WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.519 We're in a series on this letter, first John, and this is the old man, John, the very last, 00:00:08.519 --> 00:00:14.040 probably, of the apostles alive, and he's writing to the Ephesus region. 00:00:14.040 --> 00:00:22.199 And he says here in this passage that Christianity is all about knowing the truth. 00:00:22.199 --> 00:00:23.780 And you see it right there in verse two. 00:00:23.780 --> 00:00:26.679 He says in verse two that you can know the truth. 00:00:26.679 --> 00:00:28.179 This is the truth. 00:00:28.179 --> 00:00:29.679 And you know somebody's telling the truth. 00:00:29.679 --> 00:00:35.799 And they say that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and that He's come from God. 00:00:35.799 --> 00:00:37.119 And that that's the truth. 00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:44.200 And at the very end in verse six he says that this claim is the difference between truth 00:00:44.200 --> 00:00:46.359 and falsehood. 00:00:46.359 --> 00:00:51.579 That Jesus Christ has come from God in human flesh and that you can know the difference 00:00:51.579 --> 00:00:56.280 in the spirit of truth and the spirit of error according to that one sentence. 00:00:56.280 --> 00:01:05.879 Now that means that John is saying if you're not able to say Jesus Christ has come in the 00:01:05.879 --> 00:01:11.879 flesh from God, then you don't have the truth. 00:01:11.879 --> 00:01:18.439 And that's a problem, you know, because in a city like Edinburgh all of you know very 00:01:18.439 --> 00:01:23.799 well and some of you today maybe are here and you're curious about Christianity, but 00:01:23.799 --> 00:01:29.120 as soon as I say that and as soon as you hear John say that you immediately feel the weight 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:30.120 of this problem. 00:01:30.120 --> 00:01:35.000 And the weight of the problem which everybody here knows about because you've heard it 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:42.959 in many times and in many ways is that this claim that Jesus Christ is the only way to 00:01:42.959 --> 00:01:48.000 the Father that He is truly God and truly human and that this is absolute capital T 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:51.879 truth, it's an exclusive claim. 00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:52.879 And it does. 00:01:52.879 --> 00:01:53.879 It excludes. 00:01:53.879 --> 00:02:00.519 It excludes other religious claims, other absolute claims to the way, the realm of the 00:02:00.519 --> 00:02:03.280 supernatural and what it is and what it's about. 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:07.439 And anytime you're asking a massive question like what must I do to be saved, a religious 00:02:07.439 --> 00:02:13.919 claim comes along and here we're being told that this is the only right one. 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:15.599 And that's exclusivity. 00:02:15.599 --> 00:02:18.719 And of course all of you know you don't have to be convinced. 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:23.159 I don't need to spend any time on the fact that it's a huge problem for the contemporary 00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:29.319 world for any religion to say that they have the truth and they have it exclusively. 00:02:29.319 --> 00:02:36.199 Now I'm not going to unpack and deal with all the issues and ins and outs of exclusivity 00:02:36.199 --> 00:02:38.479 and the meaning of truth today. 00:02:38.479 --> 00:02:40.240 We don't have time for that. 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:45.680 But instead we want to hear from John because John actually does something very surprising 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:53.159 with this claim of exclusivity, something you might not immediately recognize or expect 00:02:53.159 --> 00:02:56.920 and then he tells us how you can test it. 00:02:56.920 --> 00:02:58.480 Okay, so three things. 00:02:58.480 --> 00:03:05.280 He first tells us the truth about truth and then he teaches us the truth and then at the 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:08.840 end he tells us about the test of truth. 00:03:08.840 --> 00:03:13.120 So we've got to hear the truth about truth and then know the truth and then hear his 00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:17.400 test of truth so that we can know when we hear truth. 00:03:17.400 --> 00:03:19.120 Okay, got it? 00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:21.439 All right, we will get it. 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:24.000 Here it is, the truth about truth. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:25.500 It's right here in verse one. 00:03:25.500 --> 00:03:27.840 It's surprising. 00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:30.900 In verse one you'll see part B of verse one. 00:03:30.900 --> 00:03:34.920 He says that many prophets have gone out into the world. 00:03:34.920 --> 00:03:39.520 He's talking there about in the context, this is language in the present tense, in the 00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:44.280 Ephesus region where John had planted this church and he's now writing to it, there are 00:03:44.280 --> 00:03:47.040 people who are coming there as teachers. 