Who or What is Antichrist?

Hello again, everyone!

So it's good to see the church's communication system is working by the empty hall today. Everyone got the note that I'm speaking today.

Just kidding.

So for um, I was about to give my tell, as Alan and my son say, I was about to say for those who like titles, but I'm not going to say that even though I already did.

The title for my sermon today is Who or What is Antichrist?

Who or What is Antichrist?

Now the Antichrist is probably one of those biblical terms. There's a handful of them that still survives in Western culture. It's interesting, you know, sometimes you look at advertising, you look even at TV shows, print ads, ads on TV, and different references to biblical things come up from time to time, as well as in movies. And interestingly, the Antichrist is one of those that sort of, through history, pops up, especially in horror movies, other scary movies. A lot of people turn to those at this time of year around Halloween, which of course is not something we do, but as horror movies and topics of evil and these types of things come up around this time of year, it's not unusual to have seen or heard something about Antichrist. And for those of you who've ever been inspired to look on the internet and search about it like anything else, you can find some pretty interesting things about that.

Predictions on the internet abound in terms of who the Antichrist is or who was predicted to be over the course of history, and it's kind of a who's who, actually, when you look through history. Emperor Nero is one of the earliest people who was thought to be the Antichrist, and of course he did some pretty awful things, certainly to the Christians. We were at the feast ourselves in Italy and hadn't done this before, but went and visited Circus Maximus, which was an old hippodrome just on the outskirts of ancient Rome, and just some awful things that were done to Christians there as they were killed there as part of the entertainment that actually happened during the games. Interestingly enough, no reference made to that when you tour the site today and take their virtual reality tour.

Another emperor, Constantius, was referred to as the Antichrist and thought to be that.

In the Middle Ages, the practice began of considering the Pope to be the Antichrist, and interestingly some of the early people who accused Popes of being the Antichrist were either other Popes during times when there were multiple Popes vying for the position, or other members of the clergy who were standing against the existing Pope.

Martin Luther and the other Protestant reformers accused Pope Leo X of being the Antichrist, and of course they themselves were accused of being Antichrists for leaving the Catholic Church at that point in time.

More recently, political figures have come up on the list, including Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump.

And that's not all. Let's make an honorary mention to Barney the Dinosaur, who people have also considered the Antichrist.

So I was going to make a joke and say, write down who you think the Antichrist is, and we'll compare messages after church, but I'm not going to say that.

Important for us as Christians, what does the Bible say about Antichrist? Who or what is Antichrist? Let's start with the scriptural references, because that's obviously where we want to go for everything that we believe in, and we think, and we do. A quick quiz. If we can have a show of hands, how many times is Antichrist mentioned in the Bible? I'll give you three choices. I'll let you know ahead of time so you can think about it for a moment. Less than five? Between five and ten? More than ten? How many people think it's less than five?

Between five and ten? More than ten?

All right. Drum roll, please.

The answer is the term is mentioned only five times in the Bible. So if we use the New King James version to measure that. And it's mentioned, interestingly enough, as a term only in the epistles of John.

One time in Second John, the other four times in First John. So as we start into this message, let's just take a few moments and let's read the passages that talk about Antichrist and reflect a little bit about what exactly the Scripture is and perhaps is not saying on the topic.

So we'll do it here in the order of how it appears in the Bible. So we'll start in First John 2.

We'll read verses 18 through 23 of First John 2. First John 2, starting in verse 18.

John writes, Little children, it's the last hour. And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have come, by which we know that it's the last hour.

They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would not, they would have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I've not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.

Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either. He who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

That's the first couple of references. Let's move forward to 1 John 4.

1 John 4, and we'll read there verses 1 through 3.

1 John 4 verses 1 through 3.

John says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the Spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world.

So again, we hear about a spirit both coming and that is already there. And let's go to our last reference. This will round out the references to the Antichrist in the Bible. 2 John 1.

2 John 1, and we'll read there verses 7 through 10. 2 John 1, starting in verse 7.

Here John writes in his second epistle, For many deceivers have gone out into the world, Who did not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.

This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we do not lose those things that we work for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house, nor greet him, for he who greets him shares his evil deeds.

So what do we see as commonalities in all these passages?

