Hold Fast
Summary
Dominic Jackson teaches from 1 John 2, where John draws a sharp contrast between love for the world and love for the Father. In a culture shaped by craving, self-promotion, and fleeting promises, John warns that the desires of the flesh, the eyes, and pride are all passing away. Instead, those who do the will of God remain forever. This passage also introduces the idea of “antichrists”—those who depart from the church and deny Jesus. Rather than stir up panic or suspicion, John urges the church to remain rooted in Christ and confident in the truth they have received. In a time of cultural confusion and religious distortion, we’re invited to ask where our love and loyalty truly lie.
Questions for reflection
How do you define “the world” in the way John uses the term here?
What disordered desires or ambitions in your life are hardest to let go of—and how might they be shaping you?
What does it mean to “abide” in God in your daily routines or relationships?
How do you discern the difference between helpful critique and rejection of the gospel from within Christian community?
Where might you be tempted to trust in something temporary rather than something lasting?
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The year was 1999, the era of Tamagochis, JNCO pants, those ‘Got Milk?’ commercials, and of course, MTV still played music. At this time, I was a teenager. I was still on the fence about church and faith, and what I believed my hero at the time was a guy named Nietzsche, and he had some convincing thoughts on why it would be best to avoid the whole thing altogether. But a group of friends invited me to their church, which I would later discover on Arrival, had a sign above it specifying what kind of church they were. Southern Baptist Dispensationalist, true Bible Church. It was a big sign. Of course, I didn't know what any of those words meant, but it was helpful to know that they preferred the true Bible opposed to all of the other options that they had in the late nineties. For those of you who were around, you might remember, there was lots and lots of fear at this time, lots of tragedy in the air.
Of course, the Columbine School shooting President Bill Clinton's impeachment trials were taking place. There was an upcoming election and of course Y2K, the fear that computers would stop working once the clock struck midnights, and this would lead to global chaos. And so when I arrived at this church after my friend's mom promised us breakfast burritos and arrived to the skate park if we behaved ourselves after we were teenagers, remember the pastor came up and he began his sermon after naming all of the things wrong in the world, all of the things that we should be absolutely terrified of and all of the evil in the world and how we were basically one more tragedy away from the end of the world. He then used a word, a description I had never heard in this context before, but he told us all not just how the world was going to burn, but who would be holding the match.
He told us all who to be watching out for the antichrist. It was the first time I had heard this term in a church setting, but it wasn't the first time I had heard it. It seemed a little out of place here in a conservative fundamentalist church. But what did I know? The whole thing was new to me. Of course, I first actually heard the word from my favorite Marilyn Manson album, antichrist Superstar, a CD famously, which closed with a secret 99th track that if you played it in reverse, it was said to have revealed the name of the antichrist. And it wasn't only gothic shock rock musicians who were interested, plenty of film and television series seemed to cash in on the end of the world and the one who would cause it. Probably most notably, it was the same time that the left behind books were released, and I can't remember exactly how many, I think there was like a hundred of them or so they were coming out every time I turned around, and many pastors at this time, at least in the community I was a part of, would actually start preaching from them or at least reading passages from the books to help fill in some of the holes in the scriptures.
At least they claimed. Additionally accusations started to fly left and right Over the years, I've heard the antichrist, somebody had figured it out, the antichrist was the Pope or Obama or Trump, Saddam Hussein and many more. I even heard somebody with a straight face warn me, tell me that they had theorized who it was. They figured it out. It was Oprah Winfrey and she had come to battle it out with Jesus over the souls of the lost and they were serious and they were terrified. So today you probably assumed based on my playful tone and my habit of ruining everyone's favorite bumper sticker Bible verses by using context that I would probably preach a sermon this morning telling you how absolutely misguided we were in the nineties, and the last thing I would do is name the antichrist in a sermon or predict, maybe not when, but how the kingdoms of the world would actually be overthrown. Don't worry, I'm not. That would be weird. I'm not going to make any predictions or name names this morning, but John might. We'll see in a minute. Let's pray and then we're going to hop back into our text.
Spirit of the Living God, though you need no invitation, there's no place that you can't go. It still as an act of worship, as a posture of desire and of need. We invite you here, invite you into this room, into this message to illuminate this word, which you were there as it was not only being written but preserved and has been lived out. We invite you into our hearts. Help us to see this text for what it is to fight the desire to add to it while also the courage to not avoid the parts we don't like. Use this word to teach, to reach, to encourage us and to shape us to be more like Christ Jesus. Lord, I pray specifically for me as speaking this word. Just help me to honor this text. Lord, speak to me and speak through me as well and anything that is not of you, Lord, just take it away.
