The Anti-Christ Spirit
Happy Child dedication Sunday. Today, because it makes sense are going to talk about anti-Christ spirit that fills people and causes them to hate the Gospel. Nice right? Well here’s why:
01. We are going through a book and it came up.
02. That spirit is coming for your kids.
As a dad I’m always gathering my kids and warning them of danger.
1 John 4:3 every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
2 John 7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.
Later they worship Paul and Barnabas and idolatry is driven by demons.
01. THE CHRIST-REJECTING SPIRIT IS A RECRUITER.
Paul and Barnabas at Iconium
[1] Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. [2] But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. [3] So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. [4] But the people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. [5] When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, [6] they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, [7] and there they continued to preach the gospel.
κακόω
The word translated “poisoned their minds” means “to make evil”
BLUE LETTER BIBLE
to oppress, afflict, harm, maltreat
to embitter, render evil affected
→ Spirits never just OPPOSE the Jesus they POISON others against the truth.
→ An anti-Jesus spirit doesn’t just REJECT truth—it RESENTS its reach.
This is seen in:
- Every tik tok and instagram DECONSTRUCTION INFLUENCER leading people to abandon their faith
- The LOCAL GOVERNMENTS during covid that that wanted strip clubs open but churches closed
- The CITY COUNCILS that seeks to slow the progress of the church from obtaining property
- On Instagram there’s a big move to “TAX THE CHURCHES” this is an overt anti-Christ spirit.
→ It’s fascinating that spirits that will not submit to Christ will not stay silent about Christ.
→ Those who do EVANGELISM and those who do DE-EVANGELISM are EQUALLY passionate, vocal, and missional!
I recently learned of an influencer who disgusts me. There’s also an influencer called NATHAN APFFEL who does docuseries against large Churches and has an Instagram called “The Religion Business” and he recently appeared in the Shawn Ryan Show with the goal of convincing millions of listeners that big churches are automatically corrupt and have no accountability. He’s attacking not just wackjob mega church pastors but solid, humble, conservative bible teachers like Pastor Joby Martin.
Pastor Joby Martin of The Church of Eleven22 who baptized 2,552 people at Hanna Park near Jacksonville, Florida, with crowd of over 14,000!
→ Guys, that’s not a corrupt mega church pastor misleading sheep for money, that’s a godly church creating a wave that is stirring up the demons.
BTW my question the whole time listening to NATHAN APFFELL talk about how “corrupt” and “about the money” biblical normal Churches are on Shawn Ryan was: “How much do YOU money do you Nathan APFFEL and Shawn Ryan make?
These are men highly concerned with church staff having jobs enlarging the Church, but how many millions of dollars are these men making trying to DECONSTRUCT the growth of the Church and slow the progress of the Kingdom? These two men on this podcast are critiquing influential churches and worrying that their pastors might be corrupt while literally sitting in front of tens of thousands of dollars of alcohol bottles…
Here’s my official opinion: these dudes should shut up.
This Spirit is coming for your kids!
[3] So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.
Notice it says “So”. Someone say “So”. Other translations say “Therefore”. Paul and Barnabas Christians should not stay silent but speak boldly. There really are liberal interpreters who think it’s so weird that the text says they were getting persecuted “SO” they remained for a long time speaking boldly that they hypothesize that it must not actually by Luke who wrote this but added later. They have no evidence for this. They just think it’s too strange to think that two men would have a mob forming against them and then double down on preaching the Gospel even harder! But this why it’s in the text:
→ Opposition is not a reason to retreat; it is a reason to preach.
→ When the world demands we stop preaching we should double down.
→ Pressure shouldn’t mute the Gospel; it should multiply it.
→ The harder the world pushes back on Jesus, the louder the Church must proclaim Him.
Are you raising safe kids or bold kids?
Christian radio said it was “Safe for the whole family…”
→ SAVED KIDS AREN’T THE SAME THING AS SAFE KIDS.
Tjadens are dangerous
02. THE ANTI-CHRIST SPIRIT MAGNIFIES MAN AND MINIMIZES GOD.
Paul and Barnabas at Lystra
[8] Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. [9] He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, [10] said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. [11] And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” [12] Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. [13] And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. [14] But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, [15] “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. [16] In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. [17] Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” [18] Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.