Let's think about that for a moment. As we think about that, let's look at what the definition of antichrist is. It's actually fairly simple. It's a Greek word, antichristos, sounds pretty much exactly, as the English term. And it means just very simply to be against the adversary of, or in place, of Christ.

So not surprising, anti-against, in place of, and Christ.

And if we look at the scriptural references that we just read through, a couple things stand out. One is that the definite article is used really just the one time at the beginning, where in that first site that I read, 1 John 2, verse 18, it talks about the antichrist. So it talks about a specific person. So one understanding of antichrist, as we think about it as an adversary of, or someone who stands against Jesus Christ, does appear to refer to a specific person.

Secondly, in the remaining four references, we see more of a generic reference. And that's why I titled the sermon the way I did, not who or what is the antichrist, but who or what is antichrist. Because most of the other times, in fact, the other four times it's used, it's used in a generic sense. It talks about the spirit of antichrist. This is antichrist. So talking about a philosophy, talking about a way of thinking, talking about a group of ideas that are being espoused as being described as antichrist ideas or philosophies. And we'll dig into those two elements, the specific antichrist that's referred to, and the spirit of antichrist in the balance of this message. Before we do that, though, I just want to make one short diversion. And that is to talk about what I'll call a timestamp that's on John's words at this time.

So two timestamps here. First one is in 1 John 2.18, where John says, we are in the last days.

So John wrote this epistle in the last few years of his life. Most people think it was around 90 AD. So the first century was coming to an end. And clearly from what was written, not differently from other apostles. We can read in Paul's writings. We can read in Peter's writings. We can read in other places. For whatever reason, God allowed them to believe and to assert in their writings that they believed that Jesus Christ was coming imminently.

I can't tell you exactly why that is. We know that the Bible is written in the context of the time that it's in, even though the application of it is timeless. And so we do have this timestamp there. John really believed as he was nearing the end of his life, he knew at that point, I think, that he was the last of the apostles still living, and he believed that Jesus Christ was coming very soon. He's got reasons for doing that. If we look, for example, in Matthew 24—we won't turn there—but Matthew 24, verse 24, we might remember, talks about false Christ's coming as one of the marks of the latter days, the end times. And as John was writing this passage, or this epistle, we also have to think about the things that were going on around him. Some of us might remember the date 70 AD. So there was an uprising, a Jewish uprising, that took place in Judea, started around 66 AD, and the Jews there were under Roman rule.

They finally got up their nerve, gathered weapons, and fought to get the Romans out of Judea.

That battle went on for four years, and the Romans, of course, with overwhelming force, came into Jerusalem and at that point fulfilled the prophecy that Jesus Christ had made, about not one stone of the temple being left on top of another. And so around 70 AD, the Romans finally breached the walls. They came in, they took every single standing bit of the temple, and they shoved it over the edge. In fact, when we were visiting Israel, we'd seen where some of the excavations were made. And really, to me, a very impactful thing to see was a Roman road that's right below the retaining wall for the temple, and a pile of these massive stones of the temple. And you could see where they were pushed off of the highest edge of the temple, and you could see where they'd actually pierced the Roman road. And those of you who have seen the roads, the Roman roads still exist in some places today. They were so well made, and you could see just the weight of those stones, how they crushed into the road. And so they destroyed every single bit of the temple. So that was 70 AD. Now, according to Eusebius, an historian of the time, Christians, through prophetic warning, fled to Pella before that time. And so most of the Christians who were in Jerusalem actually escaped that time. They read Luke 21, verse 20, which said, when you see Jerusalem encompassed by armies, you should flee. And so most, if not all, of the church fled to a nearby city called Pella, and were able to ride things out there and weren't actually in Jerusalem in the final parts of the siege when the city fell. Another thing that happened more than likely prior to John writing his epistles was the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Now, most of us have probably heard of Mount Vesuvius. Some of us have seen it, maybe even been there. Monster's explosive volcano sitting right outside of the city of Naples. And we've probably seen pictures of how it engulfed the city of Pompeii. People were immediately killed.

