Antichrists and Pro-Christs: 1 John 4:1-6 - Third Sunday after Pentecost

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. ⁴ Little children, you are from God and have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world; therefore, what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (NRSVue)

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Today’s sermon text introduces us to one of the most terrifying figures of the bible: the antichrist. We’re warned that the antichrist is coming and is already in the world. That statement has kept Christians on edge for the last 2,000 years, and for good reason. Christians have never had to look hard for antichrists in times of persecution and war. Medieval popes were branded as antichrists, and justifiably so, considering their greed, immorality, and violence. When schisms broke out in the church, you had both sides pointing to the other as the antichrist. When people are divided, there is no better way to demonize your opponent than to label them the antichrist! Martin Luther was accused of being the antichrist, as have most U.S. presidents and presidential candidates.

 

And yet, for as dangerous as the antichrist is, the bible says very little about him. He’s mentioned only four times, and only in the epistles of 1 and 2 John. Stranger still, the antichrist isn’t described as a person, but a spirit—a spirit that does not confess that Jesus is from God.

 

In the days of the early Church, when people had legitimate questions about Jesus’s divine and human natures or his death and resurrection, there arose many false prophets who provided easy answers. Some said that though Jesus was God’s son, he was not divine. Others said that Jesus came to earth in a spiritual body that only resembled a human body. Some argued that Jesus escaped crucifixion and some other poor soul was crucified in his place while he looked on. Others deny Jesus’s bodily resurrection from the dead. Indeed, the possibilities are endless.

 

The first red flag for the spirit of the antichrist is when your salvation is said to depend more on what you do than what Jesus does for you. A prophecy that diminishes Christ is anti-Christ.

 

The second red flag for the spirit of the antichrist is when the name of Jesus is invoked to gain power and riches. These false prophets are not hard to find. You’ll see them on television, preaching that if you send them money, God will prosper you, just like God prospered them.

 

The spirit of the antichrist wages wars and genocides under the banner of the cross, like the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It quotes chapter and verse of Scripture to justify slavery, oppression, and discrimination.

 

While it is a good question for us to ask what evil looks like and where it’s taking hold in our society, we would be amiss if we ignore our own sinfulness. There’s a little antichrist alive and well inside of all of us, including you and me. But there is hope.

 

The term antichrist is a kind of oxymoron because no one has ever successfully been anti-Christ. We crucified Jesus and he forgave. Death put Jesus in the tomb and God broke him out.

 

Wherever the Gospel is proclaimed, and the law of love is obeyed, Christ is truly present. This will make it much simpler to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” If those spirits strengthen us in telling the story of Jesus, confessing sin and receiving forgiveness, teaching the faith to our children, or improving to improve the lives of our neighbors, we will know they’re from God! If, on the other hand, those spirits pit “us versus them,” if they tell us we’re not sinners, if they promise wealth or power instead of justice and righteousness, then they are most definitely not from God.

 

In the end, the Spirit of the antichrist is defeated by the spirit of the pro-Christ: the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth Jesus speaks of in today’s Gospel. This is the Spirit you receive in Baptism. This is the Spirit who gives you faith. This is the Spirit who helps you pray. This is the Spirit who makes you a pro-Christ!

 

Today, we pray for an even greater measure of that Spirit, so that we, the people of First Lutheran Church in Leechburg, will become even more pro-Christ for the sake of our neighbors and the world around us. We pray for this spirit so that more of our neighbors are clothed and fed, and more laborers are sent out into the world to reap the bountiful harvest.

 

We pray for this Spirit to help us welcome lost and weary souls into this family of faith.

 

We pray for this Spirit to help us give promising futures to the children of our community, that they will grow up knowing the love of Jesus, and be strong to carry on the ministry of the Gospel when we are all gone.

 

We pray for this Spirit to purify our hearts; capturing our desires for material wealth and success; our needs for control; the energy we lose to worry, and our passion for personal causes—and make them all pro-Christ.

 

We don’t let our guard down to the antichrists, but we don’t live in fear of them either—because no one has ever successfully been anti-Christ. We crucified Jesus and he forgave. Death put Jesus in the tomb and God broke him out.

 

Confessing Jesus Christ as crucified and risen, and living in obedience to the command to love the neighbor as the self, all the antichrists are vanquished.