00:03:47.040 --> 00:03:52.920 He calls them prophets and they're making massive religious claims, the kind of claims 00:03:52.920 --> 00:03:57.480 that pertain to absolute truth claims, what must I do to be saved and all sorts of things 00:03:57.480 --> 00:03:58.800 like it. 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:02.000 And he calls them and one be false teachers. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:04.840 He says they're lying, they're not telling the truth. 00:04:04.840 --> 00:04:08.120 And instead what they're doing is they're trying to manipulate you and get you to put 00:04:08.120 --> 00:04:14.000 your faith, your time and your money into whatever they're saying. 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:20.480 And he's saying very clearly the point of the passage is don't be gullible, that people 00:04:20.480 --> 00:04:25.639 even within the realm of Christianity and outside of it of course are always making 00:04:25.639 --> 00:04:29.600 claims on you and telling you to believe this and believe that and put your money here and 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:30.759 there. 00:04:30.759 --> 00:04:35.840 And he's saying there's actually a test, there's a way that you can know who to listen to and 00:04:35.839 --> 00:04:40.359 who to follow and who to believe, we'll come back to that. 00:04:40.359 --> 00:04:46.839 But here's what's surprising is that clearly he's talking about people, teachers, men and 00:04:46.839 --> 00:04:54.199 women, somebody who's opening their mouth and making big claims about absolute truth. 00:04:54.199 --> 00:05:01.039 But then in verse one he doesn't say, okay church, test these false prophets, put these 00:05:01.039 --> 00:05:04.559 men to the test, what does he say in verse one? 00:05:04.559 --> 00:05:05.559 He doesn't say that. 00:05:05.560 --> 00:05:12.720 He says test the spirits to see whether they're speaking the truth. 00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:23.160 And that means that John is saying that underneath every single claim to absolute truth, religious 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:30.480 claims, claims about salvation and about the afterlife and all sorts of things, he's saying 00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:38.840 that there is a supernatural reality at work underneath every absolute truth claim. 00:05:38.840 --> 00:05:42.920 That whenever anybody goes out into the world and says this is the truth, I've got it and 00:05:42.920 --> 00:05:46.960 I'm going to tell you who the true God is and what you must do to be saved, that underneath 00:05:46.960 --> 00:05:52.000 that there's a spirit, a supernatural realm actually at work underneath it. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:58.439 Now a modern person says, if you're this person today, the modern person comes and says, you 00:05:58.439 --> 00:06:02.399 know, I don't like exclusive truth claims about religion. 00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:07.279 I don't think any religion can say what the whole truth is and what the true truth is. 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:09.639 I don't think we have that ability. 00:06:09.639 --> 00:06:13.600 And John responds by doubling down. 00:06:13.600 --> 00:06:20.759 He says, well let me up the ante, let me say even more that actually every time anyone 00:06:20.759 --> 00:06:27.560 says anything else than that Jesus is the Christ from God who's come in the flesh, that 00:06:27.560 --> 00:06:33.720 false claim actually has a spirit at work underneath it. 00:06:33.720 --> 00:06:39.720 The supernatural realm has active agency and so every single absolute truth claim about 00:06:39.720 --> 00:06:44.519 religion that comes into the world either comes from the work of the spirit of the true 00:06:44.519 --> 00:06:49.519 God or the work of spirits that are evil spirits. 00:06:49.519 --> 00:06:55.480 And these are what he calls anti-Christ, literally anti the proclamation of Christ 00:06:55.480 --> 00:06:57.319 that comes from the spirit of God. 00:06:57.319 --> 00:07:02.959 They're the anti-Christ and they're at work and they're all over the place. 00:07:02.959 --> 00:07:07.680 And verse six he said, you can either know that in these absolute truth claims it's 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:13.639 either the spirit of God speaking truth or evil spirit speaking falsehoods. 00:07:13.639 --> 00:07:19.279 Now this is a theological claim. 00:07:19.279 --> 00:07:27.879 How can Christians come and say about Jesus Christ that he is the capital T truth in the 00:07:27.879 --> 00:07:31.239 only way of salvation? 00:07:31.239 --> 00:07:36.519 And what John is doing is he's trying to give you the theological reason. 00:07:36.519 --> 00:07:37.799 And here's the theological reason. 00:07:37.799 --> 00:07:43.519 He says that any other claim actually comes from evil spirits. 00:07:43.519 --> 00:07:48.879 And that this comes from a supernatural invisible realm that you can't see but is very real. 00:07:48.879 --> 00:07:52.560 Now let me give you some applications. 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:59.120 First Christian friends here today, one commentator says it like this, that means that for all 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:10.000 of us it is a mistake to identify the supernatural with the divine outright as if they're the 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:11.639 same thing. 