Sermon Tone Analysis

Consider this mission statement of a well-known university: "To be plainly instructed and consider well that the main end of your life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ."

Founded in 1636, this university employed exclusively Christian professors, emphasized character formation in its students above all else, and placed a strong emphasis on equipping ministers to share the good news.

Every diploma read, Christo et Ecclesiae around Veritas, meaning "Truth for Christ and the Church."

You've probably heard of this school.

It's called Harvard University.

Only 80 years after its founding, a group of New England pastors sensed Harvard had drifted too far for their liking.

Concerned by the secularization at Harvard, they approached a wealthy philanthropist who shared their concerns.

This man, Elihu Yale, financed their efforts in 1718, and they called the college Yale University.

Yale's motto was not just Veritas (truth) like Harvard, but Lux et Veritas (light and truth).

Today, Harvard's and Yale's legacy of academic excellence are still intact.

But neither school resembles what their founders envisioned.

At the 350th anniversary celebration of Harvard, Steven Muller, former president of Johns Hopkins University, bluntly stated, "The bad news is the university has become godless."

Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard, confessed, "Things divine have been central neither to my professional nor to my personal life."

Harvard's and Yale's founders were unmistakably clear in their goals: academic excellence and Christian formation.

Today, they do something very different from their founding purpose.

What happened to Harvard and Yale is called "Mission Drift.”

If this happens with a professing Christian it is called apostasy.

We have all probably seen it.

People who say that they are Christians and after a time they fall away.

Some of them even teachers.

Bart Ehrman was on his way to becoming a baptist pastor went to moody bible and Wheaton college, but then turned his back on Christianity and currently works to undermine the most important doctrines of Christianity.

What do we do when these things happen?

How are we to understand it?

What are we gonna do about it?

The apostle John has something to say about this.

This is what we are gonna look at today.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

The Last Hour

The Apostasy

The Blessing

The first thing we will look at today is how the reality of false teaching comes in the last days and John shows us how we are in the last hour.

The second thing we will uncover is how false teachers and those who falsely profess will show their true nature in apostasy.

Finally, we will see the true blessing of perseverance and how true believers will not leave, but through the grace of God, truly stand firm on the Gospel.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world may cause us to be deceived by the counterfeit of the enemy and worldly ideologies, seducing us to abandon Christ and the truth of His Gospel, it is the power of the Spirit and the truth of Scripture that will cause us to extinguish the lies and build on the rock and stand, knowing that all other ground is sinking sand.

I.

The Last Hour

- The presence of false teachers is a sign of the end times.

The presence of false teachers is a sign of the end times

Allen, D. L. (2013).

1–3 John: Fellowship in God’s Family.

(R. K. Hughes, Ed.) (p.

109).

Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

A. Ever since the new age had dawned with the coming of Christ, Christians knew themselves to be living ‘in the last days.

The age to come had already come; the world and the darkness were already passing away (v.17).

John was convinced that the last days had struck.

Why is this?

B. The Antichrists have come.

Now John know that the readers believe that the Antichrist is coming in the end times and he is using this knowledge to demonstrate that these are the last days the last hour.

Probably not the best place to build a doctrine of the Antichrist for what John is doing.

The idea that the last days brings the Antichrist was well known.

From the prince in , the man of lawlessness in , or even the Olivet discourse and the beast in Revelation.

But the point is that the antichrist was coming in the last days.

Stott, J. R. W. (1988).

The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol.

19, p. 107).

Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

C.

And now ladies and gentlemen… many such antichrists are here.

This is why John says that we are in the last times.

You looking for the anti christ, well lots of them are running around right now.

The end is here.

Hendrickson - The presence of people who deny the Christ is definite proof that we are living in the last hour.

The presence of people who deny the Christ is definite proof that we are living in the last hour.

D. John’s focus is not on the future figure called the Antichrist.

Rather he says there are people like that figure who are already infiltrating the churches, and that is why John uses the word “antichrists” (plural).

Many antichrists have appeared.

Again, which is why we know this is the last hour.

Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001).

Exposition of James and the Epistles of John (Vol.

14, p. 275).

Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

Allen, D. L. (2013).

1–3 John: Fellowship in God’s Family.

(R. K. Hughes, Ed.) (p.

110).

Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

E. Notice the prefix anti on the word “antichrists.”

This prefix can mean “against” or “instead of.”

There is a sense in which both are true in this context.

False teachers in the church are like the final antichrist in the book of Revelation.

He is literally “against Christ,” and hence they are “false christs.”

However, these false teachers come talking about Jesus claiming to be his true teachers.

Thus these false teachers are also substitute christs.

F.Jewish Theologian Abba Hillel Silver - “The first century, however, especially before the destruction of the temple, witnessed a remarkable outburst of Messianic emotionalism

E. Jewish Theologian Abba Hillel Silver - “The first century, however, especially before the destruction of the temple, witnessed a remarkable outburst of Messianic emotionalism

J. Josephus ... Jewish Historian... refers to The Samaritan Messiah, Theudus, The impostor, The Egyptian, and the infamous Simon Magus who is said by Justin Martyr and Hypolitius that he called himself the Christ.

He was mentioned in offering money for the Holy Spirit.

These men were successful in leading thousands away...Theudas had 400 and 30,000 who followed the Egyptian.

1.

He refers to ... The Samaritan Messiah, Theudus, The impostor, The egyptian, and the infamous Simon Magus who is said by Justin Martyr and Hypolitius that he called himself the Christ.

K. John is warning of antichrists all around.

Dr. David Allen from Southwestern writes, If you were Satan, how would you go about diluting and destroying the church of the Lord Jesus Christ?

You might say, “I would bring foreign pagan armies in and try to kill all the Christians.”

But that has never worked.

If I were Satan, I would sow the seeds of false teachers within the church.

I would not enter the church and say that Jesus is a liar and Jesus is not divine.

I would come in like an angel of light, and with crafty cunning I would lead the sheep astray little by little through false teaching.

That is what Satan does.

He has his counterfeits in the churches and outside the churches.

L. What does a counterfeit imply?

A counterfeit implies the existence of the real thing.

Why do people not counterfeit $7 bills?