The Testimony of God

1 John 5:6–9 | Pastor Christopher Powers

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Christopher: 00:00

God has sworn to humanity that something is true. What is that? That his son, his king, the king he gives to us is the one who comes in the flesh through the water and the blood at the cross. This is the testimony. God says, I swear to you, this is true.

Caleb: 00:23

The following message was recorded at King's Tree Church. May the spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.

Christopher: 00:38

The message this morning will be from first John chapter five. We'll be looking at verses six through nine, six through nine. So if you can remember last week, we considered how John was saying that faith, our faith in the crucified and risen Jesus, that this one is the divine king and the revelation of God, this belief is the power that overcomes the world. This belief is the power that breaks the bonds of the world, breaks the spell, as it were, of the world's system, the world's way of thinking, the world's way of doing and living. Our faith in Christ is the victory that overcomes the world, and in overcoming the world, in being broken out of that system, we are set free to love one another as Christ has loved us.

Christopher: 01:36

The counter world, anti world, against the grain, self giving love of Christ is what we're set free to do. Now, as we continue this week into John's summary of what he's done thus far, We're going to see John place the focus particularly upon the figure who's at the center of that faith, the faith that overcomes the world. He's going to zoom in on the figure who stands at the center of that faith, namely the crucified and risen Jesus himself. That's where he then takes us. He talks about our faith that overcomes the world, then he zooms in on the one who's at the center of that faith.

Christopher: 02:19

So the crucified man, Jesus Christ, who is risen, who is right now reigning over us, ruling over us, his sovereign hand upon the wheel of the world, unperturbed by the things that are going on in the world, the sovereign Christ, he is himself the center of our faith. That's part of the implication of what John's doing here. He is himself the center of our faith, and therefore the center of our life. This Christ is the center. And if you hear that and say, of course, that's basic, basic, basic boring stuff.

Christopher: 03:02

Let's get to the other stuff. You've heard me say this before, but I'll say it again. If that's our response, then we're like the little toddler who's come and dipped her feet into the shore of the beach, and then says, I've seen the ocean. I know about the ocean. I've just been there.

Christopher: 03:20

I've done that. That toddler does not know about the ocean, and neither do we know about Christ, neither do I. I don't, you don't. There is everything in him, and so my prayer for us this morning is as John sets our eyes again on this Christ who is at the center of our faith, we would have eyes opened and hearts opened, and we wouldn't be like the toddlers whose toes have been wetted by the shore and say, well, I've seen that, but that we'd be like those who want to delve as deeply as they can into this ocean and know it their whole lives long and their eternal lives long. So that's my prayer for us this morning as we turn to the text.

Christopher: 04:05

So why don't you look with me at one John chapter five verses six through nine is what we're looking at this morning. This is what John says, This, namely the Son of God, Jesus Christ the Son of God, this is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. Not by the water only, but by the water and the blood, and the spirit is the one who testifies because the spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify, the spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his son.

Christopher: 04:54

That's what we're looking at this morning. Let me pray for us and we'll consider these things together. Father, we thank you that you have born testimony. You have born witness. You have declared, have As you've done it through the water, through the blood, through the spirit, and that it's a testimony of Jesus Christ, a testimony to who your son is.

Christopher: 05:23

And I pray this morning father that we would receive that testimony, that you would give me grace to be a faithful minister of that testimony that through my incapacity and weakness, this same spirit who bears witness to Christ would work to bear witness now to Christ to this people you've gathered here, and that we all might see him, and believe in him, and be built up in him, as we trust your testimony to who he is. So come father, I pray, and work now, witness now in our midst, because we confess together that what we need is Christ. Who we need is Christ. To abide in him is all and all to us. So we pray these things father, and we look to you now in Jesus name, amen.

Christopher: 06:24

Okay, well let's begin with what John says here. He says, This is he who came by water and by blood. So having affirmed that Jesus Christ, the son of God, which is to say Jesus, the divine king and the revealer of God, having confessed and confirmed that he's the center of our faith, John now moves to clarify who this one is. Who is this king? Who is this revealer?

