Remain!
What a way to start an address to a congregation. Or even better a great way to tuck the kids in at night. Imagine this, as a wee tacker, just wrapped up tight and this is the bed time story! “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.” What a way to start an address to a congregation. Or even better a great way to tuck the kids in at night.
“Now there, there it’s going to be alright sleep well, I’m turning the light off now.”
Mmm I’m sure that would lead to a pleasant night’s sleep as blokes that looked like this wandered through their dreams. [pp Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Wrath SG Atlantis etc]
But the truth is that these antichrists that the Apostle John was talking about were not the atypical nasties of the screen, or even our dreams. These antichrists were average, some times better than average looking bods and boddeses. Paul in one of his letters tells us “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:14)
The truth is that this passage of scripture has to be placed in context, it has just come after teaching about Jesus being the light, about walking in that light, about rejecting worldly lusts, cravings and boasting. Then doing the will of God.
1) The thing is that some teaching was knocking around about Jesus that was not true. The truth is that John knew that his teaching was false as he had travelled closely with Jesus, Jesus had been his rabbi, Jesus had taught John, they had spent time together, he had shared meals with, seen Jesus heal, walk on water, breath his last breath, resurrected from the dead and ascend into heaven. John knew that Jesus was the Christ. Now that warrants repeating, John knew Jesus was the Christ.!
So about these antichrists, there’s an interesting thing about life and that’s to have an anti-something you need to have something in the first place. You can’t have antibiotics unless you have nasty bacteria / biotics in the first place and you can’t have antigravity unless you are hit on the head by the odd apple, unless you have gravity. Antidisestablishmentarianism which is the longest word I know how to pronounce came about in 19th-century Britain in opposition to proposals for the disestablishment of the Church of England. that is, to remove the Anglican Church’s status as the state church. I’m talking about these anti things just so that we realise that to have an antichrist you have to have Christ in the first place.
At the time of John writing this, there were these antichrists or gnostic and a few other types who had turned their backs on what the Apostles were teaching. They were teaching and had come out with what appears to be what they saw as possible. The sort of stuff that says, all this stuff about Jesus just isn’t humanly possible, it doesn’t fit with our thinking, so let’s rationalise it and make it fit into a box of our own making. In doing so these roosters by fitting Jesus into their box of thinking; with the mind of man, made him either one thing or the other, either…
• They emphasized the divinity of Jesus at the expense of his humanity, or
• They emphasized the humanity of Jesus to the point that they failed to see that, as the Christ, he is God
We see this sort of thing today in the teachings of some liberal theologians, and in quasi church faith belief systems and cults. Some may say that that’s okay and that people are free to believe what they want and they are.
But in doing so they have wandered from the truth of Christ, from the reality of Jesus into a land of deception where the small antichrists have actually laid people bare with their false teaching; bare to be claimed by ‘the antichrist’. There is no true Christian living in this place, either for the lead or the leader, “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness we lie and do not live by the truth.” (1 John 1:6)
2) Another thing to note here is that these antichrists obviously had their start in the early church and wandered off. John says it this way, “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.” (vs. 19). This must have been heart breaking for John and it’s an interesting thing how early in the life of the church this happened. It appears that there have always been people who know better, better than the one who created them. Better than Jesus who made it clear to John and the other apostles his Divinity and humanity.
These antichrists often left behind a trail of damage in the early church, as do those who teach a pattern of belief that is not scriptural today, often those following this teaching end up wrapped in legalism or sin rather than God’s grace.
3) John points out to those reading his letter that they have an anointing from the Holy One. You might notice here that that term Holy One is a name capital letters and all. The only person depicted in scripture as the Holy One is Jesus.
So back to this anointing of the Holy One, back in the day the Jews and Christians anointed with oil as a sign of God being with and upon a person. Baptism is also referred to as an anointing. The anointing that is referred to here is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ himself and the indwelling of The Spirit with the believer.
It can be hard to quantify this occurrence. This may for some come as an intense experience of The Spirit’s impact on them physically, for others as a feeling of the Spirit alighting on their head and shoulders, and still others as an inward change of heart and direction in life, often accompanied by a gift or gifts of the Holy Spirit but always by a change in life and growth of the fruits of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22) Others like John Wesley and Samuel Logan Brengle talk of their heart being “strangely warmed”, as the Holy Spirit presenced himself with them
I’d like to encourage you with some of Brengle’s words if you are yet to experience the Holy Spirit at work in your life, please excuse the oldie English, “If you gave yourself to God in the very best way you knew of; but did not receive the Holy Ghost, I beg of you not to be discouraged. Do not take a backward step. Stand where you are, and hold fast your faith. The Lord means to bless you. Keep looking unto Jesus, and fully expect Him to satisfy your heart’s desire. Tell Him you expect it, and plead His promises. He says: "’I know the thoughts I think toward you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken (come) unto you. And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart. And I will be found of you’ (Jer. xxix. 11, 14). This is a wonderful promise, and it is for you.” (community.logos.com/.../4786.Various-Messages-from-Samuel-Loga...sited 27/09/2012)
It’s always good to be encouraged in the things of God…in part that is what John was doing for the receivers of this letter. Encouraging them to remain in their relationship with God.
