If what you believed about Jesus was not true would you want to know it?
I. Know where you are headed. (1 John 2:18-19)
A. The last hour; viewed theologically, denotes a period of time whether long or short, that will usher in the termination of all time and the revealing of the final salvation promised by God.
B. Our world is headed to an end.
1. For most people born after 1960, there is little confidence the world can improve. There is a cloud of pessimism.
2. Neill Howe and Bill Strauss, “Thirteenth Generation: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail” Generation X quote, “I think we are all in a sense doomed. (I’m talking about) downward social mobility. We hear a lot about the great social mobility in America – with the focus on the comparative ease of moving upwards. What’s less discussed is how easy it is to go down. And I think that’s the direction we’re all heading in. And I think the downward fall is going to be very fast . . .”
3. Jesus will return to rescue his people. This is our message of hope.
a. John gives hope through his Christian explanation of things.
b. Disintegration of the world is to be expected, God is watching history unfold.
c. John has a strategy for equipping his people so that they will not fall prey again to false teachings.
d. These antichrists were trying to lead his people into a world that is passing away and into the darkness. These antichrists are against Christ.
e. Christians must be equipped to discern new voices that claim to be from God.
4. John points out that the rise of these antichrists should cause believers to be encouraged because it is as sign that we are in the last days. Christ’s return is imminent. It indicates that we are living in a period of time when the kingdom of God has been inaugurated and awaits its completion.
C. Men and women who were a part of the community left.
1. Were these people ever Christians? Did they lose their salvation?
2. Their departure was evidence they were never a part of the church.
3. They failed to remain in community when disagreements were intense.
4. They disagreed over the doctrine of the Incarnation of Jesus and John states they have the spirit of the antichrist.
5. A test of a true believer, obedience, love, and now perseverance. Perseverance is an essential sign of salvation.
6. Having your name on the church roll does not necessarily mean it is in the Book of Life.
II. Know how to protect yourself. (1 John 2:20-21)
A. A Christ follower’s anointing includes both the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
1. Christ means the anointed One. Christians are anointed ones.
2. These antichrists claimed to have an equal or superior anointing.
3. John reminds Christians that we have an anointing from the anointed One. The one they try to discredit.
4. 1 Cor. 12:13 Paul calls the baptism, John refers to as the anointing. In the Old Testament anointing came to signify that the Spirit of God had come to dwell within an individual so that he or she could rule or prophesy for God. Peter said of Jesus in the New Testament, that God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit, most likely at his baptism. Here there is not connection with a baptism or a pouring of oil. The term indicates a receiving of a doctrinal spiritual truth. The Holy Spirit serves also as a teacher and a guide in the matters of truth.
B. Our protection comes from the Holy Spirit.
1. John states that all believers know the truth. (A spiritual tutor.)
2. All who believe have a real, intimate knowledge of God that does not need to be taught? It is supplied by the Holy Spirit.
3. We do not need to be worried about being seduced by those who claim to have superior knowledge about God because we have real understanding from the Holy One through his Spirit.
4. Our theology must include an understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit or we will be vulnerable to spiritual sabotage.
5. A by-product from having the Spirit is knowing the truth. No teaching form the Spirit will ever diverge from what has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ.
III. Know the truth about Jesus (1 John 2:22-23)
A. The liars are those who left the church and taught a false understanding of the person of Jesus.
1. These false teachers denied that Jesus was the Christ.
2. They were in the church but when it came to confessing that Jesus was God, they left.
3. They left and tried to persuade those who remained in the church. They affirmed and accepted Jesus as significant and important in some manner, but their theology was wholly inadequate in its grasp of his person and ultimately his work.
B. A liar (antichrist) denies that God became human.
1. John states that to deny Jesus as the Christ is to deny the Fatherhood of God.
2. This denial indicated that they never knew God.
3. John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.”
4. 1 John 4:2-3, “Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.”
C. The Incarnation means that God has genuinely penetrated our world and made himself known. Truth is not a matter of experience but a matter of history. Our vision of God is anchored in what has happened objectively, not in our perception of who he may be. Incarnation makes revelation possible because God has signaled once again his love for this world and his desire to who himself to it. Jesus is the human display of the Father.
D. The union of God and flesh makes Christ’s sacrificial death powerful.
IV. Know how to apply spiritual safeguards. (1 John 2:24-27)
A. How are we to protect ourselves from the antichrists?
B. John suggests two weapons that should always be available and ready in the Christian’s arsenal. (A spiritual conceal and carry if you will.)
1. Know the historical facts about our faith.
a. Make sure what you have learned from the beginning remains in you.
b. Know the message of the apostles; know the teachings of Jesus.
c. The message and the Spirit work together as long as we stay in communion with the Father and the Son.
d. Our relationship with God is vital, intimate, and constant.
2. Develop our skills of spiritual discernment.
a. When false teachers try to lead us astray we need to be able to confront them spiritually and intellectually.
b. It is the Spirit that drives our thinking and gives us discernment. The Spirit also awakens our spiritual faculties, gives us wisdom, discernment, and knowledge.
c. There are true and false anointing, true and false experiences. An anointing that leads to error, that misrepresents Christ – an anointing that detracts from what was from the beginning – may be no anointing at all. It may be a lie. John does not allow anyone to say the Spirit inspires rival theological points of view. Only one inspiration comes from the Spirit of God – the anointing that affirms the church’s historic beliefs in Jesus Christ.
Challenge: Take your 4X Four list to the next level.
