Sermon Outline: 1 John 4:2-3

1^st John 4:2-3
GUIDE for Testing the spirits

Pastor Jason Stewart

I.      Introduction:

This morning as we continue on in our look from 1^st John 4, we are going to see the importance that the Holy Spirit plays in guiding us into the truth of God’s Word, and how He will always point us toward Jesus Christ.

II.     Revelation/Application: Testing the Spirit

Last week we looked at (v.1) and how God has given us the “Command” to test the spirits, and this week we are going to see that God has given us a Supernatural Guide to help us when testing the spirits, Himself.  The first key area we will be looking at is our “Guide” for Testing the Spirits. This is Point One of this mornings’ message: We test the spirits with the Holy Spirit.

1. In order to test the spirits, we have to have the right Guide to lead us in the testing. We find this truth being presented to us in (vv.2-3). The Bible says in 1 John 4:2, “By this you know the Spirit of God”. So he is saying this is how you can know if you are being influenced by the Spirit of God or not. This is how you can know if the Holy Spirit is guiding you. Namely, are you being pointed to Jesus Christ?

2. Looking at 1 John 4:2b-3 we see that John tells us that the way a person can know if the Spirit of God is guiding their belief system about Jesus, is by who Jesus is to that person. Either Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, fully man and fully God, or He is anything other than that. If a person believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, he or she is being influenced by the Spirit of God to believe that. If a person believes anything other than that about Jesus, he or she is being influenced by the spirit of error. It is that simple! Let me ask you this. Who is Jesus to you this morning?

3. C.S. Lewis said in his book Mere Christianity, “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg – or he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.” The great C.S. Lewis hit it right on the head, that to come away from the gospels and all of Scripture, with any other idea of who Jesus could be, including just a great human teacher, would only be patronizing nonsense.

4. It has been widely argued by Christian Apologists that the Person of Jesus Christ would have to be one of four types of people.

1. A legend  (and nothing more) But there is far too much historical and archeological evidence to support His existence, and every reputable historian agrees He was not just a legend, but a person who literally changed the world.

2. A liar  (and nothing more) But this doesn’t make sense that Jesus was a liar, simply for the fact that He died for His claims, rather than explain His way out of it with Pilate when He had the opportunity to escape His coming death. (Which would mean that He could be Crazy, which is the 3^rd scenario)

3. A lunatic  (and nothing more) But this doesn’t make sense that He was a lunatic due to the fact that even the brilliant minds of His day who argued with Him were put to shame. Others said they never heard such amazing teaching before.  Even people who are outside the faith, and do unfortunately think upon Jesus as only a good teacher, support the fact that He was not crazy.

4. Or Lord  (and nothing less than LORD of Lords and KING of kings!) This has got to be the only conclusion a person can come to who truly and fairly studies out the life of Jesus in the Gospels, measures in the undeniable prophetic proofs that are contained within the Scripture, and includes both the historical and archaeological evidences that are out there. Along with that we must also weigh in the millions upon millions of lives that have been radically transformed by the love of God that is found in Christ Jesus.

Again, who is Jesus to you this morning? Because He has to either be a Legend, Liar, Lunatic, or Lord. Your answer to this question will determine whether or not you have been following the Spirit of Truth, or the spirit of error.

5. The Holy Spirit will always guide us into all truth as Christians, and He will always point us to Jesus Christ. There will not be any guesswork involved, because we will inherently know the truth, because the Holy Spirit will guide us in the truth. In John 14:26, Jesus tells us, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit... He will teach you all things...” Jesus tells us that we can rely upon the Holy Spirit to “help us” and “teach us” all things that are necessary to not only grow in our faith as Christians, but to also protect the faith. Jesus tells us in John 16:13, “When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth...” Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth, will guide us into all truth, which of course is what enables us to abide in the truth by walking with Jesus, and protect the truth, by defending it against false teachers and false religions. This is why it is so important for us as Christians to be men and women of God’s Word, like the Berean’s who searched the scriptures daily. When we do this, we will grow in our knowledge of God’s Word as well as have a discerning heart to help us know when something is of the truth or is an error.

