Sermons

This passage contains the apostle Paul's exhortation to believers to test the spirits, and his warning that false prophets have already gone out into the world. The key test of whether a spirit belongs to God is whether it confesses that Jesus Christ came to this earth in the flesh. Rejecting this means following the spirit of the Antichrist, and in the end it means being cut off from God.

The present process of the world becoming integrated and unified is interpreted as a sign that comes before the Antichrist is revealed. He will hunt down and persecute those who hold God's word, but God will rescue from that tribulation the believers who fully trust in Jesus Christ. This is a promise that, as with the judgment by water in Noah's time, before he judges by fire in the last days he will give believers a way of escape.

As descendants of the disciples who testified to Jesus' resurrection and ascension, we must come to faith through their testimony. If we are not sure that heaven is real, we may be left out in the last days, so we must hold on to God now, while we are still in this body. We must be parents who teach our children the faith and go into the kingdom of heaven together with them, and even amid the world's turmoil we must run to God without fear. Consider whether you can believe this promise that God will surely provide a way of escape, and keep your faith to the very end.

This passage announces that the end of all things is near, and urges believers to be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer. As the world grows more complicated and civilization advances, people are losing patience and self-sacrifice; they sink into their own emotions, avoid their problems, or make the dangerous choice of throwing their lives away too easily. Satan takes advantage of this mental weakness to obstruct God's plan, and believers are called to live with more strength than the world.

The sermon points out, through the contrast between Job and Judas Iscariot, how much the choices we make in suffering matter. Even in extreme pain and amid the mockery of those around him, Job did not let go of God; he repented and endured to the end, and so overcame Satan's attack. Judas Iscariot, on the other hand, was swept away by his emotions, could not look to the eternal world, and came to a tragic end. When Elijah, too, was so worn out that he begged to die, God knew his weakness, comforted him with bread and water, and raised him up again.

Believers must drive off with God's word the whispers of Satan that push them, overwhelmed by emotion, to the edge of the cliff. With the faith that gains eternal life, they must endure the pain of this life, love one another, and hold each other up as brothers and sisters in the faith. Now that the end of all things is near, how should believers be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer?