sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 10/02/2011
4 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
If you’re irreligious, this passage sounds pretty much like religious mumbo jumbo. Totally useless for the real world.
If you’re especially religious, you’re already thinking of how this helps you have evidence as to why so and so is obviously heretical or of the devil, and reassures you why you are right in your beliefs. (Obama Heckler…)
Or maybe, if you’re both especially religious and especially practical, you’re taking notes for the next time you have to do an exorcism and need to test what kind of spirits are talking to you from the demonized person you’re trying to help.
Let’s set all of our preconceptions aside for a bit, and come at this passage with a clean slate, so that it can say what it means to say to us, nothing more and nothing less.
Here’s what we’ll do.
1. Define some terms, explore some of the original language so that we have a clearer picture of what this passage is actually talking about.
2. Look at the context of what was happening in the lives of the people to whom this was written, so that we can understand what it meant to them.
3. Talk about what it means to us today.
4. Finish up with some practical tips.
pneuma – wind / breath / spirit
Not distinct meanings, but a spectrum of meanings where the different senses merge into each other; Mysterious, dynamic, animating force of the world; mysterious, dynamic, animating force within a person, mysterious, dynamic, animating force within or emanating from God.
Sarx – flesh; material, earthly substance.
Heart of Christian faith is the good news of a God who didn’t abandon his creation in its brokenness and pain, but entered into the heart of it, inhabiting it, clothing himself in it, gathering all of it back to himself, becoming mysteriously and inseparably united with it in such a way that he could redeem, renew, and restore the whole of it so that it would share in his glory just as he shared in its shame.
Homologeo – “say the same thing as, confess.”
Kosmos – a word that can mean different things depending on context, ranging from the staggeringly beautiful creation that flowed from God’s generous, overflowing love to the disordered and ugly mess that has been corrupted by sin and death.
The world here is the sticky web of the systems and structures whose mysterious, dynamic, animating force isn’t love, but rather “not-love” – judgment, fear, anger, hate. The tar-ball of systems and structures that cause division and oppression and destruction, rather than intimate fellowship, freedom, and restoration.
Context of gnostic heresy / controversy.
Gnostic coming from a Greek word for “knowledge” (from that word, ginosko, that we spoke about last week). Basically that only a select, privileged few could attain salvation through attaining extraordinary knowledge and insight, especially self-knowledge. Included the idea of dualism: that because God was pure spirit, matter itself was fundamentally evil, and all truly good things were purely spiritual. And therefore there was a difference between Jesus – the man from Nazareth – and the Christ (the anointed one). That at Jesus’ baptism, the divine spirit of the Christ had come from heaven and descended on Jesus. But at the garden of Gethsemane, before his crucifixion, it had departed back to heaven. Because there was no way the divine could suffer as Jesus of Nazareth did on the cross. No way the evil material world could claim God’s life. And so salvation came by what Jesus illuminated or revealed, by not by his suffering.
So throughout this letter, John is speaking to people who are wrestling with this gnostic controversy. John tells them about eternal life, but he’s also saying it’s something he heard, saw, touched. It’s spiritual, but it’s also firmly connected to our sensory, material reality. John tells them about Jesus helping us see things as they really are, but that when we do, we will see both ourselves as we really are, and God as he really is, and the result will be that we know God. John talks about how we see love most powerfully in Christ Jesus dying for us on the cross, and that that is where true illumination comes from. John talks about how knowledge isn’t just for the select, privileged few, but for all of us anointed ones. That our goal isn’t some guru-esque, spiritual existence, but rather an existence firmly planted in the day to day earthly reality of loving one another as Jesus loved us, exemplified in Jesus washing our dirty feet.
At the heart of the gospel is an announcement that God is inhabiting, redeeming, renewing, and restoring his beloved creation. At the heart of the gospel is a sacred affirmation of God's joyous delight in people of all sorts and sizes and colors and political persuasions and languages and nationalities and hairstyles and athletic abilities and intellectual capacities, his joyous delight in trees and sunsets and oceans and animals and insects and mountains and rivers and floppy eared dogs and Giant Pandas and lizards and even mangy, arrogant cats. His joyous delight in Beethoven and Jay-Z and Ella Fitzgerald and dancing (even with the stars) and Ewoks and Michelangelo's David and snow boarding and basketball and 18 speed bikes and Dodge Chargers and Belgian chocolate and whatever that secret sauce is that makes PF Chang’s lettuce wraps taste so good.
That's why John writes that the way to tell if the mysterious, dynamic force animating a person or group or organization or philosophical system or even the voices inside your head is from God or not is to determine if it's saying the same thing as Jesus inhabiting sarx is saying. Is it telling the same story about who God is and who we are and what God is up to that Jesus tells? If it is, that spirit is from him. If it's not, it isn't.
Think about the impact of gospel when you first receive it... the fundamental goodness of the universe affirmed. God is good and God loves you, smack dab in the middle of your sin and brokenness. Things are going to be OK because God is saving the world and you are caught up in his grace, too. You see everything with new eyes. New beauty at every turn, your heart full of God’s grace towards others.
