Sermon Tone Analysis

If you knew the world was ending soon, what would you do, where would you go? Would your inclination be to get busy, go places, or stay put?

Many people think we are in the end of time, for a lot of reasons.

Is that right or wrong, and how should we think about that?

But we’ll see that knowing when the end is coming is not the main point.

It never has been.

The main point is always, always has been, and will always be, abide in Jesus Christ, and you will have eternal life.

John’s message to the church is, as the end draws near, wherever you may be, remain in Christ.

John reflects on Jesus’ words to him and the other disciples on the night He was betrayed.

After many years, John has seen just how important they were for him, and he’s passing them on to us.

Now John reflects on the fact that the movement Jesus started, and the apostles helped to build, has faced the tests Jesus warned about.

Jesus warned that in the last days, there would be times of great confusion.

Make sure you’re on the right path.

The End Times: Two Paths

1 John 2:18 (ESV)

Children, it is the last hour,

John wrote this 2,000 years ago.

The way the apostles saw time, the Messiah’s coming into our world was the end of the age of Torah, and the beginning of something new, the Messianic era, which is the last era, the last time.

We get caught up in knowing when the world will end.

They were caught up in a Person who would fulfill God’s plan, and bring it to completion.

This was the person of Christ, which is the Greek word for Messiah.

One sure sign that they were in the messianic era, the last hour, was that opponents of Christ, evil men and imposters would be self-deceived and attempt to deceive others, to draw them off the path to eternal life into the darkness.

John labels these people antichrist.

Antichrist has taken on a meaning all its own in the last one hundred years.

This title has made itself into American culture, at least, as a person who represents evil, hatred, or chaos.

And in certain Christian circles, a lot of attention is paid to trying to identify a specific person who could be “THE Antichrist”.

But John tells us who it is.

It is a kind of a person.

And he tells us when to expect them.

They’re already here.

The way we identify someone who is antichrist is that they will not remain in the Jesus movement.

Unfortunately there have been many people like this.

They join the church for many reasons, most probably thinking in some honest way that they have found something of spiritual value in Christianity.

They have been welcomed by the community, or they have found a taste of spiritual enlightenment in the ancient wisdom of the Bible, or some other positive reason.

Other people join the church for less noble reasons.

They are lonely or have some other need and use the church as a group of kind souls who will meet their needs.

And there are some outright predators.

But whatever the motivation that has brought someone to the Jesus movement, some of those people will come to know the person of Jesus Christ in a genuine way for themselves, and others will not.

And at some point, this difference will become clear and plain.

Those who are not “of us” find another path when they don’t get what they wanted.

Those who are truly “of us”, because they belong to Jesus, stay on the path.

(Be careful: assuming the “us”, we, are truly on the path with Jesus ourselves.

And leaving one church to join another one is not what we have in mind.)

How do we know that we ourselves are walking the right path with Christ?

John tells the true believers in verse 20,

Jesus sends out the Holy Spirit to anoint us so we can know Him.

If you have come to know Jesus as Lord and Messiah, it is because the Holy Spirit has anointed you.

You can think of the anointing as an overshadowing presence of God’s Spirit that enlightens our minds and our hearts.

Jesus put it this way to John and his fellow disciples:

There are different words in Greek for knowledge.

The word John uses here is a word connected to being able to see.

It is the knowledge that comes through a revelation, having the eyes of our mind and heart enlightened to see the truth.

If you ever come to see Jesus as God the Son, God in the flesh, the Messiah of God, our Savior and Redeemer, the One who gives eternal life, the Word of Life, this knowledge was shown to you by the Holy Spirit by His anointing, or overshadowing presence.

John is reassuring those who have remained in the church, the community of Jesus followers, who have seen people leave the movement.

This can be disheartening to see people give up on Jesus.

Some of those people insult those who stay behind.

Others who have been disillusioned because someone told them that becoming a Christian was a path to prosperity or a cure to loneliness, or some other lie, will leave the church trying to convince those they leave behind that they are the one who are deceived and delusional.

This has been the case for the last 2,000 years.

It will be no different right up to the end.

So, John wants to reassure those who remain with Christ, among His followers, that they are on the right path.

This path was shown to them by the same Holy Spirit that will keep them on the path.

They can learn to trust the anointing they have received from Him.

This anointing, this overshadowing presence of God’s Spirit in our lives, has application in two ways.

John introduces each application with the phrase:

“I Write to You”

The first application is,

John tells them he is writing to them, not because they need some new truth.

They already have it.

He wants them to stick with it.

The message the apostles first taught them, about who Jesus is, and how to follow Him, will never change.

If they let it abide in them, their fellowship with God the Father and God the Son will continue.

They will abide in God.

What is the essence of the message they were to let abide in them?

It’s very simple, but has massive implications.

We see it in verse 22. “Jesus is the Christ.”

God the Father sent Jesus, who is God the Son, to be the Messiah who would overcome evil and establish the kingdom of God among people.

Jesus is the one who reconciles people to God through His teachings, His death for sin, His resurrection, and we pray in His soon return to reunite heaven and earth.

The person who denies this message, the gospel, is antichrist.

They have bought into a lie.

The person, on the other hand, who confesses Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, has fellowship with God the Father.

“Let what you heard from the beginning abide 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.”

Eternal life is knowing God the Father, abiding in God the Son, anointed by God the Holy Spirit.

You can grow in your eternal life by letting the word of God, the gospel, the Person and the message of Jesus Christ abide in you.

Soak yourself in God’s word.

Look for all the ways the scriptures teach you about Jesus.

Fellowship with Jesus as you read your Bible.

Make it worship.

Preach the gospel to yourself.

Tell yourself and your family the story you received about how God is overcoming evil and establishing His kingdom rule and reign in and through the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

When you have doubt, return to the justice of God in the ministry and death of Jesus.

When you have anxiety or fear, return to the teachings and the resurrection of Jesus.

When you feel guilt or shame, run to the cross of Jesus as the altar upon which He sacrificed a final sacrifice for sin, and receive the grace and mercy of God for you.

Let this message abide in you.

Let it come to life in you.

Let it reside in you.

John’s second application is: abide in Jesus.

He says for a second time in verse 26, “I write to you...”

There may be some who are trying to deceive them.

But they can rely on the anointing Jesus has given by sending His Spirit to teach them.

(remember John 14:26)