Christopher: 06:56

And he says, he is the one who has come through the water and the blood. That's the clarification of who this Christ is. Let me tell you who he is. You can't just throw around the word Christ or son of God or king or revealer, because there's other figures that were being talked about that in John's context. He says, This is the one specifically who came through the water and the blood.

Christopher: 07:24

So that's going to be the main part of our talk this morning is considering these phrases. First, what does John mean by coming? He's the one who came. What's the water? What's the blood?

Christopher: 07:37

And then the spirit who bears witness to these things. So those four things, the coming, the water, the blood, and the spirit, that's going to be the center part of the message this morning as we look at what John is saying. So let's first consider he says, This is he who came by water and by blood. What does he mean by came? We might think he's the one who came from heaven to earth through the incarnation, through the birth in Bethlehem.

Christopher: 08:09

That's how he came from where he was to us, and certainly that's true. Certainly that does happen. But when John uses this phrase, come here, he's not mainly thinking about a movement from one place to another place, the way we might talk about some friends are going to come over to the house today, moving from their place to another place. He has in mind when he uses this term, a theological weightiness with which this term has been filled in his context. We talked about this a number of weeks ago, but I'll mention it again now since John's returning to it here.

Christopher: 08:48

Think about the way we use the term walk in relation to a graduation. That'll help us a little bit with understanding how John's using the word come here. In the context of a graduation, walk means a lot more than just I'm moving with my legs. If somebody says, I'm hoping to walk this May, they don't mean, I hope that I'll regain the capacity to move with my legs this May. In the context of graduation, they mean I'm hoping to participate in the prestigious tradition of academia where I receive an acknowledgement of my achievements from the institution of which I'm a part.

Christopher: 09:28

I'm hoping to walk this May. So walk could just mean move from here to here, but when you use it in that context, it means something else. It's weighty. Same thing here. When John uses come in this theological context.

Christopher: 09:43

He's not just talking about, Let me tell you how Jesus got here, the water and the blood. That's not what he's saying. He's using the theologically charged meaning for come, and if we wanna get a sense of that, all throughout the prophets you've got this idea of the coming of the Lord, the coming of the Lord. The Lord will come and save. I'll just give you two quick examples from Isaiah because Isaiah is uniquely influential for John's thinking.

Christopher: 10:11

Isaiah 35 verse four and following says this, Be strong, fear not, behold your God will come with vengeance and with recompense of God. He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then the lame man shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy for waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. So the coming of the Lord is this idea of his appearing in salvation and in judgment, in healing and in shattering.

Christopher: 10:51

He's coming to set things right. You see the same thing again a few chapters later in Isaiah forty ten, Behold your God. Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. So it's this idea of this arrival of God, this glory filled end time arrival of God to save his people, to trample down his enemies, to set at right the things that have been broken.

Christopher: 11:30

That's this idea of the coming of the Lord, and that's what's in mind here in one John five. When John says, This is the one who came through water and blood, he doesn't mean this is the one who got here through water and blood. He means, though he has to be here to do this, he means this is the one who has appeared. This is the end time appearing of Yahweh to save and to judge. The breaking into history of our God has come to pass through water, the water, and the blood.

Christopher: 12:10

That's what he means when he talks about the coming here. Jesus is the one who came as the end time presence of Yahweh by the water and the blood. When you think of it that way, it becomes more jarring. You think, okay, wow. So he breaks into time and space.

Christopher: 12:30

God has broken into time and space to save his people, to trample down his enemies, to heal the cosmos. All the hope of the prophets has happened by the water and the blood. That's a little bit more confusing. Not that it isn't confusing on its own, but then you say, wow, how is that? How the water in the blood the means by which this in breaking of God has come to pass?

Christopher: 13:01

And that then moves us to our next point of consideration, the water. So we looked at the coming. The coming is this end time arrival of God, and John says, Jesus is that end time arrival of God by water and blood. So let's look at this, the water and the blood. Unsurprisingly, there's been many different interpretations of what this means over the course of the church's history, and it seems to me that the variety of interpretations implies that John has a spectrum of meaning in mind.

