S - Epistle of John Pt. (1 John 2: 18-27)
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20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.
22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son.
23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
Do you know how to tell time? Telling time is one of the first things we teach children how to do. Well, it involved math, it involves reading, and it’s an important skill you need to learn in order to be able to adequately prepare for what’s coming.
for instance, what time do you eat dinner? If you eat dinner at 5:30 PM every day, would you go and eat an entire chocolate cake at 5:20 PM? Now I am certain that some of you would try, but if you do that, then you won’t be prepared to eat dinner at 5:30.
What about school time? You probably get up around 6 or 630 AM in order to get ready for school. Well, if you don’t go to sleep at a reasonable hour then you’ll be tired all day. So being able to tell time will help you prepare for what’s coming.
Well, today we are going to talk about time as well. See, we have an indicator of time here in 1 John 2: 18
18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.
John says that we know we are in the last hour because there are some people called antichrist roaming around in the world. What does John mean by the last hour? Well, to make it simple, it means that we are getting closer and closer to the day that Jesus will return for His people.
Have you ever thought about Jesus coming back? Maybe for some of you, you may never have thought about Jesus coming. But the Bible promises us that one day Jesus will come back for His people.
Now, if I’m being honest I don’t know when that will be. The Bible also tells us that only God knows that time. But have you ever thought about Jesus coming back? Have you ever asked yourself: What will I be doing when Jesus comes back?
Jesus could come back in my lifetime, He could come back in your lifetime, or he may not come back for another 2000 years. But John says: This is the last hour. We know that we are getting closer to Jesus coming back because:
The antichrist is coming, even now there are many antichrists.
Well, this might be the first time you have the word antichrist. There is some biblical confusion about this term antichrist. some people believe that the antichrist is one individual person that is coming in the future that is going to claim to be Jesus and pretend to be like Jesus. And there is some truth to that. Today we won’t be talking about this man, today we are going to be talking about his spirit. Let’s read this in in a later chapter in John.
Well, Later
3 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.
We hear about this spirit known as the spirit of the antichrist. And I’m not here to talk about the man that’s coming one day and walk this earth and pretend to be Jesus. Today we are going to talk about this spirit and what that spirit looks like.
So John says: We know that we are in the last hour because many antichrists have come. In other words:
We know that Jesus’ return is closer today because there are people that behave in a manner that is against God or anti God. It’s not talking about people who don’t know Jesus, it’s not talking about people who are christians but make mistakes sometimes. It is talking about people who know who Jesus is and deny Him on purpose.
What does it look like to behave like an antichrist? Well today, John is going to teach us what those behaviors are so that you and I can behave Prochrist instead of antichrist.
19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
The first characteristic of an antichrist is:
1. They deny the church
They pretend to be christians, but the truth is they’re not. John says: They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. Have you ever heard anyone say: “I was raised in the church and I used to be a christians, but I don’t believe in God anymore”
That’s who John is talking about. They “grew up in church” they “behaved” like a christian and they even spoke like one at one point, but when they had a chance, they ran away. They had an opportunity to walk with Jesus, but they saw a way out and took it immediately.
These people went to church, made a profession of faith and they even got baptized, I bet they have a framed baptism certificate like some of you guys, but their faith was never real. How do I know that their faith is not real:
John says, if they had belonged to us, they would’ve stayed. But when they had the opportunity they showed us their true colors.
You know what causes people to grow up in church and when they grow up they deny that Jesus is God? Or they deny that God even exist? Because of bad Spiritual leadership on behalf of church leaders and parents or parental figures. Who here is a parent, a church leader or a parental figure? Every single one of our house parents here are parental figures to our kids in the cottage. You may not be biological mom or dad, but you sure are functioning that way. Because last I checked, you serve these boys and girls breakfast this morning right? Whether they ate it or. Last I checked you cleaned they house they live in, you took them to school all last week, you cared for them when they were sick and cared for their well being. Just like a good parent would.
Let me ask you a question this morning though, how is your daily devotional time with them? Do you feel you are doing everything you can to teach them biblical principles on a daily basis? Are showing them, even through your mistakes, what it looks like to follow Jesus? Or, are you so caught up in the business of life that you neglect their spiritual well being?
Do you pray with t your kids every day? Do you read the bible with them everyday? Do you teach them the importance of God’s word and we lead by example and bring our physical Bibles to church so that they can learn to do the same? Or do we only care for their physical well being and neglect their spiritual health.
