1John 2:18-23 - "Antichrist"

Last time we looked at the "want" of God.  What God wants.  The one doing the want of God remains forever.  Then there is the one who is NOT doing the want of God.  Let’s talk about that…

1John 2:18-23a

Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father;

Last hour - 2x

Antichrist - 3x

Denying (Christ/the Son) - 3x

Know - 4x

Us/we - 6x

Christ - 8x

The point being, even though John is touching on some very weighty and significant truths here in this section, he has not at all departed from this idea of family.  He takes these heavy concepts of last hour and antichrist and relates them back to this idea of family.  We are family.  It is the priority of WE.  Our WE-—ness.  One-ness.  One body.  Because of Christ.  We are we because of He.  Because of His Name.  The Name ON which, and BY which, we have been called.

And for John, what has happened to our WE?  To our family?  People have left.  Some people have left the family.  And THAT is not supposed to happen.  If they had been OF US, they would have remained WITH US, he says.  Family is forever.  Family doesn’t leave.  You will always be your parents’ child.  Your son/daughter will always be your child.  Your brother/sister will always be your brother/sister.  No matter how far he or she strays from home.  No matter how much damage they have done, no matter what bridges they have burned, family is family.  That was part of the point behind the lesson of the prodigal son.  He was still family.  

And here, as with the whole idea of loving our brother, we need to be really careful about how we project our own cultural/family values onto what John is saying here.  Our culture lets family go.  It’s ok to leave.  Leave your home.  Leave your spouse.  Leave your family.  Our civilized modern world has the luxury of being able to "go it alone", so to speak.  We can survive on our own.  We can (and do) cut ties with family.  We pay others to take care of our youngest and our oldest.  We can afford to live apart from one another.  Or so we think.  I’m not saying this is wrong per se, but this is not how most of the world lives.  Yes, there are many instances around the world where brokenness impacts the family.  But in most places outside of the west, Family stays together.  Family lives together.  Multiple generations.  It was true in John’s day.  In John’s mind, the norm is that family is forever.  Even moreso in the family of God.  The family of God stays together - or it should.  But again, here in the civilized west, the occident, the family does not stay together in the same way.  And the body of Christ often does not stay together.  Be it local assemblies, or the universal body of Christ - we have been splitting from one another for a thousand years - and for our "progressive" 21st century souls, it feels normal.  It is perfectly normal for the body of Christ to be split.  Schisms.  Fractures.  Yet your own physical body and mine will quickly inform us that in fact fractures are never normal.  Not ever.

But in this instance, these ones distanced themselves from us, John says, because they were at a distance from Christ.  One thing John is not suggesting that anyone who leaves a local assembly is leaving Christ.  That’s not what he is saying.  God moves some people on.  Increasingly so in our day and age.  God sends people out.  But again, normally and under most circumstances, family stays together.  It is the enduring and glorious dance of one-another.  But some of these went out, and it turns out they were not really IN to begin with.  They were not IN the family, because they were not IN with Jesus.  With the Word.  They are denying the truth about Jesus, that He is the Christ.  They are not doing the want of God - they were not ever really surrendered to that, not entirely interested.

The want of God.  The one doing the want of God remains forever.  Remains where?  With Christ, forever - no doubt.  The one in whom God is at work both to will and to work for His good pleasure will finish the race of faith, eyes fixed on Jesus.  Remains with Christ, for sure.  But also remains with the family - the want of God coming out and remaining/abiding in and journeying with our spiritual family - that is all part of it.  We stick together - especially when the going gets tough.

But John says it is the last hour.  The word is eschatos - meaning last.  Eschatology then meaning the study of last things.  Some devote much of their focus to the study and understanding of last things.  But let’s talk about that for a bit.  

These things have actually been discussed since the beginning of the church.  But the 20th century saw quite a bit of discussion on this topic.  Books were written.  Movies were made.  If you have devoted much time to consider this subject of eschatology, of last things, you are probably either very convinced about one particular position, or you have realized that there are actually quite a few different and differing positions, even within our own narrower evangelical tradition.  Time does not permit us to consider all of those in any detail - and I think if we take our cue from John we will only touch on it briefly and keep it in context.  This I think is a very important point for our current study.  John doesn’t spend much time at all here unpacking last hour and antichrist.

Briefly put, within conservative Christian circles, the discussion of last things centers primarily around the events associated with the second coming of Jesus Christ.  Jesus Himself said He was coming back.  And within this circle of conservative evangelicals, we have found general consensus around these points:

• At some unknown future point, Jesus Christ will return in glory, bodily and personally
• Up to that time. all human beings must undergo physical death and then enter some intermediate state appropriate to their spiritual condition (the exception being those who are alive when Christ returns)
• Those who have trusted in the saving work of Jesus Christ will go to a place of breathtaking goodness
• Those who have not will go to a place of punishment and torment
• When Christ does return, the dead will be resurrected and consigned to their ultimate destination - heaven or hell.  There they will remain in an unalterable condition.

Admittedly, not even all evangelicals agree about these things.  But for John and these early believers, theirs was a question of WHEN was Christ coming back?  They saw Him and touched Him and journeyed with Him.  They beheld His glory.  They saw Him ascend, their best friend and Lord and Savior, and were assured by Him and by the angels that He was coming back.  He was coming back for them, and He was coming back as King.  Oh what a day that would be!!!  They couldn’t wait!  That great and glorious day was going to make all the hardship and tribulations of this life worth it all.  All of the brokenness and persecution, a thing of the past.  A distant memory.

Matt. 24:3-5   

“…what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.”

Matt. 24:9   

“Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.” 

Matt. 24:30-34 

“And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.  Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

The last hour.  The last days.  We could think of the last period of time leading up to some highly anticipated event.  Last period of a school day, waiting for the bell.  Last days before graduation.  Summer vacation.  Spring break.  A mission trip.  Maybe it’s the release of a new video game?  Or a movie.  Like Avengers Endgame.  Cuz the way that last one ended - with everybody just dissolving like that?  That was like pluto… How ‘bout a birthday?  16th birthday - you can get your drivers license!  Or a wedding.  Christmas!  And we start counting down the days, don’t we?  You don’t start counting while it is still a ways off.  At least not most of us.  But when you get closer, you begin to count the days.  Or the hours.  You can’t wait!  It is going to be so awesome!  Anticipation!  You can’t wait.  It feels like you’ve already been waiting for so long.  I do think that is in the back of John’s mind, but I’m not sure that’s exactly what he’s writing about here.

The last hour.  How ‘bout the last quarter of a ball game.  Or the last inning.  The last minutes of an exam.  The pressure is on.  You’re running out of time, and the pressure’s on.  There needs to be a heightened sense of focus.  The opposition is upping its intensity.  The game is on.  Only we’re not talking about a game, are we?  This is no game.  No perfection of the unnecessary.  This struggle is for real, and it is for keeps.  The boastful pride of life, that prioritization of the here-and-now would like to lull us into a false sense of ease, that there’s plenty of time to worry about the want of God some other time.  And like sands thru the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.  Just one life, will soon be past…  It is the wealthy landowner who had a lot of stuff, and said to himself, “Self, you have a lot stuff, and you’ve worked hard to acquire all this stuff, and so you just need to put it on cruise control.  Build some barns and store your stuff, and then just relax and coast into the finish line.  It’s only halftime, but you have a 25 point lead.  We got this.”

The last hour.  The denouement - the final act of the play or movie.  The climax.  And the rise of antichrist makes it anything but anticlimactic.  The game is on.  But again, this is no game.  It is a struggle for the souls of men and women.   Eternal destiny.  It is a time for urgency.  For war-time mentality.  So we could definitely be talking about a time, a need for urgency.  But I’m not sure that John has that in mind here exactly either.

