Pastor Slaughter
Easter 4
April 21, 2024
Theme: Listen to Jesus by Listening to the Word
Text 1 John 4:1-6
The gospel for today pictures Jesus as our Shepherd and we are his sheep. We listen to our Savior Jesus. How do we actually listen to him when we don’t see him. It’s not like Jesus is visibly in front of us with staff in his hand guiding us.
What has he given to us? How does he speak to us? He gave us his apostles, eyewitness, taught by Jesus himself. John says “We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us” (v.6) And now we have his Word. He has not only given us his Word but people to teach and preach his Word. Today we are finding to Listen to Jesus by listening to the Word.
God’s Word is so so vitally important that the devil knows that it is the greatest tool to be used against him. So what do you think Satan will try to do to God’s Word in the life of a believer… of people in general? He is going to seek to undermine God’s Word. And He is so subtle and craft that he trains a counterforce of spiritual liars who seek to infiltrate the church and knowingly or unknowingly unravel God’s truth.
The devil tried just as hard in John’s time as he does in our time. In fact it looks very similar. Can we really trust that the Bible is true? Is Jesus really God? Can you really believe that there is a resurrection from the dead. Or people trying to find some secret knowledge in the world and to reach some sort of enlightenment. You know those subtle attacks against scripture to lose confidence in Scriptures. Looking at all the wrong places, hearing all the wrong answers.
At times it really feels overwhelming, doesn’t? You have all kinds of Christian denominations claiming to teach the truth. You have so many religions, Muslims, Buddhist, Hindu, Mormons and Jehovah witness which deny that Jesus was true man and true God. You have Scientist say “God is unnecessary.” Philosophers began to say “God is dead.” Theologians began to say, “The Bible isn’t completely true.”
Every believer in all times has to confront the same terrible problem—who is telling me the truth? How can I tell? Whom do I listen to? The apostle John gives us some guidance. He says, “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.” What do we need to do? John says test the spirits to see if they are from God. We are to test what people teach.
Is it really that important? To test what people say. Does it really matter as long as they believe in Jesus? Does it really matter as long as someone is a good person? And if we do test someone do we simply look at their appearance, style? Coming out with skinny jeans and tie (Pastor Bentz could pull it off but I don’t think I can). Do we simply look at their personalities or the building they worship in? They could have all the charm and woo great crowds, have charisma but really all of that is meaningless. We need to look at their confession! We need to look at what they teach!
It seems like we spend more time in our lives analyzing, literally, the things we eat physically more then what we do spiritually? Is it organic, cage free, doesn’t have added sugar. It’s time we start pouring ourselves into what we are feeding ourselves spiritually.
So how do we “test?” Look at their confession! First of all what do they say about Jesus? John says, “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.” What do they teach about Jesus? Do they confess that Jesus is true man and true God? What do they say about his life death and resurrection? What do they teach regarding salvation? Do they lesson his saving work by focusing on what we do in order to be saved?
Basically anytime we make Jesus anything less than the word made flesh who bore our sins in his body on the tree, that’s the spirit of the Antichrist. This spirit of the antichrist that John references is to those things that get in the way of God, replacing God, replacing Christ. The danger of false teaching is that it has that same spirit that allies with the antichrist.
So we need to test the things we hear! First of all by testing what they say about Jesus, who he is and what he has done. But at the end of our lesson in verses 5 and 6, we see a comparison. Those of the world and those who are from God. How do we know that someone is speaking from the world or speaking of God? John says, “We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we can distinguish between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
The “we” that John is talking about is the apostles. John has no problem pointing his and the others apostolic authority, as those who were eyewitness of Jesus himself. That what they wrote, the letters that were sent out, the things they said, were guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit. They didn’t have what you and I have. They didn’t have the Bible in a nice bound book. But we do.
I could go on about the cannon, or what we have in the bible. People try to attack God’s word but God has preserved it for us. Some people claim that there are 400,000 errors in the New Testament. That is what scholars call variants. There are so many variants because there are so many preserved documents. These 400,000 variants are spread out over 25,000 Greek manuscripts and translations. Over 70% of variants are questions of spelling. This does not include variants from word order, forgotten words or repeated words and phases. Less than 1% of variants change the meaning of the text. Within that 1%, even if the meaning is changed, 0% change any Christian doctrine.
This is unlike any historical document ever! God has preserved his word so we can use it. That is why we have creeds and confessions. This is why we recite the Apostles creed or the Nicene creed each week. This is why we spend 2-4 years for catechism class. This is why we have Bible information class before becoming a member. We believe these confessions and creeds because it’s teachings are taken from God’s Word.
Test the spirits. See what they teach about Jesus and salvation. Then see if what they teach lines up with Scripture. Test what I am saying today. Test what Pastor Bentz says. Test what you read and hear and use God’s word to do so.
All of this can be overwhelming. We may feel outnumbered when there are billions of people who could care less about God’s Word found in the Bible. But listen to what John says, “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.” It may feel like true Christians are few. You may at times feel isolated to be the only biblical Christian in your family. But have overcome. The Word of God is mightier than the mightiest Ph.D. dissertation and more influential than the most popular talk show host. You have overcome! How can John say that? Because Satan’s power is broken. His head was crushed on Calvary once and for all. We are safe in the Saviors arms.
My family in Christ, Why is this so important? Because we want to listen to the voice of our good shepherd who died for us, who rose for us, who forgives us. He left us his words found in the Word and he has preserved it, so we can hear what he has to say. This message to us is so important that we want to make sure what that people are accurately saying what Jesus said. Test what people say about Jesus and his plan. Test what they say with the rest of Scripture. And rest comfortably knowing that you are from God and have overcome the world. Amen.