THE ANOINTED AND THE ANTI-ANOINTED
1John 2:18-27
S2-1489
Open your Bibles to 1 John 2. John is dealing with antichrists in the church—probably somewhere in Asia Minor, probably in Ephesus. Nothing has changed much in this arena since the first century.
·SLIDE #1: Let me introduce you to Kim and Bethany identical Twins play flutes in our orchestra. Can you tell them apart? Not hardly.
Could you imagine that one evening Beth scheduled a date with two different guys for the same time? Beth convinced Kim to go out with one of the guys. Finally her guilty conscience forced her to tell him that she was not Beth, she was twin sister, Kim. He did not believe her. Finally he agreed to come next day to the pool where they were both lifeguards. There really were two of them.
·SLIDE #2: Who is who? That is hard to tell from the outside—unless they dress differently.
Get to know them and it is easy to tell the difference.
They are both Physical Therapists; Kim works at St. Joes. Beth works at Health South.
Kim will talk a lot about her recent knee surgery. Beth does not do that.
Ask them about boyfriends—usually have different ones. Won’t help now, both are available. If you are a single guy get out your pencil, I will now put their phone number on the screen. Just kidding. You will have to work that out for yourself.
In our passage this morning John is dealing with people who look a lot a like on the outside—but the inside heart reveals astounding differences.
·SLIDE #3: READ 1 John 2:18: 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.
The term ‘last hour’ refers to the time period between the 1st and 2nd coming of Jesus. Like the expression ‘last days’ and ‘last times’
·SLIDE #5: Note there is one called the antiChrist. This is a specific individual. Man of Sin, etc,. Satan does not know exactly when the end will come. He always has one ready. Hitler. Julie is always guessing. She is convinced he is alive somewhere on earth at the present time.
·BUILD SLIDE #6A: There are many antichrists: at least two kinds of antichrists:
·BUILD SLIDE #6B: The first kind is a rival to Christ, who claims to possess all the power and ability of Christ. He claims to be Christ—Reverend Sun Moon for example. He is an imposter.
·BUILD SLIDE #6C: The second kind is one who opposes Christ, someone who deliberately or even unintentionally stands against Jesus and his truth.
John is referring here to a specific religious group called the “Gnostics.”
Gnostics believed that God would never put on a body; therefore, Jesus could not be God.
They also claimed to possess secret knowledge into God’s nature.
·SLIDE #7: READ I John 2:19: 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.
They severed relationship.
·SLIDE #8: READ I John 2:20-21: But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 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.
·SLIDE #9: It is the Anointed versus the Anti-anointed. There is play on words here that does not come out in English.
Anti-Christ is “antichristos” in Greek.
Anointed is “chrisma” in Greek. Anointed are the Christians.
Antichristos and chrisma originate from the same Greek verb, chrio, “to anoint”.
·SLIDE #10: READ I John 2:22-23: Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist– he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
·SLIDE #11: READ I John 2:24-25: 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. And this is what he promised us– even eternal life.
·SLIDE #12: READ I John 2:26-27:I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 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.
·SLIDE #13: READ I John 2:28-29: And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
·SLIDE #14: WHAT THE ANTIANOINTED (ANTICHRISTS) LOOKED LIKE THEN AND NOW
John tells us that their beliefs were flawed.
·SLIDE #15: 1. Defective Christology—This is verse 22.
READ I John 2:22: Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist– he denies the Father and the Son.
Gnostics believed that flesh was evil. God could put on a body. . They disputed that Jesus – the man of Nazareth – could ever be God. They couldn’t conceive that “Jesus is the Christ”
·SLIDE #16: The Gnostics—like many today—struggled with the notion of incarnational Christology, namely, the notion that Jesus Christ was God.
·SLIDE #17: To deny incarnational Christology is to deny the truths of revelation and salvation.
Incarnation makes revelation possible because God used incarnation to reveal Himself and His nature to mankind. Jesus is the fully-God, fully-human display of the Father
“He that see me has seen the father”—John 1:18; 14:1-14.
Our understanding of God is anchored in what has happened objectively in history, not in our perceptions or imaginations of who God may be or what we think He is like. In Jesus Christ God has revealed Himself as well as His intentions and plans for mankind.
Incarnational theology is essential to our understanding of salvation. The true union of God and human flesh, the complete fusion of divinity and humanity makes Christ’s sacrificial death potent.
·SLIDE #18: Humanity – Divinity = No power to save.
Divinity – Humanity = Destroyed Relationship
Divinity + Humanity = Successful Salvation
·SLIDE #19: Their second defective belief concerned Tolerance and Relativism—This is verse 23
READ I John 2:23: No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
This is a very exclusive and intolerant and absolute statement.
