The sinking of the Titanic was one the greatest tragedies that could have been avoided if the 7 alarms that warned the crew of icebergs would have been heeded.
John in his letter to the believers issued a warning regarding the “antichrists” that were among them.
The Alarm
18 Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour.
If this was taken literally we would have to say that he was in error because the antichrist that we are probably thinking about in the last days has not arrived. And if it truly was the last hour it has been frozen in time. So how do we make sense and interpret what John is actually saying and why is he sounding an alarm.
When Christ came to earth as the Messiah, it initiated the beginning of the end times, end of the age or the last days.
In the Jewish mindset there were two ages: the present evil age and the age to come in which God would rule as supreme. In between these two ages was the Day of the Lord in which there will be terror, dissolution and judgment which would precede the new age. It would be time of in which the new world would emerge.
The last time or last hour marks the end of one time and the beginning of another. It is last in the sense that the old is passing away and a new era is beginning. This is very similar to the Mayan idea that last December would be the end of the age. Many people thought that this meant the world would come to an end but those who understood Mayan beliefs claimed that it only represented the end of one era and the beginning of a new era.
The world is passing away and it will eventually be destroyed but a new era has also emerged that Christ initiated. Every hour when viewed from an eternal perspective is the last hour. Those who oppose Christ are present and always will be until Christ comes to reign and defeat his enemies.
John’s description of these “antichrists” includes the following: (1) they have a faulty understanding of Jesus Christ (v. 22; 4:3; 2 John 7); (2) they have no relationship with the Father (v. 23); and (3) they are liars (v. 22) and deceivers (2 John 7).
New Geneva study Bible. 1997, c1995. C1995 by Foundation for Reformation. (electronic ed.) (1 Jn 2:18).
As believers we have to be on the alert to the antichrist spirit of the age. The battle is being fought each day for the souls of men. Those who oppose Christ and deny his deity and humanity are on the rise. The Muslim population is growing at a faster rate than Christianity (1.4 % to 1.2% worldwide). We also have seen an increase in the number of people in the USA who are called the” none” meaning they have no religious affiliation. During the past 5 years there has been an increase from 5 to 20% in this category. Some of these are opposed to Christ while others take no position for or against. The atheists are also making their voice heard and have had an influence on many people.
A new global survey on religiosity (PDF) by WIN-Gallup International has two big findings:
First, the United States has gone from being 1% godless in 2005 to 5% in 2012. (The percentage of people simply calling themselves non-religious is 30%, significantly higher than ever before.) That jumps us up quite a bit on the Global Atheism Index: The other finding is that atheists are now 13% of the world population, an increase of 9% since 2005:
… the number of self-declared atheists in the world has risen by 9% since the measure was last taken in 2005.
The massive poll, conducted in 57 countries (not, apparently, including Britain) among 51,000 people asked a single question “Irrespective of whether you attend a place of worship or not, would you say you are a religious person, not a religious person or a convinced atheist?”
It shows that on average 59% of the world said that they think of themselves as religious, whereas 23% think of themselves as not religious and 13% think of themselves as convinced atheists. Naturally there are enormous variations from country to country.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/08/10/survey-says-atheism-is-on-the-rise-worldwide-and-in-america/
I think we need to sound the alarm today just as John did to warn the believers against the false teaching that are perverting the minds of people. The battle ground for the souls of men is in the mind, the beliefs they hold to be true. The antichrist spirit is at work to discredit the very existence of Christ and the beliefs of Christianity. We do not have to despair of what is happening but we must take seriously the conditions we are currently living in and take action to be witnesses to the truth through our lifestyle of obedience to Christ and sharing the gospel message with the lost.
God has given us many methods that we can use to reach the lost. I was watching a program on CBN in which a group of believers in South Korea have printed the gospel of Mark on large balloons that they fill with helium and send them into North Korea.
We as John did need to identify the false beliefs of the antichrist spirit of our age, sound the alarm and take action to oppose them from spreading lies, deceiving and misrepresenting Christ.
The Anointing.
20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge. 21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth. 22 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. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who confesses the Son has the Father also.
