The Jesus Test
1John 4:1-4
(1) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
(2) By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
(3) and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
(4) Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
1Co 12:3
(3) Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit.
How good is your lie detector? I’m not talking about a polygraph machine, I’m asking you about that one that’s right in your gut. Do you ever get a “feeling” that there’s something rotten in Denmark when you hear a certain story?
Policemen call it the “smell test.” I’ve heard them say it when they can’t put their finger on a concrete lie within a story or testimony, but it just doesn’t add up.
Jesus calls us not to be cynical, but to develop discernment in our lives. Jesus had a great metaphor to describe what he’s calling us to:
Matthew_10:16 "Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
Wise and surviving as a snake, and as sweet and gentle as a dove! It’s a tall order.
(my experience working with police detectives and their interrogation methods; the detective vs. the preacher!) Good cop bad cop, pretending to know more than you do, the bluff etc.
Hopefully this wisdom to know the truth is something we develop as we get grow in life. Some of us think of young people as naïve, while young people think of older folk as gullible! My police buddies thought I was gullible and I thought they were way too cynical!
I don’t want to grow cynical and mistrusting. There’s nothing sadder than someone who is so paranoid that they don’t believe anything-even the good stuff! Someone who is overly skeptical of everything will be bound up in their own fears and miss out. Yet, on balance we have to be careful, because there’s a lot of lies out there. The devil appears as an angel of light, and he is the father of all lies.
Have you ever met a true con-man? I’m sure most of us can see a face when I use that term. More properly, you may have known a sociopath. These are folks who are the best liars in the world. They can lie masterfully and never bat an eye nor feel one whit of remorse. They’ll cry, they’ll charm you, they’ll convince you that they are pitiful and in dire need and you can’t wait to do something for them!
Sometimes my kids will get taken in by someone or something. They’ll tell me all about it and I’ll just listen, knowing they’ve been duped. I might say a word or two, and they will say “OH NO Daddy…this is true!” If it’s something that doesn’t have dire consequences, then I’ll sometimes let it go. It can be good for them to learn how to think critically and use discernment and sometimes I’ll just smile and say “uh huh!”
But, there are times when their thinking can be leading to destruction. Then, you better believe I’m going to speak up and do so loudly. I’m going to sound the alarm to keep my kids out of harms way.
That’s what the Apostle John is doing. Notice he calls these people “Beloved.” That’s a strong term of endearment. In verse four, he calls the same people “Little Children.” He’s not talking down to them, he’s speaking as their spiritual father! He really thinks of these people with deep loving commitment, they are his children! By now John is an old man, and he’s fathered churches and Christians all over Asia Minor, we call his network of churches the Johannine Community.
The people John is speaking to come from backgrounds steeped in false religion. They have been saved, they have trusted in Christ and have followed a radically new way of life, the law of love and grace. They have been delivered from bondage and demonic strongholds in their lives.
There’s war going on in the spiritual realm and the Gospel is being perverted. Satan is smart, and he typically doesn’t come out of left field with something radically different to deceive. He will mix truth and error into a concoction and try to sell it on appeal to people who don’t know better!
Gnosticism, Docetism, many heresies and false twists of Christianity began to be propagated and preached to John’s little children, his beloved ones. Here in First John, he lays it on the line for them.
The basics of Gnosticism-the esoteric knowledge, Jesus is not come in the flesh but as a phantom…etc.
He can’t always be there to guard them, he’s got to teach them to fend for themselves-to fish rather than feeding them for a day. As he prayed and asked God I can see him agonizing for his children, crying out to God for just how he could get this across to them in a way they could understand.
And the Holy Spirit moves upon him, and gives him what I call The Jesus Test.
Others might call it the “acid test.” Sometimes a metallurgist will use acid as the ultimate test of a metal’s purity. If it’s a deceiver, it it’s mixed with some non-genuine alloy, the acid will tell the story-it will eat right through it and point out the impurity like a big red flag waving wildly. But if it’s genuine, it will make it very obvious-the metal will not react like trash filler will.
So you may be thinking-ok, if it mentions Jesus then it must be ok. Surely that’s what the Jesus test is about. Wrong.
Dear friends, we live in a society that’s ok with Jesus. We live among various world religions that all worship Jesus-along with a pantheon of other gods. Remember the old song “Jesus is just alright with me?” The same can be said for our society as a whole. Jesus by name won’t get you into trouble or get you laughed at or scorned. He’s right up there with the other spiritual gurus both past and present. He wrote a lot of good things, said a lot of good things, and wow what an example He is.
