Growth Group: 1 John 4:1-6

Part I: Why The Test?

1 John 4:1-6 “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.”

Much of “Christian” material in the world is NOT Christian.

The world wants to make church bigger, funner, more influence.

This is misinformed and misdirected.

This leads to Christian counsel being misdirected.

Teachers do not know theology enough to teach but yet they are teaching.

Christians are driven today by political views. Conversations shift to not being gospel centered.

Churches are focusing on numbers and money.

So then the experience becomes focused on the emotion/experience; mysticism.

These things are becoming the foundation of the church and NOT Christ.

So why the test (v1)?

GROUP (Beloved: John is talking to everybody in the church), the church needs to test.

And we do this by talking about it together as a group.

Discipleship.

Reading the Word of God changes your mind and perspective also to be aligned with God’s will.

GULLIBILITY is dangerous

Do not put your faith in everything that comes along.

False teaching is a nuanced skill.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

While we are able, we need to forceful with the truth in a gentle way.

GOD IS THE HOOK OF THE PITCH

Hook with a partial truth, followed by deviation.

Gnosticism preached Christ as a hook but then deviated from the truth by saying he was not a man but was an ghost.

Then they introduced secret knowledge and legalism in the church.

GOAL of the test is GENUINENESS

We need to see if they (or the new ideas) are from God regarding the Core Theology.

Galatians 1:6-9 “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”

1 Cor 15:1-4 “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,”

GAURD against lies by being a SMART tester.

We have to be SMART

Be SOBER 1 Peter 1:13-15 “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,”

Have an alert mind and a sober mind

Fix your hope completely on grace

be holy

Make sure you’re not following the “hype”.

Can’t just go with the newest hit thing or contemporary church fads

Be MATURE Ephesians 4:11-13 “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,”

The teachers and shepherds and the others mentioned equip the believers.

Maturity comes by making sure you are being taught and equipped by the leadership.

Make sure that you are sitting under right teaching.

Be ALERT 1 Peter 5:8-9 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.”

Enemy is prowling around.

We need to not just book smart but get in the lives of the church to make sure they are not getting tricked.

Protect the flock

REPORT

2 Tim 2:14-18 “Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.”

A worker who has no need to be ashamed.

Paul calls Hymenaeus and Philetus by name when becoming false teaching.

But wait until you can see it’s a pattern before confronting.

Teachers though should be respected, questions or corrections can wait until after most of the time. Take them aside.

THEOLOGY

1 Tim 4:16 “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Pay close attention to your teaching

The test takes research and time.

The deeper you know the truth the quicker you can spot the fake. 

In discipleship, disciples will say wrong thing and we need to point out the error and where it can lead.

And there are many false prophets. It is going on now.

Part 2 will be How to Test.