, my question to you is this: If you are not a Christian, or if you are not a person that is believing that Jesus is God, who are you believing instead of this chorus of witnesses? You will believe things about Jesus’ birth. Was he born or not born? Was he born of a virgin or not born of a virgin? You will believe things about his death. Did he die, did he not die? You will believe things about his resurrection. Did he resurrect and conquer sin and death, or not? When it comes to those three primary issues of his life, death, and resurrection, you will either take the chorus of witnesses, human witnesses, and trust them, or you will replace them with another witness or witnesses that you find to be more credible. I would caution you in this, though. Who’s more credible than these witnesses? None of these witnesses that I’ve presented to you have anything to gain from their testimony. They’re hated. They’re despised. They’re poor. And most of them die bloody deaths for no gain, simply because it’s true.

The people that are the chorus of witness arguing against Jesus’ birth and life and death and burial and resurrection have much to gain: tenure, a book deal, a crowd, a movement, a philosophy, a religion, a spiritual organization. They have something to gain. These people gain nothing except for hardship and death. Additionally, who will you find that has better character? That is selfless, feeds the poor, helps the widow, the orphan, those in need, gives their whole life to do good works for others? There’s nothing in their character that would indicate that these are selfish people. These are selfless people. You and I will have to trust somebody because we weren’t there for Jesus’ life. Will we trust those people who were closest and knew him best, even those who despised and hated him, but came to believe that Jesus was God because of the incontrovertible evidence of the resurrection, or will we take someone’s opinion 2,000 years after the event, that was not an eyewitness and is at best speculating about that which they have never seen? It’s very, very important who we take as credible testimony about Jesus.

He says, “We accept man’s testimony.” Okay, this is the testimony of men and women. Here’s what’s beautiful. There’s even greater testimony than this. I mean, this is extraordinary testimony. When I was 19 in college, this was the testimony that converted me to Jesus and caused me to become a Christian. John goes one step further. He said, “Not only do we need to look at Jesus’ life, death, burial, resurrection, look at the witnesses, humanly speaking, who have stepped forward to testify in unison that he, indeed, was born of a virgin, lived without sin, died, and rose. There is a greater witness still that has now stepped up and verified Jesus as God.” This is his next statement, “We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater.”

This is what we’re gonna talk about, is God’s testimony “because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart.” This is so important. Okay? Where I’m gonna try and compel you this evening is to go from believing the testimony of eyewitnesses to having your own testimony. Not just saying, “Jesus changed Paul’s life,” saying, “And mine, too.” Not just saying, “You know, they all believe that Jesus is God,” but also saying, “And so do I.” Not just saying, “Jesus has done wonderful things in the lives of many people,” also stating, “Here is what he has done in mine.” The point of all of this is to believe the testimony so that you, yourself, may have one.

“Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe has made him out to be a liar because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.” First thing I want to deal with is that God testifies about Jesus. This is mind-bending. This is absolutely mind-bending. Other religions, other philosophies, other teachers and leaders will say, “We think this is the way.” Jesus says, “I am the way.” Other leaders, teachers, philosophers, confirm one another. Jesus is confirmed not by other human beings, because he’s God. He doesn’t need to be authenticated by human beings. He’s authenticated by God the Father. That’s exactly what it says. That to make it absolutely certain for you and I that Jesus is God, God the Father testified about God the Son. Do you believe that?

I’ll give you at least two occasions where this happened. One is back in Matthew, Chapter 3, where the Lord Jesus is baptized his freakish, rural cousin, John; a kid that the Bible says grew up eating sugar and bugs. Okay? This kid’s peculiar. I think he was red-headed with a huge afro, that’s how I see him. I can’t prove it, but he’s a different kind of kid, this kid. He’s – Jesus is baptized by his cousin, John. He comes up out of the water, and what happens? God the Son comes out of the water, God the Spirit descends upon him like a dove, and God the Father speaks from Heaven. The whole Trinity is right there, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. And the Father speaks from Heaven, and there was a crowd of people around, and God the Father says, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased.” Wow. What God is saying, “Just in case any of you missed it, this is the one I’ve been talking about for a couple thousand years. The whole Old Testament, when I said that I was going to be coming into human history, here it is.”