6. So here in the first part of 1 John 4:2, John is telling us that the Holy Spirit is our Guide when we are testing the spirits. And as our Guide, the Holy Spirit’s method is to always point us to Jesus Christ. Jesus tells us this in John 15:26, “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.” Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will TESTIFY of Himself. In other words the Spirit of God was sent to protect the identity and Person of Jesus Christ. Not only that the Spirit of God was sent to glorify the Son of God. And so in the first key area we have been looking at, we see that the way we are supposed to test the spirits is through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And we will always know and discern when someone is influenced by the Holy Spirit because they will be pointing us to Jesus Christ. And that is what we are going to look at next, the importance of pointing people to Jesus.

7. Point 2 of this mornings’ message is, “We Test the spirits by Keeping our Focus on Jesus!” Our method for testing the spirits is by keeping our focus upon the Person of Jesus Christ. (READ: 1 John 4:2-3) Again, we see that the method for testing the spirits is centered upon the Person of Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus to you?

8. The theological term for this is Christology - The study of Christ. John tells us in (v.2), “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.” Here we see that John shows us how the Spirit of God will lead us when testing the spirits. He will lead us in the truth and show us that Jesus is the Christ. It is by our belief that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh that determines whether or not our faith is real or not. The Greek word for “confess” is a verb in the present tense. Which means that our confession of Christ must be an ongoing accurate confession of faith. Whoever “confesses” that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and they must continue confessing Jesus in this manner always. This same word to “confess” is used by Jesus is Matthew 10:32, where He says, “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.” This same word is used in Romans 10:9, where Paul says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  And so we see that a correct profession of faith is essential to the Christian faith, and to our salvation. Not only does a correct profession of faith play a part in our salvation, but it also establishes that we are being influenced by the Spirit of Truth.

9. We know in 1 John 4:2-3 that John was affirming that Jesus is the Christ. Meaning, He was fully-God and full-Human. Why is it important that Jesus is the Christ, and recognized as fully God and fully human? The Theological term for Christ being fully God and fully human is Hypostatic Union. This means that Jesus is 100% Divine and 100% human. In other words hypostatic union describes the combination of the Divine and human natures in the person of Christ. This is crucial to the Christian faith! Why is it important that we defend the humanity of Jesus as much as we defend his Divinity?  Because if we take away His humanity, He cannot make atonement for our sins, and if we take away His Divinity, He cannot conquer death. In fact, John Calvin wrote, “As fully God, He could not have experienced death, and as fully man He could not have overcome it.” That is why God could not just appear out of heaven as God. He had to be born as a man in order to die for humanity (As only God He can’t die). This is also why He could not just be born an ordinary man. In order to rise again He had to be Divine so that He could conquer death (As only a man, He cannot rise again).

10. The Bible is quite clear that Jesus is fully God and fully human. In 1 Timothy 2:5 the Bible tells us, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” The New Testament affirms the Hypostatic Union (the combination of Divine and Human natures) in Jesus Christ. The Old Testament also affirms the Hypostatic Union in Jesus Christ. Isaiah 9:6 tells us, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” And so we see that ever though Jesus was born fully human, He was also completely Divine. In the Book of Daniel, the Bible tells us in Daniel 7:13, “I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him.” This is saying that the Son of God, who was from “the Ancient of Days”, was also going to be “the Son of Man.” Meaning the Eternal One would leave eternity, and visit humanity as a God-Man. In the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as:

·      The Son of Man (54 times)

·      The Son of David (21 times)

This clearly establishes the fact that even though Jesus is God’s Divine Son, a Son of Man, making Him fully God, he is also the offspring of King David, which makes Him an offspring of humanity, making Him fully human.

11. This was also the subject of much scrutiny and of the utmost importance throughout the early church history. Our church fathers had to defend the identity of Jesus Christ from the very early stages of Christianity as well.

The early church councils:

1. Nicea – AD 325 (Defended that Christ is fully divine)
2. Constantinople – AD 381 (Defended that Christ is fully human)
3. Ephesus - AD 431 (Defended that Christ is a unified person)
4. Chalcedon - AD 451 (Defended Christ is fully divine & human in 1 Person) 

The early church considered the Incarnation to be one of the most important truths of our faith. Because of this, they formulated what has come to be known as the Chalcedonean Creed, which is a statement that establishes the doctrine of the Incarnation, through 5 main truths about Jesus.

