Power in the Pulpit | 1 John 4:1–6

Introduction: One time I was watching tv and I saw an advertisement for a show I had never seen before. But I’ve always remembered the clip. There were three guys. One was standing by himself and the other two guys were standing beside each other facing them. The guy that was standing on the side by himself said, “I’m going to burn this trash because it’s better for the environment to burn it than to just throw it in the dump.” One of the other two guys sounding dumbfounded says, “Burning trash isn’t good for the environment.” The guy responded and said, “Yea it is. If you throw it away it stays here on earth. If you burn it, it goes up into the sky and becomes stars.” The third guy then said, “That doesn’t sound right, but I don’t know enough about stars to say that he is wrong.”

Obviously, we know that burning trash is not actually what creates stars. But sometimes people say things that we do feel like the third guy. We hear it and it doesn’t sound right, but we don’t know enough to dispute it. Or maybe it sounds like something we want to be true, so we believe it. The main idea of tonight’s text is that we must be careful to not believe things that are contrary to what scripture teaches us is true. The two main points we will see in the text tonight is that we should test the veracity of every message we hear, and that the power of God within us is stronger than the power these false messages come from. As we do every Sunday night, if you could please stand as we honor the reading of God’s word.

1 John 4:1–6 ESV

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Test The Veracity of Every Message (1 John 4:1-3)

Exposition: We start with verse one, we see John once again simultaneously expressing his love and admiration for the people to whom he is writing, while also transitioning to a new topic. He then says not to believe every spirit, but instead to test every spirit to whether or not they are from God. Why? Because many false prophets have gone out. When John says to test every spirit, he is saying that every teacher or proclaimer of God’s word is empowered by some spirit. The Spirit may be from God, but it also might not be. We have to remember that there is a spiritual component to the world we live in. Ephesians 6:12 says, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” There are spiritual forces that drive much of the evil we see in the world. For this reason, we must test the messages we hear.

Explanation: The word words believe and test are used in a tense that denotes a continuous action. We should not be in the habit of just believing everything we hear. This means we must also be in the habit or testing everything we hear. We cannot just assume because somebody teaches in a place of authority that what he or she teaches or proclaims is true. We can’t do this because as John says, we know that false prophets have existed since the time of the Old Testament and continue to exist today, we talked about this a few weeks ago.

Application: This means that you, even as young as you are, have a responsibility to make sure that what you are taught does not violate what we know to be true. If one day I start saying that Jesus is just a way to heaven or something like that, Sophia has the right to look into scripture, find out if what I’m saying is true. When she finds out it is not, she can make sure she does not begin to believe it and then tell others why what i’m saying is wrong.

Exposition: In verse two, John gives us a way to test whether or not something is true. He writes, “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” John here is saying that any spirit from God will acknowledge the truth of what is called the incarnation.

Explanation:The incarnation is the term for when God the Son left the glory of heaven and was born as a human on earth. Say it with me on three, one two three incarnation. To believe that Jesus was not fully human while being fully God, is to deny what scripture clearly tells us is true. We know the Holy Spirit would not empower somebody to say a message other than this, so if someone does say this, then they are not speaking by way the Holy Spirit. And there have been examples of this thousands of years, including today.

Explanation: One group believed that the body and physical matter we received was just an illusion, meaning Christ could not have been physically There were some that believed that Jesus was just a phantom or ghostly spirit that only appeared to be human. Another view was that the Spirit of God empowered Jesus, but left his body at the crucifixion. As I said today, these hereses still exist. The Jehovah Witnesses is a modern view on the heresey, Arianism, which existed about 1700 years ago. They believe that Jesus is from God, and was God’s first creation but is not actually God. Before being Jesus he was Michael the archangel. Mormans believe that God was once a man. They believe before Jesus’ was born he was the brother of lucifer. He was born by a god having sexual relations with a Mary. They believe that he had two maybe three wives and children with all of them. Muslims have on the side of the Mosque at the Dome of the Rock, God has no son. How do we know all of these are false? Because they deny the truth that Jesus was both God and man.

Exposition: There’s a good chance some of you know and or have friends that are Mormon or Jehovah Witness. You’ve probably met them . And there’s a good chance they are good people. But we have to be careful not to grant veracity to claims that contradict what we know to be true just because somebody seems nice. Because while the person speaking may not mean harm, the person behind the message may not mean harm, John writes in verse three, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.” This message is the message of the one that is against Christ. We talked about this a few weeks ago. This isn’t referring to the antichrist that will come at the end of time. But instead to those that stand against Christ now.

Application; There is no such thing as neutral when it comes to the gospel. If somebody is presenting something we know not to be truth, we must recognize how serious that is. Satan is the promulgator of false beliefs about Christ. He does this because he knows that those who believe in Christ will be saved from hell and he doesn’t want that. So instead, he places these false ideas into the world to lead people astray. So we must be vigilant in making sure are not lured in to accepting things we know are not true and then eventually believing things that are not true. We aren’t just believing and promoting another way, because no other way exists. We are believing a message that came from the spirit of the antichrist.