It happened again in Matthew, Chapter 17, at the Mount of Transfiguration, where Peter, James, and John go up to the mountain with the Lord Jesus. And who shows up? Moses and Elijah. That’s a great day, right there. Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets show up. And what happens? God the Father speaks again and he says, again, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased.” Who was there? John. John, who’s recording all of this. He’s writing this down for us. On at least two occasions, two that I can think of off the top of my head, God the Father spoke to human beings in the presence of Jesus declaring that Jesus is God the Son. I mean, you show me the Oprah episode where the skies opened up and God said, “This is my daughter, do whatever she says.” I mean, this is pretty – this is a big deal, right? I mean, this is a big deal. We have spiritual leaders and religious leaders and philosophers and teachers, and they say, “Well, so-and-so thinks so-and-so’s credible and so-and-so thinks so-and-so’s credible.” We’ve never had God show up and say, “That’s it right there. Listen to that guy. That’s the one, right there. That’s God the Son.” Wouldn’t that be amazing today if all of a sudden – you’re all sitting here thinking, “Is Jesus God? Is Jesus God?” and God says, “Yes, Jesus is God.” Well, that does it. We don’t even need to vote. That’s it right there. We’re gonna go with that. That’s what it is. God has done this so that it is abundantly clear to us that it’s about Jesus. That he is God. He has made it so clear and simple. Who are you gonna believe that’s better than God? “Oh, I got this prof in my comedy college class, and he’s gotta Master’s in philosophy.” Ttthbbb. You know? When God speaks from Heaven, go with that. Go with that. I know he doesn’t have a degree and, you know, but he’s sharp. He’s really sharp. And when he tells you something, just bank on that.

And God looks down from Heaven at Jesus – God the Father looks at God the Son and says, “That’s my Son. That’s God who became a man. That’s the one I’ve been talking about. Don’t miss him. Everybody pay attention.” Whose testimony is greater than God’s? Who are you going to trust over God? And I know some of you are saying, “I wish God would talk to me.” Friends, here’s the truth. This is the word of God. God speaks to you. He’s speaking to you tonight. I’m not God, but as we read the Bible we’re reading the word of God. God is speaking to us just as certainly as he spoke at Jesus’ baptism and he spoke at the Mount of Transfiguration. We speak to God through prayer; God speaks to us through scripture. This is the testimony of the Holy Spirit. This is the word of God. You and I, day or night, we can open the book and God will speak to us through his word. It doesn’t matter what culture or language or tribe or tongue or circumstance. It doesn’t matter what time of day or night; if we would like to hear from God we pray, open the book and we read, and God speaks. Friends, this is why we are such a dogged Bible church. We just will not get off the scriptures. We are just absolutely committed to the scriptures because we believe that more than human speculation and philosophy and spirituality, more than speculation, we need divine revelation. We need God to speak to us. We can get confused. We can get lost. We can get off track. We can get dismayed. Well, when God speaks, that’s something we can bank on. That’s bedrock we can build on. And what we have here is the word of God.

What he says is this, “God has testified about Jesus.” He did that verbally, and he does that through the verbal inspiration of scriptures. And so as you and I read the Bible, the Bible is about Jesus. It is not about what we do, it is about what he has done for us. And what it means for us to live in his wake. Every book is about Jesus. Every page is about Jesus. Every theme is about Jesus. Everything is another witness in the great chorus of witnesses singing the praises of Jesus. It is all about him.

