The Believer Has Faith to…
Believe the Triune Testimony
A Testimony…
You can _________
Far _________ than all the ________
With one _________
That _________ you _________
Welcome to worship today at Morrison Zion Lutheran Church. We exist to glorify God. We have set out to do this by gathering around the Gospel so that we may grow in the Gospel and go to others with this Gospel.
This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Amen.
Who is it in your life that you trust? You might have a few names that pop into your head right away. Maybe that spouse that is sitting right next to you, maybe you have a best friend or a roommate from college if you’re younger, or even a classmate or a co-worker that you kept in touch with that you’ll get into contact with and you just trust them.
What about times where it feels like you don’t have anyone you trust? Think about going off to college, going to a new place, or moving to a new city and you don’t know anyone. What is the first thing that you may need to find? Maybe you forget about it until there is a problem. Your car breaks down and you don’t have a mechanic that you trust. You don’t have someone that you trust that is going to fix your car at a decent price and fix it in the right way and it causes a lot of anxiety and worry. There are certain people and things that we want to trust and we need to trust, like mechanics and doctors. It’s not a good feeling when we can’t trust them.
Think about our world as a whole and our society. Years ago there was a news anchor some of you might remember, Walter Cronkite. He was nicknamed the most trustworthy man in America because he gave the news and everyone trusted what he said. Now we look at statistics and the trust in the news media is at an all-time low. It says that 24% of people trust news anchors. Only a few more, 26%, trust journalists. That’s not very good. That’s at a national level. It maybe gets a little bit better when you have the local news and local reporters, but there is that lack of trust in the news media. Another place where there is a lack of trust is in the government. They say it’s similar for the national government and maybe the trust grows as it gets more local, but the trust of the government is at almost an all-time low too.
What does that create in people when there is this lack of trust, when you don’t know who to believe and you feel like you can’t trust anyone? That’s not a good thing.
When we look at trust and believing something, God is telling us today that we can trust Him. We can believe the Triune testimony. We can believe what God has to say to us and know that He is going to keep His promises and everything He says is true. But specifically today we’re going to look at the Triune promise, that testimony that is given from the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Our author, John, in his first letter in Chapter 5 says these words: Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. You might listen to that and say, “What is that all talking about?” It’s talking about a testimony. It’s talking about someone who overcomes. But the Spirit testifying about Jesus, who comes by water and blood—there are a couple different ideas of what that means. We’re not exactly sure, but the first idea is that at the time that John was writing, there were already people that were looking at Jesus and they were saying He had these Godly qualities for a time. They came at Baptism. But the idea of God dying, that’s a problem. There are actually religions that really struggle with that today. Islam—they say God dying, that’s blasphemy! So at this time, John is writing and he is saying Jesus came through water and blood. He was there in Baptism (that Jesus was God) but also through blood (through His death). Yes, Jesus dying on the cross is still God dying for us. He came through water and blood.
The other idea is that this is maybe talking about how Jesus comes to us. What maybe comes to mind by water and blood? We have the two Sacraments. We have the water, where Jesus comes to us in Baptism. He makes us a child of God and the Spirit is working in us; and through what else—through the Sacrament of Holy Communion. This is how Jesus continues to come to us in water and blood. So he is saying this is what Jesus does. This is how He comes.
John is saying this is a testimony you can trust. The three that testify, they are in agreement: the Spirit, the water and the blood. You can trust this testimony. Why can you trust it? It’s not just one testimony. If you are in court and there is only one person that can witness to the facts, it might not go over well. But if you have two or three or several, you will have a better case. At that time in Jewish culture, you really needed three witnesses. So he is saying the Spirit, the water and the blood testify about Jesus. They testify about His work and coming in water and blood. This is showing us that we can trust that God has come to live among us. He came to be one of you and to suffer and experience temptation in the way that we have; to be in this sinful world. Not only did He do that, He lived a perfect life and then He came in blood. He suffered and died for you. This shows us the love of Jesus. We can trust this testimony from the Father, the Spirit and Jesus because He has come for you. He is continually showing the love that the Trinity has for His people, for all creation. He is continuing to come to you today, through water and blood. You can trust it as He continues to work.
We can trust it more because when we compare it to the other testimonies and the other things that we hear and believe, we see things are a little bit different. He said the Spirit, the water and the blood, the three are in agreement, and then he says: We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. We can trust this testimony because it is a far better testimony than all the rest.
There are a lot of things that you believe and trust in the world, aren’t there? When you buy a new car, you trust and believe that car is going to work. When you go to a restaurant, you trust the people that they are giving you good food, not spoiled food. We want to trust so many things in this world. We believe lots of people. Some of that trust is waning, but think about how much we put our trust in things of this world.
