2 John

Sermons Archive - Greenview Church

Having me this morning, I’ve certainly felt very welcome, and it is lovely to be here. And why don’t you turn to 2 John, in your Bibles, and I will read that just now. The Elder, to the Lady chosen by God, and to her children, whom I love in the truth, and not I only, but also all who know the truth, because of the truth which lives in us, and will be with us forever.

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love. It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear Lady, I am not writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning.

I ask that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

I say this because many deceivers who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.

Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them.

Anyone who welcomes them, shares in their wicked work. I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

The children of your sister, who is chosen by God, send their greetings. Well, why don’t I just pray again shortly for us? Father, we thank you for your enduring words and for how it feeds us. Lord, we thank you for your worldwide church.

We thank you for your church in Scotland. We thank you for Greenview Church and for how we come here to worship you together this morning. We ask that you would speak to us by your spirit.

Amen. Well, I wonder what your first thought was about that reading. I’m sure 2 John is probably a book that most people in the room have read, not least because it’s the second shortest book in the Bible.

But as with all books of the Bible, it is, of course, breathed out by God. It improves our understanding of God and it’s able to train us in doing what is right. And I just want to say that that’s the approach that we should take this morning to God’s enduring word.

It improves our understanding and it trains us in doing what is good. There’s a big focus in this letter on truth and love. So I’m going to make our three headings about truth and love.

Firstly, verses 1 to 3, truth and love. We have them in Christ. Secondly, verses 4 to 11, truth and love.

No one has them outside of Christ. And lastly, truth and love in verse 12 and 13, experiencing them in Christ’s church is complete joy. So let me start with truth and love.

We have them in Christ. Let me read verses 1 to 3 again. The elder to the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth and not I only, but also all who love and know the truth.

Because of the truth which lives in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace from God, the Father, and from Jesus Christ, the Father, Son will be with us in truth and love. 2 John is a letter from the well-known Apostle John, who identifies as the elder to a church.

We don’t know where the church is, but that’s perhaps quite helpful, as that might be deliberate to give this letter a general feel, directed towards all churches of Christ in every age. The language of the lady is a feminine Greek word, most likely referring to a church rather than one individual woman. The Bible uses lots of female personification to describe churches.

Revelation 21 refers to the New Jerusalem as the Bride. In the space of a few chapters of Isaiah, he refers to Jerusalem as a daughter, a mother, and a widow. And if this letter was written to an individual, I would wonder why John doesn’t name her.

It would be unusual to write a personal letter to someone without naming them, especially when in 3 John, he clearly names the addressee as his beloved Gaius. But as far as it goes, I’m sure you’ll agree this is a secondary issue, so I’m not going to spend 10 minutes trying to convince you why we can be pretty sure this is a church, not an individual lady, but I will move forward with that framework in mind. So John loves this church.

He is filled with joy to hear that some of them are walking in the truth. He loves them because they are living in the truth. And we should love them too, because isn’t it so heartwarming to meet other Christians giving it 100% for the Lord Jesus? Who have been the most influential Christians in your life? I’m sure they are probably people who are very loving and very long-suffering because they were very clear and passionate about the truth of the gospel.

I mean, that’s basically what verse 1 is saying, that those who knew and loved the truth will love each other because of that uniting truth. And verse 2 says that this truth is not just a flat academic piece of writing. This is a living, active, indwelling truth.

Jeremiah 31 promised that the law of the Lord would be within us, written on people’s hearts, that there would be no need to say, know the Lord because we all know him from the least of us to the greatest. Hebrews 4 says that the word of God, that truth that lives in us is alive, it’s active, it passes through our soul, it convicts us. Brothers and sisters, if you’re a Christian today, you have the truth living in you.

It’s not just an external historical document, it’s also an internal spiritual reality. The truth is yours if you are in Jesus Christ today. And this truth doesn’t pass away.

John says it’s with us forever. It’s enduring, it’s everlasting, it’s eternally true. And so those who truly have it in their hearts have it with them for all of life.