John encouraged the believers stating that they knew the truth and that they had the “anointing” in them to be able to discern the truth. They did not need these so called teachers who were introducing ideas that were not supported by the Word of God.
The word “anointing” denotes literally the “oil” that was used to anoint a person.
In the Old Testament, kings were “anointed” as a part of the inaugural ceremony (I Sam 16:6–13); it involved simply pouring oil on the head of the chosen person. The chosen person then had the “oil” on him and was called the “anointed” (Heb meshiach, Gr christos). Thus, throughout the New Testament, God’s chosen King, the Messiah, is designated the Christ, meaning in translation, “the Anointed One” or the one who had the “oil” (Gr chrisma).
The verb form anoint (Gr chriō) is also used several times in the New Testament to allude to the anointing of Christ, but once it is used of Christians, who are also in a sense (obviously a lesser sense than Christ) anointed (II Cor 1:21); in this passage it is clear that the “oil” with which we are anointed is the same as that with which Christ was anointed, namely the Holy Spirit (cf. II Cor 1:22). This, in fact, is the meaning behind the name “Christian,” for believers are “little christs,” “little anointed ones.” When John, therefore, uses this word unction (Gr chrisma), or, as it occurs twice in verse 27, anointing, he simply means to say that all believers have the Holy Spirit. Since believers have the Holy Spirit, they have an “edge” on unbelievers and can “know” certain things that unbelievers cannot.
KJV Bible commentary. 1997, c1994 (electronic ed.) (2634). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
As followers of Christ we have been given the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. The truth revealed by the Holy Spirit always is in agreement with the Word of God. The believers John was addressing were not “know it alls” nor were they people who had no need for teaching because they literally knew everything or he would not have had to write them. But they were people who had God’s Holy Spirit dwelling in them, the internal guidance system that would lead them into truth. The Gnostics claimed to have superior knowledge and revelation of truth. But their truth denied the humanity of Christ and that he was the Messiah. John gave them a very simple test to use to expose the antichrist spirit. If they denied that Jesus was the Christ/Messiah/Anointed One then they were to be rejected. Any belief system that denies Christ as the Messiah must be rejected and treated as an antichrist movement.
The Holy Spirit always works in conjunction with the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word agree. When new teaching is presented there must always be an agreement between the Holy Spirit inside of us and the Word of God. This is why it is so critical for us to know the Word. The Holy Spirit will show us truth and error because of the Word we have within in us.
I have been reading an autobiography of Peter Tan whom God has used powerfully in Malaysia as well as in other countries. At 19 years of age he felt that God was calling him to ministry and through the help of his pastor was able to enter a seminary to prepare for ministry. He excelled in his studies and God began to use him in supernatural Holy Spirit ministry. He was kicked out of the conservative seminary because they caught him laying hands on another students head to pray for him. This was seen as too charismatic for the seminary and he was asked to leave. After leaving seminary he made a commitment to the Lord to only read his Bible as he felt that his seminary studies really did not produce the intimacy and spiritual growth he wanted. He was faithful to his promise and afterward he saw tremendous fruitfulness in his ministry. Smith Wigglesworth was another man used of God who made a similar vow. He became a believer later in life and felt that he had wasted so much of his time as an unbeliever reading everything but the bible that he wanted to redeem the time and focus on reading only the Bible. His life’s story of the tremendous miracles that happened in his ministry can be attributed to his study of the word and the faith that come from it. I think all of us can be challenged in the same way to spend more time in the Word and less time in other things that will not produce the same benefits to our spiritual growth.
In the Old Testament provides us with a very important example of the anointing of oil when the priest was consecrated in service by being anointed with oil on his right ear, thumb and big toe. This was symbolic of how we as believers need the anointing of the Holy Spirit to enable us to hear the Word of God, do the work of God and walk in the way of God respectively.
The anointing of the Spirit is how God empowers us for ministry and it is through the anointing of the Spirit that we are able to discern truth from error, to know what is from God and what is purely man made or inspired by the devil who is a liar. We cannot do God’s work without the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit. Without his anointing we are operating on human power and the results are zero. When Jesus went to the synagogue he read from Isaiah about the anointing of the Spirit upon him.
