Deceiving and Being Deceived

1 John 2:18-27

 

Preached 9/10/2023 [Previous Sermon]

[audio]

 

INTRODUCTION

 

It was providential that we were in 1 Corinthians 15 last week.  Remember that in that chapter the apostle Paul was warning the believers in Corinth that they must hold fast to the gospel of Christ, particularly the historic bits about his death, burial, and resurrection on the third day.  They must hold fast to the gospel with a firm white-knuckled grip because the gospel is historical, because the resurrection of Christ is our only source of hope, and because of the hero of the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ. The passage ends with Jesus defeating all authorities and finally even the last enemy, death, and returning to heaven “so that God may be all in all”. (1 Cor 15:26-28)  In short, without the Lord Jesus Christ there is no gospel, there is no Christianity, and there is no hope. And it’s not just any guy with the name of “Jesus”, it is the Jesus of the gospel.  Who is that Jesus?

 

He is the Word of John 1:1, the eternal Son who in the beginning was with God and was God, who was God’s unique begotten Son (John 3:16), the Word who “became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. The One promised by Isaiah the prophet who would be born as a child but would be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, [and] Prince of Peace”, who would come to rule “forevermore”.  And though He would have “no form or majesty that we should look at him” and would be “despised and rejected by men”, He would bear our griefs and carry our sorrows and He would receive stripes and be pierced and crushed for our transgressions and iniquities.  In fact, the Lord would lay on Him the iniquity of us all. And it came to pass, as Paul wrote: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21) and He “was declared to be the Son of God in power …  by his resurrection from the dead …” (Rom 1:4)  Without these facts, there is no such thing as Christianity, and, as Paul points out, without the resurrection from the dead and the hope it brings, “we are of all people the most to be pitied”.

 

This brings us to our next passage in the first letter of the apostle John.  Remember that John is writing to Christians who are evidently feeling some doubts about their salvation, and John is writing to them to give them assurance.  Remember the purpose statement he gives in the fifth chapter:

 

1 John 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

 

In the previous seven sermons from this book, we have seen that John gives assurance by describing things that are not true of individuals who are saved.  The three categories of tests that he gives us are social, moral, and doctrinal. In the immediately preceding verses John warned against the love of the world instead of the love of God.  The next text is a doctrinal test. John starts the section with an alarming warning:

 

1 John 2:18   Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared. From this we know that it is the last hour.

 

We all have a concept of a person called “The Antichrist”, a name that lurks on the edges of our most sinister imaginations and inhabits the charts of prophesy teachers and Hollywood movies alike. You might be surprised that John is the only writer in the entire Bible to use that name, and only in his first two epistles.  Now that does not mean that this person is not described elsewhere in scripture, but we will have to look under other names. That name must have been in general use by the later decades of the first century when John wrote this letter, though, as indicated by his matter-of-fact statement that you (plural) have heard that he is coming, so John is not making up a new doctrine.  In fact, John will not talking “The” Antichrist at this point, but uses the name as an introduction to another point about the church.

 

So what does the Bible say about “The” Antichrist?  I’m not going to spend much time here other than to mention a few of the passages that talk about him. Of course he is found in the book of Revelation where he is described as a world leader that John perceives as “the Beast” in his prophetic visions. The unbelieving world will give him all authority and he will speak blasphemies against God and rule for 42 months.  He will control all commerce and his number will mysteriously be six-six-six.  He will torment the saints until the Lord comes and captures him and he is thrown into the lake of fire forever.  But there are other references of which here are a few:

 

The first mention of this man is way back in the book of Daniel. In a series of predictions in the seventh chapter of Daniel he arrives as a “little horn” who “speaks great things” and defeats other kingdoms until he is defeated by “the Ancient of Days” and given over to be burned with fire. He returns later in Daniel, where he is called “the one who makes desolate” and who will defile God’s temple in an “abomination of Desolation”.  In the New Testament, the apostle Paul calls him “the man of lawlessness”, “the lawless one”, and “the son of destruction” in 2 Thessalonians. According to Paul he will oppose and exalt himself against every other so-called god, taking his seat in God’s temple and proclaiming himself to be God, which makes him a satanic counterfeit of Jesus. He will perform false signs and wonders and deceive those who are perishing (which Paul says is the devil’s ministry in 2 Corinthians 4).  In the end, Jesus will end his reign with a word – with the breath of his mouth – and bring him to nothing.

 

But that is all future, though it will happen in the last days. Of course the question on everybody’s lips is: “when are these last days?”  As John points out, we are there.  He starts this section with “it is the last hour”, and that was back in the first century AD.  In Acts 2:17 Peter implies that they started with the beginning of the church.  The writer of the book of Hebrews confirms this when he says that God has spoken to us (past tense) in these last days by his Son.  Peter writes in 1Peter 1:20 that Christ “was made manifest in the last times for your sake”.  And Paul warns Timothy in his second letter to him that “in the last days there will come times of difficulty”.  What follows in 2 Timothy chapter three is a list of sins and attitudes that sound like today:

 

2 Timothy 3:2-4   For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

 

Certainly that does not just sound like a plot of a movie about the apocalypse – it could be discerned from any newspaper printed today.  But then he goes on to describe their religious practices.  They have an appearance of godliness but deny its power.  They creep into households and capture the weak through sin and sensuality. They and their victims are described as “always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.”  This is very important, and the section finishes with this warning:

 

2 Timothy 3:13 But evil men and impostors will proceed [from bad] to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

 

What does Paul recommend to Timothy?  In verses 14-17 his direction is clear – “continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed.” He directs him to remember “the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”  With those scriptures, Paul says Timothy will be “complete, equipped for every good work”. This passage is a strong parallel to the words that John wrote here in chapter two of his first epistle, from the warning to the solution.  John calls these imposters “antichrists”, and says that many of them have arisen.

