Does anyone know what today is? Yes, it's Super Bowl Sunday! How many are cheering for Peyton Manning and the Broncos? How many are cheering for that other team? How many of you are going to be watching the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet? There is also a Kitten Bowl on the Hallmark Channel. How many of you will just nap during the game?
Today is also Groundhog Day! I mean, who doesn't know the world's most famous fuzzy forecaster, Punxsutawney Phil? According to the National Climatic Data Center, over the last 25 years Phil has rightly predicted the end of winter 10 times! This means he has been wrong 15 times! He's been more wrong than right! They did a study on all groundhogs, and they discovered that Phil wasn't any more or less accurate than any of the others. Hah! So there you have it.
This morning we turn our attention to 1 John 2:18-27. We may be right or wrong about a lot of things. But when it comes to faith in Jesus, we've got to get things right. The Bible says in 1 John 5:12 (ESV), "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life." In fact, that person is still in his sins. For that person, there is no hope beyond the grave.
There are many things we stake our lives on. Few would stake their lives on the outcome of a Super Bowl, even fewer on the forecast of a groundhog. But what about Jesus? What we believe about Jesus matters for eternity. And if you want to know the biggest lie told, it's that faith in Jesus doesn't matter. In 1 John 2:17-27 the apostle John offers five essential viewpoints that will strengthen our relationship with Jesus.
TIME MATTERS
In 1 John 2:18 (ESV) John says, "Children, it is the last hour..." When I was in seminary I took a class called eschatology, in which we studied what the Bible says about the last days. One surprising insight I gained was that the early Christians firmly believed that they were living in the last days, or even in the final hours. Every generation of Christians, from the beginning right into the present, have interpreted the signs of the times as pointing to the imminent return of Jesus. In one city, Thessalonica, people had even stopped working because they expected Christ to return any moment! That's either faith, or a great a excuse to stay home! The apostle Paul told the Thessalonians to get back to work. And he told them that if they didn't work, they didn't get to eat.
But here we are now, thousands of years later, and Christ still hasn't returned. What are we to conclude? Does time matter? Is time irrelevant? In 2 Peter 3:8-9 (ESV) the apostle Peter warns that with the Lord, "...one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."
TRUTH MATTERS
In 1 John 2:18 (ESV) the apostle John says, "Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour."
This verse is a warning that like these early believers, we are surrounded by antichrists. When it comes to such warnings, our imaginations often race off, and we find ourselves fixating on the speculative teachings of television evangelists and authors. Maybe the antichrist is this national figure, or will rise up out of this place or that place.
What we need to know about the antichrist is that he isn't just one, but many. There are many antichrists. And what matters about antichrists isn't so much their identity as their behavior-- they deny the central truth of our faith. They deny that Jesus is fully God, that he came in the flesh, and that he died for our sins. They deny that he was buried, was raised by the Spirit of God on the third day, and that through his resurrection (by our faith) we gain victory over sin and death, and gain access to the subsequent glories that follow.
Who are the antichrists of our day? It's anyone denying the core truths of Jesus' identity. There are antichrists everywhere. Their voices are louder than ever, and their false doctrine-- thanks to modern technology-- spreads farther and faster than at any time in the history of the world. The truth about Jesus matters-- and it is worth every moment of our energy to resolve for ourselves who we believe Jesus to be.
STAYING MATTERS
1 John 2:19 (ESV) says, "They (the antichrists) went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us."
This verse reveals a significant detail about antichrists. They perhaps attend our churches, just as they attended this first century church. But here is an important detail. They might even be church shoppers. They are people who joined the fellowship of the Church while never resolving for themselves Jesus' identity. They never believed in Jesus, and they left just the same, denying Jesus.
Today's churchgoers might say things like, "I like that pastor. I like the music. I like how they use technology. I like programs for my kids. I like the teaching because it's so practical, it's helped my marriage, it's helped me get out of debt....." But what about Jesus?