Some of the corpses even are preserved, covered essentially in lava and stone, that dried. That happened in 79 AD. Anyone around the known world would have known this because it was such a huge cataclysm. And so when you think of John sitting there in 90 AD, after the destruction of Jerusalem, after Vesuvius, after seeing everything that was going on as different winds of doctrine were starting to blow around, we can understand the state of mind that he was in and why he believed the things that he did about the end time. And while he voiced his belief that he was in the last days, John, like the other apostles, never made predictions about exactly when Jesus Christ was returning. He knew better than that. He would have, I think, heard Jesus Christ in person, saying no one knows the day or the hour. And so despite what he thought and what he expected, he was not there setting dates for when Jesus Christ's return was. But so that's one timestamp that's in these passages. The second one that I'd like to just spend a moment on before we move into the balance of the message is the nature of the blasphemy or the heresy that John was combating at that point in time. So that heresy is the idea that Jesus Christ did not come in the flesh. So we see this mentioned several times in these passages. If you want to go back later, I won't reread them, but 1 John 4 verses 1 through 3, 2 John 1 verse 7. Both very specifically mention the idea that anyone is a liar who does not say or confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Now it's interesting because over the course of time, it's almost as though that script has flipped, because nowadays you'll find less people who will deny Jesus Christ coming in the flesh. You'll probably have more people denying that Jesus Christ was divine. You've probably met some of them—I know I have—who say, yeah, you know, I believe Jesus Christ came in the flesh, but I don't think he was really God. I think he was a really good person, kind of like Buddha was.

And it's a common belief. Now at that point in time—and that's what John was writing to you—the heresy, the common heresy, was the idea that Jesus Christ did not really come in the flesh. And some of that was fed by Greek ideas, this idea that spirit is good and inherently good, and flesh is inherently bad and evil. And if you're coming from that philosophical worldview, you can't tolerate the idea that perfect spirit would come and embody itself in flesh. Why would perfect spirit—why would God as perfect spirit—make himself, you know, awful, lower than life flesh?

It just couldn't make sense within that realm of Greek philosophy. And so people had to come up with other thoughts in terms of what actually happened, and they denied the fact that Jesus Christ was fully human when he came. John rightly points out that that is a hallmark, a hallmark, of the spirit of antichrist. But I think we also have to understand that's not the only way that you can deny the Father and the Son. And while that might be something that's not as extant here today, as we'll think about a little bit more, there are plenty of other ways that this idea of antichrist being in resistance to Christ, being against him, denying the power of Jesus Christ can manifest itself in life today. So with those two things as backdrop, let's look at the two ways that antichrist is referred to here in the writings of John, his epistles. And first, let's talk about the antichrist. So I mentioned earlier that antichrist refers both to an individual and to a philosophy, and the Bible does teach that there will be a specific end-time figure who stands directly in opposition to God and Jesus Christ. Turn with me, if you will, to 1 John 2.18.

We'll just read this passage again in John's first epistle where he makes the specific reference.

1 John 2 and verse 18. Again, John writes here, little children, it's the last hour, and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come by which we know that it is the last hour. So again, we have the specific reference to a person, an individual, in this place. And again, it's one who is against or defies Christ. Now, the Bible definitely identifies an individual, one that is going to personify really resistance and defiance to God and Jesus Christ and everything they stand for. And it's specifically a personality that's identified with end-time events, and we'll see why in a moment. We'll see how in some of the scriptures that we turn to. There are other references in scripture. Remember, we said five places where antichrist is used. In some of these other places, other words are used to identify this individual. Let's start in 2 Thessalonians 2. We'll read Paul's letter to the Thessalonians because he makes reference to the same spirit, uses a different word to identify it, but we believe that it is the same person. I think most commentators that you would read would assert the same thing. 2 Thessalonians 2 will read verses 1 through 4. Here Paul writes, Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, so again, we immediately have the context here. He's talking about the end times. He's talking about the coming of Jesus Christ, the gathering of God's people to him, and we know that's something that happens at the end of the age. We ask you, verse 2, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled either by spirit or by word or by letter as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. And so, similar to what we see asserted in Matthew 24, this idea that people were identifying themselves as Jesus Christ, people were asserting perhaps that Jesus Christ had already come, and Paul's saying, don't be shaken by this. Let no one deceive you in verse 3, by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

So there's a lot here that's talked about in terms of this man of sin, this son of perdition.

The context, again, is clearly related to the return of Jesus Christ. That's made clear in the passage. There's no way to deny that in context. And like I said, most commentators are going to agree and equate this, and certainly the church's position as well, that the antichrist that John talks about is directly connected or the same person as this son of perdition. Look at all the ways this person is described.

Opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God. So we're talking about somebody who's going to not only acknowledge God, but then in the same breath that they acknowledge God, say that they're cut above. They're better than him, and they're above him and in opposition to him. And he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. So however this is going to happen, we have somebody who's going to take upon himself, presumably, all of the worship, the power, and the greatness of God, and say that it belongs to him. Pretty amazing thing when you think about it, for somebody to have the nerve, the delusion, the confidence, whatever you want to call it, to do those things. So a very extreme situation here in terms of what this person will do in terms of being and claiming to be completely in opposition and greater than God. Let's turn to Daniel 7.

Let's turn to Daniel 7. We see another reference, this time in the prophecies of Daniel, to the same type of thing happening at the end of the age. Now Daniel 7 contains one of the key prophecies that Daniel makes, and we're not going to go through that entire prophecy here, but Daniel 7 has a reference to four beasts that he sees in his vision. And verse 17 of the chapter indicates that these four beasts are kings which arise out of the earth. Those are the exact words that are used in New King James, kings that arise out of the earth. So it talks about essentially four beasts which would be described as governmental systems when it talks about kings, think about civil governments, those in authority. And then it mentions one additional horn that comes out. It talks about the last beast having 10 horns, and it talks about an additional horn coming out. It's first mentioned in verse 8 as quote-unquote speaking pompous words. It's an interesting phrase, not really, it kind of sounds like it's from a Monty Python skit or something, but this horn speaks pompous words. And in verse 20 through 25 we see the interpretation of what this little horn is.

Daniel involves at least some of the interpretations being provided immediately. And so in verse 20 of Daniel 7, the 10 horns that were on its head and the other horn which came up before which the three fell, namely that horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than his fellows, I was watching and that same horn was making war against the saints and prevailing against them, until the ancient of days came and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. Verse 25, he shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change the times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time, but in verse 26 the court shall be seated, and they shall take away his dominion to consume and destroy it forever. And then the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. Referring to Jesus Christ.

So again, when we look in this passage here, it's not son of perdition, it's not man of sin, it talks about a little horn, doesn't talk even about antichrist, but again we believe and most commentators would agree that this refers to the same thing, this personification, this individual antichrist that will exist right at the end time. We see the connection in these passages to the fact that when this little horn is struck down, it will be so that the kingdom comes, and the saints will be given the kingdom. And so it ties it in directly to those same end time events. Again, it reveals somebody who works in direct opposition not only to God, but to his people as well. And so we see here, for example, in Daniel 7.21, the fact that this little horn makes war against the saints and even prevails against them for a period of time. So great danger posed by this personage, and one who speaks out clearly against God. So here we see that it involves not only deception and opposition to God, but actual persecution of the saints. So we see that in addition to what we've already seen in other places in prophecy, not only a governmental authority, but here through this little horn, it shows another prong, which is a religious deception and persecution that's talked about happening at the end time. And this theme, of course, we might think of as well as carried out further in the book of Revelation, we see both the beast and the false prophet mentioned. So again, two prongs, a governmental system and then a religious system, and that false prophet again talked about in Revelation, we would also equate with the Antichrist mentioned in 1 John 2. So as we wrap up this first part of talking about the Antichrist, the one reference to a specific personage, involved with the topic of Antichrist is clearly a reference to a specific individual, someone who will embody everything that's in defiance against God, and somebody who, in the end time, will work actively against the people of God, even in persecution. As Paul writes in Thessalonians, this person not only acts against God but purports himself to be God, talks about him at least symbolically sitting in the temple as God. And as Daniel sees in his vision, there's a relationship between this false God and the governmental systems that will exist through the world and will be directly replaced in the end by Jesus Christ.