We pray this in your name, amen. Typically, in my experience, there are two main approaches when it comes to topics like today's. Anytime we start talking revelation in time, spiritual warfare, many pastors, churches, and frankly many believers will often take one of two approaches. They will either avoid it all together, they's confusing, it's divisive, it's scary, it's kind of weird. And so let's go back to Jeremiah 29 11 or John three 16 and just kind of hope for the best and leave out all of those parts of the scriptures and this was the case with that little church that I first walked into all those years ago. They won't avoid in time conversations, they will obsess over them. I had one friend whose dad kept a journal and he was a wonderful, wonderful guy, great dad, wonderful friend to me, but something interesting about him, my friend's dad would keep this journal and he would cut out newspaper clippings and in the back of this journal, he had a checklist of all of the clues he said that the Bible provided. He would be reading the news and it would be like, okay, what's Russia up to today? Maybe this is one step closer to Jesus's return.
He also, as many others have, countless others, have predicted the end of the world. In fact, I was just reading this morning about another prediction, gaining traction on Facebook, my primary source of theological information these days, a post saying that September 28th will be the end of the world a week from today because of a blood moon or some stars or something like that. And so if you have any vacation time that you've been holding onto, I'm just kidding, I'll add that this same group, another prediction that it was going to be May 20th this year and obviously that didn't happen, so maybe only use half of your PTO, but again, many predictions have come out over the years about the end of the world and how it would come about. So it's not just like your weird uncle saving up cans of pinto beans in the garage in case World War III breaks out.
There are tons and tons of people asking these questions. We find ourselves at the Gateway Church, however, where we often hang out somewhere in the middle, somewhere in the gray of not avoiding text altogether but also not obsessing over certain things over others. We take the Bible seriously and really cards on the table, what we seem to be obsessed with around here or at least try to be obsessed with is Jesus. So with a moderately not avoidant, not obsessive lens. Let's read our text one more time and we'll work through it. Verse 15, do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them for everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
Quick pause. In two weeks we are going to be looking at this part of John's epistle of the message about the world, and he repeats this again and we will as well. And so we're going to come back to this later and we're going to try and figure out which is it because it seems a little confusing at first. John is saying essentially that we should avoid the world or hate the world it seems like. But then of course we read in John three 16 about God's love for the world and so is there something else? Of course we see this on the cross and so in two weeks we'll come back to this as John comes back to it, and you could keep your nod of this world t-shirts or coffee mugs in the meantime. But for now, let's skip over this. We're going to come back to it.
Verse 18. This is the bulk of where we're going today. Dear children, this is the last hour, and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrist have come. This is how we know it is the last hour they went out from us, but they did not really belong to us for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but they're going show that none of them belonged to us. Okay, so on the docket today, who, whom is the antichrist? What is the last hour, which is strange considering this was written 2000 years ago, and what do we do with this information, a k, a in the meantime? Well, since John mentioned the antichrist, I figured let's take a look at every single verse in the scriptures that mentions antichrist. I hope you packed a lunch. Just kidding.
We'll leave out what Marilyn Manson and the left behind books add for now. But since this is something that seems to be significant in Christianity, let's gather all of the information that we have to work with and then go from there. So first we just read our first passage. That's the first and second time we read about antichrist. The text says the antichrist is coming. Even now many antichrist have come. That's the first and second reference. The third, coincidentally right after our passage, because again, this seems super important. The entire churches have built ministries around this concept. There are countless books and movies and records about the antichrist. So let's see what the Bible has to say. Verse 20. But you have an anointing from the holy one and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.
Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist denying the Father and the son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever acknowledges the son has the Father also. Okay, that's the third one. Fourth one, John chapter four. Dear friends, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and is from God. But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is a spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. And I apologize, this is like a fire hose, tons of verses and information, but this is important.
We're gathering all the information we have to work with. Here's the fifth reference. It actually comes from second John the epistle right after one John, and it reads verse six. And this is love that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. I say this because many deceivers who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and antichrist and that's it. Every single passage in the scriptures which mention an antichrist, we got four in one, John, we got one and second John. Now I do have to say some will read the antichrist into Daniel nine all over the book of Revelation. However they, whatever antichrist is, is not mentioned anywhere else in the scripture. Some read about other figures, the man of the wicked one, the one like a dragon, and assume even the snake and the story, the creation story, and assume that this person is who John is talking about.
