BiblicalMastery Buddy's bible blog

Lesson 11

The Importance of Witnesses

1 John 5:6-11

Although I have been called for jury duty numerous times, fortunately I have only had to serve during one trial. At this point I do not even remember all of the details. It may be that I have just chosen to forget or that there was so much said that it is no way that I can remember it all. The worse part of the trial turned out to be that it was a case of he said she said because there were no other witnesses. The defense lawyer tried to question the integrity of the plaintiff bringing the charges who happened to be a police officer. Based on the evidence the jury had, we convicted the defendant. It was decided that she would be allowed to serve her sentence on weekends. Since that day I can empathize with jurors of major trials that involve many witnesses lasting days or even weeks.

As I think about how this example relates to the lesson today, I have come to realize that the power to convict or free a person is based on the words of people just like the defendant, except they are not the ones on trial. Into the hands of fallible people the task to make decisions based the law as they understand it that may completely alter a person’s life from that day forward.

In a way that is the story of my conversion. I came to a point that I believed what others who I thought wiser had to say about sin and salvation. My whole future, not to over dramatize the situation, lay in the hands of men and women who told me about this Jesus who could save me from the bad things that I had done. I believed them and made that commitment. At that point I did not know about all the prophecies in the Old Testament and very little of the New Testament. I do not even remember if I knew John 3:16. I became a Christian based on what others told me. I took that childlike faith that “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so,” well into my adulthood. I did not grow as a result of the fact that no one, for a long time, opened the window to all the evidence that was available to me to strengthen my faith. Fortunately, although this made me vulnerable to other ways of thinking the Holy Spirit was still at work in my life based on that early decision. Since that point in life I have had a deep passion to understand all I can about God’s word. I am eternally grateful for all the men and women who have faithfully transmitted the Bible to us in its present form. Others have spent a lifetime studying the Scriptures and writing about them to help us grow and to refute those who are in the business of trying to destroy Christianity.

There is evidence that many in churches today have had the same kind of experience that was part of my life. They either made a decision because their parents told them it was time to join the church or what someone who they respected said. There is nothing wrong with either of these if the person has come to the decision based on the reality of sin and the consequences of remaining lost without Christ.

In my view because the decision was based on what others impressed on children there is always the possibility of the person drifting away unless they become truly grounded in what the Bible has to say about sin and understanding that Jesus is the Son of God as the writers portrayed Him. Each Church must make a choice. It will accept as truth given to us by the four gospels writers or turn its back on the very word of God. No Church can remain viable unless there are people who have looked at the evidence and decided that they can truly commit their lives to serving Him based on the absolute truth as found in God’s word and not emotion. In today’s society this has become more difficult than ever because the world has been taught there is no absolute truth. It takes more than emotional pleas to lead

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a person to Christ. We must be armed in every way with the solid evidence that the Bible is true. From what I see we are following short because of our lack of knowledge.

In chapters two and three of Revelation is a picture of churches that made different choices. They

were the seven churches of Asia minor in present day Turkey. They were called to stand before Christ as Lord for an accounting of their devotion to Him. All but two of those churches came up short under the scrutiny of Jesus. Other than the churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia the churches lacked the

Christ like qualities that would receive the praise of our Lord. Those particular churches were picture of the church in every age since the time of Christ. Sadly, many see the Church at Laodicea, as representative of the Church of our day. Since it is made up of people, we should hear loud and clear the shortcomings of the people who are supposed to be witnesses for Jesus. This is the very dilemma that John faced as he attempted to guide the church through the hidden reefs of false teachings in his day. The question we should be asking ourselves is, do even come close to looking like Bride of Christ?

Jesus pointed out over and over the evidence that He was the Son of God. We need to look at His life to see the way we are to live if the world is to look at us being salt and light to a dying and hurting world. If Christ is so important we must be able to give an answer to the question why we believe in Him. He has told us do we believe it enough to share with others? Do we live like we are convinced? John calls us once again to examine the evidence.

1 John 5:6-8

Last week John wanted to know who had gained victory over the evil one. He answered, one must commit himself to knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is the Son of God. He distinguished Jesus from others by two events well known by those in the Church. He used the symbols of water and then water and the blood. The first signified His baptism by John the Baptist. The second represented His death.

There were a number of instances in the book of John in which the words of Jesus spoke very clearly that the Holy Spirit and the Father gave witness to who He was. In John 5 Jesus refers to four different witnesses to the fact that He was the Son of God. In verses 31 He spoke of the Holy Spirit. That is followed up by the Witness of John verses 33-35, the works He had done verses 36, the Father verses 37-38 and finally the Word of God in the Old Testament verses 39. John finishes up that chapter with

the condemnation of the religious leaders because they supposedly were the keepers of the law given to Moses. Jesus indicated to them that if they believed Moses then they should be believe in Him because Moses wrote of Him in the Torah. (See Genesis 3:15 and the symbolism of the tabernacle. The Holy Spirit according to John was the final arbitrator of truth. It was the Holy Spirit’s witness at the baptism that gave the clear evidence of Jesus’ relationship with the Father. Further it was the crucifixion itself that fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament was part of the testimony to Jesus as the Son of God. Everyone of these witnesses are in prefect agreement with each other as John so powerfully stated.