John is writing to these people to encourage them but also to point out that they know the truth, as he says “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.” (vs. 21) John is hitting home the point that they know what the truth is because of their experience so they should look to that experience and not to false teaching of these antichrists.
In the next couple of verses he gives the readers a bit of a reminder of who these anti blokes are and that they are denying God the Father and God the Son, which in reality leaves them believing in a handful of nothing, a faith that’s a vapour. He states it plainly, “No one who denies the Son has the Father: whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”
I was trying to come up with an illustration about this and it’s a bit like saying that those of us who know that we have a roof over us understand that a wall or two in our case that there are four keeping the roof there. We could deny the wall-ship of the walls but they still exist and the roof is still there. In the same way these antichrist characters, were denying the Son-ship of the Son and still expecting they had a relationship with God the Father. Remember last week when I talked of how Jesus advocates on our behalf with the father and the Father sends the promised Holy Spirit to be with us. These antichrists were in their minds removing Jesus from his rightful place with the Father.
It makes little sense to deny the existence of something or someone that exists. In the case of Christ it is just stupidity at the least, or a well thought through rebellion against God at the worst and most dangerous to boot. This is about remaining in Christ Jesus.
One way to look at Jesus is to remember that he is All Powerful and to deny who he really is entering dangerous territory. We cannot fit Jesus into our own pattern or our own design, any more than we can grasp a bolt of lightning with our bare hands and hold it. Remember all the power of creation had to conform to his will as he walked on water, as he stilled waves, multiplied food and his dead body lived again. If all the power of creation cannot contain him neither can our thoughts constrict him to our wants, no matter how well meaning they may or may not be. Jesus is the Christ!
4) So John reminds the reader to keep it together, not to get it together, but to stay on the right path.You are perhaps thinking that there’s nothing there about paths, but there’s oodles of scriptures that talk of paths.
Psalm 16:11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Matthew 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
Matthew 7:14 “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
This one about a highway
Isaiah 35:8 “And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it.” The word highway here is not as we depict a highway, multilane, two directional with over passes and arteries, fast cars and whooping great truck and trailer units. This was a road, a track of sorts, probably a cart or two wide. The way of holiness is narrow and is journeyed by those whose relationship with God is right!
These scriptures are about remaining in the truth of God, walking in his ways and remaining in the truth of Jesus, remaining in Christ. John even points out that in doing this what is promised is eternal life; life eternal that is often swept aside for something that will damage and destroy for a few moments of physical reward.
This path John was concerned about is not mentioned other than in the words John uses when he states “I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.” (vs. 26) We stray when our minds, our hearts and finally our feet leave the path of being in a right relationship with God. (repeat)
The truth is that there is plenty to lead us astray from the path of having a right relationship with God.
I don’t need to remind you of the sins that you have left behind or those temptations that hangout in some corner of our life, just in the shadows, whispering in a sweet inviting voice with a scent of sweet perfumed enticement, just glinting, trying to divert our attention from the right relationship we have with God.
But what of those false hoods, the ones we might just accept if pushed that little bit further, because does it really matter, in the long run, because I could sort it out later and if I believe most of what scripture says I should be right. Things like “I can live in a worldly way, God understands where I’m at and I’ll sort this out in time.” Or “Others are doing this thing, everybody try’s a few things before they repent so I think I’ll give it a go.” Maybe, “taking a slightly different tack like, or “I don’t really care about what scripture says about such and such because I don’t want to believe that.”
The question arises when that, if we or others stray from the truth of scripture, the words written by those who knew Jesus. Can we go from Christian to being anti Jesus? If we are commanded by Jesus to love our neighbour but hate them, if we are to let our light shine but hide it under a bushel, if we profess one thing but do another, are we anti-Christ? If we are to take up our cross and follow Jesus but leave it behind where does that leave us?
If we remain in Jesus, he remains in us. How did John state that “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you.” (vs. 24)
So we are to remain in Christ Jesus and he will remain in us.
There is always an opportunity if we have strayed to come home. We can be restored in our relationship with God through Jesus. We can encounter the Holy Spirit’s work in us and be assured through that deposit of eternal salvation.
We are to remain in Christ.