And one day, soon, one day we'll do an entire series on Revelation and we will explore and ask some of those questions and half of you will love it and the other half will plan your vacation around it. But still we'll save revelation for revelation for now, every single verse on antichrist we just read, are you surprised by that? Are you confused by that? Confused not just by what John says, but also all that he doesn't say? I mean, did you get any clues in there? Did you see any glimpses of any celebrities or politicians in the text? Any clues about who to look out for? What was John thinking? He didn't even mention America in there for goodness sake, right? Or Oprah, when will this person come? What about all the things that John left out? Well, John does give us some information. So let's start with that.
Let's see what he actually does say. We'll circle back with our text. Move through it. Verse 18, dear children, this is the last hour as you have heard that the antichrist coming. Even now many antichrist have come. So first we learned that antichrist is connected to last hour, which has already come. He even says, this is the last hour. Remember this was written 2000 years ago. Worth mentioning this could be confusing when John writes that this is the last hour or the end times, as other authors call it, this should be read as eschatology, not chronologically. What I mean, eschatology is about the end times. And many churches have many strong opinions on this. And we'll talk briefly about this in two weeks and what it actually is in the Bible and what isn't. Bring a friend, it will be fun if you've ever heard about a thousand year reign or different theories about that or a mark of a beast or a rapture or anything like that.
Is it in the Bible? Is this left behind tricking me again? We'll see, we'll save that for another day. But basically in Judaic culture and theology, there were two ages or two hours, the present age or present time and the age to come. But then Jesus shows up on the scene and repeats this, but mentions a third, which is where most modern eschatology can be traced back to. He explains how these ages or hours or kingdoms will actually be merged together, the present age and the age to come through some sort of event that seems to be connected to him. He's teaching this, he's preparing them saying that the kingdom is on its way, but the kingdom is also here. And this will of course later be revealed in the cross. And so for early Christians or Jewish folks in the first century, the entire timeline of the Bible can be split into the present age, which is mostly understood by followers of Jesus before Christ, the age to come, which is the invasion of the kingdom of heaven and earth.
And then the final hour, or as the prophet Joel calls it, the end, the last days or the end of the age as the author of Hebrews refers to it, this will be right before the second coming of Jesus. And it's much more than just an hour obviously, but saying that this is the last season, the last era, the last hour, and then once Jesus comes, there will be a clear line drawn everything before and everything after. So more than just like B, C, a, D and more than just the present age and the age to come, you could put all of human history into four categories, creation, the fall, redemption and restoration, total restoration. And John is saying we're somewhere between three and four, somewhere in between the process of redemption or renewal and complete restoration on earth. And since there will be no other era or time, Jesus isn't half coming back.
Jesus isn't coming back five times or 10 times. There's one more. And since we are in between these two times or hours, he refers to this as the last hour. So what do we know about the antichrist? Somehow this arrival is taking place in between the first coming and the second coming. Okay? Secondly, here's what we have from our information. There are more than one antichrist contrary to popular belief. Verse 18, dear children, this is the last hour. And as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrist have come, your Bible translations will sometimes say the antichrist, other translations will say a antichrist, same word. And John explains even 2000 years ago, he says, even now there are many multiple more than one, which doesn't really support the belief of the one antichrist showing up sometime in the near future. Oprah, the Pope, Tom Cruise, whoever ever.
Third, what else we learned? The antichrist is somehow connected to the church. Verse 19, antichrist went out from us, but they did not really belong to us for if they had belonged to us, they would've remained with us, but going showed that none of them belonged to us. It seems these antichrist came out of the church, at least the ones that John is writing about and seem to have some sort of influence. A couple of weeks ago we talked about gnosticism and explored some of the lies that John was correcting here, but still there is a connection to the church. Lastly, number four, the antichrist tells lies. Verse 22, who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist denying the Father and the Son, which he repeats in chapter four. But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.
This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, is already in the world. And then again, last one, two, John verse seven, I say this because many deceivers who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh have gone out into the world any such person as the deceiver and the antichrist. So again, according to the Bible, according to John who seems to have coined this term, if the Bible is warning us about antichrist, we should know who to look out for. And instead of weird gothic CDs or bestselling Christian fiction, let's look directly at the source. Here it is. Antichrist are part of the new age, the final hour basically in between Jesus first and second arrival, there are many more than one Third, they have some sort of influence on the church and are either still connected or have left the church, which means they're either former Christians pretending to be Christians or have left the Christian faith.
