Having the Father and the Son

1 John 2:20-23

January 12, 2003

 

Our text this morning is found in 1 John, chapter 2:18-27.  1 John 2:18-27.  Follow along with me as I read the text.  Read text.

What is a Christian?  There is not a more basic, fundamental question the Bible deals with than this question.  Yet today it is one of the most misunderstood concepts in Scripture.  The meaning of being a Christian in modern society has been obscured to such a degree that a large majority of our nation would describe themselves as Christians without hesitation.  We see, however, the stark contrast between biblical Christianity and the general course of society, and it does not take long to realize that a majority of people in our country and in our world are not Christians at all. 

Even within the church, the definition of Christian is a far cry from the biblical understanding of the word.  A leading bishop in the Episcopalian Church who claims to be a Christian also claims that Jesus never literally, physically resurrected from the dead.  In the mid-1990s, several leading evangelical leaders signed a document entitled, “Evangelicals and Catholics Together,” which was to be a pact between protestants and Catholics to bring about unity between the two groups.  This document called for a cessation in the evangelism of Catholics and readily acknowledged Catholics as true Christians.  As unsettling as this is, it becomes even more alarming when seen in light of a document entitled “Reflections on Covenant and Mission” which the Catholic Church helped publish on August 12, 2002.  You can read the entire document by going to our website, cbcwichita.org, and clicking on the link that will open the document for you. 

“Reflections on Covenant and Mission” was written by leaders of the Catholic Church and rabbis of Jewish synagogues who are trying to work together to understand each other’s views and benefit from one another.  The preface to the document sums up the message of “Reflections on Covenant and Mission” when it says, “Campaigns that target Jews for conversion to Christianity are no longer theologically acceptable in the Catholic Church.”  Why is it “theologically unacceptable” in the eyes of the Catholic Church to evangelize Jews and tell them the message of the cross?  The Catholic bishops answer that question by writing, “The Church believes that Judaism, i.e. the faithful response of the Jewish people to God’s irrevocable covenant, is salvific for them, because God is faithful to his promises.”  The document goes on to say that the Catholic Church “acknowledges that Jews already dwell in a saving covenant with God.” 

In other words, the official position of the Catholic Church is that Jews do not need Jesus Christ to be saved, and they obtain salvation by another method.  Jewish people who deny that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, are still going to heaven according to the Catholic Church.

When you put this information with “Evangelicals and Catholics Together,” you see that we are slowly but surely eliminating any need for anyone to be converted to Christianity at all!  The definition of Christian is blurred, so much so that those who deny our Lord and Savior who died a horrible death on account of our sin and for our justification and salvation are now counted as already saved and in no need of any evangelism, any repentance, or any faith in Jesus. 

So the question must be asked, “What does it mean to be a Christian?  Who is in a relationship with God?  Who is going to heaven because they have been reconciled to God?”  Catholics now believe that Jews are saved apart from Christ.  Evangelicals believe that Catholics are saved, evidently through the Catholic sacraments and system of works.  It is only the next logical step that Evangelicals will soon believe that Jews are saved apart from Christ by their own method.  In fact, some who call themselves evangelicals today would already make that claim. 

This is not a new problem.  In the first century during the lives of the apostles false teachers had already sprung up who were trying to change the definition of a Christian.  One such group was the Gnostics.  They were present at the time when 1 John was written, and one of the groups he specifically writes against is this sect called the Gnostics.  They believed that there were secret revelations and knowledge from God that a person could get, and they also had a different doctrine of Jesus.  There were two basic schools.  The first group believed that Jesus was a phantom.  He never really appeared in a physical body and never came in the flesh.  The second group taught that the man Jesus was not the Son of God, but at His baptism the Spirit of the Christ came upon the man Jesus, and then at His death, right before He died, the Spirit of the Christ left Him, and He became a mere man again.  Thus, they denied the deity and humanity of Christ, and they denied that the Son of God died for their sins.  It is against these people that John writes his letter.  He is combating doctrinal error which will lead people away from the truth of Christ.  John is very clearly answering the question, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” as he deals with these Gnostic teachers.

