April 28, 2024 1 John 4:1-21 Series B Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who loves you with his very life. Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
So the eclipse was a few weeks ago and there has been a lot of nonsense spoken about it and its potential theological significance. The most common one that I hear was - there was a sign in the sky - the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood - then there was an earthquake somewhere, I don’t remember where, and there was a drought somewhere and an illness, and that somehow means that the end of the world is near, that Christ is nearing his return. And if you look you can see which part of the timeline we are in, that the antichrist is set to reveal himself and other such, well, nonsense.
I'm sure this is related, but last year a new left behind movie came out, called, “Rise of the antichrist.” And talk of the rapture doesn’t seem to go away either. And it’s just like a big old mess.
And today we have this text from 1 John 4, talking about testing the spirits and being on your guard against false prophets and watching out for the spirit of the antichrist, so I figured today would be a good day to talk about this end of the world kinda stuff in a sermon.
A lot of the teachings you here about the end of the world, things like the rapture, the 1000 year reign of Christ, the tribulation, the teachings that you think about when I say those words are very new. Most were invented in the United States back in the 1830s. So like, those teachings are just about as old as Texas or somewhere around 25 years older than Minnesota Statehood. It’s a new teaching as far as Christianity is concerned.
When the bible talks about the end of the world and it gives us information about it, it talks about the last days. And biblically, the last days are the time from when Jesus ascended into heaven and the day when he returns from heaven - the actual last day. So what that means is the last days began almost 2000 years ago and we are currently in them now.
There are a lot of good reasons why God did things this way. Like, if he told us the day and hour he would return, our sinful laziness would be like, “Oh, I have until x day to do whatever I want, then I will repent and get into heaven.” God doesn’t want that, do he didn't tell us when the last day.
But what God does do, throughout the Old and New Testaments is he gives us these warnings about living in the last days. He tells us things like the world is wearing out. It’s like a pair of blue jeans given to a young lad. They start out looking nice, but over time, holes show up and buttons stop working. So it is with earth. It’s wearing out. And more and more problems are going to happen as the earth groans and wears out under thousands of years of the effects of sin.
So in today’s passage, the disciple John is warning us against the antichrist. And in spite of what 2024 christian hollywood would have us believe, John tells us the antichrist is already here. And has been since even John was writing back in the 80’s and 90’s ad, back in the first century.
And this spirit of the antichrist has one goal, he’s a one trick pony you could say. He lies to you about Jesus. This is what the text says, verse 2, “ every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”
So just thinking off the top of your head here, where have you seen or heard this spirit of the antichrist? This, anti-holy spirit. Where have you seen or heard someone speak or do things that deny that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, that he is the Son of God, come into the world, incarnate, to die on the cross and rise again from the dead? Where have you noticed that false spirit?
So maybe you think of Islam, where Jesus is a prophet, but not God, or the same thing in Judaism, Jesus is a prophet and not God. Or in modern materialistic atheism, where there isn’t a God at all, let alone Jesus. The flying spaghetti monster comes to mind.
Or maybe you see it in churches that are pretending to be Christian. Places like the Jehova Witnesses, or the Unitarians, PCUSA, Methodists, and even some churches that claim to be Lutheran, such as the ELCA. We call these “mainline” protestant churches. In these churches, everyone goes to heaven. Faith is optional. Pick and choose what you want to believe. God is a moral teacher, if he’s real. Jesus is a metaphor to teach us how to love.
For example, in Alexandria, just down the road from here, they are hosting a women’s retreat lead by quote “bi-furious” pastor and she is also on the board of clergy who advise Planned Parenthood. This is what she says, “She believes we must deconstruct the harmful systems infecting the Christian Church and other American institutions, that a queer/femme interpretation of scripture is at the center of grace, and all bodies – including yours – are beautifully and wonderfully made.” - That’s how the website describes the event
This isn’t far from us. I buy my groceries in Alec. There is so much more to talk about with false teachings masquerading as Christianity, so much more that is leading people away from Jesus. Living in these end times is a challenge and we must always watch out for false teachers, people who would lead you away with nice sounding nonsense. When you have an event that claims to be Christian yet somehow manage to not talk about Jesus Christ, or salvation, than it’s not a Christian event, it’s pretending and it’s there to lead you astray.
So as John tells us in our text today, Test the spirits. Test the spirits. Do they talk about Jesus? Do they tell you that Jesus Christ died on the cross, physically as fully God and fully man? Do they tell you that Jesus died to pay the price of sins? That our sins have consequences, eternal consequences before God and Jesus took that punishment away from us giving us life in its place.
Test the spirits. Jesus really came to earth for a purpose, not to just give us some vagueness about nicety or whatever else, but to save you. To redeem you. To justify you. To be the Lamb whose blood has washed the stain of your sins away.
Believe the Gospel. The Gospel is our only guiding light in the last days. The world is fading. The corruption and sin, the spirit of the antichrist are at work trying to lead you astray, to take you down to hell with them. Now, more than ever, as the world is wearing out do we need to believe the Gospel, to have faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus is coming soon, and he is bringing righteousness and healing and restoration for all of us who trust in him. Who believe that he is who he says he is and that he is doing what he says he will do.
So the next time someone says something about the end of the world, put it to the test. The next time someone says something about Jesus or Christianity, put it to the test. And this is the test - does it proclaim the Gospel? Does it tell you about the forgiveness and life Jesus brings and won for you with his death and resurrection. Test the Spirits. Amen.
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