And then lastly, specifically John even explains what lies they are telling. He literally gives us the definition of the word antichrist. Verse 22. It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is antichrist denying the Father and the Son. So again, I know I sound like a broken record and I'm really hammering this point, but what is missing here? We don't get initials. We don't get a physical description. We don't get a country of origin. The Bible doesn't tell us which denomination or political party to watch out for here. For goodness sake, it doesn't even mention hair metal bands or Harry Potter, right? There's nothing here. All of the things that we associate, John has left this out. And so in short, antichrist appears to be according to John, who literally walked with Christ, anyone or anything that is anti Jesus in regards to denying Jesus as fully God and fully human.
We talked specifically in week one again about gnostics, who denied Jesus as human and saw him as more of a spirit or an aberration. And we also looked at many who saw Jesus as too human and not as Messiah, not seeing his divinity, which are two beliefs that are still prevalent today. You can listen to that message later if you'd like, but here John is saying, those who have an antichrist message, it would appear are attempting to bring a message contrary to Jesus into the house of Jesus. This word antichrist anti Cristo is a trans alliteration of either an adversary of the Messiah or the word can be used for a replacement of the Messiah, someone who denies Jesus' Lord or claims to be a new or better or different. Lord, this is the antichrist, and we read directly from John, we have lots of information in this letter from 2000 years ago about those who were anti the gospel anti the Messiah antichrist.
So that was a lot. What do we do with this information? Where do we go from here? Well, first let me tell you who I, and I believe John, who we're not talking about, there are many who are anti the way, the truth, the light, the Lordship of Jesus antichrist. But there is a big difference between being against and being unsure. I'm thankful to be part of a church community where we have created a place for folks who can belong before they believe, even if they don't believe, even if they're not sure what they believe. And so you might be here thinking, I don't know what I believe about Jesus and I'm compelled or at least interested or I'm open. But that's kind of it. And we say, we are glad you are here. John, I believe is glad you are here. Ask questions, wrestle with those questions, share your perspective.
You bring a lot to this community. A big part of my own story is choosing to figure out what I believed alongside others, not in my room by myself, but others who challenged me, learned from me, encouraged me, and most importantly welcomed me. Even when I brought my Nietzsche book to church on Sundays to compare notes, right? There was still a place for me. And at Gateway, there is a place for you two, just because you're still figuring out Jesus. Don't let anyone tell you that you are anti Jesus. Who John is talking about are people who have taken the message and the mission of Jesus and added to it simply because of their own agendas. They know what they are doing. And John as well as the other New Testament writers are warning the church, don't don't forget your first love. Don't forget Jesus.
Don't add to this message. Don't turn Jesus into something He isn't. Don't do it. In two weeks, we're going to get very practical and very specific. We're going to talk about half a dozen or so different gospels that are either in place of the gospel or adding to it. And as I share, I think you'll see how mainstream and common these actually are so common. Sometimes we don't even notice them or assume that this is just what Christianity is or assume that these are biblical, some have some good in them, some are misguided, and some are just downright false teaching something else altogether. We'll say that for two weeks. But for today, I think the invitation for us is to ask the question. We know that there is plenty of false teaching in the world. Let's go online for 30 seconds. We know that John dealt with this and we know that we will need to do the same.
We believe that Jesus believe most of us believe that Jesus will return one day. I definitely do. I think the Bible was clear about that. So the main question for me isn't who are the antichrist in our culture, in our world? John gives us a great definition. And if that doesn't work for you, we'll be even more specific in a couple of weeks. But for now, we know antichrist is anyone coming into the house of Christ with a message that is not of Christ, full of lies, full of deceit, and unfortunately can be very influential. But today the question for me isn't about them, it's about you. And I think the question is, how should I live in this last hour? Jesus has come to begin the process of renewal and reconciliation. We see that in his ministry, then we believe he will return. And so we find ourselves in between these two ages, these two hours.
And as we discussed in week one, who we believe Jesus is will determine how we reflect that belief. Do we revere him as a good teacher, as a good friend, as a cosmic vending machine, as a genie? Or do we revere him in our hearts as both savior and as Lord? I'd like to return to a familiar verse. One I read often for a while I had this taped to my desk at work, even though I had memorized it many a times, I still needed to see it constantly. And this verse, Peter is writing to the early church and he is telling them they will go through difficulty. There will be false teaching, there will be adversary. And he tells them to hold fast, not just to their beliefs, not just to Jesus, but what they do with their belief in Jesus. He says, but in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord.