John wrote the passage to refute the teachings of the Gnostics. One of the main proponents of the false doctrine was a man named Cerinthus who taught that Jesus did not receive His divine character until the moment of His baptism. The other heresy that came from his lips was the idea that the divine nature left Jesus and returned to heaven prior to His crucifixion. In his mind it was only the man Jesus who was crucified and not the Messiah.

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1. According to John who is the one who overcomes the world?

2. Why is it so important for that person to believe that Jesus is the Son of God? (Otherwise our faith is misplaced and of no value.)

3. What are the different witnesses mentioned in the Bible that are evidences of Jesus’ true identity?

4. How do these refute the claims of non-believers that Jesus never pointed to Himself as God?

5. What is the fallacies built into the teachings of men like Cerinthus of the first century?

6. Who may be modern day equivalents to the Gnostics. (Richard Dawkins, Bart Erhman and others who deny God and His Son.)

7. What does it mean to you to have such a strong argument presented by John in these verses?

1 John 5:9-10

Jesus said, “ I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word.” (John 17:20) Later Peter would write. “And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now but believe Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9)

As stated above most people come to Christ based on the witness of others to the truth of Jesus. There is a greater witness to Jesus. It is the working of God through His word in the hearts of the individual. Throughout the Scriptures God is testifying of His Son. To accept the Bible as the reliable testimony from God bringing a person into the belief that Jesus is the Son of God is a walking witness to that very truth. To not believe in Jesus is calling God a liar because of the evidence to the contrary. Anyone who rejects Jesus is indeed the one who is living a lie.

1. On what basis did you come to believe in Jesus?

2. Why is the evidence of man so important?

3. How do the words of John and Peter relate to you and decisions that you have made?

4. In what ways do you see the testimony of God to His Son still operating in the world today?

5. In what ways are the testimony of God real to you?

6. With so much evidence why is it that man still reject God and His Son?

7. What are you doing that will make you one of those who give testimony to Jesus?

1 John 5:11-12

There is one thing tof which John was absolutely sure. He was totally committed to the One with whom he had spent three and one half years. In essence here is a repeat of what John had shared in the first four verses of this book. As sure as he was of the identity of Jesus he understood from all that had been written the he believed the testimony from God was far greater than anything man could share. Being limited as human beings man will always come up short in his understanding of God and His Son. The testimony of God had one purpose. It was to reveal His Son to the world. John however wrote the message so that man would understand the evidence given throughout the Bible. The testimony of Jesus is eternal life. He then wrote as he did in John 14:6 that the only way to gain the eternal life that has been promised by God according to His word is through Jesus Christ. To have the Son living within a person is to have life. Without Him there is no life.

1. Why was John so convinced of the identity of Jesus?

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2. How has the evidence, the testimony of God helped you in coming to Christ?

3. What is the evidence that John shared with the people?

4. What limitations does man have in understanding the purpose of God?

5. What part did Jesus play in the purpose of God?

6. How does these verses line up with John 14:6?

7. What does this say about Jesus being the only road to salvation? (Only through God’s Son does a person have life eternal.)

8. Who are those that do not have life?

9. What is your response to this statement for your own life?

• Realize that there are all kinds of people with many different ideas of what the Bible means so care must be taken by you to find the truth to live by.

• Put your trust in the fact that the evidence we have of what God has done and who Jesus is can be found only in the infallible word of God.

• Make sure that what ever you hear lines up with what the Bible teaches.

• Go beyond just reading the Bible to understand how it came to us in its present form.

• There are many skeptics today who do not believe that absolute truth exists. You must be ready to give answers that can change their lives from the knowledge that comes from research into things like apologetics.

• Make sure your decision to follow Christ is based on fact and not emotion.

The only way the Church today can impact the world is to have the same kind of commitment of which John spoke about in chapter one and here in chapter 5:6-11. From his words we can see that he had no doubt that Jesus was the Son of God and that through Him we can have eternal life. We must be as convinced in order to touch those who do not believe and have been indoctrinated by the world to be opposed to God. Unlike any other time in history we must be well prepared to answer questions with solid evidence backing up the Scriptures. This will only come as we become strong through study of God’s word and many truly conservative writers who have spent a lifetime in research into the manuscripts that we have available to us. They like us face the challenge of enemies of the church and all us must not go into battle with them unarmed. No longer can we expect to have people come to us with a readiness to join the church based on emotion. They want to know the facts about Jesus and how reliable the Bible is in all that is found within its pages. The critic will say it is not true and full of errors. We must be in a position to point them to the truth. Look at yourself and ask the question are you up to the task. Let’s get prepared, lives depend on it.

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