God is saying this testimony that the Trinity brings is far greater! We accept so many things in the world, but look to God and know that His love, His message for you is far better than anything you are going to hear. All these other things are not perfect. We look to our Triune God and we say “Triune” even though that’s not a word that is found in the Bible, but it’s a word that defines and explains this magnificent God, who isn’t like us, who isn’t like a lot of other religions. Like “Hey, you know what? God is probably like a man or maybe looks like this awesome animal.” He’s something that man makes up in other religions. But our God is far better because He is a God who explains Himself in a way that, if it was written by man, they probably would have scratched it out and said “Father, Son and Holy Spirit—three Gods in one but only one God? How do we explain that? I don’t like that.” But the fact that our God is Triune shows us that He is so much better.
He far surpasses what I could think of and what I could do. We see that in His creation and in all the things that He has done. So we know His testimony is far greater because His love is far greater. Who He is is far greater than anything else in this world. But what makes this testimony even more important is what the testimony is all about. It goes on to say: We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. What do you notice? What is the focus? This testimony has one focus. This one focus that the testimony is all about is Jesus. He is the Savior. He is the one who redeems you and loves you.
Think about that. The whole focus of the Triune God (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit), the Spirit who comes in truth, His purpose is to get you to Jesus. The focus of God is to connect you with your Savior.
How is your focus? What are the things that we tend to focus on in the world? When summer starts, we think school is over, or it’s time to relax a little bit and there’s thing after thing after thing. Our focus is certainly divided. If you have kids of any age, it’s very easy to focus here, and here, and here, and here. You think maybe as you get older it’s easier, but I know some grandparents that man, it’s easy to be pretty divided and to focus here, and here, and here, and here. It’s hard for us to focus. The things that the world wants us to focus on aren’t always the best things. God has given us so many great blessings. I’m not saying those blessings are wrong, but the world wants us to focus on ourselves. To put ourselves first or to make us most important or to say, “Whatever you feel is good and you should focus on that. Make yourself happy. Your happiness is the most important thing, and if that comes at the expense of others, that’s okay.”
So what is your focus? Why is it important that the Trinity is focused on Jesus and getting you to Jesus? It’s because we need the Spirit to be coming to us, the Father to be working and giving us the Word that the Spirit is going to work in. It’s to connect you to Jesus because while all these other things are good, there is a problem. It says: Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And a little bit later it says: Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. So while all the other things are good and I’m not saying you shouldn’t enjoy those things, if you don’t have Jesus, you are missing something. This testimony, as it focuses on Jesus, has that one focus. It’s a testimony that gives you life.
If you don’t have that focus on Jesus, it’s a dangerous thing—to not have eternal life, to not have peace and joy and know that the Savior loves you. To go onto focus on other things or other gods or to make other things your god, because isn’t that kind of what focus in worship is? When I’m focused too much on something else, is that what I’m worshipping? God wants us to be focused on Him and Jesus because Jesus gives us life.
It says that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life. Yes, we want to focus on eternal life. The most important thing is we want you to be with us in heaven. We proclaim Jesus. We share Jesus with people because we want them to be with God (the Trinity) forever.
A pastor once said he asked a bunch of high school students, “Why is your faith important to you now?” Child after child said, “Well, it means that I’ll be in heaven.” That’s a good answer. That’s not the wrong answer. That’s a great answer. But maybe sometimes, especially when we’re younger and we think, you know what? My faith is only important for me for heaven, then what do people start thinking? Maybe it’s not important for me now because I have 50-60 years until I have to worry about that.
God gives us eternal life through Jesus. But we know that when He speaks about life, that eternal life, in some ways starts now. That life that Jesus gives us is life now. There are a lot of people in the world that don’t have Jesus, that don’t have faith, that you might have to question and say how is their life? What is their focus? Do they trust anything or anyone?
As Christians we can trust God and look to the things that go on in the world and we know no matter what I face, no matter the things that I’ve been given, no matter the difficulties, God loves me. Things might be hard, but I can have joy and peace and happiness and truth now. God guides us now to see who He is and what He has done for us now to get through the difficult things and to be filled with love, to help our lives, to be able to love and forgive people, the closest people in your lives.
In marriage, what would things be without God? In your relationships, in all these things, to think about how Jesus gives us life. He gives you peace and joy and allows you to love Him and love others in a way that the world cannot give.
I think there are so many people in the world that don’t trust anyone or anything and it causes so much fear and struggle in their lives. They are looking for purpose and for hope and peace. God wants you to know today that you can trust the testimony of the Triune God. He loves you. His promises are true and you have nothing to fear. This testimony is far better than all the rest and anything else, as it focuses on Jesus and gives you life—life now and into eternity. Amen.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7.) Amen.