 

From the beginning, Jesus described his coming kingdom in a strange way.  During the last times, which encompass the entire church age from Pentecost at the beginning of Acts to the great final battle between Christ and Antichrist in Revelation, the visible kingdom would have two types of people in it.  The sheep and the goats.  The wheat and the tares (weeds).  But at the end of this age the wheat is going to be separated from the tares and the tares will be burned.  Jesus said He would separate the sheep from the goats and the latter would go into “eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:46).

 

What is the difference between wheat and tares?  The truth is, both plants are nearly identical – right up until they produce seeds.  In the parable Jesus talks of a farmer whose enemy plants tares among his wheat plants in an attempt to ruin his crop.  The problem is that the tares are not detected until it is too late and it is too hard to selectively pull out only one kind of plant.  In the church it is the same way.  Not all those who go to a church are actually saved, and we do not have the omniscient sight to tell the difference in others accurately.  If we go around attacking everyone in the church that we think is less spiritual than us, real wheat plants will be damaged as we grab every plant that we think is a weed.  But Jesus assures us that He knows his sheep and the final tally will be exact and correct and just.

 

And John is not giving us these next few verses so that we can form an Inquisition Tribunal to inspect our fellow church members. Jesus gave the only rules (and authority) to the church for dealing with sin there in Matthew 18.  No, remember that John is writing to Christians so that they may be sure of their own salvation and eternal destiny, so that they can rest in their faith in the wonderful Christ who saved them, and this is no exception. 

 

So what is a little ‘a’ antichrist, anyway?  Well, the Greek prefix “anti” has two meanings: against or in the place of. So antichrist can mean “against Christ” or “instead of  Christ”.   Now if someone went around a church preaching against Jesus, they would be rather obviously not a true Christian.  But we have no problem replacing the true Jesus with false ones of our own imagination. Paul chided the Corinthian believers because they were listening to “super-apostles” who came to them and “proclaim[ed] another Jesus than the one we proclaimed”.  Remember that in last week’s example, those same believers wanted to avoid offending their neighbors by adopting a Jesus that did not physically rise from the dead.  Paul warned them against this.  These “antichrists”, then, were marked by having other versions of Jesus than the true one.  As we look through this passage we will see that those John wrote to here were in the same predicament, and so are we today.  So John says that “many antichrists have arisen”.  He then gives us three characteristics of an antichrist (and therefore, by extension, three characteristics of a true believer):

 

1. He Departs from the Fellowship (so true believers stay),
2. He Denies the Faith (so true believers affirm the faith),
3. He Tries to Deceive the Faithful (so true believers preach the true gospel).

 

Let’s look at the Departure, the Doctrine, and the Deception of these antichrists:

 

 

I  Departure of AntiChrists (v19):

 

1 John 2:19  They went out from us, but they were not [really] of us; for if they were of us, they would have remained with us; but [they went out], so that it would be manifested that they all are not of us.

 

Boice points out that this verse bears upon two great Christian doctrines: the perseverance of the saints and the nature of the visible church.  We have already touched on the latter idea and this can easily be understood.  First, we must understand that the word “church” is used in more than one way in scripture.  First, it is the universal body of Christ, the church that Jesus said that He would personally build and that the gates of hell would not prevail over. This universal, or invisible church is the gathering of every person redeemed by the blood of Christ, who has received Him by faith, and who has eternal life with Him forever. But there is also the visible church, the human organization that meets together in the name of Jesus in various places all over the world, all through this “last hour”. And that organization will always be comprised of true and false believers even according to Jesus. When you come to the end of the sermon on the mount you find Jesus giving a warning about people coming to Him and saying “Lord, Lord, look at all the wonderful things I did for my church”, to which He said that He will tell some “depart from Me, I never knew you”.  That is a sobering warning.  I am convinced that when we get to judgment a lot of us will be surprised when we see some of the most pious individuals we know unmasked as being unsaved, and others we thought unworthy being received in joy because of their faith in Jesus.  As God told Samuel in the Old Testament: “God does not see as man sees, since man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7)

 

The other major doctrine is the one described here – the Perseverance of the Saints. It is also sometimes described as “once saved, always saved”, though this term, while descriptive, leaves open some misunderstandings.  The idea is that, since every believer is “born again” or “born from above”, being, as Paul described “a new creation”, they are now not what they were.  They are made alive from the dead. They are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who is given as a comforter and guide but also as a promise – a seal – of our inheritance.  A seal indicates ownership.  It indicates protection.  It says “I stand by this and my authority is keeping it”.  John will later in this letter describe true Christians as those who overcome the world.  Paul promises in Romans 8 that “those that [God] justified, he also glorified”.  It is God that does the keeping of the believer for heaven. Sure, a true believer may fall on his face spiritually, he or she may mess up or get confused.  But like a magnet that believer will return to his Savior, and he will not ultimately deny or leave Him since he is now a member of the family.