So yeah, Jesus is just alright with me! He’s my friend, he’s my brother. But that’s not the acid test. Many people believe that. Few people deny that Jesus existed, and that He was a great man, a good teacher and a fine example for us to follow. Some even worship him along with many other gods; Jesus is a statue on the shelf.
But what does John tell his little children? What can keep them from being deceived?. Everyone can’t study theology and scrutinize every world religion to know what to believe and what not to believe. It’s actually very short, concise and simple. The Jesus Test is easy to remember and easy to apply, even under pressure.
1. Confess-
every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
to profess, to speak forth, to assert as a belief to acknowledge and covenant. It’s more than just lip service, it’s the conviction of one’s heart. Our personal confession, our profession is quite important. Anyone can say it but when it comes from the heart, from the very inner being it is truly a confession.
Rom 10:9-10
(9) because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
(10) For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
2. Jesus Christ
That Jesus, the human being, the son of Mary and Joseph that John had walked with and that many in his audiences had heard of in their own day-was also not just a human being who had died…but that He was and is The Christ. The Christ was the Anointed One, the Messiah who had been anticipated for thousands of years as God’s deliverer and King.
His Deity, His eternal nature, His continuing ministry and presence; His exclusivity. THE Christ, not one of many.
3. Come In the Flesh
Not as a spirit, or an emanation, but come in the flesh-he was born as a man, and remains a man with a corporeal body. Jesus was born, died and rose again as fully God, fully man.
Php 2:5-11
(5) Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
(6) who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
(7) but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
(8) And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
(9) Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
(10) so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
(11) and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
4. Is From God
The truth, the real deal. It finds its origins in God the Father, in the Light.
Paul amplifies this concept in a different way using a very familiar example to the minds of his hearers.
1Corinthians 12:3
(3) Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit.
Anyone can say anything under coercion, or just to please a crowd, or to get through a tight situation. Paul is again, like John not talking about “lip service” or simply repeating a pre-formed dialogue or some string of magic words.
He’s talking to people who have been under the rule of Rome. The Roman government had come to institute “Caesar Worship” in that it was legally required of people to declare not just allegiance to Caesar, but to actually call him Kurios (Greek) or LORD in a public context. It was a sort of pledge of allegiance not to a country or a flag, but to a man and it went one step further. It called him LORD, Kurious, God in the flesh and represented as a man on earth.
The Romans used it freely for the emperor in the emperor worship.
“Most important of all is the early establishment of a polemical parallelism between the cult of Christ and the cult of Caesar in the application of the term Kurios, ‘lord.’ One is reminded of the demand made by Polycarp that he say Kurios Caesar and how each time he replied Kurios Iēsous. He paid the penalty for his loyalty with his life. (Robertson)
Eusebius the church historian, tells us that the Roman Proconsul commanded Polycarp to swear allegiance to Caesar, saying, "Swear, and I will set thee at liberty; reproach Christ."
How courageous and magnificent was Polycarp’s reply!
Eighty and six years have I now served Christ, and he has never done me the least wrong; how, then, can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?
The eighty six year old Bishop was burned at the stake for his confession. It was that important.
So it’s all about Jesus, and the Jesus Test. In our day, where we live, what does it mean?
Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses-easy to spot their error. Pseudo-Christian cults.
But what about things that aren’t as clear? Things that compete for our hearts and minds? Other false religions abound and aren’t as easy to spot. They don’t come knocking at your door!
Easy, casual, bloodless pseudo-Christianity; a faith that doesn’t cost anything. The “I believe in God so I must be a Christian” religion; I’m a church member with fire insurance religion.
Another is the “Cafeteria style” religion…some of this, a little of that.
The “many paths” big tent…all religions lead to God. Jesus is one way to God, you may have another.
Is He Lord, or not? Has He come in the flesh, and does he continue today and are His promises true?
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” C. S Lewis
What comes into your mind when you think of God is the most important thing about you (A.W. Tozer)
Who do you say that Jesus is?
Where does it lead us? Not into fear! It emboldens us to go out into the world, to love people and to do the works of Christ that He has called us to do. In our empathy and our love for people we must not accept their false religion or make allowances for it.
We are commanded , and it’s our joy to love people of all creeds, but we must lead them. We are not called to accommodate false doctrine.
Be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves! Do not be deceived.
Remember-The Jesus Test