Those who are truly in Christ will persevere in him right to the end. Believers will not become stagnant and bored in their faith, but will continue to follow Jesus in more areas of life and will bear bigger and sweeter fruits of the spirit as they grow up in the Christian life. This stuff is textbook, Apostle John.

2 John 2 reminds me a lot of the words of Jesus in John 15. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my true disciples.

Now, I know that some of us may feel that we have that Christian truth and love, but our growth in it is just so slow. Well, let me share with you some encouraging words from John Calvin, the great advocate for Christian perseverance. He wrote this in his Institutes of the Christian Religion.

No one can travel so far that he does not make some progress each day. So let us never give up. Then we shall move forward daily in the Lord’s way.

And let us never despair because of our limited success. Even though it is so much less than we would like, our labor is not wasted when today is better than yesterday. As long as the truth remains in us, we will continue to walk in obedience to Christ’s commands to love God and love our neighbor.

The truth is active. The truth lasts. The truth never changes, but it does change us from the inside out.

And verse 3 shows us that the truth of the gospel is to do with the grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ, his Son. The grace of God in undeservedly sending his Son for our salvation. The mercy of God in withholding the judgment that we deserve for our rebellion.

The peace of God in disarming the power of our great enemy, Satan. We now live in peace knowing that the battle is won. Peace is ours and it will be for eternity.

And how is this grace, mercy, and peace with us today? Well, verse 3 says it’s with us in truth and love. The nature of the truth of the gospel is about grace, mercy, and peace. And grace, mercy, and peace are those loving attributes shown by those who love the truth.

God has made his truth clear that he loves us. And we preserve that truth in our Christian community by loving each other. How is the grace, mercy, and peace of God transferred to more people? Well, simply put, it’s done by truth and love.

We love people enough to tell them the truth that will never change and affects everyone. Without grace, mercy, and peace, there will only be hatred, wrath, and conflict. Well, as we go on to our next point, we look at how no one has this truth and love outside of Christ.

Let me read verses 4 to 11 again. It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning.

I ask that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

I say this because many deceivers who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully.

Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them.

Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work. Well, John is filled with joy with the news that some of those in this church are walking in this truth of grace, mercy, and peace in Jesus Christ. The Son of God.

He’s rejoicing to hear that people are listening to his words from 1 John 3, 23. And this is his command, to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Verse 5 says that the command that John now writes to the church is nothing new.

In fact, he’s telling them to keep on doing what they’re already doing, to keep persevering in the truth they know, to keep loving each other in obedience to God’s unchanging command. If we keep love for God and his image bearers at the front of our minds, we’ve got the best and most necessary first step for keeping God’s commands. And here in verse 7, John gives the reason for why we need to keep walking in love according to the truth of Christ’s teaching.

His purpose for writing is found in the backdrop of this context. Many deceivers who did not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh have gone out into the world. We live in an age where there are many deceivers in the world.

And so we need to keep walking together in the truth and love of Jesus so that we don’t switch from commitment to complacency. We need to watch out that we don’t lose what we have produced and lose our reward of eternal life with Christ. There are those who have run ahead from the teaching of Christ, thinking that they have something better, something newer than the apostolic teaching of Jesus Christ.

The members of this church should not welcome these deceivers into their homes for doing so would associate them with their wicked work of preaching a false and non-saving gospel. So John’s exhortation in verses seven to 11 is keep going, watch out, and don’t welcome. Keep going in truth and love, for by them you will preserve yourselves from this deception.

By knowing the truth, loving the truth, loving those who love the truth, you will preserve the gracious, merciful, peaceful gospel of Christ in your community. Keep living in obedience to Christ. Understand the law correctly.

Don’t just be ritualistic and ceremonial, but keep love at the center. Look after the needy in your Christian community, taking great care of them and pointing them toward the truth of the gospel. Keep going because you’re going to need to watch out that you don’t fall into the trap of the antichrists.