 

So what about those who seem like believers but evidently aren’t?  Are they all lying in wait around the church fingering their Snidely Whiplash mustache and whispering “heh heh heh heh” while plotting mischief and mayhem?  No. Remember that Paul described then as “deceiving and being deceived”?  Certainly some know that they are there to fleece the sheep or to cause trouble. Some have been forced to come and are chafing in their pews with disdain. But many others are there for reasons other than a love of Jesus.  They are there because they like the music, or the food, or the conversations, or the fact that most churches (hopefully) are more friendly than the group of people that they met at the park or the people at work and its nice to be around nice people for a change. Or, maybe it’s the tradition of the country, or of the family, to go to church together, and they never questioned it.  Hey, why not, right?  Waking up with an alarm on the weekend may be annoying, but it’s what you do, so to speak.

 

But as John points out, though these people are “among us”, they will not all stay. Many, many people who go to church, sometimes for years, fade away or stop abruptly. We see it all the time, and it’s heartbreaking.  Many who leave do so because they had a bad experience.  Some leave because “the church is full of hypocrites”. Oh really?  Sinners in a church?  Imagine! Seriously, though, I would guess that if you were to point out that their departure just means that “there is only one less hypocrite there now” they wouldn’t take it well.  In the end, there are probably only two main reasons people leave church for good: Either they got mad at someone and their pride keeps them from reconciliation and forgiveness, or, frankly, all that Jesus stuff was just… not very interesting.  Now John is not talking about someone leaving a cult, or moving to another city or joining another local church closer to home, he is talking about those who leave the faith.

 

Note the progression: They were of us, then they left.  They looked like Christians, then they didn’t.  They were excited about church and said all the right things, then they didn’t. Why did God let them leave?  John says “so it would be manifested (made obvious) that they were not of us.”  So, which does more damage – antichrists in the church or outside the church?

Daniel Akins writes: “The greatest dangers to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ are always from within, not from without.  Satan is a master deceiver and strategist who knows that the deployment of a spiritual Trojan Horse can do serious, if not irreparable, damage to the body of Christ.  However, once the damage is done, the antichrists will leave the spiritual battlefield taking with them what captives they can.  Eventually they reveal their true colors and allegiance.  Their departure will almost always be painful and the occasion for tremendous grief. … Alistair Begg says it well: “there are some who share [for a while] our earthly company who do not share our heavenly birth”.[1]

 

So what is the mark of a believer?  You overcome.  You stay.  Even if you change churches for a good and spiritual reason you will immediately seek out another place to hear the word preached and to use you spiritual gifts to bless the body of Christ.  If the story of your life is “no, I no longer go to church because….” then John cannot offer you any assurance. (So, glad you’re here!)

 

 

II  Doctrine of Antichrists (v20-23):

 

The second difference between Christians and antichrists in the church is a doctrinal one.  No, I am not talking about disagreements about the time of the rapture or which bible translation you believe is the best for study! I am talking about the question that Jesus asked the apostles in Matthew 16:

 

Matthew 16:15b "… who do you say that I am?"

 

This is the question that Jesus asks all of us.  The people had said that Jesus was John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the prophets, but Simon Peter gave the right answer:

 

Matthew 16:16b  "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

 

The word Christ is the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew word “Messiah”.  It means “the anointed one”.  Kings and priests were commonly anointed for service, and the coming King and Redeemer that the Old Testament prophets predicted was THE Messiah, THE Christ.  The King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Expected One.  Jesus’ response to Peter here is very relevant to our current text. Jesus said to Peter:

 

Matthew 16:17b  "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

 

Jesus made it clear that this knowledge, this bedrock understanding of who Jesus is, is a gift direct from God the Father in heaven.  Nobody comes to the acceptance of this fact of their own accord, from their sinful flesh.  Paul told the Corinthians that the natural state of humanity is spiritual blindness, that they are blinded by the god of this world.  But when God calls a person, He shines a light into their dark soul.  What is this light?  It is “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  Anyone who has received that bright revelation of God’s glory in their heart, for real, is never going to replace it with something else.  Paul says that we can be afflicted in every way, persecuted and struck down, but if we have that treasure of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ we will not be crushed, driven to despair, or destroyed by those afflictions.

 

The antichrists have not received this revelation, so their Jesus will be a figment of their own imagination, tailored to their own personal specifications.  They will not answer as Peter did when Jesus asked the apostles “who do you say that I am?”  John here says that they will deny that Jesus is the Christ.  Let’s re-read verses 20 through 23”

 

1 John 2:20-23   ²⁰ But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. ²¹ I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth. ²² Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. ²³ Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

 

A Christless Christian does not exist.  And antichrists invent non-biblical Jesuses all the time. Some say that Jesus was a mere man.  Some argue (in direct contradiction to the bible) that Jesus sinned just like we do.  If either of these were true He could not be our redeemer and we will die in our sins and face a terrible judgment.  Some teach that Jesus was an angel that was temporarily given a body.  Islam says Jesus was a great prophet but that He did a switcheroo at the last minute and someone else was crucified in his place.  Some argue that he only swooned on the cross but did not die that day so that He did not need to rise.  Some say that He was crazy, or a guy in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Some even say that he was a regular man who was possessed by the Christ Spirit (or something like that) which left Him when He was on the cross. 

