That You Might Have Fellowship–The Truth of the Matter
That You Might Have Fellowship–The Truth of the Matter: 1 John 4:1-6
Introduction:
Author Richard W. De Haan writes: In an issue of National Geographic magazine I read a fascinating article entitled, “A Pacific Island Awaits Its Messiah.” The Christ referred to is not the Lord Jesus, but a legendary figure called John Frum. The author, Dr. Kal Muller, points out that the islanders think this person will be either a “beneficent spirit,” a “god come to earth,” or “king of America.” The third description has its origin in the fact that U. S. troops occupied the area during World War II, and their presence was accompanied by many material benefits. The people therefore concluded that John Frum had finally arrived.
Although they later experienced keen disappointment when the soldiers left, their hopes did not die. To this day they frequently march with bamboo “rifles” slung over their shoulders and the letters USA painted on their bodies. They are still looking for their messiah who they think will usher in a “prosperous, work-free millennium of unlimited earthly goods.”
We are in First John–a letter written by the disciple whom Jesus loved. John–one of the sons of thunder. John–the one who had a fiery temper toward those who didn’t treat the Lord Jesus with respect. Now, after all these years, John still had a firey temper and minced no words here. Notice the words truth, antichrist, error, false prophets in this passage. Black and white when it comes to matters of truth. John, who implored the believers to “love one another” is now saying in essence: Error is the enemy! You must not tolerate it. If it’s heresy, you must root it out–immediately if not sooner. In this passage of Scripture, John tells us to prove the prophecies, the so-called statements of truth by those who call themselves God’s teachers and preachers but are not. John also talks about the very heart of the heresy of his day–the denial of the incarnation of Christ. Finally, we will see John address the line of demarcation that separates truth itself from error.
In 1 John 4:1, we find John pointedly telling us to prove the prophecies. First we find a negative command– don’t blindly believe everybody who claims to “have a word from the Lord”, because not every person who claims to have the truth really possesses it. Matters of God and eternity are much too important to uncritically accept anything that comes down the pike.
According to one source, in the past 50 years, there have been over 1,100 religious leaders on this planet who have claimed to be Christ and the Savior of the world. 1100. Quite a number. But if you think this is a new thing, guess again. Even in the first century there were Messiah figures. Shortly after the Day of Pentecost, Peter and John boldly preached the gospel, and the religious authorities were furious. They threatened them and wanted them dead. But a wise man intervened. His name was Gamaliel. Here is what he said in Acts 5:36-37 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.
Then he warned them that if the new movement of Jesus followers was true, then they will not be able to stop it–indeed they might find themselves fighting against God.
I want to point out that there will always be people who claim to be the newest prophet, the best improved version of the Messiah. And that also tells me that there are very few of us who are true trail blazers–the vast majority of us will follow something or somebody who has already started down a path.
We as the body of Christ need to take heed that any new thing that doesn’t match up with the truth of Scripture is to be rejected. And quickly. Don’t dabble! As with anything, the longer we engage ourselves with something, especially if it is the wrong thing, the more difficult it is to get out of it. For example, how many of us have gone to a movie, only to discover it wasn’t at all like the previews showed? Your sensibilities were offended. You felt like a hypocrite for even being there. But the longer you stayed, the harder it was to leave. “Stewardship issues” we rationalize. “After all, we paid for this–God wouldn’t want me to waste my money would He?” Anybody rationalize like that? Now we know it wasn’t money that kept us–it was our sinful nature that we obeyed.
Now, John gives us a positive positive command at the end of v1 (1John 4:1): test the spirits. Literally, be skeptical! Don’t swallow what they are saying just because somebody has “credentials.” Be a Berean! You remember. Acts 17:11–now these Bereans were more to be commended more than the Thessalonians because they received the word that Paul presented with all readiness and examined the Scriptures daily to see whether what he said was true.” How many of you would say that you are a healthy skeptic? How many of you prove that you are? How many of you just take the word of someone who stands before you and delivers a message without bothering to check it out? That message could come from a false prophet.
I know of chaplains who adhere to a false gospel. I was assigned to work with these kinds of chaplains at three of the five chapels I’ve been assigned to in my career as an AF chaplain. They would stand up in the pulpit and give their messages but I wonder how many actually bothered to check out what was said with Scripture.