00:08:11.639 --> 00:08:15.000 You can't just look out into the world and say, look I've had an amazing experience. 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:17.319 I've experienced something supernatural. 00:08:17.319 --> 00:08:24.199 I've seen a miracle, whatever it may be, and suppose that supernatural activity and the 00:08:24.199 --> 00:08:29.759 true God at work in the world are always the same thing. 00:08:29.759 --> 00:08:30.839 John says you can't do that. 00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:35.559 You can't say that because there is a supernatural realm of evil also at work in the world and 00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:40.960 that we've got to then be called and compelled to test the spirits, to test the ways that 00:08:40.960 --> 00:08:43.759 the spirits are at work in the world. 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:52.679 Now let me press it on this, Christian friends, do you know today that the spirits of evil 00:08:52.679 --> 00:08:59.319 are at work in the world to thwart and to frustrate the claims that the church carries 00:08:59.319 --> 00:09:01.559 forth about Jesus Christ? 00:09:01.559 --> 00:09:03.080 Do you know that? 00:09:03.080 --> 00:09:06.919 Not only in your head but in your heart, that that's real? 00:09:06.919 --> 00:09:09.720 That that's exactly what's happening in the world all over the place? 00:09:09.720 --> 00:09:16.800 That you are, remember Ephesians, that you are not battling flesh and blood but you called 00:09:16.800 --> 00:09:22.519 out from that by God or battling against principalities and powers of the darkness, evil spirits, 00:09:22.519 --> 00:09:28.560 Paul says, that you are at war with evil spirits and that's real, that we believe that. 00:09:28.560 --> 00:09:35.080 Let me call on you because today maybe you don't feel, we don't feel the weight and the 00:09:35.080 --> 00:09:39.120 impact of that invisible reality. 00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:44.240 And we're experiencing a little bit of what the old world called Asidia, do you know that 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:46.480 word, Asidia? 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:53.159 It was the word that before the word boring or boredom, the word boring or boredom wasn't 00:09:53.159 --> 00:09:55.639 ever an English word until the 19th century. 00:09:55.639 --> 00:09:57.560 And before that they called it Asidia. 00:09:57.560 --> 00:10:07.639 And Asidia is complacency and experience a little dullness in life even with the religion, 00:10:07.639 --> 00:10:09.000 the God that you believe in. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:14.039 It's Asidia, it's being a little bit dulled by it over time, not having your spiritual 00:10:14.039 --> 00:10:16.879 senses up and alert. 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:24.320 And just here, all I can do time wise is say, here Ephesians 6, 11 to 13 again, and know 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:31.919 that you have been called out by God to put on the armor of God which is to battle evil 00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:34.440 in the invisible realm. 00:10:34.440 --> 00:10:38.879 And you do that with the armor of the gospel and the word of God and all sorts of things. 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:39.879 And that's very real. 00:10:39.879 --> 00:10:44.120 Now, if you're here today secondly, second application, and you're not a Christian and 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:50.759 you're curious about Christianity and you're here because you're exploring it, you're probably 00:10:50.759 --> 00:10:56.120 going to say, I know, you're probably going to say, John says that there's an exclusive 00:10:56.120 --> 00:11:02.120 truth that Jesus is the only way and that underneath every absolute religious claim, 00:11:02.120 --> 00:11:06.399 there are evil spirits at work or the spirit of God at work, you're going to say, I don't 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:07.919 buy that. 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:09.399 And I understand that. 00:11:09.399 --> 00:11:15.000 And that's what secular people in the contemporary world are of course going to say. 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:18.479 Now let me just say two things to you. 00:11:18.479 --> 00:11:21.959 One is to consider this. 00:11:21.959 --> 00:11:26.719 Most people in the world today are religious even in the age of the computer that we live 00:11:26.719 --> 00:11:32.439 in, even in the age of secularity, well over 90% of all human beings across the entire 00:11:32.439 --> 00:11:36.439 globe believe in the supernatural today. 00:11:36.440 --> 00:11:43.080 So secularity just really hasn't been very successful, not in stamping out religion. 00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:50.840 And when you look at that throughout world history, what you realize is that 99.99999999% 00:11:50.840 --> 00:11:56.920 of all people believe in deity, believe in the supernatural and always have, and they 00:11:56.920 --> 00:11:59.240 always will. 00:11:59.240 --> 00:12:01.120 It's never going to change. 00:12:01.120 --> 00:12:07.080 And let me say to you that that's not an argument for being frustrated by ignorance. 