Sermon Tone Analysis

Am I a Christian?

Do you know that you are a Christian?

This is a most essential question, is it not?

Matthew 7:15:23

Did you notice the statement Jesus made in verse 21?

And then verse 22.

And now notice His answer.

Do you know if you’re going to heaven?

How do you know you won’t hear — “I never knew you!

Depart from Me?” How can you know?

1 John gives us Tests of Authenticity of being a child of God — so that we might know — that’s a very important phrase in 1 John.

Nearly 30 times, John tells us that we can know we are God’s children.

For example.

And

Also,

All throughout John’s letter we have these “We Know” statements that constitute the evidence or the litmus test of a true Christian.

Before we get into these let me give you a little background behind John’s letter.

Background

John was advanced in age when he penned this epistle and the sole remaining apostle.

The time frame of the writing of the epistle is between AD 90-95.

AD 95 becomes important because this is the great persecution of Christians by the Roman Emperor Domitian.

But there’s no mention of the Domitian Persecution, so this is generally accepted to be right before AD 95.

The church fathers John Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Eusebius all indicated that John lived in Ephesus in Asia Minor, which is modern day Turkey.

Papias, another early church father described John as a “living and abiding voice.”

Ephesus was within the intellectual center of Asia Minor.

And as Paul predicted, false teachers would rise up among the church at Ephesus with false doctrine that would pervert fundamental Scriptural teaching.

These False Teachers advocated “new ideas” that would become Gnosticism, which is from the Greek word for knowledge.

Now you see why John kept using the phrase “We Know.”

Gnosticism was the most threatening heresy to the early church during the first 3 centuries.

Gnosticism was heavily influenced by Plato who advocated dualism.

Dualism stated that matter was inherently evil and spirit was good.

As a result false teachers denied the humanity of Christ to preserve Him from evil.

They also advocated a “higher knowledge” known only to those in on the “deep things.”

The result was a mystical knowledge of truth that was higher even than Scripture!

Therefore — instead of divine revelation standing as judge over man’s ideas, man’s ideas judged God’s revelation.

This is always a danger lurking.

This is why it is so important that Scripture hold preeminence.

And so, John begins his prologue in chapter 1.

1 John 1:1-5

In these verses, we can see John countering the attack of the heresy.

It’s not so much that he is writing a critique of the heresy, but rather — he is giving a warning and — encouragement to believers in Ephesus.

And he does it in such a way to give them tests that they may KNOW if they are God’s Children.

As we can see, as John gives these “We know” statements — He is dealing in certainties, not opinions or conjecture.

He gives them the absolute character of Christianity in the most simple terms.

He is clear and unmistakable, leaving no doubt about the truth.

And yet he is warm and loving in tone, conversing like a father with his children in intimate conversation.

He is also pastoral writing with the heart of a pastor.

He desired them to have joy.

And so the letter is positive, but he is also polemic — not sweeping past the issues.

He refutes the error with sound doctrine, and tolerates no perversion of the truth.

He labels the heretical defectors identifying them by their source — Doctrine of Demons.

Let’s consider these Tests of the Christian.

How do I know that I am a Christian?

John gives 7 Tests of a Christian.

And they run in a spiral fashion, much like a screw being screwed into a piece of wood and as it digs in and keeps digging in.

This is much like what John does.

His approach is

spiraling down and down going through every test of being a true Child of God.

He begins with a Test of Doctrine to believe and Doctrine to live, in what we’ll call the First Spiral, and then another Test of Doctrine to believe and then Doctrine to live in the Second Spiral, and then another Test of Doctrine to believe and a Test of Doctrine to live in the Third Spiral - then the Final Test in the Fourth Spiral.

All total — there are 7 Tests: 2 in the first Spiral, 2 in the second Spiral, 2 and the Third Spiral and the 1 Final Test in the 4th and last Spiral.

Now that you may be thoroughly confused — just hang on.

Let’s look at the 1st Spiral.

and at Tests 1 and 2.

I. 1st Spiral — Tests 1 and 2

We’ll look at these

This is the first Test of Doctrine to believe.

Test 1 — The Doctrine to Believe

The Biblical View of Christ

Who is Jesus Christ?

From the beginning

Though

Like the phrase found in his Gospel, “in the beginning,” the phrase means eternity past.

In context it refers to the beginning of gospel preaching, but there is also the emphasis of the stability of the gospel message — it never changes.

It’s not subject to change due to the current fads of the world or philosophical ideas.

And so the idea here is “we know.”

The message of redemption is unchanging.

What makes the message unchanging is the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ — He is unchanging.

Notice the phrases: “what we have heard, what we have see with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life.”

John reflects on the person of Jesus Christ some 60 years later, the memories permanently etched on his mind as if the events had just happened.

Each phrase refers to Jesus in bodily form — His humanity.

Spirit cannot be heard, or seen, or touched.

And this Word of life, refers specifically to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And John says in verse 2 — “that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.

All of it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the One you must believe in.

This is the First Test of being a Christian — Believing in the Biblical Jesus, not a historical one or what you personally think He is or a vision you’ve had of Him.

What does the Bible say of Jesus?

He is the Word of Life who was with the Father and was revealed to us and this is the Jesus Declared to you.

Do you believe in that Jesus?

The Biblical View of Sin

Biblical Doctrine does not stop with the Person and Work of Christ.

Think about this.

Why has Jesus Christ been revealed?

Why did He come?

Now that gets us into our condition.

We are sinners.

But what does that mean?

What does that entail?

Notice how John starts this in verse 5, and this is essential to understanding sin — Biblically.

This gives us everything we need to know about sin.