"testing The Teachers"

Title: “Testing Teachers” Scripture: I John 4:1-6

Type: Expository Series Where: GNBC 7-21-24

Intro: The last weekend of September, Carol and I are planning on going to my high school reunion in my hometown of Marion, IN. While there I hope to see many of my old buddies. While there I am sure we will reminisce about a few of our hardest teachers and the assignments and tests they gave us. Teachers give tests. That’s part of their duties. However, very few students ever consider the number of tests that teacher has had to take in order to be proficient in his or her topic. Some of you here today are teachers. You graduated from HS, you graduated from college, some of you have MA level degrees or are working on such degrees. You have had practicums and student teaching stints, and all along the way you have been tested. A Harold Hill (lead character The Music Man), would be found out in an instant as an imposter if he attempted to teach a class today. However, today, just as in John’s day, Christians and the Christian Church need to carefully test those who purport to be teachers. Literally ANYONE can create a blog, FB, IG or YouTube page today claiming to be some gifted teacher or prophet without any credentials at all. We need to be very careful who and what we listen to and in the words of the Aged Apostle John, the Christian must “test the spirits” and thereby “test the teachers”.

Prop: Exam. I John 4:1-6 we’ll notice 3 essential elements of John’s call to test teachers.

BG: 1. This the 1st epistle of John is a letter of encouragement. Not sure if to multiple or an individual church. 2. One of the major heresies this letter confronted was the Docetic brand of Gnosticism, which denied that Jesus had come in the flesh, because they believed that all matter was evil and that salvation was based on esoteric insights from the supposedly super spiritual. 3. These teachers were infecting the Church with their erroneous teaching and needed to be rooted out then and we still need to today.

Prop: Let’s Exam. I Jn. 4:1-6 to notice 3 essential elements of John’s call to test teachers.

I. The Necessity of the Testing v. 1

A. John Declares the Necessity of Testing those Attempting to teach the Church Because Satan and his forces are alive and well.

1. Discernment is an Essential Element John Calls the Church to Practice.

a. Illust: Hopefully every school teacher has been tested in his or her field of expertise in order to assure a certain level of competency. So, testing is a necessity. John begins with this warning: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God…” Now, many in the world today will say such nonsense as: “It doesn’t really matter what you believe, as long as you believe.” Essentially, the system of testing for the world is: “If it works for you…then it’s true.” Now, John would tell us that that presupposes that God and divine truth is nothing more than the figment of one’s imagination. However, the Apostle would adamantly disagree with such foolishness. He would affirm that not only does God exist, but that He also spoke the worlds into order, created all there is, sent His Son to be our Savior, invites you to be reconciled to Him, and will one day come again for His people. And if this IS true, then you and I had better “test the spirits”. Test the origin and inspiration of the teaching we hear proclaimed.

b. Behind all spiritually false teaching is “the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6), led by Satan, but including all of his demonic forces. Whether they know it or not, behind every false prophet or false teacher is an evil spirit promoting the errors that they teach.

2. Discernment is an Essential Element for the Christian to Develop.

a. Illust: Ray Stedman pointed out (Expository Studies in 1 John [Word], p. 296), “It is significant that this warning comes in the midst of John’s discourse about love, because false spirits tend to make a great deal of the subject of love. Every cult, every deviant group, every false movement makes its appeal in the name of love.” The colossal doctrinal derailment of the Western Christian Church today is directly linked to the erroneous teaching of “love” that has infiltrated and infected with its parasitical powers the Mainline churches.

b. “From the day that Satan deceived Eve in the garden, until the last days, when the final antichrist will deceive the world (2 Thess. 2:3-12), evil spirits have promoted false teaching to lead people away from the living and true God. When John says, “many false prophets have gone out into the world,” we should realize that these were not sinister, evil looking characters. They didn’t blatantly encourage Satan-worship or child-sacrifice. They used Christian lingo and professed to believe in Jesus. No doubt, they had attractive personalities and convincing arguments. Jesus called them wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matt. 7:15).” (Steven Cole sermon)