A Confessional Church: Confessing Christ

1 John 4:1–2 “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,”

P.O.P.

The health of the Church depends on confessing Christ alone to avoid false teaching and to know God.

Kids

We believe in Jesus to show us the way to God.

What does it mean to be a confessional church?

Why should we be worried about being a confessional church?

Misconceptions:

We should not be worried about the past, we have the bible and that is all we need (No creed but Christ).

We should not put God into a box (Doctrine/Theology constricts God)

We should just be focused on unity (History shows disagreements and divisions)

Where do we begin to be a confessional church?

Know the Word of God. (Biblical literacy)

Know God has worked through his Church in the past. (Church History)

Strive to be faithful to God’s Word.

Seek the wisdom of faithful saints.

Protect the truth of God’s Word in humility driven by a love for God desiring the Gospel to spread throughout the world.

I. We confess Jesus alone.

1 John 4:1 “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.”

Many have attempted to offer the world a false Christ.

Isalm - denying of Jesus as divine

Arius (early church father) - The Son was created and is not equal with God the Father.

Mormon - claiming new revelation from God, changing of truth (Jesus created)

Jehovah’s Witness - denying of the Trinity, Jesus began as archangel Michael and was created.

Nestorius - denying an orthodox view of the incarnation, Jesus was God-inspired but not God-made flesh. Jesus gave up his divinity and only contained humanity.

Modern-day - While it may be hard to find a Nestorian Church, we find many who do not know how to apply and teach the incarnation (Misapplication of Philippians 2:6–8“who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”)

Not all who speak of Jesus speak the truth.

1 Corinthians 2:1–5 “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

II. We confess Jesus as Savior.

1 John 4:2 “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh...”

We know the truth when the truth of Jesus is proclaimed.

The truth of the church is centered on the incarnate Christ.

Ephesians 4:17–24 “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

III. We confess Jesus in submission.

1 John 4:2 “...is from God,”

The message of the incarnate Christ is from God.

Therefore it demands accuracy, obedience, and worship.

Ephesians 1:22–23 “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”