Message
1 John 2:18-29
“The Nice Antichrists”
We can’t put an exact picture together of the historical situation which John is addressing, but it is very obvious that there has been some sort of breakup within the church.
One group has stayed with the church and John continues to write to them to encourage them to stick with the faith, and to look at their relationship with Jesus, and to hold firm – that they may know that they have eternal life.
Another group has gone away from the church and this group is causing problems. They are trying to persuade others to join them. They are causing the faithful to doubt and to question. John is warning against them because they are a problem.
It comes to a collision point in our text today.
1 John 2:18-29 (read)
“Antichrist.”
What is it about that word which makes our ears pick up and increases our interest?
Watch out for the Antichrist! That is what we do as Christians, don’t we. We are on the look-out for some individual that embodies everything that is against Christ … against Jesus.
Over the centuries there have been a number of individuals who were identified as the “antichrist”
Emperor Nero – who ruled Rome from 37-68AD was a popular choice. Not without reason. Nero persecuted Christians so ruthlessly that even people who were against Christianity sided with Christians against Nero’s barbarity.
The Pope … or should I say … multiple numbers of Popes are the all-time most popular contender for the title of Antichrist. The accusation is always made by a protestant who has assumed the office of the papacy is the office of the Antichrist.
Hitler, for many obvious reasons, was called the antichrist.
Indeed, even during COVID-19, the identification “anti-Christ” has regularly been used.
But here is where we need to be a little careful and look closely at Scripture. We do this because there are only four verses in Scripture which mention the antichrist. All of them are in John’s epistles. We have read two of them today.
1 John 2:18
Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.
1 John 2:22
Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist – denying the Father and the Son.
The other two:-
1 John 4:3
3 (E)very spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
2 John 7
7 (M)any deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.
These are the verses – that is it.
Paul talks about the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2 – but not the antichrist.
In the book of Revelation there are beasts, dragons, demons, satanic legions and a false prophet … but no mention of antichrists.
The Antichrist … is not one specific individual who appears a one specific point in time. Antichrist is a collective. It refers to a group of people … who have come in the past, and who are still coming … who deny that Jesus has come in the flesh.
Which means that the main criteria for “antichrist identification” is not a moral one.
You are not the anti-Christ just because you persecute the church and put Christians to death. Paul did that, but he was not the antichrist.
You are not the anti-Christ just because you have behaviour which morally breaks the laws of Scripture. If that was the case all of us could be identified as “antichrist” at some point in our lives.
Moral deficiency is not the main criteria for antichrist identification. The main criteria for antichrist identification is a theological one.
They deny that Jesus is the Christ.
They do not acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.
Which is what makes antichrist identification so difficult. Because, in many cases, those who fit the scripture criteria of being identified as “anti-Christ” – well they actually don’t seem to be such terrible people. John draws our attention to this reality in 1 John 2:18-19
18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
Did you hear what John said? Really hear!! “Many antichrists have come … they went out from us!”
They were on the door welcoming us.
They sat in our fellowship group with us.
They have eaten the Lord’s Supper with us.
They were standing around the baptism pool with us.
They were with us, and now they are not.
Let’s be specific. John is not talking about people who were part of NEC and who now go to Bridgeman Baptist, or St Paul’s Anglican, or one of the Life Citi (with an i) Hope Pointe (with an e) Churches.
John here is talking about those who move on from the church … and from ministry … and from the faith … and from Jesus.
Usually such people don’t become difficult people who scream against the church and faith every chance they get.
A few do, but most don’t.
In fact, usually those who walk away from Jesus continue to be very nice people.
We met them every now and then for coffee and we would talk about all sorts of things, because we had a shared history. Sometimes if we needed help when we were sick they would come over and vacuum our home, do our washing, and cook a meal. When our car broke down and we were stuck, they lent theirs and it helped so much.
They are such nice people.
We know they do not believe that Jesus has come in the flesh. But aren’t they such nice people! Ironically it is because they are such “nice” people that they can create a huge spiritual problem for us.
When they invite us to their grand-child’s first birthday – yes it is on a Sunday and we will need to miss church – but they are such nice people. We should go. And who knows, maybe on another occasion we can get them to come to church with.