We saw last week that he begins by pointing out who is not a Christian, and he calls these false teachers and false Christians antichrists.  They were at one time within the true church, and some of them were probably leaders within the church.  Yet they defected and left the truth and were trying to take away others who professed Christ with them.  So John warns his readers in verses 18 and 19 about these people.  “Don’t be confused by them,” John warns, “because they were never really in the truth at all.  They are antichrists who have no part in Christ and are not Christians whatsoever.” 

John began this section by pointing out who is not a Christian.  These people who have left the truth, who have abandoned the teaching of Jesus and of the apostles, are not Christians.  They are, in fact, antichrists.  Next John proceeds to outline what it means to truly be a Christian.  Who are the true Christians?  Who are the ones who are truly saved?  John’s final analysis is that true believers are those who have the Father and the Son.  A Christian, according to this passage, is someone who has the Father and the Son.  John develops this by showing three marks of a person who has the Father and the Son.  John gives us three distinguishing marks of a person who has the Father and the Son.

 

An Anointing from the Holy One (v. 20)

 

            The first distinguishing mark of a Christian is that he has an anointing from the Holy One.  A true Christian has an anointing from the Holy One, and this is found in verse 20.  John says, But you have an anointing from the Holy One. 

            In contrast to the antichrists, you who truly believe, you who are the true Christians, you have an anointing from the Holy One.  There is something notably different about you.  You stand out.  You have an anointing from the Holy One. 

            In this verse there are two things that we have to deal with if we are to understand what John is talking about.  First, we have to answer the question, “What is the anointing?”  What is it?  What is he talking about?  And second we have to answer the question, “Who is the Holy One?”  Who has given this anointing? 

            Let’s start with the first question, “What is the anointing?”  Here’s what I think John is saying here (and I’m going to give you the broad, final answer, and then I’m going to show you why I think this is the answer to this interpretive issue): John is saying that God has set apart true Christians for Himself by giving us the Holy Spirit.  I believe what John is saying here in verse 20 is that God has set us apart as Christians for Himself, He is creating out of us a people for His own possession, and He has done this by giving us the Holy Spirit.  That is how He has ensured that we will be set apart and different and secure until either we die or Jesus comes back. 

            Now why do I say that?  To understand this you have to go back to the Old Testament and understand the biblical meaning of anointing.  All the way back in Exodus 29 we see this concept.  In Exodus 29 we find the instructions God gives to Moses regarding the priests, and especially how to consecrate, or set apart, the priests.  In verse 1 God says, Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them to minister as priests to Me.  Here is the proper way to set apart the priests.  Here’s how you do it.  The first thing that happens is a sacrifice must be made.  Then Aaron was to be clothed with the priestly garments, and then in verse 7 we read, Then you shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him.  Then the instructions are repeated in brief for Aaron’s sons, and the section closes with God saying, So you shall ordain Aaron and his sons.  Anointing was a crucial part in consecrating, in setting apart, the priests.  The final action that was taken to set someone apart as a priest was this anointing.  In order, then, to set someone apart for service to God under the Mosaic Law, that person must receive an anointing.

            We see this again in 1 Samuel 10.  Israel has asked for a king, and Samuel has gone to consecrate, or set apart, God’s man as king.  And in 1 Samuel 10:1 we read, Then Samuel took the flask of oil, poured it on his head, kissed him and said, “Has not the Lord anointed you a ruler over His inheritance?”  To set apart Saul as king, Samuel went and Saul had to receive this anointing.  The same thing happened with David in 1 Samuel 16:12-13.  Samuel anointed David to set him apart as king. 

            In the New Testament we see this same meaning.  In Luke 4:18 Jesus quotes the prophecy from Isaiah 61:1-2, and says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.  Jesus claimed that God had anointed Him, or set Him apart, to preach the Gospel, the good news of salvation and redemption. 

