Sunday
Morning Bible Study
November
4, 2012
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk
– Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church loved?
This is a book
about Real Issues
What’s real?
What’s the truth?
We’ve been addressing issues like:
Who is God?
What is He really like?
What is a Christian?
What is a Christian really like?
3:24 – 4:6 Truth or
Error
3:24 Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by
this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
:24 keeps – tereo –
to attend to carefully, take care of; to guard; to observe
Present active participle
:24 abides – meno –
to remain, abide
Present active indicative (both times)
:24 we know – ginosko
– to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of perceive, knowledge by
experience
Present active indicative
:24 spirit – pneuma –
spirit, the Holy Spirit, the human spirit, attitude, breath
:24 has given – didomi
– to give
Aorist active indicative
:24 the Spirit whom
He has given us
When we trusted in Christ as our Savior, God put His Holy Spirit inside of
us.
The Holy Spirit in us reminds us that we belong to God.
(Ro 8:15–16 NKJV) —15 For you did not receive the spirit of
bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry
out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself
bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
We’re going to
see a contrast between the Holy Spirit, and another kind of spirit that’s out
there to deceive people.
4:1 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.
:1 Beloved – agapetos –
beloved, esteemed, dear, favorite, worthy of love
:1 do not believe – pisteuo
– to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in
Present active imperative
:1 spirit – pneuma –
spirit, the Holy Spirit, the human spirit, attitude, breath
:1 false prophets – pseudoprophetes
(“lying” + “prophet”) – one who, acting the part of a divinely inspired
prophet, utters falsehoods under the name of divine prophecies
:1 have gone out – exerchomai
– to go or come forth of
Perfect active indicative
They “have gone out” in that they have come from within the church:
(1 Jn 2:19 NKJV) They went out from
us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have
continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest,
that none of them were of us.
:1 do not believe
every spirit
There are all kinds of people who claim to be speaking for God or who claim
to have had a “spiritual” experience. Not every spiritual experience is from
God, from the Holy Spirit.
Jeremiah and Hananiah (look at Jeremiah 28)
At one point in his ministry, God told Jeremiah that the kingdom of Judah and the surrounding
kingdoms would be serving the king of Babylon. God told Jeremiah to make a yoke
out of wood and start wearing it as a visual reminder that God had put the
nation under the yoke or control of the king of Babylon. Then another guy named
Hananiah came along …
(Je 28:1–17 NKJV)
—1 And it happened in the
same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the
fourth year and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur
the prophet, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and
of all the people, saying, 2 “Thus speaks
the Lord of hosts, the God of
Israel, saying: ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 Within two full
years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house, that Nebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. 4 And I will bring
back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with all the
captives of Judah who went to Babylon,’ says the Lord, ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’ ”
Note that
Hananiah claimed to be speaking for the LORD, for Yahweh. He was claiming that
the “yoke” of the king of Babylon would be broken within two years.
Initially, Jeremiah likes what Hananiah has said. He responds with something like, “I hope
you’re right, buddy!” But he also gives
this warning …
9 As for the prophet who prophesies of peace,
when the word of the prophet comes to pass, the prophet will be known as
one whom the Lord has truly
sent.”
It’s not until Jeremiah is heading home that God speaks to Jeremiah and
tells him that Hananiah wasn’t speaking for Him. In fact, God is pretty upset that Hananiah is
telling people that things are going to be okay when in fact there will be a
serious time of judgment ahead for the nation.
15 Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah
the prophet, “Hear now, Hananiah, the Lord
has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie. 16 Therefore thus says
the Lord: ‘Behold, I will cast
you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have
taught rebellion against the Lord.’
” 17 So Hananiah the
prophet died the same year in the seventh month.
God is not pleased with people who claim to speak for Him, but end up
misrepresenting Him.