Their oldest son … who is a little older than our daughter. He is such a nice boy and he has a good job. He hasn’t been in church for ages, but you know our daughter. She will be able to convince him to come to church. Wouldn’t that be such a nice wedding!
Our son and their son have so much in common. They really love playing together on the sports team. Yes the gates always seem to be on the same night as Bible Study but … you know … if the boys hang out it will give our son a chance to show them Jesus. That would be nice.
And we want to be “nice” as well. So, because we want to be “nice”, we stop. We stop talking about church, and faith, and Jesus. We stop asking them to come to ministry events because we know they will say “no” anyway – and we really don’t want to cause a fuss.
Let’s keep it nice.
You know what is nice? An episode of the Teletubbies. The Teletubbies is kid’s program where Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po would go on a fun adventure in Teletubbyland.
They would roll on the ground, laugh, run about, and watching real children on the televisions on their bellies.
When the tellytubbies greeted each other they were always so nice. Eh Oh Tinky-Winky. Eh Oh Po.
The sun would never burn you. In fact the sun had a baby’s face and it would make baby noises right through-out the show.
And everything in Teletubbyland was nice. But here is the thing about Tellytubby land … it isn’t real.
There is no such thing as “nice antichrists”. And those “nice” people we were talking about? The ones who went out from us. The ones who nicely deny that Jesus is the Christ. This is what John says is their agenda.
1 John 2:26
I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.
Oh they will do it nicely … and they might not even know they are acting for in an anti-chirst manner. But the end goal of those with an antichrist identity is to lead those who believe in Jesus away from Jesus.
For the sake of being nice to “nice people who deny Jesus is Christ” I have seen a generation of people transition out of the church and into the world. They were led astray.
For the sake of having their daughter marry a “nice” man I have seen well intentioned parents now praying continually for their daughter who has been led astray. All to late realising that dating and courting and becoming girl-friend and boy-friend is not an evangelism technique.
For the sake of having “nice” mateship I have seen the phrase “it will give a chance to talk about Jesus” turned into the phrase “they never stop talking about sport”.
This might seem like a really out there thing to talk about on our first Sunday back together after being unable to gather for 17 weeks …
1/3rd of the year we haven’t been able to be together.
And this is the verse.
Here is what I have learnt after preaching for over 25 years.
God plans the text – not me – God.
A day like today is a chance for “new”.
To be renewed … to be reminded … to have a fresh start … to hear loud and clear about our main calling.
What is our main calling.
It is going to sound really strange let me tell you first what our main calling is not.
It is not our main calling to “be nice”.
Being nice will not make one scrap of eternal difference to anyone who denies that Jesus has come in the flesh. So many people in Australia – people we know – were part of the church in the past. This nation has a past spiritual heritage.
It is getting less.
And there is a growing antagonism to Christianity.
But there are literally millions of people “who went out and who didn’t really belong”.
John’s warning here is not “stay away from them” … John’s warning is “don’t be lead astray”.
Don’t let the “antichrist spirit set the agenda”.
Let Jesus set the agenda.
The agenda is not, “be nice”. No-one is saved by nice Christians.
The agenda is “live out your Spirit anointing”, “follow the truth”, “acknowledge the Son”, “remain in the kingdom”, “be confident and unashamed”.
That is the agenda. That is our main calling. I
It’s a radical calling. It’s a transformational calling.
Run with perseverance the race mark out … not stroll along with your hands in your pockets.
Coming into the family of Jesus brings you into a battle … not a game of battle ships.
Jesus gives us the armour of God … not the dress gown of grandma.
The call to faith is radical, transformation, focussed – it is like that because it is the only way to eternal life.
There is no other way.
There is no other faith.
There is no other road.
That is the bigger picture.
Which means we have to stop just being “nice”.
Instead we have to be loving, just as Jesus was loving.
1 John 3:16
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
The world doesn’t need “nice” Christian … it needs loving Christian. Let’s go out and do what we need to do so that those who have gone out from us may come back … and know that they belong.
Prayer
