The Importance of the Holy Spirit in the Message and the Audience

There are many different main topics that could be assigned to this passage of scripture. This doesn’t mean that the passage itself is complicated but rather that there is great importance. This passage centers around the influence of the Holy Spirit on a person. It reminds us that there is absolute truth and absolute lies. We are reassured that we have overcome.

However, the best way that this passage can be broken down is by focusing on the message and the audience.

Read with me 1 John 4:1-6

The Holy Spirit and the Message

In verses 1-3, we learn about the importance of the involvement of the Holy Spirit in the message of what a teacher proclaims. Verse 1 is the important reminder that not every person who claims to be a mouthpiece for God is being honest. In fact, John writes, “test the spirits”. Every person who speaks carries with them a spirit with which they are speaking. As will become clear shortly, it is either the Spirit of God or the Spirit of the Devil.

It is important that we keep this in mind in particularly when someone opens their mouth in a church and claims to speak the truth of God. John says, “do not believe every spirit” and I would agree with him because of the things that I have seen men, and even women sometimes which is an entirely different story, say from behind the pulpit in the name of God. We must be vigilant in determining whether or not the spirit of the person is of God. There have been so many people who have been led astray by false prophets and others whose only aim was to gain off of those who did not know how they ought to determine what the truth is.

This is a direct result of the “false prophets” who have gone out into the world. Jesus actually speaks of false prophets in Matthew 7: Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” It was not terribly long ago that I preached on this passage of scripture where we talked about the main motivation of these false prophets. Just like a wolf, their goal is to devour the week. This is why they make their appearance like a sheep, to blend in among other sheep. Church, we must have our eyes wide open and test the spirits. But how do we test the spirits?

Verse 2 provides the most simple way this will happen. We must know the real thing: “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God…” The test is, does this spirit communicate that they believe that what the scriptures communicate about Jesus are true? Was Jesus just a good teacher? Or was He a spirit that just looked like a human being.

There is so much that can be included into this statement. To believe that Jesus came in the flesh is to believe everything about His incarnation, including His death. To believe that He is from God is to believe in His resurrection. When these core truths are taught, you can be clear that this person has the Holy Spirit and desires God’s will for your life!

On the other hand, the spirit that does not confess that Jesus is from God is a spirit of the devil.

This is the second reference to the antichrist in this book and is simply a title for anyone that runs counter to the cause of Christ and His kingdom.

Just based on three verses, we can understand just how important it is that the message from a prophet is understood and put to the test. Certainly, we ought to filter everything through scripture. But beyond that, we must keep in mind that this begins with what is either said or implied about Jesus Christ. When a person denies the humanity or deity of Jesus, their message should immediately become invalid to you. This message is important for each of you to hear because I know that a Sunday message is not the only thing that enters your minds each week. We must do everything possible to put the spirits to the test in order to determine the intent behind their message.

With every message, there is an audience. We turn our attention from the message to who it is being delivered to

The Holy Spirit and the Audience

I hope that you recognize that verses 4, 5, and 6 all address a different group. John begins with the genuine Christians in verse 4.

For the follower of Christ, we ought to be encouraged in the fact that we have overcome these deceptive spirits! We ought to praise God for this fact! But we should not forget that it is because of strength from God that we have overcome! When we consider the fact that it was Jesus, born in human flesh, that overcame the grave, that same power is in us to overcome these worldly spirits so that we might overcome the grave as well!

Verses five and six then provides two sides of the situation. “They” being the false prophets. These are men who are speaking to the world. Because the message is worldly, it only makes sense that the audience would also be worldly.

Those who speak the truth of the gospel is the “we” that is being referred to in verse six. We have a responsibility to speak the word of God to other people. Just because you are not a preacher or a minister does not mean that you are exempt from spreading this truth to the world! Those that God is working on and in will hear what it is that you have to say because of the work of the Holy Spirit on their life.

Because there is some sort of differentiation here, we are able to determine the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Praise the Lord that He has provided us with the Holy Spirit. We are able to determine the what is true about both the message and the audience based on Jesus Christ.

And so we close by talking about Jesus Christ. Do you have it figured out in your mind who Jesus is? Have you investigated the scriptures to see who He is? Most importantly have you confessed both with your life and your mouth that He is the Lord?