00:12:07.080 --> 00:12:13.720 Instead, what that can be is the fact that we all feel the weight of the religious impulse 00:12:13.720 --> 00:12:19.279 in our hearts and it's precisely because the supernatural actually exists. 00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:21.440 What if that's the answer? 00:12:21.440 --> 00:12:27.360 That the reason 99.999% of all people in human history believe in the supernatural is because 00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:31.600 it actually exists, not because they were just ignorant. 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:34.159 They didn't read enough science. 00:12:34.159 --> 00:12:37.240 And so let's say that you're willing to go there. 00:12:37.240 --> 00:12:42.960 Secondly, you say, okay, religion is meaningful perhaps, but that doesn't mean that Christianity 00:12:42.960 --> 00:12:47.919 or any other religion has the access to the exclusive truth. 00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:52.279 Well, this is a played out illustration. 00:12:52.279 --> 00:12:53.279 I know that. 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:54.800 I know you've heard this. 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:59.799 Many of you, and you're going to be bored by it, but this is from Leslie Newbighan. 00:12:59.799 --> 00:13:03.719 He was the originator and he talked about the problem of this claim, the problem of 00:13:03.719 --> 00:13:10.319 the claim that no religion could have knowledge of the exclusivity of the truth. 00:13:10.319 --> 00:13:12.319 Nobody could do that. 00:13:12.319 --> 00:13:13.559 That's the secular mind. 00:13:13.559 --> 00:13:14.559 That's what it says today. 00:13:14.559 --> 00:13:19.319 But look, Newbighan talked about the blind man and the elephant, but let's make it fresh 00:13:19.319 --> 00:13:20.719 today, because you've heard it before. 00:13:20.719 --> 00:13:23.120 Let's talk about the blind man and the donkey. 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:26.919 And that'll revive its freshness. 00:13:26.919 --> 00:13:27.919 What is it? 00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:33.840 It's that the donkey is like religious truth claims, and the donkey itself is the whole 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:34.840 truth. 00:13:34.840 --> 00:13:38.679 And all of us, all of us religious people in the world religions, we're like blind men, 00:13:38.679 --> 00:13:41.799 and we're all just grabbing a piece of the donkey. 00:13:41.799 --> 00:13:46.399 You grab its tail and you rub its belly and you touch its nose and its ear. 00:13:46.399 --> 00:13:51.560 And all of us are touching something true about the supernatural realm, all the world 00:13:51.559 --> 00:13:55.559 religions, but none of us can see the whole picture. 00:13:55.559 --> 00:13:59.879 And so none of us can really claim that we know, that we know that this is the way, that 00:13:59.879 --> 00:14:01.639 our religious claims are the way. 00:14:01.639 --> 00:14:03.479 Now, look, here's the problem. 00:14:03.479 --> 00:14:05.399 Newbighan pointed it out many have. 00:14:05.399 --> 00:14:11.479 The problem is the only way that you can say that, the only way that a secular mind can 00:14:11.479 --> 00:14:16.599 make that claim is if they can see the whole donkey, if they're the ones that have stepped 00:14:16.599 --> 00:14:19.199 back and say, actually, I can see the whole truth. 00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:23.080 And I know that each of you are only actually grabbing a little bit of it, but I can see 00:14:23.080 --> 00:14:24.080 it. 00:14:24.080 --> 00:14:30.120 And look, what you've done there, as you've said, I don't like exclusive absolute claims, 00:14:30.120 --> 00:14:34.879 and you've let sneak in the back door what you tried to kick out of the front door, because 00:14:34.879 --> 00:14:37.280 you've actually made the exclusive absolute claim. 00:14:37.280 --> 00:14:41.040 You're the one that's saying, I'm the one that knows that nobody else could have the 00:14:41.040 --> 00:14:42.040 absolute truth. 00:14:42.040 --> 00:14:46.200 I'm the one that knows that no religion could absolutely, truly know. 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:47.280 And I truly know. 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:50.799 I truly know that nobody else can truly know. 00:14:50.799 --> 00:14:55.399 And that's actually against every instinct of the modern person. 00:14:55.399 --> 00:14:58.079 That's actually quite imperialist. 00:14:58.079 --> 00:15:02.519 It's imperialist, because what it's doing is saying to every world religion that has 00:15:02.519 --> 00:15:08.879 existed for thousands of years longer than any of us, they were all happy to make absolute 00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:12.600 truth claims and disagree with one another. 00:15:12.600 --> 00:15:16.159 And you're saying that they're not allowed to do that anymore. 00:15:16.159 --> 00:15:17.839 And it's actually quite an imperialist move. 00:15:17.839 --> 00:15:22.079 And so let me say this, that here's a better way, as we move to point two and three, which 00:15:22.079 --> 00:15:23.360 are quite brief. 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:24.519 Here's a better way. 00:15:24.519 --> 00:15:30.079 Instead, you could ask this question, what religious claim, what absolute truth claims, 00:15:30.079 --> 00:15:38.639 what way of salvation, what origin story gives you the possibility of true hope makes the 00:15:38.639 --> 00:15:46.919 best sense of reality as you experience it and satisfies the needs of your intellect and 00:15:46.919 --> 00:15:47.919 your heart. 