The Antichrist

The Antichrist

Good morning class!

Question of the day:  What is your favorite way to celebrate something or someone?

This morning we are going to finish chapter 2. 

I want to do something a little bit different.  Before we read it I want to highlight two things.  

I want us to look a couple pieces before we look at this passage as a whole.

1. Anointing:  This words root is chrio meaning an unguent or smearing.  It is something that is smeared on someone.  A oily substance with herbs to promote healing and to protect against harm. 

2. "That which you have heard from the beginning." What is he referring to?  Let's go back to chapter 1.  "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us."  I think it is safe to say that he is speaking about Jesus.  Frankly all that he wrote about in the Gospel of John.  

Now let's read together.  

READ: 1 John 2: 18-29

Warnings Against Denying the Son

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.

20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.[e] 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 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. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life.

26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

God’s Children and Sin

28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

Did it help to be reminded about the word anointing and what he is referring to when he talks about what we have known from the beginning?

Let's start at the very beginning.

John starts off here stating that this is the last hour.  As Seventh-day Adventists we like that and can relate to that statement.  It is part of our name, our identity, our dearly held belief.  

Some argue that John is talking theologically instead of chronologically. Theologically speaking the last thing to happen is the second coming of Christ, so this is the last hour.  The messiah has come and then left and will return.  I understand that, but I don't know that it matters.  If it is theologically or chronologically it is still what we believe it to be... the last hour.  God's time is not like our time, right?  This may have been written a couple years ago, and Jesus still hasn't returned but in God's time it is still the last hour.  

What does John use to define it as the last hour?  Why does he say it is the last hour?   

Is that still applicable to us today?

How does he define the antichrist?

So today right here and right now, is it possible that antichrists are among us? Or around us? 

What about the part where they were among them and then left and if they had really been among them they wouldn't have left?  What does all that mean?

What do we know because of who Jesus is? What do we know about relationships?  Just two weeks ago we read, "Anyone who loves their brother and sister[c] lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble."  That is earlier in chapter 2.  We must look at this as a whole and not a stand alone piece.  At the beginning of this chapter he is writing about loving each other and not hating each other. 

Those who left hated, they left because they weren't willing to work things out and weren't willing to be grounded in Christ.  

This is a huge warning for us!

No matter how difficult things are between us at times, we have to remember that loving each other, remembering Christ and who He is, and what he stood for, and what he died for, changes how we interact.  It means that we forgive each other, that we listen to each other and yet stand firm in Christ.  We can't let "stuff" split and divide us! We are the children of God, a family that is called to work together, to love! In that love and that work we will be protected against wrong. 

Being unable to do that means that we are not remembering or even acknowledging Christ! 

HOW do we come together?  Sometimes the differences, seem so great!  

John tells us!

It is the unguent of JESUS! The unguent of the Holy Spirit.  It is letting Jesus be rubbed all over us. A couple years ago I had a student on the recruiting team who is allergic to peanuts.  One morning in my kitchen while he was getting his breakfast another student came into the kitchen and started to get a new jar of Natural peanut butter opened.  He proceeded to mix up the oil and the peanut butter.  As he did, I could see the oil going everywhere.  He spilled the oil over the side, then used his oil covered hand to get a paper towel from the paper towel holder and getting oil on it and on the faucet nobs etc.... IT was terrible.  I could literally see the oil covering the kitchen in a matter of seconds and with the highly allergic boy there, it was like watching death cover my kitchen.  However, when I think about that oil, being something that covers and helps us understand.... wow what a blessing!  What a wonderful thing that oil COVERS in a matter of seconds.  

When shepherds used anointing, it served two purposes.  1st it protected the sheep from the flies that wanted to lay their eggs on the heads of the sheep.  If the flies were successful it would irritate the sheep and they would bang their heads against things to deal with the itching and irritation of the maggots growing in their wool. This caused sores and damage to their heads.  Second, the oil or unguent was soothing and helped to heal if they had wounds.  So it was both protecting and soothing/healing.  

The anointing of the Holy Spirit is that for us.  Both healing and protecting!  What does that mean to you?

John ends this chapter reminding his readers to remain in Jesus!

How do we do that?

What does this chapter tell us about staying in the truth? 

How do we keep from going down a wrong path theologically?

How do we keep our children from going down the wrong path?

How do we as leaders keep from having splits, and division?

What is the answer to healing?

What is the answer to protection?

How do we love well?

Know Love. Know Jesus Christ, to acknowledge Him as Lord. To remember what has been written about him in the Gospel.  To use it as a unguent. KNOW HIM!!!! Eat breath and sleep Jesus! 

Live Love.  To let it permeate all we do. Let it be how we live, how we love, how we resolve conflict. how we test truth. LIVE IT!

Share LOVE.  We must be sharing the good news for our joy to be complete!  We must be so covered in the unguent of Jesus so that as we live, it gets everywhere we go.  Everywhere we meet people, everywhere we sit, or walk, everyone we talk with and serve, gets covered in the unguent of Jesus!

KNOW LOVE!

LIVE LOVE!

SHARE LOVE! 

Go and love well!