And here at Grand Forks, how many of you hear me as healthy, spiritual skeptics? You have a responsibility to challenge what you hear if I’m not on track. How do you know whether I’m on track? You need to check it out and compare it with Scripture. One thing I’m not. I’m not a prophet like Isaiah or Jeremiah who heard directly from the Lord and spoke the message verbatim. I know I don’t have a corner on the truth. Though I do my level best to interpret and present the Word of God the way it’s supposed to, I am fallible. I dare you to check out what I say with the Word of God. That means when you come to the service, you need to be ready to listen–take notes if you need to–but dare to challenge what is said.
So after setting up the negative and positive commands to make sure his readers were not listening to a false prophet, John goes on and talks about the heresy of his day and how to tell if what is being taught is from spirit of God or from the spirit of the antichrist–the messages which come directly from the pit of hell.
In vv2-3 (1 John 4:2-3), we read about the very heart of the heresy–the thing that got John more heated than anything. When a false prophet gave a message, he wanted to quash it immediately. John was adamant about it. John was living up to his “son of thunder” nickname. In fact, if you turn over to 2 Jn vv 7-11, you will find out how upset he got over the false prophets: Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. 11 Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.
Pretty strong stuff. And so what was the teaching that got John so worked up? It was the denial of the incarnation of Christ–the truth that Jesus is God clothed in human flesh. The identity of who Jesus is right at the very heart of our faith. One writer told of the absolute importance of accepting this reality: “the human Jesus is nothing less than the divine Christ.” How we as believers need to guard this precious truth and make on the spot corrections when others try to water down the identity of who Jesus really is. One of the heresies of John’s day was that Jesus’ deity was so emphasized and his humanity was so downplayed to the point that people believed Jesus really didn’t take on flesh, but only seemed to be human. That was known as docetism–from the Greek word “seem”. According to historian Philip Schaff, the Docetists taught that the body of Christ was not real flesh and blood, but merely a deceptive, transient phantom–like a ghost, and consequently that he did not really suffer and die and rise again.
Remember, this heresy began to circulated about 60 years after Jesus went back to heaven. Many people had not seen Him. So, many fanciful tales were concocted about Christ. But the Jesus we know from the eyewitness accounts of the gospels demonstrate that he displayed human characteristics. He ate food. He slept. He got angry. He wept. And there were many who saw Him die and many who saw Him after He rose from the dead.
First century–Christ’s humanity was downplayed. Today, I think we have the opposite problem–Christ’s deity is downplayed. We have people in search of the so-called historical Jesus. But it is only to try to prove that Jesus was a mere man. We also have so-called Christian faith groups which outright deny the deity of Christ. And they are very deceptive. They even use terminology the “son of God” to describe Jesus–but they mean something very different than what we mean when we use that term. And they can lead you into thinking that they are true Christians. But just because they use the same terminology doesn’t mean they have the same spirit. Be careful!
Today, there are many who attack the statements made in the NT about Jesus’ claims to be God in the flesh. Due to lack of time, we won’t study it but if you would jot down John 8:54-59 and read it at your leisure, you will find that in this passage that Jesus claimed to be the great I AM–the very one who spoke to Moses in the burning bush in Ex 3. In John 8, we know that the Jews understood what Jesus said because they wanted to kill him–they understood that Jesus was in their minds committing blasphemy–a mere man claiming to be God.
The point here is that we need to embrace both “sides” of Jesus. Theologians call this dual nature the “hypostatic union”–that’s a big term you can use to impress your friends! This is simply to say that Jesus is both God and man at the same time–100% God and 100% man. To deny either aspect is to deny Jesus. And those who deny Jesus prove that they aren’t believers. They can act like Christians. They can in every other way talk like Christians. But they aren’t. Don’t let them fool you!
Now in vv 4-6 (1 John 4:4-6) notice the Spiritual demarcation. The reality is that there is a spiritual line drawn in the spiritual sand of the universe. There really is the spirit of God and the spirit of the antichrist– ultimately the devil himself. There is evil and there is God. We have got to embrace this truth! I’m afraid in our tolerant-to-everybody-but-Christian culture, we have bought into some of this idea that absolutes don’t exist. God says they do! And we must embrace everything He taught us.