00:15:47.919 --> 00:15:49.319 That's the question to ask. 00:15:49.319 --> 00:15:52.159 Which one does that the best? 00:15:52.159 --> 00:15:53.759 Now let me tell you what John says it is. 00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:56.240 Secondly, he calls it the truth. 00:15:56.240 --> 00:15:57.559 And this is what he says in verse two. 00:15:57.559 --> 00:15:59.519 He says, this is the truth. 00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:05.960 Jesus, Jesus the text says, Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and is from God. 00:16:05.960 --> 00:16:08.120 Now there are several ways to translate that. 00:16:08.120 --> 00:16:10.840 So let me translate it slightly differently. 00:16:10.840 --> 00:16:17.799 I think it's at its best when it says, Jesus is the Christ who has come from God in the 00:16:17.799 --> 00:16:19.799 flesh. 00:16:19.799 --> 00:16:21.320 That's the absolute claim. 00:16:21.320 --> 00:16:26.320 Jesus is the Christ who has come from God in the flesh. 00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:31.080 There are three things there that make Christianity unlike every other world religion. 00:16:31.080 --> 00:16:33.320 Three things there that make it totally unique. 00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:35.480 And I can say them to you in just one or two minutes. 00:16:35.480 --> 00:16:36.480 And here they are. 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:44.200 One pastor points out when it says that Jesus is the Christ who has come for somebody to 00:16:44.200 --> 00:16:51.279 come into the world means that they must have been before they came into the world. 00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:53.399 You see John is saying something incredible there. 00:16:53.399 --> 00:16:59.159 He's saying that the man Jesus who appeared in the middle of history actually came into 00:16:59.159 --> 00:17:03.360 the world and existed prior to coming into the world. 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:07.880 But he comes from God and John 1 says that he is God from God. 00:17:07.880 --> 00:17:14.120 And so this is saying that the man who was born, the wee little baby that was born, that 00:17:14.120 --> 00:17:20.519 Mary at the virgin birth that she gave birth to God himself. 00:17:20.519 --> 00:17:27.000 Mary, the little poor woman in Israel, she was the mother of God. 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:29.599 And that's unique in all of religious history. 00:17:29.599 --> 00:17:35.279 All right, the second thing he tells us is that not only did he come from before, he 00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:39.759 is God from before, but also he is in the flesh. 00:17:39.759 --> 00:17:47.799 So this same person, God who came from before, who came through the Virgin Mary, he's human. 00:17:47.799 --> 00:17:53.759 And there's nothing like that in all of history that he's fully God and he's also fully human 00:17:53.759 --> 00:17:55.439 simultaneously. 00:17:55.440 --> 00:18:01.039 And then third, it says that Jesus is the Christ. 00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:04.279 And Christ is not his last name. 00:18:04.279 --> 00:18:05.799 It's an office. 00:18:05.799 --> 00:18:07.559 What he came to do. 00:18:07.559 --> 00:18:15.160 And it says that he is the Savior who was anointed to come as the God man into the world because 00:18:15.160 --> 00:18:20.160 God loves the world so much that he didn't want to leave it to die. 00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:23.880 Now when you pull those three things together, you've got something that no other religion 00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:25.400 has. 00:18:25.400 --> 00:18:28.800 You've got a massive claim that no other religion has. 00:18:28.800 --> 00:18:36.760 And John says that you've got to say all three of these things or you don't have Christianity. 00:18:36.760 --> 00:18:42.480 That Jesus is the Christ who has come from God in the flesh. 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:43.480 You've got to say all three. 00:18:43.480 --> 00:18:47.080 Or you don't have Christianity and you don't have the truth. 00:18:47.080 --> 00:18:52.600 Now let me tell you why and we'll move to the final point. 00:18:52.599 --> 00:18:56.319 Athanasius helped us to understand why this is so important. 00:18:56.319 --> 00:19:02.839 Athanasius is an old pastor from the fourth century in Alexandria, Egypt, and he wrote 00:19:02.839 --> 00:19:05.480 a little book on the incarnation. 00:19:05.480 --> 00:19:07.439 And it was all about this. 00:19:07.439 --> 00:19:14.539 Why Jesus must be the Christ come from God in the flesh. 00:19:14.539 --> 00:19:19.480 Now let me have a 10 second aside and say Christmas is coming. 00:19:19.480 --> 00:19:23.360 And this is a wonderful book to read at Christmastime. 00:19:23.360 --> 00:19:27.279 Read Athanasius on the incarnation over the advent season. 00:19:27.279 --> 00:19:31.279 It's little and it's easy and it's an amazing Christmas book. 00:19:31.279 --> 00:19:33.640 Back to the point. 