Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

There are other passages that clearly refer to the Antichrist.

Ideology - the Man of Lawlessness

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

John writing about 95AD

Antichrists already present.

2. Apostasy v19

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

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.

b.

Were Not of Us

c. Evident

3. The Truth v20-21

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

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

4. The Lie v22-23

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.