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In our study of 1 John we have seen that John is writting to convict his audience that Jesus is the Christ and because he is the Christ they need to comtinue to believe and obey him.
In order to convict his audience he has said some pretty difficult truths.
Truths such as:
One cannot claim to follow Christ while walking in darkness.
1 John 1:6 (ESV)
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
Another difficult truth that he shares with them is that they are sinners and that they must be willing to confess their sins.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Another difficult truth is that if you don’t keep his commandments than you are a liar.
Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,
And then last week we talked about the difficult truth that whoever hates his brother is still in darkness.
Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
Many people believe that this church went through a split because of the now anti-Christ. The people who know longer believe in the divinity of Christ.
It would be easy for the people that John is writing to to not like those people any more. But John says, no. No matter what pain they have caused you, you cannot hate them. Because if you do you yourself are in darkness.
One might read the passages that we have looked at thus far in this study and think man John is being very critical of these brethren.
John says that he wants them to have confidence in their salvation but because he keep laying out all these difficult truths, I'm not so sure that he is very confident in them.
But thankfully write in the middle of all these difficult truths John gives his readers a pep talk to let them know what he truly thinks about them. Notice what John has to say about these brethern.
I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.
I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
John addresses the entire congregation by acknowledging the children (every Christian), then the fathers and the young men.
John says y'all are good people becasue your sins have been forgiven, you have known him from the beginning, you have overcome the evil one and you are strong in the word.
John sees them as faithful Christians and encourages them to remain faithful.
John here is about to get very pointed again about what they must do in order to know that they have eternal life but write here in these three verses he takes a break from being very direct with them to let them know how highly he thinks of them and more importantly who he believes they are in Christ.
John in these three verses let’s these brethren know that he knows that:
Their sins are forgiven.
They know that Jesus and the Father are one.
That they are strong Christians.
That God’s word lives in them.
That they have overcome the Evil One.
I think there is a great lesson in these three verses for us as Christians today.
Even though there was a lot of difficult truths that he needed to address he saw the importance of taking a moment right in the middle of his letter to encourage the brethren.
Because of all the negativity that we constantly hear it is often times easy for us to become discouraged.
When we come together sometimes we need to recieve tough love like John is providing here but more so we need to make sure that we are also providing and receiving encouragement from one another.
I thought about stopping class at this point and just spend the rest of the time allowing you to share encouraging things about one another.
There are many of you who are excelent at this and I am thankful for the encouragement that not only I receive from you but for the encouragement that you give others.
So before we move on here I just want to encourage you like John does here to make an effort to always find ways to encourage one another.
As we continue in John’s letter he quickly moves to another hard truth for some and that is do not love the World.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
We could spend the rest of our time here but I want to focus on what John says next, starting in verse 18.
Here John answers another very important question. And the question is, Who is the Anti-Christ?
There is a game that you may or may not have played called Only wrong answers. It is meant to be funny. The idea is you see a picture of something and you are only allowed to give wrong answers.
As silly of a game as that is it seems as though the world for centuries have been playing this game when it comes to answering the question, who is the anti-Christ.
During my life time and yours as well I have heard many answers to this question but almost all of them are wrong.
For example there have been many people who have been names as the anti-Christ.
People like:
Hitler
Putin
Manson
Bill Gates
Different US presidents
Different Popes
The Roman emperors
Pretty much anybody of power who has done something that others don’t like have been named the anti-Christ.
There are so many different thoughts when it comes to the anti-Christ, unfortunately most of them are wrong.
Another common belief is that the beast referred to in Revelation 13 is the anti-Christ even though the word anti-Christ is not mentioned in the book of Revelation.
The reason why many people of power have been accused of being the anti-Christ is because this is the common belief of many when it comes to the anti-Christ:
Many believe that the antichrist will be the ultimate embodiment of what it means to be against Christ. In the end times, a man will arise to oppose Christ and His followers more than anyone else in history. Likely claiming to be the true Messiah, he antichrist will seek world domination and will attempt to destroy all followers of Jesus Christ and the nation of Israel.
You see it doesn’t matter what people think the antichrist will do or who he is. What matters is what scripture says on the matter. You can guess wrong answers all day long. But your guesses do not matter.
So with that let’s see what scripture says about the antichrist.
Now before we look at what is said it interesting to me that most people want to go to the book of Revelation to alk about thd Antichrist but as I said before the word antichrist is not even mentioned.
In fact it is only mentioned four times in scripture and all four times it is mentioned by John in 1st & 2nd John.
So let’s read the four times that the word antichrist is mentioned in scripture and I want you to tell me what we learn about the antichrist from these four verses.
But before we read these verses as we have almost every week it is important to remember who John is writting to.
John is addressing the saved and warning them about those who have left the faith and are now causing problems. John is encouraging the faithful to remain faithful by continuing to believe in Jesus.
With that let’s look at the first passage that references the antichrist.
Children, 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.
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.
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. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.
Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.
And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.
I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.
But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.
And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
Children, 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. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 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. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.
I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.
And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
What do we learn?
There are many antichrist
Many have already come
Yes, John makes it clear that this is not a future event. Now somepeople get hung up on the phrase the last hour but we need to understand that when John says the last hour he is refering to the present time since the resurection. We are currently in the last hour. This last hour is also known as the Christian age.
In history thre are three main time periods. You have the Patriarchal Age, which is the time from Adam to the 10 commandments. Then when the 10 commandments come we have the Mosiac Age and this time last until the resurection of Jesus and then we have the Christian age which we are currently in.
Another thing we learn about the antichrist is that they were once in the church and then they left. John says...
1 John 2:19 (ESV)
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
This write here probably eliminates most people who have been acused of being the antichist.
In verse 22 we have the second time this word antichrist is mentioned. It reads
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.
What do we learn?
An antichrist is someone who denies the Father & the Son. The antichrist is not some world leader, orsomeone with power as the world might think but the antichrist is simply someone who denies the father and the son.
When we understand that the antichrist is anyone who denies the father and the son we can then understand why John said prevously that there were many antichrist.
During this time period there were many groups of people who denied the diety of Jesus. For example we have already mentioned the:
Gnostics. These were people who did not believe that Jesus was born of the flesh.
Docestics (dosetics)- There was also another group of people known as the Docetics. They believed that Jesus only appeared to be Human.
Cerinthus (serinthus)- There was also another group known as the Cerinthus. They believed that Jesus was not born of a virgin. And that when he was baptized the spirit came upon him allowing him to do miricles but right before he was crusified the spirit left him and thus he dies a normal death and was not resurected.
Jews- And then we can’t forget about the Jews who did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah.
You see here are four large groups of people during the early stages of the church who John would have clasified as Antichrist. The anti Christ is not a sigular person who has yet to come. They were present in John’s time and they are present today.
Lets look at another time this word antichrist is used.
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
What do we learn?
Antichrist is someone who does not confess or believe that Jesus is from God.
The Antichrist at the time of John’s writing is already in the world.
And one more passage. This one is found in 2nd John.
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.
What do we learn?
Antichrist is someone who deceives others into believing that Jesus is not the Christ.
In these four passages what do we learn about the anti Christ? essentially we learn that there has been and always will be anti christ in the world. Anybody who denies the deity of Jesus is an antichrist.
John here is writting to Christians to remind them that anything short of believing that Jesus is Lord, Jesus is deity, Jesus is messiah, Jesus is the only way to the father is heresy. Its false teaching and those teachers are known as antichrsit.