Folks, in this age of anti-Christian teaching, you must watch out that you do not forsake the unchanging teachings of Christ that you already know. Now, I’m not going to give you a lecture on the theology of antichrists today because that’s not the aim of the sermon, nor is it the aim of the letter of 2 John, but let’s be clear about a few things. The Greek word antichristos appears only five times in the New Testament.

And it always appears in 1 and 2 John. The word antichrist belongs to the letters of John. It’s not from revelation that we get this word.

And it’s helpful if we don’t try and make hard and uncompromising suggestions about who the antichrist may be. It’s probably not worth my time now getting into arguments about whether the antichrist is Nero Caesar or the Pope or Satan, because in the context of this letter, what John wants us to be aware of is the danger of the plural. Many deceivers, many antichrists have gone into the world.

And yes, while there is probably one capital A singular antichrist, we must, must, must be aware that we may well ourselves interact with a few antichrists in person from time to time. Many antichrists have gone into the world. Just like we are part of the body of Christ and represent Christ in the world, there are some who represent the work of Satan who set themselves up against Christ, making him out to be something he is not and try to exalt themselves in glory instead of exalting his glory.

John gives us some details for identifying such a person. Verse seven, they do not acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. You see, the antichrists don’t just deny Christ, they distort Christ.

In 1 John 2, John writes that an antichrist is he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. In 1 John 4, he says that the spirit of the antichrist does not confess that Jesus is from God. So essentially, an antichrist is someone who claims either that Jesus is not human or that Jesus is not divine or that Jesus is neither human nor divine.

Antichristology is antitruth. It’s not in accordance with the true gospel message of grace and mercy and peace. And therefore, it can’t be in accordance with Christian love.

A merely human Jesus who was not born of the spirit, but purely of man cannot save any man. A merely divine Jesus who never entered into the world as a man cannot save anyone. A Jesus who did not fulfill all of the words spoken through the law and the prophets does not complete the fully orbed work of salvation to which God appointed him.

One man who I think very helpfully defended the true divine human status of God’s son was the great Athanasius of Alexandria, a fourth century bishop who was a formative figure in the construction of our modern biblical understanding of the nature of Christ. He wrote this about 1,700 years ago on his work on the incarnation. For the word, realizing that in no other way would the corruption of human beings be undone, except simply by dying.

Yet being immortal and the son of the father of the word was not able to die. For this reason, he takes to himself a body capable of death in order that it participating in the word who is above all might be sufficient for death on behalf of all. And through the indwelling word, would remain incorruptible.

And so corruption might henceforth cease from all by the grace of the resurrection. Without the incarnate human son of God, there is no human salvation. Without the divinity of Christ, this Virgin Mary giving birth to a preexistent son of God, there is no salvation.

There is no grace, mercy, and peace for those who teach this false message. Antichrist do not share in the truth and love exclusive to those who are in Christ. So folks, embrace the doctrine of the whole Christ, who appeared in the world to take away sins.

These deceivers do not continue in the ancient teaching of Christ and run ahead thinking they’ve got something better. They not only deny, but distort what the Bible teaches us about Jesus. And that ultimately means that they teach a false gospel of a lesser Christ who can save no one.

So watch out church. In this age of many deceivers, sons of the devil who do not run ahead, do not run ahead with him and lose the love that you have produced because of the truth. But indeed continue to walk in this true Christian love where the saving Christ stays at the very center.

Now, although it’s highly unlikely that there’s any antichrists in the room today, one of the worst things that you can do in upholding the truth of Christ is welcoming and having fellowship with those who seek to oppose him. Folks, there is only one practical application that 2 John gives us for dealing with the antichrists. And that is to make sure that we do not welcome them.

Let’s be clear. There were no premier ends in the ancient Mediterranean world. If people were going to travel around these different communities, they were going to need hosted in homes.