Christopher: 13:38

When he talks about water and blood, he may have a number of different things in mind, because water and blood are very large symbols. Their symbolic field is able to hold a lot of things in them. Is the blood life? Is the blood death? Is the blood wrath?

Christopher: 13:55

Is the blood wine? Is the blood sacrificial? Is the blood cleansing? All those things. And I don't think John would say, This one, not that one.

Christopher: 14:03

There's a lot going on here, but a very straightforward way of understanding this, and one that I think at least was certainly in John's mind, and many interpreters, many commentators would say the same, is that the water here pictures Jesus's baptism, and the blood pictures his passion or his death on the cross. Jesus is the one who has come as the end time presence of God by the water of his baptism in the sense that his baptism is the inauguration of his mission in the world. When he goes down into the water and comes up from the water, God says, This one is my son. Here's the Messiah. Here's the king.

Christopher: 14:48

Here's the one doing the work that I've said is going to be done. So he comes by the water of baptism. That seems to be what John has in mind, at least for the water, And he comes supremely, decisively through the blood of his passion, the blood of his death, through the blood that he sheds on the cross, which he also remember calls a baptism. He says, I have a baptism to undergo, talking about his death. And this seems to be the one that the false teachers in John's churches were denying, because this is the one that John emphasizes.

Christopher: 15:28

Look again at the text in verse six. This is he who came by water and blood, not by water only. There were some people who were saying, Yeah, yeah, he came by the water. Sure, sure. No, and he says, Not by water only, but by water and blood.

Christopher: 15:42

So John is desiring to emphasize God has broken into time and space through the king, through the revealer, not merely in the baptism, but in the blood of his death. It's not too difficult to say Jesus's public declaration as the Son of God at his baptism is his coming as King. It's not too hard to wrap your mind around that. It is more difficult to confess that his public crucifixion as a criminal was the coming of God as king, and that's what John is emphasizing. That's what John is saying.

Christopher: 16:22

We must confess that. The point that John wants to press home for his hearers is that the coming anticipated in the Old Testament prophets happens by the water and the blood, the blood, the blood. So Isaiah 35, Behold, your God will come with vengeance and recompense. He will come to save you, and the burning sand shall become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water. John says, That happens at the cross.

Christopher: 17:00

That moment is happening at the cross. Or again, in Isaiah 40, Behold, your God will come with his reward with him. His arm rules for him. He comes with might. And John says, That is happening at the cross.

Christopher: 17:18

That is happening by the blood that is shed by Jesus Christ on the cross, and that's the point by repeating that John wants to emphasize. He wants to clarify. Listen, the Christian confesses that. The Christian can't just say Jesus is a Messiah who shows up in the glory of the baptism and doesn't suffer, doesn't go through this darkness, doesn't go through this, John emphasizes, no, he comes as God by the blood. So as Jesus bears the sins of his people in his flesh, as he carries the thorns of our curse on his head, as God is crowned with our curse, as he endures the shattering of creation in his body, and as he swallows the cup of our hell into himself, and as he weaves in mystery, the life of God together with human blood and pours that life out from his heart on the cross, as he's doing this, the divine king and son of God is coming in power to save, to trample down, and to heal.

Christopher: 18:35

That's happening when he does this. So John wants to emphasize the Jesus we confess, the king we confess is the one who comes by the waters of his baptism and by the blood of his passion. That's true. That's at least what John's saying, but like I said, I think this is multivalent. I think there's a spectrum of understandings here.

Christopher: 19:00

That's how John's mind seems to work. And so as soon as we've confessed this, there's a further thing I think we need to say, because for John, there's a place in his gospel where he brings water and blood together with Christ in a very unique way that I wanna bring to your attention. So it happens in John's gospel, John 19. Now we're thinking, okay, what does John mean? What does John have in mind when he talks about Jesus coming by water and blood?

Christopher: 19:34

And we said, he has in mind the baptism, and he has in mind the death. I think that's true, but I think this image that we have here is what John specifically would set before our eyes. This comes in John nineteen thirty four-thirty seven. I read this for you just a few weeks ago. This is what he says.