            So we see that in Scripture whenever we have this concept of anointing there is this idea of being set apart or consecrated for something.  So when John says in verse 20 of 1 John 2 that we have an anointing, the immediate understanding must be that we have been set apart for God.  We have been set apart for God’s use in some capacity.  In contrast to the antichrists who are apart from Christ and enemies of God, we have an anointing, we have been set apart by God unto Himself. 

            The question now is, “What have we been anointed with?”  In the Old Testament, you remember from our passages, the anointing was always with oil, with the only exception being the anointing of the Messiah in Isaiah 61:1-2.  That anointing was different, and in the New Testament, this anointing is no longer with oil, but it is with the Holy Spirit.  The anointing is the Holy Spirit.  What was the Messiah, the Christ, Jesus, anointed with?  In Acts 10:38 we read, You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him.  With what?  Oil?  No, Peter goes on to say, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit.  The anointing Jesus received was not at the hands of men; it was a direct anointing from God and it was the Holy Spirit. 

            All believers receive this anointing as well.  We have been anointed with the Holy Spirit.  Paul makes this connection in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 when he writes, Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.  The anointing is connected with receiving the Holy Spirit.  In 1 John 4:13 we read that God has given us of His Spirit.  And in 1 John 2:27 we read that the anointing we have received teaches us, and according to John 16:13 our teacher is none other than the Holy Spirit Himself. 

            What John is saying here, then, is that God Himself has set apart all true Christians unto Himself by giving them the Holy Spirit.  If you are a Christian, God has set you apart for Himself by giving you the Holy Spirit.  There are those who believe that a person can become a Christian but not receive the Holy Spirit, but that is impossible.  Everyone who is a Christian has received this anointing from God, the Holy Spirit, and is set apart.  There are no exceptions.  That is what the anointing means.

            Secondly, then, who is the Holy One?  To see this turn back to John 15:26.  We see an amazing truth about the Holy One.  The Holy One is the one who gives the Holy Spirit, the anointing, and in John 15:26 we read, When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.  Who has given the anointing?  Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit from the Father.  The Holy One John refers to is Jesus who gives us the Spirit, the anointing, from the Father.  The Son sends us the Spirit, but He sends us the Spirit from the Father. 

            This is an amazing truth!  The whole trinity is involved.  The Son, Jesus Christ, sends the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father.  The entire Trinity is involved in you being set apart, anointed, by God.  The Son is involved because He is the One who sends the Spirit, so in a sense He gives us the anointing, but He gives us the anointing from the Father.  The Spirit proceeds from, goes out from, the Father. 

            Oh what kind of people should we be who have been set apart by the infinite, omnipotent, Triune God!  How different should our lives be since we have been so called and designated by God to be His very own and to be set apart for Him!  This is one of the most glorious truths in all of Christianity here in 1 John 2:20, that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has set us apart to be His own people.  This is rock under our feet when false teaching comes and the meaning of Christianity is diluted and watered down.  If we are truly in the faith, no matter what the world thinks of us and no matter what the external, visible church may think of us and our Jesus we have been set apart by God as His own by His Spirit.  This is the first mark of someone who has the Father and the Son – he also has the Spirit.  True Christians have been anointed by God with His Spirit.  They have an anointing from the Holy One.

 

Knowledge of the Truth (vv. 20-21)

 

            The second mark of a true Christian, someone who has the Father and the Son, is that he also has knowledge of the truth.  True believers have knowledge of the truth.  John tells us this in verses 20 and 21.  He writes, And you all know.  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. 

            This is a characteristic of believers that has so often been overlooked.  There is indeed a subjective experience that we have as Christians, a peace in our hearts that we have been reconciled to God, but there also must be objective knowledge of the truth.  True Christians know God’s truth.  They understand the truth of God’s Word.  In John 17:17 Jesus said of the Father, Your word is truth.  Believers have an intimate knowledge of God through His Word. 

            In verse 20 notice that John says, You all know.  Underscore the word all in that verse.  No one is excluded.  “You all have knowledge of the truth” is what John is saying.  If you are a believer, you know the truth about Jesus, about God, about salvation, and sin, and heaven and hell.  This is the mark of being in the New Covenant. 

