ANTICHRIST (4) | REJECTING JESUS

1. Denying Christ Has Come In The Flesh

a) “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist …” (1 John 4:2-3)

b) Jesus was both the Son of God and the Son of Man. “Jesus” was His name as the Son of Man – a fairly common name in that time. “Christ” was He whom God had anointed to be King over Israel. Therefore, He is both Jesus and Christ. Jesus Christ. In this name the two are combined as one: the Son of God and the Son of Man.

2. Rejecting Jesus

a) In Jesus’ day, the scribes and Pharisees maintained that Jesus was only Jesus – He was not the Christ. They did not want to hear what He had to say. Therefore, they rejected Him and even viewed Him as a deceiver. Just think of how wrong they were! God’s Son, born into mankind, having partaken of flesh and blood as we, and yet they viewed Him as a deceiver and crucified Him. They denied that He was the Christ come in the flesh, and thus were in the spirit of the Antichrist in their day.

b) The spirit of the Antichrist started to work in a different way as soon as the apostles started to build the church upon the cornerstone which is Jesus. Now, instead of denying Him as the Son of God, the spirit of the Antichrist works to deny Him as the true Son of Man – a man who was born with the same flesh and blood just as we have, including a human nature with sin in the flesh. Not a sinful flesh. That would only have happened if He had given in to temptation and sinned. But sin in the flesh, which means that He could be tempted to sin. He was tempted, yet overcame every single temptation, and thus God condemned sin in the flesh through Him. No, the majority of the religious world rejects this, and sees Him only as someone who came in a kind of likeness of the Son of Man. Flesh and blood, but with divine nature instead of human nature. (Romans 8:3-4; Philippians 2:5-11; Hebrews 4:14-15)