Antichrists

(! John 2:18,22; 4:3, 2 John 1:7, Matt. 24:24, Mark 13:22)

I have written before about John.  Our understanding is that he was the only one of the 12 who knew Jesus in the flesh and died a natural death.  Of course he also knew Jesus after the Spirit.  The revelation on Patmos was primarily a revealing of Christ Jesus in His glory.  I have written before that the vision changed John forever.  He saw the glory of God to a greater measure than, perhaps, any other person in human history.  And he fell down as dead.

He wrote the epistles, the letters I prefer to call them, after that experience.  He saw the glory of God as perhaps no one else has seen it while in the earth.  I have mentioned before that I understand John’s use of the phrase, “it is the last hour,” follows the intense revelation of eternal reality he received.  Having seen Christ in His glory, he could more easily recognize the false ideas and personalities among the Lord’s own.  So he wrote and is the only one to use the particular Greek word translated as antichrist.  While antichrist is a spirit, it manifests in people.  This includes those who want to have the preeminence. (See 3 John 9-10).  We have seen time and again in history the Lord move by His Spirit, and men look for their personal gain, whether it be fame, the praise of men, or power.

So, John, warns us to turn away from idols and the love of this world.  Let us call the world this present evil age.  Don’t hold on to anything here for it is all passing away. If we idolize anyone, no matter how wonderful they may seem, we create an atmosphere for vain expectations.  And we can be led astray.  Do I need to mention Jim Jones, or David Koresh?  These were extreme examples of cult leaders who led people to destruction.  Among the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were those of the same spirit.  Their identity as leaders of God’s people had become dead, empty, and distorted to the point where Jesus called them sons of the devil.  I think our present use of classifying actions among the Lord’s people as witchcraft is over-stated.  Some of it is simply personally disrespectful.  That is not to be unaware of actual witchcraft and betrayals. Each of us needs to be watchful not to slip into a rebellious place because the Lord says it is like witchcraft.  This happens all too easily as we want to see control over others.

When we put anyone on a pedestal we move toward that dangerous ground.  I have seen it when a gifted person is idolized and allows himself to get too high.  He will have a fall and immorality or some other character weakness is exposed.  Typically such a person has built a ministry and people have come together and lose themselves into that thing and the Lord intervenes.  People often have to leave to grow.  Other separations happen. At other times, separations happen when those who have received a revelation by the Spirit are forced out.  For them it becomes a birthing into the next chapter that God has foreordained.

May we see that we as the Lord’s people today cannot go back or recreate some better day.  The church that grew in the first century dealt with the same types of issues we deal with today.  I will clarify that I am not suggesting that every person who gets too high in “ministry” and falls is an antichrist.  A continuing revelation of the glory of Christ Jesus is the antidote to thinking of ourselves too highly.  There we will know the love of Christ that draws us and separates us to our Father.  The church is the place of gathering together to Him.  Our response is to say yes to an encounter with Christ.  As we move to greater experience of that, room for preeminence of any individual diminishes.  Here we find trouble as John addressed in 3 John.  Yet John was not all worked up but simply said he would remind the offender of what he had done.

Antichrists have circulated through the earth for 2000 years.  Today, we might say that counterfeits abound.  The Lord cautioned the disciples that false christs and false prophets would arise.  Carefully hear that Jesus says they will show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect, or chosen ones.  The call to come to Jesus and to the Father through Him goes out into all the earth.  The gospel of the kingdom is being preached and extending into every corner.  Jesus said many are called but few are chosen.  It is the truth that creates in us a right fear, not to be stuck in an emotion of fear, but to create a focus and spirit of worship.  The chosen ones cannot be deceived because they have heard His voice and another, a false one, they will not follow.  Simply say yes to the Lord and maintain the love of the truth.  He is well able to keep you. Read Psalm 91.

A Man of Sorrows

(Isaiah 53:1-6, Luke 12:49-59, 1 Cor. 11:18-19, Phil. 3:10)

We have just passed through the time of year where we remember Jesus’ death and resurrection.  And many of us are familiar with the passage from Isaiah.  I often think of Jesus going through life with the increasing awareness of His destiny.  He learned obedience by the things He suffered, by all the experiences of His time here in mortal flesh.  As I read those words of the prophet, recorded for us, the words of vs. 3 and 4 struck me.  He is despised and rejected and a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  It is present tense.  He is still rejected and despised by many.  And many still hide their faces and do not want to know a suffering savior.

Before we go on, I would remind us of His joy.  Jesus was going to the cross to know again the glory He had with our Father before the world was.  Wow.  For the joy set before Him, He endured immeasurable pain and demonic and hellish horror.  The joy was to be released to His Father and to have us with Him, one with Him in Spirit.  And He wanted our joy to be full.  All this He prayed as recorded in John 17.  When we receive Him, He rejoices with all heaven.  For years when I heard, the joy of the Lord is my strength, I thought it meant my joy toward Him.  As years went on, I realized it is His joy over me that gives me strength.  He rejoices over us with singing.  Isn’t that amazing?  He is glad when we know Him as Father and come to Him..

Life here in this present evil age is not all joyful.  We have trouble.  We suffer loss.  We allow abuse as we grow in love.  The full evidence that we belong to our Father is that we love our enemies, that we bless those who use and abuse us.  The Lord will not allow it forever.  He does bring release from the situations that oppress.  Back to vs. 3 and 4.  Some considered Jesus’ crucifixion as a judgement of God on Him.  It makes me think of Job’s friends. Those who were supposed to be Jesus’ own people hated Him and wanted Him out of the way.  Yet God gave Him the twelve and the women who traveled with them.  They were friends but none really understood.  He knew loneliness and so would slip away to commune with His Father.  He knew where He was going and had the strength of spirit to press through to the end.

We rightly follow acts of faith and obedience including baptism.  Without belaboring our understanding, it is about immersion and we ought to comprehend it signifies our death and resurrection.  And Christ alone baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire.  Consider Jesus own final baptism.  I refer to the passage in Luke.  He first mentions that He sends fire on the earth.  Then He mentions this baptism He has before Him and He is distressed till it is accomplished.  In the words of the old King James, He says, “How I am straightened till it is accomplished”.  How he is pressed in, even narrowed, to fulfill His calling, the purpose for which He was sent.  He knew the time of His cross was drawing nearer.  As the son of man, He overflowed with the life of the Holy Spirit.  And it was by the strength of that Spirit, He went through and endured the cross.

So Isaiah spoke that He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows.  He appeared to be suffering and distressed, and He was!  Only He understood what was happening as He walked on in perfect union with our Father.  As we are misunderstood, as we see ourselves walking a separated life that even family members do not understand, we begin to share in His suffering.  And as Jesus says in the passage from Luke the fire upon the earth brings divisions.  So Paul writes to the Corinthians and addresses the divisions among them so that those who are approved may be evident.  In 1 Cor, 11:19, the word translated as factions is actually heresies.  Hear this, Paul does not say factions should exist, but they do.  He says heresies exist.  The approval of God is with those who hold the truth while heresies exist.  Heresy simply means what is false.  The church has false teaching because we hold to our own understandings.  I, with the Spirit, plead that we drop our own understandings and traditions and cleave to all the truth which is in Christ.  Agree with the Father and the Son, by the Spirit, who is the anointing of wisdom and understanding.  That is the stream of life which is ever flowing and will flow out of every one who truly believes and trusts in the uniquely born Son of God.  May we grow into the truth which is in Christ alone.