 

Confessing Jesus as the Christ is not just using “Christ” as if it were his last name.  As Calvin says, to confess that Jesus is the Christ is to confess the Christ of the scriptures.  And John says plainly, to deny the Son is to deny the Father.  If you say that Jesus is not the Christ, then you deny the Father and the Son.  When Philip asked Jesus to show him the Father, Jesus replied "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?” (John 14:9)  Anyone who makes up their own Jesus has an empty hope, just like someone who jumps out of an airplane with a few feathers and a pinwheel, thinking he has made a new airplane.  It is foolish and futile.

 

So what about believers?  We have already talked about the enlightening of the soul, but John uses interesting wording in these verses.  In the Greek, John says that “you” (the true believer he is addressing here) have an “anointing” from the Holy One.  Jesus is the Christ (Christos), THE anointed One, and you are also anointed (chrisma) by God.  What is the result?  “you all know .. the truth”.  Not some Christians.  ALL OF YOU.  This knowledge is the birthright of all true believers. Denying it is the mark of antichrists.  Warren Wiersbe writes: “If you will investigate the history of false cults and antichristian religious systems in today’s world, you will find that in most cases their founders started out in a local church!  They were “with us” but not “of us,” so they went out “from us” and started their own groups.

 

 

III   Deception of Antichrists (2:24-27):

 

So, just like Paul said to Timothy, John gives us the way to be safe from the influence of these antichrists. He does so by pointing to the two main weapons we have to safeguard our faith.  What are they?  What has God given us to make us overcomers?  He has given us the scriptures, and he has given us the Holy Spirit.  And the keyword for the rest of this passage is the simple word “abide”.  Let’s read the last four verses and note how often it comes up. Also keep in mind that the word “abide” will connect us to the next part of this letter (which I am scheduled to talk about in about a month) so keep it in mind.

 

1 John 2:24-27   ²⁴ As for you, let that which you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life. ²⁶ These things I have written to you about those who are trying to deceive you. ²⁷ And as for you, the anointing whom you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as He has taught you, abide in Him.

 

Paul said to “hold fast” to what you have been taught.  John says to “abide” in it, or, rather, to let it “abide” in you.  What does that mean?  Well, the word abide (Gr. Menō) means to remain, not to depart, to wait for, to continue to be present.  When I stay in a hotel for one night, I generally take just what I need for the next day out of my suitcase and leave everything else in there.  When I moved into my house, I worked hard to put away everything in the correct drawer, cabinet, or closet so that I could find it over the years and not trip over it.  My commitment to living in a hotel room is minimal – I even try to avoid sitting on any of the furniture in the room that is not recently with a newly washed sheet.  Never know who did what there.  But I am comfortable in my house because I know what has been there since 1987.  A hotel is a fleeting memory, but I abide in my abode.  I am in it for the long haul.

 

Now let’s look again at these four verses.  What do they say about God’s commitment to you?  In verse 25 John says that God has made an amazing promise to you. What is “eternal life”?  Let’s say that there was someone that asked to spend the night at your house while their apartment was being fumigated.  Would that be a huge commitment?  Probably not.  But what if they told you that they had just started looking for lots to build a house on and that they would like to sleep in your living room for the next five years.  How would you respond to that request?  Now imagine that they are rather obnoxious (as all of us are compared to the Holy and Awesome God of heaven – admit it) and you promise that they can stay in your house forever. Now that’s abiding!

 

Going to the beginning of verse 27 we see another part of God’s commitment to his relationship with you. The anointing that we are talking about – the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the pledge of our eternal inheritance, our comforter and guide in the truth – what does it do?  It “abides in you”.  He is there, he has moved in permanently.  All his things are (figuratively) in your closet.  His name is on the lease.  He is paying the bills, forever.  Do you feel the commitment yet?

 

What is our responsibility in response?  Remember that gospel message that brought you to Jesus?  Let it abide in you.  Don’t send it out on the street.  Don’t make it sleep in the garage.  Don’t put it in a tent in the backyard.  Keep it in the dining room where you can feast on it every day.  Use it for wallpaper and read it off of the walls every day.  Don’t let it go.  John’s promise to you if you do?  “You also will abide in the Son and in the Father.”  Isn’t that an amazing good deal?  Now here’s the question: if you were challenged to explain the gospel to the person next to you in church right now and they had to grade your understanding, would the number of years you have spent abiding in the gospel be evident in your response, or would you be unable to even give a simple recitation of the glorious gospel of Christ?

 

Another amazing statement is found in verse 27 – “you have no need for anyone to teach you”.  Did you just think “oh, good!  John says I don’t need to go to bible studies at my church!  I’ve been obeying all this time!” Nope.  That’s not what it means. Ian Hamilton writes: “The risen, ascended Lord has given the gifts of ‘pastors and teachers’ to his church, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ’. Indeed, John is himself writing to instruct his beloved children in the faith.  The point he is making is that true believers, indwelt by God’s Spirit of truth, do not need anyone to tell them how wrong false teaching is: the no that ‘no lie is of the truth’.  Thus the indwelling Holy Spirit sensitizes the child of God to spiritual truth and gives him an ability to discern error when it poses as truth.” [2]

 

Also John says to abide in Him.  Do you talk to Him?  Do you meditate on his word to you?  What percentage of your thoughts were about Jesus over the last week?  Did you look forward to meeting Him each day?  Is He welcome in your house during the day and night?  When you watch TV?  In the car with you when you drive on the freeway?  Do you marvel about God’s attributes and mercy and love in your discussion at communion services, or is finding something spiritual to encourage your brothers and sisters with too difficult so you just discuss your work, pets, tv shows or video games because that comes more naturally?  Do you listen to the voice of the Spirit of God when He gently convicts you of sin, or do you look for a distraction and “quench” his voice?