Compare to what you sometimes learn along the way... The complexities of trying to get everything right, understand everything, new things that you always thought were good that now you’re finding out are actually bad, new guilt about things you never felt guilty about before, new fears about this threat and that threat and new enemies who are conspiring to destroy the world, and so be cautious about this and cautious about that, and look out for this and look out for that because it’ll mess you up if you’re not careful.
Since when is the gospel a new set of things to be alarmed about?
What does any of that have to do with affirming that Jesus inhabits sarx? What does any of that have to do with the joyous, jubilant announcement that God so loves this world that he has gone to the greatest length possible to begin restoring, renewing, redeeming, and rescuing it? What does that have to do with a God who isn’t afraid of anything, not even the most horrible suffering, because of the joy set before him?
Nothing. It has nothing to do with any of that. It has to do with the spirits that are from this world.
That all happens because we sometimes listen to the spirits from this world – the mysterious, dynamic forces animating the systems and structures of this world, instead of listening to the Spirit of truth. (Isn’t it ironic that the spirit that makes us fearful about the antichrist is in fact the spirit of the antichrist?)
You, dear children, are from God, and have overcome them because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
What John was saying to these completely ordinary people was essentially, “You can do it.” You can tell the difference between the spirits that animate this world, and the Spirit of God that animates Jesus and now animates you. [Greek word translated “test” is the word used for examining a coin to tell if it was real or counterfeit. Like when someone pays with a 50 or 100 dollar bill.] We have everything we need to test them. One says the same thing as Jesus coming in the flesh says. One doesn’t. You can tell the difference. And if you encounter the fake one, no need to be afraid, because the real one is in you, so it can’t hurt you – in fact, you’ve already overcome it.
And John’s saying the same thing to us today.
Consider something like slavery or racism. Animated by the spirits of this world. By the ideas that some are superior to others in any number of ways, and the inferior out to serve the superior. That without the labor of the lower classes the whole economy would collapse. That some things just can’t or won’t change. Those are the spirits of the anti-christ.
Because the spirits that say the same thing as Jesus coming in the flesh say that The Superior one came to serve and dwell among the Inferior ones, in order to lift them up. That in the quest to set things right, no sacrifice is too great, not even death, because on the other side of sacrifice is resurrection life. That everything, even sin and death and evil, is subject to the redemptive purposes of God and will one day bend its knees to him and be transformed in welcoming his presence or be separated forever from his good creation. That is the Spirit of truth.
And the abolitionists and civil rights workers weren’t afraid of the spirit of the anti-christ. Rather, they listened to the Spirit of truth and allowed that spirit to animate their actions. Without fear, without hate, without paranoia. In fact, with extraordinary love. Because they knew that they were from God and in Jesus had already overcome the spirits of this world, and that the one who was in them was greater than the one that is in the world.
We hear whispers in our heads all the time, every day. Whispers about who we are, about who God is, about what God’s thinking or doing or not doing, about who this person or that person really is, about what the future holds, about what kind of hold the past has on us.
Where are those whispers coming from? Are they reliable, true? Or unreliable, deceptive, false? Which whispers say the same thing that Jesus coming in the flesh says? Listen to those. Dismiss the rest. [what would you do if someone gave you a counterfeit bill? Yell and scream, run in panic? No. You just wouldn’t accept it. Sorry, this isn’t real. Try again.]
We’ve got groups and organizations and companies and systems to join our energies and resources with. What spirit animates them? What’s the wind beneath their wings? What kind of air are they breathing? Is it a spirit / wind / breath that says the same thing Jesus coming in the flesh says? If so, join in. If not, move along.
We’ve got ideas and books and thoughts and philosophies and art and entertainment competing for our time and consideration. What animates them, what dynamic, mysterious force breathes life into them? Does that spirit say the same thing as Jesus coming in the flesh says? Then turn your face into that wind and breathe deep. But if it doesn’t, if it says the same things that the spirit that animates the systems and structures of this world says, well then maybe hold your breath in their presence, or wear a good HEPA rated filter at least, and if you start to develop asthma, maybe move to Arizona.
Practical Tips:
1. Take a hike. Pick a day to go for a walk or a drive in the midst of the fall color change, maybe at sunset or sunrise. As you soak in the beauty, thank God for filling the earth with his presence.
2. Soak in a song. Purchase the song “Brother Moon” from Gungor’s “Ghosts Upon the Earth” album and listen to it several times, writing down the lyrics by hand until you’ve got them all written out. Read through it and consider whether it is a song animated by the Spirit of truth or a spirit from this world. Consider how it might say the same thing as Jesus coming in the flesh says.
3. Take a Pneumalyzer test. Consider what spirit animates your life. Is your pursuit of Jesus preoccupied with attaining secret knowledge, or preoccupied with joining Jesus in the joyful, jubilant announcement that God has come right into the thick of things to gather all things to himself, to rescue, redeem, restore, and renew all of his good creation. Do some gardening as worship. Take your family and clean up a public space. Or serve the poor at compassion ministry. Or join the children’s ministry team. Or join the youth team as a relational youth leader.
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