Our Sermons

Bible Passage: 1 John 4:1-11
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  May 9, 2021

“Will the real Jesus please stand up?” Perhaps that statement or question grabs your attention. I think it’s meant to do so. It’s the title of a book that some of us studied here at Eastside last year. And that thought provoking title immediately came to my mind as I was studying for the sermon this week. John tells us to “test the spirits to see if they are from God.” How do we do that? “Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God and every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God.” Sounds simple enough, right? But it’s more nuanced than that. People claim lots of things about Jesus that just aren’t true. People turn Jesus into someone that he isn’t and was never meant to be. John says, This is the spirit of the Anitchrist, which you have heard is coming and is already in the world.” That’s right, there is a spirit out there that is actively working against Christ, actively working to keep our attention off of the real Jesus. So what can we do? Test the spirits. Today we are going to do just that. Today we are going to see that God’s Truth Overcomes False Prophets. 

Listen again to John’s encouragement: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is already in the world. From God’s point of view, the issue of spiritual teachers is of enormous importance. That’s who John calls the “spirits” here. Word and Sacrament need to be brought to people, since no one is born with them. Spiritual infants need to be fed with spiritual leadership and sound teaching to help them grow. We need those spiritual teachers to bring us those sacraments and to help grow our faith. But who do we believe? 

Isn’t that a question you’ve been asking yourself over and over again the past year and a half? With so many people talking and saying sometimes completely opposite things, it’s hard to know who to believe. How much more important to ask the question spiritually? Who do we believe? We can’t believe everyone. We can’t believe everyone, because everyone has their own version of truth. In some ways, trying to believe everyone is just as dangerous as believing no one. So who do we believe? What’s the test? What do we look for? Do we look for signs and wonders that impress? Are we captivated by charisma and personal magnetism? Do we demand outward success and power? Are we drawn to great scholarship and intellect? While some of these are good in and of themselves, they can’t be the standard for testing the teachers. Instead, John gives us the standard. No, we can’t see the heart, but we can see their confession. What does their confession say? Do they confess “that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh…”? If not, they are not preaching the real Jesus. 

Now, certainly, a person’s confession is not just limited to one or two doctrines. And that’s not what John is saying here. But the test begins with Jesus. The doctrine of the real Jesus, true Man and true God is at the center. This teaching is so central to our faith, so important, that protecting this teaching prompted the writing of the Nicene and Athansian creeds. Anyone who denies this truth is clearly a false prophet. 

But we can overcome those false prophets. John continues: “You are from God, dear children, and you have overcome the false prophets, because the one in you is greater than the one in the world. They are from the world. The one who knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That is how we can distinguish between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” How do we overcome? How do we test the spirits? John gives us a second method. Ask yourself, “Where do they get their information and who is their audience?” False prophets are not getting their information from God or from his Word. John says, “The one who knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.” All false teachers are drawing their information from sources other than the Bible. Whether it be pagan philosophy or rationalism or “scientific investigation,” or the claim of some human, “They are from the world.” John says. They speak the language of the world. They want to change the language of Scripture to make it more relevant and applicable to the world today. And sometimes it feels like they are winning, doesn’t it? They are the ones who are growing and succeeding. But remember, outward success isn’t an indicator of spiritual truth. Earthly gains aren’t heavenly ones. John reminds us: “You are from God, dear children, and you have overcome the false prophets, because the one in you is greater than the one in the world.” Even though our eyes may deceive us, we have overcome the false prophets and their false teachings because God is greater than the devil, because Jesus won the victory over Satan. Now John encourages us to demonstrate that victory, to demonstrate the truth that we are from God, by putting that truth into action.

“Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love has not known God, because God is love. This is how God’s love for us was revealed: God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we may live through him. This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us so much, we should also love one another.” If you remember from a couple weeks ago, when John calls us friends, he’s really calling us “beloved or loved ones.” Do you see the word play here in verse 7. “Loved ones, let us love…” Believers who are bound together in confession of the real Jesus will show that unity by loving. How can we love? Because we have been born of God and know God. That word “know,” means to know by experience. We have experienced God and his love as he’s made his home in our hearts through faith. That’s why John can say that those who don’t love don’t know God. They don’t have faith. They don’t have God dwelling in them. But we, the loved ones do. And not only does John encourage us to love, he defines what love is.

“This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” What is love? Love is doing what is the best for the other person regardless of cost or consequences to yourself. And we see that kind of love in action in God’s action of sending Jesus. This is the real Jesus, the one who was willing to take on flesh, to humble himself under the Law, to live perfectly in the place of the whole world, and then offer his life as the sacrifice that would once again make the world at peace with God. 

If this past year has taught us anything, it has taught us that everyone needs to feel loved. On a scale of needs, the need to be loved has to be near the top. Love makes us feel that we have worth, that we are somebody. It is one of the highest and most important things that a parent can do for a child’s well-being. Christmas and Good Friday are annual reminders of how serious God is about adopting us into his family, about how seriously God loves us. These are priceless thoughts when doubts creep in about God’s love. 

You see, the world doesn’t know God. The world looks at the conditions we live in and quickly concludes that God is either powerless, mean, or imaginary. The evidence seems overwhelming. How can there be a loving God in the presence of COVID, cancer, war, divorce, rape, and child molestation? But Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter overcome those doubts and conclusions. God has prepared the response to the greatest of human misery. He has found a way for us to be with him forever in heaven. For free. Through Jesus. And if all of that is true, if God loved us so much, John says, “we should also love one another.” 

I’ve never been there in person, but the waters of the Dead Sea are so saturated with salt, that you naturally float. It’s a neat phenomenon. However, that water is unfit to drink, it’s useless for irrigation because water only flows in. Nothing flows out. In the same way, love needs to keep moving or we will stagnate. If we love one another, God’s love is made complete. Love stimulates more love and in this way hatred is melted, wounds are healed, grudges are forgotten, grievances forgiven, hope is shared, emptiness is filled, and loneliness is eased in human hearts. 

This is the test. Do the spiritual teachers hold forth the real Jesus? Do they hold forth the Jesus who lived and died and rose again for them? Do they encourage you to love because of the love God has shown for you? I pray that’s the Jesus you see standing before you today. Because it’s this Jesus and his truth that has overcome the devil. And it’s this Jesus and his truth that allows us to overcome false prophets. May this Jesus move you to action, to love one another because God has loved you. Amen.