"..that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
glory, may give to you
the spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge
of Him..."
Ephesians 1:17
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Let's pray together....
"Oh Father God, as I read Your words this morning, I do pray and ask for the spirit of wisdom and revelation that I may have that knowledge of You. I thank You, Lord, for that spirit that You have given us so that we are not alone here in creation. But that we may be in Your presence and know more about You. What a precious gift that is.
I do seek the forgiveness of my sins knowing that my sins are against You. I pray that You will wash me clean and fill me with Your Holy Spirit and guard my speech.
I lift up each woman reading this lesson and ask that You speak to her through Your word today. I pray that You will give her the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that she will grow in the knowledge of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
In Jesus' name...amen."
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The Certainty of God's Witness
In the last lesson we looked at the three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit and how these three are one in the same.
Now we will look at how John, in hopes of convincing his readers, tells us of the three witnesses here on earth that bear witness to God as well. And we will see how these three are one in the same as well.
1 John 5:8-
"And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one."
As we looked at before, witnesses are very important. Here John reminds his readers that there are witnesses to who Christ is. He was one, but there are more physical witnesses as well.
The Spirit, the Water, and the Blood
Remember the false witnesses brought before the Sanhedrin during Christ's trial, they were liars.
Matt 26:59-68
The witnesses were false and not in agreement.....the witnesses on earth are in agreement as John reminds us, because they are one in the same.
John was there when the Spirit descended to Christ from heaven. The Gnostics taught that the Messiah came upon Jesus, the man, at that time but left Him prior to His death. They believed that death was a sign of weakness. To counter that false teaching, John reminds us that Jesus also came by blood, that is, by the cross (The Epistles of John, 2006, pp. 194-195).
Because Christ suffered and bled on the cross, He fulfilled Scripture that said the Messiah must do this to accomplish the will of God.
Luke 24:26-27
Is 53:4-6
The Prophecy of the Scriptures says that the Messiah must suffer and die. The witness of the blood fulfilled this prophecy. Next, God the Father gave signs as a witness that Jesus was the Messiah on the cross: He turned midday sunlight into darkness, he tore the temple veil in two, sent an earthquake, opened tombs and made the dead believers rise, and finally it was Jesus' resurrection from the dead that proved He was the incarnate Son of God (The Epistles of John, 2006, p. 195).
1 Cor 15:3-4
The Gnostics were twisting the Word of God around like many false teachers do today in order to make their followers deny the Gospels. They tried to make the gospel fit neatly into their human thinking just like some teachers are doing today.
John teaches in his epistles that the Gospel of Christ isn't meant to fit neatly into our ways, but it is to disturb our ways because we are evil. The Gospel divides, separates, cuts deeply, and confronts lies.
Heb 4:11-13
Matt 10:34-39
Jesus was baptized by John to fulfill Scripture that the Messiah would fulfill all righteousness.
Matt 3:13-17
By being baprized, He was fulfilling Scripture that the priests of God were sprinkled with water and ceremoniously cleansed as they were ordained into the priesthood. Jesus Christ, the eternal High Priest, also followed this ceremonial act as He was ordained into the priesthood and began His ministry.
Num 8:6-7
Christianity is a faith built on supernatural events as well as the physical world. John reminds us that there are the physical witnesses like the water and blood, but also the supernatural workings of the Spirit.
Our faith is more inward that outward. We do not rely on acts or works for our salvation, but in the working of the Holy Spirit we are given the assurance that Scripture is true, Jesus died for our sins as the Messiah promised in Scripture, and He rose again and defeated death for us as promised in the Scriptures.
1 Cor 12:3
If you understand anything written in the Bible at all it is only because of the Holy Spirit working in you. It is that gift given to you by God.
Take time today to meditate on all that you have read. Remember that Christ Jesus fulfilled all that was written of the Messiah. He is our true and faithful witness....and because of this we can rejoice always!
We had the opportunity to tour the Holocaust Museum last week. As you enter in, there is a sign carved in stone that reads, "You are My witnesses..." from Is. 43:10 as they try to convict all visitors to remember that the horrors they are about to see really happened and to never forget since some are already saying the Holocaust never happened.
But that verse is taken out of context. Ironically, that verse is one of many in Is 43 written about the Redeemer of Israel: Jesus Christ whom the Jews reject as their Messiah. I couldn't help but notice the irony.
How sad that the Jewish people rely so heavily on the witness of those who survived and all the physical evidence they have gathered there as a witness to what happened from 1933-1945. But we all know that those witnesses (humans and material things) are finite. The remaining survivors will all die one day and the material evidence will whither away. Then what will they have to testify?
We have the Spirit, the water, and the blood of Christ which is eternal and will never die nor whither away.
Praise Him for that miracle today.
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Life Application
As we toured the Holocaust museum, I was so filled with sorrow and sadness not only because of the plight of the European Jews during the Nazi regime, but because it will all happen again due to the fact that they still reject Christ as their Messiah.
One thing gave me pause: we saw an old rusted out milk keg that was found in one ghetto where the Jews were taken. One man had it in mind to hide proof of what was happening to the Jews inside that milk keg in case evidence would be needed in the future. Evidence that he and the others ever existed at all.
So, he hid newspapers, letters, photos, and other artifacts of his own and those that he collected from others inside of that milk keg for safe keeping. Then, they buried it.
Sure enough, it was found years later after the Nazis surrendered. They display some of the artifacts from the keg in the museum.
It made me stop and think about what will happen to the Jews and the Gentiles left behind after we are taken up with Jesus. Will they try and preserve evidence of their existence during the Tribulation? Or will they receive the mark of the beast and survive?
All I know is that I am glad I have The Advocate. I am saved from God's wrath. I am saved from the next Holocaust because of what Jesus did for me. The Book of Revelation says that the next Holocaust will be much worse. Praise God today that He has spared you of the horrors to come.
Rev 16:1-21
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Until next time.....
"There meet in Jesus Christ infinite highness and infinite condescension. Christ, as He is God, is infinitely great and high above all. He is higher than the kings of the earth for He is King of kings and Lord of lords. He is higher than the heavens, and higher than the highest angles of heaven. So great is He that all men, all kings and princes, are as worms of the dust before Him; all nations are as a drop of the bucket, and the light dust of the balance..."
-Jonathan Edwards 1703-1758 (Altogether Lovely, 1997, p. 19)
Blessings,
Ruth
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