1 John 4:1-3
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. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but 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."
Isaiah 9:6
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
John 1:14
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
1 John 1:1-4
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete."

Message:
"What think ye of Christ?' is the test
To try both your faith and your scheme;
You cannot be right in the rest,
Unless you think rightly of him.
There is another version of the first scripture which we started our lesson today with...a version written by Ronald Knox. This is how he understands it: "every spirit which acknowledges Jesus Christ as having come to us in human flesh has God for its author; and no

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spirit which would disunite Jesus comes from God." His rendering of these last words follows the wording of the Latin Bible, which underlies Knox's translation.
But, what is meant by ‘disuniting Jesus?’
It probably means disuniting the Jesus of history from the Christ of faith; it refers, as Knox explains in a footnote, to the teaching which "would deny the identity of the human Jesus with the divine Christ." There was a school of thought in the later part of the first century AD which regarded anything belonging to the material order (including the human body) as religiously worthless. The idea that God should reveal Himself in a Jesus of flesh and blood was unacceptable. Such a Jesus could be dispensed with; the true Christ was a purely spiritual being. It was to counter this line of argument that John, in his Gospel, insisted that in Jesus of Nazareth the eternal Word or self-expression of God ‘became flesh.’
For John, Christian belief could be summed up in one great sentence; "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us"...and any spirit which denied the reality of the Incarnation was not of God. John lays down two tests of belief.
(1)To be of God a spirit must acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. As John saw it, to deny that is to deny three things about Jesus, (a) It is to deny that He is the center of history, the One for whom all previous history had been a preparation. (b) It is to deny that He is the fulfillment of the promises of God. All through their struggles and their defeats, the Jews had clung to the promises of God. To deny that Jesus is the promised Messiah is to deny that these promises were true. (c) It is to deny His Kingship. Jesus came, not only to sacrifice, but to reign; and to deny His Messiahship is to leave out His essential kingliness.
(2) To be of God a spirit must acknowledge that Jesus has come in the flesh. It was precisely this that the Gnostics could never accept. Since, in their view, matter was altogether evil, a real incarnation was an impossibility, for God could never take flesh upon Himself. Augustine was later to say that in the pagan philosophers he could find parallels for everything in the New Testament except for one saying—"The Word became flesh." As John saw it, to deny the complete man-

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hood of Jesus Christ was to strike at the very roots of the Christian faith.
If the Christian claim is well founded, that God revealed Himself pre-eminently in the life and death of Jesus Christ, then it is of the highest importance to know as completely and accurately as possible what kind of life and death it was in which God thus revealed Himself.
It is perfectly clear that no character in history excites more general interest, even today, than Jesus does.
The unknown author of the early Christian document called the letter to the Hebrews makes much of the help which the ascended Christ can give to His people when they pass through trials and temptations; but he emphasizes that He is able to give this help more effectively because, during His earthly life, He passed through the same trials and temptations Himself. The ministry which the ascended Christ continues to discharge for His people--what the author of Hebrews calls His ministry as their High Priest in the presence of God--requires the continuity and identity of the earthly Jesus and the heavenly Christ. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).
Yesterday He was the historical Jesus; today He is the Christ of faith. But it is the identical Jesus Christ with whom we have to do, whether we think of Him as He was in the early decades of the first century, or as He is in the closing decades of the twentieth century, or as He ever will be.
The Christ of faith, if disunited from the Jesus of history, is apt to be a figment of the pious imagination.
A good churchwoman, who must have been strangely sheltered from the facts of Christian history, was shocked one day to hear a preacher remark that Jesus was a Jew. She voiced her indignation to all who cared to listen to her: "No, sir," she said: "my Jesus was no Jew!" But the historical Jesus was indubitably a Jew, and if her Jesus was no Jew, then her Jesus was not the Jesus of history, and some degree at least was a figment of her pious imagination. The Bible clearly tells us of His lineage: "This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 4:18). The conception was Divine, the birth was through the body of a little Jewish girl known as Mary!