1.    Jesus has two natures (He is God and man)

2.    Each nature is full and complete (He is fully God and fully man)

3.    Each nature remains distinct (separate)

4.    Christ is only one Person

5.    Things that are true of only one nature are nonetheless true of the Person of Christ.

12. The identity of Jesus Christ is what our faith as Christians hinges on, and is the Divine Dividing Line in the sand. The Bible tells us in 1 Cor. 12:3, “Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” To call Jesus Lord means to call Him YHWH or Jehovah in this verse, because the Greek word used here in 1 Corinthians 12:3 for Lord, is “kyrios”. Kyrios is the word that the Septuagint uses to transliterate the Hebrew word YHWH or Jehovah, into the Greek. So to call Jesus kyrios, is to call Him YHWH, or Jehovah. And the reason that Mormons as well as Jehovah Witness will argue to the death that this is not true, is because Scripture tells us that they do not have the Spirit of God inside of them. The only way anyone can ever say, “yes” and “amen” to this is through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And yet, just as Paul says in Philippians 2:11, at the final judgment, every tongue will confess “that Jesus Christ is Lord” (kyrios), whether they want to submit to Him and to the truth of Scripture right now, or not.

13. And so I hope that I have established the Scriptural, as well as Historical importance that has been placed upon Jesus’ true identity as Fully God and Fully Man. This is what John is arguing for here in 1 John 4:2-3, that Jesus is the Christ, and those who believe this are influenced by the Spirit of Truth. However, John tells us in (v.3), “Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God...” John is telling us in this passage that those who are not of God are made known by their belief system.

14. As we have already looked at in John’s day it was a form of early-gnosticism which was being promoted by Cerinthus, as we have discussed in great detail. But how can we apply this mornings’ message into our culture and help protect the truth of the Gospel and the identity of Jesus Christ against modern day heresies? In our day it gets more complicated due to the fact that our Modern day cults will agree that Jesus is the Christ, which can trip some Christians up when talking to them because they don’t know how to respond to that. However, the problem with them agreeing that Jesus is the Christ, is that the Christ they believe in, is a different Christ than that of Scripture. And remember, Paul says do not listen to or believe those who preach a different Jesus.

As we looked at last week:

1. Mormons

Mormons will tell you that Jesus is the Christ, but He is not the Christ of Scriptures. Their Jesus is a little “g” god, who is the older brother of Lucifer (Satan). Jesus is a created being, and not Almighty God. But last week we looked at how Jesus created all things (John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:10) and Satan is a created being (Ezekiel 28:12-19, esp. v.13). Therefore the Mormon doctrine is in error.

Errant Belief:

1. Jesus is a created being

2. Jesus is Lucifer’s older brother

3. Jesus is a little “g” god.

Correct Belief:

1. Jesus always existed (Jn. 1:1)

2. Jesus created all things (Jn. 1:3)

3. Jesus is “kyrios” (Jehovah/Yahweh)

2. Jehovah Witness

Jehovah Witnesses will tell you that Jesus was created by Jehovah God as Michael the Archangel, and is a little “g” god. Even though Hebrews 1:5-13 tells us that Jesus is the Son of God, and far above the angels of God. Hebrews 1:8 tells us that His throne is “forever and ever”, which means that Jesus was not a created being, but always existed.

Errant Belief:

1. Jesus is Michael the archangel

2. Jesus is a little “g” god

Correct Belief:

1. Jesus is above Michael (Heb. 1:5-13)

2. Jesus is “kyrios” (Jehovah/Yahweh)

Cults will always try and take you on many rabbit trails when they talk with you, but you want to keep the focus upon Jesus. Because until we establish who Jesus is, we have nothing else to talk about. And once we establish who Jesus is, and that we are talking about two different Jesus’, we have to focus our attention on what Scripture says about Jesus. To do anything else is to go on useless and fruitless Rabbit Trails. The way we are to deal with cults is by keeping our focus upon the Person of Jesus Christ. The way we are to deal with any and all false prophets is by keeping our focus upon Jesus Christ. When we do this we can have confidence that it is the Holy Spirit who is guiding us and using us to be defenders of the faith.