Water. Blood and Spirit, Part 1

Christ's bloodshed summarized. It consummated the gospel of atoning sacrifice. So the Bible throughout presents consistent evidence about the Lamb. The Passover illustrated the sacrifice of the Lamb. Isaiah 53 prophesied of the suffering of the Lamb. John the Baptist identified the person of the Lamb. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Here he is! The cross of Calvary bore the blood-drenched final Lamb. Christianity is associated with blood. Imagine that you were responsible for inventing a religion. It would probably not look very much like Christianity. Christianity is not the kind of religion you would invent. In Christianity, the key figure dies a bloody, gruesome death. But the death that Jesus died was on our behalf and made it possible for us to have life. The Apostle John wanted the church to know for certain that the Christian faith was real. And today, Stephen Davey looks at three undeniable proofs.

This is Wisdom for the Heart and Stephen's calling today's lesson, Water, Blood, and Spirit. A cable channel by the name Court TV debuted a little over ten years ago, since been rebranded as TruTV. When it began, the skeptics abounded. I read a little bit about their history, the prospects of courtrooms and trials and gavel-to-gavel coverage.

It didn't seem appealing to network consultants. There were a lot of doubters. But nonetheless, Court TV debuted July 1, 1991. There were a couple of trials already in progress that had sort of captured the American attention through newspapers, magazines, and rag sheets. One was the trial of Robert Scott Hill, who was being tried in Florida, charged with killing his mother-in-law 25 years earlier. New evidence brought that back up, and this case involved Robert Hill's own son, now a grown man and a detective, serving as a star witness against his father.

That, of course, captured a lot of attention. A teacher, Pamela Smart, that trial was going on in New Hampshire for persuading her 17-year-old student lover to murder her husband. The court and the country was shocked to discover that she had instructed him to kill him, but not in front of the family dog. She didn't want the dog traumatized.

Kill my husband, but don't mess with the dog. Robert Hill was found innocent, and Pamela Smart was found guilty. But that just sort of took this channel, and it kind of exploded to the surprise of many in the industry.

It took off. In fact, 10 years later, I read Nielsen ratings found that Court TV, now called TruTV, was the fastest-growing cable network in the country with 65 million viewers worldwide. There's evidently something intriguing to watching a trial unfold to effectively, from your armchair, join a jury in deciding innocence or guilt based on the evidence. It might be the presentation of any number of evidences. It might be circumstantial evidence. It might be demonstrative evidence, like a photograph or a video. It might be physical evidence, such as a murder weapon. It might be DNA evidence.

It might be the fibers of a piece of carpet. It might be character evidence provided, or even eyewitness accounts. You've got all the courtroom drama you could ever want. And all of it builds so that the viewers, along with the jury, most importantly the jury, finally reach a verdict based on that evidence.

At least that's the plan. I thought of that as I dug into these verses before us. John the Apostle is playing the role, almost, of an inspired trial lawyer. He's building this case for the truth of Christianity, one piece of evidence at a time. If you were with us in our last study in 1 John 5, which is where I want you to return with me today, John has made this rather audacious claim that the Christian is victorious, not just later, but now, that God wins not just later on, but even now he's winning. He took this Greek word out of its Roman culture, Greek culture, that belonged to a goddess, and he said, no, that's our word. That's the brand name for every believer.

Anybody here remember what that word was? Nike. Very good.

A little slow, but yeah, you got it. Nike. And it means?

Overpriced tennis shoes, right. Oh, I mean victory. It means victory. Now, on what basis does the Christian claim victory? If you go back to verse 5, John writes, and who is the one who gains victory that is overcomes the world?

Who can claim Nike as their brand? The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. In other words, the person who arrives at the verdict that Jesus is God the Son has achieved victory by means of faith in that one. Now, John immediately senses the need to provide some evidence to back up that kind of verdict. Can you give us some evidence, John?

Can you give us maybe some character evidence, some demonstrable evidence, some physical evidence, some eyewitness account to lead us to this verdict that Jesus really is the Son of God? I mean, this isn't just the trial of the year. This isn't just the trial of the century.