So let's move forward and think of the second way that Antichrist is used in the Bible, and that is the spirit of Antichrist. And let's remember that John's specific prophetic reference is only one of the five references that he makes. There are four other references. And as with any prophetic topic, and I'll be honest with you, having grown up in the church and heard lots of sermons about prophecy, I'm always a little reticent talking about it because, to be honest, it's become, over the course of years, for a lot of people a distraction. And the reason I say that is that prophecy is very important for what it's meant to do. It's meant to help us to understand that God has a plan, that he will prevail at the end of time, that he has control and understands what happens on the earth and through mankind. It's not meant so that we can time the way that we run our spiritual life, so we're ready just in time, so we know we can hang back a little bit and take it easy for a while because it's not going to happen yet. And it's not meant so that we can have charts on our wall and know exactly when it's going to happen. I happen to believe the words in the Bible where it says, no man knows the day or the hour. I think those are important words to remember. At the same time, prophecy is incredibly important because it does help us to remember that what's going on in the world today, the system that we live in, everything that we do, notwithstanding the fact that we have to live within it, is not ultimately what God intends, and it will be replaced. And it helps us to put our entire life into the proper focus and into the proper context in terms of what we do and why we do it. And so I think with any prophetic topic, our focus has to be beyond pure predictions that are being made. They're interesting, they're exciting sometimes, it can be a great parlor game to compare the things that we see to what's happening in the world, but if we boil it all down, we can probably boil it down into three words which are, I don't know. And if there's one thing I've seen played out a lot over history, it's, I don't know, regardless of what predictions might have been made. But there's clear implication to what we need to do as Christians connected to these prophetic things. The topic of Antichrist is no different. So John and other passages warned that false teachings centering on those about Jesus Christ will always be circulating. We read in these passages what it's to talk about, not just that there will be the Antichrist, but it talks about the fact that many Antichrists have already come and are with us. And that's part of the human condition. We're going to have people who are coming up with heresies, distractions, and other untruths that are trying to circulate either actively to lead people away, or just purely out of ignorance and not knowing what they're talking about. The Bible warns repeatedly about deception, especially in these passages that we read by John, and the importance of avoiding those who preach inaccuracy about God and Jesus Christ. And it reiterates in multiple places the centrality of Jesus Christ to the truth of God.

So let's take a few minutes and look through those things and see how that's brought out against this topic of Antichrist. First of all, each of the passages mentioning Antichrists warn of the need to avoid lies and deception. Again, I won't turn back there, but just to refer to them briefly. First John 2, John writes, you know that no lie is of the truth. In this passage, talking about the Antichrist, he warns about lies and says no lie is of the truth. First John 4, John encourages everyone to test the spirits, whether they're of God. Again, implying that there are going to be a lot of things that are out there, we need to sort through these, compare them to God's word, and understand what is not true. And then in second John 1, he clearly states that many deceivers have gone out into the world. Many deceivers have gone out into the world. So in tackling this topic of Antichrist, there's a huge theme that's tied up with it about truth versus error. There's a huge theme that's tied up in it about the importance of Jesus Christ and truly understanding Jesus Christ and God the Father. Those are specifically mentioned in those passages, if you want to go back and take some time reading them. So I'd like to go back just to a couple of passages in other parts of the New Testament that talk about the importance of Jesus Christ and the work that God's doing through him. I'd like to start in 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15.

I like this section that Paul writes because he basically goes through this progression and says that if you take Jesus Christ and his resurrection out of the equation, everything falls apart, and why are we even bothering to do this? That's how important Paul says that Jesus Christ and his resurrection is and understanding that is to our entire system of belief. 1 Corinthians 15, starting in verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preach to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which you're saved, if you hold fast that word which I preach to you, unless you believe in vain. Now Paul didn't bring any gospel other than what was given to him as he was taught by Jesus Christ. He says in other areas of his writings that he was teaching Jesus Christ and him crucified. He boiled it down to that specific thing. So when he says he declares the gospel, he's declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ. For I delivered to you first in verse 3, all that which I received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried, and he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. He was seen by Cephas or Peter, then by the Twelve, and after that he was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep. So again, another time stamp here, right? At the time that Paul was writing this to the Corinthians, he was talking about the fact that there were over 500 brethren who'd seen Jesus Christ raised, and many of them were still alive at that point in time, eyewitnesses, even though they didn't write gospels, they didn't go out necessarily even and preach, they're ones who'd seen the resurrected Jesus Christ. It's pretty amazing when you think, you know, we don't always focus on the fact that when a lot of these writings were taking place, people who actually experienced these events were reading these words when they were first written. In verse 12, now if Christ is preached that he's been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there's no resurrection of the dead? So we talk about the spirit of antichrist and denying things about the Father and Jesus Christ. We're moving right into that territory now in verse 12. Verse 13, if there's no resurrection of the dead, then Christ isn't risen, right? So if there's not a resurrection, then not only will we not be resurrected, but Jesus Christ couldn't have been resurrected in the first place.