A mark of antichrists is that they leave. They aren't anchored. They don't stay and work out their theology or their core beliefs about Jesus. It's not that they don't have opinions about Jesus, they do! It's just that they never stay around long enough, or engage deeply enough, to have their ideas about Jesus challenged, or to become rooted in the word of God.
One verse that has challenged me since early in ministry is 1 Timothy 1:3 (ESV) where Paul tells Timothy, "...remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine...." Another is 1 Corinthians 1:10 where Paul commands the believers to agree with one another. He is not saying we should brush our differences under the rug. Quite the opposite. He is saying that we should go through the often lively, and gut-wrenching labor of working out our common faith in Christ together. That is what the church should be. It should be a place of learning, a place of healthy tension and conflict, centered in a common pursuit of truth. Antichrists don't stick to a fellowship. In a later section, John says they don't stick around and do the hard work of love either. No, they take their chips, and sometimes a few others, and just leave.
GOSPEL MATTERS
So what is the basis for us making the most of time, and seeking the truth about Jesus, while staying together? Apostle John says in 1 John 2:20-25 (ESV), "But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father."
In short, we have the gospels, the written record of Jesus's life. We have his life-giving words and teachings, his miraculous and identity-confirming works. More than this, we have the Old Testament, the law and the prophets, who foreshadowed and foretold all that God would do through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Jesus announced that he had come to fulfill all the law and the prophets. Jesus claimed to speak what he heard his Father saying, and to do the works he saw the Father doing. Is there any contradiction then, between what Jesus revealed about his Father, and all that we knew to be true of the Ancient of Days, Yahweh, our Creator God?
The gospel accounts, if we'd just turn to them and open them up and read them, are sufficient to convince all men that Jesus is all he showed himself to be, and claimed to be. This is why apostle John starts the letter of 1 John saying, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life-- the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us-- that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete."
SPIRIT MATTERS
1 John 2:20 (ESV) says, "But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge." And John continues in 1 John 2:26-27 (ESV), "I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie-- just as it has taught you, abide in him."
The bottom line is that false teachers, Christ-deniers (antichrists), often try to hold their experiences, their knowledge, or their academic credentials over us. Or they use their loud voices to silence us, or even put us in our places. But what the apostle John is saying is that as believers, we all have the Spirit of the living God abiding within us. Elsewhere in scripture, in John 4, the Holy Spirit is called the spirit of truth. And in John 16:1-15, Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will come and convict all men in regard to sin, righteousness, and the coming judgment. And more than that, the Holy Spirit will come and guide us, and teach us all truth.
I am not an anti-academic pastor. When you go to a place like Lincoln Christian University, you can accelerate your spiritual growth and knowledge off the charts. One semester at Bible college and you're light years ahead of where you may have otherwise been. What I am saying is that the Holy Spirit is the best teacher, and that if you take all the things we've been discussing together as a whole, the Spirit works through them to guide us into all truth.
TO RECAP
Time Matters. The clock is running. The fourth quarter has started. Let's make the most of the time we have to focus on what matters for eternity.
Truth matters. We must take this time to resolve for ourselves the identity of Jesus. He who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son does not have life.
Staying matters. We pursue the truth best together, not alone. Alone, you are left to your own ideas and opinions. Together, iron sharpens iron. We teach one another, rebuke one another, challenge one another, sift one another, and do the hard work of growing.
Gospel matters. The chronicle of Jesus' life, as recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are sufficient to guide you into faith in Jesus. Read them. Pray over them. Meet Jesus face to face. Learn to walk with him.
Spirit matters. Not only are we filled with the Holy Spirit who guides us, but the Holy Spirit guides every word written in the Bible.
To the antichrists, those who'd deny Christ, none of these matter. Not time, not the truth of Jesus, not being anchored and rooted among a fellowship of believers pursuing the truth, nor does the life of Jesus as reflected in the gospels, nor the work of the Holy Spirit.
But do these things matter to you?