A Muslim heard the good news about Jesus and decided to become a Christian. His Islamic friends asked him, “Why on earth have you done such a thing? What could possibly cause you to leave the religion you grew up with, the faith of your fathers, and turn to following Jesus?”
“Well,” he replied, “It’s like this: Suppose you were going down the road and suddenly it forked into two directions. You didn’t know which way to go, but there at the fork were two men – one dead, and one alive – which one would you ask to show you the way?”
This is the reason Christ followers get so pumped about commemorating Christ’s resurrection on Easter! We know we’re not following the advice of a dead man. Jesus is alive!
He not only brought vital, eternal spiritual truth, He not only fed the hungry, healed the sick and helped people make positive changes in their lives – but He did something that no other religious teacher or leader has ever done. He conquered death! He literally rose again! When we stand at the forks in the road of our lives He is the perfect guide!
We’re in the series “Made to Count, Am I Living a Life that Matters?” based on the writings of one of Christ’s best friends while He was on earth, the Apostle John. John wrote his first letter to the church of the first century to help them know how they could live a life that matters.
Twenty centuries have come and gone and still we wrestle with the same needs. And just like the first century, the menu from which to choose our path to spirituality is long and offers many different choices. Which path do we take? Who do we listen to when it comes to finding our way in life?
The Apostle John shares an essential insight in answer to this question.
"Dear friends, don’t believe everyone who claims to have the Spirit of God. Test them all to find out if they really do come from God. Many false prophets have already gone out into the world, 2and you can know which ones come from God." 1 John 4:1-2 (CEV)
Circle that word "test."
John says this because Christianity stands up to testing! In fact, Christianity is founded on testing!
“The women saying Jesus’ tomb was empty did not immediately prompt faith. It prompted questions, investigation, and exploration. Some disciples ran to the tomb to confirm it.” (Craig Evans quoted in “The Case for the Real Jesus” by Lee Strobel, p. 31)
And that’s the way it’s been down through the centuries with Christianity. It’s dangerous to accept uncritically everything that is said, “in the name of God.” Christ followers have always believed in tests of authenticity.
John says, “Test the spiritual offerings out there, go ahead. Find out if someone is really from God like they say they are. Don’t be so naïve as to think that just because someone makes a claim to have the Spirit of God that they really do.” The claims of Christ can stand up to our tests of smart spirituality while others cannot.
I occasionally like to watch “Antiques Road Show” on PBS so the following Internet article entitled “Antiques Roadshow Appraiser Sees the Good, The Bad, The Fake,” recently caught my attention.
“People who bring their family heirlooms and auction finds to be appraised by the experts with ‘Antiques Roadshow’ sometimes hope for the best and get the worst.
Ken Farmer, who recently spoke at an annual furniture seminar at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, has been a guest appraiser on "Roadshow," PBS’ highest-rated series, since 1995. He remembers one woman whose story never got on the air.
The woman came to an appraisal session with a fitted wooden case labeled "Vampire Killing Kit." She had bought it at auction in New Orleans for $1,500, and she thought she had an aged treasure, complete with a wooden stake, a pistol and bullets that looked like they were made of silver.
Farmer knew right away that the muddy varnish on the stake had been applied to make it look old. An expert on books and manuscripts determined that the label had been made on a laser printer, and Farmer noticed that the dividers in the case showed no wear.
When the woman got the news that her kit wasn’t worth much, Farmer said, "She cussed a blue streak."
Many people contain their disappointment when they discover that beloved family pieces - and the stories that go with them - aren’t as genuine as they thought. Many stories start as rumor and then become legend.
‘If all the pieces people say Abraham Lincoln and George Washington slept in or sat on were authentic,’ Farmer said, ‘the line of furniture would stretch all the way from here to Washington.’” (MSNBC News, 3/11/08)
In antiques and collectibles as well as spirituality, everything is not always what it is represented to be. So how do we know how to tell what’s genuine? How can we be spiritually smart? There’s only one way. We’ve got to test the various forms of spirituality to discover whether or not they’re true.
If we were going to invest in antiques we would want to know that the items we invest in are “authentic.” Same thing is true spiritually, only the investment is much more costly. Our spiritual fulfillment in life and our eternal destiny in either heaven or hell are determined by whether or not we are following a spiritual path that is authentic.
After John makes his statement telling us to “test” the various teachers of spirituality he then spells out some of the experiments we need to perform. The things John mentions in chapter four of his letter don’t comprise an exhaustive list. There are several more gauges given elsewhere in Scripture. But the tests John gives here are especially helpful to the theme we’re following in his writing, living a life that matters.
So far we’ve looked at three axioms of spiritual fulfillment in life: we can’t live the spiritually fulfilling life without 1) fellowship, 2) love, and 3) righteousness.
Today as we consider 1 John chapter four we add the word: TRUTH.
Just like we cannot lead a spiritually fulfilling life without fellowship or love or righteousness, we also can’t enjoy what God created us to enjoy without TRUTH. We can’t experience all the best that God has for us both here and hereafter without TRUTH. TRUTH is the battleground in the unseen spiritual warfare that rages around us every day.