Christopher: 19:55

John nineteen thirty four and following, But one of the soldiers pierced Jesus's side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who sought has borne witness. His testimony, there's the word we're dealing with in our text as well, testimony. His testimony is true, and he knows that he's telling the truth that you also may believe. For these things took place to fulfill the scripture.

Christopher: 20:26

Not one of his bones would be broken, and again another scripture says they will look on him whom they have pierced. So this ultimately I suggest is the image that John has in mind when he says Christ is the one who has come victoriously as king through the water and the blood. And seeing this image as the place where the water and the blood come together does not deny that the water John's talking about is also Jesus's baptism, because remember, what does baptism point to? Death and resurrection. So the baptism points to this moment right here where John brings everything together in the image of Christ on the cross with the water and the blood pouring down from his heart.

Christopher: 21:21

And I said baptism pictures death and resurrection, and that's in this image too. And you say, where's resurrection in the image of Christ hanging with blood and water pouring from his heart? Where's the resurrection there? Why does that image exist? That would be my response to you.

Christopher: 21:40

Why did John even write this book? Only because Christ is risen. The only reason this description of the pierced Christ exists in our minds is because the one who is pictured here as pierced is risen, is raised up again. That's the only reason this gospel was written. If Christ wasn't raised, there'd be no gospel.

Christopher: 22:02

So the image of the pierced one is at once the declaration, here is the coming of our God in this death, in light of his resurrection, here is the in breaking of God. Here is his taking up of all of our brokenness, his overcoming of the world, his crushing of the head of the serpent, his trampling down of the enemies, his healing of this shattered cosmos in which we live. Here in this word fashioned image is the coming of our God in this picture of the pierced one from whom water and blood flow down. I would suggest that upon hearing that Jesus is the one who comes by the water and the blood, John intends his audience to see Jesus lifted up on the cross, pierced to the heart, pouring down the living water that he promised to give us for the satisfaction of our souls, pouring down the sacrificial blood that cleanses us and gives us life. And knowing as we see this image, knowing this is how our king and our God has come, has triumphed, has broken in to save.

Christopher: 23:27

That is what John has in mind here. At least I am convinced of that, and I submit that to you as my understanding of this in light of study and in light of commentaries and the rest. That's what it seems John has in mind here. Now another thing that strengthens this reading, and also moves us to our next point about the spirit is that right before John talks about the pierced one from whom water and blood flows down, he mentions something else. John nineteen thirty.

Christopher: 24:04

He says this, When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished,' and bowed his head and gave up his spirit. So John in the epistle says, The blood, the water, and the spirit. Here in his gospel, we see the blood and the water pouring down from Christ, and just a few verses earlier, the spirit. And our English translations have this, He gave up his spirit, but there's no his in Greek, it's the, and so a literal translation of what it says here would be, he bowed his head and handed over or handed down the spirit. So when Jesus dies in the gospel, the spirit is given by him immediately before water and blood pour from him.

Christopher: 24:57

And in the epistle, the same spirit is said to testify together with the water and the blood that Jesus Christ has come as savior and judge. And so I'm saying this is what John has in mind. And the point of this all is this is the one we confess. This is the one we believe in. This is the one whom to believe in is to overcome the world.

Christopher: 25:24

This Christ who appears in this moment where he breathes down the spirit and pours down the water and the blood. This is the coming of our God. Now, John says the spirit bears witness in the second half of verse six. The Spirit is the one who testifies to this, to this reality that we're talking about. The Spirit is the one who testifies to this, because the Spirit is the truth.

Christopher: 25:51

Okay. What does that mean? How does the spirit testify that Jesus has come as king and savior, Lord and God through the cross? How's the spirit testify to that? Well, two ways that I think we can see his presence and his ministry.

Christopher: 26:13

His presence among us is itself a testimony that Christ was crucified and raised up again as triumphant king. Simply the fact that the spirit is here, because remember the spirit is given by the exalted Christ. Jesus pours down. We see it happening at the cross. John's bringing all of this together in the image of the cross, but elsewhere Jesus says in his ascension to the right hand of God, he's going to give the Holy Spirit.

