The Anointed Know Who Jesus Is and Have Eternal Life

The Anointed Know Who Jesus Is and Have Eternal Life … 1 John 2:18–27 (NIV84) 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. 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. 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 the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 24 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—even eternal life. 26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him. Friends, there are many things that we could focus on based on our reading today: • The Last hour [18] • The Antichrist [18] • Many antichrists [18] • The anointing [20, 27] • Eternal life [25] I would like to highlight only one of these – the anointing. To many people today, to be a Christian means to be tolerant of just about any belief. These people see disputes over doctrine as fundamentally unchristian. What they desire in the church is peace and unity. But, the apostle John sets out three tests for the Christian—right doctrine, a right attitude to others and a right view of God’s law. All three tests go together. In 1 John 2:18–27 John concentrates on the battle between a true and a false view of Christ. This is a battle not just between love and hatred, or holiness and sin, but between truth and error. There were antichrists then, and there are antichrists now, who seek to lead people away from the true Christ. But God made a plan to make sure that his people will not be led astray. John refers to that plan as “The Anointing”. In many 21st Century churches it has become commonplace to label certain preachers, songs, worship services, or sermons as “anointed.” That usually means the person somehow arouses or facilitates an awareness of God’s power or presence. But this is not what the word “anointed” means in 1 John. To “anoint” in biblical terms simply means to dedicate or set apart for a special purpose. In the Old Testament a person was anointed for service. The anointing meant that the anointed was approved by God for a specific task or purpose. Kings and priests were anointed with oil in solemn ceremonies intended to designate them as civil and spiritual leaders. Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit. Listen with me to Acts 10:37–38 (NIV84): You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. And in Luke 4:18–19 (NIV84) Jesus himself said: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” God likewise anoints all believers with the Holy Spirit. John wrote of Christians having and anointing from the Holy One – an anointing that remains – an anointing that teaches Christian about all things. This anointing is the Holy Spirit. By indwelling Christians through His Spirit God anoint and approve Christians for service. And this indwelling Holy Spirit equips, convicts and convinces Christians to remain in the truth. As Paul explains in 2 Corinthians 1:20-23 (NIV84) God anoints every believer with His Spirit: 20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. 21 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 23 I call God as my witness that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we receive the Holy Spirit – we are anointed, consecrated for service. God has placed His seal of ownership, The Holy Spirit, on us. Because Christians have received this anointing, we can be assured of the basis for our salvation and for the Spirit-filled life. However, not everyone has this seal of ownership. In 1 John 2:19 John compared the believers with the ones who had left the fellowship. He argues that the mere fact that they left proved that they never belonged there. Their departure prove that they did not receive Jesus Christ as Saviour, and they did not experience this anointing and don’t belong to God. They did not know the truth, even though they may have claimed special wisdom and insight. True believers, however, know the truth. The anointing that every believer receives helps him or her to discern the false from the true. No one individual has more knowledge about how to be saved than anyone else, which some of the false teachers claimed. Christians can withstand false teachers’ attacks by relying on the Holy Spirit’s help (1 John 2:27). Jesus taught his disciples that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth (John 14:17). John reminds us that those anointed with the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:20) not only know the truth about the Father and the Son but can also detect what does not measure up to God’s standard of the truth. Through the Spirit we know the truth. John said in so many words, “I’m not telling you something you don’t know; I’m reminding you of truth you do know! Therefore, live accordingly!” He was not giving them further teaching; the false teachers were attempting to do that. Instead, he was reaffirming the truth they already knew and believed. The false teachers were telling them lies. Believers, grounded in the truth, recognize that no lie comes from the truth and refuse to follow the false teachers. What is the biggest lie? To