Now here’s where it’s incumbent upon you to deal with this personally. What he says is, “Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar.” That is a dangerous thing to do. God has from Genesis to Revelation testified about Jesus. God has personally spoken about Jesus. God has filled his servants with his Spirit to faithfully record the life of Jesus. God has brought forward Jesus’ own mother, Jesus’ brothers, Jesus’ friends, the crowds, his enemies, they have all sung in harmony. We have this great cloud of witnesses, to use the language of Hebrews. We have this huge choir singing that Jesus lived without sin, died and rose to conquer sin and death. And what he’s saying is this. If we disbelieve that, and this can be through open rebellion, saying, “I don’t believe that.” This can be through passive indifference, saying, “I don’t care.” In either event, it is the rejection of what God has spoken and it’s a grave thing to do. Who do you trust more than God, and if you trust them, on what grounds do you find their testimony to be more credible? And are you willing to take the risk that you were wrong, that God is right and that you were declaring that he is a liar? Do you seriously believe that at the end you will stand before him and say, “It’s not my fault. I had no idea.” “I sent all the witnesses. I spoke. I wrote a book. I have given you multiple ways to know, and you took every one of them and either actively disobeyed, or passively ignored, nonetheless you called me a liar.” To do anything other than to believe in Jesus is to call God a liar. It is no different then at his baptism, where God the Father speaks from Heaven, pointing your finger up at the sky and saying, “You liar! That is not true!”

Some of you say, “I would never do that.” If you don’t love Jesus, you do it every minute. Your doctrine is not just what you believe, it is how you behave. It is a lifestyle with Christ that God seeks. And so many people believe God is a liar. They declare him to be so. John says, “You need to personally look at where you’re at with Jesus. And you gotta ask yourself, ‘Who am I to trust in more than the great cloud of witnesses? Who am I believing more than God himself? And why would I believe them? And why would I think that God is lying to me?” I tell you what, God is not liar, but Satan is. And from the very beginning his first lie was to get us to think that we’re smarter than God and that we don’t need God and that we can do just fine on our own. And that maybe God’s a liar and we’ve got it all figured out. It’s the root of pride that continually presses in to all of us to try and get us to rebel against God.

You will have to decide whether you believe God or Satan, and whether you believe Satan is a liar or God is a liar. And if you don’t believe in Jesus you believe that God is a liar and that Satan is a truth-teller. It’s really not that complicated. We make it real complicated.

You know what, friends? There are different denominations, there’s different churches, there’s Lutherans and Methodists and Presbyterians and Baptists and there’s all kinds of different Christians. There’s a lot of things we can discuss that are secondary and tertiary, but I tell you what. On one thing we’re all in absolute unanimous agreement. The testimony is credible; the witness is true; Jesus is God. That’s the bottom line of the Christian faith. The two billion people who call Jesus “God” on planet Earth, those who really are born again all agree on that fact. Jesus is God. That is the bedrock of what we believe. Jesus is God who became a man. And let me explain to you why this is so important. He gets into this in the next section. “And this is the testimony.” Here’s the point. “God has given us eternal life.” Boy, there’s good news. Do you know that most Americans believe in Heaven but not Hell, yet – right? That most Christians – most Americans, rather – believe in Heaven but not Hell, and they believe in Heaven, but not Jesus. Friends, that’s naïve optimism. Not Biblical fame.

There is eternal life. Here’s what eternal life is. Eternal life – and this is the great theme of John’s gospel if you want to study further – but eternal life is at least two dimensions. One, it is a quality of life that comes from God. It is a quality of life that comes from God and it is given to us today. Some people say, “I can’t wait to die and go to Heaven and start my eternal life.” Friends, my eternal life started in late 1989. That’s when the eternal God took out my heart of stone, gave me a heart of flesh, took out my sin, and put in his Holy Spirit. He opened my heart and eyes. He put a Bible in my hand. He made me a new creation in Christ and he gave me a new life. An eternal life connected to the living, eternal God. Now, it is a quality of life that begins right here, today. It is a quality of life that God intends from the moment of conversion forward. That we don’t just suffer through life and then hang on ‘til Heaven, but that we live in Christ, the eternal quality of life from the living God here today.