Christopher: 26:43

So the only reason the Spirit is given is because Christ is enthroned. Christ has come. The victory is won. If it weren't, the spirit wouldn't be given. So the very presence of the Holy Spirit amongst the people of God is a witness that this Christ who was crucified is raised up again, is victorious, is king.

Christopher: 27:06

Just like if a royal herald comes to your town, let's put it back a few hundred years, and says, The king is coming. His words bear witness to the fact that the king is coming, but just the fact that there's a royal herald in your town at all tells you a king is coming. Just the fact that he's here means there's a king. Similarly, just the fact that the spirit is in our midst knitting us together in faith, kindling our affections for Christ, convicting us of sin, leading us to fight against our sin, moving us to lay down our preferences in love for one another. Simply the fact that the spirit is in our midst already is a testimony that the one who pours down the water and the blood from his opened heart on Calvary is risen and reigning as King, that he has come, that his victory is won, that God has broken in as he said he would do.

Christopher: 28:08

So that's the first point. The spirit bears witness to this simply by being present among us, present among us. But secondly, the spirit bears witness to this by the active ministry that he carries out in our midst. First corporately in the body of Christ, because the body of Christ, this whole thing, the reason you and I are not just different nodes and points separated by experience and time and life, the reason this is a cohesive body is because the Holy Spirit is uniting us to Christ, in Christ. That's why we are one.

Christopher: 28:53

And what we do, life of the church, the life of the spirits filled organism that is the church is at least expressed in baptism and the Lord's Supper, these two fundamental sacraments of the church's life, baptism and the Lord's Supper, and the spirit gives these to us as witnesses. Baptism. Why are we baptized? Because Christ goes down into death and rises up again. The water of baptism is a witness the spirit gives the church that our God is the one who came through death and resurrection.

Christopher: 29:36

So too the spirit gives us the Lord's supper. And what do we do in the Lord's supper? We remember the body and the blood of Christ. The Lord's supper is remembrance of the outpoured blood of Christ, that our God is the one who came through the breaking of his body and the shedding of his blood. So in these two witnesses given to the corporate body, the Holy Spirit is saying again and again and again, Christ is the one who has come through the water, through the blood.

Christopher: 30:09

He's saying that to us in the life of the church continually. And he's saying that to us personally, not just corporately in the life of the church, but personally in our own lives. My ability to confess that the crucified man, Jesus Christ, is risen up again as my Lord and my God is the spirit's witness to me. Same with you. Your ability to confess that, if you confess that, your confession is the spirit witnessing to you that this is true, because you could not confess that apart from the working of the spirit in your life.

Christopher: 30:51

If the spirit wasn't present and working, there could be no confession of Christ, the crucified one as Lord and God. Remember in this same book we're looking at first John chapter four, verse two, John says, The spirit confesses Jesus has come in the flesh, meaning specifically through his death. If you confess the Christ has come in his death, that's only by the spirit working in you, working in you. Same in one Corinthians twelve:three, Paul says, No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit, and so if we are confessing him, that is the spirit saying to us, bearing witness to us, this is the reality. This is true.

Christopher: 31:46

We could not be doing this apart from the Holy Spirit. Think of it as a personalization, not just a, the spirit helps you get the right doctrine, but the spirit takes the general and sharpens it down and healingly pierces it into your individual soul. Again, we talked about this a few weeks ago, but John's wrapping everything up, so we're touching on a number of the same points. The spirit, the presence of the spirit, the witness and testimony, Jesus as savior of sinners out there, and makes him savior of this sinner in here. The spirit takes Jesus as judge of the cosmos out there and makes him my judge to whom I am accountable in here.

Christopher: 32:41

The spirit takes the statement, God so loved the world that he gave his only son, and makes it for us, God has loved me and given himself for me. The spirit personalizes these realities. And in so doing, he bears witness to your soul, this is true. Not in a way that you could bring to some law court or some microscope and prove empirically, but the spirit is bearing witness through the personalization of these truths into your soul, this is true. This Christ is the one who has come through water and through blood.

