God is Greater
1 John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
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. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 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. 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 world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 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.
Many, if not most, of you all know that I’m a kettlebell enthusiast. Outside of my full-time ministry work, I coach and train folks using kettlebells as the primary training tool. It’s one thing to be a self-appointed kettlebell instructor, giving myself that label because I want to. And it’s another thing to have some credentials, a certification, a stamp of approval from an official organization that provides kettlebell certifications. We were in the middle of the pandemic when I decided to pursue a certification. Gyms were shut down in our city and I had three kettlebells at home. I found out there’s a whole world of functional fitness training through kettlebells.
And when you go for your certification weekend, they don’t just teach you the fundamental movements and the techniques you need to teach them yourself. There are tests that you have to pass in order to obtain your certification. So, in preparation for my level one kettlebell instructor cert in 2021 I hired a coach. I’d heard her on a podcast and found out that she lived in the DMV. I reached out and she got me ready to pass those strength and conditioning tests. A few months after I became level one certified I decided that I wanted to pursue a level 2 certification. Guess what? With level 2 there are not only more techniques and movements, there are more challenging tests! There was one strength test in particular I knew I wasn’t ready for. Meaning, I knew I wasn’t going to pass without some help. I wasn’t strong enough. I saw a post from a guy I followed on IG saying, “Coach Mavericks did a great job preparing me for my level 2 certification.” Guess what I did? I DM’d Coach Mavericks and said, “I need some help!” I hired him in November 2021 and the level 2 certification weekend was March 2022.
I had less than 5 months for him to get my strength and technique to the point where I could pass that test. Listen, some of y’all in here are past and/or present kettlebell clients of mine. I’ve coached you and may still be coaching you. Here’s what I know. There are points and times during the workouts where you are thinking unkind thoughts about me in your head. You might smile at me afterward…but I’m glad I can’t read your mind in the middle of the workout. I might be traumatized if I could. Let me say to you, “I understand!” I’m glad that Coach Mavericks couldn’t read my mind as he was training me for that test! Now, I passed the test. In fact, I pressed that bell 2x. What does my kettlebell certification process have to do with our passage in 1 John this morning?
Tests are an unavoidable part of life, but most folks don’t like taking tests or being tested. Even if we’re well prepared for the test we’d prefer not to have to go through it. We’d be just fine if life was test free. We’d love it if life was such that we could have an unguarded trust in people that what they say can be believed and acted upon without any external validation or qualification. There’s a reason that my DC kettlebell club profile lists my credentials. Those credentials say that I’ve been tested and validated.
You see, we wish that people could be believed based solely on their word alone. But life isn’t like that, and John lets us know in this passage that the Christian faith isn’t like that either. You can’t just believe folk because they claim to be speaking for God. You can’t just believe folk because they seem to be spiritual. You can’t just believe folk because they’re nice, because they’re well-mannered, because they’re well-dressed, because they seem to have their act together, because they’re charismatic, because they have a lot of knowledge, because they have a huge following. John says, “None of that is enough. Do not believe every spirit. Instead, test the spirits to see whether they’re from God.” John says, there’s a testing. What’s the test? The test is whether what’s being communicated, what’s being spoken, what we’re being asked to believe or do is from God or not. If I failed my level 2 test it’s no big deal. I just can’t put that stamp on my profile. I’m just out some money that I paid for the certification. But if we believe something to be of God and it’s not, that can have soul crushing consequence for the present and eternal consequence for the hereafter.
I have two T’s for us in this message: Testing, and Triumph. And here’s the main point I want us to get from this message. I want us to be overwhelmed and overjoyed by the beauty and blessing of Christian assurance before God. It’ll drive it home in our second T, Triumph. The beauty of the truth that in Jesus Christ nothing and no one is able to pry us away from the love of God. That in Christ we are sealed in love, kept by love, and empowered for love. This is the beauty of Christian assurance.
Testing
Testing
John says in v. 1, 1Jn4.1
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.
It’s of note that the spirits are plural. Test the spirits. This is in contrast to the singular Spirit of God in v. 2. By this we know the Spirit of God, he says in v. 2. The Spirit of God is connected to the truth. Indeed, John says in v. 6, he is the Spirit of truth. The spirits are connected to falsehood and deception. When it comes to God there is the truth, singular. In the gospel of John 5:33, Jesus says that John the Baptist bore witness to the truth.
33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
In John 8:32 Jesus says to his disciples,
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
And, of course, in John 14.6
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
In this letter John is driving home points that he introduced in his Gospel account. The truth is singular and the falsehoods are many. That’s why the test is necessary. It was never popular to say that Jesus is the way and the truth when it comes to God. There’s no other way to God apart from faith in Jesus Christ. You think that’s just unpopular today? That’s what John was dealing with. Human beings, if we believe the obvious—that there is more to life than the physical, material world we experience with our senses—have always figured that we could navigate that spiritual life on our own terms. We’ve always been confident that we could figure it out. There are many paths to God is a message that resonates with the human heart.