Here’s what John says to the early Christ followers:
"We are [children] of God. Whoever is learning to know God [progressively to perceive, recognize, and understand God by observation and experience, and to get an ever-clearer knowledge of Him] listens to us; and he who is not of God does not listen or pay attention to us. By this we know (recognize) the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error." 1 John 4:6 (Amp)
We live in a culture that leans toward a worldview called postmodernism. We touched on this last week. One of the weaknesses of this worldview is the supposition that truth is “relative.”
In other words, truth may be one thing to you and another to me. When we say that postmodernists say truth is relative we’re not talking about whether we can have differences in taste of style of architecture or clothing, etc. That’s perfectly acceptable.
Diversity of tastes and style originated with God. I read the other day that there are over 300 varieties of humming birds! You can’t say that God doesn’t love variety! He expressed great diversity in His creation of the world and everything in it!
No, when postmodernists talk about the relativity of truth they’re referring to right and wrong. They’re talking about absolute statements like the one we just read in 1 John 4:6.
They would inquire, “What gives John the right to say, ‘Whoever is learning to know God listens to us; and he who is not of God does not listen or pay attention to us. By this we know the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error.’”
They would say that kind of talk is intolerant. But it’s not actually. It’s really spiritually smart. It’s no more intolerant than an appraiser telling someone that they’re “Vampire Killing Kit” is a fake. It may upset them at first but its something they need to know.
The answer to the excellent question of what gives John the right to say, “pay attention to us” is in the word “us.” When John says “us” he’s referring to the 12 apostles, the men who followed Jesus’ on-earth ministry closely and intimately for the three and one half years He conducted it. John talked about that in chapter one – “We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life.” 1 John 1:1 (NLT)
John could back up his teaching by referencing the fact that it came from Jesus. And Jesus could prove that He came from God the Father, and that He was God in the flesh. He could prove it because of the many miraculous signs that He performed, including His own resurrection. He could prove it because He was the fulfillment of numerous Old Testament prophecies. He could prove it because His Word carried life-changing weight.
Therefore everything that is packaged and presented as spiritual truth must pass muster by comparing it to the truth that Christ passed on to and through His apostles.
For instance, here’s the first test we must pass in order to be spiritually smart.
I. The Lord, lunatic, or liar test.
Is Jesus really God in human flesh as He said, or is He deceived or a deceiver?
Two major errors exist about Christ. One says He was not God’s Son, simply a good man and a good teacher – a good-deeds doer. He certainly wasn’t “God” to those who hold this view.
Problem is, if He wasn’t the Son of God, as He clearly claimed to be, then He was either certifiable or the perpetrator of a very clever hoax. And if He was either or these He couldn’t be good.
The other error is that Jesus was God, but not in a human body. That was the Gnostic view we saw last week in chapter three. This view implies that Jesus was a man that had “the God principle” with him. Once again, this would be inconsistent with the clear claims of Christ. And here’s John response.
"His Spirit says that Jesus Christ had a truly human body. 3But when someone doesn’t say this about Jesus, you know that person has a spirit that doesn’t come from God and is the enemy of Christ. You knew that this enemy was coming into the world and now is already here." 1 John 4:2b-3 (NLT)
Why did it matter so much to John that “Jesus Christ had a truly human body”?
Simple answer is, if Jesus only came as a spirit, and not in human form, then He could never have become our Savior, our substitute on the cross on Skull Hill.
Being smart spiritually I have to sift through and see through all of the man-made attempts to discredit Christ’s being the God-man. If Jesus is not God in the flesh then He’s not Lord.
If you believe He was God but not man, or man but not God, you might as well not follow Him because following that sort of Savior is useless. This is an undeniable tenet of the Scriptures and the early church. The Apostle Paul for instance taught the same thing the Apostle John did.
For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. Colossians 2:9 (NLT)
The TRUTH is Jesus is the God-man, not because I say it but because He proved it!
The smoking gun is His resurrection! They killed Him on a cross. They placed His corpse in a tomb. They sealed the tomb and placed Roman soldiers around it to guard it. But three days later there wasn’t any body in that hole in the ground!
Skeptics have countered that:
1) He really didn’t die on the cross. He just “swooned.” But that isn’t possible because…
a) The soldier pierced his side with a sword and a mixture of blood and water poured out. Water in the blood stream is a sign of a ruptured heart. When your heart ruptures you’re dead.
b) Christ’s post-resurrection appearances did NOT give the impression of someone having been near death but not dead. They gave the impression of someone being fully alive.
2) The disciples went to the wrong tomb. Not an acceptable objection either.
a) If that were the case, Christ’s opponents could have gone to the right tomb and produced the body.
b) And this theory doesn’t account for the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus.
3) The disciples stole the body of Jesus.
a) Unlikely because of the Roman guard and the surveillance of the Jews.
b) Over 500 people saw Jesus alive after His resurrection. Can you imagine over 500 eye -witnesses testifying to something in a courtroom today? That would be overwhelmingly credible evidence!
