Sermon Tone Analysis

1 John 4:1-6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen Caswell © 1997

 

The Great Impostor.

The artic polar bear feeds almost entirely on seal.

To enjoy such a meal, he sometimes resorts to a cunning bit of trickery.

If the hole in the ice through which the seal gets his food is not too far from the edge of open water, the bear will take a deep breath, slip underwater, and swim to the seals' fishing hole.

He will then imitate a fish scratching lightly on the under side of the ice.

When the seal hears this sound, he dives in for a quick supper, only to find himself caught in the huge, hungry embrace of his predator.

The one pretending to be the food turned out to be the hunter.

The devil deceives people by speaking through false prophets who speak in the same way true prophets do.

The Command

 

*1 John 4:1a* *says:*  /Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God;/ /because many false prophets have gone out into the world./

Verse one contains two commands and the /reason/ for them.

/Firstly,/ *don't believe every spirit.*

/Secondly,/ *test the spirits.*

We know John is addressing believers because he calls them beloved.

He gives them both positive and negative commands, and then the reason for the test.

/Firstly,/ The Reason for the Test

 

The Church at Ephesus

 

In the Ephesian Church there were a number of teachers who claimed to have special knowledge.

They claimed to have received this knowledge directly from God through His Spirit.

They claimed to be inspired prophets, speaking the true message of God.

Some of their teaching was similar, but it was not exactly the same.

At this point the New Testament cannon had not been completed, so God still spoke through prophets.

There may have been others who spoke in tongues.

So John wrote to the Ephesian Church and gave them two commands concerning the gift of prophecy.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, But test the spirits, whether they are of God; The reason for the test is in *1b: */because many false prophets have gone out into the world./

The reason for the test is because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

John first speaks about testing the spirits and then talks about men, false prophets.

/Why?/

The answer is that the false prophets are inspired and empowered by evil spirits.

Because God spoke miraculously through His prophets did not mean that all prophets were genuine.

Jesus gave a test for false prophets in *Matthew 7:15-20*, where he said that by their fruits you will know them.

Paul also in *1 Corinthians 12:3* gave another test, where he said that no one could say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

Paul warned that in the last days there would be those who give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons in *1 Timothy 4:1-2.*

John is warning the Ephesian Church of the reality of false prophets who have gone out into the world to deceive.

They are supernaturally empowered and can be identified through testing.

This was not an option, but a command.

If a prophet claimed to speak the Word of the Lord, his message was not to be believed until he had been tested.

Application

 

Today in many churches people claim to speak God's prophetic word, but are not tested.

We believe that God has finished His revelation to man in the completed New Testament cannon.

Yet those who claim to have the gift of prophecy and tongues do not test the source of their gift.

They think that the supernatural nature of the gift validates it.

They claim that God has given them further revelation for the church./

But is this is true?/ *John 15:15* says: /No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.* */

*/ /*

*Hebrews 1:1-2a* agrees with this: / God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, /*2 Thessalonians 2:9-10* warns us of those that perform lying signs and wonders and deceive many.

I believe that this is happening today in the Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches.

/Do you believe everything you hear as truth?

Do you test the message and the messenger?

/Let us be careful to test everything and thereby avoid deception.

/Secondly,/ The Results of the Test 

 

The Acid Test

 

A severe test is sometimes called an */acid test./*

This term originated during times when gold was widely circulated.

Many people tried to make it rich by counterfeiting this precious metal.

So the wise would apply nitric acid to an object to see if it was genuine or not.

If it was fake, the acid decomposed it: if it was genuine, the gold was unaffected.

In verse one John tells them to test the spirits.

The word */test/* dokimazw means /to put to the test, to prove by trial, examine, scrutinise, to assay metals./

Paul uses the same word in *2 Timothy 2:15:* /Be diligent to present yourself *approved* to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

/The word/ approved/ speaks of one who has been tested and found genuine, to be tried and true.

In verses 2-3 John gives us the/ requirements /of the test.

Then he gives us the /results of the test./

*1 John 4:2-3:* /By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.

And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

/

 

The Incarnation

 

John says you can know the true prophet from the false prophet by their confession of the incarnation.

The word /know/ used here basically means to know a thing by something, and in the context it is the test.

The response of the prophet concerning the incarnation.

This means that a true prophet empowered by God will publicly declare that Jesus Christ has come in human form.

By doing this they acknowledge both the deity and humanity of Christ.

When John wrote this letter to the Ephesians, there were some who claimed that the Christ came upon Jesus at His baptism and then left again before the crucifixion.

This was an early form of gnosticism, that denied the divinity of Jesus.

Others claimed that Christ only seemed to be human, that he was really a phantom or ghost like being.

These were the docetists and they denied the true humanity of Christ.

Therefore John commanded the Ephesian Church to test the prophets and see if they were speaking by the Spirit of God or through the spirit of Antichrist.

The  word confess here means to/ say the same thing, /or /to agree with.

/A true prophet will say the same thing as the apostles concerning Christ's incarnation.

A true prophet will acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and that we have a mediator in heaven who is the Man Christ Jesus 1 Timothy.

The incarnation of Christ began at Bethlehem, but continues today in heaven.

The false prophets could not make such a confession and were therefore to be rejected by the church.

The Password

 

During World War II the allies placed many secret agents behind enemy lines to spy on enemies movements.

Often these agents would work together on large assignments.

If they had to meet another agent that they did not recognise they would use a pass word to ensure that they were on the same side.

The other agent identified himself as genuine by his knowledge of the pass word.

The same is true in our spiritual battle against Satan.

False prophets cannot use the password of the incarnation.

The essence of our salvation is bound up in the incarnation.

Therefore any attempt to deny it is most serious and must be strongly withstood.

This is still true today.

The cults will gladly accept that Jesus was a good man or great moral teacher.

But they deny that He is the sinless Son of God manifested in human form to destroy the power of sin and provide salvation for mankind.

This teaching is fundamental to salvation and cannot be compromised in the slightest possible way.

If a prophet denies the perfect deity and humanity of Christ they are the mouthpiece of the spirit of Antichrist.

Miracles and signs are not the test of authenticity.

The test was that they agreed with the apostolic teaching concerning the incarnation.

The result is this.

A prophet is either speaking by the Spirit of God acknowledges the incarnation and is therefore a true prophet.