John the biggest lie is to say that Jesus is not the Christ, that He is not the Saviour, that He is not God’s Son. The great truth is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who came in the flesh to die for sin. To deny this is blatant heresy—John battled this as the central focus of the false teaching. A man named Cerinthus, a self-confessed enemy of the apostle John, denied that Jesus was the Christ. He spoke of “Jesus” and “the Christ” as two separate beings who were united only from the time of Jesus’ baptism to the time of his crucifixion. Cerinthus taught that at the time of crucifixion “the Christ” left Jesus. In other words, Jesus was no more than a mere man who, for a time, had been given divine power. Anyone who would teach this heresy, said John, is the great liar because they are saying that Jesus is not the Christ. People who are doing this are antichrists who believe a lie, and lies are from Satan (John 8:42–44) Apparently, the antichrists in John’s day were claiming faith in God while denying and opposing Christ. To do so, John firmly stated, is impossible. Because Jesus is God’s Son and the Messiah, to deny Christ rejects God’s way of revealing himself to the world. A person who accepts Christ as God’s Son, however, accepts God the Father at the same time. The two cannot be separated. Many people today call themselves Christians, yet they deny the deity of Jesus Christ. John argues that those who reject Jesus, the Son, can never know the Father, since the Father is known only by the Son (Matthew 11:27; John 14:6–9). The claim of any religious person to worship God while denying Jesus is false. John repeated that no one can claim to have special knowledge of God while denying Jesus Christ’s deity and humanity. There is a basic contradiction because anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father either. In his Gospel and his letters, John made it very clear that the Father can be known only through the Son. In the Gospel of John, Jesus referred to his pre-incarnate experience with the Father—speaking of those things He and his Father had seen and heard together (John 3:11; 8:38), even relating that he had seen the Father (John 5:37; 6:46). Jesus also revealed that He had not left the Father, nor the Father him, when he came to earth. The Father who sent the Son was still with the Son. Three times Jesus declared that he was not alone but that the Father who sent him was with him (John 8:16, 29; 16:32). Three other times Jesus announced that He and the Father were one (John 10:30, 38; 14:9–10; 17:21). What intimacy! The Son and the Father loved each other dearly, and the Son repeatedly asserted that he was utterly dependent upon the Father. The Son had come not in his own name, to establish his own independent reputation, but in the name of the Father. His chief aim was to glorify the Father and to bring the believers into an experiential knowledge of him. Because denying Jesus means denying God, then the opposite is also true: anyone who confesses the Son confesses the Father also. During his last conversation with his disciples before He was arrested, Jesus again spoke of the Father. Frustrated, Philip blurted out, “Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied” (John 14:8 NLT). Philip thought the Father was another person whom Jesus could beckon to appear in the room. But the request was impossible to satisfy because the Son is the Father made visible. The Son was and has always been the image of the invisible God (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3). Jesus told Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking to see him? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (John 14:9–11 NLT). This was difficult for Philip and the disciples to understand. The most they understood at that time was that Jesus had come from God (John 16:30). It wasn’t until later, after the Holy Spirit had come, that these important truths became clear to them. John’s readers needed to hold on to what they had been taught from the beginning: that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (2:22) who came in the flesh (1:1–4). If they resisted the lies of the antichrists, they would continue to live in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. By clinging to the truth about God the Father and Christ his Son, believers can be sure they will never be separated from fellowship with God. John encourages us to remain faithful to what we were taught from the beginning too, to hold on to the Christian truth that had changed our lives. All believers must grow in their knowledge of the Lord and deepen their understanding through careful study. We must never abandon the basic truths about Christ. Jesus will always be God’s Son, and his sacrifice for sins is permanent. No truth will ever contradict these basic teachings in the Bible. The doctrine of perseverance teaches that believers can remain faithful and committed—by the grace of God—to the very end. The Reformed Church teaches that the believer’s salvation is secure and permanent based on