4) The disciples were hallucinating and only thought they saw Christ.
a) Over 500 people wouldn’t have had the same hallucinations. “Hallucinations aren’t contagious. They’re personal. They’re like dreams. I couldn’t wake up my wife in the middle of the night and say, ‘Honey, I’m dreaming of being in Hawaii. Quick, go back to sleep, join me in my dream, and we’ll have a free vacation!” (p. 142, “The Case for the Real Jesus”)
b) The disciples endured persecution even unto death for their commitment to the fact that Christ rose. They were certain of the facts that Jesus was dead and then alive again!
5) Christianity borrowed the idea of a martyred and resurrected Savior from earlier religious myth.
a) Historical research proves that all such myths borrow from Christianity, not vice-versa! None of these so-called martyred/resurrected Savior stories pre-date the first century!
b) Nor do any of these myths have adherents who follow the tenets of their leader.
The only explanation for the empty tomb is that the God-man Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again for us! And if He rose again – He’s God. Since He’s God His Word is credible. I can follow Jesus with the utmost confidence in life!
We’ve got to believe this if we’re going to be spiritually smart.
The second test of authenticity is…
II. The language test.
What do we mean by the language test?
Does Jesus tell us what we need to hear or what we want to hear? What kind of language does the Bible use to tell us about God’s plans for our lives?
Do other systems of spirituality tell us what we want to hear or what we need to hear? One of the hallmarks of false religion and false spirituality is deceptive and ambiguous language.
Look at what the Apostle John says about this to the early Christ followers.
"Children, you belong to God, and you have defeated these enemies. God’s Spirit is in you and is more powerful than the one that is in the world. 5These enemies belong to this world, and the world listens to them, because they speak its language. 6We belong to God, and everyone who knows God will listen to us. But the people who don’t know God won’t listen to us. That is how we can tell the Spirit that speaks the truth from the one that tells lies." 1 John 4:4-6 (NLT)
Christ followers are often asked, “If Christianity is the only true religion then how come there are so many others?” The Bible says the reason for the proliferation of false spirituality is people often listen for what they want to hear. The Apostle Paul warned of this same malady.
"The time will come when people will not listen to the TRUTH. They will look for teachers who will tell them only what they want to hear." 2 Timothy 4:3 (NLV)
Back to the antiques and collectibles analogy. It’s easy to get sucked into buying something that’s fake when you hear such good stories about it! The stories are so well crafted that you want to believe the unbelievable without necessarily having credible evidence to support it.
I have to say something here about what the world thinks about this word called “faith.” I was watching a favorite new TV show of mine Thursday night called, “Eli Stone.” Eli has a brain aneurysm and doesn’t know whether he’s seeing things because of that or because God is sending him visions. His mentor is his acupuncturist who told him in this week’s episode something like, “that’s what faith is, believing without evidence.”
See, now that’s not totally true. What that is, is “blind” faith. And “blind” faith is what John is telling us to avoid. But “blind” faith is precisely what causes a lot of people to follow false teaching.
My collectibles analogy is this. I had a friend years ago who bought a copy of Tom Sawyer, “signed” by the author, Mark Twain. Turned out the signature was a very good forgery.
I asked John, who at that time had been a rare and used book dealer for over 20 years, why he had been taken in. “You wouldn’t believe the great story the guy told. Plus,” he said, “at $500, it was a steal.” Yeah! The guy stole $500 dollars from my friend the book dealer.
Don’t let someone steal your soul by telling you that the story about Jesus is a lie. Don’t let them steal your peace with God by telling you that there is another way to God and heaven besides Jesus. There isn’t!
Believing that all religions and forms of spirituality lead to God may sound nice but it’s a swindle! Jesus is the only way to God because He’s the only God-man! He’s the only Savior because He’s the only One who died on a cross, was buried, and rose again and sits in heaven right now interceding for your religious liberty!
One more test…in addition to the Lord, lunatic or liar test, and the language test.
III. The love test.
John talks about love a lot in this letter. We already saw some of what he said in chapter two.
One of our axioms about true spirituality is that you cannot experience it without love. John reinforces what he said earlier.
"My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God’s children, and we know him. 8God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him." 1 John 4:7-8 (NLT)
Wow! How can I tell if the spirituality I’m practicing is the real deal? John says if we’re not loving others then we don’t know God! We can’t possibly know God if we aren’t loving others because God is love!
And then John says this.
"God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life. 10Real love isn’t our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven. 11Dear friends, since God loved us this much, we must love each other." 1 John 4:9-11 (CEV)
Ask yourself, “Am I spiritually smart?” Does the spirituality I live by (and every one of us lives by one form of spirituality or another – even if the god we worship is our self) pass the tests?
1. Can I say my “god” is like Jesus? Can my “god” stand up to the test of true authenticity like Jesus can? Did my God die for my sins and then rise again to prove His eternality and authenticity?
2. Does my form of spirituality tell me what I want to hear or what I need to hear?
3. Does the way I’m living now include love for God and love for others?
If you decide your current form of spirituality doesn’t pass these tests, Jesus invites you turn to Him and trust Him today!
Let’s pray.