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"But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." (Gal. 4:4) The Christ of history was conceive by the Holy Spirit in Mary's womb, thus the child that was born was none other than the Divine Son of God, the Messiah, the Saviour of the world! "Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels He helps, but Abraham's descendents. For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people" (Hebrews 2:14-17).
Jesus of history was God manifested in human form! "Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:]
Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God [possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God], did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained, But stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being." (Philippians 4:5-7) Amplified Bible
In the passage that we noted in the first part of our lesson, John makes it very clear that to deny the reality of the Incarnation has certain definite consequences.
(1) It is to deny that Jesus came ever to be our example. If He was not in any real sense a man, living under the same conditions as men He cannot show men how to live.
(2) It is to deny that Jesus can be the High Priest who opens the way to God. The true High Priest, as the writer to the Hebrews saw, must be like us in all things, knowing our infirmities and our temptations. "Inasmuch then as we have a great High Priest Who has [already] ascended and passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession [of faith in Him].

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"For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning. Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it]. (Hebrews 4:14-16) Amp.
To lead men to God the High Priest must be a man, or else He will be pointing them to a road which it is impossible for them to take.
(3) To deny the Incarnation is to deny that Jesus can in any real sense be Saviour. To save men He had to identify Himself with the men He came to save!
(4) To deny the Incarnation is to deny the salvation of the body. Christian teaching is quite clear that salvation is the salvation of the whole man. The body as well as the soul is saved. To deny the Incarnation is to deny the possibility that the body can ever become the temple of the Holy Spirit.
NOTHING IN CHRISTIANITY IS MORE CENTRAL THAN THE REALITY OF THE MANHOOD OF JESUS CHRIST! The God of eternity invaded time in the person of Jesus Christy to become the Saviour of men through dying on the cross, rising from the dead, and ascending in heaven, so that He might be our Great High Priest for ever! It is the same Christ who lived on this earth and ascended into heaven that now ever lives to make intercession for us!
Think with me for a moment concerning the historical record of Jesus. The New Testament is our source of information, for outside of the biblical sources, we have very little mention of the life of Jesus. The few sources which we do have from early times let us know that a man by the name of Jesus, or Christ, did live, and that He had some influence in founding a religious movement that continued after Him.
TACITUS in his Annals, 15;44, said that the Christians "derived their name and origin from one Christ, who in the reign of Tiberius had suffered death by the sentence of the Procurator, Pontius Pilate."
SUETONIUS in his LIFE OF CLAUDIUS, 25, wrote that the Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome "because

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of constant tumults under the leadership of Chrestus." It is probable that "Chrestus" is a misspelling for the word Christ.
The Younger Pliny in his Epistles, 10:96, describes the Christians of Bithynia as followers of one named Christ, who "blind themselves with an oath not to enter into any wickedness, or commit thefts, robberies, or adulteries, or falsify their word, or repudiate trusts committed to them."
One passage in Josephus, ANTIQUITIES, 20:91, speaks of James as the "brother of Jesus called the Christ." It may seem strange at first thought that there is little about Jesus in the early non-Christian literature. But let us remember that Palestine was only a tiny part of the great Roman Empire, and also that Jesus was only, humanly speaking, a humble, untrained, prophet-teacher. It is even remarkable that we find even this much about Him.
And so we turn to the four Gospels in our Bible. We are fortunate in having, in the four Gospels, documents which have probably been subjected, over the past two centuries, to more sustained critical analysis than any comparable body of literature in the world.
It has come to be almost universally recognized that the four Gospels were not meant to be works of pure history. The authors were not interested in simply collecting the facts for an objective study by some later scholars in the field of history. They dealt with the facts of history, of course, but they were also interested in the interpretation of these facts, and especially in their religious significance. The gospels are clearly books of religious propaganda—without any of the harsh connotation of that term. They were meant to lead persons to a belief in Jesus as the Christ, so that they might come to have eternal life through Him. The writers of the gospels claimed to be telling the truth about certain historical facts, but not for a moment did they claim to be completely disinterested spectators.
They were men of faith themselves, and they openly sought to share their faith with others.
From the New Testament documents we learn of the birthplace of Jesus...a little town called Bethlehem. His parents were Joseph and Mary. He spent most of His short life in Nazareth, and about thirty years of age began His public ministry. He died at approximately thirty

