Fear Not – Sept. 24, 2017

We don't need to fear evil forces when we're in Christ

1 John 4:1-6

"The world" is any domain of existence that has not been set properly under the authority of Jesus.

God  loves the world and wants to see it redeemed and reconciled back to himself.

We need to be able to discern good form evil.  John teaches us how.

• To live a life faithful to Jesus we must be able to discern between wolves in sheep clothing and true sheep in the flock of God.
• John gives us markers so we may distinguish the two.
• Understanding the nature of Jesus is essential to understanding his atoning work.
• Jesus cannot be reduced to "a good man" and still remain the Christ.
• Anti-Christian forces (antichrists) are at work in the world today.
• God already defeated the Satan once in Heaven and he will again be defeated on Earth.
• Jesus is greater than the Satan and his forces.

SOME CHRISTOLOGIES

Christology is the part of theology that is concerned with the nature and work of Jesus.  It focuses on the relationship between the human nature of Jesus and his divine nature.

• Gnostics– held that the material world was the creation of the Devil.

• Docetism– maintained that Jesus’ assumption of the flesh was only apparent. 

• Others taught that Jesus was wholly human.

• That he was wholly divine.

• That the divine entered him at his baptism only to leave him at his Crucifixion.

• That he was "inferior" to God because of his physical nature.

• This the divine nature and the physical nature were mixed in Jesus, but not fused.

• Sabellianism–sought to preserve a strict monotheism by holding that Jesus was a form of the one God, a temporary mode of God’s revelation, and that there were three such modes: the Father as creator and lawgiver, the Son as redeemer, and the Spirit as giver of life.

• and more…

C.S. LEWIS SAYS...

He reminds us that there are but three choices when it comes to Christology:

1. Jesus is either a liar who deceived countless people into thinking he was someone who he knew he was not, or
2. He was a lunatic who actually believed some grand things about himself, although they were false, or
3. Jesus was and is the Lord, God in human flesh, who lived a perfect life, died a saving death so that humans could be reconciled to God, and rose again victorious over death and separation from God.

ANTICHRIST, ANTI-CHRISTIAN, WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

In the early church there was a distinction between the great antichrist who is coming and described in the Revelation and the various people who denied Jesus.  

John referenced "the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.  By this we know that it is the last hour." (Remember, this is referring to prerequisites to fulfill scriptural prophesy and not to chronology).  There always have, and always will be, humans who are antichrists, anti-Christian.  We live in a world full of them.

HOW CAN YOU TELL A FALSE PROPHET FROM A CHRISTIAN?

In addition to what we review in this lesson, here are some additional pointers of information to help in discernment:

• false prophets do not exhibit love of neighbor
• they think or say that they are perfect and without sin
• they live a life marked by sin and darkness
• they deny that Jesus is the Messiah promised in the Old Testament
• they deny the importance of Jesus' atoning death

A Christian is filled by the Holy Spirit of God AND acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh as the means of reconciliation with God.

Empty human vessels, not filled by the Holy Spirit, may be filled by intensions, thought processes or spirits that are not from God.