There is this mention - and the question - of antichrist.  Antichrist is coming.  Look at this word in the Greek (it is literally “antichristos”).  It only appears 5 times in the New Testament.  And not one time is it used in the book of Revelation.  Only in this writing (4 times) and then once in 2John.  In 2John, he writes,

2John 7   For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

We see antichrist 3 times in this section and then once in chapter 4 verse 3:

1John 4:3 

“…and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”

What can we learn about antichrist from these?  Antichrist is already in the world, already here.  That which is against Christ is already here.  Yet John does not confine antichrist here to a specific person who will appear at the end of the age.  It is a spirit which opposes and deceives.  It opposes Christ, stands in opposition to Christ.  This spirit is totally present in our day, is it not?  Many deceivers have gone out into the world.  Even now many antichrists have appeared, John writes.  He is thinking of false teachers, those who have gone out from the assembly of Christ-followers and are teaching that Jesus is not the Messiah.  But think about it.  Opposition to Jesus Christ is already afoot.  This has been true since the very beginning, John says.  Many antichrists have come to be.  People claiming to be the Christ.  People - and systems opposing Christ.  This is nothing new.  

People do not like that name, the name of Christ, do they?  They never have.  They oppose it.  The world does not like to hear that name.  If they speak it, it is in the form of an epithet.  A curse word.  You can mention God - sometimes.  Sometimes you can bring God into it, but don’t use the name of Jesus.  That’s too offensive, they say.  That’s too intolerant.  Except there’s no other name given under heaven by which we can be saved.

This spirit of antichrist is also a deceiving spirit.  Doing whatever it can to keep people from believing the truth about Jesus.  From believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world.  The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.  This is the most basic of spiritual truths, and antichrist denies this and opposes this at every turn.

We do find mention of someone - or some thing - who will come to power at the end of the age and stand in opposition to the God of the Bible, to Christ and His followers.  The abomination of desolation, the man of lawlessness, the beast - there is so much disagreement about who or what is talked about in those passages, and when or even if they will come to power.  I am going to take my cue from John here, and simply state, WHOever or WHATever HAS opposed, or IS opposing, or WILL oppose Christ and His people and the Good News about Him, we do NOT need to be afraid.  Hold fast to Christ - and hold fast to one another.  Every day.  We’ll talk more about this next week - abiding in Christ.

And we ought not turn a blind eye to the reality of the spiritual battle.  The opposition is real, John says.  There are many people who have and do oppose Christ.  They stand at a distance from Him, and they deny Him.  But we know that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of darkness.  We DO have an enemy, one who seeks to destroy everything that is good, he is a deceiver, a liar from the beginning.  He has been defeated by Christ, but who nevertheless continues to oppose the Light and the children of the Light.  And we don't just stand there.  When Paul gets us all dressed up in our spiritual armor in Eph 6, and we take up the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, our offensive weapon, what does he then tell us to do?  Pray.

But you KNOW, John says.  You know the truth.  You don’t deny the truth.  The truth about Jesus - that He is God’s Son, and that He is the Christ.  Messiah.  The Savior of the world.  The Way and the Truth and the Life.  The only way to God.  There is no other.  John is saying, you know this truth.  Not just intellectually, as a collection of facts.  No, you have embraced this truth.  You have embraced Jesus.  You are IN Him.  All the way in.  Distance zero.  These others, these ones who have gone out?  They have not embraced the truth about Jesus.  They have not embraced Him.  They have not put their trust in Him.  And they could very well be teaching others that Jesus is not the way to God, to eternal life.  It’s even possible that they could be claiming that they are the way.  But they were never IN to begin with.

Where are you with Jesus today?  Are you IN Him?  Have you put your trust in Him?  Are you ready for His return?  Nobody knows the hour - it could be tomorrow.  Tomorrow is not ever guaranteed.  It could be today.  But even if Christ does not come back in our lifetime, our lives are never guaranteed.  Make sure that you are ready today.  Today is the day to trust in Christ.  To embrace Him, to go all the way in for Him.

Revelation 22:20   

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.