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three years of age by crucifixion. Shortly thereafter, He ascended back into heaven.
The ancient creeds of the Church, in the section which they devote to the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, affirm that, having become man, He was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the Father's right hand. He shall come again with glory to judge both the living and dead. His kingdom shall have no end.
These affirmations are soundly based in the New Testament writings. The earlier ones relate to the Jesus of history, the later ones to the Christ of faith. But the only affirmation made with reference to the present time is that He "sits at the Father's right hand." This is pictorial language based on an oracle in one of the Old Testament psalms. Slightly less pictorial language is used in a primitive Christian hymn, quoted in Paul's letter to the church of Philippi, which tells how, after Jesus' humiliation and crucifixion, "God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name", decreeing that every knee should bend at Jesus' name and every tongue confess that He is Lord!
But there is one highly important aspect of Jesus' present order of existence that the creeds pass over without mention. That is His abiding presence with His people. This is no mere matter of theory: it is something of which many Christians have been vitally aware in one generation after another since He was last seen on earth.
The evangelist Matthew reports Jesus' last words to the disciples before He was taken from them as a promise to be with them always, right on to the end (Matthew, 28:20). The continuous fulfillment of that promise is amply documented in the New Testament—in Acts the letters of Paul and the Revelation—and not only in the New Testament, but in the history of subsequent. Christian experience.
One New Testament writer, claiming to be himself, "a witness of the sufferings of Christ," addresses fellow Christians who had not shared that experience and says to them of Christ: "Without having seen Him you love Him" (1 Peter 5:1; 1:8). Another, who had personally seen and heard and touched the One in whom (he declares)

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the eternal life of God was manifested, writes to believers of a younger generation to share with them what he himself had seen and heard, so that they in their turn may have fellowship 'with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ' and reflect the love of Him who first loved them. (1 John 1:1-4; 4:19)
The way in which the Christ of faith can be personally known to those who never knew Him as the Jesus of history has been illustrated especially from Paul's experience because he was a Christian of the first generation who has placed his knowledge of Christ on record in his writings. But other Christian than Paul, while they have not shared his Damascus-road revelation, have shared his personal knowledge of the indwelling Christ.
Even if they have not experienced it with the same intensity or expressed their experience with the same assurance, they have at least found in the experience to which he gave such memorable expression an ideal which they have earnestly sought to realize. Its realization would be a vain hope apart from the living power of the Christ of faith; but it is not dependent on the effort of their own will or imagination. He who 'was crucified in weakness is the one who now lives by the power of God' (2 Corinthians 13;3,4), AND He therefore remains powerful in His people's lives.
No one refutes the fact that Jesus Christ is a person of history...and most know Him only as the Jesus of history! At this Christmas season, the world will listen to the carols ringing through the malls and shops. But sad to say, they do not hear the words. Many will join with the singers and voice the words of the carols, but they are just words. He is only the Jesus of history!
But He really came to be the Christ of faith. It is where we invite Him, by the work of the Holy Spirit, to come and dwell within our hearts and be the Lord of our life that He then becomes our Christ of faith.
To make Him the center and purpose of our living, to get to know Him in the power of His resurrection and in His sufferings, to experience His indwelling peace and joy midst the trials of life, to realize that blessed assurance that all is well with your soul and God, to rest confidently in the knowledge of His love and grace that will one day welcome you into His heaven, that is the meaning of experiencing the Jesus of history as your Christ of faith!