How do you remain strong and faithful in your faith walk when challenges raise their ugly heads? We have been involved in a series of studies from I John. Our study brings us to a place that has some vital lessons about remaining strong and faithful. Look at I John chapter 2 verse 18. This verse gives the essence of the problem. “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.” (NKJV) As we examine the surrounding context we find God’s strength for remaining strong and faithful. John wrote young believers who were living in the last days. He warned that false teachers were spreading false truth. He encouraged the young believers to remain faithful as they confronted the false teachers.
Before getting into the main point of the message I want to explain two phrases in this verse. The first phrase is “last days.” The New Testament writers believed that Jesus Christ was going to return in a short time. God has always wanted His people to live with a sense of urgency. That was true in the first century but it is also true today. It has been almost 2,000 years since Jesus ascended to Heaven. His second return to earth has not happened. Does that mean He has not kept His promise? Not at all! The Bible says 1,000 years is as a day with God.
The second phrase I want to address is the word “Anti-Christ.” In the Bible the word anti-Christ has two usages. In some places it refers to a spirit, attitude or teaching. In other places it refers to a person. That person is the evil ruler that will appear at the end of time to terrorize the earth. In I John 2:18 we find both usages.
Illustration: Remaining faithful to God requires determination and a spirit of perseverance. A meter reader in Oklahoma illustrates this principle. Overcoming locked gates, tall fences and dogs presents a challenge for us meter readers in rural Oklahoma, where we are required to read all meters: no estimates are allowed. One time a co-worker succeeded in getting past a particularly vicious watchdog tied to a chain that was long enough to give him sway over the entire back yard and driveway. Later, the man was questioned by his superior: "How were you able to get past that watchdog? The customer is curious."
"That’s easy, boss," the meter reader replied. "I parked on his chain." (The meter reader used ingenuity and showed a spirit of determination.
SOURCE: Jeff Strite, Church of Church, Logansport, IN. Citation: Reader’s Digest 12/86, p.5.
The message for you and I is thus: what do we do in order to remain strong and faithful as we face life’s challenges (such as false teachers)? John addresses this issue.
1. The first principle that will aid us is to walk as a child. John uses this phrase often. (2:1,12-1318,28; 3:1,2,7,10,18; 4:4; 5:21) When we think of remaining strong and faithful we (generally speaking) would not look to a child as an example. We tend to think of children in a developmental stage. John, using children, has an important spiritual truth to teach.
Illustration: Consider this example? Can you imagine what would happen if you were going financially bankrupt, and you went to one of your creditors and said, “Here’s what I want you to do: I want you to clear my debt, give me a brand new start, and then I want you to adopt me as one of your own children.”
After he recovered from the heart attack, he would make a phone call to the nearest mental hospital to have you taken away.
But God doesn’t do that. God says, “I know you are spiritually bankrupt. And so I will clear your debt, give you a new start, and I will adopt you as one of My own children.”
(Contributed to Sermon Central by Brian La Croix)
God brings us into His family as children. The Bible says “unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 18:2 NKJV) We enter God’s family as children. We come by simple child like faith. However, we must also progress in child like faith.
Children are trusting and take things at face value. They are dependent on others to teach them. That is the point in John’s teaching. A child’s greatest strength is the adults in his life. Even so, a believer’s greatest strength comes from God. It is not intelligence! It is not education! It is not your church. So, in the midst of warning us about false teachers and anti-christs he warns us to depend on God.
Illustration: It is not always easy to depend on someone else. I am reminded of the story of the discussion at a church camp for children. One of the counselors was leading a discussion on the purpose of God for all of creation. They began to find good reasons for the clouds and trees and rocks and rivers and animals and just about everything else in nature. Finally, one of the children asked, “If God has a good purpose for everything, then why did He create poison ivy?” This made the discussion leader gulp and, as he struggled with the question, one of the other children piped up, “The reason God made poison ivy is that He wanted us to know that there are certain things we should keep our cotton-pickin’ hands off of!” We must trust and depend on the warnings others give us. Sometimes that is not easy.
(Contributed to Sermon Central by Jim Kane)
Dependency is a common theme in I John 2:18-29. John teaches us to depend on God in three areas.
(1.) We are to depend on Jesus Christ by abiding in Him (I John 2:27,28). To abide means to trust, continue with, obey and believe in Jesus.
(2.) We are to depend on the Holy Spirit by trusting His anointing (I John 2:20,27).
(3.) We are to depend on the word by abiding in it’s truth (I John 2:21,24).
Illustration: During the 1st part of the 20th century, J. C. Penney presided over a very powerful empire of over 1,700 stores. At the time he had the country’s largest chain of department stores, each one bearing his name.
Although his enterprise made him incredibly wealthy, J.C. Penney’s life was not devoid of setbacks and troubles. In fact, beginning in 1929, events took place that nearly cost Penney his life.
