The Word Is Alive 1 John

The Word Is Alive1 John Chapter Four Narrated by Tony Gillon

Chapter Four • 1 John 3:11-4:6 - Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle (continues/concludes)

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Summary of Chapter Four • Believers are to show spiritual discernment to determine if others are true or false teachers: this is how we recognise the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood (v.6).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Summary of Chapter Four • Believers are to show spiritual discernment to determine if others are true or false teachers: this is how we recognise the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood (v.6). • The second test is love.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Summary of Chapter Four • Believers are to show spiritual discernment to determine if others are true or false teachers: this is how we recognise the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood (v.6). • The second test is love. • True disciples will have nothing to fear when Christ returns.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • 1 John 4:1-6 - Test the Spirits

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • 1 John 4:1-6 - Test the Spirits • Receiving visiting saints was a joy but there were many itinerants that could cause problems for the church groups.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • 1 John 4:1-6 - Test the Spirits • Receiving visiting saints was a joy but there were many itinerants that could cause problems for the church groups. • Human and spiritual deception are a problem for the churches. John devises a litmus test to help them.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • 1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Do not believe every spirit: • Christian faith is not spiritual or even human gullibility. Churches are to be accepting and welcoming of all newcomers but it is important to determine who they are before trusting in what they say!

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Test the spirits: • The unseen spiritual influences that guide people’s speech and actions can be tested by observing their doctrine and conduct as well as by the gift of spiritual discernment.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. • (1 Corinthians 12:8-10).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. • (1 Corinthians 14:29).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Whether they are from God: • Two key tests are to discern what they say or teach, and to observe who it is that listens and accepts them. The key issue then becomes when false teachers or spirits are detected, what should be done?

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • False prophets are people who claim to speak for God but are actually speaking either from human intent or by demonic influence (vv.3–4), both of which John would consider to be of the spirit of antichrist.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired man a maniac. • (Hosea 9:7).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading. (Lamentations 2:14).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • And if the prophet is enticed to utter a prophecy, I the Lord have enticed that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel. They will bear their guilt — the prophet will be as guilty as the one who consults him (Ezekiel 14:9-10).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect — if that were possible (Matthew 24:23-24).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • John is not using the term false prophet in the same way that Paul would use the positive alternative as a spiritual gift for the church. • Instead, he uses it to describe anyone who has gone out from the church in order to proclaim misleading falsehoods, with the intention to deceive or disrupt churches.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • In the NT era it was common for men to travel around practising spiritual divination for financial gain.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • In the NT era it was common for men to travel around practising spiritual divination for financial gain. • Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” (Continued).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding (Acts 19:13-16).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” (Continued).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her. • (Acts 16:16-18).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! (Continued).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin”. (Acts 8:18-23).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • In today’s age of tolerance, discriminating discernment can be viewed as being judgmental, which is taught against by Jesus. • Do not judge, or you too will be judged. (Matthew 7:1).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Yet Jesus also taught: • Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment (John 7:24). • What Jesus requires of a believer is not that they should make judgements about people but that they should show good judgement when discerning what is right or wrong, good or evil!

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • 2This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • This is how you can recognise: • If a spirit, or a person moved to speak by such a spirit, does not acknowledge or confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that spirit or person is misleading God’s people. • Some dismissed his human nature as they believed flesh was evil while others believed him to be only an inspired human.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • This is a simple but extremely important test. For anyone who dismisses Christ cannot worship the true God and therefore only worships idols! • John will later warn: • Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. • (1 John 5:21).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus: • That is, whoever refuses to acknowledge that Jesus is God the Son, who has come in the flesh (v.2). • Unless people affirm both the full deity and the full humanity of Jesus, they are not truly acknowledging Jesus, but, as John states in unequivocal terms, they are under the influence of the spirit of the antichrist.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • It is also important to note that, by omitting that he had come in the flesh in this verse, is to turn the focus that they are to believe in Christ as the person, i.e. both Jesus the man and Christ the Son of God, and not to focus on merely believing in the doctrine, for it is Christ Jesus alone who offers salvation.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world: • John provides an image of both the ultimate deceiver who will appear in person at the appropriate time and also acknowledges that there are those acting as his agents, who are already operating in and around the churches, and will do so throughout church history.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • 4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Have overcome them: • Overcome is the Greek word nikao, which implies an active conflict in which one side emerges victorious over the other. However, the victory was not through any ability of their own but by the power of God through his Spirit in the believers. • The Lord gave David victory wherever he went (2 Samuel 8:6b and 8:14b).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Those whom John refers to in this passage who have been overcome are those in the world who are mainly opposed to God, but it can also apply to those who are apathetic toward God or even ignorant of him.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • The one who is in you is the third person of the Trinitarian Godhead - the Holy Spirit. Because of his power, the true believer has nothing to fear from the seducers of the world providing they allow the Spirit to guide them.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • The one who is in the world refers to Satan and, by implication, his demons: • We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one (1 John 5:19).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. • (John 12:31-32).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • John expands on his second test to discern the spirit of the speaker.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • John expands on his second test to discern the spirit of the speaker. • If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. (Continued).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. (Continued).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father as well. • (John 15:18-23).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • They are from the world, • the world listens to them: • Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? (John 7:48).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. • (Acts 4:25-26).

Overcoming Evil by Listening to the Apostle • Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God. Then Jesus cried out, “When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me” (John 12:42-44).

The Word Is Alive 1 John