00:19:33.640 --> 00:19:34.759 Here's what Athanasius says. 00:19:34.759 --> 00:19:48.519 He says that the reason that God took on human nature, took on flesh for us in love is because 00:19:48.519 --> 00:20:00.160 only in becoming fully human could he give life and hope to the human condition directly. 00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:02.319 He said it in a little bit more complicated way. 00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:03.319 He said it like this. 00:20:03.319 --> 00:20:08.559 That which is not assumed cannot be healed. 00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:15.160 It's saying that Jesus Christ so assumed human flesh, full humanity in order that he could 00:20:15.160 --> 00:20:22.720 heal it from the inside out, that he took on our nature in order to reset our nature, 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:27.360 that he took on all of what a human being is to create great humans, what they were 00:20:27.360 --> 00:20:33.600 really meant to be, that he assumed human nature in order to heal human nature from 00:20:33.600 --> 00:20:34.600 the inside out. 00:20:34.600 --> 00:20:44.640 Now, all of you today, Christian or not, do you not think that our nature is marred? 00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:52.000 Does it take much convincing to know that there's something wrong with our condition 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:57.120 and that we as Augustin put it, that we are bent in on ourselves? 00:20:57.120 --> 00:20:59.320 He talked about that we're curved in on ourselves. 00:20:59.320 --> 00:21:05.040 We're like a, it's as if somebody's taken a magnifying glass and turned it towards and 00:21:05.040 --> 00:21:07.960 stuck it right in and pointed it right at our own hearts. 00:21:07.960 --> 00:21:13.240 That means that every single thing in life is me refracting everything back to me, that 00:21:13.240 --> 00:21:18.400 I want everything in my life to be ultimately about me and my good and my will and God says 00:21:18.400 --> 00:21:26.000 that's not the way of true human nature, which is love of God and other from top to bottom. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:32.000 This is what Athanasius is saying and this is what John is saying, that this God became 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:39.559 human to fix the human condition, that he so assumed who we are so that he could heal 00:21:39.559 --> 00:21:46.119 who we are and if I could add one final thing, a fourth unique thing about Christianity to 00:21:46.119 --> 00:21:53.960 jump to next week's passage down in verse 10, it says that this God man became the sacrifice 00:21:53.960 --> 00:21:56.159 for our marred condition. 00:21:56.159 --> 00:22:04.200 In other words, he died with your broken human nature so that he might heal your broken human 00:22:04.200 --> 00:22:05.480 nature. 00:22:05.480 --> 00:22:12.360 He died possessing the corrupted human nature that you have so that in his death and resurrection 00:22:12.360 --> 00:22:18.279 he might heal the human condition that you have. 00:22:18.279 --> 00:22:20.240 And I'll just walk away with this. 00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:26.440 Curious friends today, if you're a curious friend here looking at Christianity and Christian 00:22:26.440 --> 00:22:34.720 friends too, let me call you to seek him in order that you might find him and I think you 00:22:34.720 --> 00:22:37.519 will. 00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:42.880 In other words, that's to say, especially if you have been absorbed into the secular 00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:48.640 mindset and this is for non-Christian people and Christian people, if you've been absorbed, 00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:54.680 if you've absorbed the secular mindset in some way, maybe you're just realizing it, 00:22:54.680 --> 00:23:02.759 look beyond the simplistic and exclusivist claims of the secular world, which say that 00:23:02.759 --> 00:23:08.720 nobody can really know anything, nobody can really know the truth, look beyond that exclusivity. 00:23:08.720 --> 00:23:11.720 That's an absolute truth claim that doesn't work. 00:23:11.720 --> 00:23:15.319 And instead, if you look for what's true, good, and beautiful, if you look for what 00:23:15.319 --> 00:23:25.119 makes sense of reality and fits the needs of your heart, I think you'll find Jesus Christ. 00:23:25.119 --> 00:23:28.480 Seek him while you can find him and you will find him. 00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:38.519 But lastly, John turns lastly to talk to Christians and he says, you need to test these truth 00:23:38.519 --> 00:23:43.160 claims when people come into your life and they make big exclusive truth claims, you 00:23:43.160 --> 00:23:46.079 got to put them to the test. 00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:48.200 And you've always got to be alert. 00:23:48.200 --> 00:23:54.160 Don't be gullible, test the spirits, test the teachers in your life, test the preachers 00:23:54.160 --> 00:23:55.640 in your life. 00:23:55.640 --> 00:24:00.680 Don't listen just because they stand here, test them. 00:24:00.680 --> 00:24:02.040 And he tells us how to do it. 00:24:02.040 --> 00:24:03.600 And we can do this very quickly. 00:24:03.600 --> 00:24:06.120 Now it's Reformation Sunday, all right? 