I have a lovely wife I adore. I enjoy my kids. I love you guys. I have a life that I’m actually very much enjoying. It’s a good life and I praise God for it and I know that my life would look nothing like this had Jesus Christ not saved me from myself. And so my eternal life began the moment I met Jesus, so now I gotta eternally-imprinted life in which the hand of the eternal God is all over my marriage and my wife and my kids and my friendships and my work and I’m telling you it’s great. I’m having a wonderful time. And I’m looking forward to Heaven because as I continue to walk with Jesus I see this eternal life growing and unfolding and expanding and one day I’ll die and get out of my grave, like Jesus, and there won’t be Satan or sin or death. There won’t be the curse spoken of in Romans 8. Creation won’t be fighting against me. I’ll see all of God’s children. I’ll see God face-to-face. Eternal life at that point will go from a quality of life to a perfect life that is without end. Those are the two dimensions. It’s a quality and a duration. It begins now. It continually grows and it ultimately reaches it’s culmination in the New Heavens, New Earth, New Jerusalem at the end of time.

Do you know that sin will not exist forever? Do you know that Satan won’t exist forever? That folly and lies and death and sinners won’t exist forever? But the only thing that will remain in the end is people and God and life for people who belong to God. We can’t even fathom that. Imagine a world with no sin. We’ve never seen that. That is the eternal life. That is the eternal life. Eternal life is what’s at stake when it comes to the Lord Jesus. The quality of your life today and the duration of your life forever, that is what is at stake. Some people say, “Well, what does it matter? Why are you guys always so hung up on Jesus, you Christians?” You know. “It’s all you ever talk about, Jesus. Doesn’t it – we’re spiritual, isn’t that good enough?” No. “Well, we’re moral, isn’t that good enough?” No. “Well, we’re sincere.” No. This is why it’s so important and this is why, every week, I just beat the same old drum, which is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, because what’s at stake is eternal life. But where is eternal life? What does he say? “God has given us eternal life and this life is” where? “In his Son.” Eternal life is in Jesus. We could talk about Heaven all day, but if you don’t have Jesus, you’re not going there. We could talk about living forever and having a great time and seeing God face-to-face and being healthy and getting over your infirmities and living in perfection. But if you don’t have Jesus you won’t see it. It all comes down to Jesus. It all comes down to Jesus.

Some of you are in church – that’s great. We love having you. But are you in Christ? Some of you are in study, and we love the fact that you read. But are not only in study? Are you in Christ? Some of you are in a Christian family and we’re grateful that you’re in a Christian family. But are you in Christ? Some of you are in recovery. Some of you are in morality. Some of you are in improvement, and we praise God for that, but are you in Christ? It’s so important that you are not just in spirituality. You’re not in religion. You’re not in church, you’re not in morality, you’re not in community apart from being in Christ.

There is this weird notion that has gotten out among many that somehow if you hang out with people who love God that you get some sort of group discount into the Kingdom. The theologians call it the Doctrine of Participatory Redemption, which basically means, “Hey, you’re saved and if God takes you to Heaven, he’ll take me, too, ‘cause we’re hanging out together.” Friends, the line into Heaven is single-file. Okay? When you die and stand before God you can’t say, “Well, my girlfriend loved you. My mom loved you. My dad loved you.” Jesus wants to know, do you? The line into Heaven is single file and your faith must be your own. You cannot live under another person’s faith and you cannot borrow another person’s faith. You must have your own. You must have your own. Are you in Christ? Are you in Christ? Do you hate sin? Do you love Jesus? Is he your God? Are you not just one of the people who has heard the testimony of the witnesses, but are you yourself now one of those witnesses giving your own testimony? “God has loved me. God has saved me. God has shown up in my life. I am his possession. I belong to him.” What’s at stake here is eternal life.