This isn't just cable TV. This is the determination of our eternal destiny. And John seems to anticipate that. Governed by the Holy Spirit, of course. Since these verses in this chapter are dedicated to helping us know, with assurance, certain things, to remove all doubt from our minds, the apostle now moves to give us three forms of evidence. Water, blood, and spirit. Look at verse 6. This is the one, that is, Jesus is the Son of God, who is the Son of God. This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. Now the first thing I want you to notice before we dive in too deeply is this phrase, this is the one who came. This one, the Son of God, described as the Messiah, verse 1.

I want you to underline in your text, or at least in your thinking, the verb tense here. This is the one who came, past tense. The Messiah, Jesus Christ, already came. John uses the aorist tense to clearly declare that the coming of the Messiah was already an established historical reality. So technically speaking, we're not waiting for the Messiah to come. We're waiting for the Messiah to come again, right? Because the Messiah already came. There's going to be a point in time during the tribulation period, following the rapture of the church where Israel as a nation is reconstituted. 144,000 Jewish evangelists are going to just reach the world in a glorious way. The nation itself will wait in repentance and the prophets say that they will observe the Lord as he descends in that second coming with us already with him.

They'll see the one whom they pierce uniquely as a nation rejected. I pass on Penny Road, a synagogue. And they're in the middle of a building program and they're building a beautiful sanctuary.

They're right off the road. Should the Lord come now and those individuals go through the tribulation, I pray, in fact I pray every time I go by it, Lord, would you please by your grace make that assembly part of the redeemed who wait for you when you come again? He's already come. He came, John says. And now John is going to back up this verdict that the one who came is actually the Son of God, the Messiah.

So what's the evidence, John? Verse 6. This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ.

Not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. He seems to be repeating himself, but he's not. He's emphasizing certain things. In fact, he uses the definite article before each of these. The water, the blood. He makes them by that construction separate historical events.

And that's important to know. In other words, there are two distinctive moments in history marking Jesus uniquely, giving evidence uniquely that he is the Son of God. One of them has to do with water, and the other one has to do with blood. So what were they? If you can believe it, I spent a lot of time just reading all the different views.

I'm sure you probably would assume that I do, and I'll give you a few of them. Augustine, the church father and theologian, believed that it was a reference to the blood and water that issued from his side when the Roman soldier pierced him with a spear, as recorded in John 19, verse 34. The reason I don't throw my head in on that view, among other reasons, is that it doesn't relate to two separate events. Furthermore, it doesn't answer the claim from false teachers that John is also attempting to answer that Jesus was the Son of God. In fact, it's possible for any other human being to issue forth water and blood if pierced having died through their heart. However, Augustine is partly right in that he identifies the crucifixion as one of those key events. Others, what other of you all bring up, by the reformers, Martin Luther, the converted monk, and John Calvin, neither one I really like to disagree with all too often, but they believe that John the apostle was referring to the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Again, I believe they're partly right because they identify the waters of baptism, but this text here by John is not given to prove something about our personal testimony through baptism. It's a reference to prove something about the testimony of Jesus Christ. John is insisting that there is something about water and blood that serve as evidence revealing the messianic claim as authentic of Jesus as the Son of God. Were there two separate events in the biography of Jesus' earthly life uniquely related to water and blood?

Absolutely. His own baptism and the events surrounding it. Miraculous events as we'll look at in just a moment as he begins his career. What about the blood? Nothing more bloody than his cross work on our behalf, the shedding of his blood by which we've been justified by faith, Romans chapter 5 and verse 1. What John is doing, I'll give you a summary and then we'll get into the details. John is effectively giving us the bookmarks of Jesus' ministry. It begins with his baptism, ends with his crucifixion, obviously consummated in his resurrection. One author put it this way, Jesus was inducted into his saving ministry by the water of baptism. He accomplished his saving work by shedding his blood at the crucifixion.

His baptism marked his perfect life. His crucifixion marked his saving death. Or you could put it another way, the water was the evidence of his divine life. The blood was the evidence of his divine work. So what John is doing is he's pointing out this demonstrative evidence of Christ's authenticity by showing these two signature events.

One event initiated his ministry, the other event culminated his ministry. So let's go back in time to those two events and look at the evidence surrounding them that clearly and miraculously proved he was the son of God. Go back to the gospel by Matthew. Hold your finger in John, verse John, and turn to Matthew chapter 3.

