Sermon Title: Knowing Christ

First Reading John 17:1-5

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heavenand prayed:
“Father, the hour has come.Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.2For you granted him authority over all peoplethat he might give eternal lifeto all those you have given him.3Now this is eternal life: that they know you,the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.4I have brought you gloryon earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.5And now, Father, glorify mein your presence with the glory I had with youbefore the world began.

Second Reading 1 John 2:18-29

18Dear children, this is the last hour;and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming,even now many antichrists have come.This is how we know it is the last hour.19They 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 their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

20But you have an anointingfrom the Holy One,and all of you know the truth.[e]21I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know itand because no lie comes from the truth.22Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son.23No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

24As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginningremains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.25And this is what he promised us—eternal life.

26I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.27As for you, the anointingyou received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all thingsand as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

28And now, dear children,continue in him, so that when he appearswe may be confidentand unashamed before him at his coming.

29If you know that he is righteous,you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

Do you know Christ? There is a great danger in being deceived in answering this question.
I once heard a pastor tell a story about deception. He said imagine that I came in late this morning. So you wait and wait. About 15 minutes goes by and I run in, out of breath. Imagine if I were to say, "I'm so sorry that I'm late, I got flat tire on my way here. I was fixing it and, unfortunately, I stepped out into the road and got hit by a MAC truck, it hurt, but then I finished and came as quickly as I could." If I told that story, you would know one of two things about me. Either I was lying or I was very deceived. Because, you look different after you've been hit by a MAC truck. In the same way if we have come into contact with the one to whom the cosmos listens we look different.
In the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis paints an unforgettable picture of Christ. Lucy plays with Aslan, who represents Christ, and Lewis writes this "It was such a romp as no one had ever had except in Narnia; and whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten Lucy could never make up her mind." When you know the one who is kind, gentle, and loving yet powerful, untamable and unstoppable, you look different! So, let's take an inventory right now. Looking at our lives do we look different for knowing Christ? Do we know Him?
There are people, powers, and principalities, that seek to deceive us in answering that question. This morning we are continuing our series entitled "A Love Letter." In this series we are going through letter of 1 John. This is a letter John writes to remind us of God's love for us and how we ought to look different for it. This morning, John deals with those people, powers and principalities that will try to deceive us by distracting us from knowing Him. He calls these people and spiritual powers the 'antichrist.' Who here has heard the word antichrist? This term has been distorted to the point that it basically is a name we call those who disagree with politically. So if we our religion is being a Democrat Donald Trump is the antichrist and if being a Republican is our religion Hillary Clinton is the antichrist. The bible only uses this word five times, all by John. Three of the five are in our reading this morning.
So rather than the media tell us who the antichrist is, let's see what John has to say about the issue. The first two instances are in 1 John 2:18. Here John tells us that the antichrist is not some singular future figure. Instead, there are many and they have already come, and continue to come. The third is in 1 John 2:22 where John tells us that the antichrist is the one who denies the Father and Son. The fourth is 1 John 4:3 where John tells us that the spirit of the antichrist is the one who denies that Christ is from God. Finally, in 2 John 1:7 John tells us that the antichrist is the one who denies Jesus came in the flesh.
Here we see an antichrist that is not some epic figure coming the end of time. Instead, the antichrist seems to be something much less obvious and much more terrifying than that. The antichrist are those people, and spiritual powers, that seek to deceive us into believing that we know Christ, when He has not changed us at all. We are going to spend the rest of our time this morning considering how these antichrists seek to prevent us from knowing Christ? Our answers are going to begin with the letter "W" to help us all with memory.
The first way in which the antichrist seeks to deceive us from knowing Christ is to tell us to wait!
I am reminded of another story from C.S. Lewis . The devil was asking some of his demons to come up with ideas to deceive humans and populate hell. One demon comes up and says, "Let's tell them that there is no God." The devil responds by saying, "No, they know that God exists. After all He wrote His moral law on their hearts, and everything that is created needs a creator. " Another said, "Why don't we tell them that there is no devil." The devil thought about this and said, "That's a little better. However, they know sin must be punished so they know that there must be something like hell and they will know there must be a ruler of hell." The final one said, "We've missed the most obvious one. We tell the humans that God loves them, that He wants to save them and have a relationship with them. We simply tell them there is no hurry, you can wait until tomorrow."
If you cannot say amen, just say ouch! How many of us are waiting to start knowing Christ in a deeper way? How many of us fill our lives with things that are so not eternal, so not necessary, that we neglect the one thing needful? I once heard someone say that if the devil cannot make someone bad he will make them busy. What are those things getting in the way of, causing us to wait for, growing in the knowledge of Christ?
This is not a new problem. That is why the Holy Spirit inspired John to write, at the begging of our reading this morning, "Dear children, this is the last hour;and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming,even now many antichrists have come.This is how we know it is the last hour." Are we more desperate for our sports team, or political candidate, to win or for a deeper personal knowledge of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior? Are we more desperate to lower our handicap on the golf course or get our kids to soccer practice than to know Christ and make Him known? The last thing the antichrist wants us to contemplate is, what is making me wait to take that next step toward knowing Christ.