After becoming a Christian in the mid-nineties, I remember traveling back up to NYC for Christmas and hanging out with a friend of mine from college. He knew me before my life of faith in Christ. As I was sharing my journey to Christianity, he looked me dead in the eyes and said this, “Irwyn, you’ve always been Christian.” What he meant was, “Irwyn, you’ve always been a spiritual person. Christianity is just the label you’re putting on your spirituality now. There’s really no difference.” What we want is for there to be a multiplicity of truths when it comes to God and the life of faith. The human heart naturally recoils at the idea of a singular truth and way to God.
John says, plural spirits, singular Spirit of God. And get this, when John refers to the spirits he isn’t simply describing non-material beings. The spirits are parallel to the false prophets. For John’s audience these were people who say that they speak for God, but communicate false messages about God, humanity, and life. And, based on what John says throughout this letter, their lives are also out of accord with the gospel. How does John describes the test? 1 John 4.2-3
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 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.
“Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that doesn’t confess Jesus is not from God.” We might miss it, but this is the open confession that Jesus is both God and man in one person. To confess that Jesus has come is to confess that he existed before he came. And it is to confess that he still exists in the flesh with his resurrected body. In other words, confessing the divinity and humanity of Jesus has its origin in God. John’s command to test them means a few things at least.
It’s not always easy to discern truth from error. He bookends the paragraph with the same phrase in v.2 and v.6, “This is how you know the Spirit of God, v2.” “This is how you know the Spirit of truth, v6.” False prophets have messages that sound plausible. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:14-15, “even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it’s no surprise if his servants, also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.” Erroneous messages about God and the life of faith can sound plausible and pleasing to our ears. Our current culture celebrates the message “love is love.” And almost no phrase could sound more plausible than that. How much does John talk about the primacy of love in this very letter? And we would say, “Of course love should be indiscriminate. Every single human being from the womb to the tomb is worthy of love.” I grew up hearing this song Dionne Warwick sang, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only that there’s just too little of.” The problem comes when we attach a self-defining love to the phrase. The problem is when we believe we get to be the arbiter of love independent of what God says love is. Even a right understanding of love is bounded by what God says in his word. Indeed, the whole next section in this letter demonstrates that.
The Christian faith isn’t a call to blind trust. The command to test means that our faith is not an invitation to leave your mind behind and just go with your heart. In fact, we heard Pastor Russ emphasize last week that we can find our hearts condemning us even when God isn’t condemning us. The Christian faith is a whole one. It’s heart and mind, not either or.
The true enemy of God and his people are not other people! The devil is real. He’s a liar and the source of all falsehood, untruth and murder. Deception is the devil’s work. John 8.44
44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Notice what John says in v. 3,
3 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.
The word antichrist appears four times in the Bible and only in John’s letters. John says in this letter,
22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.
Certainly the concept of a figure empowered by Satan who functions as an enemy of Jesus Christ and his Church appears in many more places. Paul calls him the man of lawlessness and son of destruction in 2 Thess 2:3. Here’s the point. John says this spirit is already here and at work in the world. It’s important for Christians to realize that the ultimate enemy of God and his people is the devil himself, and he works against Jesus and his purposes, but he does it through people.
4. And so here’s the last implication I want to share. This testing that John is talking about happens in community, not just individually. John is addressing a community of people. Every reference is to us and we. Loved ones in v. 1 is plural. Don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits is, “y’all don’t believe every spirit, y’all test the spirits.” Every opportunity I get I try to emphasize to us the communal nature of the Christian life. You and I are not solo projects. Don’t be arrogant enough to assume that as long as you read your Bible and pray every day that you can’t be deceived spiritually. You and I need to have close relationships with other Christians who can help us see if we’re starting to believe a lie. We face regular temptations in a city like DC to marry the Christian faith with partisan politics. We face regular temptations in a city full of people striving for upward mobility, trying to make a mark in this world, to marry God’s blessing with how things are going for us professionally. We need the community of faith, people to whom we are accountable and who are accountable to us, to help correct us when we’re drifting. And listen, it’s not that the church is perfect and cannot be found in error itself. But John makes a clear distinction in this passage about how to discern truth from error.
How do you tell the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error? John says in the first part of v. 6,
6 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.
He said in v.5 that the world listens to the false messengers because they are from the world and they speak from the world. What do we know about the world from the letter of 1 John?
Those who love the world don’t have the love of God in them.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
The world is characterized by that don’t come from God.
16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
The world is passing away,
17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
The world doesn’t recognize God or the children of God,
1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
The world hates the children of God,
13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
The world is in the power of the evil one,
19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
So it’s not that the church is perfect by any means, but John makes the strongest distinction between those who claim to speak God’s truth and are completely acceptable to the world, and those who submit to the authority of God’s word, who submit to the authority of the apostolic teaching John is referring to here. Submitting to the authority of God’s word doesn’t mean perfection it means the willingness to have our errors corrected. It includes confession and repentance when we’re shown to be wrong.