            In Hebrews 8:11 the writer of Hebrews quotes the promise of the New Covenant, and he writes, And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.  The writer of Hebrews says that all will know the Lord.  Who is the all here?  Is it everyone in the world?  No, the all refers to everyone in the covenant community, everyone whose sins have been forgiven according to verse 12.  We know that this is the church, Christians, those who have been forgiven by the blood of Jesus.  All Christians know the Lord.  That is what it means to be a Christian is to know the Lord and to be known by Him. 

            So John says that a mark of being a Christian is to have knowledge of the truth.  We are going to look more in depth at this next week as John covers it in more detail in verse 27, but this morning understand that the second distinguishing mark of being a true Christian is knowledge of the truth.  All Christians must have a certain, basic knowledge if they are Christians at all. 

            So John says, “I’m writing to you not because you are outside the truth and need to be brought into the truth, but because you know the truth.  You know Jesus Christ, and you know that no lie comes from the truth.  So I am writing to you not because you are outside of Christ, but because you are in Christ.”  “You are different than the antichrists,” John says, “because you all know the truth.”  The antichrists did not know the truth.  Although they claimed to have knowledge, they were a fraud and did not know the truth, but believed the lie. 

            Is this not how it is with the world everyone outside of biblical truth?  The world is always trying to get us to think that there is truth outside of Christ that we need, whether it is in philosophy or psychology or any other human system.  But John reminds us that as Christians we have the truth, and we all know it, and there is nothing from the human standpoint that can help us or give us truth, since we have the Word of God. 

            So we see then, that all Christians have an anointing from the Holy One, and they have knowledge of the truth.

 

Confession that Jesus is the Christ (vv. 22-23)

 

            Third, and last in John’s list, is that all true believers, everyone who has the Father and the Son, confesses that Jesus is the Christ.  Look at verses 22 and 23.  John writes, 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.  Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. 

            John begins by stating this principle in the negative.  John draws a clear line at this point, and he goes so far as to call the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ the liar and the antichrist.  These are strong words, and in our society of tolerance they are not the types of words that we are accustomed to hearing.  What would be thought of a preacher who stood up to the Catholic Church and to Jewish rabbis and said that since they were denying that Jesus is the Christ they were liars and antichrists?  Yet this is what John says!  Anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ is the liar and the antichrist! 

            Do you see how serious a thing it is to deny Jesus Christ?  It is serious to mess with the truth of God’s Word and to compromise it for any reason at all. 

            The question may very well be asked, “What does it mean to deny that Jesus is the Christ?”  What does John mean by that?  Any denial of the truth about Jesus Christ is a denial of Jesus as the Christ.  When John talks about denying that Jesus is the Christ, what he means is denying that Jesus is the Messiah as prophesied in the Old Testament.  This means that any denial that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ as it is in Greek, and all that goes along with Jesus being the Messiah, the Christ, is denying that Jesus is the Christ.  So we can understand what John is saying by asking this question: What is true about the Messiah, the Christ?  Anyone who denies that any of these attributes belongs to Jesus denies that Jesus is the Christ.  Let me give you three suggestions.

            Number one.  The Christ is equal with God the Father in deity.  The Messiah would be very God.  We can read this in the Old Testament in several places, we won’t take the time now, but this is a truth taught in the Old Testament.  So anyone who denies that Jesus is equal with God the Father denies that Jesus is the Christ.  This would include Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness, Muslims, Jews, and many others.  Any denial that Jesus is Himself God in human flesh is a denial that Jesus is the Christ.  And anyone who follows these denials is a liar and believes a lie.

            Number two.  The Christ is the only way of salvation for mankind.  God would send a Savior, one Savior, and only one Savior, and this Savior would be His very own Son in human flesh.  Jesus articulated this well in John 14:6 when He said, No one comes to the Father except through Me.  Jesus is the Savior, the only Savior, and no one gets to the Father without Jesus.  There is no eternal, saving covenant the Jews have with God that gets them salvation.  Salvation is only through the blood of Jesus Christ, the New Covenant, and the only way to get into the New Covenant is to put your faith in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Lord.  There is no bloodline, no family relation, no promise of God that puts you into the New Covenant.  Only faith in Jesus gets you these promises of God.  So anyone who denies that Jesus is the only way is the liar and the antichrist.