As we take that step in knowing Christ, what is the next way in the antichrist tries to deceive us? We can be deceived away from knowing Christ by wandering away from true Christianity.
John tells us that the antichrists claim to be Christian but are not. They denythe Son and the Father, deceive us into thinking that Jesus did not come from God, and that He was not really fully human. There are two equal and opposite errors we can fall into when considering wandering away from the faith. First, we can see antichrists under every rock. We can come to think that anyone that has the slightest theological difference from us must be an antichrist! The second, is to deny that there are really important, foundational doctrines that we need to hold on to. This error basically says that it does not matter how we live and what we believe if we put on the label of Christian we must know Christ.
Clearly both of these are in error. There are doctrines Christians can disagree on and both still be properly Christian. At the same time, I cannot bow down a worship a chocolate bar, as good a chocolate is, and properly call myself Christian. In other words, one cannot just make it up on their own. The question is, what is nonnegotiable? What are those things that we must not budge on so the antichrist does not cause us to wander away from the true faith? We do not have time this morning to get into everything that would entail. However,the antichrist figures John dealswith are a good start. In 1 John 2:18-19, John indicates that these are folks who claim to be Christian but really lead us away from Him. They all cause us to wander away from Christ as our Lord and Savior. In 1 John 4:3 the antichrist denies that Jesus is fully God whereas in 2 John 1:7 the antichrist denies that Jesus is fully human.
The common thread that runs through these is that the spirit of the antichrist is, wait for it, anti-Christ. It causes us to wander away from knowing Christ as all sufficient for our salvation. Denying that He is fully God, saying that He was just a good moral teacher, an angle, or the greatest creation, causes us to wander toward works righteousness. After all, only God can forgive sins, if Jesus is not God, He cannot forgive our sins so we must work to earn forgiveness. This destroys the bedrock of Christian faith. It is built on being saved by grace through faith, not works. If we are trying to earn salvation, we will wander away from knowing Christ. This is common in teachings that seem more like self help movements with Christian language sprinkled into it. If we are hearing, or reading, a teaching that claims to be Christian yet it encourages us to gain confidence in ourselves, and our own abilities, and not in Christ to work through us, it may be an antichrist kind of teaching.
Denying Christ's humanity, on the other hand, causes us to wander away from knowing Him because it causes us to seek another human mediator. We see this when leaders call themselves "Christian" but point to themselves rather than Christ. An extreme example of this would be Jim Jones. However, anytime a supposed Christian teacher, points people to him or herself, and not Christ, for salvation, there is an antichrist spirit there.
Another common way to wander away from knowing Christ are teachings which encourage us to use God rather than love God. There is an antichrist spirit in things like the prosperity gospel. This says we ought to give our lives to Christ so we will be healthyand wealthy. This causes us to wander away from knowing Christ because it makes health and wealth our God and goal in life. Instead, true Christian teaching encourages us to, as we sang this morning, "Turn our eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace."
As we turn our eyes toward Jesus, the antichrist's last ditch effort is to deceive us through work. Dr. Steve Seamands puts it better than I can when writing that "God does not want us to become loving workers. Instead He wants us to become working lovers!" That our primary identity would be found, not in what we do, but in who's we are!
This difference is well illustrated by the founder of Alpha, Nicky Gumble. He tells us to imagine the difference between reading a book about someone and knowing that person. So, imagine that before I met my wife Brittany I saw a book entitled "Brittany: An Amazing Woman." I thought this looks like a nice book. I open it up and the chapter titles read, chapter one Her Wonderfully Warm Heart, chapter two Her Potential to Be A Fantastic Mother, and chapter three Her Even Greater Potential to be a long suffering, extremely patient, wife, rather long chapter. I read it and think, "Wow, she seems like an amazing woman!" But, I don't just know about Brittany, I know her. I can tell you that she has a warm heart, is a wonderful mother, and long suffering wife! If we are simply loving workers we only grow in knowing about Christ.
If you have your bibles with you, open them up to John chapter 17, if not we will have the words up on the screen. Starting in the middle of verse 2, Jesus prays to the Father by saying that He had "granted him authority over all peoplethat he might give eternal lifeto all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life (does He say to know about you? no instead He says): that they know you,the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."
Knowing our Creator and Cosmic King through Christ is goal of our faith, not to do religious works to earn salvation.Put differently, eternal life is experiencing the love, power, and redeeming grace of Christ, through abiding (or remaining) in Him and His love! There is literally nothing more valuable, life transforming, and powerful than this. After all, what is it that shapes and molds us more than any other force, intimate relationships. For good or for ill the close relationships we are what make us look different than before!
As we depart today, I want us to open ourselves to being hit with the MAC truck of Christ's love! That we would look different because we refuse to wait another moment to dive into a deeper relationship with Him. That we would, by the power of the Holy Spirit, not allow any antichrist to make us wander away from the sufficiency of His love and grace. That we would not try to work our way to heaven. Depart different because we will not be satisfied with simply knowing about God and His love, but transformed by knowing Christ and making Him known!
Let us pray: Lord Jesus, by Your Holy Spirit, help us to know you better so you may be better known through us!
Receive this blessing and benediction: Let us go forth, knowing Christ in a deeper and deeper way so that He may be known in everything we do!