The Antichrist Overreach

The Christ

(1 John 2:22-23, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, June 26, 2016)

[22] 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. [23] No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

There are several passages in the New Testament that give us a contrast between confessing and denying the truth. Perhaps one of the most famous is found in Matthew 10: “[32] So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, [33] but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” In that passage, Jesus Himself makes Jesus Himself the primary issue of faith and life.

[22] 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.

In our text this morning, the Apostle John agrees with Jesus on this all important matter. He also makes some other important contrasts. Liar vs. truth-teller. Christ vs. antichrist. But John does more than make a series of contrasts. He also makes a very important connection. Father and Son. The Father agrees entirely with the Son and the Son agrees entirely with the Father on this all important question of Jesus Himself.

The liars, the deniers, the antichrists are those who deny that Jesus, the Son of the Father, is the “Christ.” The word “Christ” means the Anointed One or Messiah. The truth-tellers, confessors, and Christians are those who agree with both the Father and the Son that Jesus is the one Christ. They do so not only with their words, but also with their lives. “To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.” (Titus 1:15-16)

[23] No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

A bit more now on the important connection between the Father and the Son: The Father and the Son have more than an intellectual assent to this doctrine. They enjoy together a complete and ultimate commitment to Jesus as the Christ. This is a very central and essential element of the plan of God for this world.

So far, we have made the following conclusion about antichrist, antichrists, and antichristism from previous verses in 1 John and other important passages in the Bible: Antichrists specialize in lies, particularly about Jesus, and lawless disobedience against the Word of God. Antichristism as a disease has reached its final stages when one person/society demands for himself/themselves the worship and absolute obedience that is due to the Triune God alone.

Now we need to add or amplify a very obvious point: Antichrist and antichrists are anti Christ. That is plain enough. We can add one additional thought to this plain doctrine. Antichrists may seek to accomplish the benefits of kingdom victory without Jesus as the Christ. As one example of this, the Bible affirms that God's plan is at least worldwide. One succinct statement of this is found in Ephesians 1:10. God has “a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth.” Given this massive plan, we should not at all be surprised by the great scope of Jesus' call upon the church in Matthew 28:19. “Make disciples of all nations.” This was not only a New Testament idea. The Old Testament also affirmed that the call to Abraham would have a worldwide fulfillment in Genesis 12:3. “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Add Psalm 100:1. “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!”

It should also not surprise us that the Christ-hatred of antichrists would be expressed in claiming to be able to bring a different shalom upon the whole earth, all without the real Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ. It is in this same antichrist spirit that Satan tempted Jesus Himself with using this desperate antichrist plan in Matthew 4:8-9. “The devil took him [Jesus] to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, 'All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.'” Jesus did not fall for this even for a second. Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'” For the last 350 years, there have been many varying antichrist efforts to create a worldwide fake peace by force of personality, brute power, or one appealing utopian deception or another—efforts that may have little in common with each other except this: They all rejected the central proposition that God is communicating to and through the church in a passage like 1 John 2:22-23: “Jesus is the Christ.”

Globalist aspirations, whether through business, military, political, or religious interests can never succeed. Only Jesus can bring about the real kingdom of God. The antichrist plans of humans and demons are all doomed to failure. Only resurrection will do in order to establish an eternal kingdom, and no one but Jesus has the power of resurrection. We need to reject all of these false, overreach substitutes with Christ's good quotation of historic Judeo-Christian ethics: “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.”

Worship of the true God is a very appropriate reaction to the bold assertions of globalist antichrist visions. Worship that calls us to say the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples, sing hymns and psalms that are as old as the church and as a fresh as the new day, eat bread and drink from the cup of the Lord—such worship is a bowing before the Almighty with full confidence that Jesus shall reign where'er the sun doth its successive journey's run.

So whether someone insists that there is no Christ at all, or some future Christ that is not Jesus, or a false antichrist system that large numbers of people insist is the best way to world peace and prosperity, we need to have the same reply of Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe when one of those twentieth century antichrist world domination systems demanded American surrender at the Battle of the Bulge: His reply to the carefully worded German demand? “Nuts!”

Since the Father and the Son agree on the question of Jesus Himself, to deny Jesus as the Christ is to make a delusional assault against both the Father and the Son.

Given the Father's absolute commitment to Jesus, the Son, as Christ, is it safe for someone to even be agnostic about Jesus? What does the Bible teach about those who claim to worship the Father, but will not give glory to the Son of God as the only Messiah? We need to consider and embrace the apostolic teaching concerning the importance of confessing Jesus as the Christ. We cannot expect to have all the benefits of the Judeo-Christian tradition while rejecting Christ as the Anointed Prophet, Priest, and King of a Resurrection Kingdom that will never end.

Consider the glory and grace of Jehovah. We must confess the Son of God as the Messiah. Faith in Jesus is the only way to avoid an unwise assault against the Father of glory and grace.

Old Testament Reading—Proverbs 31:1-9 – What are you doing, son of my vows?

Gospel Reading—Luke 7:36-50 – Who is this, who even forgives sins?