I’ll tell you why this is so important and why Jesus is so important. You are a suicidal, self-destructive person. We all are. In the Garden, with our first parents, there is the Tree of Life and the Tree of Death. We chose death. Since that time, we kill ourselves. For those of you who are married and your marriage is not doing well, you are killing your marriage. For those of you whose friendships are not doing well, you are killing your friendships. For those of you whose finances are not doing well, you are killing your finances. For those of you who physically are not doing well, you are physically killing yourself. We kill ourselves. We are suicidal, self-destructive people. We just bring death into everything. And God speaks and says, “Well, Jesus is your hope. He’ll save you from yourself.” And we say, “Liar!” And we continue in our folly.

And here’s what God has done. We have run from God. We have run for sin and death. We are self-destructive people that are on mission to just kill ourselves and everyone and everything in our path. God is holy; that means he’s different than we are. God looks down and says, “I love ‘em. Rebellious and stubborn and stiff-necked and hard-hearted as they are, I love ‘em.” God the Father devises a plan to send God the Son to save us from ourselves. So God the Son gets off his throne, gets born as a man to the Virgin Mary. He lives in humble circumstances. He never travels more than 200 miles from his home. He never runs for political offices. He didn’t get rich. He doesn’t write a book. He doesn’t found a company. Ultimately, what he does is he dies. The blood. Three days later, he rises, and he conquers sin and death. When he died, my sin was placed on him. And he died in my place. And now I am God’s possession. And Jesus has taken my death in exchange for eternal life. And he has saved me from myself.

Every other religion will tell you this: there is no such thing as eternal life, that God could change his mind, that God’s capricious, that God is inconsistent, that God is untrustworthy. They will tell you that God is here and you are here and if you want to be with God you need to work really hard, be moral, spiritual, good, maybe reincarnate, pay off your karma, maybe tie the lot, maybe suffer greatly and work your way toward God. The truth is that we don’t work our way toward God. The truth is we can’t work our way toward God, but the hope is, and the truth is, and the good news is God has worked his way toward us. He has come for us because he loves us. The eternal God came down to us, who are spiritually dead, and he gives us eternal life. That’s what’s at stake when it comes to Jesus. Everything is at stake when it comes to Jesus.

He continues, “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son does not have life.” Bottom line. Bottom line. Do you have Jesus? You have to answer this question, dear friends. You can’t say, “Well, I don’t know.” Indifference is calling God a liar. Saying other than “yes” is calling God a liar. It’s declaring war on God. It is resisting God. It is ignoring God. He who has the Son has life! He who doesn’t have the Son, doesn’t have life. It’s very simple.

I know some of you come from churches where you were abused and bad things happened, so you’ll justify not walking with Jesus. Some of you have all kinds of religious background or heritage, and maybe you understand world religions, you’re into philosophy or spirituality, and you want to argue about 57 million peripheral issues. You want to chase rabbit trail after rabbit trail after rabbit trail so you can just die and go to Hell because that’s what Satan wants for you. Just to stay busy on everything but the issue. The issue is Jesus. The issue is Jesus. Set everything aside, and if you want to drill down on one issue, it’s Jesus. He said he was God come down from Heaven. He proved it with his virgin birth, his sinless life, his death and his resurrection. The witnesses have all testified. God the Father has testified. The Holy Spirit, through the word of God has testified. There really is no question other than your testimony. What do you say? Everyone else has spoken. We as a church, we testify that Jesus Christ is God. How about you? “He who has Jesus has life. He who does not have Jesus does not have life.” How about you? Don’t talk to me about your family and your friends and your coworkers and your enemies and your hurts and your pains and your grief, your sorrow and your strife, and your questions, and your doubts. You and Jesus, yes or no? Yes or no? Is he God who came to save you from yourself, or is he a liar? And are you willing to bank everything, including eternal life, on your belief that he is a liar? Are you willing to place that bet? Or by faith will you say, “No, Jesus is God. He came because he loves me. He died in my place for my sins. I will give him my sin; he will give me eternal life. If I have the Son, I have life. If I do not have the Son, I do not have life.”