·SLIDE #19: —Today’s world of Tolerance and relativism is like a Grocery Shelf of Ideas out there to choose from. Pick and choose my own customized religion.
Tolerance says we can all have our own religion and so can everyone else—each religion is as good as the next.
·SLIDE #22: Tolerance says, “You need to be open minded. Don’t close your mind to anything. I keep an open door in my mind to everything that comes by.”
God would say to you, “Well, close the door!” Why do you have a door in your house? Keep some things in and some things out. I have a door to keep the hot air out and the cold air in the summer. I have a door to keep my kids in and the neighbor’s kids out. Go outside to get the mail and I close the door—I don’t want a snake to slither in.
Relativism says there are no absolute truths—all truth is relative depending on how you look at it.
This is ridiculous—we live in an absolute world all the time. Absolutes are everywhere.
For example, the law of gravity will always apply:
Illustrate: Jump up and down to demonstrate gravity; bucket of water to demonstrate centripetal force.
Revelation is all about absolute truth. God in history has come to reveal the absolute truth about Himself. Jesus is revealed as exclusively the only way to the Father as surely as the water will absolutely stay in the bucket when I swing it around in a circle.
Verse 23 could hardly be more categorical. You cannot have God without believing in Jesus.
·SLIDE #20: Christ himself said, “I and the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6)
If this route is rejected, there is no other.
If an individual does not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was and is the Christ, God’s own Son, sent from the Father, then he is literally against Christ.
And since the God of the Bible is a Trinity, if we miss Jesus then we miss all of God.
·SLIDE #21: Story of Charlie Allan and the Wagon Wheel: Life is like a wagon wheel. All of us live around the edge of the rim. God lives in the middle. All spokes lead to the center. It doesn’t matter which one (religion) we follow, they all lead to God.
“There is only one problem with that concept. It is wrong.”
Is that intolerant? It all has to do with incarnation, revelation, and absolute truth.
We are not to be intolerant of people—that leads to the Inquisition and the Crusades.
But, we must hold on the to the Truth and never compromise it.
·SLIDE #23: Josh McDowell’s Evidence That Demands a Verdict.
·BUILD SLIDE #24A: We all have to make a choice about the claims of Christ
·BUILD SLIDE #24B: Is he the Lord?
·BUILD SLIDE #24C: Liar?
·BUILD SLIDE #24D: Or Lunatic?
There are no other choices. Well, that is obvious in a modern age of rationalism and reason. But we don’t live in that age anymore.
You will be witnessing and they will say, “Yes.”
Find that what attracts them to Christ is our relationship to Christ and to other Christians. That is to be attractive. I will close with this thought. Don’t forget it.
·SLIDE #25: WHO ARE THE ANOINTED AND HOW DO THEY STAY ON COURSE?
READ 1 JOHN 1:20: But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
But that is this anointing? The Greek word means “what is rubbed on”, whether it is ointment or paint or medicine. It took on a specialized use, referring to the gift of the Holy Spirit that would mark the reign of a king (2 Sam. 2:7), the authority of a prophet (Isa. 61:1), and the Messiah (11:1). Refers here to some one who receives “Christ” and is filled with God’s Spirit at conversion.
·SLIDE #26: Let me show you what an unanointed person looks like. This is a non Christian.
Body, soul (mind), darkened spirit. Coma, it doesn’t work. 2 Corinthians 4:4
By nature everyone is blind to spiritual things. Doesn’t understand spiritual things. 1 Corinthians 2:14.
Computer unplugged. Machinery is in place—but no power.
The Spirit works in our hearts below the level of consciousness to work faith in our hearts and to give new birth (John 16:8).
·SLIDE #27: Let me show you what an anointed person looks like.
“Anointing” refers to what happens as the Holy Spirit brings the individual to faith and new birth. (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)
New birth (John 3:3-8)
The Spirit gives illumination and enables a grasp of the truth. Light shines in the darkness (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Computer is plugged in
·SLIDE #28: How the Anointed Stay on Course
·SLIDE #29: The 3 purposes of truth—this is all over the Bible. Believe right—behave right—relate right.
·SLIDE #30: 1.The Anointed Believe Right: “See that what you heard from the beginning remains in you” (1 John 2:24-25, 27).
In John 2:24-25 John seeks to anchor belief in “what you have heard from the beginning”.
We need to be learning more deeply and practicing more fully the great truths of Christianity.