Triumph
Triumph
This might be a harsh and deflating message if the testing was all John emphasized in this passage. But I told you that I wanted us to walk away from this message overjoyed by the beauty and blessing of Christian assurance before God. John is warning his people in this passage against believing false messages about God from false messengers of God. And he’s confident that they will heed his warning. He’s confident, not just about their testing, but about their triumph. He has no doubt about it. The center and shining beacon of our passage is v.4,
“You are from God little children and you have overcome them. Because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.” I know that our translation begins v.4, “Little children you are from God.” But John structures v.4 in the Greek text differently for emphasis. The first words are, “Y’all are from God,” then he says “little children.” My confidence is this. Y’all are from God! And what that means is that you’ve already overcome the false messengers and their false messages. You’ve already triumphed! Why is that? Why are y’all victorious? Because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.
Last week from 1 John 3:20 we saw that God is greater than our inner critic. He’s greater than our heart. Your assurance before God isn’t based on how you feel about yourself. He has conquered our heart. The messages that our heart wants to tell us about why God couldn’t love us, wouldn’t love us, is constantly displeased and disappointed with us, is out to get us because of how badly we messed up; God is greater than the voice of our inner critic. It’d be wonderful—we might even think that it’d be enough for John to drive home that point and assure us of our secure and precious position before God in Jesus Christ. But he’s not content to leave it there.
That was part one of his mic drop. Part 2 of John’s mic drop moment is at the center of our text in v. 4. “You are from God little children and you have overcome them. Because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.” This week John wants you to know that not only is God greater than our internal struggle for assurance, God is greater than “he who is in the world.” What the world outside of us says about us can also damage our sense of assurance. In fact, what is often the cause of our inner critic? It’s what other people say about us, either to ourselves or to other people. Growing up I learned this lie, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” I understand how this was intended to be a positive statement to help me not be crushed by things other people say, but it ain’t true. Words hurt and leave wounds that last longer than the bruises from blows. So whether it’s the things that are said or the things that are done in this world that threaten our ability to rest in the goodness and love of God toward us in Jesus Christ, John wants us to know that God is greater than he who is in the world.
In other words, what is the basis of our assurance in Christ? According to John in vv. 3:20 and 4:4, the greatness of God. And not an abstract greatness, but a particular greatness. This isn’t a generic statement, “God is great all the time. And all the time, God is great.” It is the particular greatness of God in the middle of trying and difficult circumstances. It’s easy for me to say, “God is great,” when everything is coming up roses. In the context of this passage John is pointing out a problem. The problem is that the world hates God. The world hates the things of God. The world is inhabited by the spirit of the antichrist. What that means is those who believe in Jesus Christ will face trouble and trials because of that belief. John wants us to know that the world will continue to listen to the spirit of deception, therefore those who know the Spirit of truth will face resistance. The norm for the church is pursuing faithfulness to Jesus Christ and seeing fruitfulness from Jesus Christ in the midst of resistance.
God’s greatness is declared to us in that context. What makes Christians overcomers? It’s not our own efforts toward obedience. It’s not our running back to confess and repent time and time again. It’s not our commitment to pray, to read and study God’s word. These are all things that we do. These are all indispensible aspects of the Christian life, but they cannot provide the sense of assurance we need. It is only the greatness of God.
Family, God is greater than your inner critic. Family, God is greater than your outer critic. Family, God is greater! I don’t know what lays before you this week. I don’t know what challenges and temptations lay before you this week. But I know that God is greater. I don’t know what judgments Supreme Court is going to make this week. But I know that God is greater. I don’t know what statements and acts our politicians will make this week that’ll leave us concerned about the state of affairs in the US, but God is greater. There’s an infinite list of things I do not know. But what I do know is that God is greater!
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
This is how Paul could say to the Corinthians,
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
The only reason Christians can say we’re overcomers is because of the greatness of God. Every time John says we’ve overcome in this letter he’s referring to something that happened in the past and has present effect and impact.
He will say in
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Do you hear the repeated theme family? Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. You are from God little children and have overcome them. Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. Who is it that overcomes the world? The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
If we receive the testimony of men, John says in 5:9, the testimony of God is greater. God is greater. That is the refrain I want us to carry with us this week. God is greater. God is greater than my heart. God is greater than the world. That’s why we overcome. His greatness has overcome.
“God is fighting for us. God is on our side. He has overcome. Yes, he has overcome.
God is fighting for us. Pushing back the darkness. Lighting up the kingdom that cannot be shaken.
In the name of Jesus the Enemy’s defeated. And we will shout it out.
I will live, I will not die. The resurrection power of Christ alive in me. And I am free in Jesus’ name.”