1 John 4 - TESTING TESTING
Notes
Transcript
WARNING
WARNING
WARNING LABELS
EVERY PRODUCT WE BUY HAS ONE ON THEM.
insert slides about labels
WELL I BET NONE OF YOU HAVE DONE ANYTHING THAT DUMB.
WELL LET ME TELL YOU OF MY MOMENTS OF GLORY.
I HAD A LAPTOP THAT THE BATTERY CORDS WOULD NOT WORK, I HAD PURCHASED SEVERAL OF THEM AT THIS STAGE
REGARDLESS TO SAY I WANTED TO BLOW OUT THE END TO SEE IF THERE WAS ANY DUST IN IT.
AND THEN THE NEXT MOVE WAS TO LICK IT, PRETTY MUCH LIKE THE SPIT FACE CLEANING YOUR MOTHER GIVES YOU WHEN YOUR IN PUBLIC.
I WAS VERY SHOCKED TO FIND THAT THE PLUG ACTUALLY WORKED. BECAUSE I HAD LICKED IT WHILE IT WAS STILL PLUGGED IN.
INTRO
INTRO
WE BEGAN A NEW SERIES ON THE LETTERS OF JOHN ADDRESSES THE CHURCH AT LARGE IN THESE LETTERS. HE SENT THEM TO ENCOURAGE AND WARN THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY. THIS STILL APPLIES TO US TODAY.
LAST WEEK WE SPOKE ABOUT SPEAKING AND LIVING THE TRUTH
FAKE VS REAL
EYEWITNESS - ACTUALLY BEING THERE - FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE.
1 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life.
2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us.
3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
JOHN BEING AN ACTUAL EYE WITNESS THAT EXPEREINCED AND SAW AND TOUCHED AND HEARD AND DID LIFE WITH JESUS.
SETS THE TONE FOR THIS WEEKS MESSAGE :
THIS WEEK WE LOOKING AT CHECKING FOR ERROR - TESTING THINGS.
Most of the eyewitnesses to Jesus’ ministry had died by the time John composed this letter. Some of the second or third generation Christians began to have doubts about what they had been taught about Jesus.
Some Christians with a Greek background had a hard time believing that Jesus was human as well as divine, because in platonic thought, the spirit was all-important .
The body was only a prison from which one desired to escape.
Heresies developed from a uniting of this kind of platonic thought and Christianity.
A particularly widespread false teaching, later called Docetism (from a Greek word meaning “to seem”), held that Jesus was actually a spirit who only appeared to have a body.
They claimed that In reality he cast no shadow and left no footprints; he was God but not man.
There was a second heretical teaching related to Gnosticism (from a Greek word meaning knowledge), held that all physical matter was evil, the spirit was good, and only the intellectually enlightened could enjoy the benefits of religion.
Both groups found it hard to believe in a savior who is fully human.
John answers these false teachers as an eyewitness to Jesus’ life on earth. He saw Jesus, he talked with him, touched him - he knew that Jesus was more than a mere spirit.
In the very first sentence of this letter, John establishes that Jesus has been alive before the world began and also that he lived as a man among men and women.
1 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life.
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN TELLS US :
1 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
In other words he was both divine and human.
Through the centuries, many heretics have denied that Jesus was both God and man.
In John's day people had trouble believing he was human; today more people have problems seeing him as God.
But Jesus’ divine-human nature is a pivotal issue of Christianity.
BIBLE VERSE
1 Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.
2 This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God.
3 But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.
4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.
Before you accept what religious teachers say about any topic, listen carefully to what they believe about Jesus. To deny either his divinity or his humanity is to consider him less than Christ the savior.
THERE ARE MANY WAY TO TEST TEACHERS TO SEE IF THEIR MESSAGE IS TRULY FROM THE LORD.
TO SEE IF THEIR WORDS MEASURE UP AGAINST THE WORD OF GOD
IS WHAT YOU HEARING WHAT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO US IN THE SCRIPTURES?
NOW I KNOW THERE IS A MOVEMENT THAT DOES NOT AGREE WITH SCRIPTURE BECAUSE THERE IS THAT IDEA THAT IT HAS HUMAN ERROR.
I will list just a few:
2 Tim 3:16 tells us all scripture is God breathed indicating that the words of the Bible came from God
The Bible has the most surviving copies of its original documents and the Bible as we know it today has been put together from these copies of original documents making it a reliable text.
Can you imagine it was written by over 40 different authors yet their messages remain the same
the Bible is confirmed through archaeology and history
the Bible speaks of prophecies that have already been fulfilled
the Bible and science are in agreement
it was written by eye witnesses
IT ALSO INCLUDES TO SEE THEIR COMMITMENT TO THE BODY OF BELIEVERS
19 These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.
3. THEIR LIFESTYLES
23 And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.
24 Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.
DO OUR LIFE STYLES REFLECT OUR BELIEF?
HAVE WE CHANGED THE WAY WE LIVE OUR LIVES
4. THE FRUIT OF THEIR MINISTRIES
6 But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.
THE MOST IMPORTANT TEST OF ALL JOHN SAYS IS WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT CHRIST
DO THEY TEACH THAT JESUS IS FULLY GOD AND FULLY MAN.
FALSE TEACHERS ARE POPULAR WITH THE WORLD BECAUSE, LIKE THE FALSE PROPHETS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, THEY TELL YOU WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR.
JOHN WARNS THAT ANY TEACHERS THAT FAITHFULLY TEACH GOD’S WORD WILL NOT WIN ANY POPULARITY CONTESTS IN THE WORLD.
PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO HEAR WHAT THEY ARE DOING IS WRONG, THEY DONT WANT TO LISTEN TO DEMANDS TO CHANGE THEIR BEHAVIOUR.
A FALSE TEACHER WILL BE WELL RECEIVED BY THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW CHRIST AS THEIR LORD AND SAVIOUR.
INSERT STORY HERE
A FEW YEARS AGO AS I WAS SITTING IN A WAITING ROOM I PICKED UP A MAGAZINE AND THIS STORY CAUGHT MY EYE
Tania Head had one of the most tragic and inspiring stories to come out of the Sept. 11 attacks.
She was in the south tower, on the same floor that the second plane hit. She saw horrific carnage and was handed a wedding ring by a dying man who requested that she give it to his wife. Then she was led to safety by Welles Crowther, the famous "man in the red bandanna," who lost his own life rescuing others. And finally, she woke up in a hospital burn unit six days later, only to find out that her husband had been killed in the north tower.
Head became the face of the Sept 11.
Head was interviewed in the media, invited to speak at university conferences, and in 2005, was chosen to lead tours for the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, where she was photographed with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former New York Governor George Pataki.
Head regularly recounted her claims to Ground Zero tour groups in vivid detail, saying, "I was there at the towers. I'm a survivor. I'm going to tell you about that. She was featured in retrospective 9/11 articles as a representative of the 20,000 surviving victims who escaped the damaged buildings.
There was just one problem: Not a word of it was true.
"Her real name wasn't Tania Head at all," author and documentary filmmaker Angelo Guglielmo tells . "She was actually not even in the United States on Sept. 11."
"The likelihood of her ever meeting her husband, who was a real person that had died in the towers, was a complete impossibility," he says.
Head's real name turned out to be Alicia Esteve Head. She came from a wealthy Spanish family, and on Sept. 11, 2001, she had been in graduate school in Barcelona.
Survivors' Network, said, "There was no reason to doubt her story. She looked the part. She had a badly injured arm that appeared to have burn scars and her story was very, very realistic."
I THINK MY MOUTH WAS HANGING OPEN AT THIS STAGE AS I PROCESSED THIS ARTICLE.
HOWEVER, NOT ALL OF WHAT SHE DID WAS BAD, "The World Trade Center Survivors' Network had just gotten started, and Tania had been instrumental in moving it forward,"
MANY PEOPLE HAD TESTIFIED AS TO HOW AS A SURVIVOR SHE GAVE THEM A VOICE.
Angelo Guglielmo CO-AUTHORED A BOOK CALLED: The Woman Who Wasn't There: The True Story of an Incredible Deception.
WHY AM I TELLING YOU THIS? BECAUSE THIS IS THE NATURE OF DECEPTION - AND THIS IS WHY JOHN TELLS US TO DO JUST WHAT THAT JOURNALIST DID - DO OUR BACKGROUND CHECKS.
ANOTHER JOURNALIST LEE STROBEL - DID JUST THAT - IN HIS TESTIMONY HE TELLS OF HOW MUCH HE HATED HIS WIFE’S CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY THAT HE SET OUT ON A QUEST TO PROVE HER WRONG - HE NEVER TOOK ANYONES WORD FOR IT - DO YOUR SELF A FAVOUR AND PICK UP HIS BOOK CALLED A CASE FOR CHRIST AND OR A CASE FOR FAITH.
PASTOR KALEB HAS SOME OF HIS BOOKS CALLED:
IT IS EASY TO BE FRIGHTENED BY THE WICKEDNESS WE SEE ALL AROUND US AND OVERWHELEMED BY THE PROBLEMS WE FACE.
EVIL IS OBVIOUSLY MUCH STRONGER THAN WE ARE.
JOHN ASSURES US THAT GOD IS EVEN STRONGER. HE WILL CONQUER ALL EVIL AND HIS SPIRIT AND WORD LIVE IN OUR HEARTS.
4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.
BUT LET ME JUST STOP THERE FOR A MINUTE.
NOT ONLY DO WE NEED TO TEST WHAT WE ARE BEING TAUGHT BUT WE ARE TO
CHECK OUR OWN HEARTS
WHEN PAUL WAS ADDRESSING THE CHURCH IN CORINTH AND FOUND A LOT OF DECEPTION AND CORRUPTION AND IMMORALITY HE ADMONISHED THEM:
5 Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith.
KING DAVID WROTE IN PSALM 139
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
PAUSE............
EARLIER IN CHAPTER 3 JOHN DOES NOT HOLD BACK ANY PUNCHES:
I DON’T HAVE TO REPEAT WHAT HAS ALREADY BEEN SAID LAST MONTH - DO YOURSELF A FAVOUR AND GO BACK AND WATCH THE MESSAGES FROM LAST MONTH ON LOVE AND THEN:
10 So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.
JOHN TELLS US THAT WE OUGHT TO EAMINE OURSELVES AND SEE IF WE HAVE MADE RIGHT WITH GOD.
THE GOSPEL OF LUKE - DR LUKE AS MANY LIKE TO REFER TO HIM FRAMES IT THIS WAY FOR US IN THE OPENING ADDRESS OF HIS GOSPEL:
end with this SLIDE
1 Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us.
2 They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples.
3 Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write an accurate account for you, most honorable Theophilus,
4 so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught.
I WANT TO USE THIS PRAYER FROM ST PATRICK THAT IS VERY APT AND FITTING TO CLOSE OUR BLESSING AS WE PREPARE TO ENTER INTO COMMUNION TODAY.
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
