Sermon Tone Analysis

*Antichrist is Coming!*

A sermon on 1 John 2:18:27 preached at Christ the King Church on 2~/12~/06

 

*Prayer:  *Father, be with us now as we open your Word.

Open also our hearts and minds so that we might know you and know ourselves better.

We ask this in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

!! Introduction

 

*“So you are a king!”* Pontus Pilate said to Jesus.

*“You are right in saying I am a king.”

*Jesus answered,* “In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.

Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”  *Pilate replied, *“What is truth”* (John 18:37-38)?

That question (or statement) represents well the unbelieving mind, that modern or postmodern perspective that believes in everything because it believes in nothing, believes in everything that is foolish because it recognizes not the wisdom of God in Christ.

As through a veil the world today sees and embraces half the truth- faith without facts, love with rules, God without His Son, Jesus.

Today truth is relative, especially concerning the person of Jesus.

When it comes to the question, “Who was Jesus?” the opinions abound!

Jesus was just a man.

Jesus was but a purely divine spirit.

Jesus was a magician.

Jesus was a husband and father, as he was secretly married to Mary Magdalene.

Jesus never existed.

Those are but a few of the ungrounded opinions that abound today.

What is truth?

What is the truth about Jesus?

That is a real question asked and answered today, in the streets, in the office, in the classroom, and in the church.

And it was the very question that the apostle John addressed nearly two thousand years ago when he wrote those verses that have just been read.

The apostle wrote 1 John 2:18-27 as a test of truth [a test of truth].

If you recall, John, in his First Epistle, has been testing those who claim to know God, those who claim to follow Jesus.

And he has put and will continue to put to his readers three tests.

First is /the moral test:/  Do you obey Christ’s commandments?

Do you practice righteousness?

Do you live according to God’s rules?

Second is /the social test:  /Do you love?  Do you love your brother (those within the church)?

And do you love your neighbor (even those outside the church)?

Third is /the truth test /(the doctrinal test),/ /and that is what we have here:  What do you think about Jesus?  Do you believe what the apostles (these reliable eyewitness) have taught?

Do you believe that Jesus is the eternal Son of God?  Do you believe that He came in the flesh (1:1-4)?

Do you believe He is the Christ, the divinely appointed and anointed King of Israel and of the world?

Do you believe that through His blood (His sacrificial death) we are purified from our sins (1:7)?

Now, that was the test put before John’s first readers.

And it is also the test put before us today.

Do you consider yourself a Christian?

Well then, test yourself; examine yourself *“to see whether you are in the faith”* (2 Corinthians 13:5).

For you can be certain of your standing before God if you love others, if you live rightly, and /if/ you believe and continue to believe the truth taught about Jesus!

 

 

*The Antichrist~/s*

 

Now, the apostle John, a man of who writes of great contrasts *- *light and darkness, love and hate, truth and falsehood *– *will highlight in our text the truth about the light of Jesus by setting before us a black backdrop of those who hate it, of those false teachers, false ‘brethren’ who deceive, deny, and thus depart (deceive, deny, and depart).

Open you Bibles and look with me at these three ‘D’s.

Do you see what John says in v.26?  Here’s the first ‘D’.

*“I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.”*[1]*

*John writes to warn and to remind believers of these deceivers and of their deceiving doctrines.

And those doctrines, those specific false doctrines, he reveals to us in vv.21-23.

So now look with me there.

Here we find the second ‘D’- the ‘D’ of denial.*

“I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?

This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

No one who denies the Son has the Father.”

*So, do you see what these professing Christians deny?

They deny that Jesus is the *“Christ.”*

They deny that Jesus is the *“Son,” *the Son of the Father, the Son of God.

They deny what we now understand (and what the church has always understood) to be two of the cardinal or essential doctrines of the Christian faith.

Can you hear today what these deceivers must have said, “Hey, it may be that we have different ideas from you about /Jesus; /but you and we do believe the same things about /God/.”[2]

“Even though we don’t believe the same things about Jesus, we still worship the same God, we still have fellowship with the same divine Father.”

Well, John will have none of this!

He will not tolerate such tolerance!

And we know this because of what he says about them.

He doesn’t mix words when he describes these deceivers and deniers!

In v.22 he calls them, *“liars,”* and then in that same verse he labels them *“antichrist,” *a term he uses earlier in v.18.

Now, as a bit of an aside, let’s go to that verse (v.18), and let’s see what God’s Word has to say:  *“Children *[that’s what John calls these Christians under his care]*, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.

Therefore we know that it is the last hour.”

*

 

There are perhaps no two ideas that get more attention today than the end times and the antichrist, both of which are addressed in v.18, and both of which are (in my opinion) generally misunderstood.

It has been popular for over a century or two now, especially in the academy, to claim that Jesus’ first disciples thought and taught that Jesus would return in their lifetime.

The evidence, they claim, is throughout the New Testament, one example being here in 1 John.

To them, when John mentions *“the last hour”* it is to be taken in some sense literally; that is, John actual believed he was living in the very last period of human history.

Well, what are we to make of such a claim?

Let me first say this.

While it is true that the apostles did live and preach as though Christ could return at any moment, interestingly they made no claims or predictions that He would return in their lifetimes.

So, unlike some imaginative theologians, they made no bold and false predictions about the date of the Second Coming.

Now, beyond that it should be obvious by the fact that John actually wrote and sent a letter that he did not understanding *“the last hour”* literally.

You see when one looks at all the evidence it makes best sense to say that this phrase * “the last hour,”* similar to the *“the last days,”* refers “to the period between the first and second comings of Christ, or more accurately between Pentecost and Christ’s return.”[3]

So, with this more theological understanding, we see that every hour we live during this time period is *“the last hour.”

*I’ll put it this way.

John lived in the last hour as do we and as will all who live between Pentecost and the Parousia.

So, that’s what John means by *“the last hour.”*

Well, what then is this business of *“the antichrist”*?

*“It is the last hour,” *John says in v.18,* “and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come….”*

When I told Sandy, who puts together the bulletin, that the title for my sermon would be /Antichrist is Coming/, she replied, “Scary!

That will get their attention.”

Well, while I hope not to scare anyone, I do hope to get your attention, your attention focused on what the Bible has to say about *“the antichrist.”*

Throughout church history there has been much talk and debate about *“the antichrist.”

*Yet there has been no time like the last few decades where this idea of the antichrist has reached such heights of popularity, and yet also reached such speculative silliness.

With the best-selling book of the 1970’s /The Great Late Planet Earth, /and with the best-selling adult fiction series of all time, the /Left Behind /series/, /we are all up to date on what some creative thinkers think about this diabolical figure.

But, I fear we may know little or nothing as to what the Bible actually says concerning “*the antichrist.”

*I fear that just as there is much confusion today about the end times, so there is much confusion (likely more confusion) over this figure of *“the antichrist.”

*So, let’s try to bring some Scriptural clarity.

Let’s start with some basic statistics.

First, let me point out that *“the antichrist”* is not addressed and emphasized much in the Bible.

Even if we gathered together all the possible references to him, such as the *“little horn”* described in Daniel, or *“the beast”* described in Revelation, or *“the man of lawlessness”* mentioned in 2 Thessalonians, it still would amount to but a few references.

In fact, do you know how many times in the Bible this figure is talked about as *“the antichrist”*?

That is, how many times he takes on that name?

Do you think a hundred times?

How about 50 times?