            Number three.  The Christ, as God and Savior, would speak only the truth, so any denial of what Jesus said or taught as written in the Bible is a denial of Jesus as the Messiah.  Anyone who denies the biblical record, the Word given by God to us, denies Jesus.  This denial puts a person outside of a relationship with God.

            The one who denies that Jesus is the Christ denies the Son, and whoever denies the Son, John tells us, does not have the Father.  On the other hand, the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.  The true Christian confesses the Son.  In contrast to the antichrist who denies the Son and therefore the Father also, the true believer confesses the Son and thereby has the Father.  This confession is a confession that Jesus is the Sovereign Lord of the universe and the only Savior since He is God’s Messiah.  It is recognizing that Jesus is in charge of everything and that He is absolutely sovereign.  Not only this, confessing the Son is confessing our need of Him for salvation.  When we confess the Son we admit our own sinfulness.  We become broken before a holy God and we fall on our knees and we confess that Jesus is the Christ, and we need Him or else we perish.  We fall down in humility and contrition for our sins and we recognize and admit and confess that if we do not have Christ Jesus we will die in our sins and receive the penalty we justly deserve.  Confessing the Son isn’t raising your hand while everyone’s head is bowed and eyes are closed and then slipping out of church unnoticed.  It’s not saying a quick prayer.  Confessing the Son is being broken for your sins and admitting your own wickedness and need for a Savior and coming to Jesus and casting all your sin on His cross.  It is humbling yourself before an Almighty God who could send you to hell in a minute and be perfectly just.  Confessing the Son is admitting that you are not sufficient, that you are helpless and hopeless.  Confessing the Son is not what we have made it out to be in America today.  Confessing the Son is being broken before Him.  Confessing the Son is forsaking all other means and methods men dream up of salvation and following Jesus and Jesus alone by faith in Him. 

            If you do this, you have the Son and the Father.  If you do not do this, you deny that Jesus is the Christ, you deny the Son, and you do not have the Father no matter who you are or what nation you come from.  Those who confess the Son are sinners who confess that they are sinners, are broken over their sin, and the only reason they can even stand up and get out of bed in the morning is because they have faith that Jesus’ death gives them forgiveness of sin and a reconciled, love relationship with the Father.  Anything short of this is a denial of the Son no matter what prayer you have prayed or what aisle you have walked or what book you have read or what church you attend.  Those who are true Christians confess that Jesus is the Christ.

            A true Christian is characterized by three essential marks.  He has an anointing from the Holy One, he knows the truth, and he confesses that Jesus is the Christ.  Notice that these three are interlocked and connected.  They all must be present.  The one who has the Father and the Son has an anointing from the Holy One, and it is because of this anointing that the believer knows the truth.  The anointing enables the believer to know the truth.  And this knowledge of the truth leads to a confession that Jesus is the Christ.  There is a progression here that must be present from the moment of salvation until eternity.  The Holy Spirit comes to you, convicts you of your sin, sets you apart for God, gives you knowledge of the truth so that you confess that Jesus is the Christ, and you are saved.  This is Christianity, and it is a stark contrast to the antichrists of verses 18, 19, and 22 who reject the truth and depart from it, denying Jesus and therefore rejecting God. 

            Our world is in desperate need of Christians, true, biblical Christians who confess that Jesus is the Christ because they know the truth, because God has set them apart.  We need to be clear in our definition of what it means to be a Christian.  Jews are not going to heaven if they do not receive Jesus Christ no matter what the Catholic Church may say.  No one gets to God except through Jesus.  The one who has the Father and the Son is the one who has an anointing from the Holy One, the one who knows the truth, and the one who confesses that Jesus is the Christ.  This is what it means to be a Christian, and we must hold this standard without compromise.  Let’s pray.

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