 

Conclusion

 

Remember, please, that the motive John has is to give his children comfort.  We should come from this message with a stronger understanding of, and hope from, our faith.  If any part of this was hard, remember that all of John’s tests are tests of quality, not quantity.  In chapter three especially we will see a lot of verbs in present participle form.  We all fall down, but Christians’ lives are marked by a preponderance of spiritual fruit rather than deeds of the flesh, especially as we grow and progress in the faith.  We still sin, but not as continually.  We fall, but we get up.  We overcome.  And someday we will be given perfection in holiness.  And hoping for that is probably the best proof of salvation, as we will see in the next passage from this book.

 

If any of this burned us, think of this book in this way:  The church is the bride of Christ.  The book of John is not a divorce manual, it is a marriage manual.  Each of these tests is a helpful guide to lead us all to a perfect marriage – where we will abide forever with Christ.

 

[Next Sermon]

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[1] Christ-Centered Exposition, Exalting Jesus in 1, 2, & 3 John, Daniel L Akin, p50-51

[2] Let’s Study the Letters of John, Ian Hamilton, p29

Why The Inferiority Complex?

1 Corinthians 15:1-27

 

Preached 9/3/2023

[audio]

INTRODUCTION: Hold Fast To The Gospel  (V1-2)

 

About a week ago, on August 15^th, an interesting conversation took place on X (formerly Twitter).  A woman named Lizzie Marbach, who at the time was the communications director for Ohio Right to Life, tweeted a simple message on her personal page.  It read “There’s no hope for any of us outside of having faith in Jesus Christ alone.”  It was a simple declaration of the gospel, the defining belief of Christianity through the centuries.  It is the “good news” that we all are supposed to share with every person on earth.  But something happened that day that gave me a great (and I think ‘God sent’) illustration for the sermon today.  Not long after she had posted this simple gospel statement, a response came to her from a US Representative from Ohio:

 

“This is one of the most bigoted tweets I have ever seen. Delete it, Lizzie.

Religious freedom in the United States applies to every religion. You have gone too far.”

 

Though we may be initially shocked at such a statement, we really should not be surprised. We live in an age where making any exclusive claim to know the definitive truth about anything is considered a terrible thing by many who believe that they are people of good will.  In their minds, most of the fighting, wars, and evil in this world are due to having, or at least expressing, any opinion that is controversial in any way. Probably the most well known articulation of this point of view is expressed in the John Lennon song Imagine, which proposes a world where everybody gets along and "lives as one".  It paints a pretty picture, and the formula given to achieve this peaceful unity is pretty simple: Just get rid of heaven.  Just get rid of countries. Simple, right?  But how does one get rid of heaven?  How does one achieve such a feat? The answer is multifaceted but not very complicated.  It takes making a just few assumptions to embrace this solution:

 

• First, just decide is that truth is not really that important. Or that it is unknowable, and therefore not relevant to anything. If you talk about truth you cannot go beyond the bounds of your own existence. It is just fine to have “your own truth”, and in fact people are encouraged to find their own truth.  But never, in any circumstances, can you propose any truth as applying to everybody. No! In fact, today in modern universities even basic math is considered subject to this rule.  You believe that 2+2=4? If so, you might be a racist. No, I am not joking. But even greater absurdities are now accepted by so-called educated people.

 

• Second, decide that the ultimate moral rule in the universe is absence of conflict between people. We see this expressed by the person who proudly exclaims “I never discuss religion or politics”, or by those who attack people with strong opinions or strong moral convictions by calling them “haters” or "arrogant” or “divisive”.

 

Of course this is not a rational view.  One has to abandon rationality to hold it.  In its modern expression all truth claims are derided in these terms - basic math and even logical argument have been labeled "white supremacy" by the modern intellectual class in our highest universities. Even potential supreme court justices have denied that it is even possible to define the term "woman".  If you hold the traditional view now you will be derided as intellectually ignorant.  One thing that you will not get, of course, is a logical argument on the subject. It cannot even be allowed because the more important thing is to get along.

 

This brings us to our text.  Our days are not at all unique.  It was the same two millennia ago. Did you know that it was not because the first Christians believed that Jesus was God that the Roman Empire put them to death. It was rather because these Christians said that Caesar was therefore not God. That was a big no-no.  Like the “your truth is different from my truth” people today, the Romans thought that they were some of the most magnanimous and open-minded  people in the world.  "You have a different God?  No problem! Come on in!  We love diversity of opinion.  We have a 'big tent" ^(TM).  In fact, the Greek philosophers in Athens used to "spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new". (Acts 17:21)

 

But the Christians had a message, and they were bound by the command of their Lord to preach it to the whole world.  And in that mission many, many of the faithful have been hated and persecuted, sometimes losing everything in this world, including their lives. In the example already mentioned, yes, the congressman gave a not very convincing public apology, but not long after I read that the woman was fired from her position at the pro-life foundation for publicly expressing an exclusively pro-Jesus message on her private twitter account, on her own time.  Too divisive, you know.  I also read that the congressman’s wife served on the board of that organization. Coincidence? I’ll leave that one in the Lord’s hands.  He knows his own sheep.  Nonetheless Jesus warned us that we would have persecution in this life.  He said that people who killed us would think that they were serving God by doing so. That doesn’t sound very tolerant, does it?  But that’s how this world works.