:1 but test the
spirits
test – dokimazo – examine,
prove, scrutinize (to see whether a thing is genuine or not)
Present active imperative
Lesson
God’s Test Kit
You and I are told that we shouldn’t just believe everything we are told. We
need to learn to “test” whether someone is speaking the truth or not.
The Bible is filled with warnings about false prophets:
(2 Pe 2:1 NKJV) But there were also
false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among
you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who
bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.
(1 Ti 4:1 NKJV) Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart
from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons…
(2 Ti 4:3 NKJV) For the time will
come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own
desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for
themselves teachers;
The problem we face is that it is not always easy to spot
the false teachers.
We have a pool at our house, and I am the “pool man”. Over the years I have
learned how to use a kit to “test” the water in the pool to keep the pH balance
correct and to keep the chlorine level right.
I want to help you build a four
piece spiritual “test kit” when it comes to spiritual things.
God wants us to learn how to “test” the “spirits” to see if something is
from God or not.
Paul gave a
rule to the Corinthians to use regarding prophets:
(1 Co 14:29 NKJV) Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.
You and I are always “on the hook” to be learning to “test” whether
something is the truth or not. Sometimes
it’s not always easy to tell…
Illustration
A guy has a talking dog. He brings it to a talent
scout. “This dog can speak English,” he claims to the unimpressed agent. “Okay,
Sport,” the guys says to the dog, “what’s on the top of a house?” “Roof!” the dog replies. “Oh,
come on...” the talent agent responds. “All dogs go ‘roof.’” “No, wait,” the
guy says. He asks the dog, “What does sandpaper feel like?” “Rough!” the dog
answers. The talent agent gives a condescending blank stare. He is losing his
patience. “No, hang on,” the guy says. “This one will amaze you.” He turns and
asks the dog: “Who, in your opinion, was the greatest baseball player of all
time?” “Ruth!” goes the dog. And the talent scout, having seen enough, boots
them out of his office onto the street. The dog and man sit on the curb
dejected. The dog turns to his owner and says “Maybe I shoulda said DiMaggio?”
Sometimes it’s not easy to
tell if a thing is real or not …
You are to “test” whether the things I say are true or not.
Don’t just believe the things I
say because you think I’m handsome or I have a nice smile.
Believe the things I say
if they pass the test of whether they are true or not.
Joseph Smith claimed to have seen visions of God and visits from angels. He
claimed a “spiritual” influence on his life.
Were
these things real? You are responsible to figure it out.
The Mormons will tell you that all you need to do is pray
with a sincere heart, and the Holy Spirit will show you that it’s real.
The implication is that if you don’t think it’s real, that
you must not be sincere in your prayer.
I’d like to suggest that there are a few other things you
need to add to your “testing kit” than just prayer.
There are some
churches that believe that God does still speak today and that the gifts of the
Holy Spirit are active today. We believe in the gifts.
You will find in some Charismatic/Pentecostal meetings where a person says
that God has a message for you.
You and I are responsible to test what we hear.
It’s not hard for even a well-intentioned person to slip
into the trap of feeling like they are going to help you out by giving you
advice and dressing
it up with “Thus sayeth the Lord”, and thus you are now obligated to do what
they say because it’s a “message from God”.
Be careful campers. You are
responsible for testing whether a “message” is truly from God or not.
Lesson
Test #1 - Fulfillment
God gave Moses one of the practical ways to tell whether or not someone was
speaking for Him.
(Dt 18:21–22 NKJV) —21
And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the
Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet
speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or
come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it
presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
This is the gist of what Jeremiah was saying to Hananiah. One test of a
prophetic prediction is whether or not it is fulfilled.
Lesson
Test #2 - Theology
God gave this warning through Moses:
(Dt 13:1–3 NKJV) —1 “If there
arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a
wonder, 2 and the sign or
the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after
other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not
listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know
whether you love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Note that the false prophets are able to miraculous
things. They can even make predictions that come true some times. Miracles or
powerful spiritual phenomena don’t mean that something is right.