And church here is how you can help the antichrists in their deception by welcoming them into your home, by welcoming them into your church, by giving them a platform for their evil and unsaving message. So Greenview Church, when you welcome a new member into your church, make sure that you are clear and really passionate about your church’s vision, values and belief statement. Make sure that people believe that truth in this church because you’re supposed to give the picture of Jesus Christ together to Shawlands and Glasgow. Let’s make sure that we’re not giving an anti-Christian one. Let’s give the antichrists no seat here. Let’s stay committed to the important non-negotiables and not switch to complacency, which is no faith at all.

Now, folks, don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying that we should not welcome non-Christians because John makes these people out to be Christian-ish. They’re people who once were part of the fellowship, but departed and ran ahead.

They are not people who never entered. They are people who want influence and desire to make their false views known. They are not seekers who are learning about Jesus for the first time on the Christianity Explored course.

In fact, how great is the need for us to evangelize, to spread the message of the true gospel in Scotland when there are many deceivers who seek to spread a distorted one? How important it is for us to lovingly but urgently share this true gospel to those who have never heard. And with that, I would like to move on to our last section, truth and love. Living them out in Christ’s church is complete joy.

So what are John’s closing words to this church? Well, let me read verses 12 to 13. I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face-to-face so that our joy may be complete.

The children of your sister who is chosen by God, send their greetings. You see, after our last point, we might feel a little concerned that our religion is maybe a bit divisive, but indeed, that would be the wrong conclusion to make. Rightly, John’s complete joy is to be with other Christians.

John’s commitment to the truth and love is fired on by others’ commitment to the truth and love. He loves those who love the truth, and so we should continue to be filled with the joy of brotherly love that we experience as fellow truth-bearers in this world. Because our truth, the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the most gracious, merciful, peaceful message that anyone could ever hear.

It unites people from all ages and stages across all the world together because of the uniting truth that it carries. You know, in John’s third letter, he writes to his dear friend, Gaius, and if two John is about protecting truth and love in the face of many deceivers, three John is about protecting the truth and love by welcoming believers. John calls out the evil work of that man, Diotrephes, who doesn’t welcome true believers, and he actually excommunicates people in his church who try to welcome believers.

John was not impressed with the selfish Diotrephes. He thought that protecting his own leadership was more important than fellowship in the truth and love of Jesus. Don’t think that enjoying truth and love is about exclusive intolerance because it’s also about inclusive welcome.

As the body of Christ, we need to exclude deceivers, but welcome believers. John’s joy is complete when he shares fellowship with those whom he will worship alongside forever. Both the apostle and this church had made it their main goal in life to listen to and follow the truth about Jesus Christ and live in obedience to his loving commands.

Therefore, the only thing less joyful for a Christian than being with God forever beyond this world is sharing fellowship with those who are in Christ in this world. Folks, some of you may be more in touch with this feeling than others, but being here together this morning is the very best thing that has happened to us this week because this is maybe the closest thing to experiencing the presence of God in eternity that we will feel on this earth. So Greenview Church, it brings all of us great joy to continue to walk in truth and love in obedience to Christ’s commands.

And in this world of many anti-Christian deceivers who want to distort the message of a divine human Christ into someone who doesn’t save anyone, be sure that you do not welcome those who spread this message, but instead continue to really enjoy the loving fellowship that you have with those who walk in this internal and eternal truth of Jesus Christ’s salvation. Why don’t I pray for us as we close? Father, we thank you for your eternally true good news, which lives in us. Please help us by your spirit to grow in our understanding of it and that greater knowledge would lead to greater love.

Jesus, we pray that you will hold us fast, that we would not give up on you and move to an empty, loveless religion that looks something like Christianity, but is really no faith at all. We know there are many antichrists who want to teach us to be complacent and choose a man-centered, seemingly easier option. Lord, be near to us.

Help us to be discerning and help us to watch out. And my brothers and sisters here at Greenview, please continue to grow a passion for your truth, that they would be more tightly bound together in this united truth of Jesus’s grace, mercy, and peace. And so, Jesus, come quickly, that we may have that complete joy to be with you and your chosen assembly forever and ever.

Amen.

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