And verse 14, if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we're found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he didn't actually raise up if, in fact, the dead do not rise. So if you don't believe that there is a bodily resurrection, you don't believe Jesus Christ was resurrected. If you don't believe Jesus Christ was resurrected, the entire gospel is out the window. Everything that's preached is worthless and untrue, is what Paul is saying. For verse 16, If the dead do not rise, Christ is not risen. If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. We don't have forgiveness from sins if that's not something that actually happened. And then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

No resurrection of those the saints who died in Christ if we don't believe that actually happened. If in this life, verse 19 only, we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

So Paul is pointing out here, he's speaking exactly to the spirit of Antichrist as John talks about it, denying these truths about Jesus Christ. We can see through Paul's writing, it has more elements to it than just the single element that John points out, the humanity of Jesus Christ in one of those passages. We see it much bigger. There are many different ways that Jesus Christ, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the message, the truth of what he is, can be misunderstood and corrupted. And what Paul is pointing out here is the importance of understanding what our faith is based in. And he's writing this to people, some of whom had even experienced or talked to people who truly experienced seeing the resurrected Jesus Christ. And they were in this situation.

The gospel, as we see here, is a multi-pronged message that centers around Jesus Christ as its center point. His sacrifice, his salvation, and what it is that he taught in terms of how we should live. And central to it is his humanity and the perfect life that he sacrificed for us. It's through that that we have forgiveness. There's a great deal of depth and breadth to it, and it's something that takes a long time to really fully understand and think through.

So this is one of the first, one of the two passages. We'll turn to one other in a moment. If you're interested in more information on this or you want to dig into it a little bit deeper, Mr. Thomas gave a sermon going back to January 30th of 2021. If you want to look it up, it's called How the Gospel is Proclaimed Within God's Holy Days. And he talks about the totality of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It'd be a great one to listen to if you want to dig into this thought process a little more. Again, January 30th of 2021, How the Gospel is Proclaimed Within God's Holy Days. Turn with me, if you will, to Colossians 1. Paul writing to the Colossians, again, goes into this same topic, talking about Jesus Christ, his centrality, and how important Jesus Christ, what he did, what he taught, is to us as Christians.

Colossians 1, and we'll start in verse 13. Talking about God the Father, Paul writes in Colossians 1.13, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, in verse 15, the firstborn over all creation. Remember what John said, understanding God, the Father, and Jesus Christ, the importance of that.

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and on earth by Jesus Christ, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. So he's talking not only about physical creation, when he's talking about principalities, powers, dominions, he's talking about the entire system of rulership that happens, and authority, whether it's in the spirit world, or whether it's in the human realm. And all of that is under the feet of Jesus Christ, created through Him and for Him.

He is before all things in verse 17, and in Him all things consist. He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things, all things, he may have preeminence. For please the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. So again, we see the the primacy of Jesus Christ in all things, not just in the physical realm, but in the spiritual realm as well.

In verse 21, and you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled into the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.

If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. That's easy to read over fairly quickly, and I would encourage us all to take a little time and absorb those words a little more slowly and carefully over the course of the upcoming days, especially when we look in verse 21.

You know, it's easy sometimes to read over these verses. You were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, but now you're reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to be holy, blameless, and above reproach in His sight. I mean, that gap that's broached is incredible when we stop to actually absorb that and think about it, and that's through the power of Jesus Christ, who has all dominion, whether in heaven or on earth. Those are things that we should reflect on as we let this sink in what the nature is of God and Jesus Christ and the power and the centrality to that, to the gospel, and to our lives.

This is the truth of God the Father and Jesus Christ, that we see referred to in John's epistles. The spirit of Antichrist does not acknowledge or fully understand this. It doesn't ascribe the power to Jesus Christ and the understanding to the nature of God the Father and Jesus Christ that were given in passages like this in Colossians.

One last thought on this before we wrap up this section. That is, if you look into a bit, you'll find that both Acts and the Gospel of John—not the epistle of John, but the Gospel of John—are full of assertions of Jesus as the Christ. And again, if you want to go to an earlier sermon on this, Mr. Thomas gave a sermon back in September of this year called How the New Testament Gospel Message Changed, how the New Testament Gospel Message Changed on September 17th of 2022. And he spent a large portion of that sermon really talking about the theme of Jesus as the Christ.