If you're using a smartphone, you have nowhere to hold your finger. So just flip around until you find Matthew 3. Let's take a closer look at this first evidence, the evidence of water. If you're new in the faith, you may not be aware that this particular scene is a scene involving an Old Testament prophet who appears, kind of a wild looking man with camel hair clothing and honey smeared in his beard. He's identifying the message of repentance in anticipation of the coming Messiah. He's the forerunner of the Messiah. John the Baptist, if you look over at verse 13, has no idea that on this particular day as he's baptizing by the Jordan, that Jesus will arrive from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John to be baptized by him.

Now John's doing something really unusual. He's not baptizing proselyte Gentiles into Judaism. He's baptizing Jews to be immersed as a statement of their repentance. Very odd, very, very unique and very offensive to the religious leaders, of course.

Well, this sign is given, as it were, as a statement of their repentance in anticipation of the coming kingdom. Now John knows immediately that Jesus doesn't need to repent of anything and so he resists baptizing Jesus. Jesus says in verse 15, effectively, no, you need to go ahead and do this, permit it, for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus says, it's fitting.

You could translate that, it's appropriate for you to immerse me. Why would it be appropriate for Jesus to be baptized? Well, baptism would be appropriate for a number of reasons for the Lord. First of all, Jesus is identifying with the people of God. He's identifying with those who will repent.

In fact, the ones he's come to seek and to save. He's meeting the outward sign of obedience at this particular point in Revelation by identifying with the message of the prophet. He's also meeting the requirements of the Old Testament law that a priest be consecrated by the cleansing of water. They're effectively ordained into the ministry in this manner and Jesus will be the high priest.

I think there's some truth in that. Furthermore, Jesus is signaling a beginning to his public ministry. This is where he starts. Finally, and most importantly to the evidence that John is trying to bring to our minds in 1 John 5, he wants to provide, and it will occur here, eyewitness demonstrative physical character testimony that Jesus really is the Son of God.

Is that what happened? Look at verse 16. And after being baptized, Jesus went up, literally out of, from the water and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove upon him. And behold, literally, you're not going to believe this, a voice out of heaven saying, this is my beloved what? Son.

This is my Son. This is the voice of God. Echoing down to all those present at the Jordan, certainly the religious leaders, he happens to be God the Son. That's what John the Apostle in 1 John 5 wants to bring out as evidence.

This miraculous event. By the way, God the Father is quoting scripture here. It's always interesting when God quotes his own inspired word. The first part, this is my beloved Son, is a quote strategically, intentionally to convey to the Jewish nation. It's from Psalm chapter 2 verse 7, a psalm every Jew accepted as a description of the coming Messiah. The mighty King who will come.

God effectively says, here he is. The second part, in whom I am well pleased, is from Isaiah chapter 42 verse 1. In that text you find a description of the suffering Messiah, culminating in chapter 53, that the Messiah is going to come as a lamb to the slaughter. You can also add to that the fact that in Isaiah 42 verse 1, God the Father says, and Isaiah is quoting God, that he will put upon him, the Messiah, the Spirit of God. So what's happening?

The Spirit is the same thing in the form of a dove. He's declaring this is my Son. The Messiah is here, now.

How obvious could this be? The Son of God, the Messiah, here's the shocking news, is destined to suffer. He's a lamb. He's come to die for the sins of the world. The King has come, yes, but his first crown will be made of thorns.

His first throne to be seated on the sedulum, on the saddle, that block of wood, on a cross. This signature, miraculous moment, his baptism is presented as evidence, number one. Now John makes very clear back in 1 John chapter 5 and verse 6, if you turn back there, that the evidence of Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah, is not only this event involving water, but a separate event involving blood. Nowhere in Scripture is the term blood alone used to designate the Lord's Supper. Certainly his blood is pictured metaphorically in the element of the wine. Grapes surrendered to be crushed, to release their sweet juice. John is referring here not to a metaphor in the wine of communion, but to the reality of an historical event so closely associated with bloodshed that none of his readers needed any further commentary than knew what he was talking about.