But we need to understand the issue correctly. From where we sit, often this unseen struggle appears as a real question–who will win–God or the devil? It’s like God and the devil are two equal powers. We are on the sidelines watching the battle. Our knuckles are white. We are on the edge of our seat biting our fingernails and waiting with bated breath hoping that God will win but frantic with fear that He may not.
But there are no rivals with God. God is above all. The difference between God and the devil himself is the same as God and a blade of grass. Because God is the creator. The devil is a creature. The devil does not possess any knowledge that God does not already know about and has not already taken into account. It’s like playing chess with a two year old. Who is going to win? I’ve got a hobby–sort of– that you might find weird. I sort of collect chess sets. I like to play chess. And I’m teaching 9 year old Gabriel how to play. And as hard as he tries to win, there is no contest. For some reason, I win every time!
And in v4, that is exactly what John is talking about. He is saying that the divine spirit--in us--is stronger than the devil spirit that is in the world. But the great news is that we are a part of the winning team. And we are part of the winning team precisely because of the indwelling Spirit of God. We are of God. John underscores the fact of whose we are. We have a different spirit. We are not just reformed people. We are new people. We have received the very eternal life from the one true God. John declares that we have overcome them. And who is they? Why it’s anyone in whom dwells the spirit of the antichrist. In other words, non-believers. We have the Spirit of God within us. They don’t. We have the very power of God Himself within us. They don’t.
Then notice v5 (1 John 4:5). The spirit of the antichrist does have spiritual success. But its success is among those of this world. When the spirit of the antichrist speaks, the world listens. And for those of us who’ve been in the kingdom for awhile, we know about which John is speaking. For the plans, the programs, the logic of the world is foreign to our ears, to our way of thinking. The world can’t understand us and we often don’t understand the world. And it is especially true regarding how the world views Jesus. See, the incarnation is not logical, but it is a miracle. For the one who is limitless to place limitations on Himself is truly a miracle. And the world uses their limited perspective in trying to understand a miracle but it doesn’t work and so often they use their arguments to explain away the things of God. And it gets frustrating!
You know, I’m glad this verse is in here, because it gives some insight into just how different the ways of the world are to the Kingdom of God. And I don’t know about you, but especially early in my life as a Christian, I couldn’t understand how the world seemed so foreign. I was frustrated because they just didn’t get it. But to know just how different–well like night and day–is a help. And how we need to take this to heart if we expect to reach those in the world with the gospel. We need to invade their territory so to speak. This calls for us to be culturally relevant when we share the good news with them. This might mean that we will need to put up with some of their heathen practices in order to give them the gospel. We may need to befriend the modern day tax collectors and sinners–the despised in our society. And the longer we have been out of the kingdom of darkness, the more difficult it can be. So let’s begin to lay aside our Christianeze, begin to peek our heads out from our Christian subculture and infiltrate the enemy’s camp with the ways of the Kingdom and the gospel that sets them free.
And now notice v6 (1 John 4:6): We are from God; whoever knows God hears us, whoever is not from God does not hear us: by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
In this verse we can gain a clue as to who are ready to hear us and those who are not, to gain some much needed divine discernment of who really listens to us and God’s message.
Notice John telling his readers their new origin: we are from God– assurance of the reality. We are from God because of the Spirit resident within us. When people listen to us, it is because they are of God as well–and that the Lord is opening their hearts to listen if they are non believers. If they are believers, they will delight in what we have to say.
But we should not be surprised that those with a different spirit won’t listen. Why? We listen to those we love and trust–we listen to those with whom we are on the same wavelength. When something is foreign or if we don’t trust the messenger, then we shy away. If we do that, then we should expect that it others react the same way. The truth of our message will not be well received by everybody.
If people hear us, then we know that they have the Spirit of Truth within them--or at least they are responsive to the ministry of the Holy Spirit working in their lives. Because as Jesus told us, the Holy Spirit is God Himself sent to the world to convict the world of their need for the Lord.