We remember the fact that Christ Christos is actually a title. And so Jesus, the human being, was raised and he became the Christ, the prophesied one who would come and who would have all authority.

And we won't turn to all of these verses, but let me give you five sites just in Acts about the Christ. And we can see how much after the day of Pentecost—that's in Acts 2 and the coming of the Holy Spirit—how much Jesus' identity as the Christ was talked about. Acts 5, 42, every day in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Acts 5, 42. Acts 9, verse 22, Acts 9, 22, Saul kept increasing in strength, confounding the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

Acts 17, verses 2 and 3, according to Paul's custom, he went to them for three Sabbaths, reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining, giving evidence that the Christ has to suffer and rise again from the dead and saying, this Jesus who I am proclaiming to you is the Christ. Acts 18, verse 5, Acts 18, 5, when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the Word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. Lastly, Acts 18, verse 28, Acts 18, verse 28, and he, Apollos, powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

Things are repeated this much in Scripture. It usually means something. It's worth, again, going back to the sermon we have for Mr. Thomas, considering these verses, the fact that the truth of the nature of God and the Son, the fact that Jesus is the Christ, to him all power was given on heaven and in heaven and on earth, and the importance of this. So, in wrapping up this section about the spirit of Antichrist, this philosophy or way of thinking, the spirit of Antichrist denies the doctrine of Christ, the nature of the Father and Son, and what's being worked out in God's people through Jesus Christ and his power. We have to be well grounded in the truth of the Bible and what it is that he teaches about Jesus. So, before we wrap up the sermon, just a couple thoughts here in terms of a practical thought or two of what perhaps we can do about this. You know, we're sitting here in the largest gap of months without a Holy Day. That happens over the course of the year. I don't know if we've thought about that, but once we wrap up the end of the feast, we go on sort of a Holy Day hiatus for six months or so until the Passover comes in the spring. And the next Holy Day, of course, Passover talks about Jesus Christ at the center, the beginning of the story. That's one of the wonderful things about the progression of the Holy Days. We start at the center, we start at the beginning, we start at the very most important thing, Jesus Christ who died for us, gave his life for the forgiveness of our sins. In light of that, in light of thinking about this topic of Antichrist, what I want to suggest is there's no better way to spend our time over some of these upcoming months than to deepen our understanding of Jesus Christ as he's revealed in the Bible. Deepening our understanding of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible. I mentioned a couple of sermons that were given recently over the last year and a half or so in our congregation that make good background for that. A couple other thoughts. One would be read the Gospels. When's the last time that we've gone through and just read the Gospels, the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There's some great reference materials out there. One of them is called the Harmony of the Gospels. What it does is it lays the Gospel accounts next to each other on a timeline so that you can see how the four different Gospels describe different events during the time of Jesus Christ. If you've not looked at a Harmony of the Gospels before, you could probably find one electronically, maybe even free online. You could certainly buy one for a small amount of money. Harmony of the Gospels is worth spending some time potentially on that.

Another place to go that I would recommend as well would be to go to the Ambassador Bible Center site. If you go to abc.ucg.org, abc.ucg.org. A lot of the Ambassador Bible Center Biola College lectures are there. Scott Ashley gave a whole class on the Gospels. I think it's about 30 segments long. If you want a real deep understanding of the Gospels, it goes through section by section, topic by topic, through I think it's about 30 lectures, and really takes you into it. All of those, I think, are great ways to go deeper, to understand more about God and Jesus Christ, especially Jesus Christ, what he did on earth, what he preached, some of the misconceptions that might be out there that we hear about a lot, and really to take us more deeply into that topic.

There are obviously other ways we can do this as well, just a few thoughts to consider as we look at the months ahead of us. So in conclusion, the concept of Antichrist is one that's well known in the world at large, but probably not so well understood. Hopefully, as we've looked at the actual scriptures, what they say and what they mean, they brought some additional thoughts into all of our minds. As we've seen today, Antichrist does refer to an end-time figure, but it also refers to a spirit or a philosophy that we need to be aware of and that we need to guard against in order to avoid deception. What better way to spend time between now and Passover than in deepening our understanding of Jesus Christ and his gospel as it's revealed to us in the Bible?