The issue here
is – who does this person say that about God?
“Other gods” aren’t necessarily completely different “gods”, but telling
you that they have a newer or better idea of what God is really like is leading
you astray to “other gods”.
The best way to
test a person’s theology is to match up what they say with what the Bible says.
The Bible is our standard for measuring the truth about God because we
believe that it is God’s book, and it’s what God says about Himself that
counts, not what some person says.
It can get a little tricky when a person uses a Bible verse here or there
to prove their point.
Our responsibility is to learn the WHOLE book, and compare
what they say with the overall book.
It is a true statement that you can make the Bible say
whatever you want it to say, but only as long as you take a little phrase here
or a little verse there to prove your point.
But when you look at the Bible as a whole, the truths
about God become much clearer the more you study.
That’s why we place such a big emphasis on teaching
through the Bible, the entire Bible.
As you work your way through learning the Bible, be open
to testing your own ideas about God with what God actually says about Himself.
I find that over the 30+ years I’ve been teaching, that
some of my ideas about God have changed a little. My goal is to have my ideas
about God to be completely “Biblical”.
:2 By this you
know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come
in the flesh is of God,
:3 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.
:2 you know – ginosko
– to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of perceive, knowledge by
experience
Present active indicative
:2 that confesses – homologeo
– to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, assent; to confess;
declare; to profess
Present active indicative (same in verse 3)
:2 has come – erchomai
– to come
Perfect active participle (same
in verse 3)
:3 Antichrist – antichristos
– the adversary of the Messiah
:2 Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh
Lesson
Test #3 - Christology
Who is Jesus? More
specifically, John is asking the question of whether or not Jesus had an
actual, literal, physical body.
This was one of the big doctrinal issues of John’s day.
There were
teachers called “Gnostics” who taught that everything physical or material is
evil, and therefore Jesus must not have had a real physical body.
The
Gnostics taught that Jesus was just a “ghost”, that He kind of just
“floated” everywhere, and probably didn’t even leave a single footprint on this
planet.
John
clarifies that Jesus was a real, physical human being, God in human flesh. In
his gospel, John wrote,
(Jn 1:14 NKJV) And the
Word became flesh
and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth.
We’ve already seen
in this letter:
(1 Jn 1:1–2 NKJV) —1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have
handled, concerning the Word of life— 2 the life
was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that
eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—
Today, there are other issues concerning Jesus that are just as important,
the chief of which is this: Was
Jesus God?
We talked a few weeks back about the importance of understanding that the
Bible teaches that Jesus was not only fully human, but He was also fully God. Again,
John wrote,
(Jn 1:1 NKJV) In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
This is one of those issues that divides religious groups into two groups –
right and wrong.
Groups
that do not hold to the truth of Jesus being God in the flesh include: Mormons,
Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Science, and Unitarianism.
Groups
that do hold to the deity of Christ include denominations like: Baptists,
Methodists, Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Calvary Chapel.
:4 You are of
God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is
greater than he who is in the world.
:4 little children – teknion
– a little child; in the NT used as a term of kindly address by teachers to
their disciples
:4 have overcome – nikao
– to conquer; to carry off the victory, come off victorious
Perfect active indicative
:4 greater – megas –
great
:4 He who is in you
is greater
Lesson
Victory = not quitting
Jesus won the ultimate victory over Satan and his forces at the cross. Paul
wrote,
(Col 2:15 NLT) In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He
shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
Jesus is the one that has already fought and won the battle over you. Now
all we have to do is to learn to walk in that victory, and take full advantage
of it in our lives.
Illustration
During World
War II, the Japanese captured General Jonathan Wainwright and he was held in a
Manchurian concentration camp. Cruelly treated, he became “a broken, crushed, hopeless,
starving man.” Finally
the Japanese surrendered and the war ended. A United States army colonel was
sent to the camp to announce personally to the general that Japan had been
defeated and that he was free and in command. After Wainwright heard the news,
he returned to his quarters and was confronted by some guards who began to
mistreat him as they had done in the past. Wainwright, however, with the news
of the allied victory still fresh in his mind, declared with authority, “No, I
am in command here! These are my orders.” From that moment on, General
Wainwright was in control.
