July 30, 2017

The Antichrist

Series:
Passage: 2 John 1:7
Service Type:

Over the last several weeks as we have been studying the Epistle of 2 John, we have witnessed the surprising ‘density’ of this little book. John has, indeed, packed so much truth into such a small space! Of course, 2 John is the second volume in the three-part series of personal letters written to the Christians of ancient Asia-Minor. Each of the three letters is very much connected to the others, and New Testament scholars have identified the second letter as an ‘outline’ of the first.

This connection between the first and second letters is manifestly revealed as we come to 2 John 1:7. It is in this verse that John speaks of the “antichrist.” But here in the second letter he simply mentions this enigmatic, end-times figure with little explanation as to his identity or activities. For these details we must consider what he had previously written in the first letter where there is a fuller explanation. For example:

1 John 2:18–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.

1 John 2:22–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.

1 John 4:3–and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

Along with the malevolent activity of this “antichrist,” John also tells us in 2 John 1:7 that there are “many deceivers” who are in league with this antichristian emissary of the devil. And, furthermore, that their prime activities are deception and denial. With this situation in view, the balance of 2 John concerns the way the Church should respond to this frightening reality.

This Lord’s Day we will begin our investigation of these “deceivers” and their link to the “antichrist.” As you study the words of this letter in preparation for the message, compare John’s teaching to what Jesus had taught earlier as recorded in Mark 13.

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