Now let me point out yet another absolute statement of the apostle of love and that is, it is we who have the truth. We, the followers of the Truth have that truth is deposited in us. All we need to do is proclaim it. I remember recently speaking to a young man who was a member of another religion. God gave me a great opportunity to tell him about Christ. And I asked him if he’d ever done an investigative study into just who Jesus claimed to be. He volunteered an answer–that he understood Jesus to be the Son of God but not God the Son. I had the privilege of telling him the truth–that Jesus did claim to be God in the flesh.
And that leads us to pointing out the vital necessity of actually proclaiming what the Bible really says. We need to be sure that there is the least amount of distortion between the words on the pages of Scripture and our communication to one who desperately needs to hear it. Imagine your radio in your vehicle. When it is tuned slightly off channel (assuming your dial is analog), the message is distorted. And the more distortion, the more we can’t understand it. There is nothing wrong with the signal sent out from the station. What distorts it has everything to do with the tuning mechanism of the radio picking it up.
Just like us. There is nothing wrong with God’s word coming to us in the Bible, for the Bible is God’s word. We are like the radios which broadcast the message. What are some things that can distort the message? For one, incorrectly dividing the word of truth. Be careful to be faithful to the message. Don’t misinterpret the Word of God. Peter gave a stern warning in his last letter: speaking of the soon return of the Lord, he writes (1 Peter 3:15-16): So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
What is Peter saying? There are those who mishandle the Word of God TO THEIR OWN DESTRUCTION. When we mishandle the word, God allows us to believe it that way and as we misapply it, we are destroyed by it. How are we destroyed? I think of the so-called theology that says, “you can have what you want, just speak it into existence.” If you are poor, just confess you are rich. OK. I confess a million dollars. I don’t think I’ll be receiving my million anytime soon. I heard one person who misapplied Isa 53:5 (by His wounds we are healed) and actually said that he didn’t understand why Christians suffer physical death. Sounds logical–if we are healed by the wounds of Jesus–all of them–then we ought to not die.
There are many more examples I could give you. But when we mishandle scripture, we destroy our ministry by destroying our credibility. We destroy our witness by twisting scripture to justify our actions that we know are sinful. And finally we destroy our rewards in heaven when we will watch as they get burned up at the judgment seat of Christ.
Let’s be very sure that we don’t distort the message as it filters through our lives and over our lips.
And finally, not only do we need to take care that we are not distorting the Word of God, let us take delight in the fact that God has given us His Truth. We don’t have to look anywhere else for truth. I must confess that at times, I get bored with the Word of God. See I’ve heard it all before. I spent years in seminary studying in, around, and under many Scripture passages. I prepare messages nearly every week. I can get stuck in a spiritual rut. But that’s when I forget that right here is the ONLY place in the world where spiritual truth is to be found. It is not found in the Koran. It is not found in the Bhagava Gita. It is not found in the Upanishads–hindu writings. It is not found in the eight-fold path or in the writings of the buddha. It is not found in the book of Mormon. It is ONLY found right here. My friends, we must gain a true hunger and thirst for His word! Only then will we be able to live in the joyful light of truth but also be protected from ourselves and from the enemy of our souls.
One afternoon in 1965, Daniel Waswa, a citizen of Kenya, struggled up a hill and was crucified by his wife at his own direction. As he hung on the cross, he told the gathered crowd, “I am dying for the sins of all Kenyans.”
After nailing her husband to the cross, the woman collapsed on the ground and died, apparently from shock.
Waswa’s neighbors knew this was no spur-of-the-moment act. He had talked about it for a year and had told them he had been called by God for this purpose.
They begged him to let them take him down. He refused all requests. Finally he was taken down still alive, but he soon died from the nail wounds which had become infected.
Superstitious people now make pilgrimages to the spot where Daniel Waswa died and pray for him to forgive their sins.
How pathetic! How deceived! How did he know that he was “called by God?” I’m sure that he was called by a god, but it was more than likely the god of this world. Jesus described the god of this world–the antichrist, the devil himself, as a thief which comes only to steal, kill and destroy. We can be safe from destruction from the thief if we learn to discern the difference between spirit of God and the spirit of the antichrist.
text with italics and bold and John 3:16 and v. 20.
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