When the Great Depression struck the country, it came at a time of great financial vulnerability for Penney. In the good times, before the Depression, Penney had overextended himself and had borrowed heavily to finance many of his ventures. But when the Depression hit banks began to request repayment of his loans sooner than anticipated. Suddenly cash flow was tight, and Penney was finding it difficult to meet payment schedules. Constant and unrelenting worry began to take a toll. "I was so harassed with worries that I couldn’t sleep, and developed an extremely painful ailment," he said.
Concerned about his deteriorating health, Penney checked himself into the Kellogg sanitarium at Battle Creek, Michigan, (kind of the Mayo Clinic of its era). There, Dr. Elmer Eggleston, a staff physician, examined Penney, declaring that he was extremely ill.
Penney later recalled "A rigid treatment was prescribed, but nothing helped," He was constantly tormented by periods of hopelessness and despair. His very will to live was rapidly eroding.
"I got weaker day by day. I was broken, nervously and physically, filled with despair, unable to see even a ray of hope. I had nothing to live for, I felt that I hadn’t a friend left in the world, that even my family had turned against me."
Alarmed by his rapidly deteriorating condition, Dr. Eggleston gave Penney a sedative. However, the effect quickly wore off, and Penney awakened with the conviction that he was living the last night of his life. "Getting out of bed, I wrote farewell letters to my wife and to my son, saying that I did not expect to live to see the dawn."
Penney awakened the next morning, surprised to find himself alive. Making his way down the hallway of the hospital, he could hear singing coming from the little chapel where devotional exercises were held each morning. The words of the hymn he heard being sung spoke deeply to him.
Going into the chapel, he listened to the singing, the reading of the Scripture lesson, and the prayer.
"Suddenly something happened," he said. "I can’t explain it. I can only call it a miracle. I felt as if I had been instantly lifted out of the darkness of a dungeon into a warm, brilliant sunlight. I felt as if I had been transported from hell to Paradise. I felt the power of God as I had never felt it before."
In a life-transforming instant Penney knew that God, with His love, was there to help. "From that day to this, my life has been free from worry," he declared. "The most dramatic and glorious 20 minutes of my life were those I spent in that chapel that morning."
The words from the hymn that spoke so eloquently and miraculously to J. C. Penney were these (sing it with me if you know it).
Be not dismayed whate’er betide, God will take care of you;
Beneath His wings of love abide, God will take care of you.
God will take care of you, through every day, o’er all the way;
He will take care of you, God will take care of you.
Contributed by: Ted Mulder
2. The second principle is: Prepare for the challenges.
Illustration: Sometimes we take challenges lightly. In the early 80’s a shocking thing happened to the University of Alabama football team. They lost a game to Rutgers. Alabama did not take Rutgers seriously. No one in their right mind would have ever expected Rutgers to beat Alabama. If you do not take your opposition seriously you are setting yourself up for a fall.
Illustration: We have learned some painful lessons about being prepared during the past year. Two devastating hurricanes ripped through the Gulf Coast region. Our cities and towns were unprepared and we faced devastating consequences.
Jesus spoke of being prepared. He said “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. "But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. "Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not expect Him.” (Mt. 24:42-44 NKJV)
So, if we are to prepare for challenges, such as false teachers, how do we prepare? We learn a couple of important lessons from this text.
A. One lesson is to be cautious of false teachers (vs. 21). In this passage we learn that false teachers (anti-christs) do three things.
1. They depart from the fellowship (19). In fact most false teachers lead their people to avoid the traditional. Jim Jones and David Koresh were two good examples.
2. They deny the faith (22-23). Most false teachers claim to have some kind of new revelation. They deny Jesus as the Christ (2:22). They deny Jesus as God’s son (2:23). They deny that Jesus is God in the flesh (See I John 4:2; II Jn. 7).
3. They try to deceive the faithful.
What does being cautious have to do with being prepared? Lets go back to the Alabama/Rutgers illustration. If the Alabama players had imagined that Rutgers would beat them they would have prepared with more diligence. When we take our Christian faith seriously and live with diligence we will be better prepared to serve the Lord. (See Heb. 6:11; II Peter 1:10; II Cor. 8:7) These passages teach diligence.
B. In addition to being cautious of the enemy we should also equip ourselves to face the enemy. In I John 2:18-29 John continually refers to abiding in Christ, receiving the Holy Spirit’s anointing and abiding in the word. These three spiritual disciplines equip us to do battle with the enemy. This connects to the principle of child like dependency. When we realize that we cannot fight our spiritual battles alone it drives us to draw strength from outside ourselves. As we abide in Jesus, depend on the Holy Spirit and abide in the word we are increasing our strength and building our spiritual reserves to be a victorious Christian.
Conclusion: What about you? Have you come to Jesus Christ in child like faith? Are you depending on Him rather than relying on your own strength?
