Introduction

Joseph, the youngest son of Jacob, was favored by his father. So much so, he was given a position of power and privilege over his older brothers.

God favored Joseph too. He gave him dreams that indicated he'd one day lead his brothers and parents. No one but Joseph believed these dreams, and his brothers despised him because of the favor both God and their father had shown him.

Because of their jealousy, Joseph was sold into slavery and forgotten by his family. And after years in captivity and prison, Joseph was given an opportunity before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh had received two dreams which troubled him. They were abnormal dreams; he knew they had special meaning. Joseph, in prison, had interpreted a dream for Pharaoh's cupbearer two years earlier, and now this cupbearer, in God's timing, told Pharaoh about Joseph and his knack for dream interpretation.

Joseph was quickly groomed and dressed for his meeting with Pharaoh, and after hearing the dreams began his interpretive work. He told Pharaoh the interpretations belonged to God, but so did the visions.

In the first dream, seven plump and healthy cows were eaten by seven ugly and sickly cows. In the second dream, seven healthy and robust ears of grain were consumed by seven blighted and withered ears of grain.

After hearing the two dreams, Joseph told Pharaoh they had one meaning. There would be seven years of abundance and plenty throughout the world, followed by seven years of severe famine. Joseph then told Pharaoh to prepare for the seven years of famine by storing up as much food as he could during the years of prosperity.

And Pharaoh followed these directions explicitly by putting Joseph in charge of the entire operation. During the years of plenty, Joseph stored up food. During the years of famine, masses came to Egypt to buy food and grain, which Joseph gave them in exchange for their land.

By the end of the fourteen years, Joseph's insights had enabled Pharaoh to expand his kingdom beyond imagination. Joseph's wisdom prepared Egypt for a golden age.

I want you to think of Joseph in the section of John's writing we are entering into today. You see, when you come to Christ, there is a feeling of abundance. You are forgiven for your sin through Jesus' substitutionary death, connected to your Father in heaven, and a recipient of the Spirit.

But, if you are not prepared well for the coming seasons, you might be decimated. Just as Joseph sought to strengthen Egypt for the hard days, John wants to strengthen us for the hard days as well.

This goal is hinted at when John calls his readers children (18). Far from demeaning them, John loves them, and like a wise father, he longed to prepare his spiritual offspring for the journey ahead.

A good dad sees what is coming and builds his children up for future obstacles and difficulties. He helps them grow into adulthood, and John is doing the same thing for the church. He wanted to bring them into maturity. And the Spirit wants to do the same in us.

But there are some enemies of this maturation process.

First, there is the tumultuous season we live in, the last days. They are times fraught with peril, and if a believer is clueless about this last hour, he will be decimated by the times.

Second, there is ever-present false teaching which seeks to demean the identity of Christ. And if someone embraces one of these lies, they have willfully rejected biblical Christianity and are without Father God.

Third, the teaching of the Spirit is sufficient, for God has given us "everything needed for life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3). But when a man or woman drifts from His clear teaching, they are laid waste by deception and error.

So let John prepare you for the age to come. Let him help us:

• 1 Consider the season we live in.
• 2 Confess the Son, the Christ.
• 3 Continue in the Spirit's teaching.

1. Consider the Season

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. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. 20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

Our Response to These Phrases

Listen to me now. While reading this passage, what happened to you when you saw phrases like these?:

• It is the last hour
• You have heard that antichrist is coming
• Many antichrists have come

Some of you may have gotten excited: The last days! The final hour! The end times! Oh, I love sections like these! Let's geek out. I am tired of thinking about walking in God's light and loving other Christians. I can't handle thinking about my struggles with temptation anymore! Too much introspection! Those Life Group questions were too intense!

Others of you might have rolled your eyes: Oh no! I don't want to hear about the Antichrist and the last days. Please don't talk about the mark of the beast or the great tribulation or 666. I brought a friend to church today. I read all the novels. I am over this subject.

And some of you might have thought, Man, last week was so practical. We got into the real nitty-gritty of the Christian life. I could talk about that passage and message with my life group 'til kingdom come! Why do we have to ruin the vibe by going to subjects like these?

But what I want you to know is this section is one of the most practical portions of 1 John. Here, John will describe the days we are living in. And if you aren't prepared for these days, worldliness is the least of your concerns. I don't want anyone here swallowed up by new movements and doctrines which are against Jesus. I don't want anyone here derailed by believing something erroneous about Christ. I want everyone here to keep moving on in the basics the Spirit laid down for us thousands of years ago.

But I fear for you because many have had what was sown in their hearts snatched away by the devil. Others have not taken root and have fallen away. And many have been choked out due to the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches (Matthew 13:18-23). My hope is each one of us would hear the Word, understand it, and bear fruit for Christ. So, to me, this is one of the most practical sections of 1 John.

The Antichrist

In this first portion of this section, John uses a couple of phrases that need defining. First, notice how he tells the church they had heard that antichrist is coming. This might be surprising to some of you, but the Word antichrist only occurs in the Bible in John's letters (1 John 2:18, 22, 4:3, 2 John 7). Still, though only John used this title, the church was familiar with the teaching that antichrist is coming.

The prophet Daniel had foretold of a prince to come who would desecrate the temple and rebel against God and His Christ (Daniel 9:26). He will position himself as a peacemaker by initiating a seven-year peace treaty. But he will break it within three and a half years by committing an "abomination," which "makes desolate" (Daniel 9:26). Daniel calls this man the "desolator" (Daniel 9:26).

