Do You Have The Son?

Main Scripture Text: 1 John 5:5-12
Main Idea: If we have the Son, we have eternal life and overcome the world.

• In the final analysis, the thing that matters most in this life is whether we have Jesus Christ, the Son of God or not.
• If we have the Son, we have eternal life and we will overcome the world, no matter what is thrown at us.

1. We overcome the world if we believe who He is

• To overcome is to be victorious – to be one who holds fast to their faith even unto death, against the power of their foes, temptations and persecutions.
• To believe, is to think to be true, to be persuaded, to place confidence in – to entrust oneself to.
• John is saying that if we believe; if we are persuaded; if we place our confidence in and entrust ourselves to Jesus, as the Son of God, we will overcome and hold fast to our faith and be victorious in our Christian walk against all foes and temptations and persecutions.

Romans 8:34-37
³⁴ who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died- more than that, who was raised- who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? …³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us…

• In this life, we will encounter various trials and some may grow sick and encounter many sorrows and eventually all of us will die.
• But we are promised that we will overcome the world if we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
• The "World" is full of false teaching about whom Jesus Christ is and how we should live that may sound appealing and be enticing.
• The world assaults us and tries to convince us that what we believe is not true.
• The devil continues to roam about like a roaring lion trying to get us to doubt our faith and to doubt the grounds for our faith.
• We are continually being challenged to exchange the true and only source of revelation for a counterfeit that claims to truly know. This is no different than in the Garden of Eden, when the serpent claimed to have the real truth and Adam and Eve listened to the deceiver instead of listening to the only one who really could reveal the truth – God Himself.
• But if you believe in Jesus, the Son of God, you will overcome this false teaching and live life with real meaning and real joy and real purpose, no matter what you have or don't have – because you have Christ.
• To overcome the worldly ways of thinking though, we persist in faith, grounded in who Jesus is.

John 14:6…"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

2. We have the Son if we believe who He is

• Some in John's day claimed that the Christ descended on Jesus the man in His baptism, (which John refers to as "the water") and left Him before His death, (which John refers to as "the blood"). They claimed that it was only the earthly Jesus who died and not the heavenly Christ.
• Jesus' coming by water marked the beginning of His public ministry, when the Holy Spirit descended on Him and confirmed to all that Jesus is God's Son.
• His coming by blood speaks to what Jesus accomplished as He endured the Cross, bearing our sins completely, fully taking God's wrath, making atonement for us, so that through His blood, He proved He was the Savior and Redeemer.
• In the death of Jesus – through His blood – His work was completed.
• The very doctrine of the atonement hinges on the fact that the Son of God Himself bore our sins on His body on the Cross.
• Jesus was the Christ His entire life and God confirmed this publicly in His baptism and through His crucifixion.
• Jesus as the Son of God was the Christ in His birth and life and through His crucifixion, death and resurrection as well.
• The Holy Spirit also testifies to who He is. It is a characteristic of the Holy Spirit that He testifies of who Jesus is.
• The Holy Spirit tells the truth about Jesus because He is the truth – He cannot tell a lie and the truth cannot be hidden. 

John 15:26 But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

• The Historical events of Jesus' life and the Holy Spirit all testify and they are all in agreement.
• The Holy Spirit also confirms to every believer in Christ Jesus that the message they heard about Jesus from the very beginning is indeed true.

John 16:13-14 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

John 5:36-37 (Jesus said) 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. ³⁷ And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me.

• God gave us many miracles, the confirmation of fulfilled prophecies, and thousands of eye-witnesses; so that we might be sure that Jesus is the Son of God.
• God has given us His testimony through His Word and His Holy Spirit inwardly testifying to us of the truth.
• We can have the Son if we believe in Him and trust in Him, depend on Him, listen to Him and follow Him. We have the Son as we enjoy the benefits of believing in Him and appropriating to ourselves all of the things that He did for us.
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  We have the Son if we believe who He is and this makes all of the difference in our lives. Having the Son gives us true peace, true assurance, true hope and true joy that is not bound by any circumstances. 

3. We have eternal life if we believe who He is

• If we believe in the Son of God – if we have a saving faith in Him, then we too have the testimony of the Holy Spirit inside of us, bearing witness with what God has said about Jesus.
• If we don't believe God's testimony about who Jesus is, then we are calling God a liar, because God has said that Jesus is His Son and we have eternal life through Jesus Christ alone.
• The whole point of the testimony to who Jesus Christ is, is meant to result in a personal embracing of Christ Jesus in faith, that results in eternal life.
• If we have the Son – if we are trusting in Him and believing in Him; holding onto Him in hope; clinging to Him; if we are united with Him - then we have eternal life, because the Son Himself is life.
• If we do not believe and place our trust in Jesus as the so n of God, then we do not have eternal life.

John 1:4 ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
John 17:1-3 (Jesus prayed…) "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, ² since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her (Martha), "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

• Eternal life is not something that we earn – it is only given as a gift from God.
• Eternal life is found only in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
• The gift of eternal life is meant to be a present possession in this life as well.

John 10:9-10 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

• Yes, the life we have been given is eternal and belongs to the age to come but life has come in the person of Jesus Christ and although it will not yet be fully experienced, this life in Christ is to be received and experienced and enjoyed in this life here and now!

John 20:31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

• The whole purpose of this testimony of the Son of God is so that we might believe in Him, and the result of this faith in Him is "that by believing you may have life in His name".
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  C.S. Lewis used the analogy of life here on earth being like a school-term and heaven being like the holidays and when people die, he says it is as if, "The term is over. The holidays have begun. The dream is ended. This is the morning. All their life in this world had only been the cover and the title page. Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before." – C.S. Lewis

• If we have the Son, we have eternal life and overcome the world.

Potential Application Questions:

1. Why is it important to reflect on our own mortality and eventual death?
2. Where have we lacked faith that we will overcome the world? Put another way, where do we need to renew our minds with the truth of who Jesus is?
3. How does meditating on and trusting in who Jesus is change the way you view your present difficulties in this world?
4. How does knowing Jesus is the Son of God and knowing that there is both objective and subjective testimony to who He is help build your faith?
5. How does it build our faith in God to know that we overcome the world through believing in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
6. What are some areas where you have not been trusting in Him, believing in Him, holding onto Him and clinging to Him – knowing who He is?
7. How can you personally have Jesus? (How can you take all of the benefits of having Him for yourself?).
8. How does knowing that we have eternal life as a permanent possession in Jesus change the way you view your life now?