00:24:06.120 --> 00:24:11.320 So we weren't getting away without talking about the Reformation, at least a little bit, 00:24:11.320 --> 00:24:15.880 but it's just simply to say this, the reformers were very helpful because what they said is 00:24:15.880 --> 00:24:24.759 that they talked about the fact that Christianity gives actually every single person in the world 00:24:24.759 --> 00:24:33.920 the right to personal judgment about religious claims, that Christianity itself says nobody 00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:37.480 should be coerced to believe in God. 00:24:37.480 --> 00:24:39.240 The gospel is non-coercive. 00:24:39.240 --> 00:24:44.440 Nobody should be forced, not from the church, not from the state, not from the Magisterium 00:24:44.440 --> 00:24:46.400 in the time of the Reformation. 00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:47.400 Nobody should be forced. 00:24:47.400 --> 00:24:52.319 Every single one of you, this is what Christianity teaches, that every person in the world, it's 00:24:52.319 --> 00:24:58.519 the basic Western democratic ideal, that everybody should have religious freedom, that everybody 00:24:58.519 --> 00:25:01.079 should not be coerced into belief. 00:25:01.079 --> 00:25:02.799 That's not how Jesus works. 00:25:02.799 --> 00:25:07.919 He actually works by making a claim upon your heart and calling you from the inside out, 00:25:07.919 --> 00:25:12.000 not the top down, not from the state down. 00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:13.720 And that was a Reformation claim. 00:25:13.720 --> 00:25:15.279 That was what we learned in the Reformation. 00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:16.960 And that's exactly what John is saying here. 00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:22.920 He's saying, because the gospel is non-coercive and because religious truth claims should 00:25:22.920 --> 00:25:27.120 not be, you need to be a Berean, as we say from the book of Acts. 00:25:27.120 --> 00:25:29.759 You need to test everything. 00:25:29.759 --> 00:25:30.759 And how do you test it? 00:25:30.759 --> 00:25:32.840 You test it, of course, by the word of God. 00:25:32.840 --> 00:25:39.519 But John says here one way, I can only give you one, one theological test. 00:25:39.519 --> 00:25:40.519 And here it is. 00:25:40.519 --> 00:25:48.599 Does the teacher say that Jesus is the Christ from God, come in the flesh? 00:25:48.599 --> 00:25:49.599 Is that there? 00:25:49.599 --> 00:25:57.639 Now, there's a, there's a man, we have a set of manuscripts of 1 John that have a slightly 00:25:57.639 --> 00:26:01.359 different word sometimes in verse three. 00:26:01.359 --> 00:26:06.240 When it says, if they don't confess this, they're a false prophet. 00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:12.359 Well that word confessed there, sometimes in some of our manuscripts is the word to 00:26:12.359 --> 00:26:16.359 loosen, to untie a rope. 00:26:16.359 --> 00:26:19.000 And so both of the words work just fine. 00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:25.519 But in the other one, it says, if anybody tries to untie the rope, you know, you have 00:26:25.519 --> 00:26:30.440 a rope and it's woven together with different strands, he says, Jesus is the Christ come 00:26:30.440 --> 00:26:31.799 in the flesh. 00:26:31.799 --> 00:26:37.759 If anybody tries to take that rope, which has three strands, and start to whittle the 00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:42.519 strands away and loosen one of them, then that's false prophecy. 00:26:42.519 --> 00:26:45.000 That's a bad teacher. 00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:46.159 It's like loosening a rope. 00:26:46.159 --> 00:26:49.159 Now we'll close with this. 00:26:49.159 --> 00:26:50.680 That's a theological test. 00:26:50.680 --> 00:26:55.519 But there's really something more here within that theological test, and it's a little bit 00:26:55.519 --> 00:26:56.519 hidden. 00:26:56.519 --> 00:26:59.039 But let me show it to you as we close. 00:26:59.039 --> 00:27:03.759 In verse two and verse three here, the ESV does really well. 00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:08.799 It says that what makes a Christian, and this is what makes a Christian, this is what makes 00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:16.279 a Christian, by this you know the spirit of God, every spirit that confesses Jesus is 00:27:16.279 --> 00:27:18.559 the Christ. 00:27:18.559 --> 00:27:24.879 In some of the older translations, that word there for confess, they translated acknowledge. 00:27:24.880 --> 00:27:30.440 And hopefully we've shifted that translation to confesses, because the word acknowledge 00:27:30.440 --> 00:27:33.040 just doesn't really do it. 00:27:33.040 --> 00:27:37.640 Because the word that John uses here does not just mean to admit it. 00:27:37.640 --> 00:27:42.440 You know, to say that intellectually I can get here. 00:27:42.440 --> 00:27:47.560 Intellectually I can come and admit Jesus is the Christ from God come in the flesh. 00:27:47.560 --> 00:27:48.840 It means more than that. 00:27:48.840 --> 00:27:54.480 And we've already seen this word in 1 John 1 verse nine, which said, if you confess 00:27:54.480 --> 00:28:00.599 your sins, if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive them. 00:28:00.599 --> 00:28:03.319 It doesn't just mean to admit it in your mind. 00:28:03.319 --> 00:28:04.519 It means something more than that. 00:28:04.519 --> 00:28:11.160 And it comes from a Greek word, which is the word homo logos, logos, homo logos. 