Christopher: 33:24

God has broken in in this way, so the spirit testifies to this truth. That's what John says. So we've got the water baptism, but as it is consummated at the cross, the blood of his death, and the spirit, all of them bearing witness to this single fact, Christ is the one who has come in this way. God is the one who has broken in and saved in this way. That brings us to the final point for this morning, this idea of testimony.

Christopher: 33:56

Testimony. So with the introduction of the Holy Spirit to this text, John introduces also the idea of testimony. Look at it there in verse six. The Spirit is the one who testifies because the Spirit is the truth. For these, there are three that testify, the spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three agree.

Christopher: 34:21

If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has born concerning his son. Then going further, whoever believes in the son of God has this testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning his son. And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life and this life is in his son. So you can hear just by the repetition, testimony becomes a theme, and John introduces it here with the concept of the spirit.

Christopher: 35:03

Now we're gonna spend the next time we're in this book, we're gonna focus on that idea of testimony, but what I wanna do this morning is just introduce it to you. Introduce the concept of the testimony that God gives, and look with you at the central testimony John has in mind here. Now testimony, by that what John means is what we might say a witness. Somebody saying this is true. Somebody coming to you and saying, this is what I know to be true, believe me.

Christopher: 35:36

And John is saying testimony is central to our faith, to our faith. Let's take the idea of testimony in the order that John gives it to us. The first thing he says about it is, If you receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. So the testimony of men. We all do this.

Christopher: 35:58

We all receive and believe testimonies all the time. Whenever you watch the news, or read an article or listen to an interview or talk with a friend, you're receiving a testimony. Whenever you believe something that you haven't empirically verified for yourself, you're believing a testimony. So photosynthesis, I believe it exists. I believe it happens.

Christopher: 36:23

I haven't proven it. Madagascar, I believe that place exists, but I have no proof to give to you. I see it on maps. I hear about it. Australia, I don't know.

Christopher: 36:36

I believe that it exists based on the testimony of others. Many things you can think of. The amount of things you have proven empirically is fractional in your life. We live on the testimony of other people, and it would be unrealistic to try not to, and it's not bad to. We are a people who believe other people.

Christopher: 37:01

We live on testimony. It's all right. But John is saying, it's not bad that we do that, but if we believe in the testimony of people, John's point is, how much more ought we believe in God's testimony? God's testimony that he gives by the water of Christ's baptism, by the water pouring from the heart of Jesus on the cross, by the blood spilled at the cross, by the spirit who bears witness, how much more ought we believe this testimony? If I'm gonna watch the news and believe somebody got elected just because they told me, how much more believe what God has said through water, blood, and spirit?

Christopher: 37:51

And that's John's point here. God has given a testimony. God has given a testimony. So just step outside for a moment of the Christian bubble, and consider how astounding it is that the creator of the universe, the sustainer of all things, who right now holds us, every molecule and moment holds us in his hands, this one has given a testimony. This one has born witness to what is true.

Christopher: 38:25

This God has, as it were sworn an oath and said, this is true. What could be more certain? What could be more worthy of hanging our lives upon than the testimony of God? Right now, always, but especially right now, seems people are scrambling for stability and searching for some sort of certainty and hungry for something real. I don't want something fake.

Christopher: 38:55

I don't want you to smile at me and tell me you're fine. I want reality. I want roots. And I would suggest what is more real, what is more anchored than the testimony that God himself has sworn to be true. Where else to anchor our souls than there?

Christopher: 39:16

And what is that testimony? Well, again, we'll get into that fully next week, but for now, as we're wrapping up, we get enough of the essence of it in verse nine. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. This is the testimony of God that he has borne witness concerning his son. The testimony of God is that he has declared what is true about his son.

Christopher: 39:42

God's testimony is what he has said about Jesus. That's the point here. God has sworn to humanity that something is true. He has sworn that something is true. What is that?