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. Do this with gentleness and respect. In most translations, you'll find the word win, but you won't find the word if in there. Peter doesn't say, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone if they're interested or curious, or in case somebody might stop you and ask. No. He says, when somebody ask, be prepared, which implies that somebody would be asking this question because according to Peter, who knew we were in the time between the resurrection and the return, we as ambassadors for the kingdom are living so incredibly radically and counter culturally that people can't help but stop and ask why. Where does your hope come from? Why would you do that? Why wouldn't you do what everybody else did? Why wouldn't you cut corners?
Why would you care about the things that are happening, not just in this world, but in your own community? Why are you such a passionate person? Why do you keep talking about these things, grace and generosity and justice and faithfulness? What is up with that? And Peter tells us, Hey Christian, this is going to happen. As a follower of Jesus, you are obviously going to be living so counter culturally that people are going to be curious about it. And so you should probably come up with an answer for them in advance. Not if, but when. And when it comes to false teaching. Something I've learned is one of the best way to combat lies a message that is anti Jesus, anti the gospel. Antichrist. One of the best ways to correct false teaching is to tell a better story. To tell the story, the story of redemption and reconciliation.
And if we are not only telling that story but living it, a good litmus test, a good way of recognizing our own story as from Christ is that it is so different and so out of this world, people can't help but stop and scratch their head and wonder why? Because one John four, four tells us, the one who is in you is greater than the one was in the world. I'll close with this. A friend of mine told me this story and I've been thinking about it ever since. It's from the book, the Madonna's of Linen, grad historian, Deborah Dean, tells about what took place at the Hermitage Museum during World War ii. She writes, during the first winter that the Nazis lay seeds to Lineen linen grad, the Hermitage staff and their families. Nearly 2000 people lived in the basement of the museum itself. On the first days of the war, they had evacuated all the art, millions of objects.
Thousands of undisputed masterpieces were removed, hidden in case the museum was bombed. Most of the pieces of art were rolled up in paper and kept in crates ready to be sent out to safer locations. However, the museum staff left each of the empty frames hanging on the walls of the museum as a token of their pledge that the art would one day return, but it also served another purpose. She explained some of the tour guides now living in the cellar, begin to give tours of the empty museum to visitors. It was said they knew not only the museum but the artwork so well, so vividly. They could describe each piece with such great detail that visitors could almost see them. The beauty was so clear to them, had meant so much to them, had changed them, that even in the artist's absence, they could still hold onto the art.
And so the question I've been asking myself all week with John's instructions about the many different false messages out there, as well as Peter's encouragement to hold fast. I've been asking what does it look like to hold deeply to the gospel so tightly in my heart, like those museum tour guides that I see this world, this culture, this community as scattered with empty frames everywhere I go, as both an opportunity to describe the beauty that was once there and can still be there as both a picture of God's goodness and a protest against evil. And so the empty frames are a chance to tell the world of what we have seen and touched and encountered. Just like John opens up his epistle, but they also serve as a placeholder of the promise of the one who will come one day. Every wrong will be made right, every sin and every tear will be wiped away.
This is what it means to live in the final hour, to speak truth, even when there are false messages everywhere to live as Christ did so much, it seems out of this world because frankly it is. And to prepare to throw a party for his arrival and invite as many people as we possibly can to it. And since he doesn't give us a date, maybe we should get to work in the meantime. So my question is, what does your tour look like this week? What stories will you tell about the art, the grace, the beauty of Christ? How will you feel those empty frames? What stories will you tell to drown out the lies from the enemy, from those who are anti Jesus, anti redemption, antigo, antichrist? And who will you tell this story to? Let's pray together.
Lord, I first pray against any false words, messages that are not of you or from you. I pray against the spirit of antichrist, any against you, Christ. Lord, give us opportunities to correct lies, opportunities to tell better stories, to share of your beauty and your grace, and your power and your truth. Lord, help us to not only tell these stories, but to live them out as the verse in Peter tells us to be prepared to live this life that looks so radically different because it is from you. And so give us the courage, the wisdom, the discernment, the love to do so. Give us opportunities to share not only what you have done in our lives, but what you're doing in the world. Pray this in your name. Amen.