It is very simple, friends. It is not as much about what we do, it is about what he’s done. That’s why on the cross he said, “It is finished.” We don’t need to please God, work our way back to God. God the Son has worked on our behalf. God the Father is pleased with the work of God the Son. We have no work to do to be saved except for believing in the works of Jesus. Do you believe in Jesus? This is everything.

There’s one final piece of good news. “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God.” Here’s the good news. “If you believe in Jesus you may know that you have eternal life.” Friends, this makes all the difference in the world.

Other religions will tell you that it’s not what God has done for you; it’s what you do for God. And so you must work and work and work and work and maybe reincarnate and try and payback and do good works and give money and give prayers and give alms and work and work and work and work and they lay out a finish line. And as soon as you get to it they move it. “You gotta do a little more; you gotta give a little more. Oh, that wasn’t quite right.” And they move it again. And you spend your whole life without assurance or certainty that God loves you, without assurance or certainty that God has forgive you, without assurance or certainty that you and God are okay. And God becomes this mean, capricious deity who has you jumping through hoops while he just keeps changing the rules. And you never know.

I talked to a guy recently who said, I said, “So what’s going to happen to you when you die?” He said, “I hope I go to Heaven, but who knows?” Friends, I have good news. You can know. This is not an enormous mystery. This is not a gamble. This is not a rolling of the dice. This is not an “I sure hope so.” This is bedrock certainty. This is promise and guarantee. This is something that you could sleep good if you believe. You can know that you have eternal life. Eternal life is not something that God takes away. When he gives it to you, he promises that it’ll be yours forever. It’s not like you will give your life to Jesus and then stand before him in the end and he says, “Well, I changed my mind. I’m capricious. I’m inconsistent. I’m not dependable.” God loves you. He has, the Father has sent the Son to save you from yourself. He has died and risen and accomplished redemption. All you need do is believe in him, and if you have the Son you have life. If you don’t, you do not. And then you can know that you have eternal life, which is a gift of God. You didn’t do anything to earn it, so you can’t do anything to dis-earn is, to lose it. And you can know that God loves you. You can know that your sins are forgiven. You say, “Yeah, but, but after I became a Christian I did this sinful thing. What about that?” Jesus Christ died knowing all your sins, past, present, and future. When he says it’s finished, he already died for that. So give it to him, receive forgiveness, and move on with your eternal life. Don’t get stuck in the cycle of death.

Do you know, do you have assurance? Some people say, “Well, if we know that we’re saved and God loves us, then what will keep us from sinning and rebelling?” Love. When God has done all of this for you, the natural response – I should say the supernatural response from the regenerate heart is to love him and obey him, to stop killing ourselves and walk in the light. To see Jesus take away the sin that has completely devastated our life, so that we can get our life back, and we could live life with him and then one day live eternal life in his presence. Do you believe in Jesus? Do you know that you have eternal life? Do you live as a person who is certain of that fact? Do you sleep as someone who is certain of that fact? Do you rest assured that your salvation is secure? Jesus says, “No one can take you out of my hand.” Paul says that nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Paul also says that he who began a good work will see it through to completion. Paul says that those he predestined, he justifies, those whom he justifies, he sanctifies. Paul also says that even when we are faithless God is still faithful. Your relationship with God is secure because of the goodness of God. And it is the goodness of God that makes you good. That makes you obedient. That makes you holy. That enables you to live as his child, choosing life instead of death, because you met Jesus. And the eternal life is so much greater that you would never exchange it for death again.

