WHAT WAS JOHN'S MESSAGE?

What did we learn from John’s first letter?

• John’s message is focussed on ‘the last time’ with the antichrist looming on the horizon
• Antichrist will deny ‘the Father and the Son’, and deny ‘Jesus Christ come in flesh’
• The stakes are high – life and death!
• The crux of John’s message is perfect love, which casts out fear!
• The ‘ekklesia’ (church/assembly) is NOT mentioned in John’s 1^st letter once!

We also know…

• John was a Jew known as Ionnes (Heb: Joannes) and his brother was Iokobos or James (Heb: Yaakob)
• Jesus hinted that John might be around for quite a while – he gets the last word by recording The Revelation while on the isle of Patmos
• John’s ministry was directed towards Jews
• John was refuting Gnostics who labelled ALL matter as evil, so denying the deity and atonement of Jesus Christ
• ‘Antichrist’ is a Jewish term for the false messiah. John’s Gospel identifies Jesus as ‘the Messias’ – the ‘Mashiyach’  in Daniel’s prophecy about his people and his city.

Meanwhile…



"Crucify Him!"

• To this day most Jews reject Jesus Christ as their messiah:

“He ought to die because he made himself Son of God”

• The Muslims claim in their Qur’an:   “the Christians call Christ the Son of God…Allah’s curse on them”

• There is still 7 years unfulfilled from Daniel’s 70 ‘week’ Jewish prophecy 

 So!...  the focus is Jewish, the antichrist looms, 7 years of fearful tribulation are ahead, ideology that rejects ‘Jesus Christ come in flesh’ is sweeping the world… and John makes no mention whatsoever of the Church!
Wow! Nearly 2000 years later, John's message seems more relevant than ever.

Food for thought??

Oh and by the way… there is loud mockery of an imminent rapture of the Church.




NEXT: It's time we opened John's Gospel to see why we should believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.