Blood represents life. In shedding his blood, Jesus gave up his life. But John has more in mind by bringing up the crucifixion. You see, the false teachers were telling the church then that the true Son of God couldn't die. God can't die, but Jesus, having taken on the flesh of a man, can. He will be proven to be the Son of God by the voice of God the Father at his baptism, and he will shed his blood as God the Son as he dies.

There's even more here at stake with this piece of evidence. The Gnostic false teachers then and now, repackaged in a variety of ways, were saying that Christ was just this divine ethereal spirit, just the spirit of a Christ. Liberals in the Protestant world talk about that today.

It's just some mystical thing. And it descended upon Jesus at his baptism. But it departed from Jesus at his crucifixion. In fact, one Gnostic teacher said, Christ sat on a hill and watched Jesus die an ordinary man.

It certainly can't be combined. Well, watch how John dismantles that false teaching in verse 6. Again, this is the one who came by water and blood.

Jesus, what? Christ, not with water only, but with the water and with the blood. Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one. That's why throughout the Epistles, as God's revelation progresses, you have more often than not, Jesus referred to not only as Jesus, in fact, it's rarely alone. It's typically the Lord Jesus or Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus or the Lord Jesus Christ. See, they're trying to overturn the heresies of their generation.

It would be a good idea for us as well to give him that tribute more often than not when we speak of him. He's dismantling this teaching almost as a lawyer. In fact, when Jesus Christ, when he rose from the dead, you remember those two disciples that were walking along that road to where?

Emmaus. They're discouraged. As far as they're concerned, they just threw three and a half years of their life away. All for naught, their leader's dead. They'd missed the prophetic connections in his own teaching. And all of a sudden, Jesus appears. They didn't notice that at first, but he just sort of saddles up beside them and he begins to walk with them. And while he's walking with them, he begins to connect the prophetic dots of the Messiah, eventually revealing himself to them, and then he disappears.

But one of the things he says to them, which is so significant, is this. He says to them, was it not necessary for the Christ, the anointed one, to suffer? Jesus the anointed one, Jesus the Christ, Jesus who is Christ, was baptized with water, and Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross where he shed his blood. Christianity is associated with blood. Christianity is a bloody religion. It is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin, 1 John 1.7. He must shed his blood as the lamb and in that the giving up of his life. Christianity then is not a religion where mankind sheds his blood for his God.

It's a religion where God shed his blood for man. Christ's sacrifice is pictured in the Old Testament and culminates in the New. His sacrifice is pictured in the Passover lamb centuries earlier. Christ's shed blood was illustrated in the sacrifices daily in the tabernacle and then in the temple.

If you could go back in time, you'd see those priests splattered with blood, their arms drenched red. Christ's bloodshed summarized, it consummated the gospel of atoning sacrifice. So the Bible throughout presents consistent evidence about the lamb. The Passover illustrated the sacrifice of the lamb.

Isaiah 53 prophesied of the suffering of the lamb. John the Baptist identified the person of the lamb. Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Here he is. The cross of Calvary bore the blood drenched final lamb. And the hosts of heaven, by the way, are still singing about him as the lamb. Worthy, John would see as he toured heaven in Revelation, is the lamb. They're singing to him who is slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And John says, I heard everything in heaven, every creature in heaven and every creature on earth and under the earth saying, chanting, singing to him who sits upon the throne and to the lamb. Be blessing and honor and glory and power forever and ever. Amen. That song being sung in heaven is the song that should resonate in our hearts today. Jesus Christ is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And his sacrifice made it possible for us to spend eternity with him. If you joined us late, you've tuned in to Wisdom for the Heart.

Stephen Davey is working his way through 1 John chapter 5 in a series called Without a Doubt. On our next broadcast, we'll return and complete this message. Between now and then, we'd love to have the opportunity to interact with you.

We'd enjoy hearing what God's doing in your life and I hope you'll write and tell us. You can email us at info at wisdomonline.org or you can write to us at Wisdom International P.O. Box 37297 Raleigh, North Carolina 27627 Once again, our address is info at wisdomonline.org or Wisdom International P.O. Box 37297 Raleigh, North Carolina 27627 I'm Scott Wiley and for Stephen and the Wisdom team, I thank you for taking the time to listen. Please make plans to join us back here next time to give you more wisdom for the heart. Thank you.