00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:12.160 You know this word. 00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:16.079 It's homo the same, and logos word. 00:28:16.079 --> 00:28:21.200 And so the word in the Bible that we have for confessing simply means this. 00:28:21.200 --> 00:28:30.519 Just when you do the work of homo logos to say the same words as the person who told 00:28:30.519 --> 00:28:31.519 it to you. 00:28:31.519 --> 00:28:33.600 That's what it means to confess. 00:28:33.600 --> 00:28:40.279 That you're willing to say the same thing as the one who told it to you. 00:28:40.279 --> 00:28:41.279 What does that mean? 00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:46.640 Well, it's the answer to the problem of exclusive truth claims. 00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:51.680 You know, in some way, the secular mind is right. 00:28:51.680 --> 00:28:52.680 Of course, we're human. 00:28:52.680 --> 00:28:56.440 We don't have access to the whole truth. 00:28:56.440 --> 00:28:57.440 We're finite. 00:28:57.440 --> 00:28:59.600 We're contingent. 00:28:59.600 --> 00:29:04.040 We don't know everything, and we can't see everything. 00:29:04.040 --> 00:29:09.440 But homo logos is the answer, because what it says here is that to confess is to say 00:29:09.440 --> 00:29:17.960 in humility of heart that I'm willing to say the same words as the one who spoke the words 00:29:17.960 --> 00:29:18.960 to me. 00:29:18.960 --> 00:29:26.480 In other words, to confess is to say I'm willing to say about Jesus Christ what God says about 00:29:26.480 --> 00:29:28.600 Jesus Christ. 00:29:28.600 --> 00:29:34.759 You know, I don't have access to the whole truth, but what if God has actually spoken? 00:29:34.759 --> 00:29:41.559 What if God has truly spoken in the incarnate Word Himself, in the inscripturated Word? 00:29:41.559 --> 00:29:47.160 And then you can say, well, yeah, of course, I don't know the exclusive truth, but He does. 00:29:47.160 --> 00:29:55.599 And you see, to confess is to say I'm willing to say the same thing about me and about Jesus 00:29:55.599 --> 00:29:59.359 that God says about me and about Jesus. 00:29:59.359 --> 00:30:03.839 I'm willing to listen to God on this. 00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:05.599 And this is what God says about Jesus. 00:30:05.599 --> 00:30:12.079 God the Father and Philippians 2, it says that He exalted Jesus with a name that is above 00:30:12.079 --> 00:30:14.279 every other name. 00:30:14.279 --> 00:30:19.879 And so if you're willing to confess today, it means that you're willing to say, I know 00:30:19.879 --> 00:30:25.639 that I actually don't have all the answers, that I can't actually know the whole truth, 00:30:25.639 --> 00:30:30.839 but I'm willing today in faith to humble myself to the point where I will say that what God 00:30:30.839 --> 00:30:34.799 says about me and what God says about Jesus is the way. 00:30:34.799 --> 00:30:36.639 It's the truth. 00:30:36.639 --> 00:30:38.839 That's what it means to confess. 00:30:38.839 --> 00:30:42.279 It's a state of humility and a state of faith. 00:30:42.279 --> 00:30:48.359 Now on this Reformation Sunday, we'll give John Calvin the last word, because in the reflection 00:30:48.359 --> 00:30:54.839 and the bulletin, if you saw it at the very top, Calvin says exactly what John is telling 00:30:54.839 --> 00:30:56.679 us here. 00:30:56.680 --> 00:31:01.840 He says that if we are to have any wisdom at all in this life, if we're to have any 00:31:01.840 --> 00:31:08.360 wisdom at all in this life, it must first be the knowledge of God and in light of that, 00:31:08.360 --> 00:31:11.200 the knowledge of ourselves. 00:31:11.200 --> 00:31:20.400 And John says, true confession is to say that I'm willing today to say about me and about 00:31:20.400 --> 00:31:26.519 Jesus exactly what God tells me to think about me and about Jesus. 00:31:26.519 --> 00:31:32.240 If you're to possess any wisdom in this life, you've got to be willing to say what God says 00:31:32.240 --> 00:31:36.079 about God and about yourself. 00:31:36.079 --> 00:31:41.000 And that's to confess your sins and to confess Jesus is the Christ. 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:44.039 Come from God in the flesh. 00:31:44.039 --> 00:31:46.119 And that's the truth. 00:31:46.119 --> 00:31:50.039 And that's the way of salvation. 00:31:50.039 --> 00:31:51.839 And it's for everybody. 00:31:51.839 --> 00:31:52.839 Let's pray together. 00:31:52.839 --> 00:32:00.679 We do ask that you would work faith into our hearts this morning and that we would dismiss 00:32:00.679 --> 00:32:09.679 any notions of the pride that says that there's no way you could have spoken the truth to 00:32:09.679 --> 00:32:10.679 us. 00:32:10.679 --> 00:32:13.000 Lord, we submit, we humble ourselves. 00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:17.919 And I do ask for people here who are wrestling with this and wrestling with doubts that come 00:32:17.920 --> 00:32:23.680 and hear John make such a bold claim, an absolute truth claim that they would be helped by 00:32:23.680 --> 00:32:28.440 you, Lord, by the Spirit of God to hear and to believe. 00:32:28.440 --> 00:32:31.240 And we ask for this heart in Jesus' name. 00:32:31.240 --> 00:32:49.720 Amen.