Christopher: 39:58

That the one that his son, his king, the king he gives to us is the one who comes in the flesh through the water and the blood at the cross. This is the testimony. God says, I swear to you, this is true. Jesus lifted up on the cross in our flesh, breathing down the spirit, pouring down the living water, giving up his own life's blood. In this moment, this moment is, this pierced one is God's testimony to us.

Christopher: 40:34

And of course, this pierced one who is risen. The only reason we can speak of that death as victory, we can sing of that death as glory is because the one who dies is raised, and God says, I swear to you, that is my son. I swear to you, that is your king. That's the testimony God has given. And one last step, if God has given us this testimony concerning his son, then God has given us this testimony concerning himself, because the son reveals God.

Christopher: 41:12

John one eighteen, No one has ever seen God, but the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the father, he has made him known to us. So if God points his finger at the resurrection illumined cross and says, I swear to you, this is my son. He's also saying, I swear to you, this is who I am. Upon myself, this is who I am. Where does God give us the testimony concerning who he is?

Christopher: 41:44

Where does he give us the oath, I am who I am? At the cross, at the resurrection interpreted, illumined, transfigured cross. As Christ bears our sorrow, sin, and damnation in his body, go to that agonized moment on Calvary and see our God bearing these things and know that God in that moment through his flesh is bearing witness, this is who I am. With everything in me, I swear this is who I am. And again, as that same body broken on the cross is raised up from the grave and those same wounds are transfigured, the wounds of our love born horrors are transfigured into emblems of his horror bearing love.

Christopher: 42:38

When that moment happens, God is saying again, this is who I am. This is my testimony to you. This is who I am. So let me end this morning with a brief pastoral word to us about this. God Christian tells us who he is in his son as that son comes through the water and the blood on the cross.

Christopher: 43:05

Christ on the cross, as it is transfigured by the resurrection is where our hearts are to look to know the heart of God. So your personal grief is real. Your agonies and losses are real. They're real. Our individual stories are real.

Christopher: 43:32

The chaos and confusion and brokenness all around us is real. It's real. It's so real that it tore the flesh of God incarnate. The passion of Christ declares this is real. I'm dealing, I'm bearing it.

Christopher: 43:50

It's real, but none of these things is the place where God says, look there to know me. They're real, but none of them are the place where God says, Look there to know me. God does not say of your grief as real as it is, Look at that to know who I am. He does not say of your physical or mental or emotional situation, Look at that to know who I am. He doesn't say of the broken world, Look at that to know who I am.

Christopher: 44:19

He does say, I deal with it. I bear it. But he never says, Look there to know me. There's one place where he says, Look there to know me, and that place is Jesus Christ who comes victoriously in the flesh through the waters of our grief turned to the river of life, through the blood poured out in violence, the blood of our death poured out in violence, turned to the soul rejoicing wine of our eternal gladness, who comes breathing down the breath of his sorrow that becomes the spirit who anoints him with joy beyond all his companions. This Christ who bears all and transfigures all in himself, he, he is the testimony that we are to believe.

Christopher: 45:19

If we believe the testimony of other people, how much more to believe this testimony because it, because he himself is the testimony of God. So may we be given grace to believe this. Let me pray for us. Father you have born witness. You've born witness concerning your son and you've done it through the flesh of Christ, through the blood of Christ, through the waters of baptism and the water, the living water that pours down from Jesus's wounded heart.

Christopher: 46:04

You bear witness to this through the Holy Spirit whom you've given to the church as our comforter and our teacher and our guide. And father, I pray that we would be a people who believe this testimony, not as a cold doctrinal affirmation, but as witness of a father to a weeping child, this is who I am. This is who I am. This is who I am. May we believe it, Father, and in believing, may our hearts be strengthened to endure in this world, to love in this world, to be faithful in this world, and so be brought through this world into your presence with great joy and with praises to your name.

Christopher: 46:55

We pray these things, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Caleb: 46:59

Thank you for listening to this message from King's Tree Church in Sabina, Ohio. To see more of the beauty of God and the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10AM or visit our website at kingstreechurch.org.