Jesus has
defeated Satan on the cross. The battle is over.
We need to be careful of falling into the trap of thinking that we are the defeated
ones when we stumble.
You may lose an occasional battle, but He has won the war.
Don’t give up. Giving up is a sign of defeat, and with the
Holy Spirit living in us, we don’t settle for defeat. Keep going. Keep
fighting.
:5 They are of
the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears
them.
:6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not
hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
:5 they speak – laleo
– to utter a voice or emit a sound; to speak
Present active indicative
:5 hears – akouo –
to hear
Present active indicative (also same in vs. 6)
:6 he who knows – ginosko
– to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of perceive, knowledge by
experience
Present active participle
:6 truth – aletheia –
what is true in any matter under consideration; truth; “not hidden”
:6 error – plane –
a wandering, a straying about; one led astray from the right way, roams hither
and thither; mental straying; error, that which leads into error, deceit or
fraud
:6 He who knows God
hears us
Lesson
Test #4 – Biblical Authority
John is talking
about his authority as an apostle.
One of the tests we should use is whether or not a “teacher” or “prophet” pays
attention to what the apostles taught, or even more specifically, what the Bible teaches.
Do they “hear” what John is saying? Do they “hear” what the apostles
taught? Do they “hear” or pay attention to what the Bible actually teaches?
Paul wrote Timothy,
(2 Ti 3:16–17 NKJV) —16
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, 17 that the man of
God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
It is important that a “prophet” not just say they believe the Bible, but
that they hold to what the whole Bible teaches.
:6 the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error
Lesson
Balanced Discernment
Sometimes the quest for doctrinal purity can go too far.
There are folks
that I like to call “Heresy Hunters” who can scrutinize and find something
wrong in every teacher. Their websites will even criticize Billy Graham, Chuck
Smith, and Greg Laurie. Amazing.
They
will criticize people for having candles in church. They will criticize people for stocking
books by Rick Warren in their bookstore. They will criticize teachers for quoting from too
many different Bible translations.
If you are a person who thinks these things are
dangerous, you probably won’t last long in our church. I’ve been known to allow classes with books
like “The Shack” and “The Purpose Driven Life”.
We have a class on Spiritual Formation on Thursday nights that is being
taught by a Lutheran pastor (our very dear friend Larry Bogardus).
We believe that the church that John was primarily writing to was his
church in Ephesus.
Jesus had this to say to Ephesus in the book of
Revelation:
(Re 2:2–4
NKJV) —2 “I know your works, your labor, your
patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested
those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; 3 and you have persevered and have
patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. 4 Nevertheless I have this against
you, that you have left your first love.
You can take the concept of testing and discernment too
far. In Ephesus they had learned to
question things so often that they had lost their love for God.
On the other
hand, there are false doctrines out there that you need to pay attention to.
Some folks are a little naïve in thinking that as long as somebody mentions
the name of Jesus and says something from the Bible that it’s all okay. They
may say that we shouldn’t quibble about such minor details.
Paul warned the Corinthian church about swallowing every new doctrine or
idea.
(2 Co 11:3–4 NKJV) —3 But I
fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his
craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. 4 For if he who comes
preaches another Jesus
whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which
you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you
may well put up with it!
Not every “Jesus” is the same. There are different
“spirits”.
Listen to what Paul wrote to the Galatians:
(Ga 1:8 NKJV) But even
if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we
have preached to you, let him be accursed.
There is such a thing as a “different gospel”.
The Good News is that there is “good news”. You don’t have to get caught in
a lie. And it’s not that complicated.
Jesus
came to take away your sins.
If you will believe in Him, you will be saved.