You, if you belong to the Lord Jesus, are kept by him. He doesn’t just hold you. He changes your heart and your will and your desires so that you love what he loves and you hate what he hates. You hate sin and you love people. Here’s the pattern that he brings us through here in the end. Believe in Jesus. Know that he loves you, and live your life. First things first, friends. Do you believe in Jesus? Not just some nebulous guy, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, born of a virgin, lived without sin, died for sin, rose to love, save, forgive you. Are you not just listening to the testimonies, but are you now having your own? Do you believe? Do you know that as a result of believing that your sins are forgiven and that God has reconciled you to himself through Jesus, who was God and man, God who became a man, so he can reconcile men and women to God? Do you know that through Jesus, your life, your eternal life is in the hands of a good God who loves you very dearly, and continually saves you from yourself? Do you know that? If you do, then here’s what you get to do. Live. You get to live. You get to live eternal life. Quality now, duration forever. You get to live eternal life.

That’s what we invite you to, the Lord Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sin, assurance of salvation, and eternal life of joy. That is what is at stake when we talk about Jesus. What is at stake when we talk about Jesus is nothing short of everything. Everything. And this is where, now, I have done my job, delightfully, I might say. I love my job. My job is to talk about Jesus, to lift him up, to exalt him, to let you understand his majesty, and his love, and his magnitude, and his kindness, and his mercy, and his passion, and his person, and his work. To be yet another among the many witnesses who testify that it is all indeed true. Your responsibility, individually, and our responsibility corporately, is to respond to him. To respond to him. Some of you are not Christians. This is the day you become a Christian. Don’t walk out of here calling God a liar. Don’t do that. Take your sin, and in prayer say, “Lord Jesus, I give you my sin. Please forgive me. Make me a Christian, and give me eternal life.” God knows your heart. God is a good God. God answers that kind of prayer every time. His whole mission was to save you. He will certainly embrace you if you turn to him.

For some of you that are Christians but you’re assurance has been lacking because you have not been reading the scriptures, you have not been listening to the faithful chorus of true testimony-givers about Jesus, you’ve been reading the wrong books and listening to the wrong voices, and going down the wrong roads, today is where you bring your sin to Jesus and you ask him to forgive you, and you continue to draw near to him, and walk with him, and enjoy the eternal life that he has for you. And for many of you, this is what I am suspecting, you’ll just thank him. Your response today will just be gratitude. I’m sure it’s not just me. Has anyone here had a little taste of eternal life and found it to be quite delightful?

Response: Yeah.

Anybody had sins forgiven, relationships restored, provision granted, God’s love poured out, understanding and illumination made available? Anyone tasted eternal life and said, “Thank you, Lord Jesus, this is, this is tremendous. I don’t know why I rebelled against you. There’s something just seriously wrong with me. Thank you for saving me from myself. Thank you for loving me enough that, like a little kid that’s running out into traffic saying, ‘I’m free,’ like a father, grabbing me and saying, ‘Not in the road!’” Okay? That’s our God. We look at him and we say, “What did you do that for?” He says, “You’ll understand when you get a little bigger, but this wasn’t a great plan. What you considered freedom was just death. And I have saved you from yourself because I love you.” That is our God. If you’ve tasted that, then today, this is a great day for you to celebrate and say, “I know in whom I believe. I believe in Jesus. I know that all my sins are forgiven. I live a life of passion and what I don’t worry about – ” now don’t go too far on this – “but what I don’t worry about is being perfect and pleasing God. I’m not gonna be perfect. Jesus already was. The pressure’s off. You know what I get to do now? Live. Live. I’m not living to please God!” God is pleased in Jesus. “I’m living in freedom, and joy, and life.” Not towards sin, ‘cause that’s death and bondage. But I’m living in freedom and joy, enjoying the life that God has given.

We invite you to Jesus and eternal life, to celebrate, to respond, to be grateful that you can know, unlike so many religions in the world that tell you, “You don’t know ‘til you die.” No, you know today. And tonight you sleep like you’re a person who belongs to God. And you don’t wake up tomorrow saying, “God, what do I need to do to make you happy?” God says, “This is my Son. This is the one in whom I am well pleased. Do you belong to him?” I do. “Well, then I’m pleased.” “What do I do now, God?” “Well, go live. I gave you eternal life. Go live! Go live your life.” And then we’ll see him face-to-face.