the effective work of the Holy Spirit. Verses used to support that view include Romans 8:38–39; Philippians 1:6; 2 Timothy 1:12; Hebrews 7:25; 1 Peter 1:3–5; and especially John 10:27–30. Arminianism teaches that a believer can fall away from the faith. Verses used to support that view include Matthew 24:4, 11–13; 1 Corinthians 10:12; Colossians 1:21–23; Hebrews 3:12–14; and especially Hebrews 6:4–6. God rewards those who choose to “continue to live in fellowship with the Son and with the Father” (1 John 2:24 NLT). Their reward is a fellowship that will literally continue forever, eternal life. John reminds Christians continually that God’s anointing, the Holy Spirit, remains in true believers and that Jesus remains in them through the Holy Spirit. This means that believers can place their total trust in him, rely on him for guidance and strength, and live as He directs them. It implies a personal, life-giving relationship. The same idea is in John 15:5, in Jesus’ words about his being the vine and his followers the branches (1 John 3:24; 4:15). “You do not need anyone to teach you” simply means that Christians can tell the lying antichrists, “We do not need another teacher because the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, teaches us, so we will remain in Christ and in what he has taught us.” Jesus said: “The Holy Spirit … will teach you all things” (John 14:26) Therefore, Christians are not dependent on human wisdom to know what is wrong or false. Many Christians say: “I am ignorant; I am not educated; I don’t know anything.” But they never need to say that! Let them read and hear God’s word as much as they are able, and then let them have faith that whatever else they need to know the Holy Spirit will teach them. No believer in Christ is “ignorant” in God’s sight. “You do not need anyone to teach you” does not mean that Christians should turn away from the counsel of faithful ministers and attempt to make it on their own—in fact, that often will lead them astray. It only means that Christians can discern truth and reject falsehood. The better believers know the truth, the more easily they will be able to identify a lie. The fact that the Spirit’s anointing teaches … all things refers to the basic gospel truths that are essential for salvation. This does not mean that all believers will know and understand everything, nor does it mean that the Spirit will add new revelation to what has already been taught. Instead, through the Spirit, believers know enough to keep them from throwing away their faith in Christ and believing the lies of the false teachers. The Spirit’s anointing is real, not counterfeit. Such “counterfeit” anointing may have been a part of the rituals of the false teachers—an anointing that would supposedly give them great knowledge and insight. These human-made anointings were counterfeit; the only true anointing comes from God himself with the Holy Spirit. One ministry of the Holy Spirit is to teach believers to abide in, remain in, Christ (John 14:16; 15:4). Although the Church today is not frequently attacked by the sort of theological heresy outlined here, nevertheless there are substantial parallels between John’s experience with schism and his attempt to equip his congregation. The denial of Jesus’ humanity has come up in certain quarters of the church, and no doubt it should not be overlooked. John is teaching that the God-man Jesus Christ is the one and only way to the Father; he alone reveals the Father to us. This condemns Freemasonry, which teaches its adherents to call upon God without mentioning the name of Christ. It condemns prayers at inter-faith services where the name of Christ is omitted for fear that it might cause offence. It condemns the New Age movement, which uses Christian terms and even speaks of Christ. But when the New Ager speaks of being born again, he does not mean that the Holy Spirit has come upon a sinner and given that person a new disposition to seek after God. What the New Ager means is that the person lets go of himself and allows his higher self to take control. Similarly, when New Agers speak of Christ, they mean the divine Christ that they claim descended on Buddha, Mohammed, Jesus and many others. ‘Father’ Matthew Fox says that ‘Jesus is not the exclusive way’ and that ‘Mother Earth is Jesus Christ crucified today.’ It is not enough for people to acknowledge certain Christian expressions while discarding the Bible’s clear teaching that the man Jesus is the divine Christ, and is the only mediator between God and sinful human beings. An antichrist rejects the Son and so rejects the Father also. 1. The anointing is given to preach the Gospel to the poor 2. The anointing is given to heal and restore people 3. The anointing is given to proclaim freedom to the captives 4. The anointing is given to open blind eyes 5. The anointing is given to set people free 6. The anointing flows in God’s timing and proclaims God’s timing 7. The anointing is given to preach the Gospel to the poor, to bring the revelation of God’s love to those who are seeking.