Notice they can “hardly restrain their worship of Paul and Barnabas. Why? Because they worked a miracle by healing by telling a crippled man to get up. But the misconstrued who should get the glory. They believed Paul and Barnabas are gods.
This is why Luke–and the rest refers to miracles as “signs”. That’s very significant. When we think of miracles in the West, we marvel. But the biblical idea of signs is an important distinction. Miracles might make us marvel and the miracle itself, but signs point to something else. If you’re taking notes;
Sign = When God does impossible to point people to something ultimate.
There are many spiritual gifts, but did you know, biblically speaking, the gift of healing doesn’t exist? There is no “gift” of healing in the Greek. It’s always “gifts of healing” plural wherever it appears consistently. All other gifts are singular. So there is no “gift of healing” that someone has in the Bible’s language, but individual instances or gifts of healing–unique events when God heals people. There is no one who carries the continual “gift of healing”.
Be careful about taking credit for God’s work through you.
Pride was the first sin that created the fall.
You’re robbing God of the glory.
Our goal in ministry is to be a mere conduit of God’s grace.
Be careful not to idolize God’s servants–it destroys them and you. Why?
Sometimes people fall away when their mentors do.
This puts crushing weight on leaders that is extremely unhealthy.
01. This is the problem with TV preachers called “Faith-Healers” that hit people on the head. It’s not a continual gift.
→ Be careful what theology is shaping you because it’s going to shape your kids.
→ Teach your kids to pray big prayers! God does give gifts healing–just not “the gift of healing.”
02. This is the problem with cult-of-personality in churches. There are times when people have gotten mad that I “preacher pastors can’t talk to them as much on Sundays”. Which is something I want to address in our culture as a church.
→ Church is not about the leaders.
.
01. The Church must be oriented on community not personality. We are intentionally not a personality driven church. We are a Bible-driven and community oriented church. Interestingly, when people get mad that they don’t have a direct connection with a pastor at the church they often accuse the pastors of being on a pedestal. But in actuality the only person making it about a pastors personality is the person seeking to be connected to them. If the pastors are just regular people, then not being in direct relationship to them shouldn’t be a problem.
02. The goal of the Church must remain reaching skeptics and teaching Scripture. On Sundays, avoid over-seeking the preacher. It’s actually a lot to preach multiple services. With the very limited time on Sundays pastors need to engage new guests and skeptics. Did you know that online our church has always tried to intentionally play down preachers and leaders to post images of the community and people holding bibles? Because our church goal is not to make much of leaders but make new disciples until Jesus comes back.
Watch what happens DIRECTLY after they try to worship Paul and Barnabas:
[19] But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. [20] But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.
03. THE SAME SPIRITS WHO IDOLIZE YOU WILL DEMONIZE YOU.
Their response may seem insanely bi-polar, but it’s actually quite natural. Idolizing people and demonizing people are actually both equal and opposite symptoms of the same disease: Idolatry.
Other names for when we do this to people: Fear of man, People-pleasing, Man-Centered, Vainglory, Respect of Persons
Our whole culture is built around becoming famous. Kids today:
LEGO STUDY Today’s children are three times more likely to aspire to be a YouTuber (29%)
80s/90s: kids responded to surveys saying the jobs they most wanted to have were: astronaut, firefighter, doctor, teacher, police officer, pro athlete, movie star, musician.
A generation ago kids wanted to walk on the moon. Today they want to be watched.
(Don’t give me anything about moon landing conspiracies!)
There’s nothing inherently wrong with it if you are a social media influencer, especially if you’re adding value through your platform and using it in a Christ-exalting way. I know many of you are doing just that for a living. That’s awesome! But what I’m pointing out is how dramatically what our culture values has shifted away from exploration and helping others to being watched on a screen. Would you agree this is something we need to process as followers of Jesus?
[21] When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, [22] strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. [23] And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. [24] Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. [25] And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia, [26] and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. [27] And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. [28] And they remained no little time with the disciples.
This whole passage is about Paul and Barnabas encouraging believers and making new believers.
Our Church exists to make, mature, and multiply disciples of Jesus.
Fill out a connect card (This is our Discipleship Doorway)
Get baptized (TEXT BAPTISM to 30777) (This is EXALTS Jesus and ENCOURAGES His Church)
Register for Garden 101 (You lack ENCOURAGEMENT without COMMITMENT)
Plug into a Church (You requires GATHERING)