We must allow these majestic truths to settle deeply into our consciousness—like the character of God, the person of Christ, his sacrificial death, his resurrection, the person and activity of the Holy Spirit, and then our universal human sinfulness, the grace of God in salvation, the process of becoming like Jesus (sanctification) and the hope of glory.
Please remember that if your only source of learning each week is what you get from a sermon, you will not get enough meat into your spiritual soul.
Going to church once a week and expecting to be spiritually mature is like the guy or gal who goes to the gym once a week and expects to get physically fit. It is not going to happen.
You must be in the Bible on your own and in a weekly small group to unravel the depths of scripture.
Sometimes people say, “You don’t go deep enough in your sermons on Sunday morning. We need more meat.” I could go deep. I could go so deep many would have no idea what I was talking about. But that is not my purpose.
I learned from Harry Ironside what to do in sermons: My goal every week is to make the truths of scripture so simple everyone in the room can understand them.
·SLIDE #31: “Put the cookies on the lower shelf where every one can get to them.”
·SLIDE #32: 2. The Anointed Behave Right: “Everyone who does what is right has been born of him. (1 John 2:28-29)”
Keep fellowship with the other Xns.
Verse 28-29: Behave right because Christ will soon return. More on this later in 1 John.
·SLIDE #33: 3. The Anointed Relate Right: “Remain with us and remain in Christ.”
Six times in these verses John uses the verb “remain” which means “to take up a permanent address,” or “to make a settled home.”
The Lord’s parable of the vine and the branches in chapter 15 of John’s Gospel. (John 15:5).
I am going to use a back door illustration. I received an email this week.
·SLIDE #34: Funny how $100 looks so big when you take it to church, but so small when you take it to the mall.
·SLIDE #35: Funny how long a couple of hours spent at church are, but how short they are when watching a movie.
·SLIDE #36: Funny how we can’t think of anything to say when we pray, but don’t have difficulty thinking of things to talk about to a friend.
·SLIDE #38: Funny how hard it is to read a chapter in the Bible, but how easy it is to read 100 pages of a best selling novel.
·SLIDE #40: Funny how we need 2 or 3 weeks advance notice to fit a church event into our schedule, but can adjust our schedule to other events at the last moment.
·SLIDE #41: Funny how hard it seems for people to learn a simple gospel and tell others, but how simple it is hear and repeat gossip.
Funny, isn’t it. Are you laughing? Are you thinking?
What is wrong with this?
Think of it from position of non Christian. He or she would say. “Well, if that is true, church must not mean much to you. God must not mean much to you. The Bible must not mean much to you.
I read this and say, “If we identify with this, something is wrong with our relationship with God. When we really are intimate with God, Reading the Bible is more fulfilling than reading a novel or watching tv. Sharing the gospel is really more important than sharing gossip, etc.
Now, let me illustrate, a new Toys-R-Us moves to town. 10 year old Johnny begged dad to take him. “Please dad, all the other kids are going.” “Not now, Johnny, not now. Maybe later.” Every day, “Please take me.” “I am busy, can’t you see I am busy.” “But all the other kids parents are taking them.” “OK, OK, I will take you on Saturday.” But, something always came up. Johnny lived through several broken promises because.
When Johnny and daddy finally got to the New Toys-R-Us, Johnny had never seen so many toys. He wanted to look around; daddy wanted to go. “Please, one more aisle.” “OK, but hurry up. I have stuff to do.” Johnny finally picked out a toy and they paid for it.
·SLIDE #42A: In the car on the way home, 10 year-old Johnny said something that absolutely broke that dad’s heart.
·SLIDE #42B: “Gee, dad, thanks for taking me to the toy store. Maybe next time you’ll want to be there with me.”
Listen to that statement: Dad was physically there, but his heart and emotions were somewhere else altogether.
I wonder how often God must say to us: “I really am glad you came to church today, maybe next time you’ll be glad you came. I am really glad you read the Bible for ten minutes today, maybe next time you’ll enjoy meeting me there. Gee, I am really glad you gave $100 today to my church, maybe next time you won’t begrudge it.”
God has a wonderful relationship of love waiting for anyone what wants to enjoy it in fullness and delight.
“We are a living letter being known and read by all people.”
I don’t think in this generation the unanointed are really drawn to what we believe or to how hard we try to behave. They are reading in every one of us our love for each other—and do we have a relationship with God that is real, vibrant, and fulfilling.
Navy seal walked in here several weeks ago about 15 minutes before the last service ended. Didn’t even hear the end of the sermon. I gave an invitation to know Christ—and he saw in here something he did not have and something he wanted. He gave his life to Christ that day.
Invitation: Time for you to give your life to Christ.
