Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Earlier this month a video surfaced that appeared to show Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskyy instructing his troops to lay down their arms and surrender to Russian forces, using a digital manipulation technique known as a “deep fake”.

Ukrainian experts quickly countered with a “deep fake” video of their own purporting to show Russian President Vladimir Putin telling Russian troops to “go home while they are still alive”.

(https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/03/16/deepfake-zelenskyy-surrender-video-is-the-first-intentionally-used-in-ukraine-war,

Accessed 3/31/2022).

It’s a stark reminder of the old saying that “the first casualty in war is the truth”.

Alongside the violence and destruction of war is the hopelessly tangled webs of propaganda, truth, lies, misdirections and feints of one side trying to manipulate the other into making a fatal mistake.

(And it’s good to keep in mind that we don’t know how much of the stories and news items coming out of Ukraine these days are affected by that reality.)

Imagine that you were a Ukrainian soldier who saw that video and believed it—you obeyed what you thought was the voice of your commander-in-chief instructing you to go and surrender to the Russians, only to find out it was a lie all along!

If you are going to put your fate into the hands of the commands and promises of a leader, you need to know that they are for real.

You need to have real evidence that they are who they say they are, and that what they are saying and promising is true!

How much more important is it then, Christian, that you know you are putting your eternal destiny into the hands of a trustworthy Savior?

Our passage last week ended with the confident assertion that the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God overcomes the world (1 John 5:5).

As we saw, the world works overtime to discredit and impugn Jesus Christ’s identity as the Eternal Second Person of the Trinity, God Himself in human flesh.

And so John takes the next several verses of Chapter 5 to present several "testimonies” proving that

You can put your ETERNAL DESTINY into the HANDS of JESUS

The Greek word that is translated “testimony” or “testify” or “give testimony” appears no less than nine times in these verses.

This is a good day for us to do this, since today is Palm Sunday—the day when Jesus formally presented His “credentials” as King of Israel by riding into Jerusalem in fulfilment of the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9:

Zechariah 9:9 (ESV)

9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

John records that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the heels of His raising Lazarus from the dead—a miracle that proves that Jesus is who He says He is, that prove that He really has come from the Father:

John 5:36 (ESV)

36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John.

For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.

Jesus provided powerful testimony on Palm Sunday that He is King and Messiah, God in human flesh.

And so let us look at the verses in front of us this morning to see the testimonies John records for us here that give you assurance that you can put your eternal destiny into the hands of Jesus Christ.

First, John says, you can put your eternal destiny into the hands of Jesus Christ on the basis of

I. Powerful SCRIPTURAL Testimony (1 John 5:6-8)

Look at Verse 6:

1 John 5:6 (ESV)

6 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.

Different teachers and commentators have given various interpretations of what it means to say that Jesus “came by the water and the blood”.

Some say it means that He came through human birth (as in the breaking water and blood associated with childbirth), others refer to John’s description of water and blood flowing from Jesus’ side at the Crucifixion (cp.

John 19:34).

But if we remember one of the main reasons John wrote these letters, I think it helps us put this phrase into context.

Remember that John’s archnemesis in Ephesus was Cerinthus, a heretical teacher who maintained that Jesus of Nazareth was imbued with the “Christ Spirit” at his baptism (“water”) and lost the Christ Spirit at His crucifixion (“blood”).

So what John is doing here is using Cerinthus’ own arguments against him—instead of saying that Jesus received deity at His baptism and lost it at His crucifixion, John is using the baptism and crucifixion of Christ to prove that He was God all along!

Let’s look at the Scriptural accounts of both events to see how this is so.

First, let’s consider John’s record of

The BAPTISM of Christ (vv.

6-8; cp.

John 1:29-34)

The baptism of Jesus is one of the few events (along with the Crucifixion and Resurrection) that is recorded in all four Gospel accounts.

It is one of the cornerstones of Jesus’ identification as God in human flesh.

Listen to how John records Jesus’ baptism in his Gospel account.

John the Baptist (not the same John that wrote 1 John) says

John 1:31–34 (ESV)

31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.”

32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.

33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

John the Baptist says that Jesus’ baptism did not create the Messiah—it revealed that Jesus was the Son of God already!

John the Baptist says that he bears witness (same word we see in 1 John 5) that Jesus is the Son of God.

Not that He “became” the Son or had Sonship “descend” on Him—the presence of the Holy Spirit as a dove was a sign to John the Baptist that Jesus was exactly who He said He was (and exactly who the Father says He is).

There is an interesting exchange between Jesus and John the Baptist that Matthew records in his Gospel:

Matthew 3:13–14 (ESV)

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.

14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

In other words, John was baptizing people who were repenting of their sins, and was bewildered as to why Jesus would come to be baptized, since John knew that He was far more holy than John was! Jesus went on to answer,

Matthew 3:15 (ESV)

15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

Then he consented.

In other words, Jesus had no reason to be baptized for the forgiveness of His sins, since He had no sin to repent of.

But as far as that goes, neither did He have any reason to be hung on a Cross as a sinner!

Christ’s “coming by water”—the revelation of His eternal Sonship at His baptism—is one powerful testimony from the Scriptures that assures you that you can put your eternal destiny in Jesus’ hands.

He came by water, and He came “by the blood”—the second powerful Scriptural witness is the testimony of

The CRUCIFIXION of Christ (vv.

6-8)

The work that Jesus came to do at His baptism—the Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world—was accomplished at the Cross.

Just as at His baptism, God the Father provided powerful testimony that Jesus was God the Son:

Matthew 27:45 (ESV)

45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.

Matthew 27:51–53 (ESV)

51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.

52 The tombs also were opened.

And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

And these events led a hardened Roman centurion—who had probably presided over hundreds of crucifixions—to exclaim

Matthew 27:54 (ESV)

“...Truly this was the Son of God!”

As one author puts it:

“Jesus of Nazareth was not God’s special agent who was adopted at His baptism but abandoned at the Cross.

He was and is the eternal Son of God who entered this world in time and space and died as our propitiation.

His death was not an accident.

It was not an act of martyrdom.

It was a divine, saving substitution for sinners...” (Akin, D. L., Platt, D., & Merida, T. (2014).

Exalting Jesus in 1,2,3 John (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary) [E-book].

Holman Reference.

loc.

2536)

Jesus came, as John affirms, “by water and the blood”—His baptism and His Crucifixion are powerful testimonies from the Scriptures’ account of His life that demonstrate that you can place your eternal destiny in His hands.

But John goes on to say that it is not just the historical testimony of the Scriptures that testify to Christ--

1 John 5:6 (ESV)

6 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.

You have powerful Scriptural testimony, and you have

II.

Potent SPIRITUAL Testimony (1 John 5:6-10)

The nature of Jesus’ baptism and His Crucifixion both agree with

The WITNESS of the Holy Spirit (vv.