In this environment, we are left with strong pressure to conform, to be quiet, and, most of all, keep the gospel to ourselves.  Or if we can’t be quiet, we should at least drop the parts of the gospel that might make people uncomfortable, or angry. Maybe we could conform the gospel to other people’s world views?  Maybe we can just decide that some parts are not so important.  The question we should ask it – are we ashamed of the gospel?  The apostle Paul started the book Romans with this statement: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16a). But the Corinthians had a problem – they were becoming ashamed of some important parts of the Christian message, and Paul would have to deal with it.

 

These believers, who had come to Christ during the years that Paul spent there, lived in a similar environment to ours. Their city was a major cosmopolitan hub and a meeting-place for many cultures. It was rich and full of that day’s “enlightened” Greek and Roman culture, just down the coast from the great city of Athens with its schools of philosophy. As people in Corinth became believers, they found themselves at odds with their neighbors. They would be invited to the next door backyard barbeque, but the occasion might be to celebrate the god Jupiter.  In fact, the Greeks and Romans were very, very religious.  Everything they did was associated with some god. They accumulated as many gods as possible.  But the Christians could not do that.  So the Romans eventually ended up referring to Christians as átheos -- atheists.  Awkward!

 

Another problem they had was that the idea of a physical, bodily resurrection (like Jesus’), was offensive to the prevailing philosophies of Greek thought. They saw a total separation between the physical and spiritual world and all sin and imperfection was from of your body while all goodness was in your spirit. The death and resurrection of Christ was a stumbling block. His crucifixion and death was considered too demeaning for anyone that they should respect, and coming back bodily was unthinkable if He was to be pure and holy.  So the Corinthians had started to soft pedal these most fundamental pillars of Christian belief so they could live without conflict.  Paul, after dealing with many other problems in their church, gets around to the fundamental issues in chapter fifteen.  He starts the chapter with this reminder of his message:

 

I Corinthians 15:1-2 (LSB)  Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I proclaimed to you as good news, unless you believed for nothing.

 

He reminds them that their salvation was completely due to their acceptance of the message that Paul had received from the Lord and given to them.  And he gives a four points of relationship that they (and we) have with the gospel:

 

1. It was proclaimed to them (and us) as good news.  Good news is literally what the word euangelion means.
2. They received it, which means that they accepted it and associated themselves with it.
3. They stand in it.  This means that they were publically standing in it.  They lived in it.  It upheld them.  It establishes them.  It causes them to be safe for eternity.  Like the man who built his house on the bedrock in Jesus’ parable, when the storms came, the gospel would be their salvation, their hope, their strength, and their assurance. Nothing would be able to pluck them from Jesus hand, and their eternity was assured.
4. They must hold fast to it.  Paul uses the Greek word katechō, which means to take, to keep it from getting away, to keep secure, to hold on to and to keep firm possession of.  Which is where they were falling down.

 

Paul says that if they don’t hold on to the gospel, then their belief was pointless.  The same applies to us.  Why should we not have an inferiority complex in this world with a gospel that so many find offensive?  Paul give them three big reasons: First, the fundamental facts of the gospel are rooted in actual history – it really happened – and those events were necessary parts of our redemption.  Second, the gospel and those events, provide us with an eternal hope.  Without those events, we have literally no hope!  Third, he points to the unequalled Hero of the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God.  The one who defeated every other power and even death itself, literally through the events that the Corinthians were tempted to soft-pedal to be accepted by their seemingly sophisticated culture.

 

So let’s get to verses three through twenty-eight, and look at the Historicity of the gospel, the Hope of the gospel, and especially the Hero of the gospel!

 

 

I The Historicity of the Gospel (V3-11)

 

Paul gives us the first reason to hold fast to the gospel in these nine verses: Because this gospel is connected to actual history. Anyone can make up a compelling, emotional story.  Thousands of prophets and self-proclaimed gods have appeared throughout history, making amazing claims.  The fact that there are so many different philosophies and religions is one of the reasons that so many people have given up on belief in any.  But are there any different?  Paul tells the Corinthians that the answer to that question is a resounding yes. He starts this way:

I Corinthians 15:3-4   For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

 

The most important part of the gospel – the absolutely main and indispensable part of all of Christianity – is a series of events that happened in a specific place, at a specific time, and with a specific Person.  And these events are rooted in history in a threefold manner, which surrounded them in their past, present, and future:

 

1. They were specifically planned and predicted in the past,
2. They actually took place in space and time, and
3. They were attested to after the fact by many eye-witnesses who could verify them to the Corinthians.