For those of you that have experienced eternal life, tonight you will celebrate. You will thank God. You’ll be so grateful for what he is in the process of doing. You’ll go from here and you’ll tell your testimony to others and you’ll say, “Jesus didn’t just do something 2,000 years ago, he does something every day.” We call you to respond in prayers of gratitude and repentance; we call you to respond with giving of tithes and offerings. If you’re a first-time visitor, you’re not a Christian, don’t give. You’re a guest. And we’re going to partake of communion, which is remembering the blood of Jesus, that our salvation is secure through Jesus’ death and resurrection. It’s finished, just like he said. And we’re secure in the hands of God. And now we can go on to enjoy our life by the grace that he gives us. And then we’re gonna sing and celebrate because that is what eternal life is about.

For those of you that have this weird picture of Heaven, like we’re all naked cherubs in diapers playing stringed instruments, let me just clear this up for you. There will be a new Heaven, new Earth, new Jerusalem. We will have a perfect world without sin. We will sing and dance and eat. We will enjoy one another’s company, and it will be a great life. We will work jobs. We will have friends. We will go swimming. We will play ball. We will sing and we will dance. We will do everything, but sin. But sin. And we’ll live forever and God will wipe every tear from our eye and sin and death will be no more, and we will sing. The whole book of Revelation is about singing, because when you show up to the best party that’s ever been thrown in the honor of the King, you gotta sing. And you sing to his honor.

And so we sing and celebrate, and that’s our response to God because eternal life, where the Saints celebrate the goodness of Jesus, isn’t something that we wait for Heaven to do. That part of our eternal life begins right now. And we sing, demonstrating that we have been taken hold of by that eternal life.

None of you should leave here without being a Christian. None of you should leave here without believing in Jesus. None of you should leave here without giving him your sin and receiving his forgiveness and eternal life. None of you should leave here without the Son and without life. But at this point, I hand it to you. I hand it to you. And you will decide whether or not God is a truth-teller or a liar. And you will live with the implications of that decision forever.

And so, Lord Jesus, we love you. We come to you in gratitude. Jesus, I thank you that we don’t need to please the Father. We’ve already, we’ve already blown it. But I thank you, Lord Jesus, that you have lived in our place, that you have died in our place, that you have risen in our place, that you were a substitute for us, that you love us, that you came down from Heaven, that you came to save us from ourselves, to take away the hollow and empty way of life, the death that we had chosen, and to replace that with life, and love, and joy, and grace, and mercy, and forgiveness, and truth. God, we thank you for the great chorus of witnesses from Jesus’ mother, to his brothers, to multitudes of people, to his friends, and even to his enemies. They all sing in harmony, that the tomb is empty, that Jesus is real, and that eternal life has been granted by the one who has conquered death and is alive today.

And God, thank you so much for speaking from Heaven, to make it abundantly clear that Jesus is the issue. And thank you for giving us the scriptures, Holy Spirit, so that we can hear the word of God, the word of God about Jesus, day and night, under any circumstances, at any time and place, by simply taking the book and reading for ourselves. God, I pray that we would respond to you, to all that you have done in history and all that you have done in the history of our lives, that we would give you our sin, that we would take your life, and that we would live as free children in joy, and love, and hope, and peace, and faith. And I pray, God, that none of us would leave here as an unbeliever, as someone who has chosen another witness as more credible than the ones you have offered, one who has chosen the voice of Satan over the voice of the Father, that none of us would leave here without the Son and without life. I pray you would give us hearts to believe and minds to receive this great truth. And Lord Jesus, we come in your honor, to sing in your presence in preparation for the day when we see you face-to-face. Amen.