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1 John 2:18-29
“The Nice Antichrists”
When John writes his Epistles it is very clear there has been a division within the church. The division has resulted in a “them” group and an “us” group.
In 1 John 2:18-29 John tells us who the “them” and “us” are.
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. 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.
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.
Right through history the sad reality is that divisions happen within the church.
That division can happen for many reasons.
Many years ago when I was a theological student I regularly preached at a church in country Victoria.
The church started at 11:00am. They did this because, when the church first opened, many of the members were dairy farmers who had cows to milk.
But now there were no more farmers. So the leadership, along with a majority of the church, believed it would be good to start church earlier … at 10:00am … to give time to have fellowship after church, but also so families can get home for lunch.
It caused a division. You can’t make church start earlier.
In response to this change a group of people left and went to the church down the road … whose service started at 10:00am.
Division.
Times when brothers and sisters in Christ have different perspectives.
And they go different ways
… still recognising that they are brothers and sisters in Christ.
… but also recognising the wisdom of worshipping in a different part of God’s kingdom.
A division which results in a “them” … and an “us”.
That is not the sort of “them” and “us” division John is writing about in these verses.
18 Dear children, this is the last hour
The last hour is the time in the days between the first and second coming of Jesus. Also known as the “last days”.
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
In the last hour there are two types of antichrists.
There is the antichrist. A single individual. In 2 Thessalonians 2 Paul calls him the man of lawlessness. He will be revealed at the appointed time. He still is coming.
Scripture tells us that he has already lost.
John is not primarily focussing on that individual.
The focus of John is on the many antichrists … those who were already around in the first century church.
What are the characteristics of these many antichrists?
Let’s read all the Scripture verses which specifically describe “the many antichrists”.
We have already read two of the verses this morning.
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.
1 John 2:22
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 verses which speak about the antichrist ar:-
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.
And … that is all the verses in Scripture that have “antichrist” in them.
When you put these verses together it is easy to see that a defining characteristic of these many antichrist people is a theological one.
They deny that Jesus is the Christ.
They do not acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.
These are the people we meet today who say things like
“Jesus never existed.”
Or, “Jesus was a historical figure, but He wasn’t God.”
Or, “Jesus taught good morals, but He isn’t the only Saviour.”
These people have a theological viewpoint that makes them one of the many antichrists who are in the world even at this moment.
Do you know people like that?
People who deny that Jesus has come in the flesh.
What sort of people are they?
Are they mean, and evil, and vindictive?
Are they morally bankrupt and the scum of society?
Are they people who deliberately set about making your life Christian miserable?
Perhaps some might be like that. But isn’t it true that many of them … well they are nice people aren’t they.
If you look past the theology you can actually see nice-antichrists.
John makes the same observation.
Have a look again at 1 John 2:19 … at the description John uses to characterise these antichrists who were around in the first century.
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.
Some of the many antichrists.
Some of “them”.
They went out from “us”. They were a part of the church community … so much so that they looked like they belonged in the community.
They were on the door welcoming us as we came in.
They came to our connect group.
They have eaten the Lord’s Supper with us.
They were standing around the baptism pool when we were baptised.
They sang worship songs alongside us.
We now know they never belonged … because they have left and now deny Jesus is the Christ … but that is only the wisdom of hindsight.
Those people.
Those who once looked like they were part of the faith community … but are now not … what sort of people are they?
Indeed, isn’t it true that many people who walk away from the church
… those who walk away and can no longer say Jesus is the Christ.
And isn’t it true of those who we meet in our lives today who deny Jesus is the Christ.
… isn’t it true that many of these are very nice people.
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.
We still meet them every now and then for coffee and we would talk about all sorts of things, because we had a shared history.
We know they do not believe that Jesus has come in the flesh.
We know they won’t acknowledge that Jesus is from God.
They are antichrist. But aren’t they such nice antichrists.
Ironically, it is because they are such “nice” people, that they can create a huge spiritual problem for us.
That is because nice antichrists are very effective antichrists.
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 us?
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. We should let them date because 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 games 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.
They are nice people. So we want to make sure we keep having a “nice” relationship with them. And, to make sure things stay “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.
We stop praying in front of them because it makes them feel awkward.
We do this because we want to be nice Christians.
You know what else is nice?
An episode of the Teletubbies. That is nice. 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 greet 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 is fake.
The whole agenda of Tellytubbyland is to lull children into a false sense of security and hide the truth of a world that is full of brokenness, and pain, and suffering.
We cannot let the fact that there are nice antichrists stop us from seeing the ultimate agenda of those with an antichrist spirit.
1 John 2:26
26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.
2 John 7-8
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. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for.
The ultimate agenda of those with the spirit of the antichrist is to lead those who believe in Jesus away from Jesus.
They are trying to make you question your belonging.
They want you to stop being one of “us” … and become one of “them”.
They want you to lose your trust in Jesus.
Oh they will do it nicely … and they might not even know they are acting in an antichrist manner.
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 by really nice antichrists.
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”.
Congregation, just like it was in the first century, so it is today.
This is the last hour and many nice antichrists have come.
We continue to be surrounded by those who deny Jesus.
The nice antichrists still have the agenda to try and lead us astray.
The call to each one of us to not lose what has been worked in us through the Gospel is a call that is still necessary.
Those who have eternal life will go through their daily spiritual journey surrounded by many nice antichrists.
As we do that, notice what John doesn’t say.
John never says, run in fear. In fact says quite the opposite.
1 John 4:3-4
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. 4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them
who are the “them” … it is the “many antichrist”.
You have overcome them
because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
Who has the greater Spirit in them?
Not those who deny Jesus is the Christ.
Not those who deny that Jesus has come in the flesh.
Not those who have the spirit of the antichrist.
None of “them” are greater.
The greater spirit is in “us”. Us who have already overcome them.
So, because we are the overcomers, we get to set the agenda. And this might sound a bit strange, but that agenda doesn’t require us to be “nice”.
Rather the agenda requires us to be authentic … to not be a counterfeit.
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.
1 John 2:27
Jesus has given us His anointing.
Jesus has equipped us to be eternally His.
We don’t have to hide it. We don’t have to be embarrassed by it.
So when all those nice people around us try to makes us act in a way that looks counterfeit … there is no rule that says we have to be nice and accommodate them.
Certainly we should not be silenced by the expectation that we should stop being our authentic self just because we are making nice people feel uncomfortable.
And that might lead to awkward situations.
And that might mean we don’t go to the Sunday party.
And relationships may not continue.
And the situation may end up being not so nice.
But … we have the spirit of Christ … not the spirit of the antichrist.
Which means that, in this last hour, there will always be an “us” … and a “them”.
And if all we do is just be nice to “them” … how will all those nice people know they need to change?
How will they know that they are following the spirit of the antichrist?
How will they know they are following the spirit of the one who has already lost?
How will they know that they can stop being one of “them” and become one of “us”?
They won’t change when we are “nice” and look like counterfeits.
They might change because we are confident … unashamed … overcomers.
Living authentically as we remain in Jesus.
Prayer