And after Daniel spoke, some came along and desecrated the temple. Men like Antiochus Epiphanes in 168 BC or Titus in AD 70, when they attacked Israel, violated her temple.

But, though these men had come, the church was still waiting for a further outbreak of evil, led by a figure who is contrary to and in place of Christ. They knew the true "desolator" would come one day. John calls him the Antichrist.

Notice how Paul refers to him:

"Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God." (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4).

And the believers in John's day believed such a figure would come, bringing with him cataclysmic days. Jesus said, after these days of "the abomination of desolation..."

"...the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory." (Mark 13:24–27).

But let's go back to what Paul said about this Antichrist figure. A moment will come when...

"...The lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming." (2 Thessalonians 2:8).

Now, try to get out of your mind the imagery used in Revelation and Daniel concerning this man. In those apocalyptic passages, he's depicted as a beast or a horn or a terror.

But those images reveal God's perspective. People love him. To the world, he's not repulsive, but energizing and widely received. He brings seeming peace. He'll essentially be a world dictator who leads humanity into what appears to be a golden age until he shows his true colors, and the judgment of God is released upon him.

In this way, he is not the opposite of Christ, where Jesus is nice, and this guy is evil, but anti-Christ as in instead of Christ. I mean, he will be opposite Christ, but he'll also be a hero to many. I think he will offer the benefits of Christ's kingdom -- peace, justice, mercy for all -- but without Christ.

And the church, according to John, had heard that antichrist is coming. Please don't misunderstand. They weren't sitting around trying to figure out who the Antichrist might be. I remember, as a kid, when many Christians thought Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the communist Soviet Union, who also had an unfortunate discoloration on his forehead, might be the Antichrist. But this isn't the church's job. We aren't looking for the Antichrist, but Jesus Christ.

Many Antichrists

That said, John tells us that thought the Antichrist has not yet come, many antichrists have come (18).

They had some defining features. They'd went out from the church (19). They were not of the church because if they had been, they would have continued with the church (19). John seems to mean these little antichrists had once been part of the church in appearance, but not in reality, because they eventually left the church, preaching antichrist doctrines as they went.

This calls to mind two fundamental doctrines.

First, the perseverance of the saints. Jesus said, "The one who endures to the end will be saved" (Matthew 10:22). This was not Jesus' way of saying, If you make it to the end I will save you. But, instead, those who are saved make it to the end.

Salvation is not the reward for endurance, but endurance is the hallmark of the saved. John thought this way: the only reason the antichrists left the church is that they were not of the church. If they were of the church, they would have continued with the church.

And this brings to mind a second important doctrine. There is a distinction in the Bible between the visible and invisible church. God wants His church to be public and known, but this doesn't mean every professing church member actually knows Christ. As Paul told Timothy:

"The Lord knows those who are His..." (2 Timothy 2:19).

And in John's day, some revealed their true colors by abandoning Christ and believing false doctrines instead. They went out proselytizing and trying to turn hearts away from Jesus and His beautiful gospel.

The Last Hour

To John, this was all evidence it was the last hour (18). This doesn't mean John thought Christ had to return within or near his lifetime, though Jesus could have. Nor does it mean John was wrong about the timing of Christ's return. It means John knew precisely what era he was living in, one referred to in the Bible as the last days or the last times.

John had already said,

"...The darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining." (1 John 2:8).

And:

"...The world is passing away along with its desires..." (1 John 2:17).

This is how Christians are to feel. We are living in the last era, days, times, and, to borrow from John, hour. The time is short. God's redemptive plan will wrap up. Nothing else must occur. Jesus has come, and with His cross, He brought us to the last days.

"In these last days God has spoken to us by his Son..." (Hebrews 1:2).

You must know the days you're living in. You must consider the season. John expected some would desert the Lord and His church. To him, it was a mark of the last hour.

But if you don't know you're in such an hour, if you don't realize you're in the seven years of famine, you'll get blindsided. Instead, expect it: people will lose their minds and, seemingly, their faith in this last hour.

Recently, I caught up with an old friend in the Lord. We admire each other but had lost touch over the years. But, knowing the days we are in, I began our conversation by asking him, "Are you still Orthodox? Do you still hold the cardinal tenets of the faith? Are you still down?" He assured me he was, and I assured him of the same, and our fellowship continued. It's the kind of conversation you have when you know what hour you're living in.

Our Nature

Know this. We don't have to succumb to the spirit of the age. John said, But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge (20). We will look more fully at this idea when he repeats it at the end of our passage, but suffice it to say, he means God's true children have God's Spirit. He teaches each one of us. He is an inner beacon of truth warning us of the perils of false doctrine. He guards us.

You see, some might depart from us, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can keep on truckin'. And when you see a Christian, perhaps famous, perhaps anonymous, deconstruct their faith and walk away from Jesus and His church, remind yourself you aren't going there. By the grace of God, keep steppin'.

A story from the end of Joshua's life comes to mind. He had led Israel into the Promised Land. They had driven out the enemy and divided up the land. As he prepared to die, he warned them not to forsake the LORD and worship other gods. Then he said:

"But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15).

Without pride or pretension, but in earnest prayer, let Joshua's sentiment be yours as well.