Transition: It can be a bit unsettling to think that there are those who speak things that are not true, but can make them seem like they are not true. It is even more unsettling to think that this is not a problem that existed just 2,000 years ago, but that even today this spiritual battle for truth still exists. But John leaves us with hope regarding this issue.

Our God is Greater than the world (1 John 4:4-6)

Exposition: John writes in verse 4, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the word.” When John tells his readers that they are from God in the original Greek it reads, “you are from God little children.” The ordering of the words could also be paraphrased, “You only are from God.” John is writing to a group of people that are professing believers in Jesus Christ. He wants them to know that they do have a special status.

Explanation: We live in a relativistic society where it is not always welcomed to say something like this. But there are not many paths that exist to God. The only way to be saved is to believe that Jesus Christ left the comforts of heaven to be born of a virgin. He then died on a cross for our sins though he was perfect, and then he rose again on the third day. He is truly the only way to heaven. There are not multiple paths to heaven, he is the path. So we must realize that only those who have accepted this gift of salvation are from God.

Exposition: He continues this thought by saying that they have overcome the world. The word overcome has the connotation of having victory over something. The tense of the word is in the present, meaning it is a present victory. Why? The reasoning is simple. As Christians we have the Holy Spirit, God the Spirit, living within us. We have God in us, the world has the spirit of the antichrist, who is not God. The one in us has power over the one that is in the world.

Application: This is so important for your lives. It can seem hard. Sometimes it is going to seem hard because it will seem that the world is winning. There are going to be times where some really smart people throw a bunch of reasons at you as to why they don’t believe Jesus is the son of God. And it can be very overwhelming. There are going to be times where the circumstances of life seem really hard and you begin to wonder if Jesus really is who you believe he is. There’s going to be times where it seems that the people that believe these things that are contrary to scripture are really nice and really good people. And you are going to find yourself wanting to doubt the exclusivity of the gospel. You are not going to want to believe that their belief is contrary to the gospel. There’s even going to be times where temptation makes you want to slowly leave behind your faith. Take heart, because in those moments, God is good. He is greater than all those voices. He is greater than the things of the world. His assurance will be there to remind you that He is who you believe him to be, and that He is good.

Exposition: In Verse 5, John writes, “They are from the world, and the world listens to them.” We don’t have a lot in common with the world. One of the things that has been very interesting over the last few years, is that you see religious groups teaming up with social groups for certain causes. It’s not uncommon for LGTBQ groups to join forces with Muslim groups. This is despite the fact that Muslims are super against homosexual activity. It’s one of the odder combinations that you will see. But what they do have in common, is that they are opposed to the gospel. They don’t believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. They are opposed to the message of Christ, so even though they don’t really agree on anything they will listen to one another. The people of the world are going to listen to the spirit of the antichrist because they speak the same language. They both are opposed to the gospel. They are both empowered by a spirit that is against Christ, so it is easier to make common ground.

Exposition: Verse 6 says, We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us/ By this we know the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of deception.” John is once again giving us this dualistic idea. People that know God listen to the people from God. Whoever doesn’t listen isn’t from God. They reject the message of God. There are only two options. What this tells us, is the Spirit that powers a person. If a person resists the Spirit of God, if the continue to chose or blend Christianity with something other than the gospel, then we know that they have chosen the spirit of error. But you see this word for error can also be translated deception. This spirit that is in the world that is opposed to Christ is telling a lie. It’s knowing leading people to something that is not true.

Illustration: If somebody tells you something they think is true but then you find out it isn’t, you’ll typically just laugh at the person and then go on once you find out the truth. When somebody knowingly tells you something that isn’t true, you get mad at them. Why? Because of the intent. The spirit not from God is trying to tell us something that is not true. It is trying to tell the world something that is not true. But we have the truth. And we must take hold of it and embrace it as truth.

Conclusion: I don’t know if you have ever noticed, but the world is looking for a reason for Jesus not to be who scripture says he is. There’s not a lot of people out there trying to disprove Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism. But Christianity has a lot of critics. It’s because there is a spirit in this world that desperately wants people to not believe the message of truth and hope. It can be scary in those moments when we begin to experience doubts or maybe even feel drawn to false gospels. The incarnation isn’t just a historical a fact. It’s a sign of great love. It showed the lengths to which God was willing to go for us. Every message should be viewed in light of this incredible act of love. And in those moments where we are presented with a false message, we can have faith that the God of the Universe is with us and will help us to know the truth. And that it is His Spirit that empowers messages of truth. Take comfort in that . But maybe you realize you have never believed the message of truth. Maybe tonight is the night. Come pray with me.