Friends and parents in the room, you are the avenue that God has chosen to share the gospel and the love of Jesus to every child in this room. God has chosen me as well, and we can not tell God that we are too busy to do what He has asked. He doesn’t care for that excuse.
We just read some strong verses here: in verse 3, I would hate that instead of this being a description of outsiders that in the future this would be the description of any of our kids in the room because of our lack of care for their spiritual well being.
As a baptist church we hold to the belief that once we are saved we can never lose our salvation. Friends, I believe the same thing. Why do I believe you can’t lose your salvation? because I didn’t do anything to get it in the first place. Jesus did all the work, He died on the cross, He rose from the dead, He offered me forgiveness, He forgave me, and the bible tells me in
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.
2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
Jesus is even building a house for me in heaven. Jesus has done all of the work, I didn’t do anything to gain my salvation so there is nothing I can do to lose it. If you are truly saved, then your salvation isn’t going anywhere.
But what about these guys that John is talking about? What about the guys that used to be with us and now aren’t how did they lose their salvation?
They didn’t. They just never had it. Did you know you can pretend to be a Christian? But no matter how hard you try, you can’t fake it forever. Eventually, your true colors will shine.
So church I want to ask you this morning, are you saved? Are you truly saved? or are you just going through the motions? Are just pretending to be something you aren’t? My prayer for every single one of you in this room is that you won’t pretend. IF you have put your faith in Jesus, remember it’s not a fake faith. It’s not something you can just pretend you have, it’s a lifetime commitment to follow Jesus no matter the cost.
Let’s keep reading,
22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son.
23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
The next sign that someone is antichrist and not prochrist is:
1. They deny the church.
2. They deny that Jesus is God.
I want to clarify something real quick. We have learned over the last couple of months that Jesus is God but Jesus is also the son of God. That can be hard to understand sometimes, and I can understand why that can be hard for people.
Let me try to explain as best as I can:
I want to show you an image that gives us a quick understanding of what we call the Trinity. This can be a hard concept to understand, mostly because God is not an easy person to understand. God is very complicated. But God has chosen to reveal Himself to us in this way:
God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All three of the guys we see on the screen are all the same God. But God reveals Himself in the Bible in all three of these ways. And sometimes He does it at the same time. This is how Jesus can be the son of God and also be God at the same time. And it doesn’t stop there: The holy Spirit is also God. All three of these people: The Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the same God. They are one person.
If you are still lost I would love to try and share it with you again after service, I understand it can be difficult to understand.
Well, there are some people that don’t know that Jesus is God yet. Those people are not antichrist. That just means they haven’t learned. But there are people that completely deny that Jesus is God.
There are multiple different churches, and people groups that deny that Jesus is God. I’m not here to offend anyone so if this is you, i’m sorry you are offended but I am grateful you can learn this morning that Jesus is God.
There are many different churches out there friends. And I believe some of you will grow up one day, and you’ll go off to college or you’ll go off into the work place or you’ll go back home. My prayer is that you go and find another church if you can’t come back here with me. But I pray that if you find a church that denies that Jesus is God that you will run away from that place and never turn back.
In order to be in right relationship with Jesus you must believe that Jesus himself is God.
We’ve got to keep reading:
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.
I love that John spends some time not yelling at us. He says you know Jesus, you know Jesus is God. I’m not telling you this because you don’t believe that, I share this with you because I want to remind you that this truth is truth you can stand on. You’re opinion on things might change, the way you feel about stuff might change, other people might change but if there is one thing that won’t change no matter what is this: You know Jesus and nothing in this world can take that away from you.
24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.
25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life.
26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.
John finishes off with a warning: There will be people out there that will try to lead you away from this truth. But no matter what other people say you need to remember:
If you remain in Jesus, Jesus gives you eternal life. What is eternal life? It means that if you have accepted Jesus as your lord and savior, you’ll get to be in heaven one day. You’ll get to experience a world with no suffering and no more pain.
I know life is hard, life is really tough. But if you know Jesus you have hope. I hate that all of you suffer. If I could snap my fingers and make all of your pain and suffering go away I promise I would. But I can’t do that. What I can do is share the Gospel with you and tell you that if you give your life to Jesus, one day He will take all of the pain you have. One day, He will make you perfect. One day you will live in harmony with the rest of the world and one day you will be safe from the dangers that exist in your life today.