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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Eric Walsh

Who or What is Anti-Christ?

We're going to just talk briefly this afternoon on the topic, who or what is anti-Christ?

This talk came out of watching or getting a YouTube link that was saying that Barack Obama was the anti-Christ.

And it was interesting because when you go to some of the sites, they actually have a lot of evidence, their evidence, but evidence to say that he is or isn't, or that he is.

And there's others who are fighting to say he isn't.

But It's interesting because you wonder sometimes if we don't get off the course of truth by dealing with side issues like that.

So I wanted to go back through the Antichrist because this is something that even as an Adventist we often have a simple answer for it, but as you study it, there's a little bit more to it than it seems.

So we start in the book of John, the 13th chapter, verses 21 to 30.

And I'll read in your hearing, when Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in his spirit and testified and said, verily, verily, I say unto you that 1 of you shall betray me.

Then the disciples looked 1 on another, doubting of whom he spake.

Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom 1 of his disciples whom Jesus loved.

Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.

He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it?" So our message again, who or what is Antichrist?

Let's just pray before we go any further.

By your heads, Father God, we thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to study a word.

Lord, give us clarity of mind and thought, and Lord, we ask that you would help us, Lord, to make the proper connections to the current time and to the soon coming of our Lord.

Lord speak through me, let me not be seen or heard.

So at the Last Supper, the disciples, they get into all kind of mess, the disciples did.

1 of the big things that they like to do is to argue over who would be first when Jesus came into his kingdom.

They argued about who's going to be number 1.

There's a big argument that they always had, who's going to be the vice president, I guess you could say.

And so there were always these infighting, and every time it happened, Jesus got upset.

Now, you have to remember, after Jesus fed the 5, 000, when they got on the ship, what were they arguing about?

They did not understand that Jesus' Messiahship was not of this earth.

He did not come to liberate the physical nation of Israel.

This is a misconception that exists today with the nation of Israel.

People still think that Jesus is going to come a second time now and liberate Israel, set up a throne in Jerusalem, and live for a thousand years.

But this misconception is at the heart of what Judas ultimately does.

Judas believes he is helping Jesus if he betrays him because he's going to quicken the necessary events so that Jesus can take over the world.

Don't forget that as you go through these texts.

So it goes on in John chapter 13, it says, Jesus answered, he it is to whom I shall give a sop, what I have dipped it, and that's just to take a piece of bread and dip it in the oil.

And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.

And after the sop, " watch this, "'and after the sop, Satan entered into him.

Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.'" Now was he speaking to Judas or Satan when he said whatever you do, do it quickly?

He was speaking to Judas, but Jesus knew that it was no longer Judas in control of Judas.

Now let me step back because there's a strong point that must be made here.

Judas had just had his feet washed by Jesus, amen?

Now this is how close Judas was to Jesus.

He had just had his feet washed by Jesus.

As a matter of fact, when you look at how the Last Supper was laid out, they had recliners that they kind of reclined on to eat in that time, and so they were reclining.

John, the beloved, the 1 who writes the book of John, Revelation, and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John is closest to Jesus.

That's who Peter beckons to give him the answer, the author of the book that we're reading from.

Judas or Peter are the 2 also closest to Jesus.

There's debate as to which 1 was next to him.

John was probably on this side, but was it Judas or Peter here?

But either way, 1 of the 2 of them, and the 2 of them were very close to Jesus.

Ironically, the 2 disciples that were going to give Jesus the biggest verbal and outward headache had pulled up closest to him.

In other words, people can be in the very presence of Jesus and not be converted.

They can spend long hours with Jesus and never actually have a relationship with Jesus.

They can be close to Jesus and actually never know who Jesus is, and out of that lack of knowledge is born the spirit of antichrist.

The idea that you know Jesus when you really don't is what gives people the unction to try and force God's hand.

It is why you have a gospel of prosperity being preached on the television networks of the United States today.

Because many of the people preaching it have no concept of what the kingdom of God really is.

God's kingdom is not of this physical earth.

So they're trying to build heaven on earth now.

A misunderstanding of Jesus is at the heart of the Antichrist.

It says then, now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake unto him.

Nobody knew what Jesus was really saying because they all only saw Judas.

They didn't know Satan had taken control of him.

That means that there are people that can be among us who are actually working for the enemy and some of us who also have spent a lot of time with Jesus would not be able to recognize them either.

So there's something about the Antichrist that has a stealth nature to it.

For some thought, because Judas had the bag that Jesus had sent unto him, buy those things that we need against the feast, or he should give something to the poor.

He then having received the sop went out immediately, and it was what?

It wasn't simply night because it was nighttime.

It was night because it was spiritual night.

When Judas left the presence of Jesus, the light of the world, and walked out to go and deal with the rabbis and the enemies of Christ, when he walked out to do that, he wasn't just in the night because it was nighttime, he stepped into spiritual darkness.

When you turn your back on Jesus and walk away from him to do him harm, you step into spiritual darkness.

Why was Judas able to be the antichrist among the disciples?

As a matter of fact, when you read Ellen White, Judas was probably the most qualified of all the disciples to be a disciple.

That's part of his problem because the whole time he's dealing with these ignorant fishermen and unlike tax collectors, Judas is thinking, why am I even spending time with these clowns?

There's only 1 of us that can really help Jesus do what he needs to do, and that's me, Judas.

And Judas figured, you know, why am I not getting paid, by the way?

And so Judas, because he carried the bag, which is critical, he carried the money bag, Judas would dip into the money bag and take out of it whatever he wanted.

He was among the closest to Jesus at the table, but In another way, Judas was 1 of the leaders.

He was inherently a leader among the disciples.

In fact, besides Jesus, he was probably the most respected of the 12.

He ate from Jesus, Had his feet washed, meaning that if eating from him is representative of the Word, he had taken the Word and he had been, if you take the foot washing as a symbol of a kind of baptism or repentance, he had gone through the rituals.

He goes out from among them into darkness.

But I want to jump back to another story real quick to show you why Judas gets mad in the first place.

This is important because sometimes we get mad at God.

And part of what I want you to learn about the Antichrist is the scriptures say that there are many Antichrists, and that there's a spirit of Antichrist.

And we have to be careful we don't become so angry with God that we become Antichrist, each and every single 1 of us.

John 12, John a few chapters earlier says, then Jesus 6 days before the Passover came to Bethany where Lazarus was which had been dead whom he had raised from the dead.

There they made him a supper and Martha served but Lazarus was 1 of them that sat at the table with him.

Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.

Then saith 1 of the disciples." Now nobody else but John points out who this disciple is.

In fact, John is always pointing out who people really are.

Probably because John wrote, was alive long after everybody else.

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Who or What is Anti-Christ?

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