16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
A true believer in Christ will be born of the spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, be led of the Spirit,led by the Holy Spirit, walk in the Spirit, taught by the Holy spirit, bear the fruit of the spirit and manifest the gifts of the spirit. When we understand how critical it is for the indwelling and empowering of the spirit we realize how important it was for Jesus to go away so that the Spirit would be sent.
The final encouragement of John is to continue to abide in Christ.
28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming.
To abide in Christ means to continually live with him day by day. It is the constancy and consistency of the believer as well as the perseverance of them that John was exhorting them to model as believers. Christ will return one day and we will either stand in confidence before him or be ashamed of our lives.
Christ’s return will inevitably cause one of two reactions. For the believer, the response is confidence. The term “confidence” is a translation of a Greek word which literally means “all speech” or “free speech.” Confidence is indicated in the believer’s ability to verbalize, in contrast to the silent terror and shame of those who must quake before Him at His return.
New Geneva study Bible. 1997, c1995. C1995 by Foundation for Reformation. (electronic ed.) (1 Jn 2:28). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
Christ made it very clear, that those who were ashamed of him in this life would in the end be ashamed when he returns.
38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” Mark 8.38
The Gnostics had been a part of the group of believers at one time as John states that they came out from us. They never embraced and lived out the message they were taught and created their own beliefs that in the end would bring shame to them.
Many may start out on the wrong foundation of false beliefs and the lies of the devil and truly never were a part of the true believers. If Jesus Christ is not the foundation and the words he has given us are not the basis of our beliefs than we are like the foolish man who built his house on the sand. Others we have known may have been raised in the truth but have abandoned it for the pursuit of the fleshly desires or false beliefs of other religions or they have become agnostics or atheists.
Peter Tan in his autobiography wrote about a period of time in his life where he got off track. He had been powerfully used of God in miraculous ways and had seen thousands come to Christ through the anointed ministry God had given him. Yet he fell away, he was not consistent in his walk and allowed compromises and sin to enter. He did not give details of what he did but he said that the reason he fell was because he stopped listening to God, failed to be in the Word, studying and meditating and in prayer seeking God. He drifted away and damaged his ministry and family. He was banned from ministry and when he realized what he had done placed himself in a program of restoration for 2 years. Even after completing it some churches and denominations would not allow him to minister in their churches.
We have to guard our relationship with the Lord. It is easy to get too busy in ministry doing good things that we neglect to connect with the Lord each day at the level that he wants us to. When we get into making ministry mechanical we lose touch with the Lord and no longer seek him or hear his voice. To abide in Christ is to recognize as he taught in John 15 that He is the vine and we are the branches.
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
Andrew Murray points out several important things about the relationship between the vine and the branches.
The parable teaches us the nature of that union. God has united us to himself through Jesus Christ. His life is given to us through the Holy Spirit flowing out to us. The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is in us. We are one with God through the Spirit.
The parable teaches us the completeness of the union. The branch can do nothing without the vine and the vine cannot bear fruit apart from the branches. Without the branches God cannot give his blessing to the world. He has chosen to use us to be his channel of blessing to the world. Neither the vine or the branch is anything without the other, so neither is anything except for the other.
Everything the vine has belongs to the branch. Out of his fullness we have received. All of the riches of heaven are meant for us. Jesus is in heaven representing us, all of his riches are available to us.
Everything the branch has belongs to the vine. The branch exists to bear fruit for the vine, to be of service to the vine. The branch lives to bring glory to the vine, to do the will of it, do the work of the kingdom and to bear the fruit to the glory of his name.
The parable teaches us the object of the union. The object is to bear fruit and branches that do not bear fruit are taken away. The fruit is to be given away to those around.
When we abide in Christ, we fulfill our mission in life of bearing fruit that is offered to a lost world and in doing so we bring glory to God.
John was writing to warn the believers of the antichrist spirit that was already in operation and what they needed to do to identify it.
Encouraged the believers that they had the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the true teachings of the Word of God to come against the antichrist spirit attacks.
Exhorted the believers to abide in Christ to be confident that they could face Christ and not be ashamed.
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