 

Do you believe that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and was raised on the third day?  Have you searched the scriptures to see that this was predicted?  In his book “The God Who Is There”, Francis Schaeffer wrote:

 

As we get ready to tell the person God’s answer to his or her need, we must make sure that the individual understands that we are talking about real truth, and not about something vaguely religious which seems to work psychologically. We must make sure that he understands that we are talking about real guilt before God, and we are not offering him merely relief for his guilt-feelings. We must make sure that he understands that we are talking to him about history, and that the death of Jesus was not just an ideal or a symbol but a fact of space and time. If we are talking to a person who would not understand the term “space-time history” we can say: “Do you believe that Jesus died in the sense that if you had been there that day, you could have rubbed your finger on the cross and got a splinter in it?” Until he understands the importance of these three things, he is not ready to become a Christian.[1]

 

The wonderful thing about Christianity is that it was always proclaimed in the open, right from the start. Years later when Paul had been arrested and was brought to testify to King Agrippa he was able to make this appeal: “For the king knows about these matters … for this has not been done in a corner.”  There are no secret initiations and revelations given in dark chambers to initiates whose origin we must take without confirmation. The original believers had seen the risen Christ and went out to testify, holding fast to their witness even when faced with torture or death.  All they had to do was admit that they were making it up.  But they testified with their own blood that Jesus had risen from the dead. It is not for nothing that the Greek noun translated “witness” is martyros, which is the word from which we get the modern English word martyr. To this day it means one who gives their life for the faith.  Paul lays down the list of witnesses that were contemporary with the Corinthian believers:

 

I Corinthians 15:5-11 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. After that, He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, and not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then [it was] I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

 

Enshrined in our Constitution is the right to cross-examine witnesses against you.  The Mosaic law required facts to be verified by more than one witness (who agreed with each other under independent cross-examination) before anyone could be convicted of a crime.  And in this most important message, God made sure that there were witnesses.  Paul tells the Corinthians that if they are having problems with Jesus’ death, burial, and physical resurrection, they can go and talk to eyewitnesses. There could very well have been of them in the area of Corinth at that time. They therefore had no excuse for unbelief, or questioning the fact of the resurrection; however philosophically inclined they might be to question it.

 

Listen how Paul ties the gospel to history at the beginning of Romans (1-4): “… the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power … by the resurrection from the dead, …”  Notice that Paul actually describes himself to the Corinthians as the least of the witnesses.  He was “untimely born” – saved by Jesus after the resurrection and the ascension.  While the other witnesses were out being martyred, Paul had been persecuting them.  But God had shown him grace, and Jesus had met him on the Damascus road, and he would spend the rest of his life being the best witness he could to the one who had commissioned him.  But he had seen the resurrected Christ also.

 

 

The other apostles made the same appeal.  John starts his epistle strongly referring to the historicity of his gospel, repeating himself for emphasis over three verses: “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life-- and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us-- what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also…”  (1 John 1:1-3a LSB) 

 

Peter (here called by his Greek name Cephas) said: “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such a declaration as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory: "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased"-- and we ourselves heard this declaration made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.”

 

So they (and we) should not be ashamed of the gospel because it is real.  It was predicted in advance in recorded history – there exist manuscripts of all or most of these prophesies from before Jesus was born, died, was buried and then rose from the dead.  When the New Testament was written there were witnesses who testified and who often paid the ultimate price for their witness.  And there is an unbroken line of believers from then to now of people keeping the message pure and testifying with their lives also.  We must never have an inferiority complex about the gospel!

 

 

II The Hope of the Gospel (V12-19)

The hope of the gospel is tied to these historical events.  They are not just interesting or inspiring stories.  Jesus was not killed to just be a martyr that people felt sorry for.  His historical death and resurrection are the basis for our hope of salvation. The Corinthians had no idea what they were doing by denying physical resurrection, and Paul, in a quick succession of points, makes it very clear to them.

 

I Corinthians 15:12-14  Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, your faith also is in vain.

 

If you let the resurrection go, our hope collapses like a house of cards or a long line of dominoes.  Denying the resurrections in general means that Jesus was not resurrected. If Jesus was not resurrected, then the gospel itself and our faith in Christ is useless.  It is pointless to preach the gospel, pointless to believe in Jesus, if we deny the resurrection.  Consider – it is the easiest thing in the world to claim “I am going to die in your place for your sins so you can go to heaven!”  Any criminal on death row could make that his last words.  And someone at the execution might decide to trust that pronouncement.  But how could that faith be assured?  How could the man’s claims be verified?  Well, if he also said “when I finish this, I will rise again on the third day”.  If he managed to pull that off, especially after being publically put to death by professional and malicious government-trained executioners and soldiers, then there would be a must surer ground for faith in the other promise, right?  Remember that Jesus Himself made a similar argument with the healing of the paralyzed man.  He told him that his sins were forgiven, at which the Pharisees got angry.  But Jesus replied “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?” Jesus then told the paralyzed man to get up and walk.  And he did!  Right before healing the man Jesus told them he would do the healing “that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”.  The impossible thing proves the invisible thing in both cases.

 

Paul finishes his thoughts in the next seven verses.  He spares no argument here, leaving Christianity in a pile of ashes if there is no such thing as the resurrection of Christ:

 

1 Corinthians 15:13-19  But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, your faith also is in vain. Moreover, we are even found [to be] false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are of all people most to be pitied.

 

What is Paul’s message to those who water down the claims of the gospel and make it a religion of just rules and happy stories? Not only are you wasting your time, but you are the most pitiful person in the world – in all of history.  Being a follower of a religion that denies the death and resurrection denies the atonement. Without the atonement Christianity has nothing to offer but a sort of social club where we get together … to celebrate what?  What would be the point?  In this milquetoast version of Christianity, its hero is a fool, a victim, a liar, a madman. It is the hero of the movie Jesus Christ Superstar, who tells God “kill me now, before I change my mind”, and who is rebuked at the beginning and the end by Judas for making a bad plan and making his message about himself and so getting inadvertently killed instead of being a success.  Is that the Christianity that you have believed in?  If so, Paul calls you a loser.

 

But Paul does not leave them at this low, low point.  Oh, no.  Now he paints a wonderful picture of the true Hero of the gospel!

 

III The Hero of the Gospel (V20-28)

The Bible calls the gospel “the gospel of Jesus Christ” for a reason. Without Jesus there is no gospel.  In actual history a man said that he had come to seek and save the lost. In accordance with prophesy he was wounded for our transgressions. He was called “the Lamb of God” for this reason. He announced at the beginning of his ministry the words we all know so well: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” and He proclaimed that “…the Son of Man came … to give his life as a ransom for many.”  (Matt 20:28)

 

Remember that anybody can claim that they will defeat death for all mankind.  But if they stay dead, there is no reason to believe them. If they rise from the dead then they can convincingly announce “remember when I said ‘it is finished’ on the cross? Well, guess what. It’s true. You can be saved by faith in Me. And you can take that promise to the bank. In all history there is a great shortage of people who come back from the dead of their own accord.  But Jesus defeated death, as Paul points out here:

 

I Corinthians 15:20  But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

 

There can be no second until there is a first. Jesus rose to be the first, so that we can have hope of eternal life.  Jesus is therefore the hero of the gospel – the Hero that we all needed. Remember the famous statement from Poor Richard’s Almanac – “there are only two sure things in life; death and taxes.” The Bible tells us something a bit different.  In the family of Adam there are two sure things. As the writer of Hebrews put it:

 

Hebrews 9:27-28  And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

 

All of us have a death appointment.  Some have short lives, some long. But even the healthiest, most fit person ever will die. And after this is an appointment for judgment. But the judgment is far different for those who have trusted in Christ and have their sins atoned for, than for those who die still “in their sins”.  Paul makes clear the difference between the family of Adam and the family of Christ, who is the firstfruits of the new resurrection, in the next verses.  It describes the history, hope, and hero all in one package:

 

I Cor 15:21-22   For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

 

And there is one other surety for those who trust in Christ, that He will come back for us. And all of our hope comes from that amazing resurrection.  Now Paul unveils our Hero in all of his glory, as the conqueror over everything, including death itself:

 

I Corinthians 15:23-28  But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign UNTIL HE HAS PUT ALL HIS ENEMIES UNDER HIS FEET. The last enemy to be abolished is death. For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. And when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.

 

 

III Conclusion

 

If we forget our Hero we have a headless and aimless religion.  A ‘Christianity’ without Christ is a nothing.  If every religion leads to God and gets everyone to heaven, then Jesus came for nothing.  But someone who makes that claim might argue, your faith in Jesus will get you to heaven, and this other guy’s belief in the flying spaghetti monster will get him to heaven, it’s the faith that counts, then every part of the gospel is denied.  If we are taught that we need the atonement of Christ to be justified before God and to be saved from an eternity of the righteous wrath of God for an eternal life of joy in the presence of God, but another religion that teaches that God can be persuaded to let you into heaven if you collect 27 cereal box tops, then what does that make Jesus?  If you can get to heaven by collecting box tops, then not only was the death of Jesus pointless, but ultimately a complete waste of time.

 

And if someone calls themselves “Christian”, but the hero of their religion called Christianity is

• a hapless, wandering teller of stories and lessons about how to be nice to one another who got caught up in politics and killed inadvertently,
• or a mythical figure that was created by people to give us some sort of emotional inspiration,
• or even the enlightened but mysterious head of a group that can only be learned about in secret by people with special access,

rather than the sinless Son of God who laid down his life and then rose by his own authority to proclaim freedom for the captives of sin and death, then they are wasting their time in church and should just say like Paul does in verse 33:

 

1 Corinthians 15:32b  If the dead are not raised, LET'S EAT AND DRINK, FOR TOMORROW WE DIE.

 

If Jesus did not rise from the dead, the ultimate meaning of life is found in the old beer commercial: “You only go around once in life, so you’ve gotta grab all the gusto that you can.”  Or maybe it is just “he who dies with the most toys wins”. If you are ashamed of Jesus and the facts of the gospel, that’s all you have left.

 

But if the Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures, and was buried, and rose again according to the scriptures, then we should hold fast to that word

 

Which we have received,

 

In which we stand, and

 

By which also we are saved.

 

It is the ultimate good news, which was prepared from the foundation of the world.

 

We must not be ashamed of the gospel.

 

We must not give in to the world just “to get along”.

 

We should not count our “Christianity” as just going to church for an hour a week but not sharing the gospel or ministering personally to the needs of the saints, or sitting at home nursing old grudges because another believer said something that made us feel bad.  And we should never have an inferiority complex about the amazing gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

He is Risen!  (He is risen indeed!)

 

 

 

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[1] Francis Schaeffer, The God Who Is There, 1968 & 1990, p147