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Sep 15, 2024

Sermon 09.15.24

Sermon 09.15.24

Passage: 1 John 4:1-6

Speaker: Gregg Stashenko

Series: 2024 Practicing the Way of Jesus

Keywords: spirit, antichrist, confess, overcome, spirit of god, greater, little children, come in the flesh, truth and error

CENTRAL TEXT: 1 John 4:1-6

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. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

 

PRE SERVICE TEXT: 1 John 4:4

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.


PRAYER/SCRIPTURE READING/CONFESSION OF FAITH: Heidelberg Catechism, Q & A 1

LEADER: What is your only comfort in life and in death?

ALL: That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—
to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,
and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.
He also watches over me in such a way
that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven;
In fact, all things must work together for my salvation.
Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life
and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.



RELATED SCRIPTURES:

  • Romans 8:31-32; 37
  • 1 Corinthians 12:3

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: The first 3 questions are from Nathan Buttery’s The Good Book Guide to 1 John: How To Be Sure 

  1. How does our culture define a “spiritual” person?
  2. Why do Christians need to be discerning?
  3. People often claim there is a renewed interest in spirituality in our society.  How should we assess this?  
  4. What comfort do you glean from 1 John 4:4? Why is it significant to you personally that the Spirit who abides in believers is greater than the spirits in the world? Discuss and then spend time thanking the Holy Spirit for his abiding presence. 

ILLUSTRATIONS:  

QUOTES:  

  • “Today’s crisis is every bit as volatile and destructive as the Gnosticism faced by the ancient church. The Gnostics claimed that what matters most about us is a divine spark, a spirit inside that one day will be released from the human body. They insisted the “real you” was imprisoned in this world of matter and the “spirit” mattered more than the body. Writers like Valentinus described the encounter with God in the heart, the reception of “secret knowledge of the divine,” as the source of truth and wisdom.  Against them stood church fathers such as Irenaeus who defended the goodness of the body. He refused to narrow the truth, to choose “spirit” over “matter,” or “soul” over “body.” Christianity holds together what Gnosticism would separate.” Trevin Wax, “Today's Defining Question: What is a Human?”  (The Gospel Coalition post October 2023)

 

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