Last Things 9 - The Antichrist - Apostasy
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Psalm 42:1–4 (ESV)
1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” 4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.
1 John 2:18–25 (ESV)
18 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. 19 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. 20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 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. 22 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. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. 24 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. 25 And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.
Introduction
Virtually everybody has heard of the Antichrist. For many it is an evil, vile, cruel monster intent on world domination, destruction of the true church opposing all that Jesus Christ is and has done. There is a modicum of truth in this but it falls very short of the real truth.
Antichrist means against Christ or in place of Christ. The term only appears in the letters of John.
18 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.
22 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.
3 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.
7 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.
There are other passages that clearly refer to the Antichrist.
Ideology - the Man of Lawlessness
1 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The Beast(s) - Political
Revelation 13:1–18 (ESV)
1 And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. 2 And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marvelled as they followed the beast. 4 And they worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” 5 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, 8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. 9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear: 10 If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.
11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. 13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, 14 and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. 16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18 This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.
Today we consider the Antichrist and Apostasy
1. The Last Hour v18
2. Apostasy v19
3. The Truth v20-21
4. The Lie v22-23
5. Abide in Christ v24-25
1. The Last Hour v18
1. The Last Hour v18
18 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.
John writing about 95AD
Antichrists already present.
2. Apostasy v19
2. Apostasy v19
19 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 John is not interested in identifying a particular individual. He points to a principle that prevails in persons who deny the deity or humanity of Christ. John opposes this principle of apostasy and therefore, in his epistles, stresses the principle instead of the person of the antichrist. Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of James and the Epistles of John (Vol. 14, p. 276). Baker Book House.
a. Went Out From Us
a. Went Out From Us
2 Timothy 4:10 (ESV)
10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.
15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing,
b. Were Not of Us
b. Were Not of Us
c. Evident
c. Evident
3. The Truth v20-21
3. The Truth v20-21
20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 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.
a. Anointed
a. Anointed
1 John 4:13 (ESV)
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
What a contrast! The antichrists deny that Jesus is the Christ, whose name in translated form means “the Anointed One.” But Christians look to the Christ, because from him they have received their anointing. Christians not only bear the name of Jesus Christ; they also share in his anointing. Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of James and the Epistles of John (Vol. 14, p. 278). Baker Book House.
b. Knowledge
b. Knowledge
Gnosticism - Gnostics considered the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the supreme divinity in the form of mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.
Esoteric - intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialised knowledge or interest
c. Truth
c. Truth
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
4. The Lie v22-23
4. The Lie v22-23
22 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. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.
Fearlessly John asks the question Who is the liar? to which he himself gives the answer (see v. 5). He is looking at the person who perpetrates the lie. He is not addressing a person who occasionally misrepresents the truth, but one who strikes at the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ. John confronts the person who is bent on turning the truth of Jesus’ humanity into a lie. The heart of the Christian faith is that Jesus is perfect God and perfect man. Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of James and the Epistles of John (Vol. 14, p. 281). Baker Book House.
John reveals the heart of the gospel: God the Father has sent his Son Jesus Christ to redeem sinners. If a person rejects Jesus Christ, he also rejects God the Father and nullifies the message of the gospel of Christ. Such a person, writes John, is the antichrist. Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of James and the Epistles of John (Vol. 14, p. 282). Baker Book House.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
5. Abide in Christ v24-25
5. Abide in Christ v24-25
24 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. 25 And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.
a. Remain
a. Remain
When the readers hear the Christ-denying clamour all around them, how do they defend themselves against their opponents? John tells them exactly what to do. In a sense, he repeats what he already has told them in the first part of his epistle. “What you have heard from the beginning,” that is, the gospel (see 1:1, 3, 5; 2:7), let that Word remain in you. As Jesus says to the believers in the church of Philadelphia, “Hold on to what you have” (Rev. 3:11), so John exhorts the readers of his epistle to treasure the biblical message they have heard all along. That Word must reside in their souls, so that in every decision they make they are guided by the Word of God. Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of James and the Epistles of John (Vol. 14, p. 283). Baker Book House.
Psalm 119:11 (ESV)
11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
11 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.
b. Promise
b. Promise
If the believer cherishes the Word of God and experiences intimate fellowship with the Son and the Father, then he is also the recipient of eternal life (1:2–3). To have fellowship with the Son and the Father is to have eternal life